誤譯的終結?不如等世界末日來臨
——《信仰的終結》翻譯初窺
趁時事正熱打個比方:終結不了的翻譯問題,跟宗教為人世帶來的種種災禍一樣,不可能完全根除。
彷彿語言的誤解和誤譯本身,已趕在被台灣宗教財團收攏的不肖政客通過「宗教基本法」之前,悄悄成立了宗教——The Universal Church of Miscomprehension and Mistranslation——以防人心發展出理性思考去加以干涉、甚至「迫害」。
酸話說完了。有機會,還是儘量把語言可經由理性解讀的真相呈現出來。
以下以【……】標出知名無神論者Sam Harris精彩可期的
著作The End of Faith的部分翻譯問題。
統計資料供參:
中譯是博客來上可讀到的4小頁內容,對應原文約1700字,大約每67原文字出現一個我認爲需要改正的理解與翻譯問題。原文書估計11萬6千字,在如此微小的樣本下,粗估整部中譯會有超過1700個這種語言問題。
除了以這種貌似較爲客觀、科學的計數法來判斷翻譯是否合格、過關以外,其實我認爲另一種較人性、直觀、「不科學」的方式:從「會犯哪種錯」、「該不該犯那種錯」這種「微小」地方,來得到對某譯者的整體觀感,至少是同等重要的,有時候這種「見微知著」法所揭露的事更多、更大、更不堪。
暫不一一討論問題的細節、甚至替出版社和譯者提供新的翻譯了,太費時。有興趣的人可以自行研究。問題當中肯定有的很明顯,有的較隱晦。如果你不認爲某一點有什麼問題值得大驚小怪,歡迎指出討論。也許這不失爲一種更積極的理解英語、斟酌中文、激盪思考的方法。我希望把時間花在刀口上。
====================================
書名:The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason
信仰的終結:宗教、恐怖行動及理性的未來
作者: Sam Harris
譯者: 孔繁鐘
出版社:八旗文化
出版日期:2015/12/30
作者簡介 山姆.哈里斯(Sam Harris)
美國著名作家、哲學家、神經科學家。著有《紐約時報》暢銷書《信仰的終結》(The End of Faith,美國筆會2005年非小說類得獎著作)、《給基督教國度的一封信》(Letter to a Christian Nation),以及《道德風景》(The Moral Landscape)。他的作品以超過十五種語言出版。文章曾刊於《新聞周刊》、《紐約時報》、《洛杉磯時報》、《泰晤士報》(倫敦)、《波士頓環球報》、《大西洋月刊》、《神經學年鑑》、《外交政策》及其他許多刊物。為理智工程(Project Reason)的共同創始人與董事長,該非營利組織致力於傳播科學知識和社會中世俗價值。
史丹佛大學哲學學士。他研究東方及西方的宗教傳統以及各種靈性教派已二十年。2009年取得神經科學博士學位,研究主題為相信、不相信、及不確定的神經學基礎。請造訪他的網頁 www . smaharris . org.
譯者簡介 孔繁鐘
衛生署玉里醫院精神科主治醫師,台大化工所畢業後考上台大醫學院學士後醫學系。為孔子第七十四代後裔,因花東地區醫療資源較缺乏,與弟弟孔繁錦長期投入當地的精神醫療,照顧病情嚴重的精神病患,並翻譯多本國內精神醫學與心理學教科書。身為精神科醫師,他相信精神醫學得本執在於人性的幫助關係,而非統計分類;因此不把自己視為一個開藥者,也定義自己為為一個充滿同理心的助人者。
================================
翻譯問題列表(依內容順序):
The young man takes his seat beside a middle-aged couple. He will wait for the bus to reach its next stop. The couple at his side 【appears to be shopping for a new refrigerator】. The woman has decided on a model, but her husband worries that it will be too expensive. He indicates another one in a brochure that lies open on her lap.
