點選這裡開啟東成西就文教衛生交流小程式
| 簡介
作家Ann Morgan以為自己看書足夠的多了，直到發現除了英語外，她還有很多其他語言的書沒有讀過，於是她開始思考和行動。那麼你知道你的閱讀盲區嗎？
點選這裡開啟東成西就文教衛生交流小程式
| 中英文演講稿
00：00
常說看一個人的書架，就能瞭解到這個人很多事情，那麼我的書架是怎麼展現我的呢？
嗯，當幾年前我問自己這個問題時，我被自己嚇了一跳。
我一直覺得自己是一個有教養的、比較與時俱進的人，但我的書架展現的卻是另一回事，大部分的書作者都是英國或北美的，基本沒什麼翻譯過來的書。
在我的閱讀裡，我發現了這個龐大的文化盲點，確實挺驚人的。
當我仔細去想的時候，真的挺遺憾的。
我知道在這個世界上除了英語，一定還有很多其他語言的有趣的故事，而我的閱讀習慣意味著，我估計永遠也不會去接觸這一類書。
這想起來讓人有點傷心，所以我下定決心，把自己的閱讀範圍擴大到世界級的範圍。
2012年對於英國來說是非常國際化的一年，這一年倫敦舉辦了奧運會，所以我決定把它當成一個時間段，去嘗試從世界上不同的國家裡，選一本小說來讀，不管是短篇的還是自傳的。
所以我這麼做了，非常刺激，我學到很多有用的東西，也瞭解到很多有趣的聯絡，讓我很想今天跟大家分享。
萬事開頭難，當我整理出這個世界不同國家的列表後，我又對照了聯合國認證的國家列表，所以我增加了臺灣，所以總共有196個國家。
在我算出如何在一週內，一週五天的時間內讀完並記錄日誌後，我不得不面對這麼一個現實，就是我可能無法獲取每個國家書籍的英文版。
大約在英國出版的有翻譯版本的書籍僅佔全部的4。5%，對於世界上講英語的其他地區來說，這個數字也差不多，儘管在許多其他國家，翻譯出版的書籍的比例要高很多。
4。5%對剛開始來說雖然足夠，但這個數字並沒有告訴你的，是這些書中很多會來自擁有強大出版網路的國家，而且當中很多專業人士也很想把這些書，賣給英文出版社。
例如，雖然每年有超過100本的法語書，會譯成英文在英國發行，但大部分是來自法國或瑞士。
另一方面，在非洲講法語的地區，則幾乎沒有機會涉及到。
結果就是，有很多很多國家，根本進不了英文文學的商業區，根本進不了英文文學的商業區。
對世界上發行語言受眾最多的讀者來說，這些國家的書籍鮮為人知。
但當談到閱讀世界這一做法時，對我來說最大的困難就是，我不知道從何入手，我這一生幾乎都在閱讀英國和北美的書籍，我根本不知道該怎麼搜尋尋找，去選擇世界上大部分其他地方的作品。
我沒辦法告訴你，要怎麼去搜索史瓦濟蘭的文學作品，我不知道奈米比亞有哪些好的文學作品，這些作品並沒有被藏起來——我在文學上就是一個外盲，那麼我到底要怎麼去閱讀這個世界呢？
我不得不尋求幫助，在2011年10月，我註冊了我的部落格ayearofreadingtheworld。com，然後我發了一條簡短的求助。
我解釋我是誰，我的閱讀面有多窄，我問有沒有人願意，給我留言，建議我應該去讀，這個世界上其他地方的那些書。
我當時不知道有沒有人會給我留言，但在我發了求助後的幾個小時內，人們開始給我回復了，一開始，是朋友和同事，然後就是朋友的朋友，很快，就是陌生人。
在我在網上留了那條求助之後的第四天，我收到了一條訊息，它來自一位在吉隆坡叫 Rafidah的女士，她說她很喜歡我這個專案的意義，問她能不能去當地的英文書店，然後幫我選馬來語書籍然後發給我？
我滿腔熱情地接受了幾個星期後，包裹來了，裡面不是一本，是兩本——Rafidah選的一本是馬來西亞的書，還有一本也是她選的，來自新加坡的書，當時，我都驚呆了，一個遠在6000英里之外的陌生人，會如此用心去幫一個她從未見過的陌生人。
但Rafidah 的善良，成了那一年的常規，一次又一次，人們用他們的方式來幫我。
有些人幫我做了研究，有些人在假期或出差的時候，專門跑一趟書店幫我找書。
事實證明，如果你想閱讀這個世界，如果你想用開放的思維去與之交流，那麼整個世界都會幫你，對於那些在商業上沒什麼機會進入英文文學界的國家來說，人們會更努力地去幫我。
這些書籍的來源經常讓我出乎意料，舉個例子，我的巴拿馬閱讀，是來自推特上我和“巴拿馬運河”這個賬號的對話。
是的，巴拿馬運河在有推特賬號的，當我在推特上釋出我這個專案的訊息時，它建議說，我可能會想要去讀一讀一位叫Juan David Morgan的巴拿馬作家的作品。
我找到了作家的網站， 然後給他發了一條訊息，問他，他的西語小說有沒有被翻譯成英文的，他答覆說目前還沒有出版，但他確實有一份未出版的英文譯文，一本名叫《金馬》的小說，他用郵件把譯文發給我，允許我成為第一批閱讀這本書的英文版本的讀者之一。
Morgan並不是唯一一個願意用這種方式和我分享他的作品的作家，從瑞典到帛琉，作家和翻譯家給我發來他們自己出版的書籍，還有未被以英文為母語的出版商挑中的，或者是不再有機會發表的所有未出版的手稿，這讓我有機會一窺某些精彩的世界。
比如說，我讀了關於南非國王Ngungunhane的書籍，他在19世紀領導反抗葡萄牙人，我也讀了土庫曼的裡海岸邊那些偏僻村莊的結婚儀式，我還讀了科威特版本的《BJ單身日記》，我還讀了安哥拉一場樹上狂歡。
在人們想盡辦法幫我去閱讀這個世界的例子中，可能最讓人驚奇的，出現在我網上求助的最後時期。
當時我在找一本書，它來自來自說葡萄牙語的聖多美島和普林西比島非洲小島國，花了好幾個月，用盡所有我能想到的辦法，去找一本從別的國家翻譯成英文的書（但都找不到）。
我覺得剩下的唯一方式，就是看能不能重新去翻譯，我當時也沒什麼把握，不知道是否有人願意幫我願意花時間來為我做這樣的事。
但，就在我在推特和臉書上發出尋找會講葡萄牙語的人這一訊息的一週內，我找到的人多到超乎預期。
包括有 Margaret Jull Costa，領域的傑出人才。她翻譯了獲諾貝爾獎的文學作品《若澤·薩拉馬戈》。
帶著9位志願者，我找到了一本出自聖多美島作家的書然後在網上買了幾本，這是其中的一本，我給每個志願者都發了一本，他們各自從這個系列中選幾個短故事，然後開始翻譯，然後把譯文發給我，在六週內，我已經擁有一本可讀的書了。
類似的情況在我閱讀世界那一年經常發生，我的不知，以及無畏自己的侷限，成了一個巨大的機遇。
說到聖多美島和普林西比島，不單是一個學習新知識的機會，探索新文學作品的機會，還是將人們聚集起來團結起來創新努力的機會，我的侷限反倒成了這個專案的優勢。
那一年我看過的書開拓了我的視野，那些享受閱讀的人就能體會，書籍有著強大能力把你帶出自我，進入別人的思想眾。
所以，至少有一段時間，你能看到別人眼中的世界，這或許不會是一段好過的經歷，尤其是你在讀一本文化上與自己的觀念大為不同的書，但它卻可能很有啟發性，與不熟悉的想法產生碰撞能幫你更好認識自己的想法，也能幫你告訴自己，在你看到這個世界的方式上有哪些盲點。
當我回頭看我從小到大讀過的大多數英文文學，相比世界上其他書籍的豐富程度，這些書籍確實太狹隘了，每翻一頁，便長一智，積少成多。
我年初列出的國家列表，從一些列枯燥充滿學術的地名，變成了活生生會呼吸的實體。
現在，我並不想建議說單靠讀一本書就能大致瞭解一個國家，但積少成多，那一年我讀過的故事，它們的對這個世界展示的豐富性，多樣化性和複雜性。讓我更有存在感。
就好像是這些世界性的故事，以及那些想辦法幫我閱讀這些書籍的人們，是他們讓我變得真實。
這些天來，當我看著我的書架的時候，或者在我的電子閱讀器上思考這些作品時，它們在訴說這一個不一樣的故事，這是一個關於書籍的故事，書能將我們聯絡在一起，跨越政治，區域，文化，社會，宗教的隔閡，它是人們擁有協同工作的潛能的故事。
還有，它是一個證明的故事，證明了我們現在的這個時代，由於有網際網路，讓一切變得前所未有的方便——讓一個陌生人來與來自地球另一半，素未謀面的另一陌生人分享一個故事，一種世界關，一本書。
我希望這是一個我閱讀這麼多年所追求的故事，我也希望會有更多的人可以與我同閱，如果我們都擴寬我們的閱讀面，那麼對於出版商來說，就更有動機去翻譯更多書籍，我們就有機會更廣地閱讀了。
謝謝。
The End
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英文講稿
（向上滑動檢視講稿）
00：01
