有聲書在我翻譯過程占有一定的地位。有一次，我應邀向台大翻譯學程學生談文學翻譯實務，有人舉手問：聽有聲書翻譯，詮釋權不是會被朗讀者奪走嗎？我直覺心裡想，譯文全是我用十指叩叩叩敲出來的，詮釋權當然握在我手中，但我當下愣住，傻眼無言。我大可當場簡單回一句：我工作時完全照紙本翻譯，不受朗讀者影響，但朗讀者、作者和譯者的糾結不是三言兩語能闡明的。（全文詳見博客來《宋瑛堂翻譯專欄》）
在《斷背山》的湖光山色裡譯書：文學譯者也能駐村
一提起美國文豪沙林傑，大家總想起《麥田捕手》，我卻不然；我想到的是《斷背山》電影裡的湖光山色。同理，《霧中的曼哈頓灘》不灰濛濛，不近海，更不在紐約，而是一股德荷邊境的白蘆筍香。因為在我心目中，這兩譯本的內涵緊扣加拿大班夫和德國司卓倫這兩趟駐村的體驗。在歐美，駐村並非美術工作者的專利，連文學譯者也能參一腳。駐村多半由非營利組織或政府文化部門舉辦，以推廣藝文為宗旨，提供短期膳宿給創意人士參與，年齡國籍不拘，盼背景大異其趣的國際村民打成一片，激盪出更瑰麗璀璨的創思。台灣文學館曾兩度邀請外籍漢學譯者來台駐村並舉辦工作坊，但台灣的英歐語系譯者其實也有機會向外爭取駐村的機會，只需提出申請，介紹生平，撰寫一則翻譯心得，列舉已出版譯作並出示新譯書合約即可。（全文詳見博客來《宋瑛堂翻譯專欄》）
惱人的高頻字：兩百多個Ｆ字怎麼譯？
「fuck」怎麼翻譯？英文國罵的衍生詞多如牛毛，譯者總不能一「幹」打死「fuck」的祖宗八代。三百多頁的文學小說《苦甜曼哈頓》出現兩百多個「幹」，而且出自嬌滴滴的粉領文青之口，那還得了？《苦甜曼哈頓》的作者一來是藉髒字傳達主角泰絲逆境求生的苦澀，二來是反映美國餐飲業潮男女本色，書寫至為傳神，卻苦了詞庫甚窘的譯者。更難拿捏的是，英文國罵衍生詞的狠勁不如中文三字經，如果照原文宣科是怎麼看怎麼怪。然而，幫作者潤稿並非譯者的本分，原作爆粗口，譯者也該乖乖跟著罵，於是「他媽的」、「狗屁」、「去死啦」、「老子／老娘」、「搞什麼鬼」、「去他的」、「去吃屎」、「操你的」連番上陣代打，乃至於粗俗但不帶髒字的動詞「上（某人）」也加減用，因為譯者的任務是忠實移轉原文讀者的感受給中文讀者，讓Ｆ字對原文讀者的效應也延展至譯本。（全文詳見博客來《宋瑛堂翻譯專欄》）
譯者也有加菜金：加拿大圖書館「公共出借權」補貼這樣算
從排斥到提倡LGBT人權，艾倫母親談女兒出櫃之路
美國同性婚姻正式合法化的那年，筆者去洛杉磯某商展擔任口譯，有一位搭檔是活躍於洛城郊區教會的台灣移民。休息時刻我們聊到同婚，她劈頭就說：「美國准同志結婚，上帝一定會懲罰美國。」我問她，什麼樣的懲罰？她說，股市會崩盤，所以教友們最近都在賣股票。同志婚姻於2005年在加拿大全面合法化，加國的基督徒密度不亞於美利堅，上帝不但沒懲罰加國，還讓她安渡經濟大蕭條，景氣讓美國人稱羨。在加拿大之前合法化的國家有荷蘭、比利時和西班牙，之後有南非、挪威、阿根廷等，哪一國從此一蹶不振？美國最高法院判同婚合法前一天的道瓊指數是17890點，今天是26560點，不到四年上漲48%，足證揣摩上帝心意是自討苦吃，到頭來灰頭土臉的是借上帝嘴巴講瞎話的愚民。（全文詳見博客來Okapi）
走過性向「矯正」後，《被消除的男孩》作者說：「有些人下半輩子應該天天為往事道歉。」
三年前，有一位名人帶菜刀進家裡，我才開始關注「性傾向矯正」的議題。二十年前他在矯正界叱吒風雲，短髮圓臉的他帶著妻子到處宣揚矯正的療效；如今他長髮飄逸，是波特蘭名廚約翰・波爾克（John Paulk），常上臉書曬男友照，進我們家是展示廚藝，為朋友慶生。慶生會中，他表現出知識豐富的一面，待人和善，態度敬業。散場後，我向與會好友透露他備受爭議的過去──曾躍登《新聞週刊》封面人物、後來在華盛頓同志酒吧「借廁所」遭當場認出。朋友之間因此辯論，對於矯正治療界領袖人物，同志圈應不應該給他們一個自新的機會？（全文詳見博客來Okapi）
New Continent Found in Translation
Judy Merrill Larsen was doing laundry and planning meals early in the summer last year when she received an email from her agent, who broke the shocker to her. The Chinese translation of her first novel All the Numbers was published in Taiwan the week before, debuting at No. 23 on the chart, with “no extra zero left off,” she posted on her blog.
