Myanmar
缅甸
The isolation ward
闭关锁国 （陈继龙 译）
Mar 1st 2007
From The Economist print edition
MOST writing about the benighted[1] land of Burma, dubbed Myanmar by the grotesque[2] junta running it, falls into one of two traps. Either it plumps[3] for simplification, which is pardonable given the justness of its moral outrage. The conflict does indeed come closer than almost any other to one between baddies (the junta) and the followers of a super-goody (the almost-permanently detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi). （1）At the other extreme, some writers become bogged down[4] in the bewildering complexity underneath this simple framework: the tangled[5] skein of ethnic rivalries and grudges that have fuelled one of the world's longest running civil wars, fought by more than a dozen armed insurgencies around Myanmar's borders.
缅甸（Myanmar）是一个愚昧落后的国家，荒唐可笑的执政军政府又称之为Burma。有关该国的大多数文学作品都难免走向两个极端之一。有的过于简单化，这倘若出于合情合理的道德义愤，倒是可以原谅的。这些作品通篇展现的几乎都是反派（指军政府）与正派（指几乎遭永久软禁的反对党领袖昂山素季）之间的冲突，别无它物。这是一个极端，另一个极端则是，有的作家过分纠缠于这一简单构架中所蕴藏的令人眼花缭乱的复杂性：缅甸边境地区十多个武装叛乱力量挑起的内战，在纷繁芜杂的种族对峙和积怨的推波助澜下，成了世界最旷日持久的内战之一。
Thant Myint-U's fine book seeks the middle ground. An academic historian and a former United Nations official, Mr Thant accuses the simplifiers of an “ahistorical” approach. （2）He argues, justifiably, that Myanmar is “seen within the prism[6] of the past ten or 20 years, as if three Anglo-Burmese wars, a century of colonial rule, an immensely destructive Japanese invasion and occupation, and five decades of civil war, foreign intervention and Communist insurgency had never happened.”
相比上述两个极端，吴丹敏（Thant Myint-U）的优秀著作则中规中矩。吴丹敏是一位注重理论研究的历史学家，曾在联合国任职。他指责简单化者在对待缅甸历史问题上“一叶障目”。他认为，“这些人的眼里只有过去10年或20年的缅甸，三次英缅战争（Anglo-Burmese wars）、一个世纪的殖民统治、日本人侵占造成的巨大破坏以及长达五十年的内战、外国干涉内政和缅共叛乱，等等这些似乎从未发生过。”
His book is part personal memoir, part history and part polemic[7]. He tells the history of Myanmar from ancient times in an accessible and engaging way. （3）But this is intended also as a contribution to a debate that has raged for nearly two decades among Myanmar's exiled democrats: should the West shun, isolate and bully the generals into engaging with Ms Suu Kyi and her many supporters? Or should it encourage the junta in the hope that, through the blandishments[8] of modernity and economic advancement, it will eventually be coaxed[9] to reform?
他的作品集个人回忆、历史记述与观点争鸣于一身。他从远古时代开始讲述缅甸历史，行文深入浅出，引人入胜。这也意在引出缅甸流亡民主人士争论了近20年的一个问题：西方国家是应当躲开并孤立那些将军，从而逼迫他们与昂山素季及其众多追随者兵戎相见，还是应当打着现代性和经济进步的幌子对军政府好言相劝，诱使其走上改革之路呢？
Mr Thant is entitled to a hearing. The grandson of U Thant, UN secretary-general in the 1960s, he GREw up in America and Thailand, with summer visits to his ancestral homeland. But when Myanmar's pro-democracy movement was brutally crushed in 1988, and thousands of young people fled to makeshift[10] camps on the Thai border, he joined them for some months.