It‘s often said that you can tell a lot about a person by looking at what’s on their bookshelves。 What do my bookshelves say about me？ Well， when I asked myself this question a few years ago， I made an alarming discovery。 I‘d always thought of myself as a fairly cultured， cosmopolitan sort of person。 But my bookshelves told a rather different story。 Pretty much all the titles on them were by British or North American authors， and there was almost nothing in translation。Discovering this massive， cultural blind spot in my reading came as quite a shock。
00：40
And when I thought about it， it seemed like a real shame。 I knew there had to be lots of amazing stories out there by writers working in languages other than English。 And it seemed really sad to think that my reading habits meant I would probably never encounter them。 So， I decided to prescribe myself an intensive course of global reading。 2012 was set to be a very international year for the UK； it was the year of the London Olympics。 And so I decided to use it as my time frame to try to read a novel， short story collection or memoir from every country in the world。 And so I did。 And it was very exciting and I learned some remarkable things and made some wonderful connections that I want to share with you today。
01：30
But it started with some practical problems。 After I’d worked out which of the many different lists of countries in the worldto use for my project， I ended up going with the list of UN-recognized nations， to which I added Taiwan， which gave me a total of 196 countries。 And after I‘d worked out how to fit reading and blogging about， roughly， four books a week around working five days a week，
01：57
I then had to face up to the fact that I might even not be able to get books in English from every country。 Only around 4。5 percent of the literary works published each year in the UK are translations， and the figures are similar for much of the English-speaking world。 Although， the proportion of translated books published in many other countries is a lot higher。4。5 percent is tiny enough to start with， but what that figure doesn’t tell you is that many of those books will come from countries with strong publishing networks and lots of industry professionals primed to go out and sell those titles to English-language publishers。 So， for example， although well over 100 books are translated from French and published in the UK each year， most of them will come from countries like France or Switzerland。 French-speaking Africa， on the other hand， will rarely ever get a look-in。
02：54
The upshot is that there are actually quite a lot of nations that may have little or even no commercially available literaturein English。 Their books remain invisible to readers of the world‘s most published language。 But when it came to reading the world， the biggest challenge of all for me was that fact that I didn’t know where to start。 Having spent my life reading almost exclusively British and North American books， I had no idea how to go about sourcing and finding stories and choosing them from much of the rest of the world。 I couldn‘t tell you how to source a story from Swaziland。 I wouldn’t know a good novel from Namibia。 There was no hiding it —— I was a clueless literary xenophobe。 So how on earth was I going to read the world？
03：43
