经济学人09:英国经济学家韦恩·戈德利

 　　Obituary;Wynne Godley;

　　讣告;韦恩·戈德利;

　　Wynne Godley, British economist¹, died on May 13th, aged² 83;

　　英国经济学家韦恩·戈德利于五月十三日辞世，终年83岁;

　　A certain ambiguity³ marked Wynne Godley. Was he at heart an aesthete⁴, happiest making music in beautiful buildings among works of art? Or was he more naturally one of the sophisters, economists⁵ and calculators whose rise marked, for Edmund Burke, the passing of the age of chivalry⁶? Was he by temperament⁷ a dissenter⁸? Or just a typical scion⁹ of the British upper classes, an establishment man who played at being a rebel? Was he a determined¹⁰ pessimist¹¹, who took some pleasure in his reputation as the Cassandra of the Fens¹²? Or a convivial¹³, witty¹⁴ friend, who entertained with style and had a taste for gambling¹⁵? Was he a shy violet, trembling before an audience? Or a controversialist who was hardly publicity-averse?

　　韦恩·戈利这个人的特点带有几分模棱两可。从本质上讲他是不是一个唯美主义者，置身于华美的厅堂上，徜徉于艺术珍品之中，摆弄音乐，陶醉无比？还是说，以天生秉性而言，他更应当被看成是一个辩论大师、经济学家又兼计算高手，当初此等人物的出现曾被埃德蒙·伯克认为标志了骑士时代的终结？他是不是一个从性格上就爱拂逆众见的异议者呢？还是说，他仍未脱英国上流阶级子弟之典型，以体制中人的身份，玩几把反叛的游戏？他真是一个坚定不移的悲观论者并且能从“芬斯地区的悲观预言师”这样的名头上得几分快乐吗？还是说，这位朋友爱交游喜风趣，招待客人讲究排场，还有赌博的雅兴？他是个在听众面前会紧张到发抖的“羞答答的紫罗兰”呢？还是一个好辩的主儿，动起嘴来几不忌惮抛头露面？

　　If the answer to each of these questions is at least partly yes, that may mean no more than that Mr Godley was a man of several talents, many interests and an intelligence to make good use of them. His first love was certainly music, for when he left Oxford¹⁶, where he read politics, philosophy and economics, he went to the Paris Conservatoire and became a professional oboist. Performing in public, though, filled him with terror, which led him to give up his job as principal oboe in the BBC Welsh Orchestra. He turned to economics instead.

　　如果对上述每一个问题的回答至少有一部分是“是”，则也许只是意味着——戈德利是一位有几份天资、多种爱好的男人，是一位有智慧对种种爱好善加利用的男人。他第一爱好无疑是音乐，因为当他离开他攻读政治、哲学和经济学的牛津大学后，他去了巴黎音乐学院，并成为一个专业的双簧管吹奏者。可是，由于他在公众场所表演充满紧张，致使他放弃了在英国BBC广播公司威尔士乐团首席双簧管演奏员的工作。他转向了经济学领域。

　　That, anyway, became his profession. But his love of music never left him, and art remained a part of his life to the end, not least through his marriage to Kitty, the daughter of Sir Jacob Epstein. And though Mr Godley's good looks and elongated¹⁷ figure might seem to have been tailor-made for El Greco, El Greco being unavailable, it was Epstein who took him as the model for a huge bronze statue of St Michael that hangs on the outside of Coventry Cathedral, with the devil vanquished¹⁹ at his feet.

　　反正经济学成了戈德利的职业。但他对音乐的热爱始终不离不弃，及至人生终点，艺术仍然是他生活的一部分，尤其贯穿于他与爱泼斯坦（1880-1959, 生于美国的英国雕刻家——译者注)爵士之女基蒂的婚姻生活中。此外，尽管戈德利英俊的外貌和高高的身材似乎是为埃尔·格雷考（十七世纪西班牙画家、雕塑家——译者注）量身定做的模特儿，但格雷考无福消受。把戈德利作为圣迈克尔巨型青铜塑像模特儿的是爱泼斯坦，这尊塑像立于考文垂大教堂外面，其脚下是被征服的魔鬼。

　　In Keynes's footsteps, up to a point

　　在某种程度上，戈德利是追随凯恩斯的足迹

　　The devilish intricacies of economics Mr Godley seemed to overwhelm just as effortlessly. After a spell in business and a few years at the Treasury²⁰, he was enticed²¹ to King's College, Cambridge, which 61 years earlier another economist-aesthete, John Maynard Keynes, had joined as a lecturer, writing (with his mother's help) a letter of resignation from the civil service to his boss, a Sir Arthur Godley. This man was to become the first Lord Kilbracken and eventually grandfather of Wynne.

