如何成為法國人

How to Be French

如何成為法國人

PARIS — I have an unusual item on my to-do list, wedged between home repairs and unwritten thank-you notes: Become French. I’ve begun the long process of gathering documents to apply for French citizenship.

巴黎——從維修房屋到寫感謝信，在我那張?zhí)畹脻M滿當當?shù)拇k事項清單上，有一項顯得非比尋常，那就是成為法國人。我已經(jīng)走上了搜集各種文件，以便申請法國公民資格的漫漫長路。

I’ll remain American, too, of course. I’d be a dual citizen. But becoming French would bring perks. I could vote in French and European elections, stand in faster lines at some airports, work anywhere in the European Union and — crucially — make my children French, too.

當然了，我還將保留美國國籍。我會是一個具有雙重國籍的人。成為法國人是有好處的。我可以在法國和歐洲的選舉中投票，可以在一些機場排到速度較快的隊里，可以在歐盟地區(qū)的任何地方工作——關(guān)鍵是還可以把我的孩子也變成法國人。

But adopting a new nationality, even one from the place I’ve lived for more than 10 years, raises existential issues. I’ve gotten used to being a foreigner. I’m not sure I’m ready to abandon my otherness, which has become an identity in itself. What does “Frenchness” entail? Can it really be acquired? Will I suddenly hold a fork in my left hand, and remember whether it’s un plaisir or une plaisir to meet someone?

但使用新國籍，即便是我已經(jīng)住了十多年的這個國家的國籍，也會帶來一些存在主義的問題。我已經(jīng)習慣于作為外國人而存在了。我不確定自己是否做好了拋棄他者身份的準備，它本身已經(jīng)成為一種身份。“法國風范”(Frenchness)意味著什么?它真的能夠被習得嗎?我會不會突然用左手拿起一把叉子，然后開始想，“見到某人是一件很高興的事”這句話中的“一件”，該用“un”還是“une”來表示?

These are privileged problems, of course. Americans aren’t the ones targeted by the anti-immigrant parties gaining clout across Europe. Thousands of migrants have died this year on boats from Africa to Europe. Migrants in Calais, the French port city, are trying to reach Britain by clinging to the bottom of trucks.

當然了，遇到這些問題是幸運的。美國人并非在整個歐洲影響日盛的一些反移民政黨的目標。今年已經(jīng)有數(shù)千名移民在乘船從非洲前往歐洲時喪了命。法國港口城市加萊的一些移民，正試圖扒在貨車底部前往英國。

I’ll have time to ponder this while I’m pursuing French citizenship. The whole procedure can take years. Amid repeated requests for new documents, some would-be French people just give up.

在申請成為法國公民的過程中，我會有很多時間來思考上述問題。該過程可能要持續(xù)好幾年時間。由于被反復(fù)要求提交新的文件，有些想加入法國國籍的人只好放棄。

This may be by design. “The difficulty of the ordeal seems a means of testing the authenticity of his/her commitment to the project of becoming French,” the sociologists Didier Fassin and Sarah Mazouz concluded in their 2009 paper “What Is It to Become French?” Officials can reject an applicant because he hasn’t adopted French values, or merely because his request isn’t “opportune.”

這可能是當局故意為之。“這種難以承受的煎熬似乎是考驗申請者誠意的方法，看看他們對成為法國人這件事有多投入，”社會學家迪迪埃·法西 (Didier Fassin)和薩拉·馬佐茲(Sarah Mazouz)在發(fā)表于2009年的論文《成為法國人意味著什么?》(What Is It to Become French)中總結(jié)道。工作人員可以因為一個申請人沒有接受法式價值觀而拒絕他，或者僅僅因為他提交申請的時機并不“恰當”。

So far, my favorite part of the application is the option to “Frenchify” my name. In official examples, Mrs. “El Mehri” becomes Mrs. “Emery”; “Ahmed” becomes “Ahmed Alain” (or if he prefers, “Alain Ahmed”); and the Polish immigrant “Jacek Krzysztof Henryk” emerges as the debonair “Maxime.”

到目前為止，申請過程中我最喜歡的一件事是把我的名字“法語化”(Frenchify)。在官方給出的例子中，“邁赫里”(El Mehri)夫人變成了“埃默里”(Emery)夫人，“艾哈邁德”(Ahmed)變成了“艾哈邁德·阿蘭”(Ahmed Alain)，波蘭移民的名字“亞采·克日什托夫·亨里克”(Jacek Krzysztof Henryk)則變成了溫文爾雅的“馬克西姆”(Maxime)。

There’s a long tradition of Frenchification here. Napoleon Bonaparte was born Napoleone di Buonaparte and spoke French with a thick Corsican accent. He and others spent the 19th century transforming France from a nation with a patchwork of regional languages and dialects to one where practically everyone spoke proper French.

