Hitler's friend
希特勒的朋友 （陈继龙 译）
Mar 8th 2007
From The Economist print edition
NAZIS came in all shapes and sizes. Some were grotesque[1], many mere criminals. A few were clever, most were unthinking. Leni Riefenstahl was in a class of her own. She was never a party member and did not, overtly, commit any crimes. Indeed, she claimed through an astonishingly long life—she died in 2003, aged 101—that she was first and foremost an artist, never a Nazi propagandist.
纳粹党三教九流云集。荒唐可笑者有之，十恶不赦者更甚；机灵的少，其余大多为莽撞之流。雷妮•瑞芬斯塔尔（Leni Riefenstahl）则另当别论。她无党无派，也未（公然）犯下任何罪行。在异常漫长的一生（卒于2003年、终年101岁）当中，她始终坚称自己纯粹是一名艺术家，绝非纳粹的鼓吹者。
In the 1930s she made two famous films which, only after the destruction unleashed[2] by her compatriots in the second world war, became morally repugnant. （1）She stood by those two films, “Triumph of the Will” and “Olympia”, long after the events they celebrated—the 1934 Nuremberg Nazi rally and the 1936 Berlin Olympics—had come to be seen as representative of the spectacle of evil, if not precisely of evil itself.
20世纪30年代，她的同胞在二战中肆意妄为，所到之处尽遭灭顶之灾。她的两部著名电影就是在其后拍摄的，然却为道义所不容。1934年纽伦堡纳粹集会与1936年柏林奥运会这两个事件，在人们眼中早就成为纳粹堂而皇之作恶（若事件本身并非罪恶的话）的代名词，而她却凭借这两部为其歌功颂德的影片——《意志的胜利》（Triumph of the Will）和《奥林匹亚》（Olympia）——登上成功之巅。
They were radical films technically, and won awards outside Germany. Riefenstahl's use of moving cameras, telephoto lenses, distorted perspectives and aerial photography captivated audiences. In both these and other now less famous movies, her revolutionary approaches towards music and cinematography remain unquestioned. （2）The problems began—and they still continue—when the films' intentions, particularly those of “Triumph of the Will”, whose star is Adolf Hitler, are examined, as they have to be, outside an aesthetic frame.
从技术层面看，这是两部“进步”电影，还曾在国外获奖。瑞芬斯塔尔采用了移动摄影机、长焦镜头、失真透视和空中摄影技术，令观众为之着迷。在这两部以及其它名气稍逊的电影中，她对音乐和摄影艺术的运用在今天看来仍无疑是创新之举。然而，当从美学之外的角度审视（这也是必须的）这些电影、尤其是阿道夫•希特勒担纲主角的《意志的胜利》一片的拍摄意图时，我们就为难了——直到今天都是如此。
The woman behind “Triumph of the Will” had a rare hunger for success, and not just on the screen. Her sexual exploits in the 1920s, examined in impressive detail by Steven Bach, were operatic. Moreover, as Mr Bach reiterates, Riefenstahl's reaction on hearing of men—it was always men—of renown was often: “I must meet that man.” （3）The central mystery of Riefenstahl, who though no intellectual was not stupid, is how her celebrity-chasing led to Hitler and how she allowed her artistry and, one has to assume, her soul to be corrupted by everything he stood for.
《意志的胜利》背后的这个女人对成功的渴望世所难见，而且不仅是在银幕上。20世纪20年代，她以一名歌剧演员的身份惊艳于世。这在史蒂文•巴赫（Steven Bach）的著作中有详细描述，令人印象深刻。此外巴赫再三指出，每当瑞芬斯塔尔听说了一位有名望的男人——总是男人——之后，她的反应通常都是：“我得见一见那人。”瑞芬斯塔尔虽不聪慧，却也不笨，可她对名人的追捧如何让她能走近希特勒，以及她的灵魂又如何为希特勒的种种行径所侵蚀（设若如此），却在人们心中留下了一个大大的问号。
Was she a true Nazi? Neither of these new biographies answers the question categorically, though the material they present leaves little room to suppose otherwise. She had an active friendship with Hitler, her goggling[3] admiration of him weirdly reflecting the lethal hero-worship of an entire nation: yet to that extent Riefenstahl was a German entirely typical of her time. Her films were partly paid for by the Nazi Party, though both authors struggle to tell us exactly to what extent.
她是一名真正的纳粹分子吗？对此这两部新传记作品没有一个能自圆其说，不过它们所提供的材料再清楚不过地表明——答案是肯定的。她与希特勒过从甚密，她对他那种不可思议的景仰反射出整个日耳曼民族毁灭性的英雄崇拜主义——由此可见，瑞芬斯塔尔不过是她那个时代德国人的典型代表而已。她的电影多少都受过纳粹党的资助，可（两部传记作品的）作者却为了要告诉读者这“多少”到底有多少而纠缠不休。
（4）This is not entirely their fault, as Riefenstahl, in interviews and in print (her memoirs appeared in 1987), was adept over decades at obfuscating[4] the straight facts of her relations with individual Nazis, the party and their crimes. Several documents survive but they remain open to interpretation. That she herself was involved in choosing concentration-camp gypsies for a wartime film project, “Tiefland”, there is no doubt. She was never tried for this; and although she was held in detention by the Allies between 1945 and 1950, four separate investigations cleared her of complicity with the regime.
