South Africa may have produced two Nobel laureates in literature but a famous bookshop in Johannesburg is nevertheless about to close, a victim of the country's poor reading culture.
南非儘管已經產生兩位諾貝爾文學獎得主，但受該國閱讀文化低落拖累，約翰尼斯堡一家知名書店即將倒閉。
The Boekehuis, whose Afrikaans name means “book house”, is in an old four-bedroom house a stone's throw from the city's two main universities.
這家書店店名的南非文意指「書屋」，是棟四臥老房子，約堡兩家主要大學近在咫尺。
Boekehuis which opened in 2000 has been widely portrayed as independent, but it is in fact owned by Media24, the country's largest media company.
書屋於2000年開張，外界一向指其為獨立經營的書店，實則它是南非最大媒體公司Media24旗下一家書店。
The giant multimedia group, which owns most of the country's magazines and major newspaper titles, announced in December that the Boekehuis would be closing its doors at the end of January.
這家規模龐大的多媒體集團，擁有南非大多數雜誌和各大報，它在去年12月宣布：書屋今年1月底關門。
Leading figures such as award-winning author Andre Brink, photographer David Goldblatt and internationally acclaimed painter William Kentridge were among those who signed a petition to try to get Media24 to change its mind.
藝文界巨擘，像得獎作家安德烈‧布林克，攝影家大衛‧戈柏拉特及享譽國際的畫家威廉‧肯特里奇等人簽署一份請願書，試圖使Media24改變心意。
But their arguments have failed to sway the executives at Media24: the store has recorded annual losses of around a million rand. “Various possible solutions, such as finding a buyer for it, were pursued without success, ”the company explained in a statement. “No interested buyers could be found. ”
但是他們的論點未能動搖Media24高層：畢竟書店每年虧損100萬蘭特（約357萬台幣）。該公司在一份聲明中解釋：「已經試過各種可能的解決方案，包括為它找個買主，但都沒有成功，找不到有興趣的買家。」
National figures on readership -- and literacy -- help explain the problem. “Only about one percent of the population buy books, ” says Elitha van der Sandt, head of the South African Book Development Council (SABDC).
全國有關讀者和文盲的統計數字，有助於解釋問題根源。南非圖書發展委員會執行長艾莉莎‧凡德桑特說：「全國大概只有百分之一人口買書。」
And although the country can boast Nobel prize-winning authors such as Nadine Gordimer (1991) and J.M. Coetzee (2003), their works are mostly read abroad.
雖然南非可以誇稱，有兩位作家葛蒂瑪（1991）和柯慈（2003）曾贏得諾貝爾文學獎，但他們的讀者大多是外國人。
Professionals and researchers give several reasons for the nation's lack of a reading culture: one problem is the price of books. The cheapest start at 120 rand -- a high price in a country where most of the 50 million people earn around 2,000 to 3,000 rand a month.
為南非閱讀文化低落把脈的專家和研究人員找出幾個原因：問題之一是書價高昂，最便宜的也要120蘭特（台幣430元），在這個全國5千萬人口中，絕大多數每月收入約2000至3000蘭特（台幣7150至10700元）的國家，書價相當昂貴。
“While a few books sell very well, most books will sell only a thousand or so copies, ”says Beth le Roux of the University of Pretoria, a specialist in the publishing industry.
普勒托利亞大學的貝絲‧勒魯是出版界專家，她說：「雖然有幾本書大賣，但大部分書只能賣1000本左右。」
“This means that publishers have small print runs, which also keeps the costs (and the prices) high. ”A sales tax rate of 14 percent and transport costs for imported books only add to the problem, she adds. “To make it onto the bestseller list, you only need to sell a few thousand copies of a book here. ”
「這意味書商印量很小，也使成本和書價居高不下。」她又說，再加上14％的銷售稅，進口書還要加上運輸成本，更使問題雪上加霜 。「這裡的書只要能賣個幾千本，就可以擠上暢銷書排行榜了。」
Le Roux estimates the book industry's turnover at 3.5 billion rand : but two thirds of that are made up of school and university textbooks. Another 20 percent comes from religious books, which does not leave much of a niche for general literature.
勒魯估計圖書業營業額約35億蘭特（台幣125億元），但其中2/3是大學教科書。另外20％是宗教書籍，文學作品已沒有什麼利基。
A more fundamental problem however, is illiteracy. In South Africa 18 percent of adults over the age of 15 are unable to read, and many of those who can read still struggle.
但更根本的問題是文盲。在南非，15歲以上的成年人18％不識字，而那些勉強可以閱讀的人，很多仍有努力的空間。
These depressing statistics are a legacy of the apartheid system, which gave lower quality schooling to the non-white population.
這些令人沮喪的統計數字是種族隔離制度的遺害，在此制度下，非白人受到較低質的教育。
South Africa's main cities offer a few bookshops selling a broader range of literature: mostly branches of Exclusive Books, the largest chain in South Africa.
南非主要城市有幾家書店，銷售範圍更廣的文學書籍：大半是南非最大連鎖書店「專有圖書公司」的分店。
Increasingly however, many book enthusiasts are turning to the Internet to get what they need, even if for years, the Boekehuis was seen as an exception to that trend, partly because of the literary events it hosted.
但愈來愈多愛書族轉向網路去取得他們所需的讀物，雖然多年來書屋被視為這種趨勢的特例，因為它舉辦各種文學活動。
Just a few kilometres down the road meanwhile, the local branch of Exclusive Books is also struggling. The chain, which belongs to a rival media group, just reduced the floor space of its biggest shop.
沿這條路往下幾公里，「專有圖書公司」在本地的分店也正辛苦求存。這家書店隸屬於對手媒體集團，它們乾脆減少最大書店的樓層面積。