2018年经济学人 间谍众生:英国的间谍产业(2)

 

The British establishment is not only a perfect machine for producing secrets and lies.

英国的这种体制不仅是一台生产秘密和谎言的完美机器。

It also produces the mavericks¹ and misfits who thrive in the secret world.

它还出产标新立异之人和与社会个格格不入之人，他们在秘密世界中出尽风头。

Establishment types seem to come in two varieties: smooth conformists who do everything by the rules, and mavericks who break every rule but are nevertheless tolerated because they are members of the club.

体制人的类型似乎分成两类：一类是圆滑的墨守成规之人，他们事事循规蹈矩；一类是标新立异之人，他们处处违规，却因为是体制中人而得到容忍。

The first type is sent into the Foreign Office and the second into MI6.

前一种人被送进了外交部，后一种人被送进了军情六处。

The best spy novels are like distorting mirrors in fairgrounds: by exaggerating this or that feature of Establishment Man, they allow the reader to understand the ideal form.

杰出的间谍小说就像是游乐场里的哈哈镜：通过放大体制人的这个或那个特点，能让读者理解理想的形式。

The other great theme in British spy novels is geopolitical decline.

英国间谍小说的另一个伟大的主题是地缘政治的衰落。

How can people who were “trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves”, as one of Mr le Carre's characters puts it, bear to live in a world in which the waves are ruled by other powers and statecraft is reduced to providing fuel for the welfare state?

正如勒卡雷的一位人物所说，“为了帝国，为了驾驭风云而接受训练”的人怎么能承受生活在一个风云为别的大国所驾驭、治国理政沦为为福利国家提供燃料的世界中呢？

Fleming's novels are full of laments² about Britain's “crumbling empire” and its dependency-producing state.

弗莱明的小说充斥着对英国“摇摇欲坠的帝国”及其附属生产国的怨言。

“You have not only lost a great empire,” Tiger Tanaka, a Japanese spy, tells Bond, “you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands.”

日本间谍老虎田中告诉邦德：“你不仅失去了一个伟大的帝国，似乎还急不可耐地要用双手把它扔出去。”

Mr le Carre once described Britain as a country where “failed socialism is being replaced by failed capitalism”.

勒卡雷曾经把英国说成是一个“失败的社会主义正在被失败的资本主义所取代”的国家。

The Circus, as he called the secret service's headquarters, is a physical manifestation³ of decline: cramped⁴, shoddy, reeking⁵ of rising damp, just one hasty repair away from collapse⁶.

他称之为间谍大本营的马戏团正是这种衰落的一种实实在在表现：囿于一隅，粗制滥造，臭气熏天，纵然匆忙地修修补补，也难挽狂澜即到。

Why remain loyal to a country that has made such a mess of things and to an establishment soaked in hypocrisy⁷?

为什么要对一个把事情都搞得乱七八糟的国家和一个侵泡在虚伪中的体制忠心不贰呢？

Mr le Carre's traitors⁸ (like the Cambridge spies who inspired them) betray their country not for money but because they have transferred their patriotism⁹ to the Soviet¹⁰ Union.

勒卡雷的叛国者（像鼓舞了他们的剑桥间谍帮一样）不是为了钱而背叛他们的国家，而是因为他们已将他们的爱国主义转移到了苏联身上。

But what makes Britain's best spy novels so good is that they toy with disillusionment only to reject it.

但是，让英国最好的间谍小说如此优秀的，是他们仅仅是为了否认而去调侃这种幻灭感。

For all its faults, they say, Britain is the best of a bad lot.

他们声称，因为她错误百出，英国是恶人中最好的。

Bond is so besotted with his country that he boasts that “British food is the best in the world”.

邦德对于他的国家的迷恋，令他吹嘘说“英国的食物是世界上最好的”。

For all his professed¹¹ Europeanness in the new novel, Smiley is the model of a British gentleman.

