经济学人134:1913年的世界 天塌之前的平静之年

 　　The world in 1913

　　1913年的世界

　　The year before the sky fell in

　　天塌之前的平静之年

　　1913: In Search of the World Before the Great War.By Charles Emmerson.

　　《1913年—一战之前的世界研究》查尔斯艾默生著

　　VIEWED from the capitals of Western Europe, the world looked pretty good in 1913. There were many, it is true, who heard rumblings of war; but this was so often the case in Europe, even after two decades of peace. The Economist¹ was not alarmed. In June 1913 it described the recent entente² cordiale between Britain and France as “the expression of tendencies which are slowly but surely making war between the civilised communities of the world an impossibility.”

　　从西欧大都市人们的视角来看，1913年的世界形势一派大好。确实有许多人听到了战争的叫嚣，但这在欧洲太普遍了，即使是在已经度过了二十年的和平期之后。《经济学人》杂志并没有觉察到战争的预警，1913年6月，它把英法两国最近签署的《英法协约》描述成了“对一种虽然缓慢但不可阻挡的趋势的表达—世界文明国度之间的战争是不可能爆发的。”

　　一战.jpg

　　We got that wrong. Yet the coming slaughter⁴, which would leave 35m dead or wounded, was not inevitable⁵. Europe was not only peaceful but also richer, healthier and arguably more stable than it had ever been. It was also more interconnected. Kaiser Wilhelm II, King George V and Tsar Nicholas II were cousins and socialised together. The latter two monarchs⁶ looked very much alike, and the societies they presided over were also close kin³.

　　我们对形势判断错误。随后的大屠杀导致3500万人口死亡或受伤，但这并不是不可避免。欧洲不仅比以往任何时候更加和平，而且更加富裕、更加健康，甚至按说是比以往更加稳定。各国之间联系更加紧密，威廉二世、乔治五世、尼古拉二世是堂表兄弟，相互往来密切。乔治五世与尼古拉二世长相酷似，他们所统治的国家也关系紧密。

　　A hybridised elite⁷ travelled the continent, patronising its hybridised music and art. A swelling⁸ European middle-class went shopping for the same luxuries in London as in Vienna. And Europe's workers at least had the consolation⁹ of socialism—as preached by the 553 delegates from 23 countries who gathered in Switzerland in November 1912 to rededicate themselves to peace. Despite expressions of nationalist fervour, in Europe a multi-tiered continental¹⁰ identity was emerging.

　　一个有多国身份背景的精英人士在欧洲大陆旅行，为有多国风情的音乐与艺术提供赞助。人数不断增长的欧洲中产阶层选购相同的奢侈品，不论是在伦敦还是在维也纳。欧洲的工人得到了社会主义承诺的慰藉，至少国际会议的代表这样宣称—23个国家的553名代表于1912年11月齐聚瑞士，声称要再次献身于世界和平。尽管仍有种族主义的狂热呼声，但是一个多层次的欧陆统一体逐渐呈现。

　　Charles Emmerson, a young British historian who has previously¹¹ written a fine study of the Arctic, provides a grand tour of Europe at this fateful time—and then proceeds to Detroit, Buenos Aires, Tehran, Bombay and Tokyo, to 23 cities in all. With barely a nod to the impending¹² calamity¹³, he aims not to explain what caused or was lost to the war, but to retrieve¹⁴ from the partial glare of hindsight the world in which it erupted.

　　英国的年轻历史学家查尔斯艾默生之前曾写过一部有关北极地区的很好的书籍，他在这个重大时刻游历欧洲，接着继续游历了底特律、布宜诺斯艾利斯、德黑兰、孟买、东京等共23个城市。他只是简要提及了即将发生的大灾难，因为他的目的不是解释战争的起因或损失，而是要通过事后的审视与觉悟，认识灾难爆发之时的世界。

　　This is no modest undertaking¹⁵. Mr Emmerson draws from a wide range of sources, including memoirs¹⁶, billboards¹⁷ and newspapers, to recreate a year that was fairly uneventful. 1913 saw the opening of Stravinsky's “The Rite¹⁸ of Spring” and New York overtake London as the world's busiest port; it was a caesura before great events. Yet Mr Emmerson makes no apology for the geopolitical verisimilitude he describes. Not unlike Marcel Proust's “In Search of Lost Time”, the first instalments of which were published in 1913, his narrative¹⁹ finds coherence²⁰ in the unremarkable. It can similarly drag; but what emerges is a rich portrait and an important set of ideas.

