美國前總統(tǒng)比爾•克林頓說不定要成為該國the first “First Gentleman”了。
不過要當好這個角色須有一項必備技能,演講!看看人家米歇爾。
在26日晚的民主黨大會上,比爾•克林頓也為自己的妻子站上了講臺,力挺希拉里。
這場演講,克林頓話嘮屬性暴露,一講就講了40多分鐘,贊美希拉里的政績之余,還破天荒大談兩人的甜蜜戀愛史。為了拉票也是拼了……
外媒說:
His opening section, a seemingly endless blow-by-blow account of Bill and Hillary Clinton in the 1970s, was like listening to the most fascinating tedious old man you'd ever heard.
演講開篇的部分有枝有葉地描述了比爾和希拉里在上世紀70年代的故事,就像在聽一個迷人又枯燥老頭子沒完沒了的講述。
Only Clinton could deliver such a dull text and make it work.
只有克林頓能把這樣無聊的演講稿說出來,還能收到如此好的效果。
—摘自CNBC
克林頓使的這一招就是“Killing you with details”,用細節(jié)殺死你。
好了,來看視頻感受一下現(xiàn)場氣氛吧??肆诸D語速非常慢,聽懂不難,你行的!
如果聽不懂,我們還有部分文本。
In the spring of 1971 I met a girl.
1971年的春天,我遇到了一個女孩。
The first time I saw her we were, appropriately enough, in a class on political and civil rights. She had thick blond hair, big glasses, wore no makeup, and she had a sense of strength and self-possession that I found magnetic.
我第一次見到她,是在政治與公民權(quán)利的課堂上,真應(yīng)景。她金發(fā)濃密,戴著一副大眼鏡,素面朝天,自帶一種堅毅和沉著的氣場,我被她深深地吸引了。
年輕時的希拉里。
After the class I followed her out, intending to introduce myself. I got close enough to touch her back, but I couldn’t do it. Somehow I knew this would not be just another tap on the shoulder, that I might be starting something I couldn’t stop.
課后,我尾隨她出了教室,想要自我介紹。我走得離她那么近,近到能伸手碰到她的背,但還是不敢。不知怎么地,我意識到,這不會是拍拍肩膀那么簡單,這可能會是一件一旦開始就停不下來的事情。
And I saw her several more times in the next few days, but I still didn’t speak to her. Then one night I was in the law library talking to a classmate who wanted me to join the Yale Law Journal. He said it would guarantee me a job in a big firm or a clerkship with a federal judge. I really wasn’t interested, I just wanted to go home to Arkansas.
接下來幾天,我又見到她好幾次,但一直沒有開口和她說話。之后,有個晚上我正在法學(xué)圖書館里和一個同學(xué)聊天,那人想勸我加入《耶魯法律期刊》,他說這份經(jīng)歷將能保我拿到好工作,比如在大公司任職或者成為聯(lián)邦法官的書記員。但我實在不感興趣,那時我只想回阿肯色州的老家。
Then I saw the girl again, standing at the opposite end of that long room. Finally she was staring back at me, so I watched her. She closed her book, put it down and started walking toward me. She walked the whole length of the library, came up to me and said, “Look, if you’re going to keep staring at me, –and now I’m staring back – we at least ought to know each other’s name. I’m Hillary Rodham, who are you?”
就在這時,我又看到了那個女孩,她就站在那間長長的屋子的另一頭。終于她也看向了我,我呢,就一直盯著她看。她把手里的書合上,放下,然后向我走來。她穿過長長的圖書館,走到我跟前,對我說:“好吧,如果你打算繼續(xù)這么盯著我看——沒錯我也在看你——我們起碼應(yīng)該知道彼此的名字。我叫希拉里•羅德哈姆,你呢?”
I was so impressed and surprised that, whether you believe it or not, momentarily I was speechless.
這實在是太震驚了,你們相信嗎,那一瞬間我竟然一句話也說不出來。
Finally, I sort of blurted out my name and we exchanged a few words and then she went away.
