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Average Joe
喬.拜登：一個普通人
英文部分選自經濟學人20201128期文藝板塊
Average Joe
喬.拜登：一個普通人
註：
Average Joe： an ordinary man普通人，路人甲
The president-elect lacks a silver tongue and makes for poor tv. That may be an asset
總統當選人沒有雄辯的口才，也不擅長在電視上作秀，但這也許正是他的可貴之處。
During the Obama years, the Onion, a satirical online newspaper, carried a series of articles about a man it referred to as 「Diamond Joe」 and 「The President of Vice」. It featured headlines like 「Shirtless Biden Washes Trans Am in White House Driveway」 and 「Biden Huddling With Closest Advisers on Whether to Spend 200 Bucks on Scorpions Tickets」.
在歐巴馬執政期間，諷刺性網報《洋蔥》（the Onion）刊登過一系列有關喬·拜登的文章，稱他為 「鑽石喬」 和 「邪惡的總統」（雙關語，見注釋）。它曾用諸如 「拜登赤裸上身在白宮車道洗Trans Am跑車」、 「拜登與親近的顧問偎在一起討論，要不要花200刀去看蠍子樂隊」之類的大標題報導拜登。
注釋：
1. President of Vice是雙關語。Joe當時是副總統（vice president）。但是vice除了當副手將，還有邪惡的意思。
2. 龐蒂克火鳥是通用汽車旗下的龐蒂克品牌於1967年至2002年間製造銷售的一款小馬車，Trans Am是其系列的一種車型。
3. 蠍子樂隊, 天蠍樂團，是來自德國工業重鎮漢諾瓦的硬搖滾樂隊，以主唱髙亢的嗓音，及旋律化的歌曲而聞名世界。
4. the Onion 《洋蔥》美國最受歡迎的幽默諷刺雜誌，之所以取名為「洋蔥」是因為一個事件包含多層因素，要從不同層面觀察。
洋蔥報惡搞擴展閱讀http://auto.hx2car.com/article/1807692
5. "Diamond Joe" drives a 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am.
The Onion Biden is typically described as a blue-collar everyman with a taste for partying and debauchery. Often referred to by the nickname "Diamond Joe", the character loves hair metal and classic rock from the 1970s and 1980s. He drives a 1981 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and motorcycles.
The real Joe Biden, then vice-president, was a teetotaling and avuncular elder statesman, not a hair-metal-loving party animal. But the caricature of him as a regular guy drew on an element of truth. The now-president-elect, the son of a second-hand-car salesman, will be the first president since Ronald Reagan to lack an Ivy League degree, having finished near the bottom of his class at both the University of Delaware and Syracuse University’s law school.
而真正的喬·拜登，也就是當時的副總統，其實是一個滴酒不沾，慈祥的老政治家，根本不是流行金屬樂派對的愛好者。但是諷刺漫畫裡將他描述成一個平凡的人確實有些道理。如今當選總統的拜登是一個二手車推銷員的兒子，將會是自裡根以來首位沒有常春藤名校學位的總統，甚至在他就讀的德拉瓦大學和雪城大學法學院，他的成績都接近倒數。
注釋：拜登在德拉瓦大學成績曾是C，在688名排名506。
And this is reflected in his use of language. In his speech, he is such an everyman as to defy parody. 「Saturday Night Live」, which has featured impersonators for every president since Chevy Chase’s Gerald Ford, has yet to settle on a memorable Joe Biden. Forced to name Bidenisms, you might single out 「malarkey」, his favoured disparagement for humbug, or 「Here’s the deal」, to signal that he’s about to cut the malarkey. His favourite vocative is the folksy 「Folks...」. In his first debate with Donald Trump, perhaps the most arresting thing he said was (to his constantly interrupting opponent) 「Keep yappin』, man.」
他的語言表達也能體現他的普通。從他的演講中可以看出，他太過平平無奇，完全難以模仿。從雪佛蘭·蔡斯（Chevy Chase）模仿傑拉德·福特（Gerald Ford）開始，「星期六夜現場」一直都在節目中模仿歷任總統，但他們至今還沒能成功地模仿出一個辨識度高的拜登。如果一定要你說出所謂的拜登口頭禪，你可能會挑出「胡說八道」（malarkey），即拜登非常喜愛，用以描述他對「騙子」百般鄙夷的詞彙。又或者你會選擇「要不這樣吧」（Here’s the deal）——每當拜登這麼說時，他就要打斷「騙子」瞎扯了。他最喜歡的稱呼是聽起來平易近人的「夥計們……」。在與唐納·川普（Donald Trump）的第一次總統辯論中，也許他說的最引人注目的是（對頻頻打斷他的對手說）「繼續扯淡，老兄。」
注釋：
