广州英语翻译公司：英格兰人深埋的亲欧情绪

Football andEngland’s secret Europhilia

英格兰人深埋的亲欧情绪

广州英语翻译公司：库柏：英国退欧公投在最后时刻仍然形势焦灼，但2016年欧洲杯却揭示出英格兰人和欧洲人之间隐秘复杂的亲密关系。

The political question of this week is how the English feel about Europe. I say “English” rather than “British” because the 54 million English who make up 84 per cent of theUK’s population are more likely than Scots, Welsh or Northern Irish to vote to leave the European Union in Thursday’s referendum. It’s often said that the English — even those who will vote “Remain” — are overwhelmingly Eurosceptic. However, football reveals a more confused and surprisingly warm English-European relationship.

本周的政治问题是，英格兰人对欧洲有何感觉。我用“英格兰人”而不是“英国人”，是因为在周四有关是否脱离欧盟(EU)的公投中，与苏格兰人、威尔士人和北爱尔兰人相比，占英国总人口84%的英格兰人更有可能投票脱欧。人们经常说，英格兰人——即便那些投“留欧”票的英格兰人——绝大多数是欧洲怀疑论者。然而，足球运动揭示了英格兰人和欧洲人之间更为含混不清、亲密得出人意料的关系。广州英语翻译公司。

A nation is a nebulous concept. But the moment when you can almost seeEngland, when the nation becomes flesh, is a big match of the national football team.England’s opening game of the European Championship againstRussialast Saturday drew 14.1 million TV viewers, theUK’s largest audience of the year so far.

国家是一个朦胧的概念。但是，在国家足球队投入大型比赛时，你可以看到英格兰的形象丰满起来。最近，欧洲杯(European Championship)中英格兰对俄罗斯的开场赛吸引了1410万名电视观众，创下今年迄今英国收视率最高纪录。广州英语翻译公司。

Little else brings the nation together. England’s cricket matches are almost all behind the paywall, the most watched TV programme on Christmas Day drew just 6.6 million British viewers last year (down more than two-thirds since 2001), and pubs are losing their role as meeting places much as churches did before.

除此之外，几乎没有其他事物能让这个国家团结起来。英格兰的板球赛几乎都是需要收费观看的；去年圣诞日英国收视率最高的节目仅仅吸引到660万名观众（自2001年以来减幅超过三分之二）；酒馆失去了聚集场所的角色，就像之前的教堂那样。广州英语翻译公司。

TheUKis peculiarly atomised even by modern standards. Britons are the EU’s loneliest people, with large numbers not having strong friendships or knowing their neighbours, according to the Office for National Statistics.England’s ride at Euro 2016 is, therefore, a rare and revealing shared national moment.

即便按现代标准看，英国也是极其松散的。英国国家统计局(Office for National Statistics)数据显示，英国人是欧盟中最孤独的民族，很多人没有亲密朋友，也不认识邻居。因此，英格兰队参加2016年欧洲杯，成为了一个罕见的、揭示真性情的举国共享时刻。

I was in Marseille for England-Russia, and on display was what you might call the dark Europe-hating id of the Brexit campaign. Groups ofEnglandfans seized the strategic heights of Marseille’s Vieux Port in a sort of parody of their grandfathers’ invasion of Europe, and then broadcast Europhobia. They told the French, “If it wasn’t for the English, you’d be Krauts”; sang the old favourites about German bombers and the IRA; and capped it with, “F*** off Europe, we’re all voting out.” I know that most “Out” voters are upstanding citizens who don’t go around sticking up fingers at French policemen, butEngland’s hardcore fanbase is a drunken caricature of the Brexiters’ silliest instincts.

我在马赛观看了英格兰对俄罗斯的比赛，现场展示的情形或许可以称为英国退欧阵营的阴暗的仇视欧洲标识。成群的英格兰球迷占领了马赛老港(Vieux Port)的战略高地（多少是模仿他们的祖先对欧洲的侵略），然后大肆喧嚣反对欧洲的言论。他们告诉法国人，“要不是因为英国人，你们就成为德国佬了”；他们唱着有关德国轰炸机和爱尔兰共和军(IRA)的老歌；最后是“去你妈的欧洲，老子们都会投脱欧票。”我知道，大多数投退欧票的人都是正经的公民——他们不会朝法国警察竖起指头——但英格兰最忠实的球迷，就是脱欧人群最愚蠢本能的醉酒漫画形象。

However, the team the fans watched that evening stands for a rather different English relationship with Europe. English football struggled for decades with an identity crisis: are we European or not? Should we play a clever short-passing European game, or stick with the traditional never-say-die British warrior style? Graham Taylor, England’s manager from 1990 to 1993, was clear: “Our failure has not been because we have played the English way but because we haven’t. Bloody football should be honest, open, clear, passionate. Part of a nation’s culture, its heritage, is the way it plays its sport. And the British way is with passion and commitment.”