年輕男子靠著一對中年夫婦坐下。他耐心等著公車到下一站。這對夫婦【似乎正要去買新冰箱】。妻子膝蓋上攤著一份冰箱型錄,她已經選定了要買的機型,但是丈夫嫌太貴,指著另一種機型絮絮說著。
The next stop comes into view. 【The bus doors swing】.
下一站已近在眼前。【公車搖晃著】。
The nails, ball bearings, and rat poison 【ensure further casualties on the street and in the surrounding cars.】
釘子、小鋼球和毒老鼠藥【發揮了最大的殺傷力,也造成街道上和四周車輛中其他人員大量】傷亡。
These are 【the facts】. This is all we know for certain about the young man.
這些都是【真人實事】。關於這位年輕男子我們確實知道的所有實情都在這裡了。
A BELIEF is a lever that, once pulled, moves almost everything else in a person’s life. Are you a scientist? A liberal? A racist? These are merely species of 【belief in action】.
信仰是一種控制桿,一旦拉動就能操縱人們生活中幾乎所有層面的每件事。你是個科學家嗎?自由主義者?種族主義者?這些不過是【依據信仰促發的行動】而做的分類罷了。
It seems that if our species ever eradicates itself through war, it will not be because 【it was written in the stars】 but because it was written in our books; 【it is what we do with words like “God” and “paradise” and “sin” in the present】 that will determine our future.
看來若人類終將經由戰爭而自我滅絕,也絕不是因為這些想法【被寫在星空中】,而是因為它被寫在某些書籍裡;【正是我們現在所看到使用「上帝」、「天堂」與「罪惡」這些字眼的那些書籍】,決定了人類的未來。
【People tend to organize themselves into factions according to which of these incompatible claims they accept】—rather than on the basis of language, skin color, location of birth, or any other criterion of tribalism.
這些書籍的主張互不相容,而【人們傾向於把接受相同主張的人歸於同一宗派】,而非依據語言、膚色、出生地、或任何其他區分部落意識的標準。
All are 【in perverse agreement】 on one point of fundamental importance, however: “respect” for other faiths, or for the views of unbelievers, is not an attitude that God endorses.
所有這些書籍都【極力堅持】一項重要基本論點:上帝絕不贊同「尊重其他信仰或不相信者的觀點」這種態度。
【While all faiths have been touched, here and there, by the spirit of ecumenicalism,】 the central tenet of every religious tradition is that all others are mere repositories of error or, at best, dangerously incomplete. Intolerance is thus intrinsic to 【every creed】. Once a person believes—really believes—that certain ideas can lead to eternal happiness, or to its antithesis, he cannot tolerate the possibility that the people he loves might be led astray by the blandishments of unbelievers. Certainty about the next life is 【simply incompatible with tolerance in this one.】
【各處各地所有的信仰都浸潤著「真神唯一」的精神】,每個宗教的傳統核心教義都是:所有其他宗教的組成都是錯誤,若非全錯,至少也是不完全且危險的。不包容正是【所有教條】的本質。某個人一旦真心相信了某種想法能導致永恆幸福或永遠不幸,他必將無法容忍他所愛的人可能會被不相信者的花言巧語所誤導。他對來世的確信,也讓他【無法對此再多包容】。
Observations of this sort pose 【an immediate problem for us, however, because】 criticizing a person’s faith is currently taboo in every corner of our culture.
但這類觀察立即帶給我們【一個問題:因為】在我們當前文化的每個角落,批評他人的信仰都屬禁忌。
But technology has 【a way of creating】 fresh moral 【imperatives】. Our technical advances in the art of war have finally rendered our religious differences—and 【hence our religious beliefs】—antithetical to our survival. We can no longer ignore the fact that billions of our neighbors believe in the metaphysics of martyrdom, or in the literal truth of 【the book of Revelation】,
可是科技【創造了】全新的道德【指令】。人類在戰爭藝術方面的技術如此精進,終於讓我們的宗教差異以及【伴隨的宗教信仰差異】危害到人類的生存。我們再也不能忽視這項事實:我們的鄰居中成億上萬的人都相信殉教的形而上學,或相信【他們聖書】表面字義所揭示的真理,
Consider the case of alchemy: it fascinated human beings for over a thousand years, and yet anyone who seriously claims to be a practicing alchemist today will have disqualified himself for most positions of responsibility in our society. Faith-based religion 【must】 suffer the same slide into obsolescence.
