好英语网泽连斯基正在出演他的“人生之戏”
Shortly after his surprise election as the president of Ukraine, Vasyl Petrovych Holoborodko gets a Pygmalion-like makeover and an introduction to his retinue of staff. There is his stylist. There is his psychologist. There is his “personal motivator.” And there is … himself?
在出乎意料地当选总统后不久，瓦西尔·彼得罗维奇·霍洛博罗德科做了一次皮格马利翁式的形象重塑，然后接见了他的一大群随从。有他的造型师。有他的心理专家。有他的“个人鼓励师”。还有……他自己？
An identical, slightly cross-eyed version of Holoborodko stands before him. It’s your body double, the prime minister explains. He’s available to appear at ceremonies, to meet with foreign dignitaries … or to take a sniper’s bullet. Of course, the prime minister adds, it probably won’t come to that.
一个长得一样、略微斜视的霍洛博罗德科站在他面前。这是您的替身，总理解释道。他可以在仪式上出现，与外国政要会面，或者替你挡狙击手的子弹。当然，总理说，可能不会发生这种事情。
泽连斯基在2019年的讽刺剧《人民公仆》中。作为乌克兰总统，泽连斯基在俄罗斯入侵期间表现出勇敢和对媒体的善用。
Holoborodko is the character played by Volodymyr Zelensky in “Servant of the People,” the Ukrainian TV satire that debuted in 2015 and set up Mr. Zelensky, in 2019, to be elected president of Ukraine in real life. Since the Russian invasion, the series has been picked up to air in several countries; subtitled episodes are available on YouTube.
霍洛博罗德科是泽连斯基在2015年首播的乌克兰讽刺剧《人民公仆》中扮演的角色，并在2019年助他成为现实生活中的乌克兰总统。自俄罗斯入侵以来，该系列已在多个国家播出；YouTube上可以观看带字幕的剧集。
To watch it now is to experience, like Holoborodko, a chilling sense of double vision. There, on one screen, is Mr. Zelensky confronting the prospect of assassination for laughs. And there — on TV news, on monitors before world leaders and in his handmade videos from war-torn Kyiv — is the real man in real life, staring down real death.
现在再看这个剧就像霍洛博罗德科那样，体验一种令人不寒而栗的重影。在一个屏幕上，泽连斯基应对被暗杀的可能性是为博人一笑。而在电视新闻中，在各国领导人面前的显示器上，以及他自己在饱受战争蹂躏的基辅录制的视频中，这是一个现实生活中的真实的人，凝视着真正的死亡。
Americans, of course, know a thing or two about electing presidents who have played leaders on TV. Reality does not always measure up to the prime-time myth. But as Mr. Zelensky has used his on-camera skill to rally his country and the world, he hasn’t just imitated his art. He’s improved on it.
当然，美国人对选举在电视上扮演过领导人的总统并不陌生。现实和黄金时段的故事总有差别。但是，随着泽连斯基利用他的上镜技巧来团结他的国家和世界，他并没有只是仿效自己的作品，而是进行了改进。
More satirical than “The West Wing,” less caustic than “Veep,” with higher stakes than in “Parks and Recreation,” “Servant of the People” is a what-if fable about an ordinary citizen vaulted into power. Holoborodko, a history teacher, is caught on camera ranting about the country’s rampant corruption and cynicism. “I wish every common teacher lived like a president,” he storms. “I wish every president lived like a teacher, damn it!”
《人民公仆》比《白宫风云》(The West Wing)更具讽刺意味，没有《副总统》(Veep)那么刻薄，比《公园与游憩》(Parks and Recreation)里的利害关系更大，它是一个关于普通公民突然掌权的假设故事。历史老师霍洛博罗德科被拍到大骂国家腐败猖獗且无所顾忌。“我希望每一位普通教师都能活得像总统一样，”他怒吼道。“我希望每一位总统都活得像老师一样，该死！”
The video goes viral, and Holoborodko wins the election in a landslide. Suddenly he is a teacher living like a president, with all the job’s headaches. He has to contend with shadowy oligarchs and the International Monetary Fund, as well as the pedestrian forms of greed that seep into everyday life. (Holoborodko’s cabdriver father is intoxicated by the perks of presidential dad-hood, accepting “100 percent discounts” and turning his apartment into a mini Versailles.)
