文艺；墨西哥的足球与暗杀；直接干掉；

　　This Love is Not for Cowards: Salvation and Soccer in Ciudad Juarez. By Robert Andrew Powell.

　　《这种爱不为懦夫：华雷斯市的救助与足球》, Robert Andrew Powell著。

　　Ciudad Juarez, an important stop on the cocaine trail to America, has long topped the list of Mexico's most violent cities. By contrast its irredeemably hopeless football team, the Indios, is more used to life at the bottom of the rankings. Following 27 consecutive games without a win, it recently became the worst team in the history of Mexico's primera división.

　　华雷斯城是可卡因暗中销往美国的重要一站，早已排上墨西哥最暴力城市的榜首。相比之下，其无可救药的球队印第乌斯毫无希望可言，更习惯过排名垫底的日子。最近在连比27场无一胜绩之后，印地乌斯队成了墨西哥甲级联赛史上最差的球队。

　　Robert Andrew Powell, an American journalist, arrived in Juarez at the end of 2009 as the drug war was heating up and the Indios were fighting to stay in the primera league. After taking care each night to bolt the four locks on the door of his pastel-coloured flat (“like military housing for an army of Teletubbies”), he decided to highlight Indios wins on his calendar and to mark murders on a wall-map in red felt-tip. After a month he gave up, no wins to report and the map already soaked crimson.

　　因为毒品战升温以及印第乌斯队力争保级，2009年年底美国记者罗伯特·安德鲁·鲍威尔抵达华雷斯。他住的公寓色彩柔和，“象天线宝宝军团的军用住房”，他决定每晚在小心锁好房门上的四道锁后，都在日历上圈出印第乌斯队赢球的日子，并用红色签字笔把谋杀案发生的地点标注在墙挂地图上。一个月后他放弃了，因为没有赢球的报导，地图却被深红色浸透了。

　　Unlike most chroniclers of Mexico's misfortunes, Mr Powell deals calmly with Juarez's breathtaking murder-rate. Following a spate of killings, an American friend sent him a message: was he still alive? Sitting in a McDonald's, where a little-league team was having hamburgers and a Snow White-themed party was going on, the question seemed absurd. Juarez's mix of ordinariness and horror has seldom been so honestly described.

　　鲍威尔与大多数叙述墨西哥不幸的编年史家不同，他冷静地交待华雷斯惊人的谋杀率。在一连串的杀戮发生之后，一位美国朋友给他发了短信，问他是否还活着？当时他正坐在麦当劳里，少年联队正在那里吃汉堡，白雪公主主题晚会也正在那里进行，这个问题似乎有些荒谬。华雷斯杂糅了平凡与恐怖，却很少被这般如实地描述过。

　　But the violence seeps in. The Indios' youth-team coach was killed, perhaps because his uncle wouldn't pay protection money on his mobile-phone shop. (No one will ever know: the police are so hopeless, and local reporters so intimidated, that virtually no murder is investigated.) Next, the star striker's brother was shot dead, which the coach decided not to tell him until after the day's game.

　　但是暴力在渗入。印第乌斯青年队的主教练被杀害了，或许是因为他的叔叔不打算支付手机店的保护费。永远不会有人知道，警察非常绝望，当地的记者非常害怕，所以几乎没有谋杀案被查处。跟着是明星前锋的弟弟被枪杀，而教练决定当天比赛结束后再告诉他。

　　The Indios' slapstick performances bring welcome comic relief to the book. The antics of el Kartel, its dubiously named supporters' club, are especially enjoyable. At an away-match against posh Monterrey, a granny Kartel-member was arrested. “She had lifted up her Indios jersey to flash Monterrey's fans, who graded her breasts with chants of ‘chicharrón!'—a stadium snack of wrinkled and fried pork.”

　　印第乌斯队的闹剧表现给本书带来了喜剧性的调剂，颇受欢迎。埃尔卡特尔是该队的支持者俱乐部，名字有些令人费解，他们古怪的动作让人特别喜爱。在客场对阵一流的蒙特雷队时，一名身为卡特尔会员的老奶奶被逮捕了。“她举起她的印第乌斯队球衣向蒙特雷队的球迷进行亵渎性暴露，而蒙特雷队的球迷高喊着“炸猪皮”为她的胸部评分，炸猪皮是一种起皱的油炸猪肉体育场小吃。”

　　There are sharp comparisons, too, between events on and off the pitch. As the Indios battle rival teams, the city's resident drug mafia is locked in a turf war with the Sinaloa mob, run by Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzman. As the Indios' manager complains that the referees are biased, locals suspect that police have taken sides in the turf war. “Guzman wants Juarez. The home team refuses to give it up…That's the sport being played,” writes Mr Powell.

　　球场上下发生的事件也明显地两相对照。当印第乌斯队迎战对手球队时，常驻该城的贩毒集团也跟华金·厄尔查坡·古斯曼率领的锡那罗亚州暴徒展开了地盘争夺战。正如印第乌斯队的经理抱怨裁判偏心一样，当地人怀疑警方在这场地盘争夺战中袒护一方。 鲍威尔写道，“古斯曼想要华雷斯。主队拒绝放弃它......这就是正在上演的游戏。”

　　The complexity of Juarez's problems means that the anecdotal style of the book sometimes feels thin. In one excellent chapter Mr Powell makes a convincing case that the infamous murders of women in Juarez have been exaggerated by an excitable media. But elsewhere he repeats popular theories (about the alleged corruption of politicians, or the supposed failure of Mexico's free-trade deal with America) without really probing them. Near the end he mentions that the Indios themselves might be a giant money-laundering operation. This important claim deserves more than the few pages' attention it receives, 21 chapters into the book.

　　华雷斯问题的复杂性意味着本书的轶事风格有时让人感觉薄弱。有一章鲍威尔写得很出色，他列举了一个有说服力的案例，华雷斯臭名昭著的妇女谋杀案被容易兴奋的媒体夸大了。但在其它章节，关于政治家涉嫌贪污，墨西哥与美国的自由贸易很可能失败等，他重复着流行的理论，而没有真正地调查它们。临近结束时，他提到印第乌斯队本身可能是巨额洗钱的操作。这一重要断言值得多加几页来关注，它应该作为第21章收进本书之中。

　　There is a happy ending, of sorts. Mr Powell left Juarez in 2010, a dreadful year, convinced of the goodness of most locals but predicting that the violence would get worse. In fact, 2011 saw the number of mafia-hits in Juarez drop by about a third. So far, this year has been quieter still. Juarez may, possibly, be turning a corner. The Indios, sadly, remain useless.

　　本书的结局皆大欢喜，但有些名不符实。鲍威尔2010年离开华雷斯，那真是可怕的一年，他相信大多数的当地人都是善良的，但却预测暴力会变得更糟。事实上，2011年华雷斯黑手党犯罪的数字下降了约三分之一。到目前为止，今年仍然平静多了。华雷斯很可能会转折。但可悲的是印第乌斯队仍然没有起色。