雙語閱讀：迷失在＂彩虹國度＂的人

以下是本站小編整理的哲理類英語美文欣賞：迷失在"彩虹國度"的人 ， 希望對你有所啓發。

My parents come from South Africa, and we often used to go back on family visits. OneChristmas about 30 years ago we left Johannesburg on a bus trip to a safari park. All the otherpeople in the bus were Afrikaners: big healthy white families in shorts. With their handful ofsurnames, and heavy Dutch faces utterly distinct from their African surroundings, they were atribe. Their forefathers had been the mostly Dutch-speaking Protestants who had come toSouth Africa over the centuries. We lived in the Netherlands, so we spoke Dutch to theAfrikaners, and they spoke Afrikaans back.

我父母來自南非，以前，我們常常回南非去看望那裏的親人。大約30年前的那個聖誕節，我們乘大巴從約翰內斯堡出發去一個野生動物園。大巴上其他所有乘客都是阿非利卡人(Afrikaner)：這些人都是大塊頭的白種人，穿着短褲，看上去很健康。他們中有一些人同姓，都有典型的荷蘭人長相，在周遭非洲的環境中十分顯眼，看上去應該屬於同一個種族。這些人的先輩大多是講荷蘭語的新教徒，幾百年前漂洋過海來到南非。我們曾經生活在荷蘭，所以要跟這些阿非利卡人說荷蘭語，他們則跟我們說阿非利卡語(Afrikaans，在南非使用的荷蘭語)。

In those days of apartheid, Afrikaners were rulers of South Africa and pariahs everywhere y the three million Afrikaners are mostly forgotten. In 1994 they handed power to NelsonMandela and instantly became irrelevant. Fred de Vries, a Dutch writer living in Johannesburg,wondered what had become of them. His answer - a wonderful book of deep reportage - isabout to appear as Afrikaners in Dutch, and Rigtingbedonnerd ("Directionless", roughly) inAfrikaans.

在種族隔離時期，阿非利卡人雖然在南非扮演着統治者角色，但在南非之外的地方卻是遭人唾棄。如今，這300萬阿非利卡人幾乎已被遺忘。1994年，阿非利卡人將權力移交給納爾遜•曼德拉(Nelson Mandela)，然後馬上就變得無足輕重了。旅居約翰內斯堡的荷蘭作家弗雷德•德弗里斯(Fred de Vries)對這些人後來的經歷產生了好奇。他通過一本優秀的紀實類圖書給出了答案。這本書即將上市，荷蘭語版的書名爲《阿非利卡人》(Afrikaners)，阿非利卡語版的書名爲《迷失》(阿非利卡語原文爲Rigtingbedonnerd，意爲失去方向)。

Under apartheid, there was only one accepted way to be an Afrikaner. You belonged to theDutch Reformed church, you liked rugby, and you voted for apartheid. Renegades were treatedas traitors to the tribe. Suddenly, in 1994, everything dissolved. "The once so united Afrikanerpeople are like a box of night moths after the lid is lifted," writes de Vries. "They blink theireyes against the bright sun, and flit confusedly in different directions."

在種族隔離制下，身爲阿非利卡人，只有一種行爲方式是被認可的。你必須加入荷蘭歸正會(Dutch Reformedchurch)，喜歡橄欖球，投票支持種族隔離制。不遵守這種行爲方式的人在當時被視爲阿非利卡人中的叛徒。而在1994年，這一切瞬間土崩瓦解。"這些一度如此團結的阿非利卡人好像一羣關在盒子裏的夜蛾，當盒蓋被揭開，"德弗里斯寫道，"這些夜蛾被強烈的陽光晃了眼，暈乎乎地四處飛散。"

Many of the moths flitted away from South Africa. Crime had reached Afrikaner suburbs andfarms ("Shoot the Boer!" sang the populist politician Julius Malema), government jobs weregoing to blacks, affirmative action was ousting whites from the private sector, and manyAfrikaners simply felt irrelevant in the new nation.

