抄錄下引我共鳴的原文之後一直忘了回頭翻譯,
而且以我當時功力,怕會玷辱了原文之美 XD"I believe that success and the enjoyment of it are a very personal and a very private thing, like saying one's prayers or making love. The outward trappings are embarrassing, and spoil achievement.
There come moments in the life of every artist, whether he be a writer, actor, painter, composer, when he stands back, detached, and looks at what he has done a split second, perhaps, after he has done it. That is the supreme moment. It cannot be repeated.
The last sentence of a chapter, the finish brush stroke, a bar in music, a look in the eye and the inflection of an actor's voice. These are the things that well up from within and turn the craftsman into an artist, so that, alone in his study, in his studio, on the stage (and the stage behind the footlights can be the loneliest place on earth), he has this blessed spark of intuition. "This is good. This is what I want."
(Excerpt from the article "My Name in Lights" [1958]
Daphne du Maurier's The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, p. 86, paragraph 1)
翻譯:
我覺得成功本身和享受成果的過程,就像禱告或是做愛一樣,是一件很個人、很私密的事情。外界加諸成功的各種附屬品,教人頗難為情,也讓成就變質、變味。
在每個藝術家(不管是作家、演員、畫家還是作曲家)的生命中,都有一個特定時刻,是當他完成了一件作品,花一秒鐘來退後一步、抽離己身去觀賞那件作品的一剎那,那是無與倫比的瞬間,僅此一秒,不能重來。
一個章節的最後一句、一幅畫的終極一筆、一首樂曲的某個小節、演員一個眼波的流轉還有語調的抑揚,這些都會從心底湧起,使藝匠搖身一變成為藝術家,以至於他獨自身處書房裡、工作室裡、舞台上(而在腳燈背後的舞台可能是全世界最孤寂的地方),能享有一抹火花似的、心滿意足的感知:「這很棒。正是我想要的效果。」
(節錄自文章《燈下我名》(1958),
收錄於達夫妮·杜·莫里哀晚年作品《蝴蝶夢筆記與雜憶》,第86頁,第一段)
--為什麼非翻譯這段不可呢?
因為最近我忙著經營FB的
眼見翻譯社團最近有兩位新成員很常拿刁鑽雙關語甚至黃色笑話來翻譯,
幾乎以洗版(賣弄)之姿博得很多讚,我心底感到非常不甘也不屑,
論文筆,我不比他們弱,論發文內涵,我至少不碰腥羶色。
而且,說到底,他們只是英文學習那邊的人,而翻譯可是我的本行、我的領域。
不,我要用實力輾壓他們,憑著專業才華和下苦功完勝,
不放花俏吸睛的圖片釣魚,就只是寫樸實落落長的文字。
真好笑,發文數量超多、質素又低劣,
我往往不得不在留言撥亂反正:
「翻<多麼痛的領悟>,我會說:"What a painful realization!"
因為 enlightenment 原本是指【頓悟】,有點像靈光一閃那種宗教體驗,是靈性層面的東西:https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/enlightenment」