经济学人逝者 || 一个村庄的传说

原文:http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzU1MDQwNTgzMg==&mid=2247491311&idx=1&sn=05f32ba42dda8b33be6fecdef1ab00ae&chksm=fba04d48ccd7c45e21539ab6650877eefcf9b3c5fc453aa54b789ab61b12d32f625ec545c15e#rd

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The tale of a village

一个村庄的传说

英文部分选自经济学人20200801期逝者版块

Obituary: László Bogdán

逝者:拉斯洛·保丹


The tale of a village

一个村庄的传说


László Bogdán, mayor of Cserdi, died on July 14th, aged 46

切尔迪村长拉斯洛·保丹于714日逝世,年仅46


Along the walls of his office in Cserdi, a village of around 350 souls in the gentle hills of southern Hungary, László Bogdán strung several clothes lines. Pegged to them were hundreds of messages written to “Laci”, as they called him: “People are good!” “Our parents have work”. “We have a good mayor”.


切尔迪是一个位于匈牙利南部平缓丘陵地带的村庄,大约有350人。拉斯洛·保丹的办公室就在这里,他在办公室的墙上挂了几根晾衣绳,夹在晾衣绳上的是写给拉奇(村民对保丹的称呼)的几百条留言:人们过得很好!”“我们的父母有工作。”“我们有个好村长


These were the voices of the villagers, who since his election as mayor in 2006 had seen their world transformed. Cserdi had once been strewn with rubble and dilapidated houses, with idle, jobless men brawling outside. Petty crime was rampant: up to 300 cases a year, with neighbouring villages terrorised. Now everything was orderly. The houses were neat, and many had gained bathrooms. Small parks had appeared. Out in the fields women worked with hoes, and men with spades, to plant potatoes or dig wells. Four giant plastic greenhouses sheltered crops of peppers and tomatoes. In a good year the village could produce 160,000kg of quality vegetables, with the surplus going to the poor of the county. Officials from far and wide came to inspect this “Cserdi miracle”. But Mayor Laci, pacing up and down with his purple scarf knotted fashionably round his neck, was still dissatisfied. Was it really so special, so exotic, to see Gypsies working?


这些都是村民的心声。自他2006年当选村长以来,村民们见证了他们的世界发生了很大变化。切尔迪曾经一度到处是碎砖破瓦,房屋也破旧不堪,游手好闲的无业人员在屋外寻衅滋事。小型犯罪猖獗,每年多达300起,附近的村子也人心惶惶。但是现在一切都井然有序。房屋整齐排列,许多还加装了洗手间。村里还修建了小公园。在田里,女人荷锄、男人舞锹,种土豆或者是挖井。四个巨大的塑料温室大棚为辣椒和西红柿遮风避雨。丰年之时,村子可以生产16万公斤优质蔬菜,多余的蔬菜会分给该州的穷人。四面八方的官员都来观摩这个切尔迪奇迹。但是来回走动张罗的拉齐村长(围着紫色围巾,围巾打法时髦),却仍然不满意。看到吉普赛人工作,真的有那么特别、那么稀奇吗?


He spoke as one, a proud Cigány (he hated “Roma”), who revelled in garish shirts that emphasised his Gypsyness, and delivered his vegetables in a red Zsiguli car with a swinging rosary of the sort only Gypsies drove. He showed off Cserdi, where the population was three-quarters Gypsy, to prove that it could be as ordinary as anywhere else. But he knew it was not. The stereotype that most non-Gypsy Hungarians carried in their heads was all too often true: his people (“us”, not “they”, for his people’s sins were his, he took them on himself) were work-shy, cheated, stole, and lived on handouts if they

could. The jails were full of dark faces.


