好英语网书评：最难理解的第一夫人和“她的交易艺术”
To the Secret Service, he is “Mogul” and she is “Muse.” Donald J. Trump and Melania Knauss met in Manhattan in 1998 and married seven years later. He was a real estate guy and she had curb appeal.
特勤局将他称为“大佬”，将她称为“缪斯”。唐纳德·J·特朗普和梅拉尼娅·克努斯(Melania Knauss)于1998年在曼哈顿相识，七年后结婚。当时他是搞房地产的，而她容貌出众。
In a new book about Melania Trump’s life, “The Art of Her Deal,” the Washington Post reporter Mary Jordan suggests Melania kept her mogul’s flickering interest by being an apt pupil of his literary output, which now runs to nearly 20 titles.
在一本关于梅拉尼娅·特朗普生平的新书《她的交易艺术》(The Art of Her Deal)中，《华盛顿邮报》(Washington Post)记者玛丽·乔丹(Mary Jordan)称，梅拉尼娅之所以能吸引“大佬”转瞬即逝的兴趣，靠的是善于学习他的著作。特朗普目前已经出版了近20本书。
In “The Art of the Comeback” (1997), written with Kate Bohner, Trump said about women: “There is high maintenance. There is low maintenance. I want no maintenance.” Melania took notes.
在1997年出版的与凯特·博纳(Kate Bohner)合著的《东山再起的艺术》(The Art of The Comeback)一书中，特朗普在谈到女性时说：“有维护费用很高的女人。有维护费用很低的女人。我想要不需要维护费用的女人。”梅拉尼娅把这句话记了下来。
2018年的梅拉尼娅。
She is a sphinx, with a rubber eraser in place of a tail. She didn’t keep friends as she moved through the stages of her life: her childhood in the former Yugoslavia, her years as a model in Milan, Paris and New York. There were no bridesmaids at her wedding. She has declined to talk about her past except in generalities. She is so camera-ready at all moments that a friend tells the author, “I don’t even know if she goes to the bathroom.”
她就像一个斯芬克斯，只是用橡皮擦代替了尾巴。她人生的各个阶段都没有保留下来的朋友，无论是在前南斯拉夫度过的童年，还是在米兰、巴黎和纽约当模特的岁月。她的婚礼上没有伴娘。对于自己的过去，她不愿详谈。她时刻准备着拍照，以至于一位朋友告诉作者，“我都不知道她会不会去洗手间。”
Melania’s remoteness prompts a cri de coeur from the author. “In three decades as a correspondent working all over the world, I have often written about the reluctant and the reclusive, including the head of a Mexican drug cartel and a Japanese princess, but nothing compared to trying to understand Melania,” Jordan writes.
梅拉尼娅的冷漠不禁令作者发起了牢骚。“作为一名在世界各地工作的记者，在过去的三十年里，我经常写那些不情愿配合的人、那些避世的人，包括墨西哥贩毒集团头目和日本公主，但是理解梅拉尼娅是最困难的，”乔丹写道。
“Most people I spoke to would not speak on the record. Many in the Trump world are governed by NDAs (nondisclosure agreements). Some had been warned by lawyers, family members and others close to Melania not to speak publicly about her, and many would talk only on the same encrypted phone apps used by spies and others in the intelligence community. Old photos that were once an easy Google search away no longer pop up online.”
“和我交谈过的大多数人都不愿公开姓名。在特朗普的圈子里，很多人都受保密协议的约束。一些人曾被律师、家人和其他与梅拉尼娅关系密切者警告，不要公开谈论她，很多人只使用间谍和其他情报部门人员使用的那种加密手机应用来交谈。在网上，以前在谷歌里很容易搜索到的老照片现在再也不会弹出来了。”
As a result, “The Art of Her Deal,” a well-reported book, can’t help but seem lopsided. Trump-world stalwarts such as Corey Lewandowski (“She has amazing political instincts”), Roger Stone (“There’s nothing dumb about her”), Chris Christie (“If she’s developed a trust for you, she is an extraordinarily warm person”) and Sean Spicer (“She lets the president know what she thinks”) are quoted fulsomely. The less obsequious comments mostly come from unnamed sources.
