續《流氓國家》翻譯評論(08)

原文(p.2第三段)：
To mention another illustration of contemporary relevance, when Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 it was ordered to withdraw at once by the UN Security Council, but to no avail. The reasons were explained in his 1978 memoirs by UN Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan:

The United States wished things to turn out as they did, and worked to bring this about.
The department of State desired that the United Nations prove utterly ineffective in
whatever measures it undertook.This task was given to me, and I carried it forward
with no inconsiderable success.4

譯文(p.003第三段)：
提到另一個當代相關的實例。當印尼於一九七五年入侵東帝汶時，印尼曾被聯合國安全理事會要求立即撤離，但是並未被印尼政府所接受。美國駐聯合國大使莫尼漢在他一九七八年的回憶錄中做了解釋：

美國想要的結果被他們達成，並且努力維持這樣的結果。美國政府期望不管聯合國採取什麼手段，都能證明聯合國的毫無效率。這任務交給了我，而我帶著這個任務朝向一個不會成功的境地。

討論：
首先，作者並沒有說美國後來「努力維持這樣的結果」，而是說「努力造成這樣的結果」("worked to bring this about")。譯文最後一句「而我帶著這個任務朝向一個不會成功的境地」實在不知所云。本句應為「這個任務交付給我，而我則執行得相當成功」。4(流8，待續)