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Culture
文艺版块
Backstory
幕后故事
The drama of democracy
民主政治的戏剧
A critical guide to election night, the top-billing show of 2024.
2024年头牌节目“选举之夜”批评指南。
A car drives down a road in drizzly central London, taking a besuited man home from a meeting.
一辆汽车在细雨霏霏的伦敦市中心沿着马路行驶，载着一位身穿西装的男子，把他从会议现场送回家。
It is a mundane image, transmuted into spectacle by the alchemy of elections.
这是一个平淡无奇的画面，但选举的魔力将其点石成金为奇观。
Tracked in the sort of aerial footage normally reserved for felons on the run, the car conveyed Sir Keir Starmer to Downing Street from Buckingham Palace, where, at the king’s invitation, he became Britain’s new prime minister on July 5th.
在通常只用来拍摄逃犯的航拍镜头的追踪下，这辆车把基尔·斯塔默爵士从白金汉宫送往唐宁街，7月5日，他在白金汉宫得到国王授权后成为英国新首相。
Walter Bagehot, a Victorian editor of The Economist, divided the constitution into the “efficient” parts (like the cabinet) and the “dignified” or “theatrical” elements (like the monarchy).
沃尔特·白芝浩是维多利亚时代《经济学人》的编辑，他将宪法分为“效用”部分（如内阁）和“庄重”或者说“戏剧”部分（如君主制）。
Election night—the top-billing show in many countries in what is a bumper year for voting—brings the two together.
选举之夜——在今年这个投票大年里，这是许多国家的头牌节目——将这两者结合在了一起。
It is a pivotal moment in the life of a nation.
这是国家历程中的一个关键时刻。
But it is also a drama, mixing a high-stakes plot with actorly set pieces and rhetorical motifs.
但这也是一部戏剧，高赌注的情节、表演般的固定桥段、演讲辩论的主题汇聚一堂。
These days the night’s action begins with an exit poll, which, like a prologue, announces the key themes.
如今，选举之夜以出口民调开始，就像开场序幕一样，宣布了节目的关键主题。（注：出口民调即选民离开投票站时进行的民调，用于预测结果。）
Sometimes the findings are predictable, as with the thumping of the Conservatives foretold by pollsters in Britain.
有时候选举结果是可以预测的，就像英国民调机构预测的保守党惨败一样。
Sometimes this opening scene is electrifying.
有时候这个开场场景是令人激动的。
In France the preliminary results of parliamentary elections flash up on TV after a ten-to-one countdown; on July 7th they landed with a boom, showing Marine Le Pen’s hard-right National Rally surprisingly beaten into third place.
在法国，议会选举的初步结果在倒数十个数后在电视上闪现；7月7日初步结果的公布引起轰动，显示玛丽娜·勒庞的极右翼国民联盟出人意料地被击败，位居第三。
Sub-plots unfold as the main action simmers.
随着主要情节的推进，次要情节也逐渐展开。
In America TV networks race to call the outcomes in each state.
在美国，各大电视网络竞相宣布每个州的选举结果。
In a modern version of medieval football—which involved rival villages tussling over pigs’ bladders—English constituencies compete to count their votes fastest.
在现代版的中世纪足球比赛中——竞争村庄争夺猪膀胱——英国各选区竞相以最快速度计票。
Like the comic figures who jostle with Shakespeare’s heroes, joke candidates line up with serious ones to hear the results.
就像莎士比亚笔下与英雄们竞争的喜剧人物一样，作为笑话的候选人和严肃正经的候选人一起排队等待结果。
Challengers to Rishi Sunak, the Tory leader, included Count Binface.
比如挑战保守党领袖里希·苏纳克的人就包括宾法斯伯爵。（注：宾法斯伯爵是英国喜剧演员创造的一个角色，并用这个身份参与选举。）
Sir Keir saw off Nick the Incredible Flying Brick.
基尔爵士击败了今年的超级飞行砖块尼克。（注：超级飞行砖块尼克是2019年大选中的恶搞角色。）
Then come the big soliloquies—ie, the concession and victory speeches.
然后是长篇的独白，也就是败选演讲和胜选演讲。
A leader’s concession is the political equivalent of a condemned man’s remarks from the scaffold.
领导人的败选演讲相当于一个被定罪的人在绞刑架上的遗言。
Fortunately a formula is available.
幸运的是，有一个公式可套用。
You accept your loss, take responsibility and call for national unity.
你接受你的失败，承担起责任，并呼吁国家团结。
Mr Sunak pulled this off brilliantly: nothing in his premiership became him like the leaving of it.