以煉金術為例:它曾蠱惑人類一千多年,但在當今社會,任何人若鄭重自稱是一位煉金術士,將被認為不夠資格擔任絕大多數重要職務。同樣地,以信念為基礎的宗教【必將】落入歷史廢墟之中。
What is the alternative to 【religion as we know it】? As it turns out, this is the wrong question to ask. Chemistry was not an “alternative” to alchemy; it was a wholesale exchange of 【ignorance at its most rococo】 for genuine knowledge.
那麼【就我們所知,宗教】的替代品是什麼?其實這是個錯誤的提問。化學並不是煉金術的「替代品」;它是【以極其精巧華麗的方式,把無知】整批置換成為真正的知識。
OF COURSE, people of faith 【fall】 on a continuum:
當然,秉持信仰的人們【可以分布】在一個連續帶上:
they imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each of us has learned to respect the 【unjustified】 beliefs of others.
他們想像,一旦每個人都學會尊重其他人【無法證實】的信仰,和平之路就能順利展開。
Many religious moderates have taken the 【apparent high road】 of pluralism, asserting the equal validity of all faiths,
許多宗教溫和派已經奉行了多元主義的【大道】,確信所有不同的信仰都同等有效,
As long as a Christian believes that only his baptized brethren will be saved on the Day of Judgment, he cannot possibly “respect” the beliefs of others, for he knows that the flames of hell have been stoked by 【these very ideas】 and await their adherents even now.
只要基督徒相信在最後審判日唯有自家受洗的弟兄們才能得到救贖,他就不可能「尊重」其他信仰,因為他知道地獄的火已被【他們那樣的想法】所激發,正等著焚燒其追隨者呢。
Muslims and Jews generally take the same arrogant view of their own enterprises and have spent millennia passionately reiterating the errors of other faiths. It should go without saying that 【these】 rival belief systems are all equally uncontaminated by evidence.
伊斯蘭教徒和猶太教徒通常也用同樣傲慢的態度只尊崇自己的信仰,並且幾千年來一直狂熱地重申其他信仰的錯誤。但無庸置疑地,這【兩種】相互對抗的信仰系統也都同樣缺乏證據。
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「disqualified中文」的推薦目錄:
disqualified中文 在 周庭 Agnes Chow Ting Facebook 的精選貼文
我到美國接受了星島中文電台的訪問,當中談及了公民抗命、DQ事件、民主自決等等,最後節目被改名(刪去了「民主自決」的字眼),甚至被下架。自今,星島中文電台仍未有解釋原因。
節目內容和編排,包括解釋民主自決的理念,也是電台一方建議的。如果星島因為政治敏感而將節目下架,為何當初要如此建議?再者,每個人也有談及自己政治主張的權利和自由,也有權不同意或作出批評,作為媒體,何必如此懼怕,要自我審查?
星島中文電台必須盡快清楚解釋,及把節目重新上載網頁,我們需要的是媒體,不是政權的喉舌。
(中文版本在英文版本下方)
==== Press Release: A protest against political censorship by Sing Tao Chinese Radio (AM1400) ====
Agnes Chow 周庭, who was disqualified in the Hong Kong LegCo by-election in January this year, was invited by Stanford Hong Kong Student Association to attend the Cantonese Awareness Week in mid April. Northern California Hong Kong Club had coordinated with the hosts of a current affairs talk show 焦點訪談 of Sing Tao Chinese Radio (AM1400) to arrange Agnes Chow and another ex-Scholarism member appearing in the 4/17 (Tuesday) show.
Everything went smoothly and there were good interaction among the host, the guests and the audience. As usual, the program recording was archived in the show web site (http://www.chineseradio.com/…/%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE…/cm-f09-10/) in the same afternoon.
