2017考研英語(yǔ)拓展閱讀：為什么沒(méi)有德國(guó)夢(mèng)

　　If Donald Trump is the world’s most colourfulpolitician, Angela Merkel is probably the least. She isresolutely tedious even by the standards of Germanpolitics. The new German verb merkeln means “to donothing, make no decisions or statement”. Shenever talks about a “German dream”, and you will notsee her campaign under the slogan, “MakeGermany great again”.

　　如果說(shuō)唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)是世界上最多彩紛呈的政治人士，那么安格拉•默克爾(Angela Merkel)很可能就是最單調(diào)乏味的那個(gè)。即使按照德國(guó)政壇的標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，她也是絕對(duì)乏味的。德文新動(dòng)詞“merkeln”的意思是“什么也不做、什么決定也不作出、什么聲明也不發(fā)表”。她從不談?wù)摗暗聡?guó)夢(mèng)”，你也不會(huì)看到她的競(jìng)選活動(dòng)喊出“讓德國(guó)再次偉大起來(lái)”的口號(hào)。

　　Even when she suddenly opened Germany’s borders to more than one million people lastsummer, she phrased this quixotic act in pragmatic language: “Wir schaffen das,” “We can dothis.” Germany’s centre has largely held since, despite big advances for the anti-immigrantAlternative für Deutschland in last Sunday’s regional elections. Even amid the migrant crisis,most mainstream German politicians have remained boring pragmatists. Their aim: very slowlyimprove most people’s lives a little, while averting disaster.

　　即使是在去年夏天她突然向100多萬(wàn)人開(kāi)放德國(guó)國(guó)境的時(shí)候，她談及這種唐吉坷德式行為所用的語(yǔ)言也是務(wù)實(shí)的：“我們可以做這個(gè)”(Wir schaffen das)。自那以來(lái)德國(guó)的中間立場(chǎng)主流大體上保持下來(lái)，盡管反移民的德國(guó)新選擇黨(Alternative für Deutschland)在最近的地區(qū)選舉中取得重大進(jìn)展。即使是在移民危機(jī)期間，大多數(shù)主流德國(guó)政治人士也依然是乏味的務(wù)實(shí)者。他們的目標(biāo)是：非常緩慢地漸漸改善大多數(shù)人的生活，同時(shí)避免災(zāi)難。

　　That distinguishes Germany from other large countries. In the US, France and Russia, politics iscouched in the language of dreams, greatness, heroes and utopia. There are pragmatic politicalcultures and utopian ones, and, oddly, it’s the pragmatists who get closer to utopia.

　　這把德國(guó)和其他大國(guó)區(qū)分開(kāi)來(lái)。在美國(guó)、法國(guó)和俄羅斯，政治都是用有關(guān)夢(mèng)想、偉大、英雄和烏托邦的語(yǔ)言來(lái)包裝的。世界上有務(wù)實(shí)的政治文化、也有烏托邦主義的政治文化，吊詭的是，更接近烏托邦的是務(wù)實(shí)者。

　　Utopian politicians raise high expectations that they can only disappoint. Every Americanpresident campaigns as a great leader who will restore the American dream but then governs inprose. Pretty soon people start complaining that he hasn’t delivered the American dream, butof course he hasn’t: by definition, dreams are not reality.

　　烏托邦主義的政治人士提出了很高的期望，但他們只會(huì)讓人們失望。每個(gè)美國(guó)總統(tǒng)在競(jìng)選時(shí)都將自己宣揚(yáng)為能夠重建美國(guó)夢(mèng)的偉大領(lǐng)袖，然而施政時(shí)還得回歸現(xiàn)實(shí)。很快人們開(kāi)始抱怨他沒(méi)有兌現(xiàn)美國(guó)夢(mèng)——但他當(dāng)然不會(huì)：顧名思義，夢(mèng)想不是現(xiàn)實(shí)。

　　Utopians rarely improve people’s lives a little. That’s partly because they are guided by hallowedold documents rather than by modern best practice. A daft old document such as theCommunist Manifesto is particularly damaging but even a wise one such as the Americanconstitution often misleads. For instance, the main reason the US has more than 30,000 gundeaths a year is the second amendment, adopted in 1791.