这段视频在网上迅速走红，霍洛博罗德科以压倒性优势赢得了选举。突然间，他成了一名活得像总统的老师，拥有这份工作所有令人头疼的麻烦。他必须得应付阴暗的寡头和国际货币基金组织，还要与渗透到日常生活中的贪婪作斗争。（霍洛博罗德科的出租车司机父亲陶醉于身为总统父亲带来地的福利，接受“零折价”并将他的公寓变成一座迷你凡尔赛宫。）
Much of “Servant” is broad and slapstick; in one scene, the president scampers Marx Brothers-style around the executive offices as a Swedish banker chases him for a loan repayment. As you might guess from the viral clips of a pre-political Mr. Zelensky winning the Ukrainian version of “Dancing With the Stars,” he’s a gifted physical comic. His beleaguered-nerd persona is a little Stephen Colbert, a little Steve Carell, a dash of Charlie Chaplin.
《人民公仆》的大部分内容宽泛而滑稽；在一个场景中，当一位瑞典银行家来要债时，总统像马克斯兄弟那样在行政办公室里跑来跑去。正如你可能在从政前的泽连斯基赢得乌克兰版《与星共舞》(Dancing With the Stars)的走红片段中猜到的那样，他的形体喜剧十分杰出。他的这种腹背受敌的呆子人设有点像斯蒂芬·科尔伯特，还有点史蒂夫·卡瑞尔，再加一点查理·卓别林。
But “Servant of the People” is also stranger and more profound than its fish-out-of-water premise suggests. It’s insightful about the pressures on a fledgling democracy with more-powerful neighbors. While Russia is not central to the plot, consciousness of it is everywhere. Holoborodko’s trick for getting a raucous audience’s attention is to yell, “Putin has been overthrown!”
但是，《人民公仆》也比它格格不入的假设所暗示的更奇怪，也更深刻。它对一个邻国实力强大的新兴民主国家所面临的压力有深刻的见解。虽然俄罗斯不是剧情的中心，但时刻都会意识到它的存在。霍洛博罗德科吸引喧闹观众注意的诀窍是大喊：“普京被推翻了！”
Ultimately, Mr. Zelensky’s show is an argument about the true source of political legitimacy. In its perhaps idealistic telling, power comes from being proximate to the people, not elevated above them. It comes not from being invincible but from knowing people’s precarity and sharing in their inconveniences. After his election, the new president continues living in his parents’ cramped flat.
归根结底，泽连斯基的剧集是对政治合法性真正来源的争论。在它也许是理想主义的叙述中，权力来自于接近人民，而不是高于人民。它不是来自于所向无敌，而是来自于了解人们的不安并分担他们的困难。选举后，新总统继续居住在父母的狭窄公寓里。
Mr. Zelensky ran for president in a social-media-savvy campaign so tightly bound up with his fictional persona that his political party was also called “Servant of the People.” Like Holoborodko, he was, before the war, criticized as being in over his head.
泽连斯基的总统竞选活动善用社交媒体，与他虚构的角色紧密相连，以至于他的政党也叫做“人民公仆”。和霍洛博罗德科一样，在战前，他也曾被批评为不自量力。
But through the lens of his show, which argues that good leaders should share their citizens’ experiences, his response to the attack has seemed almost inevitable.
但通过他的剧集——他认为优秀的领导者应该感受他们的公民的体验——可以看出他对这次袭击的反应似乎几乎是必然的。
Shortly after the invasion, he released a video. Standing on a darkened street, capturing himself and a group of advisers in his phone’s lens, he speaks for half a minute.
入侵后不久，他发布了一段视频。他站在一条黑暗的街道上，用手机镜头拍下自己和一群顾问，他进行了半分钟的致辞。
The framing is intimate. The message is simple: “We are here.” The prime minister — here. The president — here. The soldiers — here. The repetition is potent, the defiance palpable. To citizens, foes and sympathetic Russians who were once fans of his show, it said, “We are not giving up our home.” To the world, it was David facing Goliath and picking up a digital slingshot.
画面很亲近。信息很简单：“我们在这里。”总理——在这里。总统——在这里。士兵——在这里。反复强调是有说服力的，反抗之心是显而易见的。对于曾经是他电视剧粉丝的公民、敌人和表示同情的俄罗斯人，他的信息说：“我们不会放弃我们的家园。”对全世界来说，这是对决巨人歌利亚的大卫拿起了数字弹弓。
Mr. Zelensky’s appearances throughout the war, from handmade videos to interviews, have had a similar personal feel. He wears fatigues, not a suit. This tells his people that he knows what they’re going through, and it reminds Western leaders that they can scarcely imagine what he’s going through. He opens a video from the presidential office selfie-style, shooting the street outside his window — again, I am here — then carrying you down the hall to his desk.
