散人散语——《英译当代中国闪小说精选集》后记/赵金基(赵金基译）

程思良

散人散语
——《英译当代中国闪小说精选集》后记
赵金基
　

　　我与马长山、程思良两位作家的网络交往已经有好几个年头了。近三年他们一直在为一种新的小说形式 ——“闪小说”而奔走疾呼。他们的努力结出了丰硕的成果：2008年，《卧底——闪小说精选300篇》由百花文艺出版社出版；2009年，《中国迷你文学1000篇》由现代出版社出版；2010年，一大批闪小说合集与个人专集将由湖南人民出版社推出……
　　
　　作为“闪小说”忠实的作者和读者之一，我感谢他们为“闪小说”的发展所付出的孜孜不倦的努力；作为他们文学作品的忠实的“粉丝”之一，我为他们所取得的斐然的成绩而鼓掌喝彩。
　　
　　我知道他们有更高的追求，那就是让更多人认识“闪小说”，喜欢“闪小说”，让西方读者也了解当代中国作者在“闪小说”方面的创作成果。
　　
　　2009年9月，马长山、程思良正式与我磋商，为扩大“闪小说”在海外的影响，考虑编一本《英译当代中国闪小说精选集》，由程思良负责“闪小说”网络征稿、编选，由我负责译成英文，由马长山负责联系出版，
　　
　　从2009年9月15日到11月15日，两个月间共收到二百余位作者的“闪小说”作品600余篇。经过认真遴选，我与程思良选出了80位作者的120篇“闪小说”，本书每位作者至多入选两篇，每篇不超过500字，字数最少的一篇《男人》仅104字。在此，我谨向参与征稿却未入选的各位作者表示歉意。
　　
　　翻译是再创作的过程，这个过程对我来说并不轻松。尽管多年来除了从事大学英语的教学工作之外，我在业余时间一直坚持不懈地进行文学翻译，但主要是从英文到中文，把中文小说译成英文，这还是头一次。在准确再现中文故事的前提下，如何既保持原中文作者的语言特色，又能满足西方读者的阅读口味，这是摆在我面前的难题。我喜欢难题。更重要的是我感受到了来自马长山、程思良和众多作者、读者、老师和学生的真诚鼓励、信任和期待。在收到中文书稿一个月之后，我的翻译如期完成。
　　
　　怀着忐忑的心情，我郑重地交上这份答卷。因为编者和译者的眼界有限，这部初次走向国际的“闪小说”集，一定存在着这样或那样的不足，我真诚地希望各位“闪小说”作者、译界同行和广大读者不吝批评指正。
　　
　　值《英译当代中国闪小说精选集》付梓之际，感谢为本书的出版做了大量工作的马长山先生，感谢天涯社区（www.tianya.cn）开放的人文环境为征稿和选稿提供了方便的平台，感谢天涯社区文学分社区主编朴素先生为本书写序言，感谢天涯社区短文故乡版（http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum ... /shortmessage.shtml）的各位版主积极支持并参与这本书的编选和出版工作，他们是李兆庆、雷激、杜璟华、胡汉津、林纾英，感谢张维等译界前辈向译者提出了建设性的意见并主动参与后期校对工作，感谢入选本书的作者及参与征稿活动的所有作者。
　　

TRANSLATOR’S AFTERWORD
　　
　　By Zhao Jinji
　　
　　Thanks to the Internet, I have known Mr. Ma Changshan and Mr. Cheng Siliang for a few years. Over the recent three years, they have been leading the writing of flash fiction. Their persistent efforts have turned out encouraging harvests: Undercover—A Featured Collection of Flash Fiction 300 was published by Baihua Literature and Art Publishing House in 2008; Chinese Mini-literature 1000 was published by Modern Press in 2009; a series of collections by a dozen of flash fiction writers are scheduled to be released in 2010…
　　
　　As a keen reader and writer of flash fiction, I have been grateful for their untiring hard work to promote the writing of flash fiction; as one of the fans to their literary works, I have been envious of their great achievements.
　　
　　I know they have a higher pursuit, that is, a hope to make more people familiar with flash fiction, fond of flash fiction, and to make readers overseas conscious of contemporary Chinese writers’ creative works in flash fiction writing.
　　
　　In September, 2009, Mr. Ma Changshan, Mr. Cheng Siliang and I formally agreed that for the sake of introducing Chinese flash fiction to overseas readers and writers alike, we make up a copy of A FEATURED COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE FLASH FICTION IN CHINESE & ENGLISH, Mr. Cheng taking the job of collecting and editing flash fiction in Chinese, I translating from Chinese into English and Mr. Ma contacting the right publishing house.
　　
　　From September 15 to November 15, 2009, we have received as many as 600 pieces of flash fiction by over 200 writers within the two months. After a careful selection, 120 stories by 80 writers emerged before the editor and the translator; the copy included one or two stories by each writer, each story within 500 words, the shortest one What a Man with merely 104 words. Here a sincere apology goes to writers whose contributed works are not included in this copy.
　　
　　Translating is a process of recomposing; in my case it is not a relaxing process. I have long been translating literary works from English into Chines
  
e in my spare time, as well as teaching College English on campus; this is, however, the first time for me to translate a copy of Chinese literary works into English. It poses a problem in front of me how I can manage to keep Chinese writers’ linguistic characteristics as well as to meet overseas readers’ tastes on the premise of retelling Chinese stories accurately. I like problems. Most of all, I have been feeling cordial encouragement, trust and expectation from Mr. Ma Changshan, Mr. Cheng Siliang and numerous writers, readers, teachers and my students. One month after receiving the complete copy of Chinese scripts, I finished translating it as scheduled.
　　
　　Here we present this copy to our dear audience, with a little bit anxiety. Considering the vision of the editor and the translator, this copy of flash fiction appears like a toddler. Sincerely we are expecting open criticisms and instructions from all flash fiction writers, all peers on translation and all readers.
　　
　　Finally, Mr. Cheng Siliang and I shall extend many thanks to Mr. Ma Changshan, who has contributed a lot to officially publishing A FEATURED COLLECTION OF CONTEMPORARY CHINESE FLASH FICTION IN CHINESE & ENGLISH, many thanks to www.tianya.cn, which has generously provided a convenient source for collecting and editing the scripts, many thanks to Mr. Pu Su, who has written a preface to this copy, many thanks to all moderators of http://www.tianya.cn/publicforum ... /shortmessage.shtml, who have accorded active support and involvement in editing and publishing the copy, whose names are Li Zhaoqing, Lei Ji, Du Jinghua, Hu Hanjin, Lin Shuying, heartfelt gratitude to Mr. Zhang Wei, who has made constructive suggestions on the translator’s work and voluntarily involved in the proofreading of the entire scripts, also sincere thanks to all writers who have contributed to this copy.
　　

肖福祥

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