評論
打印
Britain
英國
Bagehot
白芝浩專欄
Spies like us
間諜眾生
To understand Britain, read its spy novels.
要想了解英國，就讀讀她的間諜小說吧。
Few countries have dominated any industry as Britain has dominated the industry of producing fictional spies.
沒有哪個國家像英國霸占了生產虛構間諜產業那樣霸占一個產業。
Britain invented the spy novel with Rudyard Kipling's dissection of the Great Game in “Kim” and John Buchan's adventure stories.
英國以魯德亞德·吉卜林在《吉姆》中對大國游戲 （Great Game）的剖析和約翰·巴肯的冒險故事開創了間諜小說。
It consolidated its lead with Somerset Maugham's Ashenden stories and Graham Greene's invention of “Greeneland”.
它以薩默塞特·毛姆的阿興登的故事和格雷厄姆·格林創造的“格林世界”鞏固了它的第一的位置。
It then produced the world's two most famous spooks: James Bond, the dashing womaniser, and George Smiley, the cerebral cuckold, who reappears this week in a new book.
之后，她生產出了世界上最有名的兩位間諜：生猛干練的花花公子詹姆斯·邦德以及在本周的一本新書中再度現身的遭遇妻子不忠的理性之人喬治·史邁利。
What accounts for this success?
什么帶來了這種成功的呢？
One reason is the revolving door between the secret establishment and the literary establishment.
一個原因是情報界與文學界之間的旋轉門。
Some of the lions of British literature worked as spies.
英國的一些文壇大家曾經干過間諜。
Maugham was sent to Switzerland to spy for Britain under cover of pursuing his career as a writer.
毛姆曾被派到瑞士，以尋求作家人生為名，為英國刺探情報。
Greene worked for the intelligence services.
格林曾為情報部門工作。
Both Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond, and John le Carré, the creator of Smiley, earned their living as spies.
邦德的創造者伊恩·佛萊明和斯邁利的創造者約翰勒卡雷曾以間諜謀生。
Dame Stella Rimington, head of MI5 in 1992-96, has taken to writing spy novels in retirement.
1992-1996年間的軍情五處局長——斯蒂拉·利明頓女爵士退休后開始創作間諜小說。
It is as if the secret services are not so much arms of the state as creative-writing schools.
這就好像，作為國家機構，情報部門不如寫作學校一樣。
Another reason is that British reality has often been stranger than fiction.
另一個原因是英國現實經常比小說還離奇。
The story of the “Cambridge spies” —Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and the rest—is as far-fetched as it gets.
“劍橋間諜幫”——吉姆·菲爾比、安東尼·布朗特、蓋伊·伯吉斯等人——的故事令人難以置信。
One Soviet mole at the top of MI6 (Philby, who also worked for The Economist in Beirut) ; another even looking after the queen's pictures (Blunt) ; a cover-up; a dash to the safety of the Soviet Union; larger-than-life characters such as the compulsively promiscuous and permanently sozzled Burgess.
一位是位居軍情六處高層的蘇聯鼴鼠（也曾在貝魯特為本報工作過的菲爾比）；另一位甚至在看管女王的藏畫（布朗特）；一次藏身；一次對蘇聯安全的沖擊；像抑制不住地濫交和常年爛醉如泥的伯吉斯一般的大于生活的人物。
There is also a more profound reason for Britain's success.
英國的成功還有更深層次的原因。
The spy novel is the quintessential British fictional form in the same way that the Western is quintessentially American.
以西部小說之于美國一樣，間諜小說典型的英國小說形式。
Britain's best spy novelists are so good precisely because they use the genre to explore what it is that makes Britain British: the obsession with secrecy, the nature of the establishment, the agonies of imperial decline and the complicated tug of patriotism.
英國最好的間諜小說家如此優秀，主要是因為他們運用這種文學體裁去探尋什么造就了英國：對情報癡迷、體制的性質、帝國衰落的苦惱以及復雜的愛國主義情結。
Britain is honeycombed with secretive institutions, particularly public schools and Oxbridge colleges, which have their own private languages.
英國星羅密布著著各種秘密組織，尤其是公立學校和牛津、劍橋大學，它們有著自己的隱語。
At Eton, for example, where Fleming was educated and Mr le Carre taught for a while, boys dress in tailcoats and call their teachers “beaks” and their terms “halves”.
例如，在弗萊明接受教育和勒卡雷曾經教過一段時間書的伊頓公學，男孩們身著燕尾服，稱老師為“鷹喙”，學期為“半場”。
Walter Bagehot argued (approvingly) that Britain weaves duplicity into its statecraft.
沃爾特·白芝浩曾經（贊同地）指出，英國將兩面性融入治國理政之中。
The constitution rests on a distinction between an “efficient” branch which governs behind the scenes, and a “dignified” branch which puts on a show for the people.
這種結構靠的是在幕后施政的“效率”部門和給人們裝樣子的“面子”分支之間的涇渭分明。
The British habitually wear masks to conceal their true selves.
英國人習慣于戴上面具，掩蓋真實的自我。
They put on different costumes for different roles in Bagehot's theatre of state, and keep stiff upper lips to conceal their emotions.
他們給白芝浩的國家大舞臺上的不同角色穿上不同的服飾，并且讓繃緊了上嘴唇，以掩飾自己的情感。
Mr le Carre (whose real name is David Cornwell) learned to put on a brave face at school because he was so embarrassed by his father, who was a professional confidence trickster.
勒卡雷（他的真名叫大衛·康威爾）在上學時學會了裝出一副勇敢的面孔，是因為他被身為職業騙子的父親搞得狼狽不堪。
Greene learned the spymaster's art when, as a pupil at Berkhamsted School, he acted as an informer for his father, the headmaster.
格林在為他身為校長的父親充當告密者時掌握了間諜大師的藝術。
