仿冒品(林行易翻译)
Usually we are upset when a product we buy turns out to be counterfeit or “fake”. We may also think of counterfeit money, counterfeit birth certificates, and counterfeit licenses. And those living in the West are often aghast at the thought of counterfeit anything.
通常当我们买到仿冒品时会觉得很生气。我们也许会想到伪币,伪造的出生證明,还有伪造的执照。而住在西方国家的人,对任何的仿冒行为都会感到很惊吓。
One day I was traveling in China, a doctor came up to me and breezily announced to me “your book, the bible in the newborn nutrition world has been counterfeited.” This book “Nutrition Requirements in Preterm Infants,” had been officially translated into Chinese and sold well in China. She announced the counterfeit of this translation so cheerfully, that at first I was quite surprised, but she followed quickly and said: “This is a great kind of recognition.” She explained, “People only counterfeit good things, and so this means that your book is now recognized as worthy of being counterfeited.”
有一天我在中国旅行,有一位医生走过来, 很轻松地向我宣布:「您的书,那本被公认为新生儿营养的权威书被盗印了。」她那种愉悦的神情,一开始我还觉得相当奇怪,但她接著又很快的说下去:「那是一个很棒的肯定。」他解释说,「人们只仿冒好东西,因此这表示您的著作被公认为值得仿冒。」
In the next city, another doctor come up to me and just as excitedly actually showed me the counterfeit copy of the book. She asked me to autograph it. Which I did so. She emphasized; “It will now be available to many more people; so you should be happy! And yes! It shows it is a great book!”
在下一个城市,另一位医生向我走过来,非常兴奋的给我看一本拙作的盗版本。她要求我在书上亲笔签名。我照做了。她还强调:「现在有更多的人可以看到您的书;所以您应该高兴。的确!这表示您的书是一本好书!」
When I reported this to my book publisher in America, his wan comment was: “I don’t know whether I should be laughing or crying.” I told him: “You should definitely laugh.” I explained the “logic” and he was at loss for words. His reaction was not related to royalties, since we had already given away the royalties anyway. It just seemed strange.
当我把这件事告诉我在美国的发行人时,他无奈的说「我不知道我是该笑还是该哭。」我告诉他:「你绝对应该笑。」我把这个「逻辑」解释给他听,他却穷於辞令。他的反应和版税无关,因为我们早已经把版税付出去了。他只是觉得事情很奇怪。
I must confess that when I was a child, my family actually had a counterfeit version of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which at that time was hugely expensive overseas. Indeed I learned a lot from that encyclopedia, of course, for which I am indeed grateful. We also had the Dorland’s Medical Dictionary in counterfeit form at home, even when I was a teenager. By the time I was in medical school, this famous dictionary was freely available in counterfeit form to all medical students on the campus.
坦白的说,在我小时候,我们家就有一套盗版的大英百科全书,在那时候,那套书在国外是非常昂贵的。我确实从那套百科全书学到很多知识,至今令我非常感激。我们家也拥有盗版的多兰氏医学字典,我十几岁时就有。到了我就读医学院时,医学院的每个学生都可以很容易的拿到这一本著名的医学字典的盗版本。
Photo 1: A good counterfeit, ready for signature
照片1:一本好的盗版书, 随时可以亲笔签名
I am not in favor of counterfeits, but the humor is there. I remember an interchange in Thailand between a Mandarin speaking shopper, and a seller whose native Chinese language was Swatow (Chaozhou). There is actually a great concern about fakes in Asia, so the buyer asked: Is this for real? (Zhen de ma?) The Chaozhou seller explained indignantly “Jia de, Jia de” which in the Mandarin would be: “This is false, false!” But in Chaozhou language it would be: “this is correct, correct” or “this is real, real”. So a “counterfeit” also could depend on the language.
我不赞同仿冒品,但幽默就在此。我记得在泰国,有一段买卖双方的对话,购买者说的是普通话,贩卖者讲的是当地的潮州话。事实上仿冒品在亚洲是个大问题。买方问:「真的吗?」潮州籍的贩卖者愤怒的解释:「假的,假的」。在普通话jia这个发音的意思是“假”,就是假货的意思。但在潮州话jia这个发音的意思确是 “正”,就是真货的意思。因此,是真货还是假货,还得看对方说的是什麽语言。
There is a remark by renowned Asian theologian-evangelist Stephen Tong: the reason that there are so many copies and versions floating around about the Jesus faith, is He is so true that everybody wants to copy Him. People copy Rolexes and Pradas, because they are high quality and high reputation, but no one would counterfeit an inferior watch or inferior handbag – what would be the point of copying these other products?
亚洲著名的神学家/佈道家唐崇荣博士说过:世界上有许多关於耶稣信仰的冒牌货, 原因是耶稣太真实了,人们都想假冒祂。人会仿冒劳力士手錶及普拉达皮包,因为这些东西品质高,声望高,但没有人会去仿冒一个劣质的手錶或包包 – 理由是仿冒这些劣质品有什麽用价值呢?
At least counterfeits could prompt good intellectual discussions.
至少仿冒品可以激发良性的智能对话.
Photo 2: My book proudly counterfeited
照片2: 我的书很光荣的被仿冒了