Name: 翻譯有多重要？拉丁美洲文學速成班 #13 (The importance of translation: Crash Course Latin American Literature #13)
Uploaded: 2026-02-28T21:42:57.000Z
Duration: 10 min 25 s

You're in a hallway lined with mirrors leading to a strange hexagonal room with books.

你走進一條兩旁都是鏡子的走廊，通往一間有書的奇特六角形房間。

情態副詞

You pass through another mirrored hallway leading to a room exactly like the first, and another and another.

你穿過另一條鏡子走廊，來到一個跟第一個房間一模一樣的房間，然後又一個，又一個。

All with the same number of shelves, same number of books, same number of pages, except every book is unique.

所有房間的書架數量、書本數量、頁數都一樣，但每本書都是獨一無二的。

Somewhere in the stacks is Pedro Paramo and the Spice Girls memoirs.

書堆裡藏著佩德羅·帕拉莫和辣妹合唱團的回憶錄。

Oh, and everyone poops, but a lot of the books just look like gibberish.

喔，還有，每個人都會上廁所，但很多書看起來都像胡言亂語。

Hi, I'm Curly Velasquez, and this is Crash Course Latin American Literature.

哈囉，我是Curly Velasquez，這裡是Crash Course拉丁美洲文學。

There's so many people we engage with when we pick up a book.

我們拿起一本書，會跟這麼多人產生連結。

So many little choices that shape our experiences as we read, and

這麼多微小的選擇，形塑了我們閱讀的體驗，而且

so much that we bring to the act of reading.

我們也帶了這麼多東西進入閱讀的行為。

If your interpretation isn't the same as mine, how do we know who's right?

如果你的詮釋跟我不同，我們怎麼知道誰是對的？

That room of books is from a 1941 short story called La Biblioteca de the Library of Babel by Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges.

那個房間裡的書來自一篇 1941 年的短篇小說，叫做《巴別塔圖書館》，作者是阿根廷作家豪赫·路易斯·波赫士。

Remember that guy who said Latin American writers should believe the universe is their birthright?

還記得那個說拉丁美洲作家應該相信宇宙是他們的出生權的傢伙嗎？

In this story, he imagines the universe as a limitless library containing every possible combination of the Alphabet, the period, the comma, and

在這個故事裡，他把宇宙想像成一個無限的圖書館，裡麵包含了字母、句號、逗號和空格的所有可能的組合。

This universelibrary holds every book that ever has existed and ever could exist, but

這座宇宙圖書館裡包含了所有曾經存在過和將來可能存在的書，但

mostly a lot of nonsense that looks like a cat walked on a keyboard.

大多數內容看起來都像貓走過鍵盤一樣胡說八道。

When the people in the story figure out that the library holds every book possible, they're thrilled.

當故事裡的人物發現這個圖書館包含了所有可能的書時，他們都興奮不已。

That means there's no personal or world problem whose eloquent solution did not exist in some hexagon.

這意味著，沒有任何個人或世界的難題，其絕妙的解決方案不存在於某個六邊形中。

Somewhere out there is how to Be More Shrek, an Ogre's Guide to Life.

somewhere out there 藏著一本「如何成為更強的史瑞克：巨魔的人生指南」。

But then they thought maybe one of the books could tell the future or hold the secret to all the other books.

但接著他們想到，也許其中一本書能預知未來，或是藏著所有其他書的祕密。

And that very tantalizing idea made folks go wild in a bad way.

而這個非常誘人的想法，讓大家陷入了瘋狂的失控狀態。

We're talking Walmart Black Friday, circa 2005.

我們說的是 2005 年左右的沃爾瑪黑色星期五。

Some thought the gibberish books up shut should be destroyed to help surface only the most important books.

有些人認為應該銷毀那些胡說八道的書，好讓最重要的書浮現出來。

If a book doesn't hold meaning for us, does that make it meaningless?

如果一本書對我們沒有意義，那它就沒有意義了嗎？

He says there is no combination of characters one can make that the divine library has not foreseen, and

他說，你所能組成的任何文字組合，神聖圖書館都早已預見，

that in one or more of its secret tongues does not hide a terrible significance.