I was going to have to ask for help。 So in October 2011， I registered my blog， ayearofreadingtheworld。com， and I posted a short appeal online。 I explained who I was， how narrow my reading had been， and I asked anyone who cared to to leave a message suggesting what I might read from other parts of the planet。 Now， I had no idea whether anyone would be interested， but within a few hours of me posting that appeal online， people started to get in touch。 At first， it was friends and colleagues。 Then it was friends of friends。 And pretty soon， it was strangers。
04：21
Four days after I put that appeal online， I got a message from a woman called Rafidah in Kuala Lumpur。 She said she loved the sound of my project， could she go to her local English-language bookshop and choose my Malaysian book and post it to me？ I accepted enthusiastically， and a few weeks later， a package arrived containing not one， but two books ——Rafidah‘s choice from Malaysia， and a book from Singapore that she had also picked out for me。 Now， at the time， I was amazed that a stranger more than 6，000 miles away would go to such lengths to help someone she would probably never meet。
05：07
But Rafidah’s kindness proved to be the pattern for that year。 Time and again， people went out of their way to help me。Some took on research on my behalf， and others made detours on holidays and business trips to go to bookshops for me。 It turns out， if you want to read the world， if you want to encounter it with an open mind， the world will help you。When it came to countries with little or no commercially available literature in English， people went further still。
05：40
Books often came from surprising sources。 My Panamanian read， for example， came through a conversation I had with the Panama Canal on Twitter。 Yes， the Panama Canal has a Twitter account。 And when I tweeted at it about my project，it suggested that I might like to try and get hold of the work of the Panamanian author Juan David Morgan。 I found Morgan‘s website and I sent him a message， asking if any of his Spanish-language novels had been translated into English。 And he said that nothing had been published， but he did have an unpublished translation of his novel “The Golden Horse。” He emailed this to me， allowing me to become one of the first people ever to read that book in English。
06：26
Morgan was by no means the only wordsmith to share his work with me in this way。 From Sweden to Palau， writers and translators sent me self-published books and unpublished manuscripts of books that hadn’t been picked up by Anglophone publishers or that were no longer available， giving me privileged glimpses of some remarkable imaginary worlds。 I read， for example， about the Southern African king Ngungunhane， who led the resistance against the Portuguese in the 19th century； and about marriage rituals in a remote village on the shores of the Caspian sea in Turkmenistan。 I met Kuwait‘s answer to Bridget Jones。
07：13
And I read about an orgy in a tree in Angola。
07：20
But perhaps the most amazing example of the lengths that people were prepared to go to to help me read the world，came towards the end of my quest， when I tried to get hold of a book from the tiny， Portuguese-speaking African island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe。 Now， having spent several months trying everything I could think of to find a book that had been translated into English from the nation， it seemed as though the only option left to me was to see if I could get something translated for me from scratch。 