　　这可不是简单的工作。艾默生要大范围的查阅资料，包括回忆录、布告板、报纸，这样才能在作品中重现太平无事的1913年。这一年，史特拉文斯基的《春之祭》首次公演，纽约超过伦敦，成为全世界最繁忙的港口城市。这是重大事件之前的宁静。艾默生先生没有为他所描述的真实的地缘政治辩护。马赛尔普鲁斯特的《追忆似水年华》第一部于1913年问世，与这部小说不同，艾默生在平凡的叙述中讲求连贯一致。这其中也会有类似的拖拉冗长，但最终曾现出来的是多姿多彩的描述，是一连串的重要思想。

　　Humanity was less shaped by the Great War than is often supposed. Rather, the world of 1913 was quite like that of 2013: modern, substantially urbanised and, even as Woodrow Wilson set about slashing²¹ import tariffs²², thriving on global trade. The report of a bad harvest in Canada could mean a fall on the London stockmarket the next day, and the arrangement of imports of Russian wheat by the end of the week. The European empires augmented²³ these linkages²⁴; advertisements in one London paper recommended holidays in Sudan, with travel by “express steamers and sleepcar trains-de-luxe”. Yet challenges to colonial rule in India, South Africa and elsewhere, were becoming louder, partly due to the same global forces.

　　人性并没有像人们通常所想的那样，由于一战而产生巨大的改变。相反，1913年的世界非常类似2013年的世界：它摩登现代，基本实现了城市化，尽管伍德罗?威尔逊严厉抨击进口关税，但世界经济繁荣发展。加拿大粮食歉收的报道会带来第二天伦敦股票市场的股票下跌，到该周周末会安排进口沙俄小麦。伦敦的一家报纸刊登广告，推荐乘坐“特快汽船、特快豪华卧铺列车”前往苏丹旅行。在印度、南非及其它地方，对殖民统治的反对之声越来越强烈，这部分是由于相同的国际力量。

　　Though some features of the world in 1913 seem strange—including the riches of Argentina—most are familiar. Yet with that comes a troubling corollary. In the current testing of European unity²⁵, the reassertion of the nation state and insecurity engendered²⁶ by rising powers, the world in 2013 looks a bit discomfitingly like that of 1913.

　　虽然1913年世界存在的一些特征似乎很奇怪—这包括阿根廷的富裕—但大部分特征都是人们所熟悉的。随之而来的是一种令人感到困恼的推断。目前是对欧洲统一体的测验，是对民族独立的重新坚持，是对大国崛起造成的不安全感的再次断言，这个过程中，2013年的世界与1913年的世界颇有几分类似，另人感到不安。

　　1.gather in 聚拢

　　Women gather in a mosque²⁷ in jakarta, indonesia

　　印度尼西亚雅加达，妇女们聚集在清真寺。

　　They hang around team hotels, gather in restaurants, debate in bars.

　　他们游离在球队下榻的酒店、聚集在餐馆、在酒吧大肆争论。

　　2.aim to 计划，打算

　　They all aim to help you become a financial success.

　　它们的唯一目标就是帮助你取得财务上的更大成功。

　　People think viruses aim to destroy their computers.

　　人们以为病毒的目的就是破坏他们的电脑。

　　3.retrieve from 检索

　　They try to posses it, they demand, they expect...and just like the water spillin out of your hand, love will retrieve from you.

　　他们试图占有它，他们要求，他们期待，那样就像溢出你的手掌的水一样，爱会从你身边撤退。

　　Assign instantiated objects to the session object on the server, and then retrieve from session in a new page.

　　将实例化的对象分配给服务器上的session对象，然后从新页中的session检索。

　　4.publish in 发表于

　　Click save as web page on the file menu, and then click publish in the save as dialog box.

　　单击“文件”菜单上的“另存为网页”，然后单击“另存为”对话框中的“发布”。

　　The second main kind of blogs are, in effect, niche²⁸ magazines that choose to publish in a blog format²⁹.

　　另一类博客，实际上是以博客形式发布的非主流杂志。

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 entente   

n.协定；有协定关系的各国

参考例句：

• The French entente with Great Britain had already been significantly extended.法国和英国之间友好协议的范围已经大幅度拓宽。
• Electoral pacts would not work,but an entente cordiale might.选举协定不会起作用，但是政府间的谅解也许可以。

3 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

4 slaughter   

n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀

参考例句：

• I couldn't stand to watch them slaughter the cattle.我不忍看他们宰牛。
• Wholesale slaughter was carried out in the name of progress.大规模的屠杀在维护进步的名义下进行。

