想去圣埃斯科巴度假嗎?

⊙ By Ewa Lalik

翻譯：Wendy

想去圣埃斯科巴度假嗎?

⊙ By Ewa Lalik

翻譯：Wendy

Do You Want to Visit San Escobar?

美英發(fā)音 適合泛讀

語(yǔ)速：175詞/分鐘

暑假到了，親，你考慮好出游目的地了嗎？要不小編給你推薦一個(gè)？到圣埃斯科巴去吧。這是加勒比海的一個(gè)小國(guó)，首都是圣多蘇比托，國(guó)旗是紅、黑、白、綠四種顏色，它的主打出口商品是西紅柿和葡萄酒。沒(méi)聽(tīng)說(shuō)過(guò)嗎？它的歷史確實(shí)不長(zhǎng)，還不到一年呢，它的存在出自波蘭外長(zhǎng)之口……

Host: Today, let’s head to the nation of San Escobar. It’s located somewhere in the Caribbean, or at least, that’s what Poland’s Foreign Minister said at the United Nations the other day. True story—fake country.

Ewa Lalik is Polish. She’s a technology1)blogger in Warsaw. Ewa, Why did your Foreign Minister make up and talk about this fake nation of San Escobar, and all in the2)austere setting of the UN?

Ewa: It was just [sic] slip of a tongue. He told reporters that he had meetings with officials from nearly 20 countries, and he said that he met with some Caribbean nation called San Escobar.

Host: Yeah, well…did he explain why he said that?

Ewa: Uh, not there, no, but, later he said that it was just a slip of a tongue, and he was tired, and, that he had in mind St. Kitts, and Nevis, a small Caribbean country known in Spanish as San Cristóbal y Nieves. It sounds similar to San Escobar, I think.

Host: The3)Twitterati have been having a4)field day with this non-existent country. What have the5)pranksters done to add to San Escobar’s fake back story?

Ewa: Yes, they made up almost everything, including history, even economic info.

Host: Info like major exports?

Ewa: Yes, like tomatoes and wine. It’s a small country between Mexico and Guatemala with, like, 300,000 citizens, with main cities as Esperal, Santo Subito, currency San Escobarean Pesos.

Host: Does it seem like the kind of place like6)Poles would want to visit this time of year? Ewa: Yes, of course, ’cause it’s [sic] very warm country, and Poles are7)tagging themselves in the biggest San Escobarean cities as we speak. For example, the capital of San Escobar, Santo Subito, or beautiful beach areas, so, yes, I…I think it’s now the most popular country for Poles to be in.

Host: As long as we’re talking fake news, I wonder if San Escobar supports Poland’s candidacy to the Security Council注.

Ewa: Ah, yes, of course. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of San Escobar said San Escobar is Poland’s strongest8)ally. It’s probably because big similarities in Polish and Escobarean history. Poland is the only country that recognises San Escobar as a country.

Host: Do you know what the reaction was when the Foreign Minister kinda brought this up? Were people in the room like, “Wha…what’s he talking about?”

Ewa: In that moment I think that nobody noticed that, so, it was later that Twitter called this mistake.

Host: Yeah, well, that kinda worries me about the people sitting at the United Nations—“Well, OK, San Escobar…”

Ewa: Not only you. Not only you. A lot of Poles are worried about this.

Host: Well, when you’re too stressed out with the real news, you can always think about the beautiful country of San Escobar in the Caribbean, I suppose.

Ewa: Yes, you can always go for vacation in San Escobar.

Host: In your mind.

1) blogger ['bl?g?(r)] n. 博主

2) austere [?'st??(r)] adj. 嚴(yán)肅的

3) Twitterati [tw?t?'rɑ?t?] n. 網(wǎng)絡(luò)達(dá)人，推客精英

4) feld day 忙碌的一天，愉快的一天

5) prankster ['pr??kst?(r)] n. 開(kāi)玩笑者，惡作劇者

6) Poles [p??] n. 波蘭人

7) tag [t?g] v. 給……加標(biāo)簽

8) ally ['?la?] n. 擁擠者，支持者

注：目前波蘭正在積極爭(zhēng)取2018–2019年?yáng)|歐地區(qū)唯一一個(gè)聯(lián)合國(guó)安理會(huì)非常任理事國(guó)的名額。

見(jiàn)招拆招

習(xí)語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)：a slip of the tongue

大家想象一下，舌頭打滑了，那會(huì)是什么情況？當(dāng)然就是舌頭不聽(tīng)話，一下子說(shuō)錯(cuò)話了。習(xí)語(yǔ)a slip of tongue正是通過(guò)這個(gè)傳神的形象比喻，表達(dá)“失言，口誤”的意思。它既可指生理上的失誤，即舌頭一時(shí)轉(zhuǎn)不過(guò)來(lái)，也指人一時(shí)思想開(kāi)小差，說(shuō)錯(cuò)了話，如：It was a slip of the tongue when I said John’s fancée is Anna; I meant Hannah.（我把約翰的未婚妻說(shuō)成安娜，我原本想說(shuō)漢娜的，那是口誤。）

