经济学人52:广场上的旁观者

 　　Books and Arts; Book Review;Revolution in Egypt;Square eyes

　　文艺；书评；埃及的革命;广场上的旁观者

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

　　开罗：我的城市，我们的革命。作者：AHDAF SOUEIF。

　　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.

　　历史的主干由胜利者书写，而敏锐的旁观者用细节丰富历史。一年前穆巴拉克在开罗被推翻，当时，小说家AHDAF SOUEIF是旁观者之一。她出生于埃及，大部分时间都居住在伦敦。革命的前三天，她不在场，未能经历新时代最初的斗争。鉴于在重大战斗取得胜利后，是伊斯兰主义者控制了街道，作为自由左派的AHDAF SOUEIF最多算半个胜利者。

　　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.

　　所以她对革命的看法决不可能成为埃及正在准备的新教科书的主要观点。那些大胡子的男人很可能把自己的意志印作教材，但AHDAF SOUEIF记录下了推倒暴君及其死党的最初十八天，他们没法完全忽略这些记录。清晰的细节意味着明白无误的真相，修正主义的历史学家却忽略细节，结果使得真相可能模糊不清。

　　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.

　　SOUEIF女士整理笔记汇集成书。此书最想传达给读者的是：当身处动荡的解放广场时，当在尼罗河桥上与警察对峙时，当无意中踏进挤满浑身血污青年的临时医院时，会有什么样的感受。作者独具慧眼，发现了一些广阔舞台边上转眼即逝的小事：过期的催泪瓦斯过滤罐不仅没失效，反而更有效；去年七月解放广场出现一面沙特国旗；士兵们拿走他们搜到的每一张美元，说是作为示威者是外国间谍的证据。

　　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.”

　　她留意到了年轻人对旧统治者深深的蔑视。作者有个熟人不到二十岁，她引用了此人评论穆巴拉克份子的话：“他们说谎不用开口，因为他们呼吸的都是谎言”。当革命者游行经过开罗贫穷社区的时候，为了赢得支持，他们提醒那些居民：“物价上涨没人管，你马上就要连床和桌椅板凳都卖掉了”，作者记录下了这些充满想象力的口号。

　　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.

　　在作者记录的那些日子里，开罗明显比以前更有生命力。作者的语调：夸张浮躁、扣人心弦以及充满悲怆，好似开罗街上的气氛。她的叙述和革命本身一样，有点匆忙、不够完整。在对18天革命的描述中，她在中间插入了一段对未来的展望。在展望中，她梳理出革命之后会发生的情况，特别是伊斯兰主义者的崛起。所有这些增加了本书的戏剧性。

　　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.

　　此书最成功的地方在于把私人生活与政治事件联系起来。在叙述巷战的那段，作者插叙了一些自己过去生活的回忆：某处是至爱的姑妈家，某处是她曾经拍电视剧的摄影棚。对埃及的混乱，读者能发自内心地与革命者感同身受。

　　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.

　　本书没有什么精彩的分析，但瑕不掩瑜。多年之后——以及现在（近期埃及的伊斯兰主义者赢得选举，抗议之声再起）——本书都能使自由主义者回想起他们最光荣的时刻。这是本振奋人心的书，它提醒人们只要团结并勇敢，就有能力得到自己追求的东西。

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。