2019年经济学人 刚果出租车司机皮埃尔·曼贝尔(1)

 

Congo's wheels

刚果的车轮

Pierre Mambele, taxi-driver, died on June 8th, aged¹ 74

出租车司机皮埃尔·曼贝尔于6月8日去世，享年74岁

Since the best place to pick up a fare in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, was outside the Grand hotel (for a time, the Intercontinental), that was where Pierre Mambele usually parked his car. There he would wait, with a bottle of Sprite, under the trees for shade. His car was nothing fancy. It was a dark blue 1976 Fiat² which had seen service on plenty of bad roads. The side mirrors and wind-screen-wipers had long gone, good riddance to them. The front doors could fly open at speed, so sometimes had to be tied to the chassis³ with plastic bags. The exhaust trailed. This car limped from one criminal mechanic to another, but as long as it ran, and people were willing to pay him for a ride, he wasn't bothered. His clothes were nothing fancy either. On most days in fashion-proud Kinshasa he wore a greasy⁴ t-shirt and dirty jeans.

因为刚果首都金沙萨最好的搭载乘客的地方是大饭店外面（有一段时间是洲际饭店），所以那里是皮埃尔·曼贝尔经常停车的地方。在那里，他会拿着一瓶雪碧，在树下阴凉处等待。他的车并不豪华。他开的是一辆深蓝色1976年的菲亚特，这辆车已经行驶过很多糟糕的道路。车上的侧镜和风挡雨刷早就不见了，谢天谢地。车的前门在速度快的时候会飞快地打开，所以有时必须用塑料袋绑在底盘上。车的排气很落后。这辆车拉着一个又一个刑事技工缓慢行进，但只要它能跑，而且人们愿意付钱让他搭一程，他就不会感到烦恼。他的衣服也不精致。在以时尚为豪的金沙萨，大多数日子里他都穿着油腻的T恤和脏脏的牛仔裤。

His thick glasses, mended with Sellotape, had never been much use. Yet he drove crazy-fast, pedal to the floor, roaring round the city. He was not a Kinois himself, one of that snooty so-sophisticated lot, and the other drivers outside the Grand called him "Kisangani" after the city where he was born, in the east. He spoke⁵ Swahili as well as Lingala. But he had been a taxi-driver in the capital for decades, and knew the ramshackle place like the back of his hand. Kin-la-belle, now Kin-la-poubelle, as everyone said. Driving fast also showed his contempt for any sort of authority. Soldiers toting guns in the road were a joke: pas sérieux, quel cinéma! As for the roulages, the yellow-helmet traffic cops who would leap out to bang on his windscreen and demand money for some offence he hadn't committed, he would shout and argue with them until it came to fists, and they gave up. A cop got in his way once when he was doing a three-point turn outside a grocery store. He just kept going, with the idiot spreadeagled on the bonnet⁶.

他那副粘着透明胶带的厚眼镜从来没有多大用处。然而，他却疯狂地开车，踩着踏板，在城市里呼啸而过。他本人并不是金沙萨人，也不是那种傲慢而又世故的人，格兰德外的其他司机都叫他“基桑加尼”，这个名字来自他出生的东部城市。他讲斯瓦希里语和林加拉语。但他在首都开了几十年出租车，对这个摇摇欲坠的地方了如指掌。金-拉-贝尔，现在是金-拉-波贝尔，就像大家说的。开快车也显示出他对任何权威的蔑视。在路上携带枪支的士兵是个笑话：别担心，我是奎尔电影院的！至于戴着黄色头盔的交警，他们会会跳出来砸他的挡风玻璃，为了一些他没有犯过的过错向他要钱，他会大喊大叫，和他们争吵，直到大打出手，他们才罢休。有一次，他在杂货店外做三分转弯时，一个警察挡住了他的去路。他继续往前开，那个白痴像个大字型摊在引擎盖上。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 fiat   

n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布

参考例句：

• The opening of a market stall is governed by municipal fiat.开设市场摊位受市政法令管制。
• He has tried to impose solutions to the country's problems by fiat.他试图下令强行解决该国的问题。

3 chassis   

n.汽车等之底盘；（飞机的）起落架；炮底架

参考例句：

• The new parts may include the sheet metal,the transmission,or the chassis.新部件可能包括钢壳，变速器或底盘。
• Can chassis and whole-vehicle manufacturers co-exist peacefully?底盘企业和整车企业能相安无事吗？

4 greasy   

adj. 多脂的，油脂的

参考例句：

• He bought a heavy-duty cleanser to clean his greasy oven.昨天他买了强力清洁剂来清洗油污的炉子。
• You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时，你会厌恶油腻的气味。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 bonnet   

n.无边女帽；童帽

参考例句：

• The baby's bonnet keeps the sun out of her eyes.婴孩的帽子遮住阳光，使之不刺眼。
• She wore a faded black bonnet garnished with faded artificial flowers.她戴着一顶褪了色的黑色无边帽，帽上缀着褪了色的假花。