《宋氏快译》（64）：马丁路德金绝非单纯之辈

《宋氏快译》（64）：马丁路德金绝非单纯之辈


Popular view of King ignores complexity

对金的大众化观念忽视其复杂性

By DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writer
Sun Jan 20, 6:56 PM ET


NEW YORK — They are some of the most famous words in American history: "I have a dream ..." And the man who said them has become an icon. Martin Luther King Jr. has certainly gotten his share of attention this year, the subject of a presidential campaign controversy over his legacy that blew up just around the time of the holiday created to honor him.

纽约 - 它们是美国历史上一些最著名的词语： “我有一个梦想… …”说出这些词语的那个人现在已经变成一位偶像。马丁-路德金在今年当然已经赚得应有的注意，在一次总统选战中围绕他的传奇引发争议，而争议的主题也已经在专为纪念他而设立的假日来将临之际曝光。


But nearly 40 years after his assassination in April 1968, after the deaths of his wife and of others who knew both the man and what he stood for, some say King is facing the same fate that has befallen many a historical figure — being frozen in a moment in time that ignores the full complexity of the man and his message.

但是在他于1968年4月遇刺身亡将近40年之后，在他的妻子以及那些既知道他这个人，又知道他的主张的那些人也已经过世之后，有一些人便说金目前正面临许多历史人物所遭遇的同样命运 – 最终被冻结在一个完全忽略金本人及其所传达信息之复杂性的时刻。


"Everyone knows, even the smallest kid knows about Martin Luther King, can say his most famous moment was that "I have a dream" speech," said Henry Louis Taylor Jr., professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Buffalo.


布法罗大学城市与区域规划教授亨利-路易斯-小泰勒说：“马丁-路德金，尽人皆知，大人小孩，概莫能外，提起他最著名的那一时刻，也都会说就是他发表 ‘我有一个梦想’演说的时候。”


"No one can go further than one sentence," he said. "All we know is that this guy had a dream, we don't know what that dream was."

“但是除了一句话之外，没有人能再往深处说，”他说。“我们所知道的一切就是，这个伙计有一梦想，可要说那个梦想究竟是什么，我们就一无所知了。”


At the time of his death, King was working on anti-poverty and anti-war issues. He had spoken out against the Vietnam War in 1967, and was in Memphis in April 1968 in support of striking sanitation workers.

遇刺身亡的时刻，金正就反贫反战问题发表演说。他曾公开发表讲话反对1967年的越南战争，并于1968年4月在孟菲斯支持举行罢工的环卫工人。


King had come a long way from the crowds who cheered him at the 1963 March on Washington, when he was introduced as "the moral leader of our nation" — and when he pronounced "I have a dream" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

在1963年华盛顿大游行时，金离开朝他欢呼的人群走了很长一段路之后，站在林肯纪念堂的台阶上。他先是被介绍为“我们民族的道德领袖，” – 继而宣告： “我有一个梦想。”

注释：
原文中两个由when引领的状语从句很长，无论是按照英文语序照直翻译，还是按照中文时间状语从句置前的习惯翻译都很别扭。

如果是前者就会是这样：
在1963年华盛顿大游行时，金离开朝他欢呼的人群，走了很长一段路之后，站在林肯纪念堂的台阶上，那时他先是被介绍为“我们民族的道德领袖，” – 继而宣告： “我有一个梦想。”

如果是后者就会是这样：
他被介绍为“我们民族的道德领袖，” 继而宣告 “我有一个梦想”的时候，金在1963年华盛顿大游行中，已经离开朝他欢呼的人群走了很长一段路，然后站在林肯纪念堂的台阶上。

两种译法前者似乎还差强人意，而后者就有点离谱了，总之两者都不理想，不如抛开时间状语从句的概念，按照事情发生的时间顺序自然地翻译比较好。就如我上面已经敲定的那个句子。



By taking on issues outside segregation, he had lost the support of many newspapers and magazines, and his relationship with the White House had suffered, said Harvard Sitkoff, a professor of history at the University of New Hampshire who has written a recently published book on King.

最近刚以金为题材出版过一本书的新罕布什尔大学历史系教授哈佛-希特科夫表示，由于选择了（种族）隔离之外的话题，他失去了许多报纸和杂志的支持，他与白宫的关系也因此而大为缩水。


"He was considered by many to be a pariah," Sitkoff said.