Now， I was really dubious whether anyone was going to want to help with this，and give up their time for something like that。 But， within a week of me putting a call out on Twitter and Facebook for Portuguese speakers， I had more people than I could involve in the project， including Margaret Jull Costa， a leader in her field， who has translated the work of Nobel Prize winner José Saramago。 With my nine volunteers in place， I managed to find a book by a São Toméan author that I could buy enough copies of online。 Here’s one of them。 And I sent a copy out to each of my volunteers。 They all took on a couple of short stories from this collection， stuck to their word， sent their translations back to me， and within six weeks， I had the entire book to read。
08：42
In that case， as I found so often during my year of reading the world， my not knowing and being open about my limitations had become a big opportunity。 When it came to São Tomé and Príncipe， it was a chance not only to learn something new and discover a new collection of stories， but also to bring together a group of people and facilitate a joint creative endeavor。 My weakness had become the project‘s strength。
09：13
The books I read that year opened my eyes to many things。 As those who enjoy reading will know， books have an extraordinary power to take you out of yourself and into someone else’s mindset， so that， for a while at least， you look at the world through different eyes。 That can be an uncomfortable experience， particularly if you‘re reading a book from a culture that may have quite different values to your own。 But it can also be really enlightening。 Wrestling with unfamiliar ideas can help clarify your own thinking。 And it can also show up blind spots in the way you might have been looking at the world。
09：51
When I looked back at much of the English-language literature I’d grown up with， for example， I began to see how narrow a lot of it was， compared to the richness that the world has to offer。 And as the pages turned， something else started to happen， too。 Little by little， that long list of countries that I‘d started the year with， changed from a rather dry， academic register of place names into living， breathing entities。
10：21
Now， I don’t want to suggest that it‘s at all possible to get a rounded picture of a country simply by reading one book。 But cumulatively， the stories I read that year made me more alive than ever before to the richness， diversity and complexity of our remarkable planet。 It was as though the world’s stories and the people who‘d gone to such lengths to help me read them had made it real to me。 These days， when I look at my bookshelves or consider the works on my e-reader， they tell a rather different story。 It’s the story of the power books have to connect us across political， geographical， cultural， social， religious divides。 It‘s the tale of the potential human beings have to work together。
11：14
And， it’s testament to the extraordinary times we live in， where， thanks to the Internet， it‘s easier than ever before for a stranger to share a story， a worldview， a book with someone she may never meet， on the other side of the planet。 I hope it’s a story I‘m reading for many years to come。 And I hope many more people will join me。 If we all read more widely， there’d be more incentive for publishers to translate more books， and we would all be richer for that。
11：45
Thank you。
（轉自英語美文閱讀 公眾號）
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