2023年经济学人 马丁·路德·金: 最后的国父(2)

 

    He found his voice as a political leader on December 5th 1955, when he was just 26 and a newly installed pastor¹ in Montgomery, Alabama.

    1955年12月5日，年仅26岁的金成为了一名政治领袖，那时他在阿拉巴马州蒙哥马利市才刚刚成为牧师。

    At Holt Street Baptist Church that evening, four days after the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger, he addressed a crowd of black Alabamans.

    当天晚上在霍尔特街浸礼会教堂，也就是罗莎·帕克斯因拒绝在公交车上给白人乘客让座而被捕的四天后，他向阿拉巴马州的黑人发表了讲话。

    They were concerned about the response that their boycott² of Montgomery’s buses might provoke from the city’s whites.

    人们担心他们抵制蒙哥马利公交可能会引起该市白人的反应。

    Mr Eig explains that King “needed to embolden³ without embittering”.

    艾格先生解释说，金“需要大胆而且不带怨恨”。

    He had to acknowledge his audience’s justified⁴ anger yet persuade them to protest righteously and hopefully.

    他必须认同听众们正义的愤怒，但又要说服他们正直地、满怀希望地进行抗议。

    Speaking without notes, he advanced a reassuring⁵ argument deeply rooted in American and Christian⁶ traditions.

    在脱稿演讲时，金提出了一个根植于美国和基督教传统，因而让人安心的论点。

    “We are not wrong,” he declared. “If we are wrong, the Supreme⁷ Court of this nation is wrong.

    “我们没有错，”他宣称，“如果我们错了，那么这个国家的最高法院也错了。

    If we are wrong, the constitution of the United States is wrong.

    如果我们错了，那么美国的宪法也是错的。

    If we are wrong, God Almighty⁸ is wrong.”

    如果我们错了，那么全能的上帝就是错的。”

    They were not wrong—and that may have been the mid-century civil-rights movement’s greatest strength.

    他们没有错，而这可能是二十世纪中叶的民权运动最强大的力量。

    King’s efforts to overturn legal segregation⁹ were at once radical¹⁰, because African-Americans had been second-class citizens since America’s founding, and based on straightforward¹¹ American ideals.

    金推翻法律规定的种族隔离的努力既是激进的-- 因为非裔美国人自建国以来就是二等公民 -- 也是基于直接的美国理想。

    He understood that the country’s promises of freedom and equality were hollow if geography or skin colour could invalidate them.

    他明白，如果地理或肤色可以使国家对自由和平等的承诺失效，那么这些承诺就是空洞的。

    Moral suasion was not enough.

    仅靠道德劝说是不够的。

    King also led the most successful pressure campaign in American history, enduring beatings, bombings, imprisonment¹², scorn, the arms’-length caution of John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson’s two-faced truculence¹³, and illegal monitoring and harassment¹⁴ by the FBI.

    金还领导了美国历史上最成功的施压运动，忍受住了殴打、爆炸、监禁、蔑视、约翰·F·肯尼迪与他保持距离的冷淡态度、林登·约翰逊的两面三刀，以及FBI的非法监控和骚扰。

    Within a decade of his address in Holt Street, Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act.

    在霍尔特街演讲发表后的十年内，约翰逊签署了《民权法案》和《投票权法案》。

    He signed the Fair Housing Act, outlawing¹⁵ discrimination in housing, a week after an assassin’s bullet ended King’s life in 1968.

    1968年，一颗刺杀者的子弹结束了金的生命，一周后，约翰逊签署了《公平住房法案》，宣布住房歧视违法。

    Yet by the time King died many considered him yesterday’s man.

    然而，在金去世之前，许多人认为他已经是明日黄花了。

    His opposition¹⁶ to the war in Vietnam alienated¹⁷ some of his compatriots.

    他反对越南战争，从而让他的一些同胞疏远了他。

    The civil-rights movement had splintered, as more radical voices, such as Stokely Carmichael’s, grew louder.

    随着斯托克利·卡迈克尔等更激进的声音变得更加响亮，民权运动已经四分五裂。

    Many white Americans saw ending segregation as the movement’s goal, when, for King, it was just the start: his aim was brotherhood¹⁸ and equality.

