英语学习┃《辛德勒的名单》:什么是权力?

2015年04月26日 英国留学家



酒过三巡,辛德勒与纳粹军官阿蒙哥特到阳台闲聊。平常,阿蒙哥特经常无缘无故开枪射击,乱杀无辜,他认为,随意杀人就是权力。辛德勒却说,“正义”才是能让一个人操生杀大权的原因,宽恕才是权力。辛德勒的原话是怎么说的。


阿蒙哥特: You know, I look at you. I watch you, and you're never drunk. Oh, that's...that's real control. Control is power. That's power is that why they fear us? We have the fucking power to kill, that's why they fear us. They fear us because we have the power to kill arbitrarily. A man commits a crime, he should know better. We have him killed, and feel good about it. Or we kill him ourselves and we feel even better.


辛德勒: That's not power, though. That's justice. It's different than power. Power is when we have every justification to kill, and we don't.

阿蒙哥特: You think that's power?

辛德勒: That's what the emperors had. A man stole something; he's brought in before the emperor. He throws himself down on the ground, he begs for mercy. He knows he's going to die. And the emperor... pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go.

阿蒙哥特: I think you are drunk.

辛德勒: That's power, Amon.


重点讲解:

look at,固定搭配的词组,意思是看、观察。drunk,喝醉了的。阿蒙哥特说辛德勒从不喝醉,显示了超强的控制力。进而他发出感慨:控制力就是权力。犹太人怕我们,就是因为我们有生杀予夺的大权,我们能随意决定一个犹太人的生死。arbitrarily,武断地,任意地。

接着阿蒙哥特举了个例子。比如对一个犯了罪的人,如果我们杀了他,我们会感觉快乐;如果是我们亲手杀了他,就更有快感了。commit a crime,犯罪,可以当作一个固定搭配来记忆。

辛德勒却提出了不同的见解。他认为,正义(justice)使我们有权杀死一个犯了罪的人。真正的权力是,我们有充足的理由去处死他,而我们却不去这样做。every,每一个,全部的,引申为充分的;justification,认为有理,认为正当,理由。他解释说,就像小偷乞求(beg for)宽恕,皇帝原谅(pardon)了他,让这个毫无价值的人(worthless)继续苟且偷生,皇帝(emperor)们拥有的就是权力而不是正义。 throw oneself on the ground,匍匐在地。

再做些文字外的注释,以便更透彻地理解这段话。 辛德勒话外的意思是,“权力”是存在于人与人的关系中的,可以使用,可以执行;“正义”却不是一个人或一群人与生俱来的,它是一种参照的标准,是独立于人之外的。当一个人或一群人以正义的化身自居的时候,这个世界也就危险了。


精彩语录

Today is history. Today will be remembered.

今天是历史时刻,今天将被永远纪念。

An hour of life is still life.

片刻的生命,终究是生命。

The list... is life.

这份名单…就是生命。

Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire.
拯救一个人的生命,也就是在拯救全世界。


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