2021年经济学人 菲利普亲王-为爱放弃王位的希腊王子(1)(在线收听

Obituary

讣告

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh

菲利普亲王,爱丁堡公爵

Pledge of a lifetime

一生的誓言

Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, died on April 9th, aged 99

菲利普亲王,女王伊丽莎白二世的丈夫,于4月9日去世,享年99岁

His huge, red hands were what you noticed first.

首先让人注意到的是他那双红彤彤的大手。

On his wrist the plain watch with its brown leather strap, and the copper bracelet he wore to ease the rheumatism that so plagued his later years.

他的手腕上戴着一块棕色皮带的普通手表,还有一只铜手镯,以缓解让他晚年饱受折磨的风湿病。

Moulded by his genes and by life, those hands, big as lion paws, in turn moulded those around him: his wife, their children, her subjects.

这双被基因定型、被生活打磨过的手,像狮爪般硕大,这双手反过来又塑造了周围的人:他的妻子,孩子,以及女王的臣民。

Had Philip been the soft-skinned English aristocrat that the king and queen would have preferred for their elder daughter, Elizabeth,

如果菲利普亲王符合国王和王后为大女儿伊丽莎白选定的择偶标准——一个养尊处优的英国贵族青年,

it would have been different. But he was an outsider.

那么情况可能会有所不同。但他是个局外人。

By the age of 26, when he married his second cousin once removed, he had lost virtually all his early roots.

26岁时,当他迎娶自己的远房表妹时,他几乎是失去了早期的所有血脉。

His father was dead; his mother, having suffered a mental breakdown, had withdrawn into a religious order.

他的父亲去世了;母亲因精神崩溃而皈依宗教团体。

She wore a grey habit to the end of her life.

一生都以一件灰色衣服示人,直至终老。

Three of his four sisters married Nazis; none was welcome at the royal wedding in Westminster Abbey just after the end of the war.

四个姐妹中有三个嫁给了纳粹;因此,战争刚刚结束,在威斯敏斯特大教堂举行的皇室婚礼上,没有一位姐妹受邀前来参加。

By then, Philip had also lost his birthright, his home, his name, nationality and church.

这场婚姻,也让菲利普已经失去了与生俱来的王位继承权,他的家族,他的姓名,国籍以及宗教信仰。

Even his birthday—fixed first in the Julian calendar and then in the Gregorian—was no longer the same.

甚至他的生日也从最初的罗马儒略历日期改为了公历。

The 20th century would test Britain’s monarchy with divorce, democracy and disdain.

20世纪英国皇室受到了婚姻失败、民主政治和蔑视的考验。

But the man who held its future in those hands had an immigrant’s hunger for tradition and hard work.

但将未来掌握在手中的菲利普亲王保有着移民对传统和努力的渴望。

He came to Britain by accident. He was born in 1921 on the island of Corfu.

他是偶然来到英国的。1921年,他出生在科孚岛。

His father, son of the king of Greece, was of Danish and Russian origin mainly;

他的父亲是希腊国王的儿子,主要是丹麦和俄罗斯血统;

his maternal grandfather grew up in Austria and Germany, and became British.

他的外祖父在奥地利和德国长大,后来加入了英国国籍。

As a toddler, Philip was carried aboard ship in a cot made from an orange crate when his family was banished from Greece.

在菲利普亲王幼儿时期,他们全家被驱逐出希腊,当时的他被装在一个橘子板条箱做成的小床里被抬上船。

Until he was ten they lived in exile in St Cloud, a leafy Paris suburb.

在他十岁之前,他们一直流亡在巴黎绿树成荫的郊区圣克劳德。

  原文地址:http://www.tingroom.com/lesson/2021jjxr/526083.html