他言语间就是个骄傲的茨戛尼人【译者注:匈牙利语,指匈牙利的吉普赛人】(他讨厌罗姆人这个叫法),沉醉于能凸显他吉普赛本色的花衬衫。他开着只有吉卜赛人才开的挂有摇来摇去念珠的红色日古里车送蔬菜。切尔迪有四分之三的人口是吉普赛人,他对外宣扬切尔迪就是为了证明这里可以像任何其他地方一样平常。但他知道事实并非如此。大多数非吉普赛匈牙利人脑中固有的刻板印象通常也是符合事实的:他的人民(我们,不是他们,因为他的人民的罪过是他的罪过,他本人扛下了这些罪过)不愿工作、欺诈、偷窃,只要有可能便靠接济度日。监狱里也满是深肤色的面孔。


Of course, 600 years of history in Hungary had not been kind. Poverty and discrimination, fear of the Other, had stalked his people wherever they went. Under Communism everyone, including Gypsies, was meant to work. Yet it took his father some years to find a job as a miner. Until then, they lived in a shack; he had no shoes of his own until he was 13, and was sent down to scavenge for chewy, rotten meat in the pits where farmers threw the carcasses of their animals. His strongest childhood memory was hunger.


当然,吉普赛人在匈牙利的600年历史充满了艰辛。贫穷、歧视、对异族人的畏惧,无论吉普赛人去往哪里,它们都如影随形。在共产主义制度下,任何人——包括吉普赛人——本来都是要工作的。然而,他父亲花了好几年才找到一份当矿工的工作。在此之前,他们一家人住在一个棚屋里;直到13岁,他才拥有自己的第一双鞋。他被安排下到农民丢弃动物尸体的深坑里去找难嚼的腐肉。他最深刻的童年记忆是饥饿。


Yet that was no excuse to play the victim. He had never moaned, taking any job he could get after a few indifferent years of school: sweeping floors, packing monitors, eventually becoming production manager in a mobile-phone company. Here was the lesson for “all of us”: Gypsies had to work! If they took responsibility, gained self-respect, hauled themselves up by their bootlaces, prejudice might begin to fade away.


但是,他不愿以此为借口扮演受害者。他从不抱怨,在学校表现平平呆了几年后,他无论找到什么活都会去干:扫地、打包显示器,最终成为一家手机公司的生产经理。这是给我们所有人上的一课:吉普赛人必须工作!如果他们担起责任,拥有自尊,自力更生,对他们的偏见就可能会开始消失。


This was the task he set himself as mayor of Cserdi. It was heavy, but he set about it logically. Gypsies belonged nowhere, but if they got land, they could farm it. There was unused land in the village, a rubbish tip; once they had cleared away 15-20 lorryloads of rubble, they could plant potatoes. They then rented 1,200 hectares more. As the enterprise grew, he directed everything. A national public-work scheme provided small wages, but enough. Each day the villagers would gather round him to get their tools and his firm, straight instructions: where they should dig a well, exactly how big it should be, when they should move the paprika plants from the greenhouse. He reminded them what share of their harvest they had promised to give to others, to make them proud: they were givers now, not stealers, not spongers. Then he would wield his spade beside them, getting his hands dirty and urging them on.


这是他作为切尔迪村长时为自己定下的任务。任务很重,但是他施行得有条不紊。吉普赛人居无定所,但是如果有了土地,他们就能耕种。村子里有块没被有效利用的土地,一个垃圾堆;一旦清除掉1520卡车的碎石之后,他们就能种土豆。然后,他们又租了1200多公顷的土地。随着改造大业的发展,他事无巨细都要亲自指导。一项全国公共工作计划提供了不多的工资,但也足够。每天,村民们都会聚集到他身边,取工具、听指令。他的指令直接干脆:包括在哪挖井,挖多大的井,何时该把红辣椒苗移出温室。他会提醒村民,他们已经承诺要将收成的多少送给别人,为的是让村民感到骄傲:现如今,他们已是给予者,不是小偷或寄生虫。接下来,他会和村民一起挥起铁锹劳动,以身作则敦促村民。


The agriculture project was only part of what he was doing in Cserdi. He took village boys to the local jail in Pécs, to show them that if they broke the law they could expect to be buggered there; it shocked them so deeply that crime in the village fell to almost nothing. Teenage girls were taken to universities; would they rather be there at 18, he asked them, or lying on their backs in the wretched local labour ward? Every household’s budget came under his watchful eye, and he would pick through their rubbish too, finding the cigarette packets and beer bottles that proved they were wasting money. He barely had time for girlfriends, certainly not family. The villagers were all his children.


