村上春樹是我很欣賞的小說家，雖然後面幾部作品都沒讀了，但我還是非常欣賞他作為寫作人、翻譯家的精神與態度。村上與太太長期在日本與美國之間各居住半年，去到哪裡就堅持寫到哪裡的工作態度，可以說是對我影響深遠。
其實真正的寫作人、翻譯家不論去到哪裡，祇要有可以辦公的桌子，應當是可以馬上洋洋灑灑開始文字作業。背後的功力，當然是靠平日多讀書、多涉獵不同領域知識，下筆處理不同內容方能融會貫通。
除了用電腦寫字，真正的寫作人亦應該不時提筆寫字，哪一天不想帶電腦出遠門亦可以拿出稿紙天天寫字。村上小說《舞舞舞》也寫過主人公在翻譯公司上班的工作情況：每天早上回到公司就有整齊的鉛筆與稿紙排好，祇要將當天選好的英文文章翻譯成日文，檢查一遍交稿之後就可以下班，因為秘書會打字將手稿輸入電腦存檔。
我對譯者這個工作的畫面感，其實也是從大學時代閱讀村上作品開始。
現在的譯者包括我都是用電腦作業。所以辦公桌加上電腦、原子筆和紙本筆記，就是一個相當完整的作業程序畫面感。
Haruki Murakami is my favourite Japanese novelist. I did not follow his recent works but I still admire his working attitude and spirit as a writer and translator. Murakami and his wife live in Japan and the United States every half-yearly. His consistency to write wherever he goes influences me greatly.
A true writer or translator should be able to write no matter where they go, so long as they have a work desk. The competence comes from the writer’s diligence to read more books and learn more about different genres of knowledge to handle various topics in writing.
Other than typing skills, a true writer should put pen to paper from time to time. When you don’t feel like bringing along your laptop for a trip, you can still write on draft paper.
Dance Dance Dance is Murakami’s work that depicted the work flow of the main character who works as a translator. He reports to work at his office every morning. Sharpened pencils and clean papers are prepared neatly on a desk, and his job is to translate selected English articles of the day into Japanese language. After one round of proofreading he can call it a day, and the secretary will type and key in the translated text into computer.
Such was the vivid scene depicted by Murakami works, which inspired me during my university days to imagine the daily workflow of a translator.
Translators in modern years including me work on computers. A work desk with notebook and a pen—this is quite a good combination for a writer at work.
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