離開
進入中英對照讀新聞／New edition removes Mark Twain’s "offensive" words 新版馬克吐溫作品移除了「冒犯」字眼
◎俞智敏
Mark Twain wrote that "the difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter." A new edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and "Tom Sawyer" will try to find out if that holds true by replacing a word considered a racial slur with the word "slave" in an effort not to offend readers.
馬克吐溫曾寫道，「近乎正確的字眼與正確的字眼間的差別其實是很重要的事」。新版的「頑童歷險記」與「湯姆歷險記」將藉著用「奴隸」一詞來取代一個被視為種族歧視的字眼，試著證明這句話是否依然適用，目的則是希望不要讓讀者覺得受到冒犯。
Twain scholar Alan Gribben, who is working with NewSouth Books in Alabama to publish a combined volume of the books, said the racially offensive slur appears 219 times in "Huck Finn" and four times in "Tom Sawyer." He said the word puts the books in danger of joining the list of literary classics that Twain once humorously defined as those "which people praise and don’t read."
馬克吐溫學者葛里本正與阿拉巴馬州的新南方書籍出版社合作，打算出版這兩本書的合集，他表示這個種族歧視性的字眼在「頑童歷險記」裡共出現了219次，在「湯姆歷險記」裡也出現了4次。他說這個字眼恐怕將使這些作品加入被馬克吐溫打趣定義為「眾人稱讚卻不閱讀」的文學經典名單中。
Yet Twain was particular about his words. His letter in 1888 about the right word and the almost right one was "the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning." The book isn’t scheduled to be published until February, at a mere 7,500 copies, but Gribben has already received a flood of hateful e-mail accusing him of desecrating the novels. He said the e-mails prove the word makes people uncomfortable. "Not one of them mentions the word. They dance around it," he said.
但馬克吐溫對他選用的字眼非常挑剔。他在1888年的信中提到，正確的字眼與近乎正確的字眼間的差別「有如螢火蟲與閃電」。新版的馬克吐溫作品預定2月才會出版，印量也只有7500本，但葛里本已接獲大量的批評電子郵件，指控他褻瀆了這些小說。不過他表示，這些電郵剛好證明，上述字眼讓人很不自在。「沒有一封信裡提到這個字。他們都閃爍其詞」，他說。
Gribben conceded the edited text loses some of the caustic sting but said： "I want to provide an option for teachers and other people not comfortable with 219 instances of that word."
葛里本坦承，修正過的版本喪失了原作中某些尖銳挖苦的精神，但他說，「我想提供給教師，以及其他對這個出現219次的字眼感到不自在的讀者另一種選擇。」
新聞辭典
hold true：指適用，有效，如The old adage that "money talks" still holds true.（「有錢好辦事」這句古諺至今仍然適用。）
dance around：非正式用語，指避開或動搖，猶豫，如He danced around the issue. （他規避這個議題。）
caustic：形容詞，指言詞刻薄的，譏諷的，尖利刺人的，如She’s famous in the office for her caustic wit. （她在公司裡以尖刻機智著稱。）
