關於倫敦市長Boris Johnson



他的名字叫做伯里斯·詹森（Boris Johnson），我覺得整個儀式中，他給人印象最深——上臺的時候，他的西裝居然沒扣上！除此之外，走路的時候，他東張西望，竟然還將手插在口袋裏！一點也不莊重，顯得散漫和隨便。





他的這種表現，引發了很多批評。一個網友就這樣說：
不符合英國紳士和貴族的形象。讓他自己看看這張照片，跟在羅格後面象個什麼？小丑？僕人？小偷？跟想像中的英國紳士形象相差太遠，咱不說你，你自己覺得這樣能代表英國形象嗎？

昨天，這位市長先生在最新一期的《觀察家》（The Spectator）雜誌上發表文章，為自己辯護。他在當倫敦市長之前，幹了十幾年記者，所以很能寫，大家看下去就知道了。



他這樣描述當時的情景：
We only had a few seconds left to get ready.
留給我們準備的時間很少。
There were 91,000 people in the stadium and (allegedly) about 1.5 billion watching apathetically at home.
體育場裏有91000名觀眾，（據稱）還有15億人在家裏看電視直播。
I advanced to the little plastic sign on the red carpet saying 'Mayor of London', and as we waited to be called to the centre of the arena I decided I had better spruce myself up.
紅地毯上，有一塊小牌子寫著'倫敦市長'。我走到那裏，等著輪到我們進入體育場中央，我覺得最好讓自己顯得精神一點。
Now the crowd were roaring and waving their red light sabres, and hastily I got out my wallet, mobile, keys, and all the other clobber that might impair my flag-waving performance, and handed them to a chap on my left.
人們發出歡呼，揮動手中的紅色光棒。我急忙將錢包、手機、鑰匙和其他零碎都掏出來，交給左邊的一個小夥子，不能讓它們影響我揮舞旗幟。
I rolled my shoulders like Rocky, and rehearsed the agenda again in my head. What could possibly go wrong? Take flag, get red circle out to left, wave four times, hand flag to flag-bearer. Piece of cake.



我像電影《第一滴血》裏的洛奇那樣，轉動肩膀，又在腦子裏復習了一遍流程。有可能出錯嗎？拿過旗幟，然後走到場地的左上角，揮舞四次，接著將旗幟交給旗手。真是小菜一碟。
Just as I had it taped, just as I was in the zone, I became aware of a chap beaming and pointing at his midriff. Then another chap was pointing at me, jabbing his finger in the direction of my stomach. Was I too fat? Was I insufficiently Olympian?

我一邊默想，一邊等候入場。這時我發覺，一個小夥子笑起來，還指著他的腹部。然後，另一個小夥子升出手，指著我的肚子。我太胖了嗎？我不夠資格參加奧運會？

'Button,' said the chap. 'Do up button.'
'扣子，'他說，'扣上它們。'

I looked and saw that my fellow performers on the podium all had their jackets done up, and so did my charming Beijing counterpart, Mayor Guo. I reached instinctively for my middle button, and then thought, sod it.

我一看周圍，主席臺上，我的同胞都扣著外衣扣子，風度翩翩的北京郭市長也扣著。我本能地抓住中間那粒扣子，心裏想，糟了。

I checked swiftly with the chap from the International Olympic Committee, and no, there is no Olympic jacket-button protocol. Open or shut: it's up to you.

我急忙詢問國際奧會的工作人員，有沒有關於扣子的規定。謝天謝地，沒有。扣不扣，你自己決定。

I was going to do it my way, and on the matter of jacket buttons I was going to follow a policy of openness, transparency and individual freedom.

於是，我就按自己的想法做了。在扣子這件事上，我的政策是開放、透明和個人自由。

I am sad to see that some Chinese bloggers are now attacking me for my 'lack of respect', since there was no disrespect intended. It's just that there are times when you have to take a stand.
我很難過地看到，有一些中國的網志作者攻擊我'缺乏尊重'。我從心底裏沒有任何的不敬，我只是覺得，有些時候你必須有一個立場。

沒想到啊，原來他不扣扣子是故意的，而且還上升到了個人自由的高度。看來他是不贊成將奧運會搞成一本正經，所以故意讓全世界看到一個不那麼正經的形象，真是有個性啊！
他還講了他見到了胡錦濤主席。這一段很好玩。他說，接見之前的幾個小時，他一直在背一句普通話。有人告訴他，胡主席聽了這句話，會很高興。結果握手以後，他脫口而出：'Renshi ni hen gaoxing.'胡主席微笑著回答：'Thank you very much.'

這一段我就不譯成中文。（懂英語的同學，別錯過黑體部分。）
'Who are we going to see?' whispered Seb Coe as we were ushered into the VIP sanctum of the Bird's Nest stadium, a place of thick snowy carpet and a horseshoe of white armchairs. 'We're gonna see Hu,' I whispered back. 'Who?' 'Hu.' Before I could elucidate further we were shaking hands with the Paramount Leader of the People's Republic of China , general-secretary of the Chinese Communist Party and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, the 65-year-old Hu Jintao. For the last couple of hours I had been practising a phrase I had learned from my brother Max, who speaks fluent Mandarin. 'He'll love it,' said Max. 'It means, Very pleased to meet you.' So it was with great excitement that I took the hand of the Chinese leader — a kindly-looking man with glossy black hair — and blurted my line. 'Renshi ni hen gaoxing,' I gushed, scanning his face for approval. 'Thank you very much,' he said, which was pleasing, though I think he said the same to Seb. We also met Jiang Zemin, the former paramount leader, and Hu's predecessor. The workings of the Chinese Communist Party are of huge importance to geopolitics, and far from clear. Why is Jiang still knocking around? How did he become less paramount than Hu? Who knows? And Hu knows.

他還說，這個場景讓他想起了一個笑話。上個世紀80年代的時候，英國外交大臣叫做傑佛瑞·豪（Geoffrey Howe）。一天，他會見蘇聯領導人勃列日涅夫，他說'How are you?'勃列日涅夫馬上說：'不，不，你才是Howe。'（No, no, you are Howe!）……哈哈哈，太好笑了，我差點一口水噴出來。
I would remind you that Geoffrey Howe is said to have greeted Brezhnev with the words 'How are you?', to which the Russian brilliantly riposted, 'No, no, you are Howe!'

看了這篇文章，我對這位倫敦市長發生了濃厚的興趣，就去wikipedia查看了他的條目。果然，這個人很不簡單。
他大學畢業後，先去諮詢公司工作，但是覺得那裏太悶了，幹不下去，於是改當記者。（Try as I might, I could not look at an overhead projection of a growth profit matrix, and stay conscious.）當記者以後，他專門寫一些諷刺性的政論，極富喜劇天才。就是因為他太喜歡搞笑，電視臺還請他去當綜藝節目嘉賓主持人，他客串了幾期，居然獲得了英國電視獎（British Academy Television Award）的提名。2004年，他出版了第一本小說《72個處女》（Seventy-Two Virgins），內容關於一個倒楣的議員，不幸捲入了恐怖分子刺殺美國總統的陰謀，據看過的人說，此書令人捧腹。

2008年，他宣佈競選倫敦市長，不可思議地竟然選上了。我猜想，這可能同趙本山擔任北京市長的感覺，有點類似。總之看起來，倫敦市民也是很有喜劇精神的。
2008年5月6日，新市長第一天上任，竟然是騎著自行車去辦公室的。

很明显,洛奇不是第一滴血里的人物