经济学人逝者 || 津巴布韦前总统穆加贝逝世

Rule by the whip

鞭治

英文部分选自经济学人20190914期Obituary版块

Rule by the whip

鞭治

Robert Gabriel Mugabe, hero and destroyer of Zimbabwe, died on September 6th, aged 95

罗伯特·加布里埃尔·穆加贝，津巴布韦的英雄和破坏者，于9月6日去世，享年95岁

Books he trusted. One was usually in his hand in those first, mostly happy, years as Zimbabwe’s leader. He would be home at State House by 5.30pm, slamming doors so that his beloved wife Sally would know to come rushing. They crumpled together on a low armchair, almost on each other’s laps, she eating custard as he sipped tea. Then he would drape a long arm round her while turning with the other the pages of a favourite novel, usually British, often a Graham Greene.

穆加贝信赖书籍。在初任津巴布韦领导人的那段还算快乐的时光里，他常常书不离手。他会在下午5点半回到总统府，关门时故意弄出很大动静，好让他心爱的妻子萨莉知道他回来了，冲过来迎接他。他俩常一起蜷缩在低矮的扶手椅里，几乎是一人坐在另一人的大腿上。萨莉吃着蛋挞，他则小口抿茶。这时，他会一手搂着萨莉，一手翻着最爱的小说，通常是英国作家写的，特别是格雷厄姆·格林的书。

Written words Robert Mugabe could love. It was real live people who proved difficult. A shy, surly boy, he sought no friends in Kutama, his village. Later he admitted it frankly: “I lived in my mind a lot. I liked talking to myself, reciting little poems and so on; reading things aloud to myself.” A loner, he hated scrapping with sticks, running, boys’ boisterous games, communal life. A brother, Donato, thought him “lazy, just reading all the time”. Even at chores, in the shade of the bush while snaring birds or tramping in the dust to herd cattle, he would read. “He held the book in one hand and the whip in the other. It was a strange thing for all of us to see,” recalled Donato.

白纸黑字，穆加贝坦然爱之。倒是活生生的人，他觉得难以应对。他小时候害羞且脾气暴躁，在家乡库塔玛村没有任何朋友。后来他坦言：“我常活在自我的世界里，喜欢自言自语、吟诵小诗之类的；我会大声读书给自己听。”他独来独往，孤僻自处。讨厌拿棍子打架、讨厌跑来跑去，也不喜欢男孩们吵吵闹闹的游戏、不喜欢团体生活。他的一个兄弟多纳托认为他“懒散，总是在看书”。即使是在干家务活、在灌木丛荫处捕雀或者在尘土飞扬的路上跺脚赶牛时，他都会看书。“他一手拿书，一手持鞭。在我们所有人看来，这很奇怪，”多纳托回忆道。

The Irish priest at the Catholic mission in Kutama thought he had “unusual gravitas” and would “be an important somebody”. He was at mass daily, most dutifully after his brother, Michael, was poisoned. Years of teaching study followed: first in Southern Rhodesia, then at Fort Hare, South Africa, the crucible for so many African nationalist leaders, and lastly in Ghana, where he met Sally.

库塔玛村天主教传道会的爱尔兰牧师认为，穆加贝拥有“异于常人的稳重”，将来“必成大器”。穆加贝坚持每日做弥撒，他的兄弟迈克尔中毒身亡后变得尤为虔诚。后来，他学了多年的教育学：先是在南罗德西亚，后来转辗南非赫尔堡大学——这里是非洲众多民族主义领袖的熔炉——最后到达加纳，在那里他遇见了萨莉。

As an African nationalist in Rhodesia, ruled by Ian Smith in the name of white supremacy, jail was inevitable. His 11 years behind bars he recalled as a chunk of life pointlessly stolen away. Again, books sustained him. He acquired seven degrees. As it did for Mandela, Nkrumah and Kenyatta, prison also earned him political credibility. Outdoor activity was harder. In Mozambique after his release, as his fellow liberation fighters strutted in fatigues, he sweltered in a suit.

其时，在伊恩·史密斯以“白人至上”的名义管理的罗德西亚，穆加贝作为一名非洲民族主义者，牢狱之灾不可避免。他回忆说，被关在铁窗里的11年是一段毫无理由地被夺走了的岁月。再一次，书籍帮他度过了难关。他获得了7个学位。一如曼德拉、恩克鲁玛和肯雅塔等人，监狱生涯也为穆加贝赢得了政治信誉。相比监狱，穆加贝出狱后的生活更为艰难。出狱后在莫桑比克，当为解放而斗争的战友们穿着制服昂首阔步时，他则身着西装、汗流浃背。

注：

Fatigues：clothes that soldiers wear when they are fighting or when they are doing routine jobs.

