came through the sky to kill children,
and the blood of children ran through the streets,
without fuss, like children’s blood.
Jackals that the jackals would despise,
stones that the dry thistle would bite on and spit out,
vipers that the vipers would abominate.
Face to face with you I have seen the blood
of Spain tower like a tide
to drown you in one wave
of pride and knives.
Treacherous
generals:
see my dead house,
look at broken Spain:
from every house burning metal flows
instead of flowers,
from every socket of Spain
Spain emerges,
and from every dead child a rifle with eyes
and from every crime bullets are born
which will one day find
the bull’s eye of your hearts.
And you will ask: why doesn’t his poetry
speak of dreams and leaves
and the great volcanoes of his native land.
Come and see the blood in the streets.
Come and see
the blood in the streets.
Come and see the blood
in the streets!
让我说明白了,在这里我引用聂鲁达的诗不是意指要将共和国的西班牙同萨达姆·侯赛因的伊拉克做比较。我引用聂鲁达的诗是因为在我读过的当代诗歌中找不到对轰炸平民百姓如此有力量的深情描述。
Let me make it quite clear that in quoting from Neruda’s poem I am in no way comparing Republican Spain to Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. I quote Neruda because nowhere in contemporary poetry have I read such a powerful visceral description of the bombing of civilians.
我刚才说到过美国现在完全坦率地将手中的牌放在桌上。是这样的。它的官方正式宣布的政策可以被描述为“全方位的控制”。这不是我用的词,是他们的。“全方位的控制”意指控制陆地、海洋、天空和太空以及所有随之而来的资源。
I have said earlier that the United States is now totally frank about putting its cards on the table. That is the case. Its official declared policy is now defined as “full spectrum dominance”. That is not my term, it is theirs. “Full spectrum dominance” means control of land, sea, air and space and all attendant resources.
美国现在在世界上132个国家中占有702个军事设施,当然除了瑞典作为名誉上的例外。我们不知道他们是如何弄成的,但他们弄成这样了。
The United States now occupies 702 military installations throughout the world in 132 countries, with the honourable exception of Sweden, of course. We don’t quite know how they got there but they are there all right.
美国拥有8000个随时可以启用的核武器弹头,2000个可随时引爆,从准备到发射只需15分钟。它还在发展核武力系统,被叫做“地堡杀手”。而英国,非常合作地,也在试图更换自己的核导弹、三叉戟(核武器系统)。我想知道这是在瞄准了谁呢? 本·拉登? 你? 我? 陌生人? 中国? 巴黎? 谁知道呢? 我们所知道的是这种愚童般的疯狂——拥有和威胁使用核武器——是当今美国政治哲学的核心。我们必须提醒我们自己,美国是在做永久性的军事插足而且没有任何减弱的迹象。
The United States possesses 8,000 active and operational nuclear warheads. Two-thousand are on hair trigger alert, ready to be launched with 15 minutes warning. It is developing new systems of nuclear force, known as bunker busters. The British, ever cooperative, are intending to replace their own nuclear missile, Trident. Who, I wonder, are they aiming at? Osama bin Laden? You? Me? Joe Doakes? China? Paris? Who knows? What we do know is that this infantile insanity——the possession and threatened use of nuclear weapons——is at the heart of present American political philosophy. We must remind ourselves that the United States is on a permanent military footing and shows no sign of relaxing it.
若不是数千万也是数百万美国人民已经对他们的政府的行为明显感到厌恶、羞耻和愤怒,但是如今的情景是他们并不能达成一致的政治力量——还不能如此。但是我们看到那种在美国本土日益滋长的焦虑、不确定感和惧怕的情绪,是不太可能减少的。
Many thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States itself are demonstrably sickened, shamed and angered by their government’s actions, but as things stand they are not a coherent political force—yet. But the anxiety, uncertainty and fear which we can see growing daily in the United States is unlikely to diminish.
我知道布什总统雇佣了不少极其能干的写手为他写演讲辞,但我愿意自荐这份工作。我假定下面简短的一段话他可以用来在全国电视屏幕前使用。我看见他表情沉重,头发梳理得十分整齐,样子严肃、迷人、诚恳,时常逗趣,有时发出幽默的微笑,很吸引人,是男人中的男人。