一個泛歐洲人眼中的英國退歐

Times Insider delivers behind-the-scenes insights from The New York Times. In this piece, Didi Kirsten Tatlow, a Times correspondent based in Beijing who has Anglo-Irish, German-Swedish roots, travels to Munich and unpacks a lot more than her suitcase.

“時報內情”(Times Insider)專欄爲讀者呈現《紐約時報》所發報道的幕後故事。在這篇文章中，有英格蘭-愛爾蘭、德國-瑞典血統的駐京記者狄雨霏(Didi Kirsten Tatlow)前往慕尼黑，打開的遠不止是自己的行囊。

It was fitting that the moment of clarity came at a border crossing.

頓悟的瞬間出現在過境時，算是恰到好處。

As I got in the immigration line at Beijing Capital International Airport, I glanced at the Irish passport in my hand and saw two familiar words, newly precious, in gold letters: “European Union” in English, “An tAontas Eorpach” in Irish.

在北京首都國際機場的出入境檢查窗口，我瞥了一眼手裏的愛爾蘭護照，看到了兩個熟悉的、近來猶顯珍貴的金色單詞：英語“European Union”和愛爾蘭語“An tAontas Eorpach”（皆爲“歐盟”的意思。——譯註）。

It was the day after news broke that Britain had voted to leave the European Union.

那是英國投票決定退出歐盟的第二天。

Just two generations ago, two European families — one Anglo-Irish, one German-Swedish — were at war with each other, literally.

就在兩個世代之前，兩個歐洲家庭——一個是英格蘭人和愛爾蘭人的組合，另一個則是德國人和瑞典人的組合——還處在真刀真槍的交戰狀態。

As my father tells it, his father was the captain of a British Navy minesweeper in World War II, a job that required finding and blowing up mines laid by the navy of the Third Reich to disrupt shipments of war supplies from the United States to Britain. He survived.

我父親告訴我，二戰期間，他的父親是英國海軍一艘掃雷艇的船長。他的任務是找到並引爆第三帝國(Third Reich)海軍佈設的水雷，保障從美國到英國的軍需物資運輸路線暢通。他最終保住了性命。

My other grandfather was part of Germany’s industrial war effort, as the director of its biggest ball-bearings factory. His brother, my Onkel Egon, returned — alive — from the Battle of Stalingrad after driving a truck back to Germany with a small band of Wehrmacht survivors, one of them tied down, raving.

我的外祖父參與了德國的戰時工業動員，是德國最大的滾珠軸承廠的主管。他的哥哥，也就是我的伯公埃貢(Egon)，活着從斯大林格勒戰役(Battle of Stalingrad)的戰場回到了家。他是開着一輛卡車回到德國的，和他同行的是一小隊國防軍(Wehrmacht)倖存者，其中一人是被綁着的，在胡言亂語。

When my sister, brother and I were children, Onkel Egon was a curiosity to us because his wife, Tante Erika, drove him everywhere. Later we found out he had refused to touch a steering wheel for the rest of his life.

當我們兄妹幾人都還是小孩子的時候，埃貢伯公對我們來說是一個迷，因爲不管他去哪裏，都是他妻子坦特·埃麗卡(Tante Erika)開車送他去。後來我們才知道，他餘生都拒絕摸方向盤。

Add some French ancestry and there I was, a Pan-European like many others. As I looked at my passport in the line, I felt a surge of sadness that Britain might be leaving the “community of values” — of tolerance, transparency and democracy — that German Chancellor Angela Merkel talks about.

再加上一點法國血統，便有了我，一個和其他很多人一樣的泛歐洲人。一邊排隊一邊看着護照時，我心頭涌起一股悲傷，因爲英國可能將退出德國總理安格拉·默克爾(Angela Merkel)所說的那個崇尚包容、透明和民主的“價值共同體”。

Born overseas and having lived most of my life in undemocratic or authoritarian societies, I see Europe as a place that contributes progressive social policies, excellent scholarship, the rule of law and, by and large, responsible political behavior to the world, qualities that people living in it perhaps don’t value as much as people living outside it.

我出生在國外，且大多數時候都生活在非民主或威權主義社會，在我看來，歐洲爲全世界貢獻了進步的社會政策、傑出的學術研究、法治以及總的來說稱得上心繫世界的政治行爲。對於這些品質，生活在歐洲的人可能不像歐洲以外的人那麼在意。

As I made my way from Beijing to Munich to see my family, I talked with Europeans about “Brexit.” A flight attendant for a Swiss airline, an older German man returning from Portugal and a young German academic from Nuremberg expressed bewilderment. They said it was a pity.

