经济学人双语精读丨流血的夏洛茨维尔

导读

    近日，多个白人至上主义团体在美国弗吉尼亚州夏洛茨维尔市游行，抗议该市拆除美国内战时期南方将领罗伯特·李的雕像，与反对者发生暴力冲突。随后，总统特朗普的一系列回应，包括坚持“冲突双方都有责任”和最初并未谴责白人至上主义者的行为，引发争议。

    本篇文章节选自8月19期的《经济学人》，我们从中抽取两段，进行讲解。

Last weekend white supremacists flocked to the picturesque college town of Charlottesville, Virginia to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general, from a city park. They marched on the University of Virginia on Friday night, chanting “Blood and soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!” On Saturday morning, carrying Nazi and Confederate flags, they tussled with counter-protesters. And then, after brawls forced police to clear a city park, Heather Heyer was killed (see our Obituary) and 19 others injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of chanting counter-protesters. James Alex Fields junior, a 20-year-old from Ohio whom a former teacher recalled having “sympathy toward Nazism...idolisation of Hitler [and a] belief in white supremacy”, was arrested and charged with murder.

    本段大体以时间顺序描述了游行和冲突发生的前后，点出了「肢体冲突」和「开车闯入反对者人群中」的暴力事件。游行者高呼纳粹口号，举着纳粹旗帜和内战联邦旗。

    本文第一句话简明扼要，游行的导火索是拆除李将军像的决议。

Last weekend white supremacists flocked to the picturesque college town of Charlottesville, Virginia to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, a Confederate general, from a city park.

    flocked to the picturesque college town

    flock to someplace 意思是蜂拥而至、成群结队。朗文给出的英文释义是“ if people flock to a place, they go there in large numbers because something interesting or exciting is happening there”

比如：People have been flocking to the exhibition. 看展览的人络绎不绝。

    除了 flock to someplace，我们也可以用swarm into, throng, pour into 等词组搭配表达“络绎不绝”的概念。

    picturesque 意为风景如画的，尤指自然美景加上老式风格的建筑 “a picturesque place is pretty and interesting in an old-fashioned way” 比如下图的弗吉尼亚大学校区。

    vocabulary.com 里这样解释这个词，“You could describe a particularly pretty scene as picturesque. But save it up for a view that's so gorgeous you'd love to have it framed on the wall as a painting.“ 也就是说 picturesque 是一个比较大的词，最好保留到景色真的非常好的时候使用。形容风景优美的日常词汇可以选择，attractive, pretty, scenic 等小词。

参考译文

Last weekend white supremacists flocked to the picturesque college town of Charlottesville, Virginia to protest against the planned removal of a statue of Robert E , a Confederate general, from a city park.

上周末，大批白人至上主义者涌入夏洛维茨尔，一个位于弗吉尼亚州宁静的小城，常青藤名校弗吉尼亚大学的所在地，游行抗议该市拆除美国内战时期南方将领罗伯特·李的雕像。

再来看接下来，对游行现场的描述：

They marched on the University of Virginia on Friday night, chanting “Blood and soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!” On Saturday morning, carrying Nazi and Confederate flags, they tussled with counter-protesters.

chanting “Blood and soil!”

    Chant 指反复高喊 “to repeat a word or phrase again and again” 尤其指高喊口号。像「Black Lives Matter」运动中反复喊的这句口号就可以称作chant, 球场上球迷常常高喊球队或者球星的名字，也可以叫做chant. 举个例子：

• They carried signs and chanted “black lives do matter here.”

    作为名词时，chant 还有另一个意思，（念诵）祷文、圣歌。如，a Buddhist chant. 佛经诵念。权力的游戏中守夜人的誓词，也可以是chant:

     Blood and soil 血与土。这个口号之所以引起极大的反应，是因为它与纳粹、白人至上这些词紧密相关。我们先看一段维基上的解释：

tussled with counter-protesters

    Tussle with sb. over/about sth. 是指与别人推搡、揪扯“ to fight or struggle without using any weapons, by pulling or pushing someone rather than hitting them” 就像体育运动中，互相争斗、角力。

    我们还可以用 scuffle 表达同样的意思，比如：

• Some of the demonstrators scuffled with the police. 示威者中有些人和警察扭打起来。

    不过 tussle 还有另一个意思，竭力解决。“If someone tussles with a difficult problem or issue, they try hard to solve it.”，例如：

• He is tussling with the problem of what to do about inflation. 他正全力应对如何解决通货膨胀的问题。

参考译文

They marched on the University of Virginia on Friday night, chanting “Blood and soil!” and “Jews will not replace us!” On Saturday morning, carrying Nazi and Confederate flags, they tussled with counter-protesters.

周五晚上，他们在弗吉尼亚大学游行，高呼“血与土”和“犹太人无法取代我们”的口号。周六清晨，游行者高举纳粹旗帜和内战时期联邦旗，与反对者拳脚相向。

最终事件升级，有人驾车蓄意冲撞反对者人群，造成人员伤亡。

And then, after brawls forced police to clear a city park, Heather Heyer was killed (see our Obituary) and 19 others injured when a car ploughed into a crowd of chanting counter-protesters. James Alex Fields junior, a 20-year-old from Ohio whom a former teacher recalled having “sympathy toward Nazism...idolisation of Hitler [and a] belief in white supremacy”, was arrested and charged with murder.

brawl 和 tussle 类似，尤其指在公共场合的争吵、斗殴 “a rough or noisy fight or quarrel.” 比如，酒后滋事可以说 drunken brawl.

