主题：西方，西方媒体，中国，俄国，智者。 -- CaoMeng

西方，西方媒体，中国，俄国，智者。

作者序

The Missing Chapter –

A Personal View of Russia–Twenty Years After

失踪的章页 -

对俄罗斯的个人看法-二十年以后

Every so often, one of my readers enquires as to why I do not write a book. The answer seems obvious enough: it has already been done.

常常有读者问我为什么我不写一本书。回答很简单：书早就有了。

The libraries are groaning under the weight of millions of them – in our native France, everyone who can manage rudimentary verb conjugation feels compelled to bequeath his opus to an expectant world. With that many writers, who has the time to

read?

图书馆都在百万雄书的压力下呻吟了-在我们的法国，每个会运用动词的人都觉得必须将自己的名著遗留于世。有这么多的作家，谁有时间去读书啊？

And besides, it has all been said already – and better – by Proust, by Borges, by Kafka, by the Great Russian classic authors of the 19th Century. What could I hope to add?

再说了，所有该说的都被说了-而且还说的更好 - 被Proust, 被 Borges, 被 Kafka,还有19世纪的伟大俄罗斯经典作家们。我又能加什么呢？

Yet when invited to contribute a chapter to a book being put together by one local financial institution, collectively authored by 20 (ah… make that 19…) of that first generation of expats involved in the creation of Russia’s first approximations to a capital market, and who were then mad enough to stick around as it all unravelled, crashed and burned (but to reincarnate in

something rather less surrealistic), it seemed a very worthy undertaking.

但当被邀请去为当地金融机构编辑的，20个（啊。。。改成19个。。。）创立建设俄国第一个近似金融市场的东东，而且癫狂得在其崩溃（不过演化为了没有以前那么超现实主义的东东）以后继续坚守的第一代外籍人士，集体创作的一本书，提供一章节的时候，我觉得值此一举。

I did caution them that my chapter was likely to be rather spicy; one of the wonderful things about Russia is that total absence of political correctness which we enjoy.

我告戒过他们我的章节会很辣；俄罗斯的美好之处之一就是她丝毫没有一点我们享受的政治正确性。

The story recaps some of the highlights of my 15 years before the mast – amidst the madness that was early post-Soviet Moscow, or at least what I can remember of it (no one who fully participated in the Great Party at the Edge of the Apocalypse made it out without sacrificing a few brain cells along the way…).

这个故事重温了一下我在旗杆下15年的亮点-在苏联刚刚瓦解后的莫斯科疯狂之中，至少我还能记住的部分（没有人能够在完全参与了举办在世界末日边缘的伟大宴会之后而不牺牲几个脑细胞的）。

While I had imagined that I could jot it all down in an afternoon, I ultimately spent days, weeks, writing and re-writing what was meant to be an intensely personal account… an ego trip if you will, but that is what was requested of me.

本来我以为我可以在一天下午之内全部写下来，但最终我花了整天，整星期，写和重写一部特别个人的故事。。。一个自我之旅，不过这就是我被要求写的。

All in vain! My foray into the literary world was to fall victim to the very cowardice and group-think I have long decried in the Western media.

全部白费了！ 我在文学世界的第一个探险式进军马上就被我长期以来声讨的西方媒介中的懦弱和集团思考给毁了。

To make a long story short – while the initial drafts were received with great enthusiasm by the Moscow sponsor, when they forwarded the finalized version to London, the response from the publisher neatly summarized everything that is corrupt, cowardly, bent and cloyingly hypocritical about British Media and their coverage of Russia.

把长事短说-虽然初稿被莫斯科的发起人热烈欢迎，但当他们将定稿送往伦敦的时候，出版商的回应很干净利落地总结了所有英国媒介以及他们对俄国的报道的腐败，懦弱，曲折和狡猾的虚伪。

According to the UK publisher, to refer to convicted criminals – as “criminals”; to bent ministers – as “bent”; to purported journalists engaged in nothing more than propaganda-for-pay – as “propagandists” (thus avoiding a more colourful term) detracted from the credibility of my story.

