文档介绍：The Writing Life
By Howard Goldblatt Sunday, April 28, 2002;
How's this for an occupational testimonial: "There is no such thing as a good translator. The best translators make the worst mistakes. No matter how much I love them, all translators must be closely watched."
Or this: "O ye translators, do not sodonymize us!"
Or: "Traduttore-traditore." (Translator = traitor.)
Who are these people everyone loves to hate, and, if they're so bad, how do they get away with what they're doing?
Well, I confess: I'm one of them. I'm a translator.
And our accusers? The patronizing quote at the very es from Isaac Bashevis Singer. Later in his career (1978), thanks to a host of translators, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature and changed his tune: "Since every language contains its own unique truths," he admitted, "translation is the very spirit of civilization."
es Milan Kundera, the reigning bête noire of our fraternity, who sheds translators the way snakes shed skin, and is said to devote almost as much time to overseeing foreign editions of his work as he does to writing (in the quote above, he is inveighing against a translator's decision to use a synonym from time to time).
Finally, we must thank the Italians for reminding us that every translation is a betrayal. Is this a great job, or what?
Oh, sure, Pushkin called us "carriers of the human spirit," and Goethe referr