然而，球迷们当晚观看的那支英格兰队代表了英格兰与欧洲之间的一种相当不同的关系。几十年来，英格兰足球一直没能摆脱身份危机：我们到底是不是欧洲球队？我们应该踢一场聪明的短传欧式足球，还是坚持传统上永不言败的英式硬汉足球？1990年至1993年担任英国队主教练的格林厄姆•泰勒(Graham Taylor)说得清清楚楚：“我们的失败不是因为采用了英式打法，而是因为没采用英式打法。火爆足球理应是诚实、开放、清晰和激情四射的。一个国家的体育风格，是这个国家的文化及其遗产的组成部分。英式足球是充满激情、十分投入的打法。”广州英语翻译公司。

However, Taylor failed so spectacularly that the “British way” was then binned for ever. In 2001Englandbegan hiring continental managers. Their current manager, the multilingual Roy Hodgson, is practically a continental in disguise, having coached across the water for decades. In the first half againstRussia, hisEnglandproduced a copybook short-passing continental game. In football, Little Englanders have lost the argument.

然而，泰勒遭遇如此的惨败，以至于此后“英式足球”被永远束之高阁。2001年，英格兰开始聘请欧洲教练。英格兰队现任主教练、会讲多国语言的罗伊•霍奇森(Roy Hodgson)实际是伪装的欧洲人，此前他在欧洲大陆执教了数十年。在与俄罗斯队对决的上半场比赛中，他带领的英格兰打出了教科书般的短传欧式足球赛。在足球方面，“小英格兰人”已经输掉了争论。

And in football, too, the English have ditched English exceptionalism and learnt to see themselves as just another country. For decades, there was national disbelief each timeEnglandfailed to win a tournament. Surely the motherland of football was destined to rule the game? But in the past few years the English have reduced their expectations to near zero. Hardly any pundit went into Euro 2016 recycling the traditional line, “Could this beEngland’s year?” There is a growing awareness thatEnglanddoesn’t have a manifest destiny, and that the British empire’s spell ruling the waves was an unrepeatable one-off.

同样在足球领域，英格兰人还唾弃了英格兰例外论，学会把自己看作又一个正常国家。数十年来，每当英格兰队未能赢得足球大赛时，都会出现一种举国的不可思议。足球的发源国难道不能称霸赛场？但是，过去数年，英格兰人已经把期望值降至近乎零的水平。在步入2016年欧洲杯时，几乎没有任何一个预测者再提起那句老话——“今年会是英格兰出头之年吗？”人们逐渐意识到，英格兰没有上天注定的皇冕，大英帝国统辖海洋的魔咒是不可重复的一次性事件。

You see a similar awareness in politics. A few nostalgic Brexiters such as Nigel Farage think the days of British greatness can be recaptured if only theUKvotes “Out”. However, these fantasies haven’t struck a popular chord. If Britons vote to leave, it will be chiefly because of immigration.

你在政坛也可以看到类似的意识。奈杰尔•法拉奇(Nigel Farage)等一些怀旧的退欧者认为，只有投票选择“退出”，英国才得重拾昔日的伟大。然而，这些神话并未引发公众共鸣。如果英国人投票选择脱欧，主要原因将是移民。

There’s one last thing that Euro 2016 reveals: a hidden subterranean English Europhilia. The cliché is that the hooligans are an unrepresentative minority ofEnglandfans. In fact, you could go a step further and say:Englandfans are unrepresentative of English fans at Euro 2016. As at every tournament, there’s a vast brigade of English people here going to matches not involvingEngland. The day after England-Russia, I spotted several at Turkey-Croatia in Paris: quiet, overweight men in non-partisan T-shirts, marvelling at the genius ofCroatia’s Luka Modric or the architecture of the Parc des Princes.Englandhas both some of the world’s worst and the world’s best football fans. The latter might not say it or even realise it, but they love many things about Europe.

2016年欧洲杯揭示的最后一个事实是：英格兰人深埋的亲欧情绪。足球流氓在英格兰球迷中只是不具代表性的少数人，这是老生常谈了。事实上，你可以更进一步说：在2016年欧洲杯中，英格兰队的球迷在英格兰球迷中也不具代表性。正如每一届欧洲杯一样，本届欧洲杯也有大量英格兰球迷前去观战不涉及英格兰队的比赛。在英格兰对俄罗斯比赛后，我看到不少英格兰球迷出现在巴黎的土耳其对阵克罗地亚的比赛现场：身着不表明支持倾向的普通T恤的肥胖男子，安静地欣赏着克罗地亚的卢卡•莫德里奇(Luka Modric)的天才球技，或是王子公园体育场(Parc des Princes)的建筑风格。英格兰拥有全世界最糟糕和最优秀的球迷。最优秀的那些球迷或许不会说出、甚至意识不到，但是他们热爱欧洲的很多东西。广州英语翻译公司。

You see it every week in the English Premier League: packed-out crowds chanting the names of continental heroes such as José Mourinho, Mesut Ozil and (for years after he went home) Eric Cantona. Even if the English vote “Out”, their national pastime drips with a Europhilia that rarely bothers to speak its name.

你会在每周的英超联赛(English Premier League)中看到这一点：成堆的人群高呼着欧洲足球英雄的名字，比如何塞•穆里尼奥(José Mourinho)、梅苏特•厄齐尔(Mesut Özil)以及埃里克•坎通纳(Eric Cantona)，甚至在坎通纳回家多年后仍是如此。即便英格兰人投票“退欧”，他们的全民娱乐活动仍然会流露出不言而喻的亲欧情绪。

广州英语翻译公司