因此，《她交易的艺术》这本书虽然报道翔实，但似乎难免有失偏颇。特朗普世界里的那些坚定支持者都被过多地引用，比如科里·莱万多夫斯基（Corey Lewandowski，“她有着惊人的政治直觉”）、罗杰·斯通（Roger Stone，“她一点都不愚蠢”）、克里斯·克里斯蒂（Chris Christie，“如果她对你产生了信任，她就是一个非常热情的人”）以及肖恩·斯派塞（Sean Spicer，“她让总统知道她的想法”）。不那么谄媚的评论大多来自匿名信源。
Jordan has drilled down, though, and brings new information about this unconventional first lady to the surface.
不过，乔丹已经尽量深挖，带来关于这位非传统的第一夫人的新信息。
Jordan writes that Melania was renegotiating her prenuptial agreement during the 2016 campaign, and her husband’s “Access Hollywood” debacle almost surely gave her leverage. These negotiations, Jordan says, and not the need to remain in Manhattan for their son Barron’s schooling, were why Melania and Barron delayed moving to the White House.
乔丹写道，梅拉尼娅在2016年竞选期间正在重新谈判婚前协议，而她丈夫在《走进好莱坞》(Access Hollywood)节目中的丑闻几乎肯定给了她筹码。乔丹说，梅拉尼娅和两人的儿子巴伦(Barron)迟迟没有搬进白宫正是因为这些谈判，而不是为了让巴伦留在曼哈顿上学。
There is news on the tensions between Melania and Ivanka Trump. Melania has been overheard referring to Ivanka as “The Princess,” Jordan writes. Ivanka, when younger, called Melania “The Portrait” because she spoke as often as one.
有消息称梅拉尼娅和伊万卡·特朗普(Ivanka Trump)关系紧张。乔丹写道，有人无意中听到梅拉尼娅用“公主”来称呼伊万卡。而伊万卡更年轻的时候称梅拉尼娅是“画像”，因为梅拉尼娅像一幅画一样，从来都不说话。
Jordan underlines how fiercely Melania embraces her Slovenian roots. She spends much of her time with Barron and her parents. Barron speaks Slovenian and, like his mother, is a dual citizen — he carries a Slovenian as well as a United States passport. “Trump has complained to others,” Jordan writes, “that he has no idea what they are saying.”
乔丹强调，梅拉尼娅是多么强烈地执著于自己的斯洛文尼亚血统。她的大部分时间都是和巴伦以及自己的父母在一起。巴伦会说斯洛文尼亚语，和母亲一样，也是双重国籍——他持有斯洛文尼亚护照和美国护照。“特朗普曾向别人抱怨，”乔丹写道，“他不知道他们在说什么。”
About Melania’s own visa and citizenship issues, and how she brought her parents and sister to the United States while her husband railed about “chain migration,” there is much we don’t know.
关于梅拉尼娅的签证和公民身份问题，以及她是怎样在丈夫抨击“连锁移民”的同时，把自己的父母和姐姐弄到美国的，我们还有很多不知道的事情。
It irks Melania to be considered fragile, Jordan writes. She encouraged Trump to run for president; she was not merely a leaf sucked along by the wind. She’s been an influential adviser to him on certain issues, such as choosing Mike Pence as his running mate. She encouraged Trump to back down from the “zero tolerance” policy that had separated many children from their parents at the Mexican border.
乔丹写道，梅拉尼娅不能忍受被认为脆弱。她鼓励特朗普竞选总统；她不是一片被卷入风暴的浮萍。在某些问题上，她一直是他有影响力的顾问，例如选择麦克·彭斯(Mike Pence)作为竞选伙伴。她鼓励特朗普放弃“零容忍”政策，该政策使许多儿童在墨西哥边境与父母分离。
She’s not always been a voice for moderation. She joined her husband in his “birther” attacks on Barack Obama. She has impugned the integrity of women who have accused her husband of sexual harassment and worse. Woe to anyone, the author suggests, who crosses her.
她也有不委婉的时候。她与丈夫一起质疑巴拉克·奥巴马的出生地。她谴责那些指责丈夫性骚扰甚至更糟行为的妇女的诚信。作者认为，任何跟她作对的，都不会有好日子过。
While she was growing up, Melania’s father was a trained mechanic who sometimes worked as a chauffeur. Her mother was a seamstress who clothed her daughter impeccably from the day she was born. Melania briefly studied in the prestigious architecture program at the University of Ljubljana before dropping out.
童年时，梅拉尼娅的父亲是一位训练有素的机械师，有时还当司机。她的母亲是一位裁缝，从女儿出生那天起就将她打扮得无可挑剔。梅拉尼娅曾在卢布尔雅那大学(Ljubljana University)享有盛誉的建筑系学习，后来退学。
Jordan pays attention to the many interviews Melania gave as a model and afterward, and catches her in many exaggerations, including the fact that she speaks many languages. She appears to speak only two.
