特朗普夫人 從斯洛文尼亞小鎮到白宮門口
SEVNICA, Slovenia — On days when Melanija Knavs could not play outside or grew tired of knitting her navy blue sweaters, she and her friends would exchange notes along the lines of yarn they strung between their apartment block balconies.
斯洛文尼亞塞夫尼察——每當梅拉尼婭·克納夫斯(Melanija Knavs)不能去外面玩，或織海軍藍毛衣織累了的時候，她會和朋友們通過在公寓樓的陽臺之間扯出的紗線傳遞信息。
In clear handwriting, Melanija mused about the boys of her dreams.
梅拉尼婭以清晰的筆跡寫下了她對自己的夢中男孩的想法。
She could not have seen what was coming. Melanija Knavs is now Melania Trump, and she is one election away from being the first foreign-born first lady since Louisa Adams. She is to address millions of Americans on Monday night in a televised speech at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland.
她完全沒有預料到自己的未來會是什麼樣子的。梅拉尼婭·克納夫斯現在的身份是梅拉尼婭·特朗普(Melania Trump)，如果她的丈夫在接下來的大選中獲勝，她將成爲繼續路易莎·亞當斯(Louisa Adams)之後的首位在外國出生的美國第一夫人。在週一晚上於克利夫蘭舉行的共和黨全國大會(Republican National Convention)上，她將對數以百萬的美國人發表電視講話。
But interviews with her former classmates, friends of her family and others who knew them during her youth in Slovenia suggest that her transformation owes less to chance than to the Knavs family’s determination to seize openings and avoid getting stuck.
《紐約時報》採訪了她過去的同班同學、家庭友人以及她在斯洛文尼亞度過的青年時期認識的一些人。結果發現，與其將她的轉變歸功於機遇，不如說是克納夫斯一家抓住機遇、不甘於現狀的決心成就了她。
Her father, a larger-than-life personality who reminds her childhood friends of Donald Trump, belonged to the Communist Party, an exclusive club whose members sometimes joined because of career ambitions as much as ideology. Her mother, an industrious and striking woman, went from harvesting red onions on her family’s farm to a career in the town’s textile factory. She always found time to make sure her two daughters dressed to impress, sewing clothes for them after her work shift ended.
梅拉尼婭的父親是一位頗具傳奇色彩的人物，會讓她童年時期的朋友想到唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)。他是共產黨黨員。相較於意識形態的原因，也有很多人是因爲未來更好的職業發展加入了這個門檻頗高的“俱樂部”。她的母親是一位勤勞而又引人注目的女性，最初在自家農場收割紅皮洋蔥，後來進入鎮裏的紡織廠工作。她在下班後會爲兩個女兒縫製衣服，總是抽時間給她們打扮，確保她們的衣着會引人讚歎。
Melania Trump herself trained her bright eyes on the next thing. Once she left Sevnica for high school in Ljubljana, now Slovenia’s capital, she rarely came back to see her old friends. Once she left Ljubljana for a modeling career in Milan and then elsewhere in Europe, Slovenia receded from view. And once she moved to New York, where she caught the eye of Donald Trump, 24 years her senior, during a Fashion Week party at the Kit Kat Club, she never looked back.
梅拉尼婭·特朗普永遠把自己明亮的眼睛瞄準前方。自從離開塞夫尼察，去盧布爾雅那——斯洛文尼亞現在的首都——上高中以後，她很少回去見她的老朋友。自她離開盧布爾雅那，去米蘭，之後到歐洲其他城市發展自己的模特事業之後，斯洛文尼亞也退出了她的視野。而自從她搬到紐約，然後在那裏的Kit Kat俱樂部舉行的一場時裝週派對上引起大她24歲的唐納德·特朗普的注意之後，她再也不曾回頭。
“She tried to find opportunities,” said Damijan Kracina, 46, a high school classmate. “And took them.”
“她努力尋找機會，”她的高中同學、46歲的達米揚·克拉齊娜(Damijan Kracina)說。“然後抓住它們。”
Melania Trump, born in 1970, grew up in this hilly town of 4,500 best known around Slovenia, at least until Donald Trump entered the presidential race, for its medieval castle and annual salami festival. Then, Slovenia was the northern region of Yugoslavia, ruled by Josip Broz Tito, a Communist dictator who kept his distance from the Soviet Union and allowed more freedoms than did other Eastern bloc leaders.
梅拉尼婭·特朗普出生於1970年，在這個人口4500人的丘陵城鎮長大，這個城鎮在整個斯洛文尼亞最出名的事物是其中世紀城堡和一年一度的薩拉米香腸節，至少在唐納德·特朗普參加美國總統大選之前是如此。當時，斯洛文尼亞還屬於南斯拉夫的北部地區，由共產黨獨裁者約瑟普·布羅茲·鐵托(Josip Broz Tito)統治。鐵托與蘇聯保持了一定的距離，比起其他蘇東集團國家，允許民衆擁有更多自由。
But under Tito, there were clear benefits to being a member of the Communist Party, to which only a tiny percentage of Slovenians belonged. Some inherited membership through parents, particularly if they had resisted the Nazis, as Tito had; others by exhibiting unusual talent.