並且用一種或多種祕密語言隱藏著可怕的意義。

In other words, just because we don't understand it yet doesn't make it gibberish.

換句話說，我們還沒搞懂，不代表它就是胡說八道。

The story of an infinite library might confuse us, amaze us, or fill us with dread, much like the universe itself.

無限圖書館的故事可能會讓我們感到困惑、驚奇，或充滿恐懼，就像宇宙本身一樣。

But this short story is really an example of meta literature writing that's reflecting on writing and all the possibilities of literature itself.

但這個短篇故事其實是個後設文學的例子，它在反思寫作本身以及文學的所有可能性。

You see, literature isn't a stale, lifeless thing.

你看，文學不是一件陳腐、死氣沉沉的東西。

It's an encounter that can generate possibilities, and

它是一種能產生各種可能性的相遇，而且

those possibilities can keep going for as long as there are words on a page and people to read them.

只要書頁上有字，有人閱讀，這些可能性就能一直延續下去。

And Borges isn't the only writer who explored these possibilities.

而且博爾赫斯也不是唯一探索過這些可能性的作家。

I've got to tell you about Los the Savage Detectives by Chilean author Roberto Bolano.

我一定要跟你說說智利作家羅貝託．波拉尼奧的《狂野偵探們》。

The 1998 novel is told through diary entries and interviews, and it's kind of a detective adventure story.

這本1998年的小說透過日記和訪談來敘事，有點像偵探冒險故事。

It follows some young poets on an international quest to find the extremely elusive founder of an obscure pure poetry movement called Visceral Realism.

故事講述幾位年輕詩人踏上國際尋訪之旅，尋找一個極度難尋的、名為「內臟寫實主義」的晦澀純詩運動創始人。

But in this novel, the visceral realists have basically vanished.

但在這本小說裡，內臟寫實主義者基本上都消失了。

Most of their poems were never published.

即使有出版的，也大多遺失了。

And so did the poet who started the movement, Cesarea Tinajero, last seen somewhere in the Sonoran Desert.

而創始這項運動的詩人，塞薩雷亞．提納赫羅，也同樣消失了，最後一次被人看到是在索諾拉沙漠的某處。

All that remains of her is one poem with no words, just squiggles on a page open to your interpretation.

她留下的只有一首沒有文字的詩，紙上只有塗鴉，任你自由解讀。

And you might ask, we're supposed to do what with this?

你可能會問，我們 supposed to 怎麼處理這個？

I feel like I'm in the infinite library again.

我感覺我又回到那個無限圖書館了。

It's enough to drive you wild or fill you with dread, or inspire a kind of freedom.

這足以讓你抓狂、讓你感到恐懼，或者激發一種自由。

Sure, we can hold out hope that a work of literature will just tell us what it means.

當然，我們可以抱持希望，希望文學作品能直接告訴我們它的意思。

Just give me the curly notes already, or maybe hear me out.

快給我那些捲曲的筆記吧，或者聽我說。

We can open ourselves to the possibility that literature isn't limited to just one meaning.

我們可以敞開心胸，接受文學不只侷限於一種意義的可能性。

I mean, here we are, decades later, still talking about what Borges Infinite Library was all about.

我的意思是，我們在這裡，幾十年後，還在討論 Borges 的無限圖書館到底是什麼意思。

A writer doesn't get the final word on their words.

作者對自己的文字並沒有最終決定權。

Literature remains open to readers, interpretations, and we can bring different lenses to how we think about it.

文學對讀者和詮釋保持開放，我們可以帶著不同的視角來思考它。

Like what influences surrounded these words at the time they were written, and

像是這些文字在寫作時周遭有哪些影響，

what influences are we bringing to them now?

而我們現在又為它們帶來了什麼樣的影響？

Maybe this mysterious visual poem at the end of the Savage Detectives is an invitation from Bourlagno to become a detective yourself.

也許《野蠻偵探》結尾這個神祕的視覺詩，是布拉尼奧邀請我們自己成為偵探。

Sadly, bolano died in 2003 when he was only 50, but his work lives on.

可惜的是，布拉尼奧在2003年過世，才50歲，但他的作品流傳了下來。

To the credit not only of Bolano, but also of his English translators, Chris Andrews and Natasha Wimmer.

