本页目录（2 篇）
无名事件 Nameless Event
作者：威廉·萨菲尔 译者：王季良
 1941年日本对美国（太平洋）舰队发动突然袭击的事件是以其发生地珍珠港的名称予以铭记的。我们所进行过的所有战争中最血腥的一天也是以其发生地安提坦河定名的（尽管南方人往往以该河附近的市镇即马里兰州的沙普斯堡来称呼这次战役的）。谋杀一位总统的令人震惊的事件也是以其受害人的姓名来称呼的，叫作the Kennedy assassination（肯尼迪遇刺事件）。
但是，人们对于2001年9月11日发生的、令人毛骨悚然的事件用了什么名称呢？［horrific比horrible（骇人的，令人惊恐的）更加可怖，也许因为这个词不太常用，而且在强调方面与terˉrific（吓人的；极度的，极好的）类似。］
“9·11”灾难几乎同时发生在两个城市，所以不能采用一个地点的名称，也不能用单数结构。两次袭击合在一起，人们没有用the twin towers destruction（撞毁双子塔楼事件）或the bombing of the Pentagon（五角大楼遭轰炸事件）作为其代称。（而且用bombing是用词不当，因为没有投下炸弹。）人们常常使用Attack（或Assault）on America［美国遭受袭击（或攻击）］字样，但是这种表述似乎过于笼统，因为珍珠港事件也是美国遭受袭击。
用terrorist massacre（恐怖大屠杀）是确切的，因为massacre的意思是“不分青红皂白地杀戮大量的人”，但是这种表述没有得到广泛采用。用the recent tragic events （最近的悲惨事件）来表述太委婉和冷漠，而用the catastrophe in New York and Washington（纽约和华盛顿的灾难）则又嫌太长。
我们也许可以决定用日期来表示。正如富兰克林·罗斯福生动地把1941年12月7日确定为“一个将作为耻辱传诸后世的日子”一样，许多新闻工作者使用“自9月11日以来”来简略地表述这一新的蒙受耻辱的日子。（还有一个简略表述法是9/11，如“《纽约时报》9/11最急需者救助基金”，这同时又是一个双关数码，与发生紧急情况求救时在电话键盘上拨打的号码相同）。可是后来，国人对12月7日这个日期的选择被灾难发生地的名称取代，因为美国人“铭记着珍珠港事件”。以此类推，对于没有提防的、我国遭受的这场灾祸，也许会出现一个新的名称。我们现在正在寻求恢复正常状态。
 Normalcy
（正常状态，正常）
《纽约时报》首席金融记者弗洛伊德·诺里斯写道：“我小时候受到的教育是：normalcy是个遭人非议的词。这是我们最糟糕总统当中的一位杜撰出来的、代替normality（正常状态）的拙劣的词。过去有知识的人都避而不用。因此，我看到自9月11日袭击事件发生以来《纽约时报》上如此频繁地使用这个词，感到很惊讶。哈定总统是什么时候在这场语言战中获胜的呢？还是我母亲和我的老师们一直都错了？”
是他们错了。诺里斯是我的同事，在最近不合情理地过多使用normalcy的整个过程中，我们大家本应听取他考虑到读者反应的清醒意见，不过他受上一代人嘲笑哈定的影响太深了。上星期，《华盛顿邮报》的经济学专栏作家罗伯特·丁·萨缪尔森用了这个使用频率正以三与一之比超过normality的词。他写道：“我们现在正慢慢地恢复到‘normalcy’，尽管我不知道这个词是什么意思，而且也无法知道。”
我知道。此词的意思是normality（正常状态）。Normality这个词是埃德加·艾伦·坡于1848年创造的。九年后，几名数学家使用了normal（正常的）的同样合乎逻辑的延伸形态，他们取—cy而舍—ity.
（美国《纽约时报杂志》，未完待续）
 The surprise attack on the U．S．fleet in 1941 is remembered by the name of the place where it happened:Pearl Harbor．The bloodiest day in all our wars is also identified by its locale:Antietam creek（though Southerners often identify that battle by the nearby town,Sharpsburg,Md）．The shocking murder of a president is known by its victim:the Kennedy assassination．
 But what label is applied to the horrific（more horrid than horrible,perˉhaps because of its less frequent use and similarity in emphasis to terrific）events of Sept．11,2001？
 Because the calamities ocˉcurred almost simultaneously in two cities,they could not adopt the name of one locality or single structure:taken together,they are not written about in shorthand as the twin towers destruction or the bombing of the Pentagon．（And bombing is a misnomer,since no bomb was dropped．）Attack（or Assault）on America has been a freˉquent usage,but it seems too general,since Pearl Harbor was also an attack on the U．S．
 Terrorist massacre is accurate,since massacre means“indiscriminate killing of large numbers,”but that phrase has not been widely adopted． The recent tragic events is euphemiˉstic and antiseptic,and the catastrophe in New York and Washington too long．
 We may settle on using the date．Just as F．D．R．vividly identified Dec．7,1941，as“a date which will live in infamy,”many journalists use“ever since Sept．11”as shorthand for this new date of infamy．（A further shortening is 9/11，as in“The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund,”which is also a play on the number punched on a telephone keyboard for emergencies．）In time,however,the nation's choice of the date of Dec．7 was replaced by the location of the disaster,as Americans“remember Pearl Harbor．”On that analogy,perhaps a new designation will appear for the disaster that struck an unsuspecting nation now seeking a return to norˉmalcy．
 NORMALCY
“I was taught that normalcy was a nonword,”writes Floyd Norris,chief financial correspondent of The New York Times,“a poor substitute for normaliˉty invented by one of our worst presidents,and that educated people avoided the word．So I have been surˉprised to see it used so frequently in The Times since the Sept．11 attack．When did President Harding win the language battle?Or were my mother and my teachers wrong all along?”