The translation, titled Too Late for Size-8 Shoes in traditional Chinese, eventually peaked at No. 7, hovering 20 weeks on the chart, where Larsen jostled positions in the Top 30 with Khaled Hosseini and Jodi Picoult, among a dozen other foreigners. A Google search of “Too Late for Size-8 Shoes” turned up 14,500 results, while “All the Numbers” along with her full name yielded only 2,000. The novel failed to crack any chart in the U.S. Blogging from St. Louis, Missouri, the 48-year-old mother of five crowned herself “an international bestselling author.”
All the Numbers tells a maudlin tale of revenge and redemption, about a mother who loses her son in a jet-ski accident. Its Chinese edition struck a chord on the other side of the globe. “As a mom of two, I feel like crying whenever I hear news stories like this,” wrote one Taiwanese blogger. “This book kept me turning pages, eager to find out how she coped.”
Often neglected for its geographical size, Taiwan is teeming with 23 million ethnic Chinese and offers a preview of what the middle class in China will resemble. A de facto nation known for its computer chips and fist-fighting parliament, the island publishes about 40,000 titles a year, a quarter of which are translations, easily dominating half of the bestseller chart. Upscale bookstore franchise Eslite tallies translation books separately to avoid marginalizing local talents.
China too publishes about 10,000 foreign titles a year. Although translations do not dictate China’s market the way they do in Taiwan, mainland publishers monitor Taiwan’s book sales closely. Metropolitan areas like Shanghai and Beijing lag behind Taiwan just a year or two, a duration dwindling quickly as the giant opens up to the world. Publishers hesitant about making forays into China frown upon its rampant piracy. One recent example is the Harry Potter fans in the Middle Kingdom engaged in a translation relay before the official simplified Chinese version was released. It remains to be seen if China can catch up with Taiwan in copyright protection.
In additional to piracy concerns, the translation market in China is actually not much larger than Taiwan. Besides, what works on the island doesn’t necessarily sail across the Taiwan Strait. Mainlanders speak roughly the same dialect as most Taiwanese do, but the latter write in the traditional, complex form while the former use simplified characters. Though all it takes is one click to convert one to the other, further copy-editing is required to tweak the nuances and slang—a result of 40 years of separation due to cold war from 1949, when the Nationalists led by General Chiang Kai-shek withdrew to Taiwan.
Translators are assigned the original texts by editors, and paid per Chinese character in both China and Taiwan. Li Jihong, mainland translator of the The Kite Runner, made less than US$2,000, even though over 600,000 copies of his translation have been sold in China. “What I got was 0.16% (of the publisher’s profit),” he wrote to me via email. Li’s Taiwanese counterpart Jing-yi Lee fared a bit better, making about twice that figure. To cut costs, more and more Taiwanese publishers purchase quality translations from China and less so the other way around. Taiwan’s translations, if ending up on China’s market, inevitably suffer serious censorship. When the Taiwan version of Close Range, Annie Proulx’s short stories collection which includes Brokeback Mountain, was published in China, its sexual content was purged. If mainland readers want to find out what happens inside that pup tent, they have to turn to the Internet, where the uncut versions flourish. Some American authors, such as Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Roth and management guru Ken Blanchard, go as far as hiring native Chinese speakers to check on the translation for accuracy before publication.