苏纳克出色地完成了败选演讲：他在首相任期内所做的最适合他的事就是离开首相职位。
In France Ms Le Pen deployed another familiar trope, that of disappointment as a triumph-in-waiting.
在法国，勒庞采用了另一种人们熟悉的比喻，即现在的失望是未来的胜利。
“Our victory”, she insisted, “has merely been delayed.”
“我们的胜利”，她坚持道，“只是被推迟了。”
In America the concession tradition is said to date to a telegram from William Jennings Bryan to William McKinley in 1896.
在美国，据说败选演讲的传统可以追溯到1896年威廉·詹宁斯·布莱恩发给威廉·麦金莱的一封电报。（注：威廉·詹宁斯·布莱恩在总统选举中败给威廉·麦金莱。）
Perhaps the finest example was John McCain’s moving concession to Barack Obama in 2008.
也许最好的例子是约翰·麦凯恩在2008年对巴拉克·奥巴马发表的感人的败选演讲。
The tradition was flouted by Donald Trump, who has turned a generic performance of democratic norms into a nail-biting moment of jeopardy.
这一传统被唐纳德·特朗普所蔑视，他将民主规范中的这个没有特别意义的表演变成了一个令人紧张的危险时刻。
The victory speech, an altogether easier gig, evinces respect for vanquished foes and their supporters and embraces the challenges ahead.
胜选演讲相对容易一些，要对落败的对手及其支持者表示尊重，并迎接未来的挑战。
Dawn is a popular metaphor: echoing Tony Blair in 1997 (“A new dawn has broken, has it not?”), Sir Keir spoke of the “sunlight of hope”.
黎明是一个流行的隐喻：模仿托尼·布莱尔在1997年的演讲（“新的黎明已经出现，不是吗？”），基尔爵士谈到了“希望的阳光”。
If the results are messy, claiming victory early is a way to shape perceptions, as it was in France for Jean-Luc Melenchon, a left-wing firebrand.
如果结果很难办，提前宣布胜利是一种塑造大众看法的办法，就像法国的左翼煽动者让-吕克·梅朗雄所做的那样。
When the winner assumes power, the choreography reflects the status of their office.
当胜利者掌权时，节目编排反映出他们这届政府的地位。
America has the pageant of the inauguration, with its solemn oath and poems declaimed in the rain.
美国有盛大的就职典礼，在雨中进行庄严的宣誓和诗歌朗诵。
The British process is brisk, like a one-act play with no interval.
英国的就职程序很简短轻快，就像一部没有幕间休息的独幕剧。
New prime ministers stroll up to Number 10, their relatively modest abode.
新首相步行至相对简朴的官邸唐宁街10号。
The imagery casts the country as a family, with the leader as its steward rather than an overlord.
这种首相形象将国家描绘成一个家庭，领导人是其管家而不是领主。
Elections in autocracies belong to a different genre.
专制国家的选举属于不同的类型。
Instead of the will of the people, they showcase the autocrat-puppeteer’s grip on the state.
选举展示的不是人民的意愿，而是专制傀儡操纵者对国家的控制。
Election night is a lifeless tableau of power, often with a hint of farce in the naked ballot-stuffing and inflated tallies.
选举之夜是一幅毫无生气的权力图景，赤裸裸的选票舞弊和夸大的计票结果常常带有一丝闹剧色彩。
In a free vote, the ultimate coup de theatre features the extras rather than the stars.
在自由投票中，最终的戏剧性转折是由配角而不是主角完成的。
Glugging your coffee on the way to work, or carrying your dry-cleaning as you plod home, you arrive at the polling station as an ordinary mortal.
你像一个普通人一样，在上班的路上大口喝着咖啡，或者在倦步回家路上拿着你的干洗衣服，然后到达投票站。
Then you enter the voting booth—perhaps there is a curtain to draw behind you—and, as if in a conjuror’s trick, you become a hero in your country’s story.
然后你走进投票亭——也许你身后有一道帘子可以拉上——然后就像施展魔法一样，你成为了你的国家故事中的主人公。
In the sweep of history, this is still an unusual and heartwarming plotline.
在历史的长河中，这仍然是一个不同寻常且令人暖心的故事情节。
Yet as with Tinker Bell, the fairy in “Peter Pan” kept alive by the audience’s belief, the magic works only if enough people trust in it, whether or not they win.
然而就像《彼得·潘》中靠观众的信念才能存在的小仙子叮当一样，只有当足够多的人相信投票时魔法才会起作用，无论选的人是否获胜。
Too many seem to be losing the faith.
但太多的人似乎正在失去信念。