 They were．Norris is a colleague whose sober market advice we all should have taken throughout the recent irratiˉonal exuberance,but he was swept up by a previous generation's Harding—hooting．Last week the economics colˉumnist of The Washington Post,Robert J． Samuelson,used the word that is out—usaging normality 3 to 1：“We are now slowly returning to ‘normalcy'，though we don't know what that means——and can't know．”
 I know．It means normality,coined by Edgar Allan Poe in 1848．Nine years later a couple of mathematicians used an equally logical extension of norˉmal,preferring —cy to —ity·
（To be continued）
 1941年日本对美国（太平洋）舰队发动突然袭击的事件是以其发生地珍珠港的名称予以铭记的。我们所进行过的所有战争中最血腥的一天也是以其发生地安提坦河定名的（尽管南方人往往以该河附近的市镇即马里兰州的沙普斯堡来称呼这次战役的）。谋杀一位总统的令人震惊的事件也是以其受害人的姓名来称呼的，叫作the Kennedy assassination（肯尼迪遇刺事件）。
但是，人们对于2001年9月11日发生的、令人毛骨悚然的事件用了什么名称呢？［horrific比horrible（骇人的，令人惊恐的）更加可怖，也许因为这个词不太常用，而且在强调方面与terˉrific（吓人的；极度的，极好的）类似。］
“9·11”灾难几乎同时发生在两个城市，所以不能采用一个地点的名称，也不能用单数结构。两次袭击合在一起，人们没有用the twin towers destruction（撞毁双子塔楼事件）或the bombing of the Pentagon（五角大楼遭轰炸事件）作为其代称。（而且用bombing是用词不当，因为没有投下炸弹。）人们常常使用Attack（或Assault）on America［美国遭受袭击（或攻击）］字样，但是这种表述似乎过于笼统，因为珍珠港事件也是美国遭受袭击。
用terrorist massacre（恐怖大屠杀）是确切的，因为massacre的意思是“不分青红皂白地杀戮大量的人”，但是这种表述没有得到广泛采用。用the recent tragic events （最近的悲惨事件）来表述太委婉和冷漠，而用the catastrophe in New York and Washington（纽约和华盛顿的灾难）则又嫌太长。
我们也许可以决定用日期来表示。正如富兰克林·罗斯福生动地把1941年12月7日确定为“一个将作为耻辱传诸后世的日子”一样，许多新闻工作者使用“自9月11日以来”来简略地表述这一新的蒙受耻辱的日子。（还有一个简略表述法是9/11，如“《纽约时报》9/11最急需者救助基金”，这同时又是一个双关数码，与发生紧急情况求救时在电话键盘上拨打的号码相同）。可是后来，国人对12月7日这个日期的选择被灾难发生地的名称取代，因为美国人“铭记着珍珠港事件”。以此类推，对于没有提防的、我国遭受的这场灾祸，也许会出现一个新的名称。我们现在正在寻求恢复正常状态。
 Normalcy
（正常状态，正常）
《纽约时报》首席金融记者弗洛伊德·诺里斯写道：“我小时候受到的教育是：normalcy是个遭人非议的词。这是我们最糟糕总统当中的一位杜撰出来的、代替normality（正常状态）的拙劣的词。过去有知识的人都避而不用。因此，我看到自9月11日袭击事件发生以来《纽约时报》上如此频繁地使用这个词，感到很惊讶。哈定总统是什么时候在这场语言战中获胜的呢？还是我母亲和我的老师们一直都错了？”
是他们错了。诺里斯是我的同事，在最近不合情理地过多使用normalcy的整个过程中，我们大家本应听取他考虑到读者反应的清醒意见，不过他受上一代人嘲笑哈定的影响太深了。上星期，《华盛顿邮报》的经济学专栏作家罗伯特·丁·萨缪尔森用了这个使用频率正以三与一之比超过normality的词。他写道：“我们现在正慢慢地恢复到‘normalcy’，尽管我不知道这个词是什么意思，而且也无法知道。”
我知道。此词的意思是normality（正常状态）。Normality这个词是埃德加·艾伦·坡于1848年创造的。九年后，几名数学家使用了normal（正常的）的同样合乎逻辑的延伸形态，他们取—cy而舍—ity.
