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发表于 2011-10-14 09:19:13
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贴上英文版,顺便反省自己的翻译!楼上两位的意见都很宝贵,非常感谢对错译之处的指正。我的翻译风格比较随意,有时候很罗嗦,生怕别人看不懂。其实很多字句不应该出现在正式译文中,而应该是写在备注里,就像译本每页下边的那些蚂蚁小字。不过,由于翻译本身就是一个再创造的过程,译文不可避免地会带出各人风格。对我来说,只先求能把原意翻准确就好。中文比起日文来本该更博大精深的,只恨自己两种语言水平都不够。
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VOX POPULI: This column is a very ordinary apple
I don't like to admit it, but when I am short of things to write in this column, I look into the history of the day the story runs. For example, Oct. 13 is the day Hanaoka Seishu (1760-1835), an Edo Period (1603-1867) surgeon, successfully performed an operation using general anesthesia with a herb medicine called "tsusensan." The feat, accomplished 207 years ago, is said to be a world first.
The key phrases "anesthesia" and "world first" in turn made me think of Shinya Yamanaka, a Kyoto University professor who specializes in induced pluripotent stem cell, or iPS cell, research. He and his team were the first in the world to create the pluripotent cells that could fundamentally change modern medicine. According to recent media reports, he is regarded as a likely candidate for a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The word "anesthesia" also has relevance to Yamanaka. When he was in his 20s, Yamanaka says he was a clumsy orthopedic surgeon. I don't think he was just being modest. He says it took him one to two hours to perform surgery that usually takes about 10 minutes. Once, when he operated on his friend, the procedure took so long that the anesthetic almost wore off and he apologized to the patient.
Yamanaka became a researcher after those tribulations. His personal history reminds me of "Maxims" by the French writer Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680). According to that expert observer of humans, God distributed various abilities among people, just as God planted various trees in nature.
"Thus it follows that as the finest pear tree in the world cannot bear the most ordinary apples, so the finest talent may be unable to achieve what can be done by the most ordinary abilities," one maxim says.
That made me think: What trees are we? Looking at this humble column, an ordinary apple, I find myself thinking whether I might be good at something else? I started this column thinking about today's history, but I find myself encouraging myself. Sometimes, the column takes its course and comes to an unexpected ending.
--The Asahi Shimbun, Oct. 13 |
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