“多余的伊万卡”迷失了方向
We’ve talked plenty about how Donald Trump’s indictment and arraignment might affect his latest presidential bid. We’ve pondered their meaning for the future of the republic.
关于唐纳德·特朗普的检控和传讯对他的总统竞选会有什么影响,我们已经谈了很多。我们思考了这些事对共和国的未来意味着什么。
But “whither America?” isn’t the question. Whither Ivanka? A fair-haired, fair-weather daughter has allegiances to re-examine and decisions to make, and not just about what to wear if there are jailhouse visits to come. Right here, right now, does she stand by Daddy? Or does she treat Mar-a-Lago as if it were Three Mile Island and run as fast and as far from it as she can?
但这里要问的不是“美利坚何去何从?”。伊万卡何去何从?这位共富贵但不共患难的千金大小姐需要重新思考自己效忠于谁,需要做出抉择,而且不只是选择一旦要去探监的时候应该穿什么。此时此刻,她是仍然和爹地站在一起?还是视马阿拉歌如三里岛,离得越远越好?
Nepotism was never supposed to be this hard.
混个裙带关系怎么也变得如此艰难。
I ache for Ivanka. But mostly, I marvel at her — and at the many, many people like her who have a special talent, a preternatural discipline, for pausing at every pivotal crossroads and making a coldblooded, single-minded assessment: How do I navigate this to maximum advantage for me?
我心疼伊万卡。但我主要还是钦佩她——钦佩许许多多像她这样的人,他们有种特别的天赋,异乎寻常的自律,能在每一个关键的十字路口停下来,做出冷血而专注的评估:接下来该怎么走,才是对“我”最有利的?
Ivanka navigates like Magellan. She’s GPS made flesh. At times, the coordinates and calculations have been easy: Daddy’s going to the White House; I will not be left behind. She traipsed after him to Washington. She traipsed after him to meetings with European leaders. She even traipsed after him to the Demilitarized Zone. She did so much traipsing that Twitter had a hashtag for it: #unwantedivanka. And then Daddy was dethroned, and the traipsing just wasn’t what it used to be.
伊万卡有着麦哲伦一般的航行技能。她自带GPS。过去的一些定位和算计对她并不难:爹地进白宫了;我可不能被落下。她晃悠着跟他去了华盛顿。她晃悠着跟他会见欧洲领导人。她甚至晃悠着跟他去了非军事区。她总是这样晃悠着出现,以至于Twitter上有了个标签:“#unwantedivanka”(#多余的伊万卡)。然后父王被废黜了,再也不能像以前那样晃悠了。
Things got tricky: Daddy sent those ruffians to the Capitol, where they made a horrible mess and threatened to maul Mike Pence. Ivanka recalculated. For her appearance before the Jan. 6 committee, she wore a glimmer of disapproval.
然后情况变得有些棘手:爹地派了些痞子无赖去国会,在那里搞了个天翻地覆,还叫嚣着要暴揍迈克·彭斯。伊万卡又做了些算计。当出现在一六事件委员会面前时,她的形象带着一丝丝的不赞同。
And now, well, there’s no figuring out where to turn or whom to burn. Daddy was just hauled into a Manhattan courthouse because of that smuttiness with the porn star. Can Ivanka play the part of a distracted onlooker without seeming like a 24-karat ingrate?
但是现在,到底要跟谁走近,跟谁翻脸,还是很难确定。爹地因为给色情影星封口费的事被带到了一家曼哈顿法院。伊万卡能不能演好环顾左右的旁观者角色,不被人视为纯粹的忘恩负义之徒?
Nothing good for her can come of this, so she’s saying and doing almost nothing at all. She’s in limbo. She’s in hiding. She has gone from gaga to Garbo and wants to be left alone, at least until the Stormy weather clears.
无论怎么做都不会有好下场,于是她就基本上什么也不说,什么也不做。她游移不定。她藏踪匿迹。她从名媛突然变成了嘉宝,只想一个人待着,至少先等这场“风暴”过去。
She did, according to a report in The New York Post, visit Daddy at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday. And last week, following his indictment, she put out that statement about it on Instagram. But it read as though it were written by a chatbot getting a pedicure. It comprised just 27 weightless, gutless, exquisitely noncommittal words — about loving Daddy, about loving America, about being “pained.” His indictment is a kidney stone to be passed.
