经济学人07:目击埃及之春 Square eyes

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;

　　文艺；书评；

　　Revolution in Egypt;Tahrir Square, one year on;

　　埃及革命;回顾一年前的胜利广场;

　　Cairo: My City, Our Revolution. By Ahdaf Soueif.

　　《开罗：我的城市，我们的革命》，著者：阿达芙·索伊夫。

　　The big themes of history may be written by the victors, but it is the observant bystanders who fill in the details. When Hosni Mubarak was overthrown¹ in Cairo a year ago, among those watching was Ahdaf Soueif, a novelist born in Egypt and mostly resident in London. She missed the first three days as well as some of the postnatal struggles of the new era. As a liberal leftist she is at best a partial victor, given that Islamists took control of the streets after the big battles were won.

　　历史的大文章可能是由胜利者来撰写的，但是它的细节却是那些近距离的旁观者所提供的。当胡斯尼·穆巴拉克在一年前被推翻时，阿达芙·索伊夫就是这样的一个旁观者。她是一个出生于埃及、但大部分时间住在伦敦的小说家。她没有目睹头三天的情景，也没有看到新时代开始后的各种争斗。作为一个左翼自由派人士，她顶多算一个半胜利者，因为在埃及人民获得推翻穆巴拉克的斗争的胜利后，伊斯兰教主义者控制了街头。

　　So her view of the revolution may never dominate the new textbooks now being prepared in Egypt. The bearded men who will most likely dictate² what is in them, however, cannot entirely³ ignore what she recorded during the initial 18 days that felled the tyrant⁴ and his cronies. Well- observed details have an unmistakable ring of truth and revisionist historians ignore them at their peril⁵.

　　因此，索伊夫关于埃及革命的观点可能永远不会成为正在埃及重写的教科书的支配观点。然而，那些最有可能决定教科书写些什么的人，难以罔顾她所纪录的埃及革命头十八天中发生的那些事情。认真观察到的细节具有无可争辩的真实性，如果历史的修正者罔顾这些事实，他们自己会承担很大的风险。

　　Ms Soueif has collected her notes in a book that above all conveys what it felt like to be in Tahrir Square, to face the police on the Nile bridges, to stumble into makeshift hospitals filled with bloodied⁶ youths. She has an eye for ephemera at the edge of a vast stage: that tear-gas canisters become more not less potent⁷ when they pass their expiry date, that in July last year a Saudi flag appeared in Tahrir Square, that the soldiers took possession of any US dollar bills they came across as evidence of demonstrators being foreign agents.

　　索伊夫小姐把她的笔记整理成为一本书，在这本书中，她使人身临其境般地感受到开罗胜利广场的氛围、在尼罗桥上与警察的对持、闯进满是受伤的年轻人的临时医院。她很善于捕捉在大场景中那些转瞬即逝的细小情节：过了期的催泪罐功效反而更大；去年七月一面沙特国旗出现在胜利广场上；士兵们没收他们看到的任何美元钞票，以作为证据指控抗议者是外国间细。

　　She captures the deep contempt of the youths for the old rulers, quoting a teenage acquaintance as saying of the Mubarak men: “Before they open their mouths they’re liars⁸; they breathe lies.”And she records imaginative chants of revolutionaries marching through hard-up districts of the city trying to win allies by warning the residents: “Prices up and no one cares / Next you’ll sell your bed and chairs.”

　　她纪录了年轻人对前统治者们的极度蔑视，如一个十几岁的熟人在谈到穆巴拉克的人时说：“他们没张嘴也在说谎，他们呼吸的就是谎言。”她还纪录了，革命者们在戒备森严的地区一边游行一边唱着歌以争取居民支持：“价格飞涨无人管/你马上会变成穷光蛋。”

　　The lifeblood of Cairo visibly quickens during the days and months she chronicles. Her tone can be bombastic⁹, breathless and laden¹⁰ with pathos¹¹, just as it was on the city streets. The narrative¹² has a rushed, unfinished quality, much like the revolution itself. She inserts a flash-forward halfway¹³ through the account of the 18 days of revolution, in which she picks at what followed, especially the rise of the Islamists. All of it adds to the sense of drama.

　　开罗的生命之血在她所纪录的的那些日子里显而易见地加快了流动。她的语调是爆炸性的、令人难以喘气的、充满痛苦的，正像开罗街道上所发生的事情一样。她的叙述带着一种急迫的、未尽的感觉，正像埃及革命本身。在她对十八天革命的纪录中间，她插进了一段快进式的片段来讲述在革命之后发生的事，特别是伊斯兰教旨主义的崛起。所有这一切都加强了事件的戏剧性。

　　The most successful passages juxtapose the personal and the political. The narrative of street fighting is interleaved with personal memories of a previous age: here the house of a beloved aunt, there the studio where she acted in a television drama. The reader gets a visceral sense of the dislocation the revolutionaries felt in their own city.

　　把个人经历和政治现实对照着来写，是她的书最成功的地方。对街头斗争的叙述与自己对过去的回忆交织在一起：这里是一个可爱的姑母的房子；那里是她曾经参演电视剧的摄影室。读者从中感受到那些革命者们在自己的城市中发自内心的一种失落感。

　　There is little clever analysis in the book, but that hardly matters. In years to come it will be a reminder¹⁴ to liberals—now once again in the opposition¹⁵ following the recent election victory of Egypt’s Islamists—of their most glorious hour. It should serve as a heartening reminder of what they are capable of achieving when united and courageous¹⁶.

　　书中没有什么精辟的分析，但这并不重要。在今后多年中，它将提醒那些自由主义者们（他们又成了在新近的选举中获胜的埃及伊斯兰教主义者的对立面），他们曾经有过多么辉煌的时刻。这应当是一种振奋人心的提醒：当他们团结起来，鼓足勇气的时候，可以成就什么样的事业。

1 overthrown   

adj. 打翻的，推倒的，倾覆的 动词overthrow的过去分词

参考例句：

• The president was overthrown in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
• He has overthrown the basic standards of morality. 他已摒弃了基本的道德标准。

2 dictate   

v.口授；(使)听写；指令，指示，命令

参考例句：

• It took him a long time to dictate this letter.口述这封信花了他很长时间。
• What right have you to dictate to others?你有什么资格向别人发号施令？

3 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。

4 tyrant   

n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人

参考例句：

• The country was ruled by a despotic tyrant.该国处在一个专制暴君的统治之下。
• The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves.暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。

5 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。

6 bloodied   

v.血污的( bloody的过去式和过去分词 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• his bruised and bloodied nose 他沾满血的青肿的鼻子
• His pants leg was torn and bloodied when he fell. 他跌交时裤腿破了，还染上了血。 来自辞典例句

7 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

8 liars   

说谎者( liar的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The greatest liars talk most of themselves. 最爱自吹自擂的人是最大的说谎者。
• Honest boys despise lies and liars. 诚实的孩子鄙视谎言和说谎者。

9 bombastic   

adj.夸夸其谈的，言过其实的

参考例句：

• The candidate spoke in a bombastic way of all that he would do if elected.候选人大肆吹嘘，一旦他当选将要如何如何。
• The orator spoke in a bombastic manner.这位演说家的讲话言过其实。

10 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

11 pathos   

n.哀婉，悲怆

参考例句：

• The pathos of the situation brought tears to our eyes.情况令人怜悯，看得我们不禁流泪。
• There is abundant pathos in her words.她的话里富有动人哀怜的力量。

12 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

13 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

14 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

15 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

16 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。