不過在鐵托的統治之下，當一名共產黨員可以獲得明顯的好處。當時，只有很少數的斯洛文尼亞人能夠加入共產黨。一些人是從父母那裏繼承了黨員資格，尤其是如果他們曾經像鐵托那樣反抗過納粹的話；其他人則是因爲展現了不同尋常的才華得以入選。
While it is not clear how Melania Trump’s father, Viktor, joined — available records in Ljubljana simply list him as a member — others from the Sevnica Communist Party mentioned his work as a driver for a neighboring mayor and then for the director of the government-owned textile factory, Jutranjka, across the river, as possible entry points.
儘管並不清楚梅拉尼婭·特朗普的父親維克托是如何加入的——在盧布爾雅那可以找到的記錄僅僅顯示他是一名共產黨員——但塞夫尼察的其他一些共產黨員提到，他曾先後爲附近城市的市長和位於河對岸的Jutranjka國有紡織廠廠長開車，這或許是他得以加入的原因。
While the Knavs, along with Melania Trump, declined to be interviewed about their years in Slovenia, a spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, Hope Hicks, said that Knavs had never been an “active member” of the party.
儘管克納夫斯一家，連同梅拉尼婭·特朗普都拒絕就他們在斯洛文尼亞時期的生活接受採訪，但特朗普競選團隊的發言人霍普·希克斯(Hope Hicks)表示，克納夫斯從來都不是共產黨“積極分子”。
Donald Trump, in an interview last month, said he had never discussed the topic with his father-in-law. “But he was pretty successful over there,” he said. “It’s a different kind of success than you have here. But he was successful.”
唐納德·特朗普上月接受採訪時稱，他不曾和岳父談論過這個話題。“但他在那邊非常成功，”他說。“與這裏相比，那是一種不同意義上的成功。但他的確很成功。”
In 1972, the Knavs moved into a larger apartment in a new housing block for workers of the government-owned textile factory, including Melania’s mother, Amalija, nicknamed Malci. She drew patterns for children’s clothes and later designed them, crossing the bridge to the factory every day in heels.
1972年，克納夫斯一家搬進了一個新住宅樓內一套更大的公寓。這些住宅是爲包括梅拉尼婭的母親阿馬利婭(Amalija)——暱稱馬爾奇(Malci)——在內的國有紡織廠的工人提供的。阿馬利婭每天穿着高跟鞋過橋到廠裏工作，她爲童裝描繪圖案，後來還開始設計童裝。
In 1985, Melania left Sevnica, traveling on the narrow roads along the slow-moving Sava River, green from the reflection of the wooded hills, and through coal mining towns on the way to Ljubljana. There she attended the Secondary School of Design and Photography, housed in an arcaded Renaissance monastery.
1985年，梅拉尼婭離開了塞夫尼察，沿着緩緩流動、被蔥翠山丘映成綠色的薩瓦河旁狹窄的道路，穿過幾個煤礦城鎮，來到了盧布爾雅那。她在那裏的設計與攝影中等學校(Secondary School of Design and Photography)上學，該校坐落於一座帶拱廊的文藝復興時期的修道院內。
She lived in an apartment that her father, who had opened a bicycle and car parts shop in Ljubljana, had bought a few years earlier on the outskirts of the city. The building superintendent, Joze Vuk, lived on their floor, and he recalled that Viktor Knavs was displeased that after he had paid for his unit, the government decided to set aside some of the apartments as rentals for construction workers.
她住在父親於幾年前在盧布爾雅那郊區購買的一套公寓內。她父親之前就在這個城市開了一家自行車和汽車零件鋪。這座公寓樓的管理員約熱·武克(Joze Vuk)和他們住在同一樓層，他記得在維克托·克納夫斯花錢買下這套公寓之後，政府決定撥出樓裏的一些公寓租給建築工人。維克托爲此感到不快。
“We were all angry because most of the residents were not prepared to invest in the block,” said Vuk, who also owned an apartment. “They were renters of a public property and did not care.”
“我們都很生氣，因爲大多數這類居民都不準備把錢花在房子上，”武克說，他當時也擁有一套公寓。“他們是公共物業的租賃者，纔不會在意。”
Viktor Knavs sought to distinguish himself from his neighbors. “He always wore a tie, smart clothes and carried a briefcase,” Vuk said. “You could not avoid noticing him.”
維克多·克納夫斯希望在鄰居當中顯得與衆不同。“他總是打着領帶，衣履光鮮，拿着一個公文包，”武克說。“你不可能注意不到他。”
Melania and her older sister, Ines, also stood out, for their looks, their wardrobe and the makeup they put on whenever they left the apartment. At school, Melania kept her distance from peers listening to the Cure or Metallica, Kracina said, and gravitated toward a clique of pop music fans who hung out at the Horse’s Tail bar by the Triple Bridge in Ljubljana.
