文艺

　　Bookreview

　　书评

　　Post-war Britain

　　战后英国

　　When the tide turned

　　变革之后

　　Modernity Britain: Opening the Box, 1957-59. By David Kynaston.

　　《打开历史，认识1957-1959年间的英国现代主义》

　　EARLY in 1959 passengers on a London tube train defied an announcer's instruction to “all change”, before being thrown off by police.

　　早在1959年，伦敦地铁广播员下令所有乘客遵循指令，没有接受指令的乘客们就被警察赶下了地铁。

　　They had wanted, a witness told the Times, “to know what the reason was”.

　　接受《时代》周刊采访的目击者表示，他们想知道原因。

　　They were tired of being treated “habitually and consistently as unreasoning cattle”.

　　因为他们已经受够了一直被人当作乱跑的牛群一样随意驱赶。

　　战后英国.jpg

　　A stirring from bovine deference was widespread in late 1950s Britain.

　　二十世纪50年代末，英国消费者不再尊崇发展缓慢的事物。

　　A consumerist surge helped reshape traditional working-class culture.

　　消费主义的兴起重新塑造了传统的工薪阶层文化。

　　Two-thirds of homes had a television by 1959, up from 45% just two years earlier.

　　截止到1959年，三分之二的家庭拥有电视机，与两年前45%的拥有率相比有所增加。

　　Tripe and dripping were on the slide; the brand-laden aspiration of Ian Fleming's bestselling Bond novels was on the rise.

　　流油的美味内脏出现在幻灯片上；人们对于伊安弗莱明的007系列畅销小说的越来越追捧。

　　Private house-building overtook that of local authorities.

　　私人建房的数量要超过地方政府的建房数量。

　　Modernist architects wrought their iconoclasm in city centres and university campuses.

　　现代主义建筑师在城市和校园中用他们的作品展现着对传统观念的破坏。

　　Students covered a home secretary in flour and foam.

　　学生们能够雇得起家庭厨师。

　　The country was getting into the swing of the 1960s.

　　整个国家全身心地投入到二十世纪60年代中去了。

　　But not all were limbering up.

　　不过，也不是所有人都行动一致，开始接受变化。

　　A mobbed rock 'n' roll star wished “the kids would show more restraint”.

　　一个暴徒般的摇滚明星表示希望孩子们能更加克制。

　　Women were still burdened with domestic drudgery.

　　妇女仍然为家事所累。

　　Asked about the latest consumer durable, many men said, “I don't need one, my wife is my washing machine.”

　　每当被问到最新的耐用消费品时，很多男人会说：“我不需要，我老婆就是个洗衣机。”

　　The liberalism of the next decade was more marked among politicians than the people.

　　未来十年，政客身上体现的自由主义会比人民要明显。

　　At a time when most Britons wanted to impose a “colour bar” on immigration, the one Tory MP who suggested such a restriction in Parliament was humiliated and reduced to tears at a party meeting.

　　当大部分英国人想要在移民政策上添加种族色彩的条款时，托利党的一位议员认为这样的条款让人无地自容，议会里不应该有这样的规定，为此他洒泪党内会议。

　　“Modernity Britain”, the third installment of David Kynaston'schronicle of post-war life, captures a society on the edge of change.

　　《英国现代主义》是大卫基纳斯顿描写战后生活系列的第三本书。书中，他描写了处于变革边缘的英国社会。

　　The author is fascinated by the ordinary.

　　他非常喜欢描写英国社会下的普罗大众。

　　He flits from the diaries of a suburban housewife to those of the prime minister, and back to provincial obscurity with the letter pages of the regional press.

　　从郊区家庭妇女的日常生活到首相的日常安排，再到地方媒体上的爆出来的信件里的小道消息，通通都是他描写的对象。

　　Through it all he conveys 1950s life more vividly than any historian before him.

　　他笔下的二十世纪50年代，比他之前的任何一位历史学家，都要生动的多。

　　Mr Kynaston is mostly content to let his sources do the talking. But the anti-elitism of his methodology occasionally finds its way into his analysis.

　　基纳斯顿很欣慰看到自己写的东西能带来一些影响，但是读者偶尔会从他的分析中发现反精英思想。

　　An excellent riff on “meritocracy”, a term that was popularised by a sociologist named Michael Young in 1958, ends with a bruising critique of grammar schools.

　　精英主义这个词是在1958年一名叫麦克杨的社会学者使用后开始流行，开始变得让人敬畏的。直到文法学校受到严厉批评，对于该词的重复引用才算告一段落。

　　When a professional cricketer running in to bowl sees his England teammate，a posh amateur，practising his golf swing, the author's tut is all but audible.

　　一名专业的板球运动员跑出场外去观看英格兰的队友，一名动作优雅的业余球员挥舞高尔夫球杆时，作者的啧啧赞叹声此起彼伏 。

　　Just after the 1959 general election a cartoon depicted the patricianHarold Macmillan, re-elected as prime minister, sitting beside a fridge, a car, a washing machine and a television.

　　就在1959年大选之后，有这样一幅漫画，描写的是出身贵族的罗德麦克米伦再次当选首相，在他周围摆放的是冰箱，车子，洗衣机和电视机。

　　“Well, gentlemen,” he says, “I think we all fought a good fight.”

　　他说：“各位，我觉得我们干的不错！”

　　Post-war austerity had thawed, and the country had entered a consumerist, “candyfloss world”.

　　战后的财政紧缩已经开始缓解，整个英国已经进入一个像棉花糖一样美好的消费时代。

　　The Tories, unlike the Labour Party, had woken up to this.

　　与信仰清教，一直到1951年后就再也没有执政过的工党不同的是，托利党人已经意识到了这一点。

　　The masterful “Modernity Britain” enables new readers to do so too.

　　《英国现代主义》这本书写法一流，许多新读者也开始纷纷效仿书中的做法。

　　1.limber up 变柔软；舒展

　　A new version of the song is played as arsenal limber up before matches at highbury.

　　现在这首歌的新版本用来在比赛前阿森纳球员热身时在海布里播放。

　　I always do a few easy exercises to limber up before a match.

　　我在比赛前总要做些简单的准备活动。

　　2.washing machine n.洗衣机

　　Count your clothes before putting in the washing machine.

　　把衣服放进洗衣机前清点衣服数目。

　　Crusher mixes lubricious machine washing machine.

　　破裂机混色机洗衣机。

　　3.reduce to 使降低到；遭受

　　Reduce to impact environment of wenzhou leather industry.

　　减少制革工业对温州的环境影响。

　　For saving the non-renewable sources, kindly please reduce to use tissue.

　　为节约非可再生资源,请大家减少使用擦手纸。

　　4.prime minister n.总理，首相

　　Gazans speak of policemen overruling the prime minister.

　　加沙人表示警察凌驾在于首相之上。

　　Hasina was first elected prime minister in 1996.

　　哈西娜1996年被选为总理。