在從北京去慕尼黑探望家人的路上，我和幾個歐洲人談起了“英國退出歐盟”(Brexit)。一位瑞士航空公司的空乘、一位從葡萄牙回國的德國老人和一位來自紐倫堡的年輕德國學者表達了他們的困惑。他們說太遺憾了。

In Munich, my friends and relatives shared the surprise and disappointment. They were puzzled why so many in Britain would choose a harder path in life, outside the common market.

在慕尼黑，我的朋友和親戚也都感到很吃驚，很失望。他們不明白英國爲什麼有那麼多人願意選擇脫離共同市場，走上一條更艱難的道路。

If “Brexit” were to happen — several believed it wouldn’t — they would miss Britain’s quirky culture, its English-language presence in the bloc and its heft within the union as a (hitherto) rational ally for Germany in Brussels, they said.

他們說，如果“英國退出歐盟”真的成爲現實——有幾個人認爲不會——他們會懷念英國那怪兮兮的文化、英語在歐盟的影響力以及（迄今爲止）作爲德國在布魯塞爾的理性盟友的地位。

They hoped that Germany would not go the same route.

他們希望德國不要步英國的後塵。

“Our economy is doing so well now, and we still have people who think the same way,” a friend said, referring to “Brexit”-style critics of the European Union in Germany, like the right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland party. “I shudder to think what would happen if things got tough.”

“我們現在的經濟形勢非常好，但依然有人有這樣的想法，”一個朋友說，他指的是德國國內支持“英國退出歐盟”、對歐盟持批評態度的人，如右翼民粹主義政黨德國另類選擇黨(Alternative für Deutschland)。“我很擔心一旦形勢惡化，這種事會發生。”

Yet a taxi driver from the Steiermark (an Austrian state near Slovenia) who lives and works in Munich praised the vote, saying all European countries should do the same.

但一名來自施泰爾馬克州（奧地利接近斯諾文尼亞的一個州）、如今在慕尼黑生活和工作的出租車司機卻對投票大加讚賞，稱所有歐洲國家都應該這麼做。

Switzerland was the model for everyone, he said, complaining about “foreigners” who got the same rights as “natives.” He wasn’t referring to Syrians and others fleeing war or poverty who are arriving in Europe in large numbers — he meant people from other European nations.

瑞士是所有人的榜樣，他一邊說，一邊抱怨“外國人”享有和“本地人”一樣的權利。他指的不是爲了擺脫戰爭或貧困而來到歐洲的大量敘利亞人或其他人，而是來自其他歐洲國家的人。

“You’re Austrian,” I said. “Aren’t you a foreigner, too?” He was silent.

“你是奧地利人，”我說。“你不也是外國人嗎？”他沉默了。

I asked why he disliked the European Union. “They have so many rules for everything,” he said. An example? “I can’t think of any now,” he admitted.

我問他爲什麼不喜歡歐盟。“他們什麼事情都有好多規矩，”他說。比如？“我一時想不起來，”他承認說。

In China, incomprehension has been a common reaction to the vote, as people mull why Britain would abandon such a deal and how a democracy might not deliver what is in a nation’s best interests.

在中國，對這次投票的普遍反應是不理解。人們不明白英國爲什麼要放棄這樣的待遇，一個民主國家爲何不能做出符合國家最大利益的選擇。

If Britain leaves, Ireland and Malta will be the only two English-speaking nations in the bloc. Their numbers could swell a little, as some Britons with Irish ancestry apply for Irish passports, including students and parents at my son’s British international school in Beijing.

如果英國退出歐盟，愛爾蘭和馬耳他將是歐盟內部僅有的兩個說英語的國家。這兩國家的人數可能會增加一些，因爲一些有愛爾蘭血統的英國人正在申請愛爾蘭護照，包括我兒子在北京就讀的英國國際學校的學生和家長。

As I traveled back to China on Saturday, I looked at the passport in my hand and thought of my two grandfathers whose warring families became one peaceful one, and was glad for those gold letters spelling out “European Union.”

週六回中國時，看着手裏的護照，我想起了祖父和外祖父——曾經交戰的兩個家庭，結成了一個和睦的大家庭，而那些金色字母拼出的“歐盟”字樣，讓我心感寬慰。