　　戈德利先生对于如魔幻般错综复杂的经济学，应对起来似乎毫不费力。在商界和财政部干了一些年头后，他神往起61年前另一个审美学家、经济学家约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯（注1）曾经就读的剑桥国王学院来，他在向其老板老板阿瑟·戈德利男爵写（在其母亲的帮助下）了一封文员辞职信后，成为了该学院的一名讲师。那位男爵就是基尔布拉肯勋爵一世并最终成为韦恩·戈德利的祖父。

　　Mr Godley became best known for his outspoken²² criticisms of Conservative economic policies. In the 1970s he took the view, which he recognised as dissenting²³, that international trade should be, as he put it, “in some sense, managed” through import controls, adding unpersuasively that this was not really protectionism, since he did not want to reduce imports, merely the propensity²⁴ to import; and protection should be “as minimally²⁵ selective as possible”. More creditably, he correctly predicted that the boom generated by the Conservative government under Ted¹⁸ Heath in the 1970s would end in tears. He was also proved largely right in foreseeing the severity of the recession that came later under Margaret Thatcher²⁶.

　　戈德利因直言不讳地批评保守党的经济政策而变得愈加有名。在上世纪70年代，他发表观点（他意识到此观点不受欢迎）：国际贸易应该像他所指出的那样是通过进口管制实现的“某种意义上的管理”，他还缺乏说服力地补充这确实不是贸易保护主义，因为他并不主张减少进口，只是减少进口倾向；应当“尽可能最少地选择”贸易保护措施。更值得称道的是，他正确地预言到了上世纪七十年代希思治下的保守党政府激发的繁荣，将以泪雨告终。对后来撒切尔夫人时期严重经济衰退的预计，也被证明是大体上正确的。

　　These doleful prophecies, coupled with his very public loathing²⁷ of monetarism, earned him no friends in government and the grant for his forecasting group at Cambridge was abruptly²⁸ stopped in 1982. But he was hardly an outcast. Though not properly trained as an economist, he had proved himself as a macroeconomic modeller, and had been made a university professor of applied²⁹ economics. He had also become a director of the Royal Opera House. By 1992 he was back in favour at the Treasury, joining the panel of independent forecasters known as the “six wise men”.

　　上述令人沮丧的预测，连同他对货币主义的公开反感，使得戈德利在政府没有朋友，其剑桥预判小组的政府拨款也于1982年突然停止了。不过，戈德利不大可能成为被抛弃的人。尽管他没有像经济学家那样接受正规高等教育，但他却证明自己是一位宏观经济学缔造者，而且还是一位大学应用经济学教授。他也是皇家歌剧院的懂事。1992年，戈德利在一片赞赏中回到财政部，参加被称作“六智囊”的独立预测员小组。

　　On the face of it, this was not a turbulent life. Mr Godley said he had a lonely childhood, involving a violent maiden³⁰ aunt and the “chamber of horrors of a British prep school”. Later, in his 30s, he lived life “through an artificial self” in “a state of dissociation”, which drove him into the clutches of a fiendish psychoanalyst. This in turn blighted³¹ his middle years.

　　单从表面上看，上述这一切算不上是混沌难驭的人生经历。戈德利说过，他有一个陷于粗暴未婚姑妈和“英国预科学校恐怖屋”之难的孤独童年。后来，在他30多岁期间，他过着“分裂状态”下“自我十足虚假”的生活，这种生活驱使他成为刁钻心理分析学家的掌中物。这种生活也相应地折磨着他的中年。

　　His background, though it might misleadingly be called privileged, was mixed up. The first Lord Kilbracken had been a protégé of a Liberal prime minister, Gladstone, but was a Conservative; and the second, Wynne's father Hugh, also a Tory, had been madly in love with Violet Asquith, the daughter of another Liberal prime minister. Hugh separated from Wynne's mother about the time he was born, and was impotent, anti-Semitic and alcoholic³². Wynne's mother paraded naked in front of him and would tell him, as a child, of the intense pleasure she got from sexual intercourse³³. But he reached the age of 17 not knowing that women had vaginas.