泽连斯基在整个战争期间的露面，从自拍视频到采访，都有类似的个人风格。他穿着作训服，而不是西装。这告诉他的人民他知道他们正在经历什么，并提醒西方领导人他们几乎无法想象他正在经历什么。他用自拍风格开始了一段在总统办公室的视频，先拍摄了他窗外的街道——再一次表示，我在这里——然后带着你穿过大厅来到他的办公桌前。
At a March 2 news conference, he sits next to the podium, instead of standing behind it. The Ukrainian people “elected me to have access to me,” he says. “You’re not a czar. You did not get this power from somebody up high.”
在3月2日的新闻发布会上，他坐在演讲台旁边，而不是站在它后面。乌克兰人民“选举我做总统是为了可以接触到我”，他说。“你不是沙皇。你不是从某个高高在上的人那里得到的这种力量。”
His videos present bravery as something both stirring and ordinary. He admits the possibility of death but says he does not want to die: “I don’t want Ukraine’s history to be a legend about 300 Spartans.” He’s not posturing as Rambo. If anything, he accentuates his vulnerability. He’s tired. He’s unshaven. Like Holoborodko, he puts himself forward as a manager, hired by Ukraine to do a job that Vladimir Putin just made that much lousier. He’s showing up for work.
他的视频将勇敢展现为既激动人心又平凡的东西。他承认可能会死，但表示他不想死：“我不希望乌克兰的历史变成斯巴达三百勇士的传奇。”他没有摆出兰博的姿态。要说他表达了什么的话，他强调了他的脆弱。他很累。他没有刮胡子。像霍洛博罗德科一样，他自称是一名受雇于乌克兰的管理者，从事一项因普京而变得更加糟糕的工作。他正在做他的工作。
Now he finds himself opposed to a larger world power, not only on the battlefield but also in the mediasphere, the one place where he has air superiority.
现在他发现自己不仅在战场上反抗一个更大的世界强国，而且在他拥有制空权的媒体领域也是如此。
Over the decades, Mr. Putin has also played a character in the media, one that embodies very different ideas of strength and authority. They may not have had Charles Atlas ads in the Soviet Union that Mr. Putin grew up in, but his brand of machismo could have come straight out of them.
几十年来，普京也在媒体中扮演了一个角色，这个角色体现了非常不同的力量和权威观念。人们可能没有看过苏联年代——普京童年时——的那些查尔斯·阿特拉斯的广告，但他的大男子主义形象可能直接来自那里。
He has been photographed riding horseback, shirtless. (In contrast, the “Servant” credits have Holoborodko biking to work, a clothespin clipped to his trouser leg.) He has posed riding a motorcycle and doing judo and going spear fishing (again shirtless). In televised hockey exhibitions with government officials, he shoots goal after goal on an opposing team that puts up flimsy defense.
他被拍到骑马，赤膊上阵。（相比之下，在《人民公仆》中，霍洛博罗德科骑自行车上班，裤腿上夹着一个晾衣夹。）普京被拍下骑摩托车、练柔道和叉鱼的姿势（仍是赤裸上身）。在与政府官员的冰球表演电视转播中，对方防守形同虚设，他屡次射门得分。
All this biceps-kissing, pump-you-up cosplay moved not only his domestic admirers but also some American conservatives, particularly during the Obama era. In 2014, the historian Victor Davis Hanson, writing in National Review, compared “bare-chested Putin,” who “gallops his horses, poses with his tigers and shoots his guns” with the “metrosexual golf get-ups” and “prissy poses” of the American president.
所有这些亲吻二头肌、让你兴奋的角色扮演不仅感动了他的国内崇拜者，也感动了一些美国保守派，尤其是在奥巴马时代。2014年，历史学家维克多·戴维斯·汉森在《国家评论》上撰文，将“策马奔驰、与他的老虎合影、举枪射击”的“赤裸上身的普京”与有着“都市娘炮高尔夫打扮”和“谨小慎微的仪态”的美国总统进行了比较。
The pandemic, however, isolated and changed Mr. Putin, and his imagery changed with it. He was photographed alone in conference rooms. We saw him berating and bullying his cringing underlings in a televised meeting. Reportedly fearful of Covid, he took meetings at one end of a table so long it seemed to defy the laws of physics.
