英國王室的分水嶺：戴安娜之死

Just about anyone in Britain can tell you where they were and what they were doing on the morning of August 31 1997, when the world learnt that Diana, Princess of Wales, had been killed in a car crash in Paris. The same is almost certainly true of millions more worldwide.

在英國，差不多每個人都可以告訴你，1997年8月31日早晨，他們在哪里，在做什么。當時，威爾士王妃戴安娜(Diana, Princess of Wales)在巴黎發(fā)生車禍身亡的消息傳遍了世界。在世界其他地方，肯定還有數(shù)百萬人也是如此。

The British people still haven’t got over the event. It is not so much that they cannot adjust to the death of a hugely pretty princess who seemed to embody the little girl’s dream gone bad, as what her death represented. It was the moment the royal family entered the modern world.

這件事讓英國人至今無法釋懷。在很大程度上，這并非因為他們無法接受一位非常美麗的王妃(在她身上，小女孩的夢想變成了噩夢)離開人世，而是因為他們無法接受她的離世所代表的東西——就在那一刻，英國王室進入了現(xiàn)代世界。

Diana had been the last of the royal consorts to be chosen on the antediluvian prejudices of a household clearly baffled by the world beyond the palace gates. She was one of the last victims of a cast of mind which thought the main purpose of educating girls was to teach them how to wear white gloves and open village fêtes.

戴安娜是最后一個在王室的陳舊偏見下被選中的王室配偶。宮門之外的世界顯然讓王室感到困惑。有一種思想認為，教育女孩的主要目的是教會她們?nèi)绾未靼资痔缀团e辦鄉(xiāng)村聚會。戴安娜是這種思想的最后受害者之一。

I once chaired a quiz featuring the question “Diana, Princess of Wales’s only formal qualification from her school days was a certificate for the best kept what?” One table answered “virginity”. (The correct answer was hamster or gerbil or something.) But the fact is that she did not achieve a single O-level, despite sitting the exams twice.

我曾主持過一個小測驗，測驗的問題是“威爾士王妃戴安娜學生時代取得的唯一正式證書是什么?”有一桌的回答是：“最佳守貞證書”。(正確答案是最佳倉鼠還是沙鼠什么的養(yǎng)育者證書。)然而她的普通程度考試(O-level)一門都沒考過，盡管她參加了兩回考試。

Then it was off to Swiss finishing school and cookery classes, followed by a job as a playgroup school assistant. That was how the toffs treated girls. Kate Middleton, the air hostess’s daughter who married Diana’s eldest son, has at least earned a degree (in art history) from St Andrews university, by the sweat of her own brow in open competition.

然后是去瑞士留學和參加烹飪課，接著在一所幼兒園擔任助理。這就是過去上流社會對待女孩的方式。空姐的女兒、嫁給戴安娜長子的凱特•米德爾頓(Kate Middleton)起碼通過自己的努力在公開競爭中考入圣安德魯斯大學(St Andrews University)，并拿到了一個學位(藝術史專業(yè))。

When Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles went bad and they divorced in 1996, they merely did what thousands of other people did that year. (Since then, the divorce rate has tumbled: largely, it is thought, because of public acceptance of cohabitation.) Diana and Charles had been required to spend the nights before their wedding in separate buildings. Today, no one — not even the Daily Express — bats an eyelid at stories of Prince Harry’s alleged girlfriend spending nights with him in Kensington Palace.

1996年，戴安娜與查爾斯王子(Prince Charles)的婚姻失敗、兩人離婚，而同一年英國有幾十萬人離婚。(自那時起，離婚率大幅下降：據(jù)認為，主要原因在于公眾對同居的接受。)在舉行婚禮前，戴安娜和查爾斯王子被要求在不同的樓里過夜。如今，對哈里王子(Prince Harry)與據(jù)稱為他女友的女性在肯辛頓宮(Kensington Palace)過夜的故事，大家連眼睛都不會眨一下，甚至連《每日快報》(Daily Express)都是如此。

It is tragic, of course, that it took a grotesque accident to force the royal household to adapt to social changes others had embraced years before. And for a few days, the House of Windsor looked dithery and uncertain. The audible silence allowed imbecilic “experts” to demand the royal ensign be flown at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. It cannot be, for the simple reason that the country is never without a monarch — hence: “The king is dead. Long Live the King.”