　　虽然戈德利·韦恩的出生背景会让人误以为是特权阶层，但其实是模糊不清的。他的祖父基尔布拉肯一世虽曾是自由党首相格莱斯顿的门生，却是个保守派；而他的父亲基尔布拉肯二世休·戈德利也是一名保守党成员，疯狂爱上了另一位自由党首相的女儿维尔莉特·阿斯奎思。休·戈德利大约在韦恩出生后就与韦恩的母亲分居，是一个性欲低下者、反犹太者、嗜酒者。当韦恩还是一个孩子的时候，他妈妈在他面前展示她的裸体，并会告诉他她从性爱中获得的强烈快感。可是，成长至17岁的戈德利·韦恩先生尚不知女性是有阴道的。

　　He was supremely³⁴ happy at Oxford, where his tutor was Isaiah Berlin, to whom he said he owed all his higher education. But, he wrote, “Nora [his stepmother] shot herself in the head with a shotgun; my father, his entire fortune squandered³⁵, died alone in a hospital where the nurses were unkind to him; my half-sister was committed to a high-security mental institution at Epsom; my mother had a bad stroke and lived out her last six years hemiplegic and helpless, her mind altered. She told her nurses that they were ‘lower-class scum' and complained that I was ‘marrying the daughter of a New York yid'.”

　　在牛津大学，韦恩快乐无比，他的牛津大学导师是赛亚·伯林，他曾说过他所受的全部的高等教育都是从柏林那儿得来的。不过，他著述称：“继母诺拉用猎枪结束了自己的生命；我父亲花光家财，在一家受尽护士冷眼的医院里孤独离世；我同父异母的妹妹被送进埃普索姆一家管理严格的精神病院；我母亲严重中风，在偏瘫无助中度过生命的最后六年，并改变了观点。她告诉护士：‘他们是低等的贱人'，还抱怨我‘娶了犹太裔纽约人的女儿'”。

　　Against a background like this, a little waywardness in the world of macroeconomics seems entirely³⁶ forgivable.

　　在这样的家庭背景下，在宏观经济学界中，戈德利·韦恩的些许任性似乎是完全可以得到宽恕的。

1 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

2 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。

3 ambiguity   

n.模棱两可；意义不明确

参考例句：

• The telegram was misunderstood because of its ambiguity.由于电文意义不明确而造成了误解。
• Her answer was above all ambiguity.她的回答毫不含糊。

4 aesthete   

n.审美家

参考例句：

• Nobody will deny that Wilde is an outstanding aesthete.毫无疑问，王尔德是一位杰出的唯美主义者。
• It argues that the Humanity SpirIt'should involve Truth,Goodness,Aesthete and Freedom.人文精神具体应该包括真、善、美、自由四个向度。

5 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 chivalry   

n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤

参考例句：

• The Middle Ages were also the great age of chivalry.中世纪也是骑士制度盛行的时代。
• He looked up at them with great chivalry.他非常有礼貌地抬头瞧她们。

7 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

8 dissenter   

n.反对者

参考例句：

• The role of the dissenter is not for the weak-kneed.反对者的角色不是软弱之人所能够担当的。
• The Party does not tolerate dissenters in its ranks.该政党不允许其成员中存在异见分子。

9 scion   

n.嫩芽，子孙

参考例句：

• A place is cut in the root stock to accept the scion.砧木上切开一个小口,来接受接穗。
• Nabokov was the scion of an aristocratic family.纳博科夫是一个贵族家庭的阔少。

10 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

11 pessimist   

n.悲观者；悲观主义者；厌世

参考例句：

• An optimist laughs to forget.A pessimist forgets to laugh.乐观者笑着忘却，悲观者忘记怎样笑。
• The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity.The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty.悲观者在每个机会中都看到困难，乐观者在每个困难中都看到机会。

12 fens   

n.（尤指英格兰东部的）沼泽地带( fen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Most of the landscape in the Fens is as flat as a pancake. 菲恩斯的大部分地形都是极平坦的。 来自互联网
• He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens. 它伏在莲叶之下，卧在芦苇隐密处和水洼子里。 来自互联网

