Transcreation skills 也談編譯功力

從事翻譯工作逾十年，我多數承接中譯英案子，各類型的文章基本上都接觸過。我個人認為現代中文的表達能力一般，文章時常囉七八唆、將很多名詞堆砌在一段文句當中，而且寫了很多個逗號方才甘願寫句號。

面對這般情況，我一般視之為編譯工作。換句話說，我必須自己理解中文原文的重點，好好地排出前後敘述順序，才能下筆寫出好的英語譯文。理由很簡單，因為英文是一個理性的語文，我若愚笨地跟著現代中文的敘事方法以英文書寫，則譯文會變得非常好笑。

編輯一下、字句有所增刪，將原文想要表達但沒寫出來的詞彙寫入譯文中，確保譯文讀起來像是正常有水準的英文文章，就是我時時鞭策自己要達到的編譯功力。

I have been working as a translator for more than ten years. Most of the time I am translating Chinese into English and I have translated many different types of articles. I found out that modern Chinese-language articles usually come with poor expression skills. Those long-winded articles lumped lots of nouns together in one lengthy paragraph with lots of commas before coming to a full stop.

To deal with such articles, I usually adopt a transcreation strategy. Before I can translate into a good English piece, I have to understand the main points of the Chinese original text, and arrange the points in proper order. The reason for going through these procedures is that English is a rational language. If I foolishly follow the style of modern Chinese writing and present it in English, that translated article would be hilarious.

Editing; adding necessary or eliminating unnecessary words; and present in my translated text the words which the original text wanted to express but omitted. I have to always make sure that my translated pieces are of the level of standard English pieces. This is how I spur myself on to achieve a good transcreation standard.