On March 16, a graduate student at Beijing Language and Culture University (user A) rated a translated book two stars on Douban and commented that "the traces of machine translation are serious and the author's work is wasted."
This move caused dissatisfaction among the translators of the book, and then Douban user B contacted the teacher of student A's university, saying that A's behavior was "attacking han Ye, the translator of the book Truce, in the form of slander and fabrication of facts on the Douban network", and asked A to "take the translator and the publisher to apologize publicly on his Douban homepage, state the mistakes he made, and be responsible for the bad influence (sound) caused by it." ”
↑ User A's evaluation of the book "Truce" on Douban
On March 27, User A issued an apology statement, saying that "after criticism and education, delete the short comments and apologize to Ms. Han Ye and the publishing house." ”
This matter has attracted the attention of netizens on the Internet, most of whom believe that because of a bad review, they were complained to the school, and they had to issue a real-name apology, which was suspected of "bullying people".
Since then, some Douban users have rated low scores on the comment page of the book "Truce", resulting in a rapid decline in the score of this book on Douban.
The Red Star News reporter saw that the scoring option of this book on the Douban network has been closed.
The user A told Red Star News, "I originally refused to write an apology statement more gently. A said that he wrote the real-name apology letter in the attitude of resolving the matter.
The staff of the editor-in-chief office of the Writers Publishing House, the publisher of the book "Truce", said that they were unaware of the matter, but the publishing house would never ask a student to apologize for a comment, nor did it stop the book's scoring option on Douban.
Personal attacks?
Evaluation of the translation of the book "the traces of the machine turning are too heavy" Netizens were reported to the school and publicly apologized
On March 16, Douban user A hit the foreign language translation book "Truce" for two stars and posted a comment: the traces of machine flipping are serious, spoiling the author's work, or the old saying, there is no diamond diamond to do porcelain work.
It is understood that the book "Truce" is the second novel of Uruguayan writer Mario Benedetti. The heroine Abejaneda, portrayed by the author in this book, has been called "one of the most moving female figures created by Latin American narrative literature" by literary critics. The translation of the book, published by Writers Publishing House in 2020, is translated by Han Ye, who publicly available information shows that Han Ye studied for a master's degree in Spanish Art History at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain.
↑ Introduction to the translation of the book "Truce" on the Douban network
Han Ye responded under this Douban evaluation that every sentence of the book was carefully translated, and it was proofread and revised many times before and after. I really feel unfair to see the words 'serious traces of machine flipping'. User A also said in the reply, "I bought Benedeti's trilogy for the first time, but the quality of the translation made me feel very disappointed." And took an example from a passage from the book, saying, "Are these words I picked up at random in Chinese grammar?"
The next day, the translator Han Ye posted on his Douban homepage that as a translator who is not from the class, he is willing to humbly accept everyone's opinions, but "machine translation" is a matter of professional ethics, which is almost a personal attack.
↑ Translator's justification of user A's comment
On March 24, Douban user B sent a letter to a department of Beijing Language and Culture University, the school where user A is located. According to the content of the suspected letter compiled by netizens, user B said in the letter, "Classmate A has no basis in his empty mouth, attacked the translator of the book "Truce" han Ye in the form of slander and fabricated facts on the Douban network, groundlessly accused others of painstakingly translating word by word, revised the manuscript for several months 'serious traces of machine translation', and said with great vigour that the teacher had said in the high-turn class that the teacher could first turn the manuscript and then unify the draft. ”
It said: "In order to maintain the academic image of your department and even the Department of Foreign Languages and the school, as well as to prevent the progress of the situation from expanding, your department should take the initiative to intervene, investigate clearly, let the parties realize the basic facts of their words and deeds, assist and urge (relevant) students to apologize to the translator and the publisher on their Douban homepage, state the mistakes they have made, and be effectively responsible for the bad influence (sound) caused by them." This is not only conducive to establishing the academic image of your department, but also saving a student who has lost his footing, which is the original intention of education. ”
↑ User A apology statement
On March 27, user A issued a real-name apology statement, saying that "after criticism and education, delete the short comments and apologize to Ms. Han Ye and the publishing house." ”
Event fermentation
Whistleblower apologizes: Assertion machine flips without evidence The report is not well considered
This matter has attracted attention on the Internet, most netizens believe that because of a bad review was complained to the school, and issued a real-name apology, this move has the suspicion of "bullying", and even some netizens believe that user A is threatened to write an apology. Since then, many Douban users have given a "one-star" rating on the book's review page, resulting in a rapid decline in the book's rating on Douban.
↑ Douban netizens spoke
On the day that user A's real-name apology letter was released, the translator Han Ye posted on his Douban homepage: "The responsible editor of the publishing house did not know about this matter before. Although I felt that the statement that 'the traces of the machine turning were obvious' was unfair that day, I only stopped at leaving messages to readers, and I did not even send private messages, let alone do things that were privately persecuted. ”
↑ The translator responded to netizens' questions about "bullying"
Whistleblower user B posted an "apology statement on the truce dispute" on its Douban homepage on March 29. In the text, user B said that the original intention and cause of this matter was: he accidentally saw the controversy about the translation of this book, and believed that the speaker's oral statement was based on the translator's machine translation, which was equivalent to saying that the original work was plagiarized and plagiarized, which was inconsistent with the facts and caused trouble and harm to the translator. Because such a statement is different from the usual discussion of the standard of translation, it is a great doubt and blow to the personality and career of the translator.
↑ Apology statement posted by user B on Douban
The apology statement said that on March 24, under the premise of neither communicating with the translator of the party nor trying to negotiate with the speaker first, he wrote an email to contact the school department of user A according to the public information on the home page of user A Douban.
In his apologetic statement, B said the move was "indeed ill-conceived, not accountable enough to all parties involved, and did not respect the wishes of translators and speakers." This practice constitutes an objective and factual report that crosses the line. ”
Follow-up response
The student in question is called to solve the problem and write an apology letter Publisher: It is impossible to report it because of a bad review
The Red Star News reporter got in touch with Douban user A, who said: "Because the current incident is still fermenting, the school and the society are also continuing to pay attention, I don't want to make any form of remarks at this juncture." ”
As for whether the real-name apology letter was written under pressure, user A told Red Star News that in fact, he had a polite attitude toward writing an apology letter, and only wrote the apology letter out of the attitude of resolving the matter.
The staff of the editor-in-chief office of the writers publishing house of the book involved said that they were not aware of the matter, let alone stopped the book's scoring option on the Douban network. At the same time, the staff member said: "We can't complain and report a student because of a bad review." ”
According to public information circulated on the Internet, suspected user B is a special associate researcher in the Department of Chinese of Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai). Red Star News reporters verified with the school that a staff member said that the school did have an employee with the same name, but left last year. The Red Star News reporter tried to get in touch with user B, but as of press time has not responded, and it is currently impossible to verify that user B is the same person as the department of special associate researcher of the Department of Chinese of Sun Yat-sen University (Zhuhai) in the online transmission information.
The staff of the Propaganda Department of Beijing Language and Culture University, the school where user A is located, said that it is necessary to reply to the media after further understanding of the situation. At the same time, the Red Star News reporter communicated with Han Ye, the translator of the book involved, and as of press time, he had not yet received a response from the above two.
Red Star News reporter Shen Xingyi
Edited by Zhang Xun
(Download Red Star News, there are prizes for the newspaper!) ）