ON DEADLINE: Comeback kids create chaos By RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writer Tue Jan 8, 11:56 PM ET
凯旋仔制造惊天大乱
WASHINGTON - In the land of comebacks, Sen.Hillary Rodham Clinton and John McCain revived their sagging campaigns Tuesday night and catapulted the Democratic and Republican presidential races into a surprise state of chaos.
Neither could afford to lose New Hampshire . Suddenly, the fallen front-runners look like winners again.
两位都输不起新罕一战 。忽如一夜春风来,捉襟见肘的先驱者们俨然以赢家的姿态胜出。
Clinton defied campaign-closing polls and the expectations of her own advisers to pull out a narrow victory over Illinois Sen. Barack Obama , the self-styled agent of change bidding to be the nation's first black president. She won with a last-minute show of emotion and pointed criticism of Obama, the harshest attacks coming from her husband, Bill. .
"My friends, I'm past the age when I can claim the noun 'kid,' no matter what adjective proceeds it, but tonight we sure showed them what a comeback looks like," he told supporters as they shouted, "Mac is back!"
Clinton and McCain started out as presumptive favorites. Both lost their luster — Clinton with her crushing loss to Obama in Iowa last week and McCain with the near-collapse of his campaign last summer.
And now they're back, almost on top, in the wildest and most unpredictable presidential race of a lifetime.
然而现在他们已经卷土重来,在这场一生中最疯狂和最不可预知的总统竞选活动中几乎达到登峰造极的地步。
Against predictions of a second straight defeat to Obama, Clinton won because• Women rallied to her side. • She won the female vote by more than 10 percentage points, according to exit polls, after losing among women in Iowa.
• Clinton somehow stalled Obama's momentum. • Nearly four of every 10 voters selected a candidate in the last three days of the campaign, splitting their votes between Obama and Clinton.
Exit polls don't pinpoint why these three things happened, but there are several possibilities.
出口民调没有指出为什么会发生这三件事,但也提到有几种可能性。
First, New Hampshire has a history of putting the brakes on surging candidacies, and the Clintons spoke to that sense of prudence by suggesting that Obama was not ready for the White House.
They urged New Hampshire to give the nation a chance to give Obama a second look.
他们敦促新罕州给全国一个机会,以便重新审视奥巴马。
"Some of us are ready," Hillary Clinton said on the eve of the primary, "and some of us are not." She even dusted off a line Walter Mondale used against Gary Hart 24 years ago: "Where's the beef?"
Second, the Clintons went negative on Obama's record to say he has not been consistent on a host of issues, including the Iraq war. Obama constantly trumpets his early opposition to the war without informing voters that, like Clinton, he later voted to pay for it.
"There's no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since," Bill Clinton said of Obama. "Give me a break! This whole thing is the biggest fairy tale I've ever seen."
注释: 这段话翻译得比较活。我没有死板地按照原文字对字地译。我只是设身处地地把自己放到克林顿当时的位置上,揣摩他的心态,按照自己口语的语体译的。可能有点离谱。Give me a break! 不太好译。如果把break当成“突破”解,那就说,让奥巴马对他的立场变化给一个突破性的解释。如果把break当“停止”解,那就是让奥巴马立即停止自吹自擂。我倾向于后者。说白了,自吹自擂不就是忽悠人吗?biggest fairy tale,故事说大,不符合汉语习惯,说长还可以,但这只局限于长度,没有涉及到内容多少和好坏。我看还不如说“邪乎”比较好。此外,“海啦”,就是“多啦”,是形容多的口语说法。
Third, aides had urged her to show more passion and emotion, and, coincidentally or not, she did so by nearly breaking down during a restaurant appearance. Eyes welling up and voice quavering, she declared the campaign "is very personal for me. It's not just political."
But make no mistake: The moment was a political masterstroke. "I listened to you," Clinton told supporters Tuesday night, "and in the process I found my own voice."
注释: I found my own voice,用自己的声音表达。可参考新英汉词典例句:find voice in song,用歌声来表达。
Finally, Obama and fellow Democrat John Edwards joined forces in a Saturday debate to portray Clinton as a hostage of the status quo. They scored debate points, but Clinton may have won voters' sympathy.
She showed a soft and self-deprecating side known only to friends when asked what she could say to voters who don't find her likable enough. 她向人们展示的是其柔弱自贬的一面,而她只是在朋友们问到她该如果答复那些觉得她不够可爱的选民时,才会显示这一面。
Thanks to New Hampshire , she and McCain can go on.
由于有新罕州这一战 ,她和麦凯恩才能继续走下去。
The Democratic race moves to Nevada and South Carolina , two states that looked solidly Obama until Tuesday night.
民主党选战接下来就要转向内华达州和南卡罗来纳州 ,这两个州在周二夜晚以前,都曾看好奥巴马。
The Republican race moves to Michigan , where McCain is strong, and South Carolina, a hotbed of social conservatives that destroyed his campaign in 2000. Waiting for him will be the winner of the Iowa GOP caucuses, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee .
By keeping McCain and Clinton afloat, New Hampshire ensured that both races will continue at least until Feb. 5, when voters in two dozen states will get their chance to end the chaos.