英国新闻听力 对薇拉·布里顿回忆录的思考

On this day in 1920 the United States voted not to join the League of Nations that had emerged out of the ‘never again’ tide of feeling that accompanied the end of the First World War. Although President Woodrow Wilson had been appalled¹ at the scale of human suffering he had seen, the increasingly isolationist tendencies of the US meant that the first organisation² with an international peace agenda began its life without one of its potentially most powerful members.

One of the early supporters of the League of Nations was Vera Brittain, whose classic memoir³ of the Great War, ‘Testament of Youth’, was released as a film on 16 January. Having read a review that found it sentimental⁴ I went to see it on Friday with mixed expectations.

The film is primarily, like Brittain’s book, a commemoration of the lives and deaths of the young men whom she had loved and lost rather than an attempt to make a contemporary point. But the act of remembrance itself, can be a subversive⁵ and not just a sentimental act. Urged to forget and move on by those around her, Vera determined⁶ not only that she would not forget these young men, but that she would not forget what she herself had witnessed and learned as a Voluntary Nurse whilst at a military hospital in étaples.

Confronted there with a hut full of German wounded Vera recognized, with shock, that these enemies were young men too, bleeding, suffering and dying far from home; the memory led to her initial support for the League of Nations, and in the face of the growing militarism of the 1930s, eventually to become one of the 20th century’s leading pacifists.

As this month’s events in France continue to reverberate⁷, and the release of the Guantanamo diaries raises inconvenient⁸ moral questions about western values, what we do with our memories is a key question. ‘Forgive and forget’ is often not realistic, ignores the claims of justice, and is simply not safe, whilst the memory driven cycle of defending our own ‘high ground’ runs the risk of causing more and more damage and of failing to see how our attitudes and actions – whoever we are - also need scrutiny⁹.

An alternative way to remember is offered by Miroslav Volf, a Croat theologian, writing out of the Balkan conflict of the 1990s. What he offers is a twofold way of remembering – a remembrance of harm done to us and ours that honours real anxiety and protects the vulnerable, but a remembrance which also honours the humanity of our enemies – a remembrance that restrains our desire for vengeance¹⁰, opens up space for the scrutiny of our own actions, and constrains¹¹ us to work for the reconciliation¹² of all peoples – even if that day is beyond our sight.

The League of Nations failed for lots of reasons, and was succeeded by a variety of international institutions, but it did hold out a vision of common humanity in the years after the Great War. Who, or what, now, amidst ricocheting fears and outrages¹³, might we allow, not to help us forget, nor even just to remember, but to remember well?

1920年的今天，美国投票决定不加入国际联盟，该组织是在一战后“永远不再这样”的思潮应运而生的。尽管伍德罗·威尔逊总统对亲眼目睹人类苦难甚为震惊，美国日益加强的孤立主义者倾向意味着，第一个有着国际和平议程的组织在诞生时并没有可能成为强国的成员国。

国际联盟最初的支持者之一是薇拉·布里顿，她有关一战的经典回忆录《青年遗嘱》于1月16日以电影的形式上映。我读过其影评，发现它很感人，周五在欣赏它时怀着复杂的期待之情。

这部电影像布里顿的书一样，主要讲述的是她所爱过并失去的年轻人的生死故事，而不是试图表述当代的观点。但这种纪念行为本身是颠覆性的，不仅是在抒发感情。周围的人鼓励她忘掉并继续前进，于是薇拉决定，自己不仅不能忘记这些年轻人，还不会忘记自己作为志愿者护士在埃塔普勒军医院期间目睹和学习的一切。

她在那里的临时营房里看到满屋的德国伤病员，薇拉感到震惊，她意识到这些敌人也是年轻人，他们在远离家乡的地方流血、受苦并死去。20世纪30年代在军国主义渐涨的时候，这段记忆促使她开始支持国际联盟，最终她成为20世纪最著名的和平主义者之一。

这个月法国的事件继续引发反响，而关塔那摩湾监狱日记的流出令人们对西方价值观进行道德方面的质疑，怎么处理我们的记忆是个关键问题。“原谅和遗忘”通常不是现实的，而忽视正义主张是不安全的，而在记忆的驱使下捍卫我们的“道德制高点”，则有导致越来越多伤害的危险，还会让我们看不到，无论我们是谁，我们的态度和行为也是需要审视的。

克罗地亚神学家米罗斯拉夫·沃尔夫提供了记忆的另一种方式，他记述了20世纪90年代的巴尔干半岛冲突。他提供了记忆的两重方式，一是记住我们遭到的伤害，让我们感到焦虑和保护弱者是荣誉的记忆，但同时还有尊敬敌人人性的记忆，这种记忆能限制我们复仇的欲望，并给我们审视自身行为的空间，驱使我们努力实现全人类的和解，即使这一天我们根本看不到。

国际联盟的失败有多种原因，后来被多个国际机构所取代，但它确实在一战后的年月里描述了共同人性的愿景。在恐怖和愤慨不断涌来的时候，我们会允许谁或者什么来帮助我们记清楚过去，而不仅仅是不忘记，或者只是记住？

1 appalled   

v.使惊骇，使充满恐惧( appall的过去式和过去分词)adj.惊骇的；丧胆的

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• They were appalled by the reports of the nuclear war. 他们被核战争的报道吓坏了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 organisation   

n.组织，安排，团体，有机休

参考例句：

• The method of his organisation work is worth commending.他的组织工作的方法值得称道。
• His application for membership of the organisation was rejected.他想要加入该组织的申请遭到了拒绝。

3 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

4 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

5 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

6 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

7 reverberate   

v.使回响，使反响

参考例句：

• The decision will reverberate and will jar the country.这项决定将引起反响并震撼这个国家。
• Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my hear.痛苦呼喊的一遍遍的在我的心中回响。

8 inconvenient   

adj.不方便的，令人感到麻烦的

参考例句：

• You have come at a very inconvenient time.你来得最不适时。
• Will it be inconvenient for him to attend that meeting?他参加那次会议会不方便吗？

9 scrutiny   

n.详细检查，仔细观察

参考例句：

• His work looks all right,but it will not bear scrutiny.他的工作似乎很好，但是经不起仔细检查。
• Few wives in their forties can weather such a scrutiny.很少年过四十的妻子经得起这么仔细的观察。

10 vengeance   

n.报复，报仇，复仇

参考例句：

• He swore vengeance against the men who murdered his father.他发誓要向那些杀害他父亲的人报仇。
• For years he brooded vengeance.多年来他一直在盘算报仇。

11 constrains   

强迫( constrain的第三人称单数 )； 强使； 限制； 约束

参考例句：

• We'll ignore the continuity constrains. 我们往往忽略连续约束条件。
• It imposes constrains, restricting nature's freedom. 它具有限制自然界自由度的强制性。

12 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

13 outrages   

引起…的义愤，激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• People are seeking retribution for the latest terrorist outrages. 人们在设法对恐怖分子最近的暴行进行严惩。
• He [She] is not allowed to commit any outrages. 不能任其胡作非为。