Alerted by a friend, however, we noticed that the recording of this particular episode has gone through sequences of editing and censorship afterward.
1) The title of the episode has changed from "04/17/2018 香港眾志常委周庭闡述香港自決主張" to "04/17/2018 訪問香港眾志常委周庭".
2) Starting from 4/19 (Thu) afternoon or earlier, the link of this episode no longer works while all other older and newer episodes work just fine. (See the attached screen capture: singtao_0421.png.)
In fact, we found out only the MP3 file of this episode (http://archive.chineseradio.com/Archive/C20180417_09-10.mp3) is removed or renamed. The episode one day before (http://archive.chineseradio.com/Archive/C20180416_09-10.mp3) and one day after (http://archive.chineseradio.com/Archive/C20180418_09-10.mp3) are still accessible.
3) We notified the host on 4/19 (Thu) about this issue. Later on, we filed a formal complaint through its official contacts with email and online message board. Not only do we not get any official response, but the operation to block this episode also seems to step up.
4) Starting from 4/23 (Mon) afternoon or earlier, even the web page of the whole talk show archive is removed (screen capture: singtao_0423.png) and a new archive page is created (screen capture: singtao_0424.png). In this new page, however, the 4/17 episode disappears and all other episodes have no title. Besides, this talk show is missing in the archive page of all cantonese programs (screen capture: singtao_cantonese_0424.png). All these appear to be a cover-up for the removal of the episode involing Agnes Chow.
So far, we do not receive any official explanation. Based on the sequences of events, the only logical conclusion is that the blocking is an intended political censorship and not a technical error.
Let us be clear that we had had good working relationship with the hosts in the past. We appreciated their openness and professionalism to invite different spectrum of view points to their program.
We suspect this post-censorship is an intervention from the senior management of the Sing Tao Group, as the political leaning of the owner and the editor in chief of the Sing Tao Group is well known.
We have to ask the Sing Tao senior management:
- Why are you so afraid of a 21-year-old activist has to say?
- The director of HK ETO in San Francisco was willing to attend the panel discussion in Stanford on the very same day (4/17) to debate Agnes Chow head on. Where is your courage?
Although the majority of the mass media in Hong Kong has been influenced directly or indirectly by mainland China or pro-establishment interest, it is a whole different matter when such political censorship happens in the United States. According to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, an organization and persons have to disclose the related activities and finances if they act "at the order, request, or under the direction or control" of a foreign power. As such, we would like to remind our media friends in the United States about the potential consequence of your action.