因爲長相、穿着，還有每次離開公寓時臉上化的妝，梅拉尼婭和姐姐伊內絲(Ines)也很顯眼。克拉齊娜說，在學校的時候，梅拉尼婭沒有跟那些聽The Cure和Metallica樂隊的同齡人玩在一起，而是受到一小羣流行樂愛好者的吸引，混在盧布爾雅那三橋旁邊的馬尾酒吧(Horse’s Tail)裏。
Melania had also begun a process that would carry her away from Slovenia. In January 1987, the photographer Stane Jerko spotted her and asked if she would be interested in modeling.
梅拉尼婭還開始涉足後來讓她能夠離開斯洛文尼亞的事業。在1987年1月，攝影師斯塔內·葉爾科(Stane Jerko)發現了她，詢問她是否有興趣做模特。
She proved somewhat wooden, but “pridna — diligent, obedient,” Jerko said. She told him she wanted to get better. Jerko passed the photographs he snapped of Melania — hair up, hair down, gym clothes, flowing dress — to a Slovenian cultural center, which admitted her to a fashion course for models in the fall of 1987.
她有點呆板，不過是個“好姑娘——勤奮又聽話，”葉爾科說。梅拉尼婭告訴他，自己想取得進步。葉爾科把他拍的梅拉尼婭的照片——頭髮紮上去、散開來、身穿運動裝、飄飄長裙等——發給了斯洛文尼亞的一家文化中心。1987年的秋天，這家文化中心錄取她參加模特的時尚課程。
Melania’s entire family sensed potential in her modeling. After high school, she concentrated on her career, dropping out of architecture school. (She still claims on her website to have graduated.) On one occasion, Kravs drove his Mercedes to the shop of the seamstress Silva Njegac, hours from Ljubljana, to order leather dresses for Melania that his wife had designed.
梅拉尼婭全家嗅到了她從事模特工作的潛力。高中以後，她開始專注這份事業，從建築學院退學。（她目前仍在自己的網站上宣稱從學院畢業。）有一次，克納夫斯開着奔馳車前往距離盧布爾雅那幾小時車程的地方去找裁縫西爾瓦·葉加奇(Silva Njegac)，訂製梅拉尼婭的媽媽爲她設計的皮裙。
A second-place finish in Jana magazine’s Slovenian Face of the Year contest in 1992 expanded Melania’s ambitions. In a fashion video for a Slovenian label, she wore a skirt suit, exited a plane shadowed by bodyguards and signed papers at the national library. “She was acting like the president of the United States,” said Andrej Kosak, the director.
到了1992年，梅拉尼婭奪得了《Jana》雜誌舉辦的“斯洛文尼亞年度面孔獎”評選的第二名，讓她提升了自己的抱負。在爲斯洛文尼亞某品牌拍攝的時尚視頻中，她身穿短裙套裝，在保鏢的環繞中走下飛機，在國家圖書館裏簽署文件。“她表現得像是美國總統，”視頻的導演安德烈·科薩克(Andrej Kosak)說。
She would soon Germanize her name to Melania Knauss and become an international model.
很快，她就把自己的名字按照德文拼寫換成了梅拉尼婭·克瑙斯(Melania Knauss)，成爲了國際模特。
Melania Trump’s parents spend much of the year with their daughter and her 10-year-old son, Barron, at Trump Tower in Manhattan or at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, where they enjoy the pool. But they have also brought a whiff of the campaign back to Sevnica, where they now own a handsome house. Alongside the sloping lawn and the beige Mercedes, one finds security guards to turn away unwanted visitors.
梅拉尼婭·特朗普的父母如今每年會花許多時間與女兒和10歲的外孫巴倫(Barron)一起待在曼哈頓的特朗普大廈，或者前往唐納德·特朗普在佛羅里達州棕櫚灘的馬阿拉歌莊園，去享用那裏的游泳池。不過，他們也帶了一絲競選的氣息到塞夫尼察。二人在那裏擁有一棟漂亮的別墅。除了傾斜的草坪和那輛米色的奔馳車，還有安保人員在那裏驅趕不速之客。
In Sevnica, Viktor Knavs has confided in Matej Novsak, his longtime mechanic, and complained recently about Donald Trump’s whiplash-inducing inconsistency.
在塞夫尼察的時候，維克多·克納夫斯會對多年爲自己服務的機修工馬泰·諾夫薩克(Matej Novsak)吐露心聲。他近期抱怨過唐納德·特朗普前後不一，容易招致猛烈的批評。
“'One time it is this, the other time that,' ” Novsak said Viktor Knavs had told him. The mechanic said that Viktor Knavs had also said that Donald Trump was unwanted by Republicans and that he did not understand his wealthy son-in-law’s need to pursue the presidency. “'Why does he have to do it?'” the mechanic said Viktor Knavs had told him.
“一會兒是這樣，一會兒又是那樣，”諾夫薩克表示克納夫斯這樣對他說。他稱，克納夫斯還說，唐納德·特朗普受到共和黨人的排斥，自己不明白身家豐厚的女婿有什麼必要去競選總統。“他爲什麼非得做這個？”諾夫薩克回憶起克納夫斯的疑問。
When told of his in-laws’ bewilderment, Donald Trump said, “They are not the only ones.”
得知岳父母的困惑後，唐納德·特朗普迴應，“不光是他們這麼想。”
