经济学人:丘吉尔的多面人生(上)

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Mr high-roller

赌场大亨

No More Champagne¹: Churchill and His Money. By David Lough.

《莫饮香槟：丘吉尔与金钱》作者：戴维·洛

Winston Churchill Reporting: Adventures of a Young War Correspondent. By Simon Read.

《温斯顿·丘吉尔报告：年轻战地记者历险记》，作者：西蒙·里德HISTORIANS and many members of the public already know that Winston Churchill often took high-stakes gambles in his political life.

历史学家和许多公众早已知道，温斯顿·丘吉尔在他的政治生涯中经常冒险豪赌。

丘吉尔.jpg

Some, like the disastrous² Dardanelles campaign—an audacious attempt he masterminded at the Admiralty to seize the straits of Gallipoli and knock Turkey out of the first world war—he got wrong.

有些赌局，比如悲剧色彩的达达尼尔海峡战役，丘吉尔在海军部策划了这次大胆的军事行动，目的是占领加利波利海峡，迫使土耳其退出第一次世界大战，结果他押错了赌注。

Others, notably³ his decision as prime minister in 1940 to hold out against Nazi⁴ Germany until America came to rescue Britain, he got spectacularly right.

其他赌局，尤其是他决定在1940年担任英国首相、坚持抵抗纳粹德国到美国前来解救英国的举动，让他赢得了可观的回报。

But the extent to which Churchill was a gambler in other spheres of his life has tended not to catch his biographers' attention.

但是，丘吉尔生活中的其他方面有多少赌博色彩，却没有得到传记作家的关注。

Two new books attempt to fill this gap.

有两本新书打算填补这个空白。

The first is “No More Champagne” by David Lough, a private-banker-turned-historian who looks at Churchill's personal finances during the ups and downs of his career.

第一本就是戴维·洛的《莫饮香槟》，这位私人银行家转行的历史学家分析了丘吉尔在跌宕起伏的职业生涯中的个人财务状况。

It is the first biography to focus on this aspect of his life.

这是第一本专注丘吉尔财务方面的传记。

Mr Lough has trawled through Churchill's personal accounts and found that he was as much a risk-taker when it came to his money as he was when he was making decisions at the Admiralty or in Downing Street.

戴维·洛查阅了丘吉尔的个人账户，发现他在财务方面敢于承担风险，正如他在海军部或唐宁街做决定时一样大胆。

Although Churchill was descended⁵ from the Dukes of Marlborough, his parents had “very little money on either side”—though that never stopped them living the high life.

尽管丘吉尔是马尔博罗公爵的后裔，他的父母却“没有多少钱”，不过这从来不妨碍他们享受上流社会的生活。

Neither did it hamper⁶ the young Churchill;

这对年轻的丘吉尔也没有什么约束；

he spent wildly on everything from polo ponies⁷ to Havana cigars, a habit he picked up as a war correspondent in Cuba.

他花起钱来挥霍无度，无论是打马球的小马，还是哈瓦那雪茄，这是他在古巴当战地记者时养成的习惯。

Indeed, between 1908 and 1914 the Churchill household spent an average of 1,160 on wine alone each year—104,400 ($145,000) in today's money.

事实上，从1908年到1914年，丘吉尔家仅在葡萄酒一项上每年平均花费1160英镑，相当于今天的104400英镑（约合14.5万美元）。

It is no wonder, then, that Churchill spent most of his life leaping from one cash flow crisis to another, being perennially⁸ behind with his suppliers' bills.

不过这也难怪，丘吉尔毕生的大部分时间都是刚摆脱现金危机，又陷入财务困境，常年无法偿付他供应商的账单。

A nother new book, “Winston Churchill Reporting”, by Simon Read, an American journalist, looks at one of the ways Churchill eventually paid some of them: writing.

另一本新书是美国记者西蒙·里德（Simon Read）写的《温斯顿·丘吉尔报告》，他找到了丘吉尔最终偿还部分债务的方法：写作。

Mr Read investigates how Churchill went from a young army officer cadet to being Britain's highest-earning war correspondent by the age of 25, getting the journalism⁹ bug¹⁰ for the rest of his life.

里德的调查表明，丘吉尔如何在年仅25岁的时候，就从年轻的军官军校学生变成英国收入最高的战地记者，在他的余生里都紧握新闻这个筹码。

The Churchill name certainly helped open newspaper editors' doors across London.

当然，丘吉尔这个名字帮助他打开整个伦敦的报社编辑室大门。

But it was the extent to which the young reporter was willing to take risks on battlefields across the world that marked out his columns from those of his contemporaries.

但是，这位年轻记者甘愿冒险奔赴世界各地战场的举动，让他的专栏在同行中脱颖而出。

1.knock out 淘汰;击败

例句:He predicated in rhyme, with unerring accuracy, the round in which he would knock out his opponent.

他用韵律诗精准无误地预测他将在哪一回合淘汰他的对手。

2.hold out 坚持

例句:Professional football and baseball players hold out if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth.

职业足球和棒球选手，如果他们的球队伸出拒绝支付他们什么他们认为他们的价值。

3.tend to 倾向于

例句:We all tend to overemphasize the purposes we feel most passionate¹¹ about and neglect the others. Churches do the same thing.

我们都偏重于自己较热衷的目的，而忽然其他的，教会亦是如此。

4.pick up 捡起;接载

例句:He would just pick up the phone and get foreign people to invest in his economy in South Africa.

他会拿起电话打给国外的投资人，让他们到南非来投资。

 

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