　　烏托邦主義者鮮少能讓人們的生活得到漸漸改善。部分原因是他們以被推上神壇的古老文獻(xiàn)為指導(dǎo)，而不是依據(jù)現(xiàn)代的最佳實(shí)踐。像《共產(chǎn)黨宣言》(Communist Manifesto)這樣愚蠢的陳舊文獻(xiàn)的破壞性尤其大，但即使是像《美國(guó)憲法》這樣的明智文獻(xiàn)，往往也會(huì)誤導(dǎo)人。比如，美國(guó)每年死于槍支的人超過(guò)3萬(wàn)，其主要原因就是1791年生效的第二修正案。

　　French politics, too, is packed with misleading old verities. One — derived from the FrenchRevolution — is that “the people” should always be mounting the barricades to thwart thegovernment. Another verity, treasured by the French left, is that “the workers” (imagined asfigures in a socialist realist statue) must fight anything proposed by “the bosses” (imagined astop-hatted capitalists in a 19th-century cartoon).

　　法國(guó)政治也充斥著誤導(dǎo)人的陳舊信念。其中一條來(lái)自法國(guó)大革命，“人民”永遠(yuǎn)都應(yīng)該豎起路障阻撓政府。另一條信念被法國(guó)左翼視若珍寶，內(nèi)容是“工人”(想象成社會(huì)主義寫實(shí)雕像中的人物形象)必須反對(duì)“老板”(想象成19世紀(jì)漫畫中戴著高帽的資本家形象)提議的任何事情。

　　Most utopians don’t even strive to improve people’s lives. They aim for something greater.Russia annexed the Crimea to regain imperial greatness, and no matter that westernsanctions then made Russian lives worse.

　　大多數(shù)烏托邦主義者甚至不會(huì)費(fèi)神去改善人民的生活。他們的目標(biāo)是更加宏大的東西。俄羅斯吞并克里米亞是為了恢復(fù)帝國(guó)榮光，哪怕西方的制裁讓俄羅斯人的生活更加艱難。

　　In Germany, by contrast, dreams of greatness have been taboo since 1945. The first postwarchancellor Konrad Adenauer campaigned under the slogan: “No Experiments”. A latersuccessor, Helmut Schmidt, famously advised: “Anyone who has visions should go to thedoctor.”

　　相比之下，在德國(guó)，關(guān)于偉大的夢(mèng)想在1945年以后一直是禁忌。戰(zhàn)后的第一任德國(guó)總理康拉德•阿登納(Konrad Adenauer)的競(jìng)選口號(hào)是：“不做實(shí)驗(yàn)”。后來(lái)的繼任者赫爾穆特•施密特(Helmut Schmidt)給出了著名的建議：“有想象力的人都應(yīng)該去看醫(yī)生�！�

　　Merkel got an additional anti-utopian inoculation: she spent her first 35 years in a failedutopia, East Germany. She rarely tells her own story, perhaps for fear of sounding inspirational,but she graduated from Karl Marx University in Leipzig, and later, for her physics PhD, had towrite an additional “Marxist-Leninist” thesis. Her topic: the farmer-worker relationship in thefarmer-worker state. She got a bad grade for overemphasising the farmers.

　　默克爾本人還得到了一劑額外的反烏托邦主義預(yù)防針：她人生的頭35年是在東德，也就是一個(gè)失敗的烏托邦里度過(guò)的。她很少訴說(shuō)自己的生平故事，可能是擔(dān)心聽(tīng)起來(lái)引人遐想，但她從萊比錫卡爾馬克思大學(xué)(Karl MarxUniversity)畢業(yè)，之后為了自己的物理學(xué)博士學(xué)位，她還不得不額外撰寫一篇“馬列主義”論文。她的論文題目是“工農(nóng)國(guó)家的工農(nóng)關(guān)系”。因?yàn)檫^(guò)于強(qiáng)調(diào)農(nóng)民，她的得分很低。

　　Freedom for Merkel means freedom from ideology, explains her German biographer StefanKornelius. She is the politician as wonk: facts and analyses rather than stirring rhetoric.Asked once on TV what the word “Germany” inspired in her, she replied: “Pretty, airtightwindows.”

　　默克爾的德文傳記作者斯蒂凡•柯內(nèi)琉斯(Stefan Kornelius)解釋稱，對(duì)默克爾來(lái)說(shuō)，自由意味著不受意識(shí)形態(tài)桎梏的自由。她是關(guān)注政策細(xì)節(jié)類型的政治人士：比起令人心潮澎湃的言論，她更看重事實(shí)和分析。有一次，默克爾在電視節(jié)目上被問(wèn)及“德國(guó)”這個(gè)詞會(huì)讓她想起什么，她回答：“精美、擋風(fēng)的窗戶�！�

　　Most northern European political cultures are similarly boring. I grew up in the Netherlands inthe 1980s under another Christian Democratic leader, Ruud Lubbers, of whom it was said thatwhen he read from the Bible at party meetings it sounded like a cookbook. After 10 years inoffice he boasted: “I have made the Netherlands duller.”

