经济学人18:华沙犹太人起义的最后一名指挥官马雷克·爱德曼

 　　Obituary;Marek Edelman;

　　讣告;马雷克·爱德曼;

　　Marek Edelman, the last military commander of the Warsaw ghetto¹ uprising, died on October 2nd, aged² 90;

　　马雷克·爱德曼，华沙犹太人起义的最后一名指挥官，于2009年10月2日辞世，享年90岁。

　　He was sure that once he started fighting, he was going to die. No point in being scared about it. Death was death; there was nothing more, nothing bigger, that could happen to him. At least in this way, taking up arms, he could die on his own terms rather than theirs. His time, his place. Suicide would have been another way to do it, but he never considered that. Going to the gas chamber³ or the mass grave with quiet, considered dignity, like many of the residents of the Warsaw ghetto, was another way: far more admirable and more difficult, he thought, than running through random⁴ bullets as he did. But it was not for him. 这两句我的译法绝对有问题，盼高手现身！Only by dying as publicly as possible, loudly and with his gun blazing, could he let the world know what the Nazis⁶ were doing to the Jews in Poland.

　　他明白，一旦他投入战斗，他就会死。他对此无所畏惧。死就死，对他而言，没有什么大不了。至少，拿起武器战斗，他可以以自己的方式而不是他们[纳粹]的方式死亡。[拿起武器战斗可以决定]自己的死亡时间、死亡地点。自杀是死亡的另一种方式，但他从未考虑过。像华沙犹太人区的很多居民那样,带着平静和尊严走向毒气室和万人坑，是死亡的又一种方式：他认为穿越枪林弹雨，虽更加困难但更有意义。他[也]不愿作此抉择。最好的方式是尽可能公开地，带着呐喊和复仇的枪弹死去，他要让世界明白，纳粹正在对波兰犹太人做些什么。

　　The odds⁷ were overwhelming. He was deputy commander of 220 untrained “boys” with pistols and home-made explosives. Against them were around 2,000 Nazi⁵ soldiers, the pick of the Wehrmacht, with plenty more behind them. The Nazis had come on the eve of Passover, April 19th 1943, to liquidate⁸ the Warsaw ghetto, from which they had been deporting⁹ 6,000 Jews a week to the death camps. For almost a month Mr Edelman helped keep them at bay, barricaded¹⁰ in the streets around the brushmakers' district until the whole place was burned down round him.

　　冲突势不可挡。他是220名持有手枪及自制炸弹的未受训练的“童子军”的副指挥官。他们的敌手是德军精锐——约2,000名纳粹士兵，其后还有更多的敌人。纳粹在1943年4月19日——逾越节前夜对华沙犹太人区展开清洗行动，纳粹已在此前一个星期里把该区6000名犹太人赶进了死亡集中营。在近一个月里，爱德曼帮助犹太人在brushmakers区街道设置路障，以牵制[纳粹]，直到其周围的整个地区被烧毁。

　　The ghetto had been established in October 1940 to cut off the city's Jews, with a high wall and wire, from the general population. Jews were crammed¹¹ into its four square kilometres from all over the city, Poland and the German Reich. By April 1942 half a million people lived there, many on filthy¹² straw mattresses¹³ directly on the ground. Around 1,500 were dying each week from hunger and disease. In those conditions, Mr Edelman said, the most important thing was just to be alive: not to be one of the naked corpses¹⁴ wheeled past on carts, heads bobbing up and down or knocking on the pavement. A “terrible apathy” took hold, in which people no longer saw or believed the random horrors round them. He tried to rouse them, first by staying up night after night to print mimeograph newspapers, and then by fighting.

　　充斥着高墙和电网的犹太人区建立于1940年10月，用以隔离居民中的犹太人。来自波兰和德国各城市的犹太人被塞进了这个4平方公里的地方。 1942年4月时，有50万犹太人生活在那里，其中许多人直接生活在地上那肮脏的稻草垫上。每星期大约1500人死于饥饿和疾病。爱德曼说，在这种情况下，最大的希望仅仅是还活着：不是那经过的轮车上，头部上下摆动或者敲击过道的裸尸之一。一种“恐怖的漠然”滋生，在漠然中，人们不再认为无处不在的恐怖是恐怖。他试图唤醒他们，首先是持续、连夜打印油印报纸，然后是战斗。

　　rough the sewers¹⁵

　　穿过下水道

　　As a messenger at the ghetto hospital, Mr Edelman was one of the few allowed out. He passed on news of Nazi atrocities¹⁶ to the larger Polish underground, and gathered up weapons and fighters. Precisely¹⁷ how much help he got is still disputed. He implied later that gentile Poles both couldn't do much, and wouldn't, to help the Jews they still distrusted, even though they faced a common enemy. But the beleaguered¹⁸ Jews were disunited too: secular¹⁹, socialist²⁰, non-Zionist Jews like him, with ardent²¹ Zionists and communists, all bickering²² over tactics at the edge of the abyss.