农业项目仅是他在切尔迪的部分工作。他将村里的男孩带到佩奇当地的一所监狱,让他们知道如果他们犯法就会在那里被鸡奸。男孩们吓得不轻,从此村子里的犯罪活动也几乎绝迹。他将十多岁的女孩们带到大学,问她们18岁时是愿意在那里读书,还是仰躺在当地条件恶劣的产房里生孩子?家家户户的开销都逃不过他警觉的眼睛,他也会翻看村民丢弃的垃圾,如果发现烟盒和啤酒瓶,说明这户人家在乱花钱。他几乎没时间找女朋友,更不用说成家了。村民都是他的孩子。


Outside the village, he had enemies. He wanted to see Gypsies integrated and living like other Hungarians, for he was proud of being Hungarian too; he dreamed of dark faces in advertisements, his food in national stores, colour-blind political parties and the money that was spent on self-serving, wasteful Roma minority councils spent, instead, on greenhouses. This didn’t suit those who still wanted to be victims. Others felt that his constant reminders of bad Gypsy ways simply fed the stereotype: he was a self-hater, racist to his own skin. One way and another, he had learned to watch his back when he crossed the road.


在村外,他有树敌。他想看到吉普赛人融入主流社会、像其他匈牙利人一样生活,因为他也以自己的匈牙利人身份为荣;他希望深肤色的面孔出现在广告上,希望他的食物出现在全国的商店里,希望政治团体不会种族歧视,也希望那些花在一心谋私利、挥霍无度的罗姆人少数族裔委员会身上的钱能被改为用在温室修建上。这不符合那些仍想扮演受害者的人的心意。其他敌人则认为,他不断提到吉普赛人不好的方面,简直就是在向人们灌输有关吉普赛人的刻板印象:说他是个自我仇视者,是歧视自身肤色的种族歧视者。反正,他已经学会在过马路的时候都得小心提防。


Some thought he might make a good Roma leader on the national stage. But he did not want that label. He cared about other minorities too, even inviting migrants—who were hated more than Gypsies now—to come to Cserdi in 2017. Besides, he had no interest in being a “celebrity bastard”. He disliked talking about himself. He was just a semi-literate “scattered soul” who was trying to make his mark on the world, and was doing it in Cserdi. There, his ambitions were still growing. The “Romburgers” the villagers were making for local restaurants were taking off nicely. He was going to produce a range of Gypsy stews in the new processing plant, built with state and eu funds and almost finished. But it was there, on July 14th, that he hanged himself.


有人认为他或许能在国家政治舞台上塑造出一个优秀的罗姆族裔领导人形象。但他并不喜欢这个标签。他也关心其他少数民族,甚至在2017年邀请了如今比吉普赛人更不受待见的移民群体来到切尔迪。除此之外,他也无意成为混蛋名人。他不喜欢谈论自己。他只是个文化程度不高的流散的灵魂,试图在世上留下一点印记,他也正在切尔迪这么做。在那里,他的雄心壮志仍在增长。村民们为当地餐馆制作的罗姆汉堡市场前景良好。他打算在新建的食品加工场制作一系列吉普赛炖菜。这个加工厂受本国和欧盟的资金援助得以兴建,几乎已经完工。但就是在那里,在七月十四号,他自缢而亡。


He had given no hint of this before. Or perhaps only one: he had admitted that he cried every day, not because he was afraid, but because he felt powerless to do all that had to be done.


事发前他没有显露过自杀倾向,或者说也许只有一丝征兆:他曾承认他每天都会哭,不是因为他害怕,而是对所要完成的那些工作感到力不从心。


In a well-known Hungarian story, two Gypsies were haggling over the price of a horse. As they argued, the horse galloped fast towards a brick wall. “Your horse is blind!” complained the would-be buyer. “Not blind,” said the seller. “Brave.”

seller. “Brave.”


