[2011.12.25] 祸不单行

引用 lilywizardry 2011-12-26 08:31

集权主义 应为 极权主义

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 10:38

Things come in threes
祸不单行

事不过三
祸福事，遇三止

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 10:47

a victim of his vices and DNA
食管癌原因： 一是酗酒， 二是遗传


CROSSING an Athens street by foot on a warm spring afternoon in 1985, I checked a taxi waiting at the light to make sure it was not going to jump the red.  In the back seat I spied the unmistakeable figure of Christopher Hitchens, larger than when I’d last seen him, larger than anyone in their mid-30s ought to be, made larger still by an unnecessary overcoat thrown over the shoulders in the manner of a ballet impresario from an earlier time. He saw me, called my name, threw open the door and stepped into the street. The light was now green and traffic was hooting. Heedless as ever to context but wholly in role, he let go an uncounted shower of drachma notes into the grateful driver’s hand and greeted me theatrically with a kiss on both cheeks. Like me, he was  in Athens to write about the Greek elections. The previous day, Andreas Papandreou—the father of the recently replaced prime minister—had handily won a second parliamentary term as leader of his country’s Social Democrats. Though not like me, because Christopher was not like other journalists. “I didn’t see you at the Press centre last night,” I said. “No,” he replied, “I was at the Papandreous.”

How the next hours unfolded, I don’t recall. I do vividly remember that around two in the morning, Christopher was entertaining a small group of us at a restaurant—quoting, parrying, recounting, provoking. His speed of memory was daunting. He always seemed able to cite what an opponent in argument had said or written years earlier, deploying it quickly and wittily at the surest moment to expose them as fools, ditherers or hypocrites. That essentially 18th-century skill made him as lethal on television as he was on the page. He wrote the way he spoke, in boutades and in paragraphs, often with a blood-level of alcohol that would leave most of us speechless. He was catholic in his love and knowledge of the written word, but on the whole stayed off movies, theatre, visual arts and music. Had he a trace of Puritan suspicion that such arts were elite, effete and not morally serious? I suspect it was more that each of those arts has its standards of performance and he was a performer in a competing medium—his own words. You had to hear him in real time, and I rate myself lucky that on a few occasions I did hear him at table—usually late on when everyone else had stopped talking, not because they were silenced or bested but because there and then it was simply more satisfying to listen to him.     

I don’t know, and who does, if his copious writing will stand up in the way that the work of his politico-literary hero George Orwell has stood up. Those who found little to admire or agree with in Christopher, especially after he backed the Iraq War in 2003, will laugh at the comparison. Even those who enjoyed his overflowing talents as journalist and talker may find it a stretch. Differences of water level and achievement stand out. Yet there are likenesses, too. Neither could tolerate camps, least of all their own: like Orwell, Christopher kept his harshest barbs for the left. Neither were doctrinal and, though Christopher took on big topics—notably religious belief, of which he claimed to have none—his small-motor skills with tricky ideas were no finer than Orwell’s. Neither were really interested in policy or government, though from sheer forensic bravado Christopher would happily take on the best-briefed wonk. Both wrote from an essentially emotional perception about the moral condition of the world. Orwell once praised Charles Dickens for the “vagueness” of his radicalism. He did not mean evasiveness or lack of clarity, but a deep conviction that something was wrong with society and that the only constructive suggestion was: “Behave decently”. Christopher’s constructive suggestions were never so clear, but his negative drive was unmistakeable and gave him a consistency his detractors wrongly said he lacked: locate power, distrust it and take it down a peg, even if you can’t knock it off its perch. Odd as it sounds, somewhere in Christopher was a backwoods Tory anarchist.

Status and power fascinated him as targets, not as ways to discrimate among people. He was open to everyone and called all comers by first name—that memory again!—even if they were not near friends. My calling him “Christopher” repays the compliment. “Hitchens” would sound both too distant and too knowing.

Now I think about it, at that restaurant in Athens it was probably closer to three in the morning. Holding up an empty bottle, Christopher waved it back and forth to get the attention of a waiter, slumped against a far wall. When the waiter came over with a fresh bottle, Christopher raised an empty glass to him and cried with a Byronic flourish, “Eleftheria!”—which means freedom or liberty in Greek. In perfect English the waiter shot back, “We’ve already got that”. The exhausted man had made his point and for once Christopher had no comeback. He’s silent now for good, and, agree with him or disagree, it’s a loss to us all.

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 10:49

two singular men, noisy and smart一个喧闹，一个聪明？？
为什么不是两人都如此？

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 10:50

It would seem there is otherwise little to connect them.
正因为两人都如此， 才有共通的地方， 舍此这两人则迥异。

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 10:51

his time in prison matched only by Hitchens's time in the pub
重译啊

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 10:53

it is amusing to imagine Hitchens running for elected office.

