时代周刊:穆罕默德·本·萨勒曼兜售分裂中东计划(2)

DURING THE 75 MINUTES he spends with TIME at New York City's Plaza¹ Hotel,

就是他在纽约广场酒店和本刊记者一起度过的那75分钟时间里，

Saudi bombs still fall on Yemen, Saudi bloggers remain in jail

也有沙特炸弹降落在也门的土地上，有沙特的博主被继续扣留在也门的监狱里，

and 3 out of 4 Saudi citizens still collect a paycheck from a kingdom where poorer foreigners hold 84% of real jobs.

有四分之三的沙特公民仍在一个被更穷的外国人抢占了84%的实际工作岗位的国家里领薪水。

But the man in charge no longer seems of that world.

掌管那个世界的人却似乎已经脱离了那个世界。

Folded into a corner of the couch in a brown smock,

他穿着一件棕色的罩衫窝在沙发的一角，

he looks like someone you knew in college, a big guy going on about something that seems really important to him.

看上去就像我们大学时认识的那种滔滔不绝地说着对他来说非常重要的事情的大高个子同学。

His thinning hair is matted.

王储顶着一头稀疏而凌乱的头发。

He holds a Coke Zero.

手里拿着一听零度可乐。

The heart of the pitch the crown prince has taken on the road is forward-looking,

在这次的行程中，他以通常被用来形容初创企业的那种自信，不时地穿插着事实的语言，

universal and delivered in the confident, fact-stippled surge of words that might describe a start-up.

向大家兜售了一个有着高远而普惠的核心内涵的项目。

Bin² Salman in large part is looking for money,

本·萨勒曼这次的行程很大程度上是为了寻找资金而来，

foreign funds being a crucial element of Vision 2030, his plan that promises to reconcile feudal³ society with the world around it.

因为外国的资金是“2030年愿景”的关键因素，这是一个他承诺了会让沙特这一封建社会和外部世界取得和解的项目。

As hard as it once would have been to imagine,

正如曾经难以想象的那样，

collapsing⁴ oil prices, and the economic and social demands of an exploding youth population, require economic reform.

油价暴跌，以及人数激增的年轻人对经济和社会的需求都迫切地需要沙特进行一场经济改革。

And for all his power and wealth, bin Salman needs outside help to do it.

尽管本·萨勒曼已经拥有巨大的权力和财富，但他还是需要外界的帮助。

That's partly because Saudis themselves are resistant⁵ to change.

一定程度上，这是因为沙特人自己对变革持抗拒态度。

An impoverished⁶ desert wasteland a century ago, Saudi Arabia rode oil wealth through decades of change.

一个世纪前，沙特阿拉伯还是一片贫瘠的沙漠荒原，几十年的变革给这片土地带来了滚滚而来的石油财富。

"It's too hard to convince them that there is something more to do," bin Salman says of the founding generation,

“所以你很难说服大家相信今天我们肩上的担子依然很重，”本·萨勒曼在谈到开国元勋那一代人时说，

"because what happened in their time, in 50 or 60 years, it's like what happened in the last 300 or 400 years in the United States of America."

“因为在他们的年代，美国过去花了300~400年才完成的事情我们只用了50~60年就完成了。”

But bin Salman was born into that modern world. Seven in 10 Saudis are even younger than him.

但本·萨尔曼是出生在现代社会的人。而且，10个沙特人中有7个都比他还年轻。

And when they look up from their phones, they are less impressed.

这些人成天都盯着手机，那段历史并没有给他们留下多深的印象。

"Our eyes are focusing on what we are missing," bin Salman says.

“我们两眼盯着的，是我们正在失去的东西，”本·萨尔曼表示。

But it's also because what he is proposing is potentially destabilizing.

但他之所以很难说服大家，也是因为他的提议可能会破坏沙特当前的稳定。

Bin Salman talks of repudiating⁷ not just the nation's dependence⁸ on oil,

本·萨勒曼谈到，沙特要摒弃的不仅是他们对石油的依赖，

but also the kingdom's other leading export: religious fundamentalism,

还有该国的另一个主要出口产品：宗教原教旨主义观念，

which has fueled al-Qaeda, the Taliban, ISIS and other Islamic terrorist groups for decades.

几十年来，这一观念相继扶持了包括基地组织、塔利班、ISIS在内的多个伊斯兰恐怖组织。

"We believe the practice today in a few countries, among them Saudi Arabia, is not the practice of Islam," he tells TIME.

“我们认为，今天，包括沙特在内的一些国家践行的其实并不是伊斯兰教的教义，”他告诉本刊记者。

"It's the practice of people who have hijacked⁹ Islam after 1979."

“而是1979年后劫持伊斯兰教的那些人的教义。”

1 plaza   

n.广场，市场

参考例句：

• They designated the new shopping centre York Plaza.他们给这个新购物中心定名为约克购物中心。
• The plaza is teeming with undercover policemen.这个广场上布满了便衣警察。

2 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

3 feudal   

adj.封建的，封地的，领地的

参考例句：

• Feudal rulers ruled over the country several thousand years.封建统治者统治这个国家几千年。
• The feudal system lasted for two thousand years in China.封建制度在中国延续了两千年之久。

4 collapsing   

压扁[平]，毁坏，断裂

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The rocks were folded by collapsing into the center of the trough. 岩石由于坍陷进入凹槽的中心而发生褶皱。

5 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

6 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 repudiating   

v.（正式地）否认( repudiate的现在分词 )；拒绝接受；拒绝与…往来；拒不履行（法律义务）

参考例句：

• Instead of repudiating what he had done, he gloried in it. 他不但没有否定自己做过的事，反而引以为荣。 来自辞典例句
• He accused the government of tearing up(ie repudiating)the negotiated agreement. 他控告政府撕毁（不履行）协议。 来自互联网

8 dependence   

n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属

参考例句：

• Doctors keep trying to break her dependence of the drug.医生们尽力使她戒除毒瘾。
• He was freed from financial dependence on his parents.他在经济上摆脱了对父母的依赖。

9 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。