如此讲述，吴丹敏是有资格的。作为上世纪60年代联合国秘书长吴丹的孙子，他在美国和泰国长大，曾多次在夏天造访其祖国。1988年缅甸民运遭残酷镇压后，数千青年逃至泰国边境上的难民营，他与他们共度了几个月的时光。
He has since parted company with the exile movement's pro-isolation orthodoxy. Time has moved on, he points out. Most of Myanmar's population was born after 1988. Thus, those for whom that was a life-defining moment are now in a minority. Isolation has not worked: it is “both counterproductive and dangerous”.
他一直都不同意流亡民运分子主张闭关自守的观点。他指出，时代是在前进的。缅甸人口大多数是1988年后出生的，曾经遭受命运浩劫的那一代人现已所剩无几。闭关自守是无益的：它已酿成“事与愿违甚至危险的后果”。
There is much in this argument; and it is easy to share the exasperation he seems to feel with some exiled lobbyists. （4）Some have so lost sight of the ends in pursuing the means that each new government sanction or consumer-boycott-induced withdrawal of a foreign investor is celebrated as a triumph in itself.
此话意味深长，内中流露的愤懑明摆着是冲着某些流亡说客去的。每当政府出台新制约措施或消费者抵制造成外国投资人撤资，这些流亡人士都会欢呼雀跃，并且一条道走到黑，乐此不疲。
Mr Thant, however, skirts three difficulties. First, it is wrong to argue, as he does, that “the difference between the Burmese military regime and its counterparts in South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia is not that [it] has been any more repressive.” Oh yes it has; （5）though it is also true, as he goes on, that “the others trusted the advice of technocrats[11], presided over long periods of economic growth and allowed for the development of civil society.”
然而，有三个问题吴丹敏处理不得当。首先，他和别人一样，认为“缅甸军事政权与韩国（此处可能为North Korea之误——译者按）、泰国、印度尼西亚军事政权的差异并不在于（前者）更专制。”这种观点是不正确的，事实上缅甸军事政权就是特别专制；尽管他接下来也指出，“其他国家采纳专家政治论者的谏言，引领经济长期增长，允许公民社会发展”，确有其事。
Second, isolation has been neither complete nor entirely involuntary. The generals have excluded the world as much as it has shunned them, and have found in China, India and South-East Asia neighbours who are more than ready to deal with them.
其次，一直以来，缅甸并非完全闭关自守，政府也并非全然不顾。将军们排斥这个世界，但世界照样也在躲避他们，而且他们已然察觉，中国、印度和东南亚邻国都非常乐于与他们开展贸易往来。
Third, unlike many other dictatorships, Myanmar has held an election, and lost it comprehensively. That was a long time ago, in 1990. But nothing that has happened since suggests the winners—Ms Suu Kyi's party—could not repeat the feat if given the chance. So their views, which do not match Mr Thant's, also carry weight.
第三，不同于其他许多专制国家，缅甸曾举行过一次大选，后来再也没有了。那是在1990年，距今已经很多年。大选后一切如旧，说明选举获胜者昂山素季的政党倘若还有这样的机会，也不可能再奏凯歌。所以，他们的观点虽然与吴丹敏相左，但还是有分量的。
[QUIZ]
英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. benighted adj. unenlightened morally or intellectually; ignorant; backward 未开化的; 愚昧无知的; 落後的: benighted savages 未开化的野人.
2. grotesque adj. 1 strangely distorted so as to arouse fear or laughter; fantastic 因变得古怪而可怕或可笑的; 奇形怪状的: tribal dancers wearing grotesque masks 部落中戴着古怪面具的跳舞的人. 2 (art 美术) combining human, animal and plant forms in a fantastic design 奇异风格的（由人、动植物混合组成之图案的）. 3 ridiculously exaggerated or unreasonable; absurd 荒谬地夸张的或无理的; 荒唐的: a grotesque distortion of the truth 对事实的无理歪曲 * It's grotesque to expect a person of her experience to work for such little money. 想让有她那样经验的人为这点儿钱工作真是可笑. 4 offensively incongruous 捍格不入的; 极不协调的: the grotesque sight of an old man trying to flirt with a young girl 老头儿极力与少女调情那种离谱的样子.