这不能说完全是他们的错，因为在接受采访时和出版物中（其回忆录1987年问世），对于自己与个别纳粹党人、纳粹党以及他们所犯罪行之间的关系，瑞芬斯塔尔数十年始终都闪烁其词，令人难辨真假。现存的几份档案也有待解释。确信无疑的是，她曾在战时摄制电影 《高地》（Tiefland）过程中，使用过集中营的吉普赛人。她从未为此受审；虽然1945至1950年间她曾沦为盟军阶下囚，但先后四次调查却为她洗脱了纳粹同谋的罪名。
Mr Bach and Jürgen Trimborn (whose book first appeared in German in 2002) tell a riveting[5] story and portray a fiercely opportunistic woman. Mr Bach's account is the racier, written with showbiz glee, titillating detail and an enumeration of lovers and liaisons which can prove wearing. Mr Trimborn takes a more plodding[6], Teutonic[7] approach, but he knew his subject personally. （5）His candid conclusion is that history has been kind to Riefenstahl; far more effort needs to be taken not to exonerate[8] her.
巴赫和尤尔根•特里姆博恩（Jürgen Trimborn，其作品2002年在德国面世）的讲述引人入胜，描绘出一个极端机会主义女人形象。巴赫运用的是“娱乐文学”风格，行文轻快活泼，对于细节以及一大堆情人、私通之类乏味的情节拿捏得妙趣横生。特里姆博恩则笔调沉重，带有明显的德国风格，但立意鲜明。他坦言，历史对瑞芬斯塔尔是仁慈的；要想让她背负骂名实属不易。
[QUIZ]
英译汉（请将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：
[NOTES](OXFORD)
1.grotesque adj. 1 strangely distorted so as to arouse fear or laughter; fantastic 因变得古怪而可怕或可笑的; 奇形怪状的: tribal dancers wearing grotesque masks 部落中戴著古怪面具的跳舞的人. 2 (art 美术) combining human, animal and plant forms in a fantastic design 奇异风格的（由人、 动植物混合组成之图案的）. 3 ridiculously exaggerated or unreasonable; absurd 荒谬地夸张的或无理的; 荒唐的: a grotesque distortion of the truth 对事实的无理歪曲 * It's grotesque to expect a person of her experience to work for such little money. 想让有她那样经验的人为这点儿钱工作真是可笑. 4 offensively incongruous 捍格不入的; 极不协调的: the grotesque sight of an old man trying to flirt with a young girl 老头儿极力与少女调情那种离谱的样子.
2.unleash v. [Tn, Tn.pr] ~ sth (against/on sb/sth) (a) set sth free from a leash or restraint 解开带子或去掉限制以放开（某事物）: unleash the guard dogs 解开带子放出警卫犬. (b) (fig 比喻) set sth free from control; release sth in a powerful attack (on sb/sth) 使某物不受控制; 放出某物对（某人[某物]）进行强有力的攻击: unleash the forces of nuclear power 发出核动力的攻击力 * He unleashed a torrent of abuse againstthe unfortunate shop assistant. 他对那倒霉的店员骂不绝口.
3.goggle v. ~ (at sb/sth) look (at sb/sth) with wide round bulging eyes 瞪圆眼睛看（某人[某事物]）: He goggled at her in surprise. 他惊奇地睁大眼睛看著她. * a frog with goggling eyes 两眼瞪得鼓鼓的青蛙.
4.obfuscate v. (fml 文) (deliberately) make (sth) confused or difficult to understand （故意）使（某事物）混乱或艰涩难懂: The writer often obfuscates the real issues with petty details. 那作家常以细枝末节来混淆实质问题.
5.riveting adj. (approv 褒) that holds the attention; enthralling 吸引人的; 饶有兴味的: an absolutely riveting performance 极为精彩的演出.
6.plodding adj. 沉重缓慢的, 单调乏味的
7.Teutonic adj. 1 of the Germanic (ie Anglo-Saxon, Dutch, German and Scandinavian) peoples or their languages 条顿人的, 条顿语的（即盎格鲁撒克逊人、 荷兰人、 德国人及斯堪的那维亚人的）. 2 [usu attrib 通常作定语] showing qualities thought to be typical of German people 有德意志民族特点的; 有德国人风格的: Teutonic thoroughness 德国人做事的彻底精神.
8.exonerate v. [esp passive 尤用於被动语态: Tn, Tn.pr] ~ sb (from sth) declare sb free from blame 宣布某人无罪过: He was exonerated from all responsibility for the accident. 已确定他无须对该事故负任何责任.
