"譯場（su）報告" * On Translating *No.64, 2008年4月12日

"譯場（su）報告" * On Translating *
No.64, 2008年4月12日； 2008/1/28 創刊

The Life of Johnson 中，兩次提到 John Campbell的書Hermippus Redivivus
第二次是："I exclaimed to her, "I am now, intellectually, Hermippus redivivus, I am quite restored by him, by transfusion of mind." "There are many (she replied) who ..."

因為書中說，該John Campbell為一傳記/政治學家(此人沒上"大英百科")，所以突然冒出翻譯為"煉金術"等作品，讓我百思不得其解。隔天，我上網查，才知道這本Hermippus Redivivus， 其實是 John Campbell之翻譯作品：

"The Hermippus was a commercial success, mentioned by the Journal des Scavans, and translated into English in 1743 by John Campbell (1708–75), a Scottish historian and political writer. Campbell's text was re-translated into French by Monsieur de la Place in 1789, and “it is this that is known and considered by many people as the work of the German physician”; some later readers even thought that Campbell had written the Hermippus in its entirety.12 Samuel Johnson said that it was a “very entertaining account of the hermetic philosophy and as furnishing a curious history of the extravagances of the human mind”.13 ..."

¹³ James Boswell, The life of Dr. Johnson, 2 vols, London, J M Dent and Sons, 1933, vol. 1, p. 258.

這要感謝研究西方醫學史的ANNA MARIE ROOS, PhD：Johann Heinrich Cohausen (1665–1750), Salt Iatrochemistry, and Theories of Longevity in his Satire, Hermippus Redivivus (1742)

Hermippus Redivivus , John Campbell

這說明，大陸兩為老先生的翻譯雖然很「認真」（諸如兩錯誤之注解，因為他們搞不清楚人名是諷刺作品之偽託等），不過。經典作品的相關背景知識還要靠許多專業的研究之幫忙。