20分钟外刊精读 |《纽约客》 | 川普「零容忍」移民政策惹众怒

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根据导读背景，先自己通读全文，尤其 注意加粗部分 。

The theatre of cruelty unfolding at the southern border last week was the purest distillation yet of what it means to be governed by a President with no moral center . First, the Trump Administration, enacting its “zero tolerance” policy regarding migrants, forcibly separated children from their parents and detained them in a tent city and in a repurposed Walmart in parched South Texas. Photographs showed children penned in large metal cages and sprawled on concrete floors under plastic blankets. Many were sent on to facilities thousands of miles away. Those under the age of twelve, including babies and toddlers, were discharged to “tender age” shelters, a concept for which the term “Orwellian” does not quite suffice .

President Trump insisted that only an act of Congress could stop the separations, and that the Democrats were to blame. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, claimed that separating parents and children was not a policy—she was simply following the law. All of this was false, as became obvious on Wednesday, when Trump signed an executive order revoking the policy that he’d said he could do nothing about and that Nielsen said didn’t exist . It would be nice to attribute this change of plans to a genuine change of conscience, but, in signing the order, Trump was transparently angry at being compelled to do so. He said, “If you’re really, really pathetically weak, the country is going to be overrun with millions of people, and if you’re strong then you don’t have any heart. That’s a tough dilemma. Perhaps I’d rather be strong.”

The theatre of cruelty unfolding at the southern border last week was the purest distillation yet of what it means to be governed by a President with no moral center . First, the Trump Administration, enacting its “zero tolerance” policy regarding migrants, forcibly separated children from their parents and detained them in a tent city and in a repurposed Walmart in parched South Texas. Photographs showed children penned in large metal cages and sprawled on concrete floors under plastic blankets. Many were sent on to facilities thousands of miles away. Those under the age of twelve, including babies and toddlers, were discharged to “tender age” shelters, a concept for which the term “Orwellian” does not quite suffice .

本段第一句话开门见山，直击事件本身，并且归罪于川普政府。接下来通过描述孩子们的惨状来凸显川普政府的冷血无情。

解释点 1

The theatre of cruelty unfolding at the southern border last week was the purest distillation yet of what it means to be governed by a President with no moral center.

对美国的精英阶层而言，这种将骨肉从其亲生父母身边带走的事情，是难以置信的。就好似一出舞台上的闹剧，所以作者用 the theatre of cruelty 直指 事件的荒谬。而这种可笑事情居然还在南面的边境 演变 着（ unfolding ）。

a president with no moral center 显然是指川普，他内心毫无道德准则（with no moral center）。国家被这样一个人治理（govern）意味着什么？肯定是悲剧呀！ what it means to be governed by a president with no moral center 表明了作者本身的立场，显然，他很厌恶特朗普。

distillation 是 distill的名词 ，蒸发的意思。 distillation of XXX 是由XXX蒸发出的，引申为由XXX导致的结果 。这出惨剧是由毫无道德准则的川普领导下的政府导致的。作者还不解恨，又在distillation前加了形容词pure，还用了最高级。

翻译：

The theatre of cruelty unfolding at the southern border last week was the purest distillation yet of what it means to be governed by a President with no moral center .

一个毫无道德准则总统领导下的政府意味着什么？上周开始在南方边境上演的这场残忍闹剧就是彻彻底底的结果。

解释点 2

First, the Trump Administration, enacting its “zero tolerance” policy regarding migrants, forcibly separated children from their parents and detained them in a tent city and in a repurposed Walmart in parched South Texas.

enact 使……法案生效。川普政府对待移民的「零容忍」政策，强制将孩子从他们父母身边带走（forcibly separated children from their parents），然后将孩子们拘禁在炎热的（parched）德克萨斯州的一个帐篷营和专门改为拘禁为目的的沃尔玛超市。这里的 repurposed 意为 converted ，即为了安置孩子而临时将沃尔玛改为安置点。

Photographs showed children penned in large metal cages and sprawled on concrete floors under plastic blankets. Many were sent on to facilities thousands of miles away.

