时代周刊:我的父亲RFK--不朽的丰碑(2)

IN THE 1950S, he spent much of his time on the Senate Committee on Investigations¹

上世纪50年代，他曾在参议院调查委员会工作了很长一段时间，

fighting the excesses of its chair, Joe McCarthy, and his chief counsel, Roy Cohn—two figures who echo in the news today.

与委员会主席乔·麦卡锡及其首席法律顾问罗伊·科恩——在今天的新闻里依然能看到两人的影子——的越权行为作斗争。

He later caused Cohn's resignation and led to the end of McCarthy’s reign² of terror.

后来，科恩辞职，麦卡锡一手遮天时代被终结都有他的功劳。

Asked a decade later by Peter Maas how he could have worked for McCarthy,

十年后，被（记者兼作家）彼得·马斯问及为何会为麦卡锡工作时，

Kennedy responded, “Well, at the time, I thought there was a serious internal security threat to the United States…

肯尼迪回答说：“这个嘛，那时，我认为我们国家内部出现了严重的安全威胁……

(and) Joe McCarthy seemed to be the only one doing anything about it. I was wrong.”

而乔·麦卡锡看似是唯一一个没有袖手旁观的人。事实表明我错了。”

But to leave it at stopping the bullies³ would not do him justice.

不过，对他的评价仅仅停留在打抱不平一个层面还不够公道。

On that terrible night when he told a crowd in downtown Indianapolis that Martin Luther King Jr. had been murdered,

在那个可怕的夜晚，在印第安纳波利斯市中心向大家公布小马丁·路德·金被害一事时，

he included in his remarks a quote from Aeschylus:

他引用了（古希腊最伟大的悲剧作家）埃斯库罗斯的一句话：

“To tame the savageness⁴ of man and make gentle the life of the world.”

“驯服内心的狂野，让世人生活地更加美好。”

Indeed, my father focused much of his life taming the savageness, and he made gentle the life of the world.

的确，我父亲生平大部分时间都在致力于实现这一目标。

THERE WAS NO QUALITY my father admired more than courage, save perhaps love.

除了爱之外，我父亲最佩服的就是勇气。

I remember after dinner one night he picked up the battered⁵ poetry book that was always somewhere by his side

还记得有一天晚饭后，他拿起一本破旧的诗集，一本他经常会带在身边的诗集，

and read aloud Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade.”

大声朗诵起了丁尼生的《前进吧，轻骑兵》。

We listened aghast to the story of a group of soldiers

我们惊愕地听他讲着一群士兵的故事。

whose commanding officer orders them to ride into an ambush⁶, knowing they will be slaughtered—yet they still obey the command.

那群士兵的长官明知道他们必然会牺牲，还命令他们冲入埋伏圈，骑兵们竟然也听从了命令。

My father then explained that he and my mother were going on a trip

接着，父亲说他和母亲要去旅行，

and challenged us to a contest to see who could best memorize the poem while they were away.

他向我们发起挑战，看谁在他们不在的时候能把这首诗背得最好。

I did not win that contest—my sister Courtney did—but one stanza⁸ still remains⁹ with me:

那场比赛我没有赢——赢的是我妹妹考特尼——但其中有一个诗节至今仍然回荡在我耳边：

"Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die, Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred"

“他们的责任不是追究原因，而是执行，是赴死，就这样，六百名骑兵踏入了死亡之谷”

Why would a father ask his ever expanding brood of what became 11 children to memorize a poem about war and slaughter⁷?

一个父亲为什么要让他那队伍不断壮大，当时就已经有11人的孩子群背诵一首关于战争和杀戮的诗呢？

I think there were three reasons: He wanted to share with us his love of literature.

我认为有三个原因：他想同我们分享他对文学的热爱。

He wanted us to embrace challenges that appear daunting¹⁰.

他希望我们接受那些看似令人胆怯的挑战。

But most of all, he believed it was imperative¹¹ for us to question authority,

然而，最重要的是，他认为我们必须质疑权威，

and to learn how those who fail that lesson do so at their own peril¹².

同时学习那些未能吸取这一教训的人身处险境时是如何质疑权威的。

Now, coming upon 50 years after Robert F. Kennedy's last campaign,

现在正值罗伯特·F.肯尼迪最后一次竞选50周年之际，我想跟大家分享这些，

those are among the lessons I think he would have liked to impart to all Americans.

我想，这也是他希望传授给所有美国人的经验的一部分吧。

We face daunting challenges both nationally and globally.

当下，无论是就国内还是国外而言，我们都面临着严峻的挑战。

But we must rise to those tasks armed with courage, faith, love and an abiding¹³ commitment to justice,

但是，我们必须带着勇气、信心、爱心和对正义的坚定承诺，

yet girded with a healthy sense of skepticism.

以及适当的质疑来直面这些挑战。

1 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

2 reign   

n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势

参考例句：

• The reign of Queen Elizabeth lapped over into the seventeenth century.伊丽莎白王朝延至17世纪。
• The reign of Zhu Yuanzhang lasted about 31 years.朱元璋统治了大约三十一年。

3 bullies   

n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负

参考例句：

• Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
• Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。

4 savageness   

天然，野蛮

参考例句：

• Judy: That was a time of savageness and chauvinism. 那是个充斥着野蛮和沙文主义的年代。
• The coastline is littered with testaments to the savageness of the waters. 海岸线上充满了海水肆虐过后的杂乱东西。

5 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

6 ambush   

n.埋伏(地点)；伏兵；v.埋伏；伏击

参考例句：

• Our soldiers lay in ambush in the jungle for the enemy.我方战士埋伏在丛林中等待敌人。
• Four men led by a sergeant lay in ambush at the crossroads.由一名中士率领的四名士兵埋伏在十字路口。

7 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

8 stanza   

n.（诗）节，段

参考例句：

• We omitted to sing the second stanza.我们漏唱了第二节。
• One young reporter wrote a review with a stanza that contained some offensive content.一个年轻的记者就歌词中包含有攻击性内容的一节写了评论。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

11 imperative   

n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的

参考例句：

• He always speaks in an imperative tone of voice.他老是用命令的口吻讲话。
• The events of the past few days make it imperative for her to act.过去这几天发生的事迫使她不得不立即行动。

12 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

13 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。