三四年過去我改些小錯如 "*"
去年在Simon University通信錄，最快報導義大利小說家、符號學家翁貝托•艾柯2003年11月1日做客埃及亞歷山大*圖書館，以英文發表了題為《書的未來》的長篇演講。今年《中華讀書報》(2004年7月7日)有「康慨之譯文」。我讀前幾段，作些筆記：
《書的未來》
三 種記憶 我們有三種記憶。第一種是生理上的，此種記憶由血肉形成，並歸我們大腦支配。第二種是礦物的，在此意義上，人類已知有兩種礦物形式的記憶：數千年前，有以 陶板和石碑為載體的記憶，在埃及尤為著名，人們在其上刻下文字。第二種形式則是今日電腦的電子記憶，它以矽為基礎。我們還知道另一種記憶，植物形式的記 憶，首先是紙莎草紙，在埃及也同樣著名，而後便是以紙製成的書。當然，史上最早的犢皮抄本也源自動物的身體，第一張紙也是由獸皮而非木材製成，但我們盡可 以不去管它。我這樣講是為了簡化植物形式的記憶與書籍的關係。
WE HAVE THREE TYPES OF MEMORY. The first one is organic, which is the memory made of flesh and blood and the one administrated by our brain. The second is mineral, and in this sense mankind has known two kinds of mineral memory: millennia ago, this was the memory represented by clay tablets and obelisks【(古埃及等的)方尖塔,方尖碑】, pretty well known in this country, on which people carved their texts. However, this second type is also the electronic memory of today's computers, based upon silicon. We have also known another kind of memory, the vegetal one, the one represented by the first papyruses, again well known in this country, and then on books, made of paper. Let me disregard the fact that at a certain moment the vellum【(牛、羊、山羊的)犢皮紙,上等皮紙】 of the first codices 【codex之複數：(《聖經》、經典著作的)古抄本,手抄本;處方書,藥典】were of an organic origin, and the fact that the first paper was made with rugs and not with wood. Let me speak for the sake of simplicity of vegetal memory in order to designate books.
此地（譯注：指亞歷山大圖書館
* 亞歷山卓）過去始終致力於書籍的存護，將來也是如此，所以，它現在是，將來也會是
*植物記憶的聖殿。數百年來，圖書館一直是保存我們集 體智慧的最重要的方式。它們始終都是一種全人類的大腦，讓我們得以從中尋回遺忘，發現未知。請允許我做如下比喻：圖書館是一種最可能被人類效仿的神的智 慧，有了它，就可在同一時刻看到並理解整個宇宙【
hc評：best possible (worlds) 非「最可能」，而是「可能性中之最佳者」--這是一神學和哲學看法，如以下作者說法：他(U. Eco)是中世紀神學大師之美學專家】。人可以將得自一座大圖書館的資訊存入心中，這使他有可能去習得上帝智慧的某些方面。換句話說，我們之所以發明圖書 館，是因為我們自知沒有神的力量，但我們會竭力效仿。
This place has been in the past and will be in the future devoted to the conservation of books; thus, it is and will be a temple of vegetal memory
*. Libraries, over the centuries, have been the most important way of keeping our collective wisdom. They were and still are a sort of universal brain where we can retrieve what we have forgotten and what we still do not know. If you will allow me to use such a metaphor, a library is the best possible imitation, by human beings, of a divine mind, where the whole universe is viewed and understood at the same time. A person able to store in his or her mind the information provided by a great library would emulate in some way the mind of God. In other words, we have invented libraries because we know that we do not have divine powers, but we try to do our best to imitate them.
*vegetal memory 指" (知識)生長"非上述"植物記憶"- Relating to growth rather than to sexual reproduction; vegetative.━━ a. 植物（性）の; 生長（機能）の.
今 天去建造，或翻新重建某座世界上最偉大的圖書館，聽來像是一種挑戰，或是挑釁。報紙或學報上，經常有某些作家面對這全新的電腦和互聯網的時代，大談即將 來臨的“書的死亡”。不管怎樣，就算書會像方尖碑或陶制書寫板那樣消失，那也不會是什麼廢棄圖書館的好理由。正相反，圖書館會因保存對過去的發現而倖存下 來，就像博物館一樣，同樣的，我們之所以把羅塞塔石碑保存在博物館裏，是因為我們已沒有在礦石表面刻下檔的習慣了。
To build, or better to rebuild, today one of the greatest libraries of the world might sound like a challenge, or a provocation. It happens frequently that in newspaper articles or academic papers some authors, facing the new computer and internet era, speak of the possible "death of books". However, if books are to disappear, as did the obelisks or the clay tablets of ancient civilisations, this would not be a good reason to abolish libraries. On the contrary, they should survive as museums conserving the finds of the past, in the same way as we conserve the Rosetta Stone in a museum because we are no longer accustomed to carving our documents on mineral surfaces.
不過，我對圖書館的盛讚大概有點過於樂觀了。我屬於那種始終相信印刷版圖書仍有其未來的人，順便說一句，所有擔心它們消失的恐懼，不過是其他諸種恐懼，或是對某種東西將要終結的無盡恐懼中的一種，比如世界末日。
*這翻譯很粗糙 根本避開or of milleniaristic terrors about the end of something, the world included.
Yet, my praise for libraries will be a little more optimistic. I belong to the people who still believe that printed books have a future and that all fears à propos of their disappearance are only the last example of other fears, or of milleniaristic terrors about the end of something, the world included.
hc：我請教RL(張瑞麟) 關於a propos* 的可能誤譯，
他回答：【你的懷疑是正確的，譯文忽略了of的作用，如果à propos獨立使用的話，是當作副詞，表示改變話題，但是通常會以逗號隔開，也就是如譯文所表現的「順便一提」或「順便說一句」。
然而，根據上下文來看，這裡應該把à propos of視為一體，是作為介詞，相當於中文的「關於」。
我對於...all fears à propos of their disappearance...的解讀是「…所有與印刷書本消失有關的憂慮…」，fear並非一成不變的當「恐懼」解。 詳細應用可以參考apropos詞條。】
hc的
à propos, apropos of