他竞选了吗？ 还是只是想象而已？ 需查证。

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 11:14

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent," Ludwig Wittgenstein observed. In some cases this silence is imposed, politically and aggressively. Speechlessness is often the self-preserving hush of the powerless and oppressed. It is for these people that Havel and Hitchens often spoke. There is much to mourn now that these men have fallen silent. And the silence that persists in North Korea is eerie.“对于不可说的东西，我们必须保持沉默。”维特根斯坦如是说。在某些情况下，这种沉默是政治性的或是攻击性的外力强加的。不说话往往是无能为力和受压迫一种本能掩饰。而哈维尔和希欽斯的演说对象往往正是此类人。不过让人遗憾的是，很多这样的人开始沉默。朝鲜的持续沉默令人不安。


“对于不可说的东西，我们必须保持沉默。”维特根斯坦如是说。在某些情况下，这种沉默是被强加的，靠的是政治外力，充满了敌意。 无言失语往往是无权势和被压迫者为求自保才噤若寒蝉。哈维尔和希欽斯正是为这些人常常大声疾呼。现在， 这两人（these men）因逝去也沉默了， 这真叫人可悲可悼。 北韩目前的持续沉默， 更是令人不安。

引用 migmig 2011-12-26 11:43

本帖最后由 migmig 于 2011-12-26 11:44 编辑

yannanchen 发表于 2011-12-26 11:14
"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent," Ludwig Wittgenstein observed. In some cases  ...

"Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent," Ludwig Wittgenstein observed. In some cases this silence is imposed, politically and aggressively. Speechlessness is often the self-preserving hush of the powerless and oppressed. It is for these people that Havel and Hitchens often spoke. There is much to mourn now that these men have fallen silent. And the silence that persists in North Korea is eerie


these men 跟these people不是对应的啊？

引用 migmig 2011-12-26 12:18

本帖最后由 migmig 于 2011-12-26 12:18 编辑

yannanchen 发表于 2011-12-26 10:49
two singular men, noisy and smart一个喧闹，一个聪明？？
为什么不是两人都如此？ ...

consider Havel and Hitchens, two singular men, noisy and smart.
错在两个地方，前面看成了consider Hitchens and Havel ，two singular men, noisy and smart.。我以为两个and 前后是分别对应的。（后面说Havel 他比较shy,所以感觉他不会noisy）。因此consider Havel and Hitchens, two singular men, noisy and smart.这句话后面紧跟的一句话也理解错了。

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-26 12:49

When their deaths are joined (and indeed eclipsed) by the death of a 20th-century dictator

两个death译了一个

引用 migmig 2011-12-26 14:25

克里斯托弗·希金斯 反对者的一生

稿源：南方人物周刊  |  作者：王大骐

日期：2011-12-26

克里斯托弗•希金斯最后的日子里，多年好友伊恩•麦克尤恩来到了休斯顿的重症加护病房。希金斯首先看到了他包里的彼得•阿克罗伊德关于伦敦历史的新书，他们就此谈论了10分钟才打招呼，接着希金斯已经开始拿铅笔在书上作起笔记。晚间他读完了整本书，伴随他的是管子里定期注入身体的麻醉剂和身边的多功能呼吸治疗机。

搀扶着瘦弱的希金斯出去散步的时候，麦克尤恩朗诵起了英国诗人菲利普•拉金的代表作《降灵节婚礼》，“出现了一种感觉。像是从看不见的地方，射出了密集的箭。落下来变成了雨。”诗歌的结尾令希金斯感到十分阴郁，一周后，当麦克尤恩回到伦敦，希金斯还在发邮件表达自己的不满。

文学一直是希金斯的全部生活，直到生命的最后一刻也不例外。与大多数天才作家一样，希金斯借助大量的香烟和酒精，在40年的时间里出版了25本书，外加数不清的专栏和评论。小说家克里斯托弗•巴克利曾跟希金斯吃过一顿饭，从中午1点延续到午夜。在场的所有人聚会结束后都觉得应该去医院检查一下身体，可希金斯却回去完成了一篇关于乔治•奥威尔的评论文章。

得了食道癌之后，他的酒量大减，戒了一段时间烟，最终以失败告终。他一般中午12点半起床，先来一杯尊尼获加黑方威士忌加沛绿雅有气矿泉水，午饭时喝半瓶以上红酒，然后开始工作，晚饭时再来一瓶红酒，睡前如果感觉对会再喝上几杯威士忌。

希金斯的一生似乎都在与巨大的目标为敌。他曾经称特蕾莎修女为“患有精神病的、撒谎、偷窃的阿尔巴尼亚侏儒”；他采访了加尔各答“垂死之家”里的义工，然后写出了《传教士体位：特蕾莎修女的理论与现实》；他认为特蕾莎修女从一开始就被封为“圣人”，因此她之后所做的一切都要与之相符，可这恰恰导致了一个又一个谎言的诞生，他的书就是为了揭穿全部的谎言。