　　作为犹太医院的信差，爱德曼是少数准许外出者之一。他向波兰大多数地下组织传递关于纳粹暴行的消息，收集武器、召集战斗人员。恰恰是因为他提供了那么多帮助，却招致怀疑。他后来含蓄地提出：波兰人既不能也不愿帮助他们不信任的犹太人。甚至认为犹太人与[纳粹一样]是波兰人的共同敌人。处于困境的犹太人也四分五裂：世俗[主义]者、社会主义者、像他那样的非犹太复国者、狂热的犹太复国者、共产主义者，所有这些人在深渊的边缘就出路争吵不休。

　　He considered himself both a Pole and a Jew, despite his white armband with its blue star. Warsaw was home to him; his parents had died when he was young, leaving him to be brought up by staff in the hospital. He spoke²³ Polish, Yiddish and Russian. His dream was not of some Zionist homeland, but a socialist Poland in which Jews would have cultural autonomy. He continued to hope for that all his life.

　　尽管戴的是蓝星白色臂章，但爱德曼认为自己是一个波兰人也是一个犹太人，华沙是他的家。当他年轻、刚成为医院工作人员时，他的父母去世了。他讲波兰语、依地语和俄语。他的梦想中，波兰不是某些犹太复国主义的祖国，而是社会主义者的波兰，在社会主义者的波兰中，犹太人将拥有其文化自治权。他终其一生，为实现这一梦想不懈努力。

　　During the final throes of the ghetto uprising 50,000-60,000 Jews were deported²⁴ to the camps. Mr Edelman survived, escaping with a handful of colleagues along tunnels barely two feet high, slimy water up to his lips, to safety. Some 16 months later, in August 1944, he took part in the larger Warsaw uprising, which was crushed after 63 days. It led to the razing²⁵ of the city by the Nazis in a last act of revenge.

　　犹太区起义的最终惨痛结局是5-6万人犹太人被赶进集中营。爱德曼与少数难友一道，沿着仅两英尺深的下水道，伴着漫进嘴唇的泥泞安全逃离，得以幸免。约16个月后的1944年8月，他参加了大规模的华沙起义，该起义在坚持63天后被镇压。纳粹的这一最后报复行动，致使华沙城被彻底摧毁。

　　After the war, Mr Edelman was one of the few Jewish Holocaust²⁶ survivors²⁸ who stayed in Poland. He moved to Lodz, where he graduated in medicine. Subsequent waves of anti-Semitism did not dislodge him: not even one in 1968 when up to 20,000 Jews left, including his wife and daughter. When he lost his job, he merely moved to another hospital. Nothing else terrible happened to him, as he put it. In 1981, having become an activist²⁹ for the Solidarity³⁰ movement, he was briefly³¹ interned³² under martial³³ law. He had known worse.

　　战后，爱德曼成为留在波兰的少数犹太大屠杀幸存者之一。他移居到[波兰]罗兹，并从医学专业毕业。随后的反犹浪潮并没有迫使他离开波兰，即使在1968年，有近20000犹太人离开时，其中包括他的妻子和女儿，他也未曾有过离开这个国家的念头。他失业时，也只是到另一家医院[就业]，就像他所说过的那样，不曾有人找过他麻烦。 1981年成为团结工会活动家后，他曾因戒严令被短暂拘留。他已见怪不怪了。

　　Mr Edelman could be brusque and difficult with colleagues. But it was his quiet thoughtfulness that most irritated people. He refused to express open hatred³⁴ for the Nazis, and for years would not talk about the ghetto uprising. As Bronislaw Geremek, another ghetto survivor²⁷, said once, he was “a hero who didn't like heroism”. Only in old age did he start to speak out, not least to try to influence the present. In 1999 he publicly supported NATO strikes in the Balkans, arguing that a policy of pacifist non-intervention only played into the hands of dictators.

　　爱德曼或许态度粗暴而显得难与同事相处。然而，正是他的慎思笃行惹恼了民众。他拒绝公开表达对纳粹的仇恨，且长达数年不愿谈及犹太区起义。正如另一位犹太幸存者盖雷·梅克曾说：他是“一个不喜欢英雄主义的英雄”。到了晚年，为了教育现代人他才开始谈及往事。 1999年，他公开支持北约轰炸巴尔干地区，认为和平主义者的不干涉政策，只会让独裁者占便宜。

　　His expertise³⁵ was in cardiology (uninhibited by his chain-smoking), and the heart and its emotions seemed to intrigue³⁶ him more as the years passed. His last book, published this year, made a point of describing the love affairs of the Warsaw ghetto: the “marvellous things” that happened, and the ecstatic moments of happiness, when terrified and lonely people were thrown together. Man was naturally a beast, but love could overwhelm him, and love could also be taught. As for his general devotion to medicine, that was easily explained. Someone who had known so much death, he used to say, bore all the more responsibility for life.

