Russia after Boris Yeltsin
叶利钦去世之后的俄罗斯

Crocodile tears
鳄鱼的眼泪（译/陈继龙）

Apr 26th 2007 | MOSCOW
From The Economist print edition

Few Russians truly mourn Boris Yeltsin—yet
真心实意为叶利钦的去世表示哀悼的俄罗斯人很少——不过

THE distinctively puffy[1] features poked[2] out from the open casket in which Boris Yeltsin lay after his death on April 23rd. His family wept as ordinary Russians filed past, crossing themselves. Bass-voiced Orthodox priests beseeched[3] God to forgive the sins of Russia's first president. A Kremlin honour guard stood by.
4月23日叶利钦去世后，他的遗体被安放在一口开放的灵柩之中，面部浮肿得很明显。他的家人哭泣着，俄罗斯平民鱼贯而过，双手在胸前划着十字。声音低沉的东正教牧师祈求上帝原谅俄罗斯首任总统的罪过。一名克里姆林宫卫兵站立一旁。

（1）For all their hardness, the Russians are a sentimental lot. Thousands of Muscovites queued to pay their respects to Mr Yeltsin at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour (blown up under Stalin, rebuilt under Mr Yeltsin). They are also devoutly patriotic. “He was our president,” said a mourner from Mr Yeltsin's native Urals. “History will decide if he was right or wrong.” Some in the queue had stood with Mr Yeltsin outside Russia's parliament in 1991, to face down a hardline putsch[4]. “He freed our souls,” said one weepy old woman.
无论俄罗斯人有多么坚强，他们总有脆弱的一面。数以千计的莫斯科人排起长队，到救世主大教堂（斯大林时期炸毁，后被叶利钦修复）瞻仰叶利钦的遗容。他们也有着一腔赤诚的爱国热情。“他是我们的总统，”来自叶利钦家乡乌拉尔地区的一位悼唁者说，“他的错或对将由历史来决定。”队列中有些人曾在1991年与叶利钦站在俄罗斯国会门外共同平定了强硬派发动的政变。“他让我们的灵魂得到了自由。”一位热泪盈眶的老太太说。

Yet Mr Yeltsin's great rival, Mikhail Gorbachev, reflected the mood of most Russians when he alluded to the dead man's “serious mistakes”. Mr Yeltsin's had been a “tragic fate”, said Mr Gorbachev. （2）Even before he left office, a majority of Russians, from Kaliningrad to Kamchatka, despised him, partly on account of the raging inflation, unpaid salaries and oligarchic larceny[5] of his rule, but even more for the shame many thought he brought on Russia through his clownish drunkenness.
不过，叶利钦的“冤家对头”戈尔巴乔夫却暗指这个死去的人曾犯下“严重的错误”，这表达了大多数俄罗斯人的心情。他说，叶利钦的“命运是悲惨的”。即便在他尚未离任的时候，从加里宁格勒到堪察加，大部分俄罗斯人都瞧不起他，这在一定程度上是因为他治下的俄罗斯通货膨胀不断加重，发不出工资，寡头贪污成风，但更主要还是因为，许多俄罗斯人认为他那“可笑的醉态”给俄罗斯丢了脸。

In part Mr Yeltsin's poor reputation has been created by the propaganda of Russia's second president, Vladimir Putin (whose state-of-the-nation address was put back a day so as to accommodate the funeral). （3）Mr Putin's Kremlin constantly contrasts the turbulence of the Yeltsin years with the supposed stability that has succeeded it. But some would argue that there has been almost as much continuity as change, positive or otherwise.
叶利钦之所以名誉扫地，部分是由俄罗斯第二任总统普金（考虑到要举行葬礼，他的国情咨文演说被推迟了一天）的宣传所造成的。普金的克里姆林宫常常将叶利钦时代的动荡与之后续时代的所谓稳定作比较，不过有些人会认为，虽然发生了很多变化，但很多也还是一成不变，而且变化中有的具有积极意义，有的则不然。

Like Mr Yeltsin, Mr Putin has preached against corruption but permitted it on a vast scale, promising “a dictatorship of the law” but practising lawlessness. Like Mr Yeltsin he has been surrounded by a small Kremlin clique and has handed oversight of chunks of Russia's economy to a select few, albeit via state-owned companies rather than dodgy[6] privatisations. （4）And although Mr Yeltsin boasted democratic credentials that Mr Putin cannot—notably his tolerance of critical media and his devolution of power to Russia's regions—he too could be irascibly[7] nationalistic, meddling in Russia's ex-Soviet neighbours and taking liberties with elections. Not only did he create conditions in which Russians welcomed Mr Putin's authoritarianism: it was Mr Yeltsin who anointed the KGB man as his successor, first making him prime minister in August 1999, and then helping him into the presidency by leaving office early.
与叶利钦一样，普金也口口声声地说要抵制腐败，但事实上却听之任之；承诺要实行“法治专政”，实际上却有法不依。同样，他的身边也有少数克里姆林宫人所组成的派系，并且他将俄罗斯经济的大部分监管权都交给了自己的少数心腹——尽管是通过国有企业而非不可靠的私有化。叶利钦的民主是吹出来的，普金则不然——他对重要媒体的宽容以及将权力下放到地区便是明证——不过他也可能成为疯狂的民族主义者、干涉前苏联国家的事务以及对待选举过于随便。叶利钦不仅仅为让俄罗斯人对普金独裁持欢迎态度创造了条件，而且是正是他选择这位出身克格勃的人作为自己的接班人，最初是在1999年8月让其担任总理，后来自己又提前卸任把他送上总统的宝座。

Mr Yeltsin spent his early winters in a Urals hut. His last journey was from the cathedral, attended by Bill Clinton, George Bush senior, Sir John Major, an ashen-faced Mr Putin and others, to Novodevichy cemetery, the top burial place after the Kremlin wall. At the graveside, his widow and daughters clung to his corpse. A gun carriage conveyed him; a gunfire salute accompanied him into the earth. （5）The choreography[8] had to be improvised: Russians had not buried a leader with Orthodox rites since 1894, and never before a democratically elected one. Time will tell whether they get to bury many more.
早年叶利钦都在乌拉尔地区的一座小屋里过冬。这一次，他从大教堂出发，在克林顿、老布什、梅杰以及面无表情的普金等人的护送下，前往克里姆林宫后的新处女高级公墓，完成了人生最后一段旅程。在墓旁，他的遗孀和女儿们依偎在他的遗体边。运送遗体的是一座炮架，伴随着一声礼炮响起，遗体下葬了。安葬仪式是临时准备的——1894年以来，俄罗斯人还从未按东正教的礼仪来安葬过领导人，更从未安葬过一个民选领导人。随着时间的推移，他们是否还能安葬更多这样的领导人呢？
[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1. puffy adj. 膨胀的，肿胀的；浮肿的
2. poke v.（out）（从洞、缝等中）呈现, 显露; 伸出
3. beseech v. 恳求，企求
4. putsch n. 武装起义；政治革命
5. larceny n. 盗窃，盗窃罪
6. dodgy adj. 诡诈的，狡猾的
7. irascible adj. 易怒的，性情暴躁的
8. choreography n. 舞蹈艺术；舞蹈编排