媒体照片显示这些孩子被关在大大的铁笼子里，分散在硬地上，只有塑料毯子遮体。很多孩子甚至被送到几千里外的营地里。

这里的 pen 是动词， 围起来 的意思。

Those under the age of twelve, including babies and toddlers, were discharged to “tender age” shelters, a concept for which the term “Orwellian” does not quite suffice.

12岁以下的 婴儿（babies） 和 幼儿（toddler） ，被安置在「幼儿」庇护所（「tender age shelters」）。

Baby一般指两个月以内的婴儿；再大些是infant，就是襁褓中的婴儿，一般指不超过一岁的孩子；toddler是一岁到四岁的阶段，蹒跚学步的幼儿。

Orwell 是大名鼎鼎的乔治•奥威尔，英国著名左翼小说家，代表作是《动物庄园》和《1984》，这两本著作是反集权主义的名作。后者更是反乌托邦小说类三部代表作之一。《1984》自出版以来，许多名词和概念都在英语世界中广泛使用，譬如Big Brother、Doublethink、Thoughtcrime等。小说强大的影响力，使得形容词 Orwellian（奥维尔式的） 普及，用于形容政府欺骗、独裁和集权的特性。

a concept for which the term “Orwellian” does not quite suffice.

注意 a concept 前有逗号，即为“tender age” shelters的同位语，起到 补充解释 的作用。这「幼儿庇护所」荒谬无耻之极，以至于奥威尔反集权的巅峰作品所描绘的情景都不足以与之相提并论。

President Trump insisted that only an act of Congress could stop the separations, and that the Democrats were to blame. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, claimed that separating parents and children was not a policy—she was simply following the law. All of this was false, as became obvious on Wednesday, when Trump signed an executive order revoking the policy that he’d said he could do nothing about and that Nielsen said didn’t exist . It would be nice to attribute this change of plans to a genuine change of conscience, but, in signing the order, Trump was transparently angry at being compelled to do so. He said, “If you’re really, really pathetically weak, the country is going to be overrun with millions of people, and if you’re strong then you don’t have any heart. That’s a tough dilemma. Perhaps I’d rather be strong.”

本段写川普和其政府推卸责任的做派。用词带着作者强烈的立场，需要细细品味。

解释点 3

President Trump insisted that only an act of Congress could stop the separations, and that the Democrats were to blame. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Kirstjen Nielsen, claimed that separating parents and children was not a policy—she was simply following the law.

前两句简单。第一句是说川普委罪于人，把锅甩给众议院和民主党。第二句虽在批评国土安全部推卸责任，但实际还是在鄙视川普，毕竟上梁不正下梁歪。

翻译：

川普坚持只有众议院出面行动才能结束现在的分离闹剧，而且民主党才是事情的元凶。国土资源部部长 Kirsjen Nielsn 声称现行的分离行动并非出自川普政府的移民政策，而仅仅是按律行事。

注意，这里的 the policy 就是指第一段的 zero tolerance policy，即川普打击非法移民的零容忍政策。

All of this was false, as became obvious on Wednesday, when Trump signed an executive order revoking the policy that he’d said he could do nothing about and that Nielsen said didn’t exist.

False 指 假的 ，这里是说川普和 Nielsen 在撒谎。这句话本身不难理解， 但是要注意句子的时态，否则造成理解上的困扰。

川普在周三签署了行政命令，正式 废除 （ revoke ）了这项政策（即 “zero tolerance” policy）。这不是妥妥的打自己的脸么，之前 Nielson 还否认这项政策的存在，现在boss自己出来把政策给否决了，变相承认这项政策其实是存在的。

这里注意定语从句 that he’d said he could nothing about 的时态，过去完成时，即 he had said发生在signed之前，因此这个时态点明一个事实：川普在签署法令之前，一直都声称自己对这项政策无能为力 。在翻译的时候，应该点明这个时间关系。显然，川普又在自己打自己的脸。

英语的时态隐含着事情变化的逻辑关系，这和汉语不同，在阅读时一定要特别注意。

时态问题推荐阅读：

👇

1. 其实，时态并不是动作发生的时间

2. 换一种方式理解时态

All of this was false, as became obvious on Wednesday, when Trump signed an executive order revoking the policy that he’d said he could do nothing about and that Nielsen said didn’t exist