    许多美国白人认为结束种族隔离就是民权运动的目标，而对金来说，这只是个开始：他的目标是手足情谊和平等。

    As the 55 years since his death have shown, achieving those through policy is fiendishly difficult.

    在他去世后的55年，正如事实所表明的那样，通过政策实现这些目标难于登天。

    A difficult goal can be worth striving for, however.

    但是，难度大的目标也可以值得为之奋斗。

    And it does King and his quest an injustice¹⁹ to suggest he called only for colour-blindness and not, as he put it in 1967, “a reconstruction²⁰ of the entire society”, perhaps involving the nationalisation of industry and a guaranteed basic income.

    而且，认为金只呼吁无视肤色，而不是像他在1967年所说的“重建整个社会”（其中可能涉及工业国有化和有保障的基本收入），这对金和他的奋斗而言是不公平的。

    Such ideas may be discomforting, including for those who would enlist²¹ King as an opponent of CRT: always sceptical of “the tranquillising drug of gradualism”, he came to believe that most Americans “are unconscious racists”.

    这样的想法可能会让人感到不安，包括那些将金列为反对批判性种族理论的人也会不安。金总是对“渐进主义的镇静剂”持怀疑态度，以至于他开始相信大多数美国人“在无意识中都是种族主义者”。

    But those were still his views, even if expressing them could spell trouble for a teacher in Florida.

    但这些都是金的观点，尽管表达这些观点可能会给佛罗里达州的教师带来麻烦。

1 pastor   

n.牧师，牧人

参考例句：

• He was the son of a poor pastor.他是一个穷牧师的儿子。
• We have no pastor at present:the church is run by five deacons.我们目前没有牧师：教会的事是由五位执事管理的。

2 boycott   

n./v.(联合)抵制，拒绝参与

参考例句：

• We put the production under a boycott.我们联合抵制该商品。
• The boycott lasts a year until the Victoria board permitsreturn.这个抗争持续了一年直到维多利亚教育局妥协为止。

3 embolden   

v.给…壮胆，鼓励

参考例句：

• Emboldened by the wine,he went over to introduce himself to her.他借酒壮胆，走上前去向她作自我介绍。
• The Prime Minister was steadily emboldened by the discovery that he faced no opposition.发现自己并未遭到反对，首相渐渐有了信心。

4 justified   

a.正当的，有理的

参考例句：

• She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
• The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。

5 reassuring   

a.使人消除恐惧和疑虑的，使人放心的

参考例句：

• He gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder. 他轻拍了一下她的肩膀让她放心。
• With a reassuring pat on her arm, he left. 他鼓励地拍了拍她的手臂就离开了。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

8 almighty   

adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的

参考例句：

• Those rebels did not really challenge Gods almighty power.这些叛徒没有对上帝的全能力量表示怀疑。
• It's almighty cold outside.外面冷得要命。

9 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

10 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

11 straightforward   

adj.正直的，坦率的；易懂的，简单的

参考例句：

• A straightforward talk is better than a flowery speech.巧言不如直说。
• I must insist on your giving me a straightforward answer.我一定要你给我一个直截了当的回答。

12 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

13 truculence   

n.凶猛，粗暴

参考例句：

• One day, it might even suit the Kremlin to encourage this truculence. 总有一天可能更适于克里姆宁宫去鼓励这种好战。
• Examples of China's truculence as viewed from Washington – abound. 在华盛顿方面看来，中国好斗的例子比比皆是。

14 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

15 outlawing   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Regulations are outlawing certain refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons, which contain ozone-depleting chemicals. 随后出台的政策禁用了部分制冷剂，如破坏臭氧层的氟氯碳化合物。
• An amendment outlawing sale of intoxicating liquors(1920)was repealed in 1933. 规定售卖酒类为非法的一个宪法修正案（一九二○年）在一九三三年被废止。

16 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。

17 alienated   

adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等）

参考例句：

• His comments have alienated a lot of young voters. 他的言论使许多年轻选民离他而去。
• The Prime Minister's policy alienated many of her followers. 首相的政策使很多拥护她的人疏远了她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

18 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

19 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

20 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。

21 enlist   

vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍

参考例句：

• They come here to enlist men for the army.他们来这儿是为了召兵。
• The conference will make further efforts to enlist the support of the international community for their just struggle. 会议必将进一步动员国际社会，支持他们的正义斗争。