Throughout his life, rivals somehow met timely deaths. Cars were flattened by lorries on remote roads; flames devoured a farmhouse; opponents learned to fear high open windows. Few loved him. The British sometimes sneered. At Lancaster House in London, amid talk of independence and elections, the British foreign secretary found him “reptilian”, “not human”. At home, voters thought otherwise. He swept to glorious, genuine victory in the first free elections in 1980. To the shock and relief of Smith and the white farmers, he let them stay on, keeping their land if they abstained from politics. Though he had declared himself a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist, he now preached reconciliation. And the teacher flourished. Zimbabweans were among the best educated people in Africa, and evenings at State House saw the prime minister personally tutoring his staff.

纵其一生，他的政敌们总是很凑巧地离世。小汽车在偏僻的路上被卡车碾平；大火吞噬农舍，对手们开始惧怕高处敞开的窗户。很少有人喜欢他。英国人有时会对他冷嘲热讽。在伦敦的兰卡斯特宫，人们高谈独立和选举，英国外交大臣指责穆加贝“为人卑鄙”、“没有人性”。在国内，选民们对他的看法则截然不同。他在1980年的第一次自由选举中大获全胜。胜选后，另伊恩·史密斯和白人农民意想不到是，他允许他们维持现状，保留田地，前提是远离政治，让他们松了口气。尽管他曾自称“马克思主义者兼列宁主义者兼毛泽东主义者”，现在却宣扬和解。此外，他还大力发展教育业。津巴布韦人的受教育水平提升，在整个非洲名列前茅。总统府的无数次夜晚里，这位总理都会亲自教导自己的幕僚。

注：

[维基]津巴布韦总理（Prime Minister of Zimbabwe）是津巴布韦的政府首脑。津巴布韦在1980年独立后设立总理一职，1987年，罗伯特·穆加贝成为津巴布韦总统后废除总理职位，改由总统直接领导津巴布韦政府。2009年，重新再次设立总理职位，改由总理直接领导津巴布韦政府。不过，在2013年，罗伯特·穆加贝重新再次废除总理职位，改由总统直接领导津巴布韦政府。

He blamed Britain for all ills, including his country’s complete economic collapse in the first decade of this century. Inflation soared to 500trn%; a generation of people fled. The British, he claimed, had broken their word on paying for land reform. Yet he hankered for England, London shopping, Savile Row, cricket and high tea with “Johnny” Major. He was fonder still of royalty, telling with a twinkle of the queen’s happiness on visits to Zimbabwe.

他将所有弊病都归罪于英国，包括本世纪头十年里津巴布韦的经济大崩盘。其时，津巴布韦的通货膨胀率高达百分之五百万亿，逼得人们纷纷出逃。他声称英国并没有兑现承诺、为土地改革买单。然而，他同时也向往英格兰、伦敦购物、萨维尔街、板球和与“小约”·梅杰的下午茶。他更是王室的粉丝，神采飞扬地讲述女王访问津巴布韦时的愉悦。

注：

[维基]萨佛街（Savile Row）是一个在伦敦中央梅费尔的购物街区，因为传统的客制男士服装行业而闻名。

[维基]约翰·梅杰爵士，KG，CH （Sir John Major，1943年3月29日－）是一名英国政治家，于1990年至1997年出任英国首相和英国保守党党魁。他曾于1987年至1990年间在玛格利特·撒切尔内阁相继出任英国财政部秘书长、外交大臣及财政大臣。1979年至2001年间，约翰•梅杰为亨丁顿的国会议员。2001年英国大选前，约翰•梅杰宣布退休，淡出英国政坛。自玛格丽特·撒切尔于2013年离世，他成为了最年长的在世前首相。

For all his literary habits, the whip was never far away. In the early 1980s he turned to North Korea to train soldiers to crush the main minority tribe, the Ndebele. He admitted his security men had committed some “excesses” when entire village communities were burnt in their huts. He denied talk of 20,000 victims and called himself forgiving—“otherwise I would have slaughtered lots of people”. The rest of the world did not much notice, or care to bring him to book. Yet his fear of prosecution for crimes against humanity may have encouraged him to cling to office, despite his conviction that only God could remove him.

尽管他有着文艺的习性，“鞭子”却从不离身。二十世纪八十年代早期，他曾求助朝鲜训练士兵，来镇压国内最主要的少数民族部落——恩德贝勒。他承认，他的安保人员们把整个村落活活烧死在小屋时，确实做得有点“太过”。他对那两万名受害者闭口不谈，反而说自己宽宏大量——“不然，我肯定要杀更多的人”。外部世界并不那么关注、也不那么在意给他定罪。然而，大概是担心自己因反人类罪被起诉，他一直霸占着权力不肯放手，尽管他坚信只有上帝才能罢免他。

注释：

Bring sb to book: to punish sb for an offence or make them explain his or her behavior officially.