因为他在新小说中被赋与了各种欧洲性，斯迈利是英国绅士的典型。

And spying provides Britain with a way of reclaiming¹² its greatness, by excelling in the most sophisticated form of foreign policy.

而且，间谍活动还给英国提供了一种重塑其伟大的方式，具体地说，就是要在最为成熟的外交政策形式上胜人一筹。

The Americans have the money and the bluster¹³, but the British have the brains to spend it wisely and restrain the Americans from going over the top.

美国人有钱有势；但是，英国人有脑子，可以明智地花钱并阻止美国盛极而衰。

Felix Leiter, Bond's opposite number in the CIA, admits that Bond is playing “in a bigger league” than he is.

邦德在CIA的对应代号费力克斯·雷特承认，与他相比，邦德正在一个“更大的团队”中施展。

Smiley is more subtle than his “cousins” in America.

斯迈利也比他的美国“表亲”更加难以琢磨。

The secret at the heart of the British spy novel is that Britain is much better than it seems.

英国间谍小说的核心秘密就是，英国比看上去好很多。

The writers agonise over decline and hypocrisy, only to conclude that the British are cleverer and more civilised than anybody else.

作家纠结于衰落和虚伪，仅仅是为了得出英国人比其他人更聪明，都更有教养的结论。

A comforting illusion wrapped in a tale of disillusionment: you can't get more British than that.

一种包裹在幻灭故事中的让人欣慰的幻觉：你不可能得到比此更英国的了。

1 mavericks   

未烙印的牲畜( maverick的名词复数 )； 标新立异的人，不合常规的人

参考例句：

• And what about the Dallas Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki? 那达拉斯小牛队和诺维斯基呢？
• And we see it with bringing Jason Kidd to the Dallas Mavericks. 而且我们看到它同实现基德向达拉斯小牛队。

2 laments   

n.悲恸，哀歌，挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• In the poem he laments the destruction of the countryside. 在那首诗里他对乡村遭到的破坏流露出悲哀。
• In this book he laments the slight interest shown in his writings. 在该书中他慨叹人们对他的著作兴趣微弱。 来自辞典例句

3 manifestation   

n.表现形式；表明；现象

参考例句：

• Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
• What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。

4 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

5 reeking   

v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 )；散发臭气；发出难闻的气味 (of sth)；明显带有（令人不快或生疑的跡象）

参考例句：

• I won't have you reeking with sweat in my bed! 我就不许你混身臭汗，臭烘烘的上我的炕！ 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• This is a novel reeking with sentimentalism. 这是一本充满着感伤主义的小说。 来自辞典例句

6 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

7 hypocrisy   

n.伪善，虚伪

参考例句：

• He railed against hypocrisy and greed.他痛斥伪善和贪婪的行为。
• He accused newspapers of hypocrisy in their treatment of the story.他指责了报纸在报道该新闻时的虚伪。

8 traitors   

卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人

参考例句：

• Traitors are held in infamy. 叛徒为人所不齿。
• Traitors have always been treated with contempt. 叛徒永被人们唾弃。

9 patriotism   

n.爱国精神，爱国心，爱国主义

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• They obtained money under the false pretenses of patriotism.他们以虚伪的爱国主义为借口获得金钱。

10 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

11 professed   

公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的

参考例句：

• These, at least, were their professed reasons for pulling out of the deal. 至少这些是他们自称退出这宗交易的理由。
• Her manner professed a gaiety that she did not feel. 她的神态显出一种她并未实际感受到的快乐。

12 reclaiming   

v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救

参考例句：

• People here are reclaiming land from the sea. 这儿的人们正在填海拓地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• How could such a man need reclaiming? 这么一个了不起的人怎么还需要别人拯救呢？ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

13 bluster   

v.猛刮；怒冲冲的说；n.吓唬，怒号；狂风声

参考例句：

• We could hear the bluster of the wind and rain.我们能听到狂风暴雨的吹打声。
• He was inclined to bluster at first,but he soon dropped.起初他老爱吵闹一阵，可是不久就不做声了。