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The endless stream of "best translators"-Who will save our readers? Translate 23 masterpieces in four years, and be wary of "the best translator in history"
Long Jing's name can't be found on the cover
The New York Times recently released the top ten books in 2007. Generally speaking, these selected books will soon be introduced by domestic publishing houses, and then translators will be asked to translate them into Chinese for publication. Most readers in our country can't get in touch with the original works of foreign literature and philosophy, and the translator's level will directly lead to the quality of Chinese original translation. In other words, if you meet a bad translator, The New York Times's ten good books may all be bad books in front of readers.
Don't think that all our translators have the standards of Lu Xun, Ba Jin, Fu Lei, Zheng Zhenduo and Xu Zhimo. In fact, among the more than 10,000 kinds of translated works every year, only a few are of high standard. Recently, Wang Xiaoyu, a literary critic, found that a man named Long Jing had published at least 23 translations in just four years, spanning literature, history, philosophy and other fields, including works by Weber, Rockefeller, Bacon and Nietzsche. Previously, there was a man named Li Si who could translate works in more than a dozen languages and different mother tongues of Nobel Prize in Literature laureates into Chinese, and was ridiculed as a "translation genius". Therefore, readers should pay attention to buying books under the current situation of "great people" gathering in the translation field. Our reporter Jiang Qing reports for you.
Cattle man:
The mysterious "golden couple" appeared in the translation field.
Wang Xiaoyu, a scholar at the Institute of Cultural Criticism of Tongji University, noticed the name "Longjing" from a sociological book "Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism" with unknown translator this year. Through search, he found a list of translated books listed in her name: The Boy in Striped Clothes, Great Management, Be Kind to Life and Bacon on Life ... She can translate almost anything from literature to business to academics. "If these dragonflies are the same person, and they are really the best translators in history, there is no need to add' one'. The' best' is not only reflected in quantity, but also in variety. Weber, Rockefeller, Bacon, Nietzsche and so on. Across the field of literature, history and philosophy. She seems to be the ideal translator of the Encyclopedia Britannica ... We believe that there is no book in the world that Miss Long can't translate, only books that Miss Long can't translate in time. " There is a civil conciliation statement on the Internet, which ruled that the biography of Lin by Harbin Publishing House constituted the plagiarism of others' works, and one of the defendants was this "Longjing".
Coincidentally, after Long Jing, another translator, Li Si, was also rated as "one of the best translators in history". Last year, Times Literature and Art Publishing House published a collection of Nobel Prize in Literature's works, including 26 works in 12 languages, all of which were signed by "Li Si et al." and were suspected of being "translated into Chinese", which caused an uproar in the translation and publishing circles. Wang Xiaoyu also found that the translation scope of Lisi et al. is not limited to the literary field, and its production scale is even larger than that of Longjing, which has reached the level of "group management": Life Strategy, Kappa Biography, Mythical Journey: The Oracle and the Fable of Reshaping the Soul, and Thoughts Record ... His psychological translations are also published in Taiwan Province Province. 1996 also edited the beat generation. About this book, a translator once said, "Almost the original copy of Tirtl's monograph The Naked Angel".
For this pair of "golden couples", Wang Xiaoyu is not without emotion. "Longjing and Li Si always use the same name at least, which is easy to identify. Those more cunning incarnations of' Longjingmen' and' Lisimen' will never show their true colors. " "Readers chose them, and The Beat Generation seems to have influenced many young artists."
Investigation:
The "best translator" is not a person.
Yesterday, the reporter wanted to find the "best translator" Long Jing, but strangely, the publishing industry said that this person was very famous, but no one had seen Long Jing himself. Li Jiang Publishing House published Lin's translation of Haruki Murakami's works. Liu, the editor of the publishing house, believes that Longjing is definitely not a person, but a team. "Translation is usually centered on a profession, and the translator's work also revolves around this center. Because he knows this piece very well, he can keep the translated works consistent. On the other hand, translation speed is often slower than writing speed, and the author has to go back and sort it out after translation. If Longjing really published 23 translations in four years, I think she is not alone, but many people are doing it, just signing it.
Compared with Longjing, Li Si is modest, and the words "Li Si, etc.". There are annotations in many works, which shows that Reese is not alone in translation. Some readers who like foreign literature and historical works have also gained experience. Compare the translated names and put the book down as soon as you see the names.
Among the controversial translators, it is not that their real names and surnames cannot be found. In the past ten years, they have translated more than 20 books. Jiang Zhihui, known as the "translation madman", is an associate professor at Fudan University. His recent translation of hannah arendt's work "Spiritual Life" is said to have 55 mistakes in the first ten pages, which was severely criticized by netizens. "This is not a translation of Arendt, it is simply a rape of Arendt!" Prior to this, Jiang Zhihui also translated Creation Evolution, History and Truth, Phenomenology of Perception and Hegel's Guide. However, Jiang Zhihui believes that the quality of his works is guaranteed. "Don't look at them picking a lot of faults in Soul, but that's the preface, and I think the main part at the back is quite good."
Jiang Zhihui actually has a bitter stomach. "The translation of philosophical works is really difficult, and the income is low, with a thousand words of fifty or sixty yuan. Some people couldn't turn around in the middle, and then the publishing house found me, and I was interested in it myself. I'm going to take classes outside and earn much more money than that. "
Crux:
Why is the translation quality getting worse and worse?
On the one hand, translation pursues speed, and the assembly line carries out team translation, so it is difficult to guarantee the translation quality. On the other hand, some translators are highly literate or academically literate, but are not interested in translation. At present, few translators can basically implement the standard of "translating thousands of words a day" put forward by the great translator Fu Lei. The Kite Runner is the best-selling translation this year. Li Jihong, born in 1980, once published some data in an article: he spent ten days, "starting to translate at 7: 00 every morning, sleeping at midnight 12", and working 15 hours every day to translate the book The Kite Runner. He believes that "the ideal translation should be like simultaneous interpretation in interpretation, and the original text can be transformed into a translation immediately". In fact, Li Jihong's translation is fluent and impressive, which is not bad in translation. However, some foreign literature lovers can read the original text and find many mistakes in their words and sentences.
Lu Ye, president of Shanghai Translation Publishing House, said: "It is definitely faster to find some students to be' writers' or even' paperhangers' and paste the original translation with only a few changes." Zhang Zihui, director of the Publishing and Distribution Research Office of the School of Journalism, China Renmin University, analyzed in an interview that the level of translated works is indeed lower than before, mainly because publishers may pursue short-term interests driven by economic interests. Once the contract is obtained, the publishing house hopes to launch it as soon as possible, and has no patience to let the translator turn it over for a year or two or even three or four years. For example, Harry Potter 7 won the copyright in China in July and went public in June, which was also forced. At present, the common situation is that the publishing house obtains the publishing right of the book first, and then goes to the translator for translation. It is likely that the translator is not familiar with and interested in this book. He just sees it as an opportunity to make money to complete the task.
Dragon crystal,
Mysterious woman,
Translated 23 masterpieces in 4 years, covering all fields of literature, history and philosophy.
The greatest translator in history,
However, the publishing house is secretive about it, and no one knows its true face.
Her appearance reflects a big problem in the translation field in China: when you try to buy a favorite foreign masterpiece, keep your eyes open and beware of these "best translators"!