book translation #7

《同學會》

My translation project baby #7 is out! （中文見下）

It was also my first novel project – the experience was very different from translating non-fiction when you’re in a position where you’re also drawn into the plot as you work, and your emotions and patience and efficiency were also subject to the plot. Maybe it was also because the author Fitzek was just so good at controlling the pace and tension and all.

But again, the best part of the entire experience was that I got to work on part of the book on ICE in Bayern, corresponding to the protagonist Marla’s experience. And that I came back to Berlin and got to walk around Hackescher Markt, where a certain accident in the story occurred when the character was riding on an e-scooter (oh yeah, it was something we didn’t have a decade back! and man, I was legit just riding an e-scooter there two days ago!).

The most part of this novel was translated in Ash Coffee Project, a late-night cafe in Taichung. During that period, I basically sat in the shop from sometime between 1 – 3 pm (depending on whether Ash got up and opened the shop in time lmao) to 11 pm. That feel when it was super late and the plot got to a very eerie point!!! Sometimes I’d just be so shocked by how things turned out that I couldn’t help but drop my jaw and scream in silence at the bar. Truth be told, I probably wouldn’t want to actually stay in the mountains and in some random hut when I was translating it… but who knows, maybe I’ll still end up there at some point this year.

每次都要說差不多的話，但每次都只會感受愈來愈深刻——身為自由譯者最讚的就是可以在翻譯時身歷其境，而且是真的切切實實地走在某條書中提到的街上、騎著某個角色在那裡騎的電動滑板車。然後用每個毛細孔去感受多麼令人唾棄的冬季柏林哇哈哈哈哈哈。

除此之外，這本書有很大一部分是在菸灰完成的，深夜時的昏暗燈光、舒心香氛也跟雪山小木屋的想像夠貼近了，翻譯的速度與情緒與耐心全都緊扣著劇情，時不時自顧自地在吧台座位上摀住掉下來的下巴（嘿，我大概是那幾個月內最奇怪的地伏靈），然後在農曆七月半接近午夜時獨自騎在有點超現實的中區靜巷裡⋯⋯那個空間永遠會是我很珍惜的一段回憶（完全跟打書離題，變成打咖啡廳？）