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Britain
英国
Bagehot
白芝浩专栏
Spies like us
间谍众生
To understand Britain, read its spy novels.
要想了解英国，就读读她的间谍小说吧。
Few countries have dominated any industry as Britain has dominated the industry of producing fictional spies.
没有哪个国家像英国霸占了生产虚构间谍产业那样霸占一个产业。
Britain invented the spy novel with Rudyard Kipling's dissection of the Great Game in “Kim” and John Buchan's adventure stories.
英国以鲁德亚德·吉卜林在《吉姆》中对大国游戏 （Great Game）的剖析和约翰·巴肯的冒险故事开创了间谍小说。
It consolidated its lead with Somerset Maugham's Ashenden stories and Graham Greene's invention of “Greeneland”.
它以萨默塞特·毛姆的阿兴登的故事和格雷厄姆·格林创造的“格林世界”巩固了它的第一的位置。
It then produced the world's two most famous spooks: James Bond, the dashing womaniser, and George Smiley, the cerebral cuckold, who reappears this week in a new book.
之后，她生产出了世界上最有名的两位间谍：生猛干练的花花公子詹姆斯·邦德以及在本周的一本新书中再度现身的遭遇妻子不忠的理性之人乔治·史迈利。
What accounts for this success?
什么带来了这种成功的呢？
One reason is the revolving door between the secret establishment and the literary establishment.
一个原因是情报界与文学界之间的旋转门。
Some of the lions of British literature worked as spies.
英国的一些文坛大家曾经干过间谍。
Maugham was sent to Switzerland to spy for Britain under cover of pursuing his career as a writer.
毛姆曾被派到瑞士，以寻求作家人生为名，为英国刺探情报。
Greene worked for the intelligence services.
格林曾为情报部门工作。
Both Ian Fleming, the creator of Bond, and John le Carré, the creator of Smiley, earned their living as spies.
邦德的创造者伊恩·佛莱明和斯迈利的创造者约翰勒卡雷曾以间谍谋生。
Dame Stella Rimington, head of MI5 in 1992-96, has taken to writing spy novels in retirement.
1992-1996年间的军情五处局长——斯蒂拉·利明顿女爵士退休后开始创作间谍小说。
It is as if the secret services are not so much arms of the state as creative-writing schools.
这就好像，作为国家机构，情报部门不如写作学校一样。
Another reason is that British reality has often been stranger than fiction.
另一个原因是英国现实经常比小说还离奇。
The story of the “Cambridge spies” —Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Guy Burgess and the rest—is as far-fetched as it gets.
“剑桥间谍帮”——吉姆·菲尔比、安东尼·布朗特、盖伊·伯吉斯等人——的故事令人难以置信。
One Soviet mole at the top of MI6 (Philby, who also worked for The Economist in Beirut) ; another even looking after the queen's pictures (Blunt) ; a cover-up; a dash to the safety of the Soviet Union; larger-than-life characters such as the compulsively promiscuous and permanently sozzled Burgess.
一位是位居军情六处高层的苏联鼹鼠（也曾在贝鲁特为本报工作过的菲尔比）；另一位甚至在看管女王的藏画（布朗特）；一次藏身；一次对苏联安全的冲击；像抑制不住地滥交和常年烂醉如泥的伯吉斯一般的大于生活的人物。
There is also a more profound reason for Britain's success.
英国的成功还有更深层次的原因。
The spy novel is the quintessential British fictional form in the same way that the Western is quintessentially American.
以西部小说之于美国一样，间谍小说典型的英国小说形式。
Britain's best spy novelists are so good precisely because they use the genre to explore what it is that makes Britain British: the obsession with secrecy, the nature of the establishment, the agonies of imperial decline and the complicated tug of patriotism.
英国最好的间谍小说家如此优秀，主要是因为他们运用这种文学体裁去探寻什么造就了英国：对情报痴迷、体制的性质、帝国衰落的苦恼以及复杂的爱国主义情结。
Britain is honeycombed with secretive institutions, particularly public schools and Oxbridge colleges, which have their own private languages.
英国星罗密布着着各种秘密组织，尤其是公立学校和牛津、剑桥大学，它们有着自己的隐语。
At Eton, for example, where Fleming was educated and Mr le Carre taught for a while, boys dress in tailcoats and call their teachers “beaks” and their terms “halves”.
例如，在弗莱明接受教育和勒卡雷曾经教过一段时间书的伊顿公学，男孩们身着燕尾服，称老师为“鹰喙”，学期为“半场”。
Walter Bagehot argued (approvingly) that Britain weaves duplicity into its statecraft.
沃尔特·白芝浩曾经（赞同地）指出，英国将两面性融入治国理政之中。
The constitution rests on a distinction between an “efficient” branch which governs behind the scenes, and a “dignified” branch which puts on a show for the people.
这种结构靠的是在幕后施政的“效率”部门和给人们装样子的“面子”分支之间的泾渭分明。
The British habitually wear masks to conceal their true selves.
英国人习惯于戴上面具，掩盖真实的自我。
They put on different costumes for different roles in Bagehot's theatre of state, and keep stiff upper lips to conceal their emotions.
他们给白芝浩的国家大舞台上的不同角色穿上不同的服饰，并且让绷紧了上嘴唇，以掩饰自己的情感。
Mr le Carre (whose real name is David Cornwell) learned to put on a brave face at school because he was so embarrassed by his father, who was a professional confidence trickster.
勒卡雷（他的真名叫大卫·康威尔）在上学时学会了装出一副勇敢的面孔，是因为他被身为职业骗子的父亲搞得狼狈不堪。
Greene learned the spymaster's art when, as a pupil at Berkhamsted School, he acted as an informer for his father, the headmaster.
格林在为他身为校长的父亲充当告密者时掌握了间谍大师的艺术。