His rule grew darker, possibly because Sally had died and been replaced by Grace, an ex-secretary 40 years younger than he was, even fonder of shops and more ambitious for political power. His opponents had once been co-opted; now he crushed them. Young thugs, egged on by him, punished white farmers by taking their land away. It was given to his friends, “war veterans” like himself, whether or not they had any idea how to work it. As a farming economy, Zimbabwe collapsed.

后来，他的统治愈发黑暗独断，很可能是因为萨莉去世了，取而代之的是格蕾丝——身为穆加贝的前秘书，格蕾丝小他40岁，比他更热衷购物，也有更旺盛的政治野心。他过去还会拉拢自己的竞争者，现在却一门心思要摧毁他们。暴徒们被他怂恿，从白人农民手中抢走土地来惩罚他们。他再把这些抢来的土地分给朋友们，那些像他一样的“战时老兵”，也不管他们到底知不知道怎么处理土地。农业一完蛋，以农为本的津巴布韦经济也就此崩塌。

Frugality, brutality

俭朴、残酷

He never saw tragedy in his country’s immiseration, only meddling by outsiders or vicious threats by rivals. The army and his Central Intelligence Organisation ensured his grip on power, rigging elections, killing opponents, closing newspapers and wiping away a generation of bright and tolerant Zimbabweans who could have led Africa. His people succumbed to hunger, aids, cholera and despair. Each year he held a more lavish public birthday party, beaming with delight as he cut a massive cake.

他从来看不到自己国家民不聊生的悲剧性，只看得到外部势力的干涉和对手的恶意攻击。军队和他的中央情报组织确保他可以牢牢掌握最高权力，他们操纵选举、谋杀竞争对手、关停报社，也抹杀了一代本可领导非洲的、智慧又包容的津巴布韦人。他的人民被饥饿、艾滋病、霍乱和生活的绝望压垮。而与此形成对比鲜明的是，每一年他都要办一个奢华的生日宴，一年比一年盛大，在他切开巨大的生日蛋糕时，脸上得意洋洋。

In the end it was the dismissal and flight abroad of his most trusted lieutenant, Emmerson Mnangagwa, that led to his downfall in 2017. Grace had overplayed her hand in having him sacked, and the army rolled into Harare. The generals glibly insisted this was not a coup, saying they were dealing with “traitors”. By this, they did not seem to mean him. But they duly installed Mr Mnangagwa as president.

最终，是由于他最信任的副手埃默森·姆南加古瓦被解职及逃亡海外，导致了他在2017年的垮台。解雇姆南加古瓦一事中，格蕾丝因过度自信而错判了局势，随后军队便以破竹之势碾进了哈拉雷。将军们狡黠地坚称，这不是一场政变，他们只是要处理“叛徒”。这么说来，他们貌似并非要针对穆加贝。但他们却很快就任命姆南加古瓦为新的总统。

注：

Overplay one’s hand:

to have too much confidence in one's ability or position and fail to achieve something as a result.

Asked why people feared him, he said he thought it was “perhaps because I’m quiet, and also because I believe in what I say.” His life was mostly frugal: rising early to practise yoga; working daily at his desk, in his mustard-yellow chair beside a huge map of the world; nibbling rice and corn meal by hand, the African way. He showed few of the vices—women, booze, feasts—associated with the caricature of an African dictator. But he had the usual vanity. Asked by The Economist, well into his 80s, when he would retire, he laughed that he would rule until he was “a hundred years old”. The tragedy for Zimbabwe was how close he got to keeping his word.

当被问起为什么人们会惧怕他，穆加贝说 “大概是因为我很安静，也因为我对自己说的话都深信不疑。”他一生中大部分时间都克勤克俭：早早起床练习瑜伽；每日坐在他那个芥末黄椅子上伏案工作，旁边就是一张大大的世界地图；吃饭时用传统的非洲方式手抓白饭和玉米。他几乎没有显示出对非洲独裁者夸张的描述里所常见的恶习，如女人、豪饮、大摆宴席等。但他也逃不出常人的自负。年近90岁时，他接受了《经济学人》的采访，记者问他打算何时退休，他听后哈哈大笑，说要统治到“100岁”。而他越早食言，津巴布韦的悲剧才能越早迎来终点。

翻译组：

Alex，不务正业的理工男

Vicky，少儿英语老师+笔译新人

Kemay，决心练好笔译的未来口译员

校对组：

Cece，消防人，经济学人粉丝

Qianna，追求专业的非英专，很讲逻辑，英伦摇滚迷

Dave，实力校对，肌肉男大学教师，文学翻译+CATTI一笔二口