英语听力精选进阶版 10629（在线收听）

Good morning. Today, January 13th is the anniversary of the publication of a famous letter by the French writer Emile Zola to the President of France. This letter, written in 1898, demanded justice for Alfred Dreyfus, a Jewish army officer languishing on Devil’s Island for passing military secrets to the Germans. Zola told the President that the case against Dreyfus was a tissue of lies concocted by the French military and based on false testimony. It ended with a string of denunciations: J’accuse. I first heard about the Dreyfus affair when I was doing history ‘O’ level but it wasn’t until last summer that I really understood what it was about – and that was when I read Robert Harris’s treatment of it in his novel, an Officer and a Spy.

早上好，1月13日是法国作家埃米尔·左拉给法国总统所写信件出版的周年日。这封信是1898年写的，左拉要求为犹太军官阿尔弗雷德·德雷福斯伸张正义，他因给德国传递军方机密被罚在魔鬼岛受折磨。左拉告诉总统，针对德雷福斯的案件是法国军方根据虚假证据捏造的谎言，信的末尾表示告发：我控告。我第一次听说德雷福斯事件时我正在学习普通水平的历史，但直到去年夏天我才真正明白其含义，当时我读到罗伯特·哈里斯在小说《军官和间谍》中对该事件的处理。

Harris tells the story from the point of view of the Head of French Counter Espionage, George Picquart. He was no supporter of the Jews but he came to see that the evidence against Dreyfus was weak and he conducted an investigation of his own. It was Picquart who identified the real traitor, Ferdinand Esterhazy. But nobody wanted to know. In an atmosphere of casual anti-semitism the shame of truth was simply unendurable. National pride and honour was at stake. Military officials tried to engineer the killing of Picquart, eventually he was sacked and disgraced. The evidence that would have exonerated Dreyfus was suppressed. The military had public opinion on their side. The government, the Catholic Church and the press were united in their determination to find Dreyfus guilty. Zola’s letter, though, could not be ignored. He was eminent, he was influential, he exemplified the values of the Republic. You cannot bury truth, he said. The case split France into two opposing camps. Finally Dreyfus was summoned back re-tried and released. Loyal, as ever, to France he lived to fight in the First World War.

哈里斯是以法国反间谍负责人乔治·皮卡尔的角度来写的，他并不是犹太人的支持者，但他认为针对德雷福斯的证据很虚弱，于是自己做了一番调查。皮卡尔找到了真正的叛徒费迪南德·斯特哈兹，但没有人想知道这一点。在当时不经意地反犹的气氛下，真相带来的羞耻简直难以忍受。国家自豪感和荣誉岌岌可危，军官们企图设计刺杀皮卡尔，最终他被解雇并名誉丧尽。原本可以使德雷福斯免罪的证据被压制下去，军方操纵了公众舆论。政府、天主教堂和媒体态度一致，决心让德雷福斯承担罪责。但左拉的信件不可忽视，他很有名，有影响力，他体现着共和国的价值观。他说，没有人能掩盖事实。这起案件使得法国分裂成两个对立的阵营，最终德雷福斯被召唤回来复审并获释。他一直效忠于法国，并一直活到在一战中参加战斗。

Robert Harris’s treatment of the Dreyfus scandal helped me to see how easy it is for institutions and governments to protect themselves from inconvenient truths. We like to feel that we are on the side of virtue and most of the time we expect the truth to conform our assumptions. But truth is not prejudiced. It confronts us in the sheer otherness of the other who lives differently, believes differently and has a different vision of reality from our own. We can opt for a superficial acceptance which is only half meant, an acceptance which all too often breaks down under pressure; or we can return to our own spiritual sources and strive to be more honest, to deepen our moral vision. My own faith urges me to see in the face of the stranger, the face of God that is most unfamiliar and that I most fear; but it is also the face that I most need.

罗伯特·哈里斯对德雷福斯丑闻的处理让我明白，国家和政府很容易就能掩盖不幸的事实。我们喜欢认为自己拥有美德，大多数时候我们期待事实能符合我们的设想，但事实没有偏见，我们总能看到与我们生活方式、思想和对事实看法不同者的纯粹差异性。我们可能会肤浅地接受一些观点，这种接受通常会在压力下分崩离析，或者我们会回到自己的精神源头，努力更加诚实些，来加深自己的道德观。我们自己的信仰敦促我去看陌生人和上帝最不为人熟悉的那一面，那一面也是我最为恐惧的，但也是我最需要的。