根据英国出版商，将被定了罪的罪犯称为“罪犯”；将奸邪的官员称为“奸邪” ； 将名义上的新闻工作者却从事于收钱宣传的记者称为“宣传员”（这样避免了更丰富的词汇， 草蜢注：这个更丰富的词汇应该是Prostitute,及小姐,也就是现代中文中所说的“妓者”）将减损我故事的可信性。

In short, he demanded that my baby be gutted like an eel!

简单地说，他要求将我的婴儿像鳗鱼一样被挖出内脏。

Excerpts from his reptilian letter (highlighting is my own):

他恶心的信件中的摘录（黑体是我标出的）：

“… I am now attaching an edited version of the chapter by Eric Kraus. As discussed, as well as a more general edit, I have toned down the accusations and removed names where I think there might be problems. I believe the substantive points being made by the author are still there. More importantly I believe that the points being made are clearer and stronger for having been made less personal and more impartial.

… Being sued for libel is perhaps unlikely… What is much more likely is not being taken seriously – and that would be a pity because this chapter has the potential to make a valuable contribution with its firsthand/inside knowledge. Why might it not be taken seriously? Because personal accusations, whether true or not, will diminish the authority of the work (and of the book as a whole). There is no need to name names in quite the way that is proposed here. The same substantial points can be better made without this…”

“我现在将附加一个编辑后的Eric Kraus的文章。根据我们谈过的，和作为一般的普通编辑，我在一些我认为会造成问题的部分淡化了各项指控和除去了实名。我相信作者的实质性要点还在。更重要的是我相信这些要点在被修改为少一点个人化多一点客观化以后变为更清楚更强大了。。。

被以诽谤起诉可能性不大。。。但更可能的是不被当真-那会是一个遗憾因为这章带有内部消息的文章有潜力做出很有用的贡献。为什么会不被当真？因为关于个人的指控，不管真假，都会会减少这部作品的权威性（以及整本书）。这里没有必要将实名列出来。同样的要点可以不用这些而被提出。。。”

Needless to say, T&B cleans such folk out from between his toes. I certainly do not intend to be censored by some pitiable denizen of a dying civilization that still imagines itself to rule the (air)waves. He – and his ilk – are fated to drown while clinging desperately to the status quo, as it disappears beneath the waves of history.

不用说，T&B会将这种人从他的脚丫里清洗出来。 我绝对不会让一些在一个濒临死亡却幻想自己仍然统治着（广播频道）波浪的文明中苟且偷生的可怜虫和谐我。他-和他的一类 - 命中注定了将被淹没却在拼命地抓住现状不放，正当其（现状）正在历史的波澜中消失。

But – dear reader – let it be you who draws their own conclusions as to what adds – and what detracts – from the story! I have restored the London redactions, highlighted in blue. Do please tell whether you think it better with or without!

不过-亲爱的读者-请你自己决定什么应该从故事中被补充-什么应该被减去！我恢复了伦敦的删节，用蓝色突出。请告诉我你以为它们是有好还是不有好！

In fact, I would recommend that you buy the book, print my chapter, and just paste it in. I would be deeply gratified to find my little literary cripple in the company of the stories of my peers from those best – and worst – of times.

事实上，我推荐你买这本书，将我的章节印出来，然后粘贴回去。我将会深感欣慰地发现我的文学小跛子站在我同行的故事之中-那些从最好-和最坏-的时代出来的故事。

Given the effort which went into this Quixotic undertaking – I would strongly encourage all to forward the following pages around to anyone who might be interested/amused/outraged – or best, some combination of all three.

既然我已经将很大的努力加入了这个唐吉诃德式的事业-我强烈地鼓励所有人将下列文章传送给任何会有兴趣/会被逗乐/会感到愤慨-或最好，会感到所用三项结合的人。

• 通过西方的瞳孔-俄国是整么被误解的