“法語化”有悠久的傳統(tǒng)。拿破侖·波拿巴(Napoleon Bonaparte)原名Napoleone di Buonaparte，他說的法語帶有濃重的科西嘉口音。在19世紀，他和其他人一起，把盛行多種地區(qū)語言和方言的法國，轉(zhuǎn)化成了幾乎每個人都說正統(tǒng)法語的國家。

Schools were their main instrument. French schools follow a national curriculum that includes arduous surveys of French philosophy and literature. Frenchmen then spend the rest of their lives quoting Proust to one another, with hardly anyone else catching the references.

他們的主要手段是學校教育。法國學校按照全國統(tǒng)一課程開課，需要學生苦苦研讀法國哲學和文學。法國人彼此交談時喜歡引用普魯斯特，別的人幾乎不懂他們的言下之意。

If it were just a matter of reading your way to Frenchness, I might have a chance. But there’s a whole monde of associations I’m missing, too. When a co-worker recently told me he planned to bring a cactus to our shared office, he assumed I knew this was a metaphor for life’s beauty and pain, and a reference to the lyrics of a Jacques Dutronc song.

如果靠閱讀就能習得法國風范，我可能還有機會。但我完全不能理解法國人的聯(lián)想。最近一位同事告訴我，他打算把仙人掌帶到我們共用的辦公室，他以為我知道這是一個隱喻，指的是生命的美麗和痛苦，出自于雅克·迪特龍克(Jacques Dutronc)的歌詞。

Even the rituals of friendship are different here. The Canadian writer Jean-Benoît Nadeau, who just spent a year in Paris, says there are clues that a French person wants to befriend you: She tells you about her family; she uses self-deprecating humor; and she admits that she likes her job. There’s also the fact that she speaks to you at all. Unlike North Americans, “the French have no compunction about not talking to you.”

在這里，就連友誼的表達方式都不同。加拿大作家讓-伯努瓦·納多(jean-benoit nadeau)剛剛在巴黎住了一年，他說，法國人想要和你交朋友的跡象有：她把自己家人的情況告訴你;她幽默地自我解嘲;她承認喜歡自己的工作。其實她和你說話本身就是個跡象。與北美人不同，“法國人對于不和某人說話是毫不愧疚的”。

Apparently, being a Parisian woman has its own requirements. The new book “How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are” says Parisiennes are “imperfect, vague, unreliable and full of paradoxes” and have “that typically French enthusiasm for transforming life into fiction.” I need to cultivate an “air of fragility,” too.

做一名巴黎女性似乎也有獨特的要求。新書《無論身在何處，都可以當巴黎人》(How to Be Parisian Wherever You Are)稱，巴黎人的特點就是“不完美、含糊不清、不可靠和充滿悖論”，擁有“那種把生活轉(zhuǎn)化成小說的典型的法國式熱情”。我也需要培養(yǎng)“一種脆弱性”。

Inspired by the culinary expressions in Clotilde Dusoulier’s book “Edible French,” I’ve also been waiting for the chance to tell someone he’s making “a whole cheese” out of nothing, and to complain that a meeting lasted “as long as a day without bread.” I’m planning to tell the official at my naturalization interview — who’ll be measuring my level of integration — that I’m as comfortable in Paris as “a rooster in dough.”

克蘿蒂·杜蘇里埃(Clotilde Dusoulier)的書《食用法國》(Edible French)使用烹飪的語言表達想法，我也受此啟發(fā)，一直在等待機會告訴某人，他正在無中生有出“一整塊奶酪”，抱怨會議漫長得“好像一整天都沒有面包吃”。我打算在入籍面試時，對那位負責測評我的融入程度的官員說：我在巴黎，就像“一只公雞在面團里”那樣舒適。

But true Frenchness can’t be faked. My husband (who’s British, and not trying to become French) is convinced that Parisians even walk differently. Apparently nobody expects me to achieve a state of inner Frenchness. At a naturalization ceremony that the two sociologists observed, an official told new citizens that they were granted French nationality because they had assimilated “not to the point where you entirely resemble native French people, yet enough so that you feel at ease among us.”

但是真正的法國風范是不能偽裝的。我的丈夫(他是英國人，沒有試圖成為法國人)深信，巴黎人就連走路的方式都不同。顯然，沒有人指望我能從骨子里有法國風范。有兩位社會學家曾說，在一次入籍儀式上，一名官員告訴新的公民：雖然他們還沒有被同化到“完全類似于法國土著的程度，但是達到了在我們中間可以怡然自得的程度”，因此被授予了法國國籍。