【書名】《暗算》 （In the Dark – 400頁，企鵝出版社2015年出版）

作者：麥家

五星：10%（10）
四星：24%（23）
三星：51%（48）
二星：11%（11）
一星： 1%（1）

評(píng)論翻譯

原創(chuàng)翻譯：龍騰網(wǎng) http://www.ltaaa.com轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處

（書評(píng)部分）

1、 四星，Vanessa，英國(guó)，女

Putting the dreadful Decoded aside, In TheDark is a much better prospect.

把糟糕透頂?shù)摹督饷堋啡釉谝贿?，《暗算》的前景要好得多?br/>
The reader is lead through four shortstories all of which involve people with unusual and genius talents which areto be used and exploited by China's Secret Service - at the mysteriouscryptography Unit 701.

該書將讀者引入發(fā)生在神秘保密單位701的四個(gè)短故事，涉及被中國(guó)保密單位利用乃至剝削的有著超乎尋常天賦的人們。

Although Mai Jia's writing is sometimesquite surreal In The Dark is very readable and moves along nicely. ReadingChinese literature, is always interesting, because characters often don't reactas we in the West would. Perhaps this is because they are often portrayed asParty members - all work, no play and the Party comes first.

雖然麥家的作品有時(shí)會(huì)相當(dāng)離奇，《暗算》的可讀性卻很強(qiáng)，而且故事的推進(jìn)恰到好處。閱讀中國(guó)文學(xué)一直都是很有意思的，因?yàn)槿宋锏姆磻?yīng)通常都會(huì)和我們西方人不一樣。這可能是因?yàn)樗麄兂１幻枥L成黨員的樣子：只工作不休閑，而且會(huì)把黨的事業(yè)放在第一位。

Reading Chinese cliches, similes andmetaphors is quite enjoyable but also very strange and at times almost opaquefor a western reader. Take for example "There is a saying that some womenare quite shrewish and some men toadying." Or what seems to be a classicChinese proverb "you always save the best steel for knives". Thesecond I can kind of understand but the first seems to need the culturalcontext of having grown up in China and it diminishes your appreciation of thetext without that background. Contrast that to how easily a western audiencedigests the General Patton quote used towards the end. "There's only oneproper way for a professional soldier to die: the last bullet of the lastbattle of the last war". It's so easy for a western audience tounderstand.

讀讀中國(guó)人的陳詞濫調(diào)，明喻以及暗喻是相當(dāng)有樂趣的，但也會(huì)覺得古怪，而且對(duì)西方讀者來說有時(shí)會(huì)晦澀難懂。比如說，“有句話叫做：潑女人，諂男人”?；蚴怯行┛粗窆诺渲袊?guó)諺語的話，“好鋼用在刀刃上”。第二句我還是勉強(qiáng)能懂的，但理解第一句似乎需要從小在中國(guó)長(zhǎng)大的文化背景，而沒有這種背景，就會(huì)阻礙你對(duì)原文的鑒賞。與之相比，一個(gè)西方讀者輕輕松松就能領(lǐng)會(huì)《巴頓將軍》中臨近結(jié)局時(shí)引述的那句話，“一個(gè)職業(yè)士兵只有一種像樣的死法：死于最后一次戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)中最后一場(chǎng)戰(zhàn)斗的最后一顆子彈”。這對(duì)于一個(gè)西方讀者來說就很容易理解了。

（譯注：安在天的原話為：“這個(gè)世界上有兩種人最討厭：潑女人，諂男人”）

In saying all this you'll still be delightedby Abing, Huang Yiyi, Chen Erdu and a few of the others, you'll keep readinglargely to find out what happens to these tortured geniuses. Unfortunately, themain characters are mostly interesting in contrast to the bland supporting castand surrounding characters and you'll be worn down by the way the brutal regimecelebrates them in the shadows.

說了這么多，阿炳、黃依依、陳二湖以及其他一些人還是會(huì)讓你很欣喜，基本上你得反復(fù)去讀才能發(fā)現(xiàn)這些深受折磨的天才身上所發(fā)生的事。不幸的是，相比于乏味的配角和外圍角色，大部分主角都很有趣，而且殘忍的政權(quán)在暗處祝賀他們的方式會(huì)讓你厭煩。

5、三星，James，英國(guó)，男
In China, Mai Jia is the king of spynovels, a Chinese equivalent to someone like John Le Carré, but whose work hasa distinctly surrealist element to it. In The Dark tells three tales of themysterious code-breakers at Unit 701 - China's top-secret intelligence unittasked.

在中國(guó)，麥家是間諜小說之王，是中國(guó)版的約翰·勒卡雷，但他的作品有一種獨(dú)樹一幟的超現(xiàn)實(shí)主義色彩。《暗算》講述的是中國(guó)絕密情報(bào)單位701中神秘的密碼破譯者的三個(gè)故事。

（譯注：約翰·勒卡雷（John le Carre，1931—），英國(guó)20世紀(jì)最著名的間諜小說家，代表作有《柏林諜影》、《鍋匠，裁縫，士兵，間諜》）

The three stories share this common settingand a similar cast of characters - all are linked also by their obsessiontowards codes and ciphers. There is the "wind listener" -a blind manwhose supernatural hearing enables him to discern even the sex of a barkingdog; there is an unstable maths genius who cracks the Kuomintang's newest, bestcode but meets an unfortunate end at the hands of her lover's wife; an old manso obsessed with codes he deciphers them in his dreams; and lastly, a tale ofsubterfuge and deception during the Vietnam War.

這三個(gè)故事出于同一背景，選取的人物也類似，也都和他們對(duì)密碼的癡迷有關(guān)。里面有一個(gè)“聽風(fēng)者”，一個(gè)有超常聽覺的瞎子，他甚至都可以辨別出一只狂吠的狗的交配行為；里面還有一個(gè)情緒不穩(wěn)定的數(shù)學(xué)天才，她破解了國(guó)民黨最新也是最厲害的密碼，她情人的老婆（劉麗華）卻讓她的結(jié)局很是不幸；一個(gè)過于沉迷密碼的老人，他會(huì)在夢(mèng)中破解它們；最后，是越戰(zhàn)期間的一個(gè)關(guān)于詭計(jì)和欺騙的故事。

7、三星，F(xiàn)aridz Ilham，印尼，男
a decent fantasy book tells China's secretagency 'Unit 701' comrades unique stories during wartime. This book told thatlove/passion for someone or things can led a person to their death in strangeways.

一本挺像樣的幻想書籍，講述了中國(guó)秘密機(jī)關(guān)“701”里的同志們?cè)趹?zhàn)時(shí)那些很獨(dú)特的故事。該書告訴我們，對(duì)某人或某個(gè)對(duì)象的愛或激情會(huì)讓一個(gè)人以各種奇奇怪怪的方式死去。