13 convivial   

adj.狂欢的，欢乐的

参考例句：

• The atmosphere was quite convivial.气氛非常轻松愉快。
• I found it odd to imagine a nation of convivial diners surrendering their birthright.我发现很难想象让这样一个喜欢热热闹闹吃饭的民族放弃他们的习惯。

14 witty   

adj.机智的，风趣的

参考例句：

• Her witty remarks added a little salt to the conversation.她的妙语使谈话增添了一些风趣。
• He scored a bull's-eye in their argument with that witty retort.在他们的辩论中他那一句机智的反驳击中了要害。

15 gambling   

n.赌博；投机

参考例句：

• They have won a lot of money through gambling.他们赌博赢了很多钱。
• The men have been gambling away all night.那些人赌了整整一夜。

16 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

17 elongated   

v.延长，加长( elongate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Modigliani's women have strangely elongated faces. 莫迪里阿尼画中的妇女都长着奇长无比的脸。
• A piece of rubber can be elongated by streching. 一块橡皮可以拉长。 来自《用法词典》

18 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

19 vanquished   

v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 )；战胜；克服；抑制

参考例句：

• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I vanquished her coldness with my assiduity. 我对她关心照顾从而消除了她的冷淡。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

20 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

21 enticed   

诱惑，怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He enticed his former employer into another dice game. 他挑逗他原来的老板再赌一次掷骰子。
• Consumers are courted, enticed, and implored by sellers of goods and services. 消费者受到商品和劳务出售者奉承，劝诱和央求。

22 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

23 dissenting   

adj.不同意的

参考例句：

• He can't tolerate dissenting views. 他不能容纳不同意见。
• A dissenting opinion came from the aunt . 姑妈却提出不赞同的意见。

24 propensity   

n.倾向；习性

参考例句：

• He has a propensity for drinking too much alcohol.他有酗酒的倾向。
• She hasn't reckoned on his propensity for violence.她不曾料到他有暴力倾向。

25 minimally   

最低限度地，最低程度地

参考例句：

• Food spoilage problems occur with minimally processed, concentrated frozen citrus products. 食品的变质也发生在轻微加工的、浓缩冷冻的柑橘制品中。
• So, minimally, they are responsible for such actions and omissions. 所以，至少来说，他们要对这样的行为和忽略负责。

26 thatcher   

n.茅屋匠

参考例句：

• Tom Sawyer was in the skiff that bore Judge Thatcher. 汤姆 - 索亚和撒切尔法官同乘一条小艇。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• Mrs. Thatcher was almost crazed; and Aunt Polly, also. 撒切尔夫人几乎神经失常，还有波莉姨妈也是。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

27 loathing   

n.厌恶，憎恨v.憎恨，厌恶( loathe的现在分词)；极不喜欢

参考例句：

• She looked at her attacker with fear and loathing . 她盯着襲擊她的歹徒，既害怕又憎恨。
• They looked upon the creature with a loathing undisguised. 他们流露出明显的厌恶看那动物。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

28 abruptly   

adv.突然地，出其不意地

参考例句：

• He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
• I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。

29 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

30 maiden   

n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的

参考例句：

• The prince fell in love with a fair young maiden.王子爱上了一位年轻美丽的少女。
• The aircraft makes its maiden flight tomorrow.这架飞机明天首航。

31 blighted   

adj.枯萎的，摧毁的

参考例句：

• Blighted stems often canker.有病的茎往往溃烂。
• She threw away a blighted rose.她把枯萎的玫瑰花扔掉了。

32 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

33 intercourse   

n.性交；交流，交往，交际

参考例句：

• The magazine becomes a cultural medium of intercourse between the two peoples.该杂志成为两民族间文化交流的媒介。
• There was close intercourse between them.他们过往很密。

34 supremely   

adv.无上地，崇高地

参考例句：

• They managed it all supremely well. 这件事他们干得极其出色。
• I consider a supremely beautiful gesture. 我觉得这是非常优雅的姿态。

35 squandered   

v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squandered all his money on gambling. 他把自己所有的钱都糟蹋在赌博上了。
• She felt as indignant as if her own money had been squandered. 她心里十分生气，好像是她自己的钱给浪费掉了似的。 来自飘（部分）

36 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。