Cosine Inn 餘弦棧: Kiss & Tell

歌德的網頁介紹中譯本的 Kiss & Tell (Alain de Botton)﹐譯名叫做「吻了再說」。我很多年前看過英文版﹐是一本很有趣的小說。不過﹐我不是想在這裡談故事的細節﹐而是想引一段男主角前女友對他責難的文字﹐這段不留情面的話﹐間接引出了整個小說的情節。

"It took me a long time to figure you out," began a letter from a woman who had shared six months of my life, then decided she would have preferred to see me dead, "to understand how someone could have been so un-self-aware and at the same time so self-obsessed. You said you loved me, but a narcissist can't love anyone but himself. I know most men have little clue of how to communicate, but your incapacities were tediously extraordinary. You had no repect for anything I gave a damn about, you approached everything with the same high-handed, self-righteous manner. I wasted too long with an egoist incapable of listening to my needs, someone who would have had trouble empathizing with anything further than his own ear-lobe..."

在這個叫Divina的前女友大罵一番﹐撕破外皮﹐直搗自己性格弱點之後﹐男主角決定要去為一個陌生人寫一本傳記﹐試圖打破自己的自戀性格。我在看原版英文時﹐覺得寫得很精彩﹐所以很有興趣知道中文版把這一段翻譯成甚麼。這段罵人的話用了大量很難翻譯得精確的詞語﹐不知道譯成中文後﹐感覺會不會完全不同﹐或者詞鋒變弱呢﹖

我覺得﹐用中文罵人﹐要用比較直接的詞語﹐才能容易傷人。經典例子是黃品源的【那麼愛你為甚麼】之中﹐莫文蔚﹐連珠爆發的獨白﹕

從女性觀點我明白地說
無論你是怎麼挖心掏肺
呼天搶地或是熱情如火
不只白白惹人討厭讓人嫌你囉唆
恨不得沒跟你認識過

你講也講不聽
聽又聽不懂
懂也不會做
做又做不好

你現在唱著這樣的歌
你到底是想對我說什麼