紐時賞析／神學士回歸 拜登是否想到葉慈的「二度降臨」

A Rough Beast Returns

神學士回歸 拜登是否想到「二度降臨」

As President Joe Biden watched Kabul descend into hell, did he think of his beloved William Butler Yeats?

當拜登總統看著喀布爾墜入地獄，有沒有想到他心愛的葉慈？

He is the poet Biden recited as a teen to conquer his stutter. And Biden has quoted Yeats before while talking about the Middle East.

葉慈是拜登在青少年時期為克服口吃而背誦過的詩人。拜登以前在談到中東時曾引用葉慈。

“The Second Coming” eerily sprang to life in the president’s helter-skelter exit from Afghanistan, a land that still prizes falconry and falcons flying in widening gyres.

詩作「二度降臨」詭異地復活了，就在總統慌慌張張地離開阿富汗時。在這塊土地上，放鷹狩獵以及獵鷹在日益廣大的錐鏇中飛翔仍備受珍視。

When Yeats writes about darkness dropped in the sands of the desert and a slouching “rough beast” with “a gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,” he could be describing the Taliban. Anarchy loosed upon the world, a blood-dimmed tide, and the worst, full of passionate intensity.

當葉慈描寫落在荒原沙漠上的黑暗和一頭無精打采的「淫獸」，「空洞無表情之凝望一若驕陽」時，可能是在描述神學士。無政府狀態在世界上、血淋淋的潮水及最糟糕的強烈激情上蔓延。

Biden did the right thing getting us out of there. But he did it badly.

拜登讓我們從那裡脫身是正確的事，但他做得很差。

The pandemonium drew comparisons to some of the worst debacles in modern American history: the fall of Saigon and the Bay of Pigs. A baby hoisted over razor wire into the arms of a Marine. Afghans clinging to the wings and landing gear of an American jet as it took off, then plunging to the tarmac; later, human remains were found on one of the wheels. A 17-year-old Afghan soccer player falling to his death off the side of a plane.

這場混亂被拿來與美國現代史上一些最嚴重崩壞相提並論：西貢陷落與豬玀灣事件。一名陸戰隊員將嬰兒從鐵絲網上方吊入懷中。一架美國飛機起飛時，阿富汗人緊緊抓住機翼和起落架，然後直墜於停機坪上，後來在其中一個輪子上發現了人的遺體。一名17歲阿富汗足球員從飛機側面墜落身亡。

Allies expressed their furious sense of betrayal, with British lawmakers raging against Biden in Parliament. Biden’s abrupt unilateral path was “throwing us and everybody else to the fire,” said one.

盟友們表達了他們強烈的遭背叛感，英國議員們在議會中猛批拜登。其中一人表示，拜登突然的單邊行動「把我們和其他人都推進了火坑」。

Americans are not built to occupy feudal countries under scorching suns halfway around the globe. Even the British long ago had to face the folly of that — in particular in 1842, when some 17,000 British and Indian army soldiers, wives and servants were killed as they tried to retreat through the snowy mountains to Jalalabad.

美國人不是為了在地球另一端的烈日下占領封建國家而生。即使是英國人很久以前也被迫面對這種愚蠢場面，尤其是在1842年，大約17,000名英國和印度軍隊官兵、他們的妻子和僕人，在試圖穿過覆滿白雪的山地撤退到查拉拉巴時遭到殺害。

Donald Trump could have made safe and orderly passage a part of his deal when he negotiated his 2020 “surrender agreement,” as his former national security adviser H.R. McMaster called it in an interview with Bari Weiss..

川普的前國家安全顧問麥馬斯特接受韋斯訪問時說，川普在談判2020年的「投降協議」時，本可將安全有序的過渡納入協議。

We all know Trump is a terrible deal-maker. Biden could have told the Taliban he was not abiding by Trump’s fatally flawed deal and renegotiated it to avoid this pell-mell disgrace.

我們都知道川普是一個糟糕的交易者。拜登本可告訴神學士，不會遵守川普有致命缺陷的協議，並重新談判，以避免這種混亂的恥辱。

But Trump and Biden were so impatient to get out, their screw-ups merged into strangulating red tape.

但川普和拜登急於撤軍，他們搞砸的事情逐漸變成綁手綁腳的官樣文章。

We didn’t know 9/11 was coming, even though we should have. We didn’t know Jan. 6 was coming, even though we should have. We didn’t know the Potemkin government in Afghanistan that we’d propped up for two decades would fall in two seconds, even though we should have.

我們不知道911事件會發生，儘管我們應該知道。我們不知道1月6日的事情會發生，儘管我們應該知道。我們不知道我們支持了20年的阿富汗金玉其外的政府會在兩秒內垮台，儘管我們應該知道。

What else don’t we know?

還有哪些我們不知道的事？

文／Maureen Dowd 譯／陳韋廷

說文解字看新聞

【張佑生】

有人問愛爾蘭裔的美國總統拜登，為何演說時總愛引用葉慈的詩句？拜登回答，與葉慈是愛爾蘭詩人無關，而是因為葉慈是偉大的詩人。誠哉斯言！近日有關美軍倉促撤出阿富汗的評論汗牛充棟，紐時專欄作家陶曼玲借用拜登最鍾愛的詩人葉慈百年前的名作來批評拜登，頗具巧思。本文翻譯的葉慈詩作段落，係以詩人楊牧翻譯的《葉慈詩選》為主，合先敘明。

“The Second Coming”原指耶穌基督再次降臨人世，也是人類接受審判日子。陶曼玲以“A Rough Beast Returns”為題，借用詩中絕非善類的「淫獸」意象，指出「再臨」帶來的不是人類期盼的救贖，反是失序末日景象。

詩作第一行的the widening gyre指放鷹時老鷹受養鷹人牽引盤旋成圈，這裡描寫愈見擴張，正是下一句所說的獵鷹已經不（無法）聽養鷹人掌控，象徵社會的混亂。放鷹在阿富汗是很受重視的活動，正巧與詩作產生連結。作者在文末一連提出三個「縱然應知卻不知」的事件以及兩次coming，鏗鏘有力。