《魏玛共和国时期的德国》书评

Good book, poor translation

Even though I just bought the book last night and hardly got time to read it thoroughly, I regret to say it, and its translator, 李末, are already on my Blacklist of Inept Translations (B.I.T.).In the first chapter there are already "gems" of incomprehension, so bad that one can even guess how the awkward mistake was made. For example, Germany towards the end of WWI was obviously in a "siege" (被包围状态", not the translator's "封闭状态". But sometimes one doesn't even recognize the printed words as correct Chinese: "他们中有3/4的人自愿发展到宣战地步". And, does the author understand the difference between "不能" and "不可能"?And "nationalization" was translated to "社会化". Hasn't this baby, obviously born and raised in a socialist country, ever heard of "国有化"?!One can't help wondering what kind of inept hands are put to work in China's (and Taiwan's) "translation industry", nowadays. If one doesn't have the talent, can he/she please refrain from slaughtering the great books and ruining the authors' reputation? And too often, the mistakes are out of plain laziness or ignorance, like the "社会化" above. Do these people have a conscience?If you are confident that your Chinese is good enough to navigate through the bad prose and silly errors of this translation, go ahead and enjoy the book, because even 李末's moronic butchering cann't obliterate the dazzling interest of the subject.

通俗书，还凑合

平平淡淡，适合我这种不太了解魏玛共和国的人读。了解的人会觉得没营养吧。 　　 具体点说，内容很浅显，图文并茂，有一些可读性。基本上没有新观点。没有一手材料。也没有论证，全书都是在叙述加抒情。真正专业的人是不太会看的。就这么多。