（美国《纽约时报杂志》，未完待续）
 The surprise attack on the U．S．fleet in 1941 is remembered by the name of the place where it happened:Pearl Harbor．The bloodiest day in all our wars is also identified by its locale:Antietam creek（though Southerners often identify that battle by the nearby town,Sharpsburg,Md）．The shocking murder of a president is known by its victim:the Kennedy assassination．
 But what label is applied to the horrific（more horrid than horrible,perˉhaps because of its less frequent use and similarity in emphasis to terrific）events of Sept．11,2001？
 Because the calamities ocˉcurred almost simultaneously in two cities,they could not adopt the name of one locality or single structure:taken together,they are not written about in shorthand as the twin towers destruction or the bombing of the Pentagon．（And bombing is a misnomer,since no bomb was dropped．）Attack（or Assault）on America has been a freˉquent usage,but it seems too general,since Pearl Harbor was also an attack on the U．S．
 Terrorist massacre is accurate,since massacre means“indiscriminate killing of large numbers,”but that phrase has not been widely adopted． The recent tragic events is euphemiˉstic and antiseptic,and the catastrophe in New York and Washington too long．
 We may settle on using the date．Just as F．D．R．vividly identified Dec．7,1941，as“a date which will live in infamy,”many journalists use“ever since Sept．11”as shorthand for this new date of infamy．（A further shortening is 9/11，as in“The New York Times 9/11 Neediest Fund,”which is also a play on the number punched on a telephone keyboard for emergencies．）In time,however,the nation's choice of the date of Dec．7 was replaced by the location of the disaster,as Americans“remember Pearl Harbor．”On that analogy,perhaps a new designation will appear for the disaster that struck an unsuspecting nation now seeking a return to norˉmalcy．
 NORMALCY
“I was taught that normalcy was a nonword,”writes Floyd Norris,chief financial correspondent of The New York Times,“a poor substitute for normaliˉty invented by one of our worst presidents,and that educated people avoided the word．So I have been surˉprised to see it used so frequently in The Times since the Sept．11 attack．When did President Harding win the language battle?Or were my mother and my teachers wrong all along?”
 They were．Norris is a colleague whose sober market advice we all should have taken throughout the recent irratiˉonal exuberance,but he was swept up by a previous generation's Harding—hooting．Last week the economics colˉumnist of The Washington Post,Robert J． Samuelson,used the word that is out—usaging normality 3 to 1：“We are now slowly returning to ‘normalcy'，though we don't know what that means——and can't know．”
 I know．It means normality,coined by Edgar Allan Poe in 1848．Nine years later a couple of mathematicians used an equally logical extension of norˉmal,preferring —cy to —ity·
（To be continued）
双语图片
■“We must beg．It is painful,butnecessary．Herat is too importantto remain forgotten．”
“我们得乞求人家帮忙。那很痛苦，可也是迫不得已的。赫拉特太重要，不能一直被人遗忘。”
阿富汗赫拉特市市长穆贾迪迪说。赫拉特市以前是艺术文化活动中心，有“亚洲佛罗伦萨”的美誉。穆贾迪迪说该市急需国际援助，修复古迹，保存文物。图为一名盲人在10世纪诗人阿卜杜拉·安萨里的墓地外乞讨。
■“We will have our indepˉendence day,with Jerusalem as our capital,and anyone who disagrees with this can drink from the Dead Sea．”
“我们会有自己的独立日，会以耶路撒冷作首都。反对者去喝死海的水好了。”
巴勒斯坦民族权力机构主席阿拉法特说。
■“If the Americans don't help us to rebuild,we're ready to fight them again．”
“如果美国人不帮我们重建，我们准备再跟他们拼命。”
阿富汗坎大哈前塔利班官员阿干达说。他说美国空袭破坏了他村子的灌溉系统和电力供应。图为美军在坎大哈机场升旗。
■“The looting is not about hunger．They are stealing alcoholic beverages．This is a political matter．”
“抢掠不是由饥饿引发的。他们偷含有酒精的饮品。这是政治事件。”
阿根廷内政部长谈最近骚乱中发生的民众抢掠商店事件时说。总统德拉
鲁阿事发后辞职。图为哄抢者将某商店的圣诞树扛在肩上。 （香港《明报》）
■“Maybe in the summertime,I'll get some sleep,if I live that long．”
“也许到了夏天我可以多睡一点儿，如果那时我还活着。”
美国纽约的建筑工人赖因勒说。他在世贸中心清理瓦砾，一天工作14小时，他说入冬后工作更辛苦。图为参加救援的工人和消防队员。