然而，大流行孤立并改变了普京，他的形象也随之改变。照片上，他独自在会议室里。我们看到他在电视会议上斥责和恐吓那些畏畏缩缩的下属。据说他害怕新冠，开会时坐在长桌的一端，桌子长得似乎打破了物理常规。
Maybe this was also an image of authority, but a different one. A strong leader, it said, is untouchable, inviolable, remote.
也许这也是一种权威的形象，但又不同。这表示，一个强大的领导者是不可触碰的、不可侵犯的、遥远的。
Ultimately, of course, Mr. Putin made himself a pariah not through his pictures but through his actions. Still, set-designing himself as a Bond villain hasn’t helped. It is a contest that Russia seems to know it is losing. Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, complained that his country was facing a “Hollywood” narrative of “absolute evil and absolute good.”
当然，最终，普京不是通过他的照片，而是通过他的行动让自己成为国际弃儿。尽管如此，将自己塑造为007里的反派并没有好处。俄罗斯似乎知道自己正在输掉这场比赛。俄罗斯外交部长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫抱怨说，他的国家正面临“绝对邪恶和绝对善良”的“好莱坞式”叙事。
Mr. Zelensky is conscious of his opponent’s image, too, and willing to tweak it. In one appeal for peace, he called on Mr. Putin to negotiate with him face to face — “not at 30 meters.” In terms of image, at least, Mr. Zelensky has used the judo aficionado’s own weight against him.
泽连斯基也清楚对手的形象，并愿意对其进行调整。在一次和平呼吁中，他吁请普京与他面对面谈判——“不是在30米之外”。至少在形象方面，泽连斯基在把这个柔道爱好者的力量反过来为己所用。
Of course, memes can’t stop a cruise missile. Mr. Zelensky has said as much. “It’s not a movie,” he told CNN, asked about his shift from actor to leader. “I’m not iconic. I think Ukraine is iconic.”
当然，米姆阻止不了巡航导弹。泽连斯基也是这么表态的。“这不是一部电影，”他告诉CNN，当被问及他从演员到领袖的身份转变时。“我不是偶像。我认为乌克兰是偶像。”
But it’s no insult to say that performance is part of leadership. Rhetoric isn’t ammunition, but it can keep soldiers fighting and move the world to arm them. Mr. Zelensky’s dramatic speeches to European leaders helped galvanize the continent’s response and moved a translator to tears. His address to the British Parliament echoed Winston Churchill’s words as the Nazis advanced across Europe in 1940. “We will fight in the forests, in the fields, on the shores, in the streets,” Mr. Zelensky said, challenging Britain to see its own history in Ukraine’s dire moment.
但是，表演是领导力的一部分，这么说并没有侮辱之意。言辞不是弹药，但它可以让士兵继续战斗，驱动世界武装他们。泽连斯基对欧洲领导人的戏剧性演讲激发了欧洲大陆的反应，让一位翻译感动到落泪。他在英国议会的讲话呼应了1940年纳粹在欧洲推进时温斯顿·丘吉尔的话。“我们将在森林、田野、海岸、街道上战斗，”泽连斯基说，这是在激发英国去在乌克兰的危机时刻中看到自己的历史。
Performance, be it on a TV set, in a campaign or from a bunker, is about giving shape to the abstract. In the case of Ukraine, Mr. Zelensky has personalized the struggle between liberal democracy and authoritarianism in the contrast between himself and Mr. Putin and pushed the world to choose a side.
表演，无论是在电视上、在竞选活动中还是在地堡中，都是在给抽象意义塑造形象。就乌克兰而言，泽连斯基通过他与普京的鲜明对比在他个人身上演绎了自由民主与威权主义之间的斗争，推动世界作出选择。
Could a different leader have done this? We may never be able to prove whether a sitcom changed world history. But certainly Mr. Zelensky the performer has given Mr. Zelensky the president some of his most powerful weapons.
换一个领导者能做到这一点吗？我们可能永远无法证明情景喜剧是否改变了世界历史。但可以肯定的是，表演者泽连斯基给了总统泽连斯基一些他最强大的武器。