Unconventional Wisdom, conventionality

'More Sex Is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics'
By STEVEN E. LANDSBURG
Reviewed by DAVID LEONHARDT

A columnist for Slate joins the fraternity of authors using economics to explain everything.
(紐約時報)
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這“Unconventional Wisdom” (CW) 我2006年在「翻譯工作坊」寫一些，現在摘要如下：
(作者: 鍾漢清 (---.dynamic.hinet.net)
日期: 09-30-06 13:06

從JFG (sic-- 應該是JKG) 的鑄詞和其翻譯說起：贈謝潘震澤老師)

最近，台灣翻譯出版John Kenneth Galbraith （本文稱JFG，1908-2006）的一篇ESSAY：
{揭開皇后的面紗－造成現代亂象的經濟學迷思} (Economics of Innocent Fraud—Truth for Our Time by John Kenneth Galbraith ) 羅耀宗 譯，台北：天下文化，2006。(此出版社的網頁中有些資料很可參考)。

這本書，去年有日文本：
「悪意なき欺瞞（誰も語らなかった経済の真相）」ジョン・Ｋ・ガルブレイス著、佐和隆光訳（ダイヤモンド社），2005

我們從書名的漢字對照，就可發現，連書名的處理，兩本翻譯就相當不同，字眼差異相當大。(我幾月前在SU談一本天下文化出版的傳記，承蒙翻譯者留言，對於編者擅改成自認為「很新潮的書」名和「外行改內行之譯文」，感到很無奈。)

這”innocent fraud”，天下文化出版社的網頁中，（至少）出現兩種翻譯：「無罪的詐欺」（羅耀宗）；「(經濟學的) 無心之過」(于宗先)。日文採「悪意なき欺瞞」。
【如果讀者有興趣，還可以進而比較各節/各篇譯名，也相當有啟發……】

JFG有很深的文字功夫，當過Fortune雙周刊等撰寫者，美國政府總統的文膽，「著作等身」（大陸對他作品的翻譯量，可能是繁體字的數倍；前任北京大学光华管理学院院長有他的專論著作。日文更齊全）。

他一輩子最得意的”鑄詞”，就是conventional wisdom，在英文已成為專名，有時候簡稱為CW。

這CW，在{揭開皇后的面紗－造成現代亂象的經濟學迷思}網頁，至少可以找到這樣的翻譯：

『 我這輩子大約七十年的事業生涯，接觸的都是經濟學，而且屢屢出任和經濟有關的公職及政界工作，也曾經涉足新聞界。這段期間我學到一件事──人要是想發揮所長並被視為思想正確，就得從俗接受一般認知（也就是我所謂的世俗觀點〔conventional wisdom〕）逐漸背離實際真相的現實。不過，到頭來，真正算數的總還是實際真相，這並不令人意外。」』（JFG）

『1958年在《富裕社會》理所提出之「世俗認知」（conventional wisdom）深刻化，將體制塑造人們的經濟思維 作為核心，而後逐一思考人們習以為常的各種偏差及謬論。「大企業的經濟和社會的主宰地位是被人接受的事實，我們的政治和社會却繼續讚揚小型企業和家庭農業。這是一種形成式溫和、無辜的欺人之談。」「企業給人的印象是由所有權人當家，事實上並不存在，更是欺人之談。」』（南方朔）

根據我讀介過的{加爾布雷思文集}(The Essential Galbraith)的譯者說，CW在大陸至少有四種翻譯：傳統觀念/傳統智慧/傳統教義/'傳統常識…..。其實這只是抽樣，我還讀過這樣的翻譯：「常人之見」(Galbraith回憶錄"我們時代的生活 "Life in Our Times: Memoirs”.)。