希特科夫说：“ 很多人都认为他是一个贱民。”


But he took on issues of poverty and militarism because he considered them vital "to make equality something real and not just racial brotherhood but equality in fact," Sitkoff said.

希特科夫说，但他选择了有关贫困和军国主义的议题，因为他认为，要想使平等变成实实在在的东西，要想使平等变成实际上的平等，而不仅仅局限于种族兄弟之情，这两个议题至关重要。


While there has been scholarly study of King and everything he did, that knowledge hasn't translated into the popular culture perception of him and the civil rights movement, said Richard Greenwald, professor of history at Drew University.

杜鲁大学历史系教授理查德-格林威尔德表示，围绕金本人及其所做的一切而展开的学术研究一直在进行，但是研究成果却始终未能转化成与之相关的通俗文化观念及民权运动。


"We're living increasingly in a culture of top 10 lists, of celebrity biopics which simplify the past as entertainment or mythology," he said. "We lose a view on what real leadership is by compressing him down to one window."

“我们正越来越多地生活在一种“前十名名单”文化中和名人传记文化中，而这种文化却将过去简化为娱乐或神话，” 他说。“ 由于我们将他强行按倒在一个窗口上，因此对于真正的领导究竟是什么样子，我们就茫然不知了。”


That does a disservice to both King and society, said Melissa Harris-Lacewell, professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University.

普林斯顿大学政治学及非洲-美洲研究方面的教授梅丽莎-哈里斯-雷斯韦尔说，那对于金和社会来说都是一种损害，

By freezing him at that point, by putting him on a pedestal of perfection that doesn't acknowledge his complex views, "it makes it impossible both for us to find to new leaders and for us to aspire to leadership," Harris-Lacewell said.

哈里斯-雷斯韦尔表示，将他冻结在那一点上，将他置于一种并不认同他那些复杂观点的完美无缺的基础之上，“ 这就会使我们既不可能去发现新领导人，也不可能去渴求领导。”


She believes it's important for Americans in 2008 to remember how disliked King was in 1968.

她认为，对于时值2008年的美国人来说，重要的是要记住金在1968年是如何不讨人喜欢的。


"If we forget that, then it seems like the only people we can get behind must be popular," Harris-Lacewell said. "Following King meant following the unpopular road, not the popular one."

“如果我们忘记那一点，那么被我们抛到脑后的人似乎就必定会大受欢迎了，”雷斯韦尔说。“而追随金也就意味着追随不受欢迎的道路，而不是受欢迎的道路。”


In becoming an icon, King's legacy has been used by people all over the political spectrum, said Glenn McNair, associate professor of history at Kenyon College.

肯扬学院史学副教授格伦-麦克奈尔说，在变成一位标示性人物过程中，金的传奇事迹已经被整个政界的所有人士所利用。


He's been part of the 2008 presidential race, in which Barack Obama could be the country's first black president. Obama has invoked King, and Sen. John Kerry endorsed Obama by saying "Martin Luther King said that the time is always right to do what is right."

他一直是2008年总统竞选活动的组成部分，在这次选举中巴拉克-奥巴马可能成为国家的第一位黑人总统。奥巴马已经乞灵于金，而约翰-克里也已认可奥巴马说：“马丁-路德-金说过，只要做正确的事情，任何时间都可以。”


Not all the references have been received well. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton came under fire when she was quoted as saying King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

并非所有的意见都能很好地被人接受。参议员希拉里-克林顿曾经说，只有林登-约翰逊总统签署1964年民权法之后，金那个关于种族平等的梦想才得以实现。她的这番言论被广为引用之后，她便引火烧身了。


King has "slipped into the realm of symbol that people use and manipulate for their own purposes," McNair said.

麦克纳尔表示，金早已“悄然变成一种人们为达到各自目的而任意利用和操控的象征性人物”。


Harris-Lacewell said that is something people need to push back against.

哈里斯-雷斯韦尔说，这种做法是人们需要加以抵制的。


"It's not OK to slip into flat memory of who Dr. King was, it does no justice to us and makes him to easy to appropriate," she said. "Every time he gets appropriated, we have to come out and say that's not OK. We do have the ability to speak back."
“陷入有关金究竟是何许人的浮浅记忆实在不妙，这不仅对我们是不公平的，而且也极易使他遭到歪曲和盗用，”她说。“每当他遭到歪曲和盗用的时候，我们都不得不站出来叫停。我们的确有能力加以反驳。”