a car ploughed into a crowd of chanting counter-protesters

plough 最基本的意思是“犁地”，文中在 plough 后面加一个介词变为 plough into, 指（车）猛撞上 “to crash into something or someone, especially while driving, because you are unable to stop quickly enough” 就如同铁犁划过土壤般碾入人群。正如下图中，车撞入人群时，就是 plough into the crowd

    从犁地、耕地这个最基本的意思延伸，搭配不同的介词就形成了不同的意思。但他们的共性是，都有一种费力才能达成的感觉。于是有了这么一个搭配：plough through sth. 费力地坚持读（看）完。比如：

• Most staff will never want to plough through the manuals that come with the software. 大多数员工不愿意坚持读完软件的使用手册。

    以及这个搭配：plough on 继续做（困难或枯燥的事情）

• Julia ploughed on with the endless exam papers. 朱莉娅继续批改那些没完没了的考卷。

观点

那么为什么拆除李将军像会引起如此强烈的反弹呢？

简单说，罗伯特·李将军是美国南北内战时南方的著名将领。他一度被赞为反对蓄奴、促进南北复合。但这不过是后人为了美化内战起因，强调南方在内战中为保护自己的“州权”而迫不得已脱离联邦的对历史的修改美化。此次事件的中心，位于弗吉尼亚州的李将军像树立起来时，上百万白人穿着内战中南方联邦军服在城市中游行庆祝。也就是说，在白人至上主义者心中，李将军像承载着某种南方种族歧视的痕迹。

And yet Donald Trump seemed to find this task difficult. On Saturday night he managed a mealy-mouthed condemnation of “hatred, bigotry and violence—on many sides, on many sides”, even though only one side appears to have paraded with heavy weaponry and murdered one of its opponents. Not until Monday afternoon, and then only after crowing over his administration’s economic triumphs, did Mr Trump manage to admit that “racism is evil”. And, he added, “those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” Even then, his advisers reportedly had to cajole him into it.

    这段可以说尽显讽刺态度，指责特朗普总统先是没有称这些人为白人至上主义者。直到周一下午，才“极不情愿”的发表声明，称“种族歧视是邪恶的”。

让我们先来看一下第一句话。

And yet Donald Trump seemed to find this task difficult.

这是联系上一段 「Politicians have few easier tasks in their careers than condemning Nazis.」讲政客们极难遇到比谴责纳粹更轻松的任务了。然而，特朗普总统仍然没能尽谴责之事。带有非常强烈的讽刺语气。

接下来评论了周六晚特朗普总统在记者发布会说的。

On Saturday night he managed a mealy-mouthed condemnation of “hatred, bigotry and violence—on many sides, on many sides”, even though only one side appears to have paraded with heavy weaponry and murdered one of its opponents.

a mealy-mouthed condemnation of “hatred, bigotry and violence—on many sides, on many sides

    Mealy-mouthed 是一个含有贬义的词，拐弯抹角、不真诚坦率。朗文词典英文解释“not brave enough or honest enough to say clearly and directly what you really think – used in order to show disapproval“ 此处是指责特朗普总统含糊其辞，避重就轻，把仇恨和暴力看似公平的推给两方。

    这个词还可以译为态度暧昧，比如说a mealy-mouthed statement 态度暧昧的声明。

    Opponents 指代的是上文提到的反对游行的人群。在写作中，常常会出现用不同词语代指同一个国家、公司或者人群，以达到表达多样的目的。比如，上文中使用了 counter-protester 此处使用了 opponent 以减少重复。

参考译文

On Saturday night he managed a mealy-mouthed condemnation of “hatred, bigotry and violence—on many sides, on many sides”, even though only one side appears to have paraded with heavy weaponry and murdered one of its opponents.

周六晚的记者发布会上，特朗普总统含糊其辞的谴责“仇恨、偏执和暴力——双方都存在、多方都存在这些问题”。即便事实上，游行中只有一方携带了重型武器，并且致使一名反对游行者死亡。

直到周一下午，特朗普总统才正式谴责白人至上主义者、新纳粹和三K党。

Not until Monday afternoon, and then only after crowing over his administration’s economic triumphs, did Mr Trump manage to admit that “racism is evil”. And, he added, “those who cause violence in its name are criminals and thugs, including the KKK, neo-Nazis, white supremacists and other hate groups that are repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.” Even then, his advisers reportedly had to cajole him into it.

crowing over his administration’s economic triumphs

    我们最熟悉的 crow 的含义是，乌鸦。《权力的游戏》中守夜人就被叫做 crow. 

    但在文章中， crow 作为动词使用，有“洋洋得意的谈论”的意思，含贬义。比如：

• He was crowing over winning the bet. 他在大吹自己打赌赢了。

repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans

    Repugnant 是非常强烈的一个词，表示极端令人反感。除此之外，abhorrent 也可以表示非常强烈的反感。

reportedly had to cajole him into it.

    cajole 的英文解释是：persuade someone to do something by sustained coaxing or flattery，是指说服某人，但多以奉承或哄诱的方式。

    《经济学人》前几期有一篇关于应对朝鲜的文章，里面分析了三种应对朝鲜的方式，其中有一种是通过外交手段说服金放弃核武器，文章是这么说的：

Can Mr Kim be cajoled or bribed into giving up his nuclear ambitions? It is worth trying, but has little chance of success.

    文章这里显然也是充满了讽刺幽默的语气，金·正·恩被 cajole, 特朗普也要被 cajole，堂堂一个总统，发个声明还要被 cajole，字里行间，需要大家去细细体会。

    Reportedly 也用的极为巧妙。因为某件事情并不一定证据确凿，加上 reportedly 更加严谨。而且也具有讽刺效果，“据称，是在他的幕僚极力劝说下，特朗普总统才发表了这番声明。” 同样效果的还可以使用 allegedly, 常在新闻出现表示被指控但未证实的事。

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