1. 星期六夜現場是美國一檔於周六深夜時段直播的喜劇小品類綜藝節目。雪佛蘭·蔡斯是美國的一位喜劇演員、演員和作家。他是著名綜藝節目《周末夜現場》的固定成員之一。傑拉德·福特生於美國內布拉斯加州奧馬哈，美國政治人物，美國第40任副總統和第38任總統，
擴展閱讀：星期六夜現場惡搞總統top10 https://m.sohu.com/n/398771484/
2. Defy: 這裡取得是to make sth very difficult or impossible 的意思，也就是無法得出，難以做到。
3. No malarkey, Here’s the deal 都是拜登的競選口號。https://joebiden.com/heres-the-deal/#
擴展閱讀：拜登有多喜歡說別人「一派胡言」？
https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/dvsYVVDPb510JxKSAdwMiA
He is, it is true, known for gaffes, though these are often overstated. Competing with Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination in 2007-08, Mr Biden praised his future boss as 「the first mainstream African-American」 to run for the presidency, 「who is articulate and bright and clean」. (A gap before 「who」 made clear that he did not mean previous African-American candidates lacked cleanliness, just that they had been less 「mainstream」.) While vice-president, he stood just a bit too close to a microphone as he said 「This is a big fucking deal」 into Mr Obama’s ear at the signing ceremony for their health-care reform. He once asked a wheelchair-bound state senator to stand and be recognised.
雖然這些說法總是言過其實，但是拜登的確以出糗聞名。2007-2008年，拜登與歐巴馬競爭民主黨總統候選人提名時，稱讚他未來的老闆為歷任總統候選人中「首位主流非裔美國總統」，「他口齒伶俐，又聰明又正派」。（這句話裡，「他」之前的停頓是為了表示，無意貶損過去的非裔總統參選人不夠「正派」，只是說他們沒那麼「主流」。）擔任副總統期間，拜登在醫改方案籤字儀式上對著歐巴馬小聲說「這真他媽是一件大事」，但他站得離麥克風太近，大家都聽到了；他還曾要求坐輪椅的州參議員站起來發言。
注釋：
1. recognise: The chair permits a senator to speak by recognizing him or her; the senator then 「has the floor.」 When time is controlled, a senator must have time yielded to him or her before he or she can be recognized.指（美國議會）「予某人發言權，準許發言」
2. Clean 正直的，可敬的
3. 擴展閱讀 拜登與歐巴馬 http://news.sohu.com/20080909/n259458033.shtml
These bloopers give the impression of a mouth running faster than a brain. Mr Obama was famous for long, thoughtful pauses; not so Mr Biden. His campaign speeches, like his questions as a longtime Senate committee chairman, tended to ramble. He once mystifyingly called a young student who asked a tough question a 「lying, dog-faced pony soldier」. Accused of corruption by a voter in Iowa, a bit of hotheaded 「Diamond Joe」 came out: he called the man a 「damn liar」 and challenged him to a press-up contest. And he mused that, were they in high school, he would 「beat the hell」 out of Mr Trump.
這些「名場面」給人感覺就是拜登的嘴比腦快。歐巴馬以講話中長長的沉思停頓著稱，但拜登不是。拜登的競選演說，就像任參議院常任委員會主席的提問一樣漫無邊際。有一次，拜登回答一名提出尖銳問題的年輕學生問題時，發言令人迷惑，稱其為「滿嘴謊言、長著狗臉的小馬士兵」（lying, dog-faced pony soldier）。愛荷華一選民指責（其子）腐敗，惱羞成怒的「鑽石喬」現身了：他稱該男子為「死騙子」（damn liar），還向他發起伏地挺身比賽的挑戰。他甚至若有所思地說，要是還在上高中，他能把川普「暴打一頓」（beat the hell）。
注釋：
dog-faced pony soldier：拜登自己聲稱這句話來自1952年的美國西部電影Pony Soldier，但實際上「dog-faced soldiers」出現在約翰·韋恩1949年電影She Wore a Yellow Ribbon和1953年電影Hondo. 2018年某次活動上拜登也使用同樣的表達羞辱對手Kevin Cramer，「約翰·韋恩有部電影裡有句臺詞，有個印度裔酋長對他說，這是一個滿嘴謊言、長著狗臉的小馬士兵。」之前各家媒體對此也無定論，不知道他為何有此引用。
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/joe-biden-really-called-a-young-woman-a-lying-dog-faced-pony-soldier-2020-02-10
Instead, he beat him in politics, with words rather than fists. As things turned out, the contrasting styles of his predecessors may have made Mr Biden’s deeply prosaic register an asset after all.