据《纽约邮报》的一篇报道,她的确在周日去马阿拉歌探望了爹地。上周他被公诉后,她就此事在Instagram上发布了一份声明。不过读来像是聊天机器人一边修着指甲一边写出来的东西。全文一共只有27个毫无份量和勇气、处心积虑绕过一切明确语义的词——说她爱爹地、爱美国,说她的“痛楚”。他得到的起诉书就像是一颗需要排出的肾结石。
And she’s the patron saint of all the unscrupulous opportunists who are taking little or big steps away from Daddy but contentedly ignored his depravity and destructiveness when there was power to be gained from that. When there was a profit to be made.
她是所有无良投机分子的主保圣人,他们或多或少都在跟爹地拉开距离,但如果可以从中获得权力,如果有利可图,他们会心安理得地无视他的恶行与破坏力。
The day of Donald Trump’s indictment, a team of Times journalists reported that wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar had invested hundreds of millions of dollars with a private equity firm that Ivanka’s husband, Jared Kushner, started not long after he and she left the White House, where they had cultivated close ties to the Arab world.
唐纳德·特朗普被起诉当天,时报的一组记者报道称,阿联酋和卡塔尔的财富基金向一家私募股权公司投资了数亿美元。这家公司是伊万卡的丈夫贾里德·库什纳在两人离开白宫后不久创办的,他们在白宫与阿拉伯世界建立了密切关系。
That’s the bonanza that Ivanka R.S.V.P.’d to, not the bedlam since November 2020, not the ravings of Sidney Powell, the rioter in Viking horns, that wacky Waco rally, all these icky criminal cases.
伊万卡想看到的是这种财运,不是2020年11月以来的混乱,不是关于西德尼·鲍威尔的胡言乱语,不是戴着维京牛角的暴徒,不是得州韦科那场疯疯癫癫的集会,不是所有那些令人讨厌的刑事案件。
For Daddy’s current presidential campaign, she sent her regrets. “This time around,” she said in a statement released the same night he announced his candidacy, “I am choosing to prioritize my young children.” Were they not priorities before?
对于爹地目前的总统竞选,她表示遗憾。“这一次,”她在特朗普宣布参选当晚发表的一份声明中说,“我选择优先考虑我年幼的孩子。”难道他们以前没有被优先考虑吗?
She added that she didn’t “plan to be involved in politics.” The thing about plans is they can change. Ivanka’s vanishing act is a testament to that.
她还说,她“没有参与政治的计划”。说到计划,它们是可以改变的。伊万卡的消失就是证明。
Her brothers are picking up any slack. Their reactions to Daddy’s indictment were as insane as hers was insipid.
她的兄弟们正在填补她的空白。对于父亲遭到的指控,如果说她的反应平淡无味,那他们的反应就堪称疯狂了。
Pol Pot? Junior and I clearly had different history teachers, and there are gaps in his moviegoing that cry out for filling. Note to self: Send him a DVD or link to “The Killing Fields.”
波尔布特?小唐和我显然不是同一个历史老师教出来的,他还有电影方面的功课要补。我要提醒自己:送他一张《杀戮战场》(The Killing Fields)的DVD或者链接。
It’s a cracked political religion that the Brothers Trump practice, but at least they’re keeping the faith. Their sister has strayed. She always wanted all the glory without any of the sacrifice, Air Force One without the gale-force controversies, the big, bright stage that Daddy gave her without the critics’ pans. She always insisted that her transaction with him — oops, I mean relationship — keep her in the black.
特朗普兄弟信奉的是一种疯癫的政治宗教,但至少他们还在坚持这种信仰。而他们的姐妹却迷失了方向。她总是想要所有的荣耀,而不需要任何牺牲,她想要空军一号,却不想面对风暴般的争议,想要爹地给她的宽敞明亮的舞台,却不想面对评论家的抨击。她总是坚持说她和他之间的交易——哦,我是说关系——让她受益。
It’s not doing that anymore, so she’s establishing distance and projecting detachment, but in a pained way, with all that love in her heart. #unwantedivanka wants to turn the page. She may find that impossible when the text is this soiled.
现在没有益处了,所以她在保持距离,并且表现出超然,但却是以一种“痛楚”的方式,带着她心中所有的爱。“#多余的伊万卡”想要翻开新的一页。她可能会发现,这是不可能的,因为这一页上的文字是如此肮脏。