我的私人編輯 My Personal Editor

I got this picture of my son at his Instagram the day after Christmas.  
Below is what he posted, with his sister's comment.

joeyshoeEarly morning walk through town before the family gets up. #mountainlife #arcteryx #gregory #needtoloseweight #brisk #morning #quietcontemplations #lonely #bedhead #instamood #picoftheday #snow #whitechristmas4d

• gracelaced  I miss you. Troy would've loved to join u.   
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• 上面照片是我從兒子的 Instagram上取來的，並附上他寫的、以及他姊姊的回應。這張相片是聖誕節剛過那天，他趁全家人都還沒醒，自己一人去雪地上晨走默想時照的。姊姊給他的回應是：想念你！Troy 會極愛和你一起去. (按：Troy 是他姊夫。)  

一位親愛的姊妹來電話告訴我說，她很喜歡讀我的blog, 也很欣賞我兒子的翻譯。

「我覺得你和你兒子可以想想，一起合作做點兒什麼…..」

這位姊妹的鼓勵、以及我兒子所付出的心意，都讓我感激。

我兒為我修訂譯稿的態度是很認真的，他喜歡在電話裏逐字逐句一絲不茍地和我中英並用討論；他要知道，在我那過於簡略的英文裏面，到底我想說的是什麼。弄清楚之後，他總是會為我的文思、斟酌出一個完美無瑕的表達。

有時他碰上自己不很確定的拼音或文法，就轉頭呼喚我親愛的兒媳：

「嗨，Babe，可以請妳過來一下嗎……」

我感謝兒子和兒媳對我不吝費時的幫助，更深深珍惜能與他們有這樣美好的心靈交流時光。



PS.  凡我兒子修訂過的翻譯，我必加上註明、附上他的名字。  凡沒有附上他名字的任何翻譯，都是百分之百出於我自己的親手拙作。所以，請原諒那不甚靈光的英文。

 

A dear sister called and told me she enjoyed reading my blog and my son’s translation. 

“I think you and your son should plan and do something together…..”

My heart appreciated both her encouragement and my son’s good intention of helping me.

My son has been very kind and serious about helping me with the editing.  He doesn’t mind spending a lot of time discussing with me in the phone, with half Mandarin and half English, finding out word by word what I meant in my overly simple English wording.  Then he will always come out with a complete and beautiful way of expression for my own thoughts. 

Sometimes when he came across with uncertain spelling or grammar, he would turn and call my dear daughter-in-law, “Hey, Babe, could you come here for a second….”

I appreciate my son and his wife’s generous help, and deeply cherish the valuable time of our heart-to-heart communication. 

By Julia Chou

PS:  For each and every piece of translation work that my son edited or revised for me, I would either footnoted with "Edited by Eric Chou"  or "Translated by Eric".  So, unless you see my son's name, all the translation works of my posts are 100% done by me and myself.  Therefore, please excuse my very original poor English.  :)