Translation costs and censorship aside, there are other differences. The mainland market generally favors fiction, prose, and history penned by local authors. Taiwan, on the other hand, embraces Japanese authors and works in English, so much so that Taiwanese authors feel neglected. “Nurturing local authors is the only way Taiwan can expand its book market,” said Ruolan Wang, editor in chief of Ecus Publishing.
Mark Twain once said, “Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered, either by themselves or by others.” How do you know if you are marketable across the Pacific? Taiwanese literary agent Gray Tan of the Grayhawk Agency seems to know the magic answer these days. His Midas touch has gilded 18 bestsellers last year. His blog (blog.roodo.com/grayhawk) is where zealous editors in Taiwan hunt for the next big book. Instead of translating from the blurbs of the original books like major agencies do, Tan actually digests the books and composes reviews in Chinese, peppered with witty anecdotes of his interactions with foreign authors and agents. A globetrotter, Tan considers it “a formidable task to attend all the international book fairs, big and small,” but he does it anyway. Within just five years of agenting, Tan dwarfs major players in Taiwan. And he’s only 28.
The American Institute in Taiwan, the equivalent of the US Embassy in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, took up some of the agenting role in recent years. At the 2009 Taipei International Book Exhibition, the Institute worked as the middleman hooking up American small presses with new Taiwanese publishing houses, as part of the Buy USA campaign. Among the 500 small press titles, some made their first appearance outside the United States at the exhibition.
Among the most coveted foreign titles, personal finance and health are two of the perennial bestselling genres in the nonfiction territory. As for fiction, barred from novels that result in blockbuster movies, the hottest cake now is tear-jerking stories of love and betrayal, failure and triumph, such as Larsen’s All the Numbers and The Kite Runner, with the latter ushering in a slew of similar foreign literature. “A middle-aged reader told me that she hadn’t picked up a novel since college,” Ruolan Wang of Ecus said. “But after reading The Kite Runner, she’s a fan again.”
Mystery is another segment with growth potential. Mainlanders prefer local authors to foreigners, with grave plundering thrillers being the subject du jour. While still considered a niche in Taiwan, there are more than 200 mystery titles hitting the shelf each year. Although Taiwanese readers are drawn to Japanese mysteries for cultural affinity, Americans who tag along Jeffery Deaver are carving out a piece of the pie. Leading the pack last year was Logic Class Out of Control — the Taiwan version of Will Lavender’s Obedience, a puzzle-oriented mystery set in rural Indiana.
The Kentucky native admitted he didn’t write the book with an international audience in mind. In fact, “I wasn’t even thinking about publication in the US,” Lavender said. Obedience has been sold in 12 countries, but nowhere else has it become a highflyer. Lavender attributed the unexpected grand slam to rights agent Tan and Faces Publishing in Taiwan, for being behind his debut novel “in ways that are unusual in the dog-eat-dog publishing world.”
As Confucius said, having a friend visiting from afar is immense joy. The book market in greater China seems small compared with Japan, but the rare appearance of a Western author is a sure way to garner media attention. On his Asia-Pacific book tour in 2007, Irish author John Connolly of The Book of Lost Things stopped by Taiwan on his own money to sign a few copies. “As a point of principle,” he said, “I will always pay for any airline ticket in order to support translations of my books.” What greeted him was a bustling crowd of young adult readers, some with an English copy in hand. Those lining up holding the traditional Chinese edition are the first non-English speakers in the world to read his book. As for the Taiwanese staff, “I can’t ever remember being treated better, or with more solicitude,” said the 40-year-old author of 10 novels. The signing alone lasted over an hour. “These are experiences that aren’t easily quantifiable in monetary terms,” Connolly said, “but are immensely enriching, and will sustain me in my old age.”
Judy Larsen, upon viewing photographs of Connolly’s warm reception in Taiwan, mused about such a self-paid trip with benefit. She used to Google her novel and saw a myriad of websites in Chinese, but she was “never absolutely sure what was being said. It was all a little surreal.” The real jaw-dropper for Larsen is--her Size-8 Shoes has crossed over to mainland China in February 2009, nudging out The Kite Runner in Shanghai to take the top spot.