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The British establishment is not only a perfect machine for producing secrets and lies.
英國的這種體制不僅是一臺生產秘密和謊言的完美機器。
It also produces the mavericks and misfits who thrive in the secret world.
它還出產標新立異之人和與社會個格格不入之人，他們在秘密世界中出盡風頭。
Establishment types seem to come in two varieties: smooth conformists who do everything by the rules, and mavericks who break every rule but are nevertheless tolerated because they are members of the club.
體制人的類型似乎分成兩類：一類是圓滑的墨守成規之人，他們事事循規蹈矩；一類是標新立異之人，他們處處違規，卻因為是體制中人而得到容忍。
The first type is sent into the Foreign Office and the second into MI6.
前一種人被送進了外交部，后一種人被送進了軍情六處。
The best spy novels are like distorting mirrors in fairgrounds: by exaggerating this or that feature of Establishment Man, they allow the reader to understand the ideal form.
杰出的間諜小說就像是游樂場里的哈哈鏡：通過放大體制人的這個或那個特點，能讓讀者理解理想的形式。
The other great theme in British spy novels is geopolitical decline.
英國間諜小說的另一個偉大的主題是地緣政治的衰落。
How can people who were “trained to Empire, trained to rule the waves”, as one of Mr le Carre's characters puts it, bear to live in a world in which the waves are ruled by other powers and statecraft is reduced to providing fuel for the welfare state?
正如勒卡雷的一位人物所說，“為了帝國，為了駕馭風云而接受訓練”的人怎么能承受生活在一個風云為別的大國所駕馭、治國理政淪為為福利國家提供燃料的世界中呢？
Fleming's novels are full of laments about Britain's “crumbling empire” and its dependency-producing state.
弗萊明的小說充斥著對英國“搖搖欲墜的帝國”及其附屬生產國的怨言。
“You have not only lost a great empire,” Tiger Tanaka, a Japanese spy, tells Bond, “you have seemed almost anxious to throw it away with both hands.”
日本間諜老虎田中告訴邦德：“你不僅失去了一個偉大的帝國，似乎還急不可耐地要用雙手把它扔出去。”
Mr le Carre once described Britain as a country where “failed socialism is being replaced by failed capitalism”.
勒卡雷曾經把英國說成是一個“失敗的社會主義正在被失敗的資本主義所取代”的國家。
The Circus, as he called the secret service's headquarters, is a physical manifestation of decline: cramped, shoddy, reeking of rising damp, just one hasty repair away from collapse.
他稱之為間諜大本營的馬戲團正是這種衰落的一種實實在在表現：囿于一隅，粗制濫造，臭氣熏天，縱然匆忙地修修補補，也難挽狂瀾即到。
Why remain loyal to a country that has made such a mess of things and to an establishment soaked in hypocrisy?
為什么要對一個把事情都搞得亂七八糟的國家和一個侵泡在虛偽中的體制忠心不貳呢？
Mr le Carre's traitors (like the Cambridge spies who inspired them) betray their country not for money but because they have transferred their patriotism to the Soviet Union.
勒卡雷的叛國者（像鼓舞了他們的劍橋間諜幫一樣）不是為了錢而背叛他們的國家，而是因為他們已將他們的愛國主義轉移到了蘇聯身上。
But what makes Britain's best spy novels so good is that they toy with disillusionment only to reject it.
但是，讓英國最好的間諜小說如此優秀的，是他們僅僅是為了否認而去調侃這種幻滅感。
For all its faults, they say, Britain is the best of a bad lot.
他們聲稱，因為她錯誤百出，英國是惡人中最好的。
Bond is so besotted with his country that he boasts that “British food is the best in the world”.
邦德對于他的國家的迷戀，令他吹噓說“英國的食物是世界上最好的”。
For all his professed Europeanness in the new novel, Smiley is the model of a British gentleman.
因為他在新小說中被賦與了各種歐洲性，斯邁利是英國紳士的典型。
And spying provides Britain with a way of reclaiming its greatness, by excelling in the most sophisticated form of foreign policy.
而且，間諜活動還給英國提供了一種重塑其偉大的方式，具體地說，就是要在最為成熟的外交政策形式上勝人一籌。
The Americans have the money and the bluster, but the British have the brains to spend it wisely and restrain the Americans from going over the top.
美國人有錢有勢；但是，英國人有腦子，可以明智地花錢并阻止美國盛極而衰。
Felix Leiter, Bond's opposite number in the CIA, admits that Bond is playing “in a bigger league” than he is.
邦德在CIA的對應代號費力克斯·雷特承認，與他相比，邦德正在一個“更大的團隊”中施展。
Smiley is more subtle than his “cousins” in America.
斯邁利也比他的美國“表親”更加難以琢磨。
The secret at the heart of the British spy novel is that Britain is much better than it seems.
英國間諜小說的核心秘密就是，英國比看上去好很多。
The writers agonise over decline and hypocrisy, only to conclude that the British are cleverer and more civilised than anybody else.
作家糾結于衰落和虛偽，僅僅是為了得出英國人比其他人更聰明，都更有教養的結論。
A comforting illusion wrapped in a tale of disillusionment: you can't get more British than that.
一種包裹在幻滅故事中的讓人欣慰的幻覺：你不可能得到比此更英國的了。