3. plump v. (phr v) plump (oneself/sb/sth) down (cause sb/sth to) fall or drop suddenly and heavily （使某人[某物]）突然而重重地落下: plump down the heavy bags 把重袋子一下子放下 * plump (oneself) down in a chair 一屁股坐到椅子上. plump for sb/sth choose or vote for sb/sth with confidence 有信心地选择或选举某人[某事物]: The committee plumped for the most experienced candidate. 委员会很有把握地选择了那个最有经验的候选人. * The children plumped for a holiday by the sea. 孩子们特别想去海边度假.
4. bog v. (-gg-) (phr v) bog (sth) down (usu passive 通常用于被动语态) (a) (cause sth to) sink into mud or wet ground （使某物）陷入泥沼: The tank (got) bogged down in the mud. 坦克陷入泥沼之中. (b) (fig 比喻) (cause sth to) become stuck and unable to make proGREss （使某物）陷入困境不能前进: Our discussions got bogged down in irrelevant detail. 我们的讨论纠缠在无关紧要的细节上.
5. tangle v. 1 [I, Ip, Tn, Tn.p] ~ (sth) (up) (cause sth to) become twisted into a confused mass （使某物）乱作一团, 绞在一起: Her hair got all tangled up in the barbed wire fence. 她的头发让刺钢丝篱笆都给挂住了. 2 [Ipr] ~ with sb/sth become involved in a quarrel or fightwith sb/sth 与某人吵嘴或打架; 与某事有纠葛: I shouldn'ttangle with Peter -- he's bigger than you. 我不该与彼得纠缠--他比你块头大.
6. prism n. 1 solid geometric shape with ends that are parallel and of the same size and shape, and with sides that are parallelograms 棱柱（体）. 2 transparent object of this shape, usu triangular and made of glass, which breaks up ordinary light into the colours of the rainbow 棱柱体透明物; （通常指）棱镜, 三棱镜.
7. polemic n. fml 文) 1 (a) [C] ~ (against/in favour of sth/sb) speech, piece of writing, etc containing very forceful arguments (against or for sth/sb) （反对或赞成某事物[某人]的）慷慨陈词, 辩论文章: He launched into a fierce polemic against the government's policies. 他猛烈地抨击政府的政策. (b) [U] such speeches, pieces of writing, etc 慷慨陈词; 辩论文章: engage in polemic 进行辩论. 2 polemics [pl] art or practice of arguing a case formally and usu forcefully 辩论法; 争辩术.
8. blandishment n. (usu pl 通常作复数) (fml 文) flattering or coaxing words and actions 谄媚或哄骗的言语和行为: She resisted his blandishments. 她把他的甜言蜜语顶了回去.
9. coax v. [Tn, Tn.pr, Cn.t] 1 ~ sb (into/out of (doing) sth) persuade sb gently or gradually 劝诱或哄劝某人: He coaxed her into letting him take her to the cinema. 他哄得她同意带她去看电影. * She coaxed him out of his bad temper. 她循循善诱地劝他改掉坏脾气. * coax a child to take its medicine 哄小孩儿吃药 * (fig 比喻) coax a fire with (ie make it burn by adding) paraffin 加上煤油把火点着. 2 (phr v) coax sth outof/from sb obtain sth from sb by gentle persuasion 用好言好语劝说某人以得到某事物: I had to coax the information out of him. 我得用好话套出他掌握的情况. * She coaxed a smile from the baby. 她哄得婴儿一笑.
10. makeshift n, adj (thing that is) used temporarily until sth better is available （临时的）代用品; 权宜的; 临时凑合的: use an empty crate as a makeshift (table) 把一个空木箱当作临时的桌子.
11. technocrat n. expert inscience, engineering, etc, esp one who favours technocracy 技术专家; （尤指）专家政治论者.