許多"夜蛾"飛離了南非。針對阿非利卡人社區和農場的犯罪活動開始滋長(信奉民粹主義的政客尤利烏斯•馬勒馬(Julius Malema)曾高喊："幹掉布爾人!"(Shoot the Boer!布爾人指荷蘭裔南非人))，政府開始讓黑人擔任公務員，將白人擠出私人領域的行動正在積極進行中，許多阿非利卡人都明顯感到，在這個新的國度，他們無足輕重。

So they made another Great Trek.

於是，他們開始了又一次"大遷徙"(Great Trek)。

Some Afrikaner farmers resettled in Mozambique, or even Ukraine.

一些阿非利卡農場主在莫桑比克、甚至在烏克蘭安了家。

In Perth in Australia, de Vries found whole extended families of Afrikaners, served by DutchReformed churches preaching in Afrikaans. "I cried so much that the sea-level must have risen,"one exiled woman told him. But Afrikaners adapt well.

在澳大利亞珀斯，德弗里斯找到了一些龐大的阿非利卡家庭，在當地，有講阿非利卡語的荷蘭歸正會爲他們服務。一名"被放逐"的阿非利卡女子告訴德弗里斯："我常常哭，那些眼淚如果匯入大海，一定會讓海平面上升。"不過，阿非利卡人在新環境裏適應得不錯。

It was largely the better-educated who emigrated. Meanwhile, many Afrikaners who stayed inSouth Africa have sunk into an African poverty. Perhaps a fifth of them now have familyincomes below EU300 a month. De Vries found Afrikaners begging at traffic lights, and living asvagabonds in squatter camps. (In true South African tradition, white and black squatter campsare largely segregated.) These are the arm wittes, the "poor whites", the problem apartheidwas meant to solve. When the Afrikaners took over government in 1948, the aim was to raisethe weaker members of the tribe above their black neighbours. Struggling Afrikaners were givengovernment jobs as postmen or receptionists. They earned enough for a small house and ablack maid. Now many of these people have plummeted from first to third world.

移居海外的阿非利卡人，大多是受教育程度較高的。與此同時，留在南非的許多阿非利卡人則陷入了貧困。如今，留在南非的阿非利卡人中，或許有五分之一的家庭，月收入不到300歐元。在南非，德弗里斯見到了在交通燈前乞討的阿非利卡人，無家可歸、住在棚戶區的阿非利卡人。(通常來說，南非的黑人棚戶區和白人棚戶區基本上是分開的。)這些人是白種人裏的窮人，他們的問題正是種族隔離制最初想要解決的。1948年，阿非利卡人接管政府時，定下的目標就是要讓較爲貧窮的阿非利卡人過得比他們的黑人鄰居更好。政府爲生活困難的阿非利卡人提供了郵差、接待員等公務員職位。這些職位的工資可以讓他們負擔起一幢小房子，並僱用一名黑人女傭。如今，這些阿非利卡人中，生活水平從第一世界一下子跌至第三世界的不在少數。

However, most Afrikaners still in South Africa are flourishing. Excellent schooling for whitesduring apartheid set them up nicely. Many Afrikaners run businesses, and get on well withgovernment. They have largely abandoned their villages for suburbs, and have built high fences,but otherwise the end of apartheid hasn't overly inconvenienced them. "Economically, mostAfrikaners are better off than before 1994," writes de Vries.

然而，留在南非的阿非利卡人大多仍過得不錯。種族隔離時期白人所享受到的一流教育爲他們今後的生活奠定了良好的基礎。許多阿非利卡人經商，與政府關係很好。他們大多放棄了鄉村的住所，搬到市郊，還在住所周圍建起了高高的柵欄，但除此之外，種族隔離制的終結並沒有給他們帶來太多的不便。德弗里斯寫道："大多數阿非利卡人的經濟狀況都比1994年之前更好了。"

What he doesn't seem to have found is many Afrikaners merging into South Africa's "RainbowNation". Few young members of the tribe have shacked up with other colours. Afrikaners stillremain distinct even from the majority of Afrikaans-speakers who are not white. According tode Vries, few Afrikaners believe in the "Rainbow Nation". But South Africa's rulers probablybarely care what these marginal people believe. "I'm just a tourist / In my country of birth,"sing the alternative Afrikaner band Fokofpolisiekar.

