讀者來信

2017年7月24日

譯者其實很少接收到讀者的反應，至少我個人的經驗是這樣。當然，多產和譯作暢銷的譯者，可能較常收到讀者來信。

數年前我難得收到一名女士來信，內文如下：

I read first and 2nd chapter of the book xxx which was translated by you but decided to thru away the book thou I am really interested in the subject. I learned that you have won award in 2011 in your excellence of translation, H'ever I had such difficulty to read this book because the translation is truly meaningless.

這位讀者是在講我譯的一本企管書。看她說得我的譯文如此不堪入目，我便拿出這本書，從頭看了幾頁，又抽看了一些段落，確定沒有發生譯文被改壞的問題，便回信說：謝謝你買這本書，很遺憾我的譯文令你看不下去，但我相信自己的譯文是可讀的，所以如果你覺得這本書很難看，建議你看原文書，而且應該盡可能避免閱讀企管書的中譯本。

這本書的內容有點硬，覺得難看並不奇怪，但把我的翻譯說成是「truly meaningless」則未免過分。我雖然未能達到榮辱不驚的境界，而且負面評論予人的刺激往往比較強烈，但這位讀者的反應我並不是很在乎，主要是因為我知道自己譯這本書時並沒有亂來，是一貫地認真翻譯並審校；如果你有正常的閱讀理解能力，對書的內容又有興趣，我的譯文不至於令人看不下去。（至於覺得譯文讀起味同嚼蠟的人，我總是想說：你要不要看看原文，體驗一下？）

隔了一日，這位女士回信：

Obviously you do not have a stomach for criticism, I did not expect you to answer me actually no answer probably is better than your answer

我回：

In fact, translators rarely get responses from readers. So, I appreciate that you took your time writing to me, telling what you think about a book translated by me, even though your criticism is not useful to me.

If you want to criticize someone's translation, you need to give examples and explain why you think the translation is not good, rather just saying "your translation is truly meaningless."

I actually welcome meaningful criticism, which is very rare. You don't really know me but you are not afraid of jumping to conclusion and saying such unkind words to a stranger. To me, that reflects to some extend the kind of person you are.

I know you are pissed off with the book translated by me. I suggest that you avoid reading translated business books not out of self-defence, but because I think you would not be happy reading most of those books.

If you are kind enough to offer detailed criticism with examples, I would appreciate that. Otherwise, I think we should stop here before we both become more unkind.

她回了一句：「If you yourself can not tell good from bad, I agree we should stop.」

At long last, I agree with her. So we stop.