有个广为人知的匈牙利故事,里面讲到两个吉普赛人在为一匹马讨价还价。当他们争论不休时,马突然飞奔向一堵砖墙。你这匹马是瞎的!潜在买主抱怨道。不是瞎,卖家说:这是勇敢。 


翻译组:

Alex,不务正业的理工男

Ronnie,动物保护主义者

Lee,爱骑行的妇女之友+Timberland


校对组:

Sheri,坚信可以forever young的老年人

Qianna,追求专业的非英专,很讲逻辑,英伦摇滚迷
Rachel Zhang,学理工科,爱跳芭蕾,热爱文艺的非典型翻译




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观点|评论|思考


本次感想

Mona,悦读悦译,以译会友

又见勇者

确认过眼神,本期讣告主是满满正能量的一个人。看完也不难理解为何他能登上ET的讣告栏。这个可爱的灵魂,对自己要求太高了一些。我们芸芸众生,能在世上留下足迹的不多。能勇于跳脱现实,着手改变的人,都是勇者,都值得尊敬。尤其结尾的小故事,点出作者对人物的评价:勇敢的人才敢于撞南墙。

记得前一阵看完《选择》(The Choice)写过一篇书评,称那是一个关于勇者的故事,作者年界耄耋,依然在勇敢地选择,选择放下自责,放下过往,选择心灵的自由。印象最深的是结尾那句,“My precious, you can choose to be free.”多么希望本期讣告的主人翁能看到这句,那样或许他的生命不会戛然而止,他的勇气会照亮更多人的生活,改变更多偏见。

没有人生而坚强,总是有些情事,有些际遇,让他们不得不如此。这些人肯定也会发现以受害者自居、寄生虫般的生活要容易得多,不用去承担责任,不用费劲争取什么,浑浑噩噩,一切随天命。然而,总有一些人,比如《呐喊》的鲁迅先生,比如文中的这位村长,他们勇敢地站出来,要走少有人走的路,打破这乌烟瘴气的旧世界,让新鲜空气进来。种菜不仅让村民有活干,自给自足之余,还把菜送人,改变了不劳而获的固有形象,还实现了吉普赛人从施受者到施与者的角色蜕变。似乎是冥冥之中有种守恒原理,勇气带给别人的越多,勇者内心越容易脆弱。读鲁迅给许广平的信,那分明是个内心敏感有些忧郁气质的男子,被反对者攻击病倒好几回,他最英勇的一面都留在写给青年的文章里。村长似乎也过于关注以天下为己任,自己的情感却无暇也无处安放。然越是勇敢的人,越要学会与自己讲和,否则过度消耗,挤压到支撑自己的那点力量都没有了,殊为可惜。

勇者的逻辑,有时就是“Because I can可以折腾,为什么要碌碌无为呢?万一能闯出啥成就呢?输了嘛,也很正常,谁还没输过呢!?让人想起二战中,丘吉尔在英国明显不敌希特勒强大德军的情况下,仍执意抵抗,坚决不降,他遵循的也是勇者的逻辑。希特勒一直希望丘吉尔低头谈和,而丘吉尔坚持誓死抵抗,血战到底,求万一之胜机,他把自己这种勇气和决心通过多次演讲传达给英国民众,从而带动他们坚强地撑到最后,迎来胜利。

    本文中的村长肩负重塑吉普赛人形象的重任,每日都会哭。无独有偶,如《灿烂与邪恶》(The Splendid and the Vile)中所述,二战中的丘吉尔也经常热泪盈眶,全书中“weep”这个词出现的频率不下十次。临危受命当选首相后,在大街上遇到民众支持和祝福,丘吉尔哭了,为他们如此信任他,而自己将让大家遭受战乱之苦而哭;法国舰队拒绝了英军提供的选择,为阻止舰船为德军征用,英军不得不将其舰艇炸沉时,丘吉尔哭了,为了那些即将牺牲的法国将士而哭;视察遭受德军炮弹空袭的街区时,他又哭了,为自己无法保护那些民众而哭;给孙子小温士顿洗礼后的宴会上他哭了,为小小的人儿要面对这么个战乱的世界而哭……讣告中没有提村长哭的原因,留给我们去猜测。不过,两相对照,勇者的哭,大概只是一种情感的宣泄,是心理的缓冲,为再一次鼓起勇气做准备。

改写历史的永远是勇者。感谢勇者来过,留下印记。愿我们都能成为勇者。


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