當然，需要一場可怕的事故來迫使王室接受其他人許多年前已經(jīng)接受的社會變化，是可悲的。事故發(fā)生后頭幾天，溫莎王朝(House of Windsor)看起來猶豫不決、不知所措。突兀的沉默讓一些傻瓜“專家”竟然要求白金漢宮(The Buckingham Palace)王室旗降半旗。王室旗是不能降半旗的，原因很簡單，因為英國君主永存——因此會有：“國王死了。吾王萬萬歲”。

Instead, the monarchy emerged sadder and wiser from Diana’s death. It remains the grandest European royal house, and it will be years — if it ever happens at all — before it becomes one of the “bicycling monarchies”. Change comes slowly to the House of Windsor. But that is perhaps one of the secrets of its longevity.

戴安娜的死讓英國王室悲傷、同時也更明智了。它仍是歐洲最大的王室，再過許多年、甚至永遠也不會變成一個“王室成員騎自行車”的王室。溫莎王室的變化很緩慢。但是，那或許正是它長存于世的秘訣之一。

In the years since Diana’s death, the Queen’s standing has been restored, and while no one claims that Prince Charles is a popular figure, the public have warmed to his new wife. And all monarchists understand the principle that succession is by accident of birth, which means you have to accept that some members of this uniquely privileged family will be popular, some unpopular, some wise, some foolish, some beautiful and some plain. Like the rest of us.

在戴安娜去世后的這些年里，女王的聲望已恢復，盡管沒人聲稱查爾斯王子受到公眾歡迎，但公眾開始接受他的新妻子了。所有的君主主義者都理解這一原則，即繼承權的取得是出生時的造化決定的。這意味著，你必須接受，這個擁有獨一無二特權的家族的有些成員將受歡迎，有些將不受歡迎，有些將很聰明，有些將很愚蠢，有些將很美麗，有些將相貌平常。就像我們其他人一樣。

The biggest change seems to have been to the country of which Diana might, one day, have been queen. Something akin to hysteria swept Britain in the days after her death, leaving many observers baffled. But outbursts of popular emotion have never been far below the surface, as accounts of Nelson’s homecoming, Kitchener’s death and Churchill’s funeral all attest. The British are still a dutiful and reserved people. But the stiff upper lip was just a stoical, Victorian fashion, and Diana’s obsequies marked an end to it.

最大的變化似乎發(fā)生在這個戴安娜本可能成為女王的國家身上。戴安娜死后，一種類似歇斯底里的情緒橫掃了英國，令許多觀察人士感到困惑。但民眾情緒的爆發(fā)其實無時無刻不在醞釀，正如有關納爾遜(Nelson)回家、基奇納(Kitchener)之死和邱吉爾(Churchill)葬禮的記述所證實的那樣。英國人仍是一個恭順、保守的民族。但保持莊重不過是一種維多利亞時代的克制，戴安娜的葬禮標志著這種行為方式的結束。

In recent television documentaries to mark the anniversary of Diana’s death, her sons have spoken frankly about their grief, and if they can do so, why not anyone?

在近來紀念戴安娜去世的電視紀錄片中，她的兒子們坦率地說出了心中的悲痛，如果他們可以這么做，其他人這么做有何不可?

Of course Britain is not the country it was in 1997. Diana’s end came as a terrible shock for everyone. It took the death of a privileged young woman to free those who might one day have been her people.

今天的英國當然不是1997年時的英國。那時，戴安娜的去世對每個人都是一個可怕的打擊。一位尊貴的年輕女性的死，才換來了原本可能成為她的子民的人們的解放。