2021年经济学人 纳瓦勒·萨达维-埃及女权先锋(2)

A savage¹, dangerous woman, many said. So, truth was savage, too. That was why the words poured out, in 55 books that encompassed² short stories, novels, poetry, lectures and plays. She spoke³ for all Egypt’s women as they struggled in silent subordination, shouting “I insist on it!”, until, sometimes, she got through. One of those voices belonged to Firdaus, a “Woman at Point Zero”, awaiting death for killing⁴ just one of the men who had abused her.

很多人说，萨达维是个野蛮、危险的女人。所以，真相也是野蛮的。这就是为什么这些内容会在55本书中呈现出来，其中包含短篇故事、小说、诗歌、演讲和戏剧等形式。她代表所有埃及妇女发声，当她们在沉默的服从中挣扎时，她还在高喊着“我就要坚持到底!”，直到有时她能度过难关。其中一个声音来自菲达斯，《处于零点的女人》的主角，因为她杀死了虐待她的其中一个男人而面临着死亡。

Another was her own smothered⁵, terrified voice when, at six, she had been taken from her warm bed, held in an iron grasp on the icy bathroom tiles by the village midwife who stank⁶ of sweat, henna and iodine⁷, and slashed⁸ with a fiery⁹ razor between her thighs¹⁰, as if she was a sheep being butchered for Eid. Against that razor, part of a merciless campaign to paralyse girls’ capacity to think and understand, she now had her pen. It could be just as sharp.

另一个声音则是萨达维自己窒息般、恐惧的声音。当时6岁的她被村里的接生婆从温暖的被窝里拽出来，无法动弹地被按在冰冷的浴室地板上。接生婆浑身散发着汗水、指甲花和碘酒混合的刺鼻味道，手里拿着一把红色剃须刀在她大腿间划动着，她仿佛一只为开斋节献祭的羔羊。为了反抗那把剃须刀，这把旨在麻痹女孩的思考和理解能力的无情运动一部分的剃须刀，她现在握住了笔。笔尖若刀刃般锋利。

So could a scalpel. She had no wish to be a doctor, but did so well at school that it became inevitable¹¹. As a girl she was lucky to be properly educated at all, when her place was in the kitchen among the onions. The only praise she ever received was when she learned to light the kerosene¹² stove. Girls, her grandmother told her, were a blight¹³; a boy was worth 15 times as much. Yet in the dissection¹⁴ room at medical school, where she had gone on a scholarship, she saw how equally frail¹⁵ men’s and women’s bodies were under her probing blade. Since that was so, why were they so unequal everywhere else? Why, as a doctor back in Kafr Tahla, did she have to spend nights at the bedside of child brides who had been pre-emptively deflowered for their husbands by the coarse unwashed nails of a midwife, and were still bleeding?

手术刀也可以作为反抗工具。可她无意成为一名医生，不过因为在学校表现优异，自然而然成为了医生。作为女孩，她很幸运地受到了良好的教育，毕竟以当时的社会定位，她应该围绕着厨房的洋葱转悠。她唯一一次被表扬是学会点燃煤油炉的时候。祖母跟她讲，女孩是祸害；一个男孩的价值抵得上十五个女孩。然而，在获得奖学金后就读的医学院的解剖室里，她发现，在她的刀片下，男性和女性的身体是一样地脆弱不堪。既然如此，为什么在其他领域两性却如此不平等呢？为什么她在卡夫塔拉村当医生时，不得不整夜守在儿童新娘的床边，照顾这些被接生婆污秽、粗糙的指甲抢先夺走了贞洁，好满足男性私欲，并且还在流血的姑娘们?

1 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

2 encompassed   

v.围绕( encompass的过去式和过去分词 )；包围；包含；包括

参考例句：

• The enemy encompassed the city. 敌人包围了城市。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I have encompassed him with every protection. 我已经把他保护得严严实实。 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 smothered   

（使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的过去式和过去分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制

参考例句：

• He smothered the baby with a pillow. 他用枕头把婴儿闷死了。
• The fire is smothered by ashes. 火被灰闷熄了。

6 stank   

n. (英)坝，堰，池塘 动词stink的过去式

参考例句：

• Her breath stank of garlic. 她嘴里有股大蒜味。
• The place stank of decayed fish. 那地方有烂鱼的臭味。

7 iodine   

n.碘，碘酒

参考例句：

• The doctor painted iodine on the cut.医生在伤口上涂点碘酒。
• Iodine tends to localize in the thyroid.碘容易集于甲状腺。

8 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

10 thighs   

n.股，大腿( thigh的名词复数 )；食用的鸡（等的）腿

参考例句：

• He's gone to London for skin grafts on his thighs. 他去伦敦做大腿植皮手术了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The water came up to the fisherman's thighs. 水没到了渔夫的大腿。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

12 kerosene   

n.(kerosine)煤油，火油

参考例句：

• It is like putting out a fire with kerosene.这就像用煤油灭火。
• Instead of electricity,there were kerosene lanterns.没有电，有煤油灯。

13 blight   

n.枯萎病；造成破坏的因素；vt.破坏，摧残

参考例句：

• The apple crop was wiped out by blight.枯萎病使苹果全无收成。
• There is a blight on all his efforts.他的一切努力都遭到挫折。

14 dissection   

n.分析；解剖

参考例句：

• A dissection of your argument shows several inconsistencies.对你论点作仔细分析后发现一些前后矛盾之处。
• Researchers need a growing supply of corpses for dissection.研究人员需要更多的供解剖用的尸体。

15 frail   

adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的

参考例句：

• Mrs. Warner is already 96 and too frail to live by herself.华纳太太已经九十六岁了，身体虚弱，不便独居。
• She lay in bed looking particularly frail.她躺在床上，看上去特别虚弱。