雙語故事:三個了不起的孩子

THE youth of the three brothers that is described in “Brothers Emanuel” is interesting because one of them is Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff and a leading figure in Democratic politics. Rahm is the middle sibling. The eldest is Ezekiel, a medical ethicist and vice-provost at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of this memoir. The youngest is Ari, a Hollywood agent and the role model for the character Ari Gold in “Entourage”, an American television series.

在《伊曼紐爾兄弟》一書的描述中，三兄弟的童年生活是相當有趣的。三兄弟之一的拉姆•伊曼紐爾是芝加哥市長、奧巴馬總統的前幕僚長同時也是民主黨的領頭人物。拉姆在三兄弟裏排行第二。三兄弟中最年長的是醫學倫理學家且擔任賓夕法尼亞大學校長的以西結，他同時也是這本回憶錄的作者。最小的是好萊塢著名經紀人阿里，同時他也是美國電視連續劇《明星夥伴》中阿里•高登的原型。

hey grew up in Chicago in the 1960s—before supervised playdates, constant communication and fears of abduction. They explored their neighbourhood and even spent entire days on the beach alone. The alternative was to allow them to conduct their raids, sneak attacks, skirmishes, mock battles and combat missions indoors. Close in age, their wild play resulted in some bloody wounds including the loss of four teeth and the removal (fortunately temporary) of four fingers from two different brothers.

他們成長於20世紀60年代的芝加哥——在這個時代還沒有經過嚴格審查的娛樂節目、人際交往也沒有現在頻繁與繁雜，更沒有對拐騙之類的擔心。他們天天在自己家附近玩耍甚至在沙灘上一呆就是一天。要不然他們就打打鬧鬧，你推我搡，戰鬥不停，因爲年齡所差無幾，他們玩耍的後果就是一些帶血的慘痛教訓，包括其中兩兄弟掉了四顆牙，斷了四根手指頭（還好只是暫時的。）。

Born in Jerusalem, their father, Ben, was briefly a member of the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary group in British-mandated Palestine. Their mother was the daughter of a Chicago trade-union organiser. She was active in the civil-rights movement and often took her children to protests.

三兄弟的父親本出生於耶路撒冷，曾有一段時間加入了英國統治巴勒斯坦時期猶太復國主義組織伊爾根。他們的母親是一個芝加哥工會組織者的女兒。她對民權運動十分熱心，還經常帶着她的三個兒子參加遊行。

Emanuel père had a practice as a paediatrician, but the family was not materially wealthy; the children were privately schooled and any spare cash was spent on cultural outings. Passionate debate around the dinner table was the norm. Everyone was expected to be well informed and the boys were allowed to swear. Tempers could run high. A discussion of “The Deer Hunter”, a 1978 film, ended in a brawl. For all the chaos, though, there were rules: no prejudice, cruelty or stupidity.

伊曼紐爾三兄弟的父親曾是一名兒科醫師，但是這個家庭並不是特別富裕。三個孩子都沒是自己在家教育，家裏的錢大多都用在與文化有關的短期出行上。在晚餐桌上進行的激烈辯論也是伊曼紐爾家的特色。他們的初衷是讓每個人都能對事物有準確的瞭解，甚至連開口大罵也是允許的。但是要知道是脾氣都有控制不住的時候。有一次，他們關於1978年的電影《獵鹿人》在他們家飯桌上的討論最終又導致了一次大爭吵。但是，無論怎麼爭，怎麼吵，準則仍在：絕不歧視，不能殘忍，不可犯糊塗。

Although Rahm started out as the quiet child, the roots of his assertiveness, tenacity, beliefs and even style are easy to find. At home, as the middle child, he was the politician. Outside he was notorious in challenging authority. In an argument with the father of a good schoolfriend he said “Fuck you, Uncle Bill”, and then launched into a tirade about how the man was an Archie Bunker—a television character who was a politically incorrect, conservative curmudgeon.

儘管拉姆•伊曼紐爾在小時候算是個安靜的孩子，但是他的魄力、韌性、信仰和他的獨特風格從他的成長中也可覓蹤影。在家裏，他是排行老二的孩子，上忍哥哥，下讓弟弟，就像政治家一樣。在外面，他是個因爲愛挑戰權威而名聲昭著的政客。又一次，他與一位交好的學校同學的父親起了爭執，他說：“比爾叔叔，你去死吧。”然後便開始了他的長篇大論，說那個人是個像電視角色亞奇邦克式一般自大頑固的人。

Ezekiel is more informative about Rahm than analytical. He attributes all three brothers’ success to active parenting, but it is hard not to conclude that their greatest influence might have been each other. They slept in the same room, ate at the same table, played as a group and, for many summers, explored Israel together.

以西結對拉姆並沒有深入的分析，而是用很多信息來支撐。他將三兄弟的成功歸於良好的家庭教育。但是人們還是會不禁將他們的成功與他們對互相的影響聯繫起來。他們住一間房間，在同一張桌子上吃飯，一塊兒玩耍，在那麼多個夏天一起在以色列探險。

They also formed strategies for how to appease their mother’s tempestuous moods. Her life was always destined to be hard—her father made her give the money she saved up for university to her brother Sheldon. It was Marsha Emanuel’s blessing and her burden to find herself bringing up three tiger cubs. Her influence was deeply pervasive, though, and it now seems inevitable that the Emanuels were destined to impose themselves on the world, rather than the other way round.

他們對怎麼安撫他們媽媽的脾氣也自有套路。她的生活彷彿註定是艱辛的——她父親逼着她把自己存着上大學的錢給了她的哥哥謝爾登。但是能夠養育這三個如猛虎般孩子的母親必然也是得到了老天的眷顧。然而，她對於孩子的影響隨處可見，現在看起來，伊曼紐爾三兄弟會聞名世界纔是命中註定，三兄弟也絕對不可能是默默無聞的。