他还称克林顿为“强奸犯”和“骗子”，基辛格是“战争罪犯”，英国王室为“英国名声的祸害”，而戴安娜王妃“就像一枚地雷，跟她睡觉容易，想把她甩了却十分困难和危险，甚至还很昂贵”。这一切皆通过仔细论证，被写入了数百页的书里。

2007年他把矛头对准上帝，出版了《神并不伟大：宗教是如何毒害万物的》一书。他用了多个章节来分析《圣经》的新、旧约，以及其他宗教典籍里存在的事实错误和逻辑错误，还运用了大量事实，尤其是当代的事实批驳了宗教使人向善的判断。他说，在当代，宗教与政权紧密地结合起来，为其提供了支持。圣战、帝国主义、集权国家以及当代出现的多次种族屠杀都与宗教有着密切的关系。宗教与种族主义没什么两样，它使人丧失了独立判断能力，实际上是一切独裁的起源。

书籍出版后，希金斯成为美国最著名的新无神论者，并在多个场合参与了有关宗教的辩论。2010年11月，他和离职后改信天主教的英国前首相布莱尔就宗教是否有益的问题进行了现场电视辩论。辩论前2700名现场听众中有57%认为宗教是有害的，辩论后增加到68%。

质疑和勇气一直是理性的本质，希金斯从前人身上汲取力量，这其中包括精神偶像乔治•奥威尔和切•格瓦拉。关于奥威尔，希金斯曾写过两本赞扬和捍卫其批判精神的书，他年轻时作为一名马克思主义者到过古巴，并一直宣称自己是一名社会主义者，尽管在后期也曾动摇过。

希金斯出生于二战后的英国中产阶级家庭，父亲是一名海军军官。他在剑桥大学读书时就以善辩闻名全校，对象包括从伦敦坐火车来的内阁部长。当时他只有18岁。毕业几年后，他成为英国最著名的叛逆记者，撒切尔夫人称他为该打屁股的小孩，而30岁的他却发现这片孤岛太小，决定离开。

他最后定居在了华盛顿特区，成为一名美国人。他家里的布置十分简单，二十多年都没什么变化，只不过占据一堵墙的书架上的书逐渐增多。他清楚地知道每本书的摆放位置，其中包括各种宗教典籍，按他的话说，这是为了能随时从中寻找“漏洞”。希金斯还是一名社交高手，平时会在家里举办《名利场》的酒会，客人包括最高院法官、参议员、好莱坞明星以及新闻主持人。

死前的3天里，希金斯拒绝进食和饮水，只是间歇性地在嘴里含上薄薄的冰块。他还在为英国作家吉尔伯特•基思的新传记写3000字的书评。他一生中从未延迟交稿，这次也不例外。他从病床上坐起，一个字一个字地敲击键盘，写完一句后，他低头闭目，似已睡去，一会儿又奋力睁开眼睛，敲出下一句。

直到2011年12月15日，他也没有求助上帝。尽管生病期间有许多人寄来信件为他祈祷，希望出现5%的奇迹，可他仍然视死亡为“信用卡失效期”。就连奇迹这个词他也觉得有问题，因为那只表现出英语这门语言的贫乏。麦克尤恩借用沃尔特•佩特的话悼念这位老友：“闪耀着宝石般的光焰炽烈地燃烧。”

引用 echo.chan 2011-12-26 15:43

嘿嘿，看完点评，觉得这是yannanchen版主翻译的

引用 echo.chan 2011-12-26 15:49

无言失语往往是无权势和被压迫者为求自保才噤若寒蝉
无语失言和噤若寒蝉...有重叠，而且读起来重复

引用 cjhpumc 2011-12-26 18:10

Time and age did not weaken them. Even as Hitchens grew increasingly ill, he had himself helped out of bed so that he could sit at his desk to continue his scribbling.
他们并未随岁月沉淀、年岁递增而胆怯，即便是病情加重之时，希欽斯也要独自从病榻挣扎起来，坐在书桌前奋笔疾书。
岁月与年龄一点也没有影响他们的坚强，即便是病情加重之时，希欽斯也要独自从病榻挣扎起来，坐在书桌前奋笔疾书。

这个小情节还真是深深的打动了我，想想自己健康之躯，没事儿总是上网八卦，实在惭愧的很

引用 emilyily 2011-12-27 11:49

回复 migmig 的帖子

he had himself helped out of bed
这个是被动吧

引用 dahongtai 2011-12-27 22:49

his time in prison matched only by Hitchens's time in the pub
重译啊

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-27 23:23

当他身陷囹圄时，希欽斯正在酒馆晃荡？？？

这里没有译出match的意思，下牢狱的时间的长度跟闲荡的时间有的一拼， 一比。

引用 yannanchen 2011-12-27 23:28

from the safe distance of his perch at the Nation

这里的意思是他远在英伦，苏联奈何他不得， 他本应更猛烈地抨击共产主义， 却不料反将之浪漫化。

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