20180921|20180921 虚惊一场

放假啦!这未来的三天小长假令我满怀期待。我怀着如此这般闲散惬意的心情,吃过晚饭后耍了半天,才想起今天的读书笔记竟还没写!于是我端正地坐下来,刚准备打开,就收到了一封SOS邮件!折腾了一通过后,已经22:22了……我决定还是写写它带给我的真实感受。
事情的背景是这样的,我们的一张唱片要在德国出版发行。整个的录音、制作、光盘设计全部在中国完成,拿到德国去进行母版制作,压片、印刷和发行。这件事的制作和沟通成本远比想象的高,但我身在其中尽力而为,可以说从翻译开始就很有收获。
书归正传,今天的紧急邮件如下:

Hello Sara,
Please excuse.... but unfortunately, I have to make an urgent SOS call - this has escaped the attention of all of us:
The booklet design we have received from you has 14 pages.
This is impossible to manufacture. A sheet of paper folded once has four pages. Booklets consist of one or more folded sheets of paper, which are then stapled together on the fold. In other words, the number of pages can be 4, 8, 12, 16, .... but in any case always has to be a number dividable by 4....
14 does not work.....
Can you please urgently modify the booklet to either comprise 12 or 16 pages, please.
Many thanks & best regards,
Johannes
怎么会出了这么大一个乌龙……顾不上纠结,我直接和中国设计师核对问题、商量对策。一通电话搞定了解决方案。对此我很满意,因为这个方案完美到无需再经过任何人审核(哈哈,偶尔夸一下自己)。剩下的问题就是跟大洋彼岸的朋友交代清楚了。
其实我写下面这封邮件的时候,满脑子想的都是快一点响应,并且要清楚简洁。核心要点就是加一张图片铺满封底之前的两页。我思考了几种“不留白”的表达方式,例如Please insert the attachment picture as 2-page content without blank before the back cover. 可又觉得有点绕,尤其那个blank的表达可能还会造成歧义,就放弃了。最后还是选择了overspread这个词,我觉得它可以表达清楚我的意思了。
于是我做了如下回复:
Hello Johannes,
Thanks for your timely information.
The solution is, please insert the attachment picture to overspread the last 2 pages (page 14-15) before the back cover.
【20180921|20180921 虚惊一场】Thanks for your generosity with all of your effort and help.
Best regards,
Sara
这件事处理至此,我算是松了一口气。放松下来我第一时间想到的是,学好英语太重要了!愣了两分钟神儿,就收到了邮件回复,看得我很开心。
Hello Sara,
Many thanks for your swift action and reply. (And what a wonderful picture!!)
I'll forward this to the graphics people.
best regards,
Johannes
好久没有卡点写东西了,这感觉真糟糕。不过我现在心情大好,可以踏踏实实去睡觉了。晚安~仲秋快乐!

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