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5th ProZ.com Translation Contest: "Travel" » English to Chinese » Entry by eng2chi

Source text in English

Translation by eng2chi (#3139)

All travel is now merely a means of moving a camera from place to place, all travellers are ruled by the all-powerful lens. Visitors old-fashioned enough to wish only to stand and look with their anachronistic eyes are shoved aside by the photographers, who take it for granted that while they do their ritual focusing, nothing else may move or cross their vision. Those peculiar souls without a camera must step aside for those more properly occupied, must wait while the rituals take place, and must bide their time while whole coaches stop and unleash upon the landscape the Instamatic God. And the populations of whole countries seeing themselves cannibalised, swallowed up, vacuumed into the black-ringed staring eye, wrench what they can from the cannibals. You want picture my house, my camel? You pay.

None of this would matter, perhaps, if anything worthwhile was being accomplished. If all the constant busyness and clicking produced, at its end, what had not existed before, images of beauty captured or truth told. But, sadly, this isn't so. The camera is simply graffiti made respectable.

The camera is the means by which we stamp ourselves on everything we see, under cover of recording the Wonders of the World already wonderfully
recorded by professionals and on sale at every corner bookshop and newsagent. But what use to show Aunt Maud, back home, postcards of the Tuscan landscape, since we are not in the picture to prove that we were there?

No stretch of rocks has verity unless I am within it. No monument exists
but for my wife, leaning against it. No temple is of interest without my face beside it, grinning. With my camera I appropriate everything beautiful, possess it, shrink it, domesticate it, and reproduce it on my blank sitting-room wall to prove to a selected audience of friends and family the one absolutely vital fact about these beauties: I saw them, I was there, I photographed them, and, ergo, they are.

from "Amateur Photography: the World as it isn't and our Fred" by Jill Tweedie in the Guardian
今时今日，旅行仅是将相机从一处移到另一处的方式。旅行者无不受全能的镜头摆布。参观者若十足老古董——只希望站一站，用不入时的眼睛看一看—— 终会被摄影家们挤到一边。摄影家们仪式化地调焦时，理所当然闲杂人等不可穿插进他们的视野。不带相机的异类，应当让位给装备更妥当者；应当等候摄影家的仪式开始；应当费时守候整车人马停下来对着风景祭出“傻瓜式”神圣。遍乡全民，在黑光圈前，皆遭蚕食、吞噬、掏空，却只图算计从蚕食者所获为何。想照俺房子、骆驼？交钱！

倘若实现了一丁点值得其所的东西，这些也许无伤大雅。如果所有的劳劳碌碌、快门点按，最终带来前所未见的创造，抓拍到美景，反映了真实，（那谁会有腹诽？）但很悲惨，事实并非如此。相机无非是博取风头的涂鸦之器。

我们借摄录世界大奇迹的名义，用相机标记自己到这到那的一切所见。其实，专家摄录的世界大奇迹，在书店报亭的角落四处皆有发售。只不过回到家要向莫德阿姨炫耀，拿托斯卡景观明信片有什么用，明信片里终究没有自己，又怎么能证明自己到此一游？

除非我也在照片中，否则岩石片断也不真实。除非我太太背倚着，否则纪念碑也不存在。我的笑脸若不在一侧，庙宇也寡然无趣。我借用美景，加以处理、缩放、改造、复制，将其置于起居室的空壁上，向亲朋至友证明这些美丽照片一个绝对至关重要的事实：我曾目睹、亲临、拍摄他们，是故，他们在。

选自《卫报 - 业余摄影：世界非如是，非如来》，作者吉尔·特威迪。


译后语：

愚拙如我，一直觉得文艺翻译太难。原文雅言深意，译文要反映无遗不容易。近来研习张爱玲如何自译自文，伊大胆意译，原文与译稿两相辉映，艳煞人。不过，若原文译文都是自己的，当然可肆意而为。比赛是给定内容来翻译，亦步亦趋难葆神髓，大刀阔斧易违原意。这次的题目，我既然无甚把握，为求一时痛快，于是多用意译，不奢求经得起字句比对。

这次的题目，难点和陷阱并存。作者在标题、措词、句法上，颇多考究，是为难点。而proz出题也颇具匠心，针对原文（http://www.indiamike.com/india/photography-f58/amateur-photographers-jill-tweedies-view-t1148/）有不少删改，平添了不少前言后意、起承转合上的机关。不知道也是否苦煞译友？

先说我一些犯难之处。首先即是标题。通读上下文，也难全部明了为何有此标题。虽然完整的原稿结尾处有此标题句出现：" ... That is the summit of the amateur photographer's art - total unreality. (The World As It Isn't, and our Fred).Travel with camera wonderfully narrows the mind", 并在文中大写，也难知此言出处，此意为何。唯感觉哲学意义深厚，只好以空释空，以色释色，以糊涂释糊涂，借用佛谒 “ 如是世界 ”，以“ 世界非如是 ” 解读"The World As It Isn't"。至于 “and our Fred" 更费参详。考虑到《卫报》(Guardian) 原为《曼彻斯特卫报》(The Manchester Guardian)，而红魔曼彻斯特队的吉祥物名为"Fred", 或许这跟标题勉强有些联系。看看近期英国为不能出征欧洲杯举国悲伤，若这篇文章不是年代久远，作者估计也不免俗，会对足球发烧。既然我有此歪解，并顺着之前借佛释义的手法，索性说佛说到底，用 "如来菩萨“ 来指吉祥，求个意境，至于忤了多少原意，也懒得顾了。

作者其他有讲究之处，还有"and, ergo, they are." 这恐怕化用了笛卡尔的“我思故我在" (Cogito, ergo sum) (I think therefore I am). 作者信手拈来，哲思深邃，但估计要难为译友。此外，像讽刺傻瓜相机的"Instamatic God"，描述乡民(the populations of whole countries) 斤斤计较说话时的不规范语法 "want picture“，都值得翻译时斟酌体会。

另外，proz出题所作的删改，也精心设置了不少陷阱。比如 " If all the constant busyness and clicking produced, at its end, what had not existed before, images of beauty captured or truth told" 之后省去 "then who could complain?" 从而使文意中断，翻译时需要自行补充。同样的，“ The camera is simply graffiti made respectable” 之后省略一段阐述"made respectable"的原文：" Nice people do not cut their initials on walls any more. Nice people aim their lenses, develop their film, and prove in that way the same age-old human message - Kilroy Was Here. " 翻译就要自行拿捏 “made respectable"的精确含义。另外像 "cannibals. (You want take picture me? You pay.) You want picture my house, my camel? ..." 和 " ... newsagent. (But what use to us an illustrated book of perfect photographs? ) What use to show Aunt Maud ..." 之类的省略，也考验在更少的原文时如何准确理解和推测原意。