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NEA IONIA, Greece — Alexandra Nikolovieni, 55, lost her job escorting young children on a school bus four years ago and has not been able to find another one since. To help financially, her daughter and her son-in-law, who have two children, moved into her house. But now they have lost their jobs, too.
希腊新伊奥尼亚——亚历山德拉·尼克罗维尼(Alexandra Nikolovieni)现年55岁，四年前，她失去了在校车上护送幼童的工作，之后就一直没有找到其他工作。为了接济她，女儿和女婿带着两个孩子，搬到她家居住。但现在，他们自己也失业了。
Ms. Nikolovieni, who volunteers at a food pantry in this suburb of Athens, says that every month she sees more and more people like her, qualifying for bundles of groceries and picking out used shoes for themselves or their children.
现在，尼克罗维尼在雅典这片郊区的一个食品分发处担任志愿者，她说，每个月都有越来越多的人和自己一样，有资格领取各类食品杂货，并为自己或孩子挑选二手鞋。
“Are things getting better?” she said. “I don’t think so.”
“状况是在改善吗？”她说。“我觉得没有。”
Nowhere have austerity policies been more aggressively tried — and generally failed to live up to results promised by advocates — than in Greece. After more than four years of belt tightening, patience is wearing thin, and tentative signs of improvement have not yet trickled down into the lives of average Greeks.
希腊尝试推出了最为严格的紧缩政策，但总体而言，倡导这些政策的人士做出的承诺并没有实现。勒紧腰带的日子已经过了四年多，人们变得越来越不耐烦，但初步改善的迹象尚未惠及普通希腊人的生活。
Now, after its Parliament failed to pick a president on Monday, forcing early elections, Greece faces a turning point in how to heal its devastated economy.
本周一，希腊议会未能挑选出新的总统，因此该国不得不提前举行大选，对于如何恢复其千疮百孔的经济，希腊面临着一个转折点。
In the Jan. 25 general election, a majority center-right coalition government that has reluctantly stuck with austerity policies will face a charismatic left-wing challenger who says it is time for Greece to take its future into its own hands and do what it can to stimulate growth. Whichever path the country chooses, the outcome is likely to have broad implications for Greece and its place in the European Union.
中间偏右人士组成的多数派联合政府勉强坚持紧缩政策，在1月25日的大选中，他们将与颇具感召力的左翼挑战者一决高下。挑战者表示，现在是时候由希腊来把握自己的未来，以竭尽所能地刺激经济增长。无论该国选择怎样的道路，其结果都很可能对希腊及其在欧盟中的位置产生广泛影响。
Among international policy makers and economists, the debate over austerity remains as intense as ever. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, the most high-profile advocate of the argument that only through fiscal prudence can nations achieve stability and prosperity, has given little ground even as larger and more influential countries like France and Italy have started balking at her demands.
国际政策制定者和经济学家对紧缩政策的争论仍然激烈如昔。一种观点认为，只有在财政上审慎行事，才有可能实现国家的稳定和繁荣。德国总理默克尔是这个观点最引人瞩目的支持者，即便更大更有影响力的国家，比如法国和意大利，对她的要求已经开始犹豫迟疑，默克尔却几乎毫不让步。
But at the street level in Greece, there is little debate anymore, if there ever was. The images of suffering here have not been that different from the grainy black and white photos of the United States in the 1930s. Suicides have shot up. Cars sit abandoned in the streets. People sift garbage looking for food.
但在希腊的街头巷尾，就算以前有过争论，现在也几乎听不到了。在这里，生计艰难的状况与美国20世纪30年代那些颗粒感很强的黑白照片没什么不同。自杀率直线上升，车辆被遗弃在街头，人们在垃圾堆里翻找食物。
About 900,000 of the more than 1.3 million who are out of work have not had a paycheck in more than two years, experts say.
专家说，希腊130多万的失业者中，已经有90万失业超过两年。
Kostas Polychronopoulos, who runs a volunteer soup kitchen in Athens and has been out of a job since 2009, said he had seen many shocking things in recent years, including an old woman in a fur coat who watched from a distance for a long time before finally approaching to accept food.
科斯塔斯·帕利科洛斯(Kostas Polychronopoulos)从2009年开始一直处于失业状态，现在他管理着雅典的一个志愿施粥处。帕利科洛斯说自己最近几年看到了很多令人震惊的事情，其中一件是，一位穿着裘皮外套的老太太，远远地看了他们很久，才过来领取食物。
When he insisted on taking her home, he found she was living in an empty apartment. “She didn’t even have water,” he said.
他坚持要送她回家，结果发现她住在一处空荡荡的公寓里。“连水都没有，”他说。
Even supporters of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras say that he faces an uphill battle to persuade the electorate to stay the course after five years of austerity.
就连希腊总理安东尼斯·萨马拉斯(Antonis Samaras)的支持者都说，他将面临一场艰苦卓绝的战斗：说服选民在经历了五年的紧缩之后继续坚持下去。
His principal opponent, Alexis Tsipras, is promising to defy Greece’s creditors, renegotiate the country’s enormous debt, cut some taxes and work to restore cut pensions.