　　他的专长是心脏病学，而岁月长河中,更能激起勇气的是爱的情感。在他今年出版的最后一部书里，重点描述了华沙犹太区的爱：当恐怖和孤独的人们被命运抛聚在一起时，那是曾发生“不可思议的奇迹”和极度幸福时刻。人类的天性是野兽，但爱能超越，也能传承。至于他毕生献身医学也容易由此得到解释。他常说，对于曾经历了那么多死亡的人来说，理当为命运承担更多责任。

1 ghetto   

n.少数民族聚居区，贫民区

参考例句：

• Racism and crime still flourish in the ghetto.城市贫民区的种族主义和犯罪仍然十分猖獗。
• I saw that achievement as a possible pattern for the entire ghetto.我把获得的成就看作整个黑人区可以仿效的榜样。

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 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

6 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

8 liquidate   

v.偿付，清算，扫除；整理，破产

参考例句：

• A unanimous vote was taken to liquidate the company.全体投票一致通过停业清理公司。
• They have not hesitated in the past to liquidate their rivals.过去他们曾毫不犹豫地铲除对手。

9 deporting   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的现在分词 )；举止

参考例句：

10 barricaded   

设路障于，以障碍物阻塞( barricade的过去式和过去分词 )； 设路障[防御工事]保卫或固守

参考例句：

• The police barricaded the entrance. 警方在入口处设置了路障。
• The doors had been barricaded. 门都被堵住了。

11 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

12 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

13 mattresses   

褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The straw mattresses are airing there. 草垫子正在那里晾着。
• The researchers tested more than 20 mattresses of various materials. 研究人员试验了二十多个不同材料的床垫。

14 corpses   

n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The living soldiers put corpses together and burned them. 活着的战士把尸体放在一起烧了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Overhead, grayish-white clouds covered the sky, piling up heavily like decaying corpses. 天上罩满了灰白的薄云，同腐烂的尸体似的沉沉的盖在那里。 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

15 sewers   

n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sewers discharge out at sea. 下水道的污水排入海里。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Another municipal waste problem is street runoff into storm sewers. 有关都市废水的另外一个问题是进入雨水沟的街道雨水。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

16 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

17 precisely   

adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地

参考例句：

• It's precisely that sort of slick sales-talk that I mistrust.我不相信的正是那种油腔滑调的推销宣传。
• The man adjusted very precisely.那个人调得很准。

18 beleaguered   

adj.受到围困[围攻]的；包围的v.围攻( beleaguer的过去式和过去分词)；困扰；骚扰

参考例句：

• The beleaguered party leader was forced to resign. 那位饱受指责的政党领导人被迫辞职。
• We are beleaguered by problems. 我们被许多困难所困扰。 来自《简明英汉词典》

19 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

20 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

21 ardent   

adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的

参考例句：

• He's an ardent supporter of the local football team.他是本地足球队的热情支持者。
• Ardent expectations were held by his parents for his college career.他父母对他的大学学习抱着殷切的期望。

22 bickering   

v.争吵( bicker的现在分词 )；口角；（水等）作潺潺声；闪烁

参考例句：

• The children are always bickering about something or other. 孩子们有事没事总是在争吵。
• The two children were always bickering with each other over small matters. 这两个孩子总是为些小事斗嘴。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 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。

24 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

25 razing   

v.彻底摧毁，将…夷为平地( raze的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Years of war culminated in nothing less than a brutal razing of the city. 经年的战争给这座城市带来的不亚于灭顶之灾。 来自互联网

26 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

27 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

28 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

29 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

30 solidarity   

n.团结；休戚相关

参考例句：

• They must preserve their solidarity.他们必须维护他们的团结。
• The solidarity among China's various nationalities is as firm as a rock.中国各族人民之间的团结坚如磐石。

31 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

32 interned   

v.拘留，关押( intern的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was interned but,as he was in no way implicated in war crimes,was released. 他曾被拘留过，但因未曾涉嫌战争罪行而被释放了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These soldiers were interned in a neutral country until the war was over. 这些士兵被拘留在一个中立国，直到战争结束。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

33 martial   

adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的

参考例句：

• The sound of martial music is always inspiring.军乐声总是鼓舞人心的。
• The officer was convicted of desertion at a court martial.这名军官在军事法庭上被判犯了擅离职守罪。

34 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

35 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

36 intrigue   

vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋

参考例句：

• Court officials will intrigue against the royal family.法院官员将密谋反对皇室。
• The royal palace was filled with intrigue.皇宫中充满了勾心斗角。