這要歸功於布拉尼奧，以及他的英文譯者 Chris Andrews 和 Natasha Wimmer。

And really, it's thanks to translators that this series exists at all and that people across the world are reading Latin American literature today.

說真的，正是因為有了譯者，這個系列才得以存在，讓世界各地的人們今天都能閱讀拉丁美洲文學。

Otherwise, if you didn't speak Spanish, these books would all be gibberish to you.

否則，如果你不會說西班牙語，這些書對你來說就都是天書了。

Translation's importance in the region stretches all the way back to the 15th century 1800s with the adaptation of religious texts into indigenous languages, although those translations were less about sharing the wonders of literature and more about converting indigenous folks to Catholicism, which has a different ring to it later.

這個地區翻譯的重要性可以追溯到15世紀的1800年代，當時宗教文本被改編成原住民語言，不過那些翻譯與分享文學的奇妙之處較無關，而是為了將原住民改信天主教，這在後來聽起來就有些不同了。

During the 19th century, translations of French political thinkers sparked Latin American independence movements, and

到了19世紀，法國政治思想家的翻譯作品激發了拉丁美洲的獨立運動，

during the 1960s translation helped introduce Latin American writers as to the rest of the world.

而到了1960年代，翻譯則協助將拉丁美洲的作家介紹給全世界。

Plus, many Latin American authors have been translators themselves.

此外，許多拉丁美洲的作家本身也曾是譯者。

Julio Cortazar translated Edgar Allan Poe's work into Spanish, and

Julio Cortazar 將 Edgar Allan Poe 的作品翻譯成西班牙語，

Borges was a super prolific translator who brought works by English writers like Walt Whitman and Virginia Woolf to Spanish speaking readers.

Borges 也是一位非常多產的譯者，他將 Walt Whitman 和 Virginia Woolf 等英文作家作品帶給西班牙語讀者。

A good translation takes way more thought and care than plugging Como Sedice into Google Translate.

一個好的翻譯所花費的心思和精力，遠遠超過把 Como Sedice 丟進 Google Translate。

A word can carry different connotations in one language versus another, and

一個詞在不同語言中可能帶有不同的涵義，

often a little translation just doesn't work.

而且有時候，直白的翻譯根本行不通。

Like El mundo es un panuelo means roughly the same thing as when English speakers say it's a small world, but

像是 El mundo es un panuelo 的意思，大概就跟英文裡說 It's a small world 一樣，但

it literally translates to the world is a handkerchief.

字面上的意思是「世界是一條手帕」。

Now imagine taking a poem or novel that already plays with the meanings and rhythms of words in one language and finding a way to convey that spirit in another.

現在想像一下，要將一首詩或一本小說，它本身已經在玩弄一種語言的詞語意涵和節奏，然後想辦法將這種精神傳達給另一種語言。

Take Edith Grossman, Garcia Marquez's longtime English translator.

以葛 तिचा．葛西亞．馬奎斯長期的英文譯者 Edith Grossman 為例。

She got started in the 1970s at a time when translation wasn't yet considered a serious career or academic field, especially for women.

她是在 1970 年代開始的，那時候翻譯還沒有被視為一份嚴肅的職業或學術領域，尤其是對女性而言。

But she was one of the first translators to demand credit on a book's cover alongside the author, which, by the way, is still an ongoing campaign.

但她是第一批要求在書封上與作者並列署名的譯者之一，順帶一提，這場運動至今仍在持續。

She worked to dispel any idea that translation happens magically without a real human being involved.

她努力消除任何認為翻譯是憑空發生的、沒有真人參與的觀念。

She insisted translators everywhere deserve recognition and respect for their work as a creative act, and

她堅持認為，世界各地的譯者都應該因為他們作為一種創意行為的工作而獲得認可和尊重，而且

she described them as a living bridge between two realms of discourse, two realms of experience, and

她形容他們是兩個論述領域、兩個經驗領域之間的活生生的橋樑，以及

two sets of readers, which is a polite way of saying, you'd be lost without me.

兩組讀者，這是一種客氣的說法，意思是，沒有我你們就慘了。

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翻譯有多重要？拉丁美洲文學速成班 #13 (The importance of translation: Crash Course Latin American Literature #13)

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