每日一篇:《经济学人》读译参考 Day51

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经济学人:间谍众生:英国的间谍产业(2)

Britain

英国

Bagehot：Spies like us

白芝浩专栏：间谍众生

The British establishment is not only a perfect machine for producing secrets and lies.It also produces the mavericks and misfits who thrive in the secret world.

译文

英国的这种体制不仅是一台生产秘密和谎言的完美机器。它还出产标新立异之人和与社会个格格不入之人，他们在秘密世界中出尽风头。

Establishment types seem to come in two varieties: smooth conformists who do everything by the rules, and mavericks who break every rule but are nevertheless tolerated because they are members of the club.The first type is sent into the Foreign Office and the second into MI6.The best spy novels are like distorting mirrors in fairgrounds: by exaggerating this or that feature of Establishment Man, they allow the reader to understand the ideal form.

译文

体制人的类型似乎分成两类：一类是圆滑的墨守成规之人，他们事事循规蹈矩；一类是标新立异之人，他们处处违规，却因为是体制中人而得到容忍。前一种人被送进了外交部，后一种人被送进了军情六处。杰出的间谍小说就像是游乐场里的哈哈镜：通过放大体制人的这个或那个特点，能让读者理解理想的形式。

The other great theme in British spy novels is geopolitical decline.How can people who were “trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves”, as one of Mr le Carre's characters puts it, bear to live in a world in which the waves are ruled by other powers and statecraft is reduced to providing fuel for the welfare state?Fleming's novels are full of laments about Britain's “crumbling empire” and its dependency-producing state.

译文

英国间谍小说的另一个伟大的主题是地缘政治的衰落。正如勒卡雷的一位人物所说，“为了帝国，为了驾驭风云而接受训练”的人怎么能承受生活在一个风云为别的大国所驾驭、治国理政沦为为福利国家提供燃料的世界中呢？弗莱明的小说充斥着对英国“摇摇欲坠的帝国”及其附属生产国的怨言。

“You have not only lost a great empire,” Tiger Tanaka, a Japanese spy, tells Bond, “you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands.”Mr le Carre once described Britain as a country where “failed socialism is being replaced by failed capitalism”.The Circus, as he called the secret service's headquarters, is a physical manifestation of decline: cramped, shoddy, reeking of rising damp, just one hasty repair away from collapse.

译文

日本间谍老虎田中告诉邦德：“你不仅失去了一个伟大的帝国，似乎还急不可耐地要用双手把它扔出去。”勒卡雷曾经把英国说成是一个“失败的社会主义正在被失败的资本主义所取代”的国家。他称之为间谍大本营的马戏团正是这种衰落的一种实实在在表现：囿于一隅，粗制滥造，臭气熏天，纵然匆忙地修修补补，也难挽狂澜即到。

Why remain loyal to a country that has made such a mess of things and to an establishment soaked in hypocrisy?Mr le Carre's traitors (like the Cambridge spies who inspired them) betray their country not for money but because they have transferred their patriotism to the Soviet Union.But what makes Britain's best spy novels so good is that they toy with disillusionment only to reject it.

译文

为什么要对一个把事情都搞得乱七八糟的国家和一个侵泡在虚伪中的体制忠心不贰呢？勒卡雷的叛国者（像鼓舞了他们的剑桥间谍帮一样）不是为了钱而背叛他们的国家，而是因为他们已将他们的爱国主义转移到了苏联身上。但是，让英国最好的间谍小说如此优秀的，是他们仅仅是为了否认而去调侃这种幻灭感。

For all its faults, they say, Britain is the best of a bad lot.Bond is so besotted with his country that he boasts that “British food is the best in the world”.For all his professed Europeanness in the new novel, Smiley is the model of a British gentleman.

译文

他们声称，因为她错误百出，英国是恶人中最好的。邦德对于他的国家的迷恋，令他吹嘘说“英国的食物是世界上最好的”。因为他在新小说中被赋与了各种欧洲性，斯迈利是英国绅士的典型。

And spying provides Britain with a way of reclaiming its greatness, by excelling in the most sophisticated form of foreign policy.The Americans have the money and the bluster, but the British have the brains to spend it wisely and restrain the Americans from going over the top.Felix Leiter, Bond's opposite number in the CIA, admits that Bond is playing “in a bigger league” than he is.Smiley is more subtle than his “cousins” in America.

译文

而且，间谍活动还给英国提供了一种重塑其伟大的方式，具体地说，就是要在最为成熟的外交政策形式上胜人一筹。美国人有钱有势；但是，英国人有脑子，可以明智地花钱并阻止美国盛极而衰。邦德在CIA的对应代号费力克斯·雷特承认，与他相比，邦德正在一个“更大的团队”中施展。斯迈利也比他的美国“表亲”更加难以琢磨。

The secret at the heart of the British spy novel is that Britain is much better than it seems.The writers agonise over decline and hypocrisy, only to conclude that the British are cleverer and more civilised than anybody else.A comforting illusion wrapped in a tale of disillusionment: you can't get more British than that.

译文

英国间谍小说的核心秘密就是，英国比看上去好很多。作家纠结于衰落和虚伪，仅仅是为了得出英国人比其他人更聪明，都更有教养的结论。一种包裹在幻灭故事中的让人欣慰的幻觉：你不可能得到比此更英国的了。

注释

1.be full of 充满

例句:The article is full of suggestions.

这篇文章充满了暗示。

2.foreign policy 外交政策

例句:He spent most of his speech rebutting criticisms of his foreign policy.

他讲演的大部分时间都在反驳对他外交政策的批评。

3.throw it away 扔掉

例句:Why don't you throw it away?

你为什么不把它扔掉？

4.break rules 违反规定

例句:Army officials acknowledge they break rules to get results.

军方官员承认他们这样做是违反规定的。

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