【卫报】一本《气候变化否认者》瓢虫系列丨第17期

'Our affection for perhaps the most perfectly packaged objects in publishing has been reawakened by the satirical Ladybird series for adults.' Composite: handout

我们对包装最为完美的出版作品的喜爱已被瓢虫成人版讽刺系列唤醒。综合：讲义

• Satirical：讽刺的，名词satire

My twins are "studying" Jack and the Beanstalk, and I've just packed them off to school with my battered copy of Ladybird's Well-Loved Tales.

我的双胞胎孩子正在“攻读”《杰克和魔豆》，我刚刚打发他们去学校，身上带着我破旧的副本——瓢虫出版社的广受欢迎故事系列。

I've collected a few old Ladybirds from car boot sales because they are beautiful and nostalgic, hailing from a time when truths were simpler and there was faith in the future. My favourite is The Story of Newspapers, a Ladybird Achievements Book that is testimony to the speed of terrifying technical obsolescence - and welcome progress. A drawing of a newsroom where all 14 journalists are men shows the past wasn't always lovely.

我从旧物集市收集到一些陈旧的瓢虫系列书，因为他们产生于那个真相更简单而且坚信未来的时代，真是漂亮、令人怀旧。我最喜欢的是《报社的故事》，这是一本关于瓢虫出版社成就的书籍，是可怕的技术淘汰速度的证明，也是受人欢迎的进步的证明。对一个14名记者都是男士的新闻编辑室的描绘显示出过去不总是美好的。

• car boot sales：旧物集市

• nostalgic：怀旧的

• hail from：出生于

• testimony：证据，证明，证词

• obsolescence：过时，淘汰，废弃

Now our affection for perhaps the most perfectly packaged objects in publishing has been reawakened by the satirical Ladybird series for adults. Like more than a million others, I received one - The Dad - for Christmas. The next Ladybird relaunch sounds like another spoof: Prince Charles is co-writing a book explaining climate change, the first in a new Expert series.

我们对包装最为完美的出版作品的喜爱已被具有讽刺意味的瓢虫成人版系列唤醒。跟其他一百多万人一样，我收到一本圣诞礼物——《爸爸》。瓢虫出版社接下来的重新发行计划听起来更像另一讽刺作品：查尔斯王子正在合作撰写一本解释气候变化的书作为新的专家系列的第一本书。

While Ladybird's spoofs clock in at about 800 words, the Expert range, covering topics from evolution to the Battle of Britain, are 5,000 words. Charles' co-authors are the polar scientist Emily Shuckburgh and the environmental campaigner Tony Juniper, and Penguin stresses that their words have been peer-reviewed by other scientists.

瓢虫讽刺作品篇幅为800字，而主题覆盖从进化论到不列颠之战等话题的专家系列作品则达到5000字。查尔斯的合写作家是极地科学家Emily Shuckburgh以及环保活动家Tony Juniper，以及企鹅出版社，着重指出他们的文字已经经过其他科学家的同行评议。

• peer-reviewed：同行评议

Hooray for Ladybird's championing of expertise, but I wonder if it will chime with readers reprogrammed to see the books as satire. Perhaps Ladybird should commission Michael Gove to write The Ladybird Book of Brexit. I'm sure there would be a readership for a spoof Ladybird called Climate Change Deniers. A few laughs might be an effective educational tool too.

有人为瓢虫出版社捍卫专业知识的行为欢呼，但是我不知道它是否一以贯之使这些书被读者视为讽刺作品。也许瓢虫出版社应该委托迈克尔·戈夫（英国司法大臣，支持英国脱欧）撰写关于脱欧的瓢虫系列书籍。我确信这本称为“气候变化否认者们”的瓢虫滑稽作品将会有读者。一些笑料也可能是有效的教育工具。

• chime with：协调，一致

Melting into memory

融入记忆
The cover of Prince Charles' book was inspired by the flooding of the Sussex town of Uckfield in 2000, which led him to criticise humanity's "arrogant disregard of the delicate balance of nature". Much-trailed floods failed to materialise along Britain's east coast this weekend, and non-appearing blizzards were much mocked as snowmageddon.

查尔斯王子的书的封面设计灵感来源于阿克菲尔德的苏塞克斯镇在2000年的一场洪水，这场洪水引起他批判人类“妄自尊大地无视脆弱的自然平衡”。英国东海岸这周没有发生更多连锁洪水，也没有出现能被嘲弄为雪魔的暴风雪。

One popular meme of a two-dimensional snowman created by laying a carrot nose and two twig arms on to two puddles is the sum total of the snowmen my children have witnessed during their five years on this warming planet.

关于浅显的雪人的通俗文化记忆——安个胡萝卜鼻子和两根嫩枝胳膊，最后化为两滩水坑——是我的孩子五年中在这变暖的地球上亲身感受的关于雪人的全部。

I recently interviewed Greenland residents, for whom adapting to climate changes is part of everyday life. We don't really consider ourselves to be living climate-changed lives in Britain, but my childhood 30 years ago was enlivened by two winter blizzards that each shut down my village for a week. That snowmaggedon was great for community spirit.

我最近访问了格陵兰岛居民，对他们而言，适应气候变化是每天生活的一部分。我们没有认为自己能适应英国天气的变化，但是30年前我的童年时代因两场导致我住的村庄关闭一周的冬季暴风雪而变得有趣。那场雪魔对于社区精神来说是非常重要的。

I'm convinced that the gales and sleet that dusted my home with white for an hour last Friday would have been a proper blizzard back in the 1980s. I'm saddened that those days are unlikely to return for my children, but we needn't mourn any loss of extreme weather-induced community spirit. There's been plenty in evidence during the recent precautionary evacuations along the east coast. And there'll be plenty more in the future.

我深信上周五那场给我家蒙上雪白近一小时的狂风及雨夹雪若是发生在1980年代，则只是一场适当的暴风雪。我为那些日子将不可能为我的孩子们重返而伤感，但是我们不需要为失去由极端天气引导的社区精神而哀悼。在最近的东海岸的预防撤离行动期间已有很多证据如此表明。未来会有更多的证据。

Now for the greatest escape
现在为了最成功的逃跑

We humans may be hopeless at acting in our long-term interests over climate change, but our ingenuity can be boundless when desperate. Take HMP Channings Wood, in Devon, where staff have reportedly had to ban sugar and fruit used by inmates to brew homemade booze after smoking was banned.

我们人类可能在长期关注下应对气候变化感到无助，但是我们的创造力在绝望之下也是无限的。期待您的翻译，将您的理解留言在文章下方留言处，第二天将会有长难句解析哟~

After the Isle of Man's prison became the first in Europe to ban smoking in 2008, prisoners improvised roll-ups from pages of Gideons Bibles packed with tumble drier lint and pubic hair.

马恩岛监狱在2008成为欧洲第一个禁烟的之后，囚犯们临时用基甸圣经的纸包着滚筒式烘干机内的绒毛和阴毛自制了烟卷。

But will we devise something equally clever to stop the planet smoking?

但是我们能想出同样聪明的办法去阻止地球吸烟吗？

翻译丨Flower

审核丨QQ

编辑丨思思有片海

注：以上所有图片均来源于网络