而他的主要对手、左翼领导人亚历克西斯·奇普拉斯(Alexis Tsipras)则承诺，自己将违抗希腊债权人的要求，就该国庞大的债务进行重新协商，削减一些税收，努力恢复遭到削减的养老金。
It is unclear where such an act of defiance might lead, whether Greece’s creditors would be willing to change their approach or whether Greece even might find itself in the unprecedented position of facing expulsion from the eurozone, or even the European bloc altogether.
目前还不清楚这种对抗行为可能会带来什么效果，是希腊的债权人愿意改弦更张，还是希腊将处于一个前所未有的境地，遭到欧元区甚至是欧盟的驱逐。
In a wide-ranging review of the Greece program last year, the I.M.F. found that many of its predictions had failed. There was a sharp fall in imports, but little gain in exports. Public debt overshot original predictions. Predicted revenues from selling public assets were way off. The banking system, perceived as relatively sound at the beginning of the bailout, began having problems as the economy soured.
去年，国际货币基金组织(IMF)对希腊的项目进行了一个大范围的评审，发现它的很多预测都落了空。进口量急剧下降，但出口量几乎没有增长。公共债务超过了原来的预测。出售公共资产获得的收入和预测相差悬殊。救助行动刚开始时，银行系统还比较健全，但随着经济的恶化，它也开始出现问题。
Looking back, the I.M.F. concluded that many errors had been made, including too much emphasis on raising taxes instead of cutting expenses. In addition, the monetary fund overestimated the ability of the government to deliver the changes it was demanding — because they were proving politically unpopular and because Greek institutions were far weaker that anyone understood.
回顾过去，IMF认为行动中出现了很多错误，比如过分强调增税而不是削减开支。此外，IMF高估了希腊政府做出它要求的变化的能力，一则因为这些变化显然在政治上不得人心，二则由于众所周知的原因，希腊的机构比所有人想得都更脆弱。
Over the last four years, the three lenders have demanded more than 800 actions a year, Greek officials say, requiring hundreds of new laws, sometimes changed and readopted within weeks or days.
在过去四年里，三个贷款方要求采取的举措每年超过了800个，希腊官员说，这需要采用数百项新的法律，有时候几周或几天内就会变更并被重新采用。
Administering these changes would have been difficult in a country with sound institutions, but Greece’s were filled with poorly qualified political appointees and were undergoing hiring freezes and budget cuts even as they were supposed to be managing a huge overhaul: a large assortment of new taxes, the opening of closed professions and the sale of state-owned assets.
在一个制度健全的国家里，做出这样的变化都很难，何况希腊还有很多难以胜任的、出于政治原因获得任命的人。机构不再招聘新人，并且削减了预算，即便如此，他们还是需要掌控巨大改变的进程：推出诸多的新税种，开放一些封闭的职业，出售国有资产。
Experts say that even now the Greek tax collection system does not truly function. Investigations into the Greek elite and their secret foreign accounts have foundered even in the face of public exposure of the accounts.
专家说，即便是现在，希腊的税务征收体系也没有真正运转起来。虽然希腊精英阶层的秘密外国账户遭到了公开曝光，针对他们和这些账号的调查还是失败了。
The one bright spot in the economy has been tourism. But even on Greece’s most famous islands, such as Corfu, there is little sense of relief. Many tourists come on cut-rate or all-inclusive packages. The wages of hotel workers have been cut severely, and many are not paid for months, if at all, according to union officials and Corfu’s mayor, Kostas Nikolouzos.
旅游业是希腊经济上的一个亮点。但是，即使是在希腊最著名的岛屿，比如科孚岛，人们也难以安心。很多游客享受了折扣费率或全包价格。工会官员和科孚岛的市长科斯塔斯·尼克罗佐斯(Kostas Nikolouzos)表示，酒店工作人员的工资严重下滑，很多人的工资被拖延了好几个月，有些人更是完全拿不到薪水。
Mr. Nikolouzos said he was worried that drastic budget cuts could affect the islands’ ability to attract tourists. The municipality once had a budget of 13 million euros a year for capital repairs. This year, it will be one million euros, though roads are buckling and some villagers can no longer drink their tap water.
尼克罗佐斯说，他担心大幅削减预算，可能会影响到这些岛屿吸引游客的能力。市政府以前有1300万欧元的预算来进行设施维护。今年，尽管道路日益破损，有些村子的自来水无法饮用，这笔预算却只有100万欧元。
Eleni Alexaki, 56, has worked as a hotel maid for more than 20 years. She was cleaning 20 rooms a day at the beginning of the crisis and now cleans 35, while her pay has gone from 1,600 euros a month to 985. She receives no holiday pay and fewer days off.
56岁的叶莱妮·阿勒科萨克(Eleni Alexaki)在一家酒店当了20多年的服务员。危机刚开始的时候，她每天打扫20间客房，现在每天打扫35间，工资还从每月的1600欧元降到了985欧元，并且没有节假日工资，休息日也减少了。
“And they terrorize us,” she said. “They say, ‘There, the door is there.’ ”
“他们还恐吓我们，”她说。“他们说，‘门就在那边，要走请便。’”
