現實的稿費問題

最近在看《印度之旅》，雖然不是我翻譯的，但也花了不少心思時間，了解書中的內容，才好勝任校譯工作。由於這本書是文學作品，書的年代又有點距離，加上印度的風俗民情又是另一個隔閡，因此整本書可以說不容易翻譯。

剛剛校譯到這一大段，我真的有點心酸，於是忍不住把整段字都打下來，以玆見證：

Egypt was charming—a green strip of carpet and walking up and down it four sorts of animals and one sort of man. Fielding’s business took him there for a few days. He re-embarked at Alexandria—bright blue sky, constant wind, clean low coastline, as against the intricacies of Bombay. Crete welcomed him next with the long snowy ridge of its mountains, and then came Venice. As he landed on the Piazzetta a cup of beauty was lifted to his lips, and he drank with a sense of disloyalty. The buildings of Venice, like the mountains of Crete and the fields of Egypt, stood in the right place, whereas in poor India everything was placed wrong. He had forgotten the beauty of form among idol temples and lumpy hills; indeed, without form, how can there be beauty? Form stammered here and there in a mosque, became rigid through nervousness even, but oh, these Italian churches! San Giorgio standing on the island which could scarcely have risen from the waves without it, the Salute holding the entrance of a canal which, but for it, wouldn’t not be the Grand Canal! In the old undergraduate days he had wrapped himself up in the many-coloured blanket of St Mark’s, but something more precious than mosaics and marbles was offered to him now; the harmony between the works of man and the earth that upholds them, the civilization that has escaped muddle, the spirit in a reasonable form, with flesh and blood subsisting. Writing picture-postcards to his Indian friends, he felt that all of them would miss the joys he experienced now, the joys of form, and that this constituted a serious barrier. They would see the sumptuousness of Venice, not its shape, and though Venice was not Europe it was part of the Mediterranean harmony. The Mediterranean is the human norm. When men leave that exquisite lake, whether through the Bosphorus or the Pillars of Hercules, they approach the monstrous and extraordinary; and the southern exit leads to the strangest experience of all. Turning his back on it yet again, he took the train northward, and tender romantic fancies that he thought were dead for ever flowered when he saw the buttercups and daisies of June.

這段文字中，有現今不常用的表達語，有地名和典故，也有譬喻和哲思，更重要的是，這一段的句子，前後不甚連貫，還必須花些時間「看懂」作者的意思。大家都知道翻譯是算字數的，這一整段英文約380字，翻成中文後大約600字，我花了一個多鐘頭才校譯完（大概賺到70元），我想翻譯這段文字可能要四、五個鐘頭吧。而譯者能拿多少酬勞呢？300多塊。和在便利商店打工的價錢所差無幾！講到稿費，所有的譯者大概都很想哭吧！很多人還以為翻譯的酬勞豐厚，紛紛想投入翻譯市場呢！我們都知道職業道德操守之類的話，也知道翻譯不能隨自己 高興，必須想到作者的原意，顧及讀者的理解。但當大小出版公司都要求「英文理解力強，中文表達力好」的當下，一個字五毛錢買得到好譯者嗎？（有些出版公司 更是賤價，三毛錢就要換到一個字），這五毛錢包括看懂原文、轉換為中文、打字、有時還得幫忙排版！當一個字只值五毛錢時，編輯和讀者看到的文字就只值五毛 錢！雖然文字必須量化，否則無以計算，但是當文字以低賤的價位購得，致使品質不夠理想時，連帶引發大家對譯者的撻伐，迸出了醜陋的字眼，而最恐怖的無非是 對翻譯失去了原本應有的尊重！這要怪誰呢，羊毛出在羊身上，這種惡性循環，只要沾到出版邊的人都該設法改善。

為了《印度之旅》這段文字，我小放了厥詞，那當然不是譯者的問題，而是我早就感觸良多，這段文字不過是個導火線罷了！

想到作者花了多少心思下筆為文，譯者也以等量的精神回報，我無論如何都要再三強調：文字的確有重量，而且適當的表達，其重量會更加驚人！