148 Don't Translate! Don't Be a Translator! Advice from Four Veteran Book Translators
Since the translation of Buddhist scriptures began in the Eastern Han Dynasty, translation has existed in China for nearly two thousand years. From the Chang'an translation centers at the Xingshan Temple in the Tang Dynasty, to the translation-driven national salvation efforts of Yan Fu and Li Shanlan in the late Qing Dynasty, to the translation and publishing endeavors of the Republic of China aimed at comprehensively understanding the West, and finally to the wave of translation after the 1980s that introduced Western learning and made up for lost time, we have now arrived at an AI translation era that is right before our eyes. How do we distinguish between good and bad translations? How should translators position themselves in the new era? How do they handle the ideological debate between literal and free translation? How do they face the high wall of untranslatability? And when the AI era arrives, how will they coexist with AI? What efficient working methods do those translators who have translated countless books have? Is human translation a profession with little time left? Why do some translators advise everyone: read fewer translations! Don't translate! Don't work for love alone!
Original Chinese title & description
148 不要做翻译！不要当译者！四个图书译匠的过来人语
从东汉译经开始，翻译在中国已经存续了近两千年的历史。从大唐兴善寺的长安译场，到晚清严复、李善兰的翻译救亡，再到民国旨在全面了解西方的翻译出版事业，最后到1980年代后引进西学、从头补课的翻译浪潮，我们终于迎来了一个近在眼前的AI翻译时代。翻译的优劣如何区分？新时代的译者怎样自处？如何处理直译、意译的理念之争？他们又是如何面对不可译性的高墙？而当AI时代到来后，他们又将如何与AI共存？那些译书如麻的译者有什么高效的工作法？人类翻译是一个时日所剩不多的职业吗？为何有的译者会劝大家：少读翻译！不要翻译！不要为爱发电！
Participation credit “本期参与者”：沙青青（《同盟的真相》《石川啄木》《使日十年》《日本还是第一吗》等书译者；微信公众号：13号埋立地、小红书：Sha-13号埋立地）。
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