拜登沒有動拳頭，而是在政治上用語言擊敗了川普。事實證明，與前任總統截然不同的風格反而讓拜登平平無奇的氣場變得難能可貴。
Receiving his party’s nomination in 2008, Mr Obama said future generations might remember the occasion as 「the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal」. His high-flown rhetoric raised expectations to messianic levels. Dashed hopes led many voters to look for someone who sounded as little like a politician as possible. In 2016 that meant a political novice who eschewed focus-grouped formulations in favour of provocative, often vulgar tirades. Not only did voters not mind; Mr Trump’s outrageous style was hugely effective. His vernacular delivery implied that he was a real boss, not a backslapping hack, with unique skills to get things done. But in office his coarseness turned some voters off, even as it thrilled others.
歐巴馬在2008年獲得民主黨提名時曾說，我們的後代也許會將此刻銘記為「海平面上升速度開始減緩，我們開始治癒地球之時」。歐巴馬的豪言壯語讓人們期待總統會是彌賽亞那樣的人物。然而希望破滅了，於是許多選民開始尋求一個聽起來儘可能不像政客的總統。2016年，川普這位政壇新人完全沒有傳統政客的作風，他熱衷挑釁，經常長篇大論且言辭粗鄙。這種離譜的做派不僅沒有讓選民反感，反而極為奏效。滿口大白話說明他是真正的老大，而不是擅於籠絡人心唯命是從的政客，他用這些獨特的技巧當選了總統。執政期間，即便川普的粗俗無禮讓一些選民為之歡呼，也讓其他選民離他而去。
注釋：
1. 彌賽亞是耶穌基督的另一稱謂，源自希伯來語，原義為受膏者，指代救世主。
2. Backslipping : the action of slapping a person’s back in congratulation or encouragement
3. Hack :政黨中唯命是從的工作人員
All that makes this an ideal time for Average Joe, for whom being able to talk fluidly at all was a hard-won achievement. Mr Biden grew up with a severe stutter, which he overcame as a young man. In one of the most touching scenes of his campaign, he told a boy who stutters, 「Don’t let it define you. You are smart as hell.」 Mr Biden took the boy’s number and called him with some tips that had helped him; later the boy spoke to the Democratic National Convention.
種種因素為普通人喬·拜登創造了絕佳的競選時機，對他來說，講話流暢都十分難得。拜登童年時期深受口吃困擾，長大後才得以擺脫。拜登競選時有一幕最令人動容，他對一個結巴的男孩說，「別讓口吃定義你的人生」。拜登記下了男孩的電話，並打電話跟他分享幾個曾經對自己有幫助的小竅門；後來這名男孩在民主黨全國代表大會上發表了演講。
注釋：
美國民主黨全國代表大會每四年一度，主要有三個功能：提名總統和副總統候選人；討論黨的競選綱領；制定黨派規則。
Even careful presidents make gaffes under constant scrutiny. In office, Mr Biden will no doubt give comics plenty of material to sharpen their impersonations. But if he gets tongue-tied or says the wrong thing every now and then, well, so do most people. After 12 years of extraordinary political speech, Americans may be ready for a president who sounds like them.
即使是謹慎的總統在持續的審視下也會失態。拜登執政期間無疑將會為喜劇節目提供大量的模仿素材。但是如果他偶爾磕磕巴巴或說錯話，也沒關係，因為大多數人也這樣。聽了12年傑出的政治演講後，美國人民或許已準備好，迎接一位說話聽起來和自己差不多的總統。
翻譯組：
Jeremy，男，在北京，喜歡睡覺
奧莉，女，擼貓狂魔，強迫症患者
Diamond, 男，夜未眠市搬磚工，理工科永久性腦損傷，學習翻譯的小學生。
校核組：
Cathy，女，春都MTIer，專業翻譯愛好者
Violet，MTIer, 愛思考勤查證，es廚，2.5舞臺喜愛者
Anne，女，愛讀書愛Borges的小翻譯，熱愛文藝，經濟學人愛好者