乔丹留意了梅拉尼娅当模特时以及后来接受的许多采访，并发现其中有很多夸大，包括她会讲多种语言。她似乎只说两种。
Jordan never quite finds a voice with which to tell this story. She doesn’t have a strong point of view, and shies away from acute analysis. “The Art of Her Deal” reads like a very long newspaper article rather than a tightly wound book. The author bends so far backward to be fair to her subject that, at times, you fear she may need chiropractic help.
乔丹未能找到一个合适讲述这个故事的表达方式。她没有强势的观点，也不愿进行尖锐的分析。《她的交易艺术》读起来就像一篇很长的报纸文章，而不是一本紧凑的书。作者为了公平对待她的主题而如此卑躬屈膝，令你担心她可能需要脊椎治疗。
Has Melania had plastic surgery? The author quotes one of her former New York roommates as saying she returned from a 1997 Christmas trip to Europe looking more buxom.
梅拉尼娅接受过整容手术吗？作者引用了她以前在纽约的一位室友的话说，她1997年圣诞节前往欧洲旅行回来后，看上去更加丰盈了。
That same former roommate told the author that Melania, in those pre-Trump days, liked to watch “Friends,” ate seven fruits and vegetables a day, didn’t drink alcohol and walked with weights on her ankles to keep toned.
这位前室友告诉作者，在特朗普进入她的生活以前，梅拉尼娅喜欢看《老友记》(Friends)，每天吃七种果蔬，不喝酒，并且走路时脚上负重以保持身材。
Jordan confirms that the first lady and her husband sleep in separate bedrooms. He likes darkly colored walls and rugs; she prefers light ones. They rarely seem to interact. He uses Irish Spring soap.
乔丹确认了第一夫人和她的丈夫分房睡觉。他喜欢深色的墙壁和地毯；而她喜欢浅色的。他们似乎很少互动。他用爱尔兰春天牌香皂。
Jordan quotes Jay Goldberg, one of Trump’s lawyers during his playboy days, as saying that Trump often spoke romantically about business but never about women. What made him happy, Goldberg said, was chocolate: “Give him a Hershey bar and let him watch television.”
乔丹援引特朗普在花花公子时期的律师之一杰伊·戈德伯格(Jay Goldberg)的话说，特朗普谈起生意来充满浪漫，但对女性却从不这样。戈德伯格说，巧克力让他开心：“给他一块好时巧克力，让他看电视。”
When someone once hazarded a joke about Trump’s penis size, the author writes, Melania replied, “Don’t say this — he’s a real man.”
作者写道，当有人曾经试着拿特朗普的阴茎大小开玩笑时，梅拉尼娅回答说：“别这么说——他是一个真男人。”
Donald Trump appears to dwell in the White House, for the most part, like a sultan among his pillows. Melania is self-exiled with her parents and son. On many days, Jordan writes, her press office doesn’t answer questions about where she is.
唐纳德·特朗普似乎大部分时间都住在白宫，就像靠垫簇拥的苏丹一般。梅拉尼娅与她的父母和儿子选择流落在外。乔丹写道，许多时候，她的新闻办公室都不会透露她在哪里。
Perhaps they’re happy. Or perhaps each has so much kompromat on the other that they live like Mr. and Mrs. Smith, the married assassins in the Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie movie, each waiting for a chance to fire a kill shot.
也许他们很幸福。或者，也许每个人彼此之间都拥有太多机密，以致于他们像史密斯夫妇——布拉德·皮特和安吉丽娜·朱莉饰演的已婚刺客——一样生活，两个人分别都在等待开枪的机会。
Melania played a kind of satirical James Bond girl in a famous photo shoot for British GQ. I thought of her situation recently while watching the Bond film “Live and Let Die.” That’s the one in which Roger Moore, stranded in the middle of a pond filled with crocodiles, manages to get to the safety of shore by using their heads as steppingstones.
梅拉尼娅为英国《GQ》拍摄的著名照片中，装扮成一个颇具讽刺意味的邦德女郎。最近我在看邦德电影《你死我活》(Live and Let Die)时联想到她的处境。在那个镜头中，罗杰·摩尔(Roger Moore)被困在一个全是鳄鱼的池塘中间，他最后把鳄鱼脑袋当成垫脚石安全上岸。