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文藝板塊
Johnson
約翰遜專欄
Average Joe
普通人喬·拜登
The president-elect lacks a silver tongue and makes for poor TV. That may be an asset
這位當選總統沒有流利的口才，電視表現也不佳。但這可能恰恰是他的可貴之處。
During the Obama years, the Onion, a satirical online newspaper, carried a series of articles about a man it referred to as “Diamond Joe” and “The President of Vice”. It featured headlines like “Shirtless Biden Washes Trans Am in White House Driveway” and “Biden Huddling With Closest Advisers on Whether to Spend 200 Bucks on Scorpions Tickets”.
在奧巴馬執政期間，諷刺性的網絡報紙《洋蔥報》刊登了一系列關于喬·拜登的文章，并在文中稱他為“鉆石喬”和“邪惡的副總統”。它曾發表了多個相關頭條新聞，比如“赤裸上身的拜登在白宮車道清洗Trans Am跑車”、“拜登和最親密的顧問秘密討論是否要花200美元去看蝎子樂隊”。
The real Joe Biden, then vice-president, was a teetotaling and avuncular elder statesman, not a hair-metal-loving party animal. But the caricature of him as a regular guy drew on an element of truth. The now-president-elect, the son of a second-hand-car salesman, will be the first president since Ronald Reagan to lack an Ivy League degree, having finished near the bottom of his class at both the University of Delaware and Syracuse University’s law school.
而真正的喬·拜登，也就是當時的副總統，是一位滴酒不沾的慈祥政界元老，決不是一個喜歡微金屬搖滾的派對達人。但諷刺漫畫中將他描繪成一個普通人確實有理有據。當前的這位總統當選人是二手車銷售員的兒子，他將是繼羅納德·里根以來第一位沒有常春藤大學學位的總統，而且他在特拉華大學和雪城大學法學院的成績都接近全班倒數。
And this is reflected in his use of language. In his speech, he is such an everyman as to defy parody. “Saturday Night Live”, which has featured impersonators for every president since Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, has yet to settle on a memorable Joe Biden. Forced to name Bidenisms, you might single out “malarkey”, his favoured disparagement for humbug, or “Here’s the deal”, to signal that he’s about to cut the malarkey. His favourite vocative is the folksy “Folks...”. In his first debate with Donald Trump, perhaps the most arresting thing he said was (to his constantly interrupting opponent) “Keep yappin’, man.”
他的平凡反映在他的語言運用上。他在演講時完全就是一個平平無奇的普通人，根本無法進行模仿。自雪佛蘭·蔡斯模仿杰拉爾德·福特之后，《周六夜現場》一直在節目中模仿美國歷任總統，但他們至今還未成功地模仿大名鼎鼎的喬·拜登。如果一定要說出拜登的經典語錄，你可能會挑出“一派胡言”，這是他在貶抑騙子時最喜歡說的詞。或者你會挑出“你看這樣行不行”，這句話標志著拜登打算打斷騙子的胡言亂語了。他最喜歡用的稱呼語是“伙計們……”，這個稱呼聽起來比較隨和。在他與唐納德·特朗普的第一次辯論中，也許他說的最引人注意的的話是（對不斷打斷自己的對手說）“繼續叫，伙計。”
He is, it is true, known for gaffes, though these are often overstated. Competing with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2007-08, Mr Biden praised his future boss as “the first mainstream African-American” to run for the presidency, “who is articulate and bright and clean”. (A gap before “who” made clear that he did not mean previous African- American candidates lacked cleanliness, just that they had been less “mainstream”.) While vice-president, he stood just a bit too close to a microphone as he said “This is a big fucking deal” into Mr Obama’s ear at the signing ceremony for their health-care reform. He once asked a wheelchair-bound state senator to stand and be recognised.
盡管這些說法常常言過其實，但拜登的確以失態聞名。拜登在2007-08年與巴拉克·奧巴馬爭奪民主黨提名時稱贊他未來的老板是“首位競選美國總統的主流非裔美國人”，“他口齒清晰、聰明伶俐、正派公平”。（“他”之前的停頓明確表示，自己并不是說以前的非洲裔美國候選人不夠正派，只是說他們不太“主流”。）擔任副總統時，他在醫改方案的簽字儀式上對奧巴馬耳語，“這真是一件該死的大事”，但他站的地方離麥克風太近，以至于所有人都聽到了。他還曾經要求一位坐在輪椅上的州參議員站起來發言。
These bloopers give the impression of a mouth running faster than a brain. Mr Obama was famous for long, thoughtful pauses; not so Mr Biden. His campaign speeches, like his questions as a longtime Senate committee chairman, tended to ramble. He once mystifyingly called a young student who asked a tough question a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier”. Accused of corruption by a voter in Iowa, a bit of hotheaded “Diamond Joe” came out: he called the man a “damn liar” and challenged him to a press-up contest. And he mused that, were they in high school, he would “beat the hell” out of Mr Trump.
這些洋相給人的印象就是拜登動腦之前先動嘴。奧巴馬以講話時長時間的深思熟慮的停頓而聞名，而拜登則不然。他的競選演說，就像任參議院常任委員會主席時提出的問題一樣，漫無目的。曾經有一位年輕的學生問了一個棘手的問題，拜登竟陰陽怪氣地稱呼她是“撒謊的狗臉小馬士兵”。愛荷華州的一位選民指控其子貪污腐敗時，性急的“鉆石喬”出現了：他稱這名男子是“死騙子”，并向他發起俯臥撐挑戰。他還曾沉思自語，如果他們是在高中，他會把特朗普“打得屁滾尿流”。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