　　類似的，歐洲北部多數(shù)國(guó)家的政治文化都很乏味。我在上世紀(jì)80年代的荷蘭長(zhǎng)大，當(dāng)時(shí)另一位基督教民主黨人魯?shù)?#8226;呂貝爾斯(Ruud Lubbers)任荷蘭首相。據(jù)說(shuō)，這位領(lǐng)袖在黨內(nèi)會(huì)議上朗讀《圣經(jīng)》的時(shí)候，聽(tīng)起來(lái)就像在讀一本烹飪書。在任10年后他自豪地說(shuō)：“我讓荷蘭更乏味了�！�

　　Britain has shuffled towards this boring pragmatic tradition. Quietly and gradually, the countryhas dropped “Great” from its name. Even Brexit campaigners aren’t selling imperial dreams;instead, they depict a plucky little England signing trade deals alone. Luckily, the UK has anescape valve that American politics lacks: all British fairytale fantasies can be projected on tothe royals. That allows the prime minister to be just a functionary.

　　英國(guó)也在緩慢地轉(zhuǎn)向這種乏味的務(wù)實(shí)傳統(tǒng)。這個(gè)國(guó)家悄然之間漸漸把“大”字從國(guó)名中去掉了。甚至連退歐運(yùn)動(dòng)的活動(dòng)人士也不兜售帝國(guó)美夢(mèng);相反，他們描繪了一個(gè)英勇的小英格蘭獨(dú)立簽署貿(mào)易協(xié)定的前景。幸運(yùn)的是，英國(guó)有一個(gè)美國(guó)政治缺乏的安全閥：所有的英國(guó)童話幻想都可以投射到皇室成員身上。這讓首相可以只做公職人員。

　　Boring pragmatic functionaries often make people’s lives better. Northern European countrieslead the world’s happiness rankings. Germany has cut unemployment to a historic low of 6.2per cent without trashing its welfare state.

　　乏味務(wù)實(shí)的官員往往會(huì)讓人們的生活更好。歐洲北方國(guó)家在全世界的幸福指數(shù)排名中名列前茅。德國(guó)在沒(méi)有放棄福利國(guó)家體制的情況下，已將失業(yè)率降至6.2%的歷史低點(diǎn)。

　　But the pragmatists’ greatest achievement goes unseen: averting disaster. In John le Carré’snovel A Small Town in Germany, a British diplomat calls this his lifetime mission. He says, “Every night, as I go to sleep, I say to myself: another day achieved. Another day added to theunnatural life of a world on its deathbed. And if I never relax, if I never lift my eye, we may runon for another hundred years.”

　　但人們還忽略了務(wù)實(shí)者的最大成就：避禍。在約翰•勒卡雷(John Le Carre)的小說(shuō)《德國(guó)小鎮(zhèn)》(A SmallTown in Germany)中，一名英國(guó)外交官把這稱為他畢生的使命。他說(shuō)，“每天夜里，在我入睡之前，我對(duì)自己說(shuō)：我又完成了一天。為這個(gè)邁向滅亡的世界違背自然的壽命延長(zhǎng)了一天。如果我永遠(yuǎn)不放松，永遠(yuǎn)不抬起雙眼，我們可能繼續(xù)存續(xù)100年�！�

　　Germans understand the sentiment. They experienced complete collapse in 1945, and thenagain under Merkel’s eyes in East Germany in 1989. She once said she possessed“competence in the early detection of collapsing systems”. When it looked as if the eurowould collapse she told Bulgaria’s prime minister Boyko Borisov that the “Maya and othercivilisations” had disappeared. In other words, today’s Europe could too. Her heroic task: keeppolitics boring.

　　德國(guó)人理解這樣的情感。他們?cè)?945年經(jīng)歷了徹底崩潰，在1989年的東德又經(jīng)歷了一次，后一次是默克爾本人親眼所見(jiàn)。她曾說(shuō)，她擁有“在早期發(fā)現(xiàn)系統(tǒng)崩潰的勝任能力”。在歐元區(qū)看起來(lái)即將解體的時(shí)候，她曾告訴保加利亞總理博伊科•鮑里索夫(Boyko Borisov)，“瑪雅和其他文明”消失了。換句話說(shuō)，今天的歐洲也可能重蹈覆轍。她的英雄使命：讓政治繼續(xù)乏味下去。