這些，還只是”字眼”之翻譯眾相。我們可以想像兩岸如何翻譯他任美國駐印度大使時，「老版」國務卿Dean Rusk 給他拍的電報：Your views, so far as they have any merit, have already been fully considered and rejected. --- Secretary of State Dean Rusk to Ambassador to India John Kenneth Galbraith, as reported in Harper's, November 1967.【此句在Galbraith回憶錄中也有引用，所以大陸有一稍怪之翻譯版本。至於十年前，我「主譯」的{ 轉危為安 } （台北：天下文化）第八章 Some new principles of training and leadership，頁293，我現在光這句就可以找出幾處缺點…….】


補充：JFG另外一有名的鑄詞：
countervailing power　【経済】対抗力.，這詞也站住腳
抗衡力量--{加爾布雷思文集}(The Essential Galbraith)的譯法
抵消力量-- Galbraith回憶錄 "我們時代的生活 "Life in Our Times: Memoirs”.江蘇人民出版社
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----台灣國立編譯館_經濟學.： 抗衡力量；反制力量

*****參考
countervailing duty　
【經濟學】：抵銷關稅；抗衡關稅
【日文】相殺関税.
或譯為 反補貼稅 如WTO有
Agreements on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures
補貼與反補貼措施協定

-------感謝林博華先生更正：
Dear HC,
謝謝，不過Galbraith的簡寫應該是JKG吧？
innocent fraud翻成「無罪的詐欺」我是不大能接受，「無心之過」也有偏差，因為這已是一種fraud了，我推敲其意應該是「狀似無辜的詐欺」吧。不過還沒想到更好的譯詞。



***** CW 應用例
日期: 10-17-06 14:26

今天紐約時報
At first, the authors say, “it seems reasonable to expect that parental investment in child-rearing would have declined” since 1965, when 60 percent of all children lived in families with a breadwinner father and a stay-at-home mother. Only about 30 percent of children now live in such families. With more mothers in paid jobs, many policy makers have assumed that parents must have less time to interact with their children.

But, the researchers say, the conventional wisdom is not borne out by the data they collected from families asked to account for their time. The researchers found, to their surprise, that married and single parents spent more time teaching, playing with and caring for their children than parents did 40 years ago.
--- Married and Single Parents Spending More Time With Children, Study Finds


---CW 翻譯例
日期: 10-22-06 21:21

A Critical History of Economics by John Mills
Palgrave Macmillan (2002)
（英）米爾斯著{一種批判的經濟學史}高湘澤譯，北京：商務印書館，2005

這是本非經濟學院人/產業人 所寫的，表現英國的一種傳統。清新言簡。

翻譯也似乎不錯，譬如說對CW翻譯成”陳腐的智慧”(頁308)

我對他的幾本書名翻譯很有意思：譬如說Butterflies Economics翻譯成”見異思遷的經濟學



”……..

Definition

convention (CUSTOM) Show phonetics
noun
1 [C or U] (an example of) a usual or accepted way of behaving, especially in social situations, often following an old way of thinking or a custom in one particular society:
They defied/flouted/broke with convention by giving up their jobs and becoming self-sufficient.
Convention dictates that it is the man who asks the woman to marry him and not the reverse.
In many countries, it is the/a convention to wear black at funerals.

2 [C] a common way of showing something in art or writing:
an artistic convention

conventional Show phonetics
adjective
1 traditional and ordinary:
conventional behaviour/attitudes/clothes
conventional medicine/farming
a conventional wedding
DISAPPROVING I find his art rather dull and conventional.
NOTE: The opposite is unconventional.

2 describes weapons which are not nuclear, or methods of fighting a war that do not involve nuclear weapons:
conventional weapons/bombs

conventionally Show phonetics
adverb

conventionality Show phonetics
noun [U]

“Tree Roots” (1957)

But Mr. Pearlstein abandoned pop-culture imagery and threw himself into nature and landscape. “Tree Roots” is made in a nondescript, Cézannesque-expressionist style. Its conventionality highlights what a daring leap Mr. Pearlstein was about to make with his nudes.

Photo: Courtesy Philip Pearlstein Studio