Northern California Hong Kong Club
2017-04-24
[Background information]
梁建鋒 (Editor in Chief of Sing Tao Group): 百無小政客
https://www.singtaousa.com/…/481534-%E7%99%BE%E7%84%A1%E5%…/
维基百科: 何柱國 (Owner of Sing Tao Group)
https://zh.wikipedia.org/…/%E4%BD%95%E6%9F%B1%E5%9C%8B_(%E5…
Foreign Agents Registration Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi…/Foreign_Agents_Registration_Act
_________________________________________________
==== 4月17日是怎樣被星島中文電台消失的 ====
今年一月在香港立法會補選中被奪去參選資格的香港眾志常委周庭,應史丹福大學香港同學會的邀請,到訪灣區參加四月中旬的廣東話週。北加洲香港會協調安排了周庭與另一位前學民思潮成員,於4月17日(星期二)在星島中文電台(AM1400)「焦點訪談」節目中接受現場訪問。
訪問過程順利,主持人、來賓和聽眾互動良好。當日節目重温一如既往,當天下午即存檔在節目網站(http://www.chineseradio.com/…/%E7%AF%80%E7%9B%AE…/cm-f09-10/)。
然而,一位朋友稍後注意到當曰節目重温連結出現了問題,她把這事情告知我們。我們開始跟進,發現該連結經過一系列的編輯和疑似審查:
1)當日節目重温標題,由原先的“04/17/2018 香港眾志常委周庭闡述香港自決主張”,後被改為“04/17/2018 訪問香港眾志常委周庭”。
2)從4月19日(星期四)下午或更早的時候開始, 當日節目重温連結失效,然而所有其他較新或較舊的節目重温連結仍正常工作。(參閱屏幕截圖:singtao_0421.png)
我們發現只有這一集的MP3語音文件(http://archive.chineseradio.com/Archive/C20180417_09-10.mp3)被刪除或重新命名。 之前一天(http://archive.chineseradio.com/Archive/C20180416_09-10.mp3)和之後的一天(http://archive.chineseradio.com/Archive/C20180418_09-10.mp3)的文件則完好無缺。
3)4月19日(星期四)下午,我們通知星島中文電台主持人有關事宜。之後我們再依正式途徑,用電郵和網上留言投訴。我們不但沒有得到回覆,星島對該節目的屏閉動作反而更進一步。
4)從4月23日(週一)下午或更早的時候開始,整個「焦點訪談」節目的原有重温網頁亦被删除(參閱屏幕截圖:singtao_0423.png),而新建了一個重温網頁(參閱屏幕截圖:singtao_0424.png)。在這個新的網頁中,4月17日消失了,而其他日子亦沒有題目。另外在羅列所有粤語節目的網頁中 (singtao_cantonese_0424.png),「焦點訪談」亦不見了。種種動作,似乎是對周庭訪問重温被消失作掩飾。
到目前為止,我們沒有收到星島中文電台的任何解釋。根據事件的發展時序,唯一合乎邏輯的結論是,封鎖是有意的政治審查,而不是技術上的錯誤。
我們一直與「焦點訪談」節目主持人有著良好的工作關係。我們讚賞他們以專業及開放的態度,邀請不同的觀點的來賓到他們的節目發表言論。
我們認為這次審查是源於管理高層的介入,星島集團主席和總編輯的政治傾向是眾所周知的。
我們必須問星島集團管理高層:
- 為什麼你們如此害怕一個21歲的年青人的言論?
- 舊金山香港經貿辦主任,就在同一天(4月17日)願意出席史丹福大學的香港問題討論會,面對面與周庭同場討論。為何你們沒有這個勇氣?
儘管香港傳媒近年常因中國大陸或親建制勢力的影響,而直接或間接的進行政治審查。但要在美國進行這樣的政治審查,則要面對一種完全不一樣的環境。根據美國“外國代理人註冊法”,如果一個組織和個人,在外國勢力的指揮或控制下行事,他們必須披露相關活動和財務聯繫。我們想提醒身在美國的媒體朋友,注意你們的行為可能引起的後果。
北加州香港會
2017年4月24日
disqualified中文 在 黃金右臂-鄭兆村 The Golden Arm: Chao-Tsun Cheng Facebook 的最佳解答
這是兆村在世大運的官方成績單,大家知道成績最後一欄顯示縮寫UR是什麼意思嗎?
原來這是在說明該選手成績的備註,最常見到的如下
英文縮寫 英文翻譯 中文翻譯
WR= world record 世界紀錄
AR= Area record 地區紀錄
(或是continental record) (可以說是洲紀錄)
CR= Championship record 錦標賽紀錄
GR= Games record 賽會紀錄
NR= National record 國家紀錄
MR= Meet record 大會紀錄
OR= Olympic record 奧運紀錄
UR= Universiade record 世大運紀錄
DLR= Diamond League Record 鑽石聯賽紀錄
PB= Personal best 個人最佳
SB= Season best 賽季最佳
WL= World leading 當季世界最佳
DNS= Did not start 未起跑
DNF= Did not finish 未完成比賽
DQ= Disqualified 取消資格
所以這次兆村創下的應該是有🤔
AR= Area record 地區紀錄(亞洲紀錄)
UR= Universiade record 世大運紀錄
NR= National record 國家紀錄
PB= Personal best 個人最佳
by N編