德弗里斯似乎未能見到的一種景象是：許多阿非利卡人正在融入南非的"彩虹國度"。年輕一代的阿非利卡人中，很少有人與其他膚色的人住在一起。阿非利卡人仍然與其他族羣保持着距離，這其中甚至包括大部分說阿非利卡語的非白種人。在德弗里斯看來，大多數阿非利卡人認爲，並沒有"彩虹國度"這回事。但南非的統治者或許並不怎麼在意這個邊緣民族的看法。阿非利卡人的另類樂隊"滾蛋警車"(Fokofpolisiekar)在一首歌中唱到："我只是個遊客/遊走在我出生的國度。"

Even thriving Afrikaners feel an overwhelming sense of loss, writes de Vries. "The Afrikanerrural idyll with its village square and little church" has gone forever. Although the fearedapocalypse by vengeful blacks never came, the tribe's institutions are dissolving. The NationalParty is gone.

德弗里斯寫道，就連那些過得不錯的阿非利卡人也深切地感受到了一種失落感。"阿非利卡人的田園生活，村廣場和小教堂"，全都一去不復返了。儘管人們擔心的黑人的復仇活動始終沒有到來，但阿非利卡人的固有生活方式正在土崩瓦解。南非國民黨(National Party)已不復存在。

The Dutch Reformed church is giving way to American-style evangelical churches.

荷蘭歸正會正在被美式的福音會所取代。

Many Afrikaners are struggling to find a new identity untarnished by apartheid.

許多阿非利卡人正在努力尋找一個洗脫了種族隔離制"污點"的新身份。

Most fundamentally, their language is probably dying. Scarcely used in administration,Afrikaans just isn't much use anymore. Even at Stellenbosch University, the Afrikaner Oxford,only about 10 per cent of lectures are now in Afrikaans. Writers are an esteemed Afrikanercaste, yet Afrikaans authors (including the half-Afrikaner J.M. Coetzee) increasingly publish inEnglish.

最重要的是，阿非利卡語或許正在消亡。作爲一門官方很少使用的語言，阿非利卡語事實上已經用處不大了。甚至在斯坦陵布什大學(Stellenbosch University，阿非利卡人的牛津大學(Oxford))，如今也只有大約10%的課程使用阿非利卡語授課。阿非利卡語作家是一個備受尊重的羣體，但他們(包括有着一半阿非利卡血統的J•M•庫切(J.M. Coetzee))開始越來越多地用英語發表作品。

"That's where the debate is," explains writer Antjie Krog. Afrikaans, which became an officiallanguage distinct from Dutch only in 1925, may not survive another 87 years. Afrikaners canflourish as individuals in South Africa, but perhaps not as a tribe. They may eventuallydissolve into white English-speaking South Africa, or into the white world.

作家安特傑•克羅(Antjie Krog)解釋說："這就是爭論所在。"阿非利卡語(不同於荷蘭語)1925年成爲南非的官方語言之一，而今，這門語言可能"活不過"下一個87年。作爲個體，阿非利卡人或許能在南非生活得不錯，但整個民族的情況或許不那麼妙。他們或許最終會消融在說英語的南非白人族羣中，或是消融在白人世界裏。

The half-Afrikaner writer Rian Malan (who inevitably writes in English) prophesies that one dayAfrikaners will be remembered as "that mythical race that once lived here". Those families onthe bus 30 years ago couldn't have imagined that.

有一半阿非利卡血統的作家裏安•馬蘭(Rian Malan，這位作家只能用英語寫作)預言，有朝一日，阿非利卡人將成爲人們記憶中"那個曾經生活在這裏的神祕民族"。30年前我們在大巴上遇到的那些阿非利卡人，一定沒有想過這種情形。