參考譯文

主持人：今天，我們一起前往圣埃斯科巴吧，那是位于加勒比海的一個(gè)國(guó)家，或者說(shuō)，至少波蘭外交部長(zhǎng)前些日子在聯(lián)合國(guó)是這么說(shuō)的。故事是真的，但這個(gè)國(guó)家是虛構(gòu)的。

伊娃·拉里卡是波蘭人，她是華沙一個(gè)科技博客的博主。伊娃，為什么你們的外交部長(zhǎng)會(huì)編造并談?wù)撌グＫ箍瓢瓦@樣一個(gè)虛構(gòu)的國(guó)家，而且是在聯(lián)合國(guó)這么嚴(yán)肅的場(chǎng)合？

伊娃：這只是一次口誤。他告訴記者，他曾與來(lái)自近20個(gè)國(guó)家的官員會(huì)面，他說(shuō)其中有叫圣埃斯科巴的加勒比海國(guó)家。

主持人：?jiǎn)?，他有沒(méi)有解釋為什么會(huì)這樣說(shuō)？

伊娃：呃，沒(méi)有，當(dāng)時(shí)沒(méi)有，但后來(lái)他說(shuō)那只是一次口誤，他那時(shí)很疲勞，心里想的是加勒比海小國(guó)圣基茨和尼維斯，其西班牙語(yǔ)發(fā)音為“San Cristóbal y Nieves”。我覺(jué)得這聽(tīng)起來(lái)很像圣埃斯科巴。

主持人：這個(gè)現(xiàn)實(shí)中并不存在的國(guó)家使網(wǎng)絡(luò)達(dá)人忙活起來(lái)了，這些惡作劇制造者為圣埃斯科巴的虛構(gòu)背景故事加了些什么內(nèi)容？

伊娃：是的，他們編撰出了差不多所有的背景資料，包括該國(guó)的歷史，甚至還有經(jīng)濟(jì)方面的信息。主持人：比如主要出口貨物這類(lèi)的信息？

伊娃：是的，比如說(shuō)出口西紅柿和葡萄酒。人們稱(chēng)這是一個(gè)位于墨西哥和危地馬拉之間的小國(guó)，人口約30萬(wàn)，主要城市有埃斯佩爾、圣多蘇比托等；貨幣為圣埃斯科巴比索。

主持人：這聽(tīng)起來(lái)像不像是波蘭人想在這個(gè)季節(jié)去看看的地方？

伊娃：確實(shí)，當(dāng)然，因?yàn)槟鞘且粋€(gè)氣候溫暖的國(guó)度，現(xiàn)在波蘭人都是會(huì)用上這類(lèi)標(biāo)簽，聲稱(chēng)自己正在圣埃斯科巴的大城市度假，比如說(shuō)圣埃斯科巴首都圣多蘇比托，或者美麗的海濱地區(qū)等，所以，是的，我……我覺(jué)得現(xiàn)在對(duì)波蘭人來(lái)說(shuō)，它是最熱門(mén)的國(guó)家。

主持人：既然我們?cè)谡務(wù)撎摷傩侣?，我想知道圣埃斯科巴是否支持波蘭進(jìn)入安理會(huì)？

伊娃：啊，當(dāng)然支持，圣埃斯科巴外交部說(shuō)圣埃斯科巴是波蘭最堅(jiān)定的盟友，這大概是因?yàn)椴ㄌm與圣埃斯科巴有著相似的歷史，而波蘭又是唯一承認(rèn)圣埃斯科巴的國(guó)家。

主持人：在你們的外長(zhǎng)提到這個(gè)國(guó)家時(shí)，你知道大家有什么反應(yīng)嗎？在場(chǎng)的人有沒(méi)有說(shuō)：“什么？他在說(shuō)什么？”

伊娃：在那一刻，我想沒(méi)有人留意到這個(gè)問(wèn)題，是網(wǎng)友后來(lái)在推特上發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個(gè)錯(cuò)誤。

主持人：是的，嗯，這倒是讓我有點(diǎn)擔(dān)心在聯(lián)合國(guó)的那些人：“呃，好吧，圣埃斯科巴……”

伊娃：不僅僅你，不僅僅是你，很多波蘭人都擔(dān)心這個(gè)問(wèn)題。

主持人：好吧，我想，如果大家對(duì)真實(shí)的新聞感到“壓力山大”，那總可以想想在加勒比海的美麗國(guó)度——圣埃斯科巴。

伊娃：是的，大家隨時(shí)可以去圣埃斯科巴度假。

主持人：在你的想象中。