5 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

6 monarchs   

君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Monarchs ruled England for centuries. 世袭君主统治英格兰有许多世纪。
• Serving six monarchs of his native Great Britain, he has served all men's freedom and dignity. 他在大不列颠本国为六位君王服务，也为全人类的自由和尊严服务。 来自演讲部分

7 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

8 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

9 consolation   

n.安慰，慰问

参考例句：

• The children were a great consolation to me at that time.那时孩子们成了我的莫大安慰。
• This news was of little consolation to us.这个消息对我们来说没有什么安慰。

10 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

11 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

12 impending   

a.imminent, about to come or happen

参考例句：

• Against a background of impending famine, heavy fighting took place. 即将发生饥荒之时，严重的战乱爆发了。
• The king convoke parliament to cope with the impending danger. 国王召开国会以应付迫近眉睫的危险。

13 calamity   

n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件

参考例句：

• Even a greater natural calamity cannot daunt us. 再大的自然灾害也压不垮我们。
• The attack on Pearl Harbor was a crushing calamity.偷袭珍珠港(对美军来说)是一场毁灭性的灾难。

14 retrieve   

vt.重新得到，收回；挽回，补救；检索

参考例句：

• He was determined to retrieve his honor.他决心恢复名誉。
• The men were trying to retrieve weapons left when the army abandoned the island.士兵们正试图找回军队从该岛撤退时留下的武器。

15 undertaking   

n.保证，许诺，事业

参考例句：

• He gave her an undertaking that he would pay the money back with in a year.他向她做了一年内还钱的保证。
• He is too timid to venture upon an undertaking.他太胆小，不敢从事任何事业。

16 memoirs   

n.回忆录；回忆录传( mem,自oir的名词复数)

参考例句：

• Her memoirs were ghostwritten. 她的回忆录是由别人代写的。
• I watched a trailer for the screenplay of his memoirs. 我看过以他的回忆录改编成电影的预告片。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

18 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
• Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。

19 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。

20 coherence   

n.紧凑；连贯；一致性

参考例句：

• There was no coherence between the first and the second half of the film.这部电影的前半部和后半部没有连贯性。
• Environmental education is intended to give these topics more coherence.环境教育的目的是使这些课题更加息息相关。

21 slashing   

adj.尖锐的；苛刻的；鲜明的；乱砍的v.挥砍( slash的现在分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Slashing is the first process in which liquid treatment is involved. 浆纱是液处理的第一过程。 来自辞典例句
• He stopped slashing his horse. 他住了手，不去鞭打他的马了。 来自辞典例句

22 tariffs   

关税制度； 关税( tariff的名词复数 )； 关税表； （旅馆或饭店等的）收费表； 量刑标准

参考例句：

• British industry was sheltered from foreign competition by protective tariffs. 保护性关税使英国工业免受国际竞争影响。
• The new tariffs have put a stranglehold on trade. 新的关税制对开展贸易极为不利。

23 Augmented   

adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• 'scientists won't be replaced," he claims, "but they will be augmented." 他宣称：“科学家不会被取代；相反，他们会被拓展。” 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• The impact of the report was augmented by its timing. 由于发表的时间选得好，这篇报导的影响更大了。

24 linkages   

n.连接( linkage的名词复数 )；结合；联系；联动装置

参考例句：

• Only the thermosetting resins provide a strong cohesive forces; this is due to molecular cross linkages. 只有热固性树脂具有巨大的凝聚力，这是由于分子交错链所造成的。 来自辞典例句
• The linkages between the stable units must be as near as possible of equal stability. 稳定链节之间的键必须有尽可能接近的稳定性。 来自辞典例句

25 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

26 engendered   

v.产生（某形势或状况），造成，引起( engender的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The issue engendered controversy. 这个问题引起了争论。
• The meeting engendered several quarrels. 这次会议发生了几次争吵。 来自《简明英汉词典》

27 mosque   

n.清真寺

参考例句：

• The mosque is a activity site and culture center of Muslim religion.清真寺为穆斯林宗教活动场所和文化中心。
• Some years ago the clock in the tower of the mosque got out of order.几年前，清真寺钟楼里的大钟失灵了。

28 niche   

n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等)

参考例句：

• Madeleine placed it carefully in the rocky niche. 玛德琳小心翼翼地把它放在岩石壁龛里。
• The really talented among women would always make their own niche.妇女中真正有才能的人总是各得其所。

29 format   

n.设计，版式；[计算机]格式，DOS命令:格式化(磁盘)，用于空盘或使用过的磁盘建立新空盘来存储数据；v.使格式化，设计，安排

参考例句：

• Please format this floppy disc.请将这张软盘格式化。
• The format of the figure is very tasteful.该图表的格式很雅致。