終于,我恍惚著脫口報上自己的名字。我們簡短地交談了幾句,她就走了。
兩人1970年在耶魯圖書館相識,當時克林頓還是大學(xué)新生,希拉里高他一屆。
Well, I didn’t join the Law Review, but I did leave that library with a whole new goal in mind.
結(jié)果是,我沒有加入那份期刊,但當我離開圖書館時,一個全新的目標已經(jīng)出現(xiàn)在我的腦中。
A couple of days later, I saw her again. I remember, she was wearing a long, white, flowery skirt. And I went up to her and she said she was going to register for classes for the next term. And I said I’d go, too. And we stood in line and talked — you had to do that to register back then — and I thought I was doing pretty well until we got to the front of the line and the registrar looked up and said, “Bill, what are you doing here, you registered morning?”
幾天后,我再次遇見她。我還記得,她穿的是一件長長的白色印花裙。我走過去,她告訴我,她正準備去登記注冊下學(xué)期要上的課程。我說,真巧我也要去。然后我們就排著隊聊著天(是的,那時候注冊課程就是要現(xiàn)場排隊),我還想著自己真是太機智了,誰知當我們排到隊伍最前頭的時候,工作人員抬頭看看我,然后問:“比爾,你來做什么?你不是上午就注冊過了嗎?”
I turned red and she laughed that big laugh of hers. And I thought, well, heck, since my cover’s been blown I just went ahead and asked her to take a walk down to the art museum.
我的臉唰地一下紅了,而她當場大笑——就像你們后來所見過那種大笑。我那時想,好吧,見鬼,既然被戳穿了,那我干脆直接邀請她和我散步到藝術(shù)博物館去吧。
克林頓和希拉里在耶魯校園的舊照,嬉皮士模樣的兩人當時剛剛在耶魯藝術(shù)博物館看完馬克·羅斯科的展。
We’ve been walking and talking and laughing together ever since. And we’ve done it in good times and bad, through joy and heartbreak. We cried together this morning on the news that our good friend and a lot of your good friend, Mark Weiner, passed away early this morning.
從那時起,我們就一直這樣,一起走著聊著笑著,不論生活順與不順,不論我們是喜悅或傷悲。就在今天早上,我倆還因為共同的好朋友Mark Weiner去世的消息而一起落淚。
We’ve built up a lifetime of memories. After the first month and that first walk, I actually drove her home to Park Ridge, Illinois, to meet her family and see the town where she grew up, a perfect example of post World War II middle-class America, street after street of nice houses, great schools, good parks, a big public swimming pool, and almost all white.
我們共同創(chuàng)造了一輩子的記憶。就在那個月和那次散步之后,我開車送她回到位于伊利諾伊州帕克里奇的家中,見到了她的家人,也看到了她從小長大的城鎮(zhèn)。那是一個典型的后二戰(zhàn)中產(chǎn)美國城鎮(zhèn)。一條街連著一條街林立著漂亮的房子、學(xué)校、公園,還有一個很大的公共游泳池,幾乎清一色的白色。
...
I was trying to convince her to marry me.
之后,我努力說服她嫁給我。
I first proposed to her on a trip to Great Britain, the first time she had been overseas. And we were on the shoreline of this wonderful little lake, Lake Ennerdale. I asked her to marry me and she said I can’t do it.
第一次求婚是在我們?nèi)ビ穆猛局?,在那之前她沒有出過國。那時我們在一個名為恩納代爾的美麗的小湖邊,我請求希拉里嫁給我,她說,不行。
希拉里說,克林頓是第一個不怕她的男人。
So in 1974 I went home to teach in the law school and Hillary moved to Massachusetts… to keep working on children’s issues.
于是1974年,我回到家鄉(xiāng),在一所法學(xué)院任教。希拉里則搬到了馬薩諸塞州,繼續(xù)忙著為兒童爭取權(quán)益。
Meanwhile, I was still trying to get her to marry me.
但我沒有放棄,還想著要把她娶回家。
So the second time I tried a different tack. I said I really want you to marry me, but you shouldn’t do it.
所以,第二次求婚時我換了一個套路。我對她說:“我真的很希望你能嫁給我,但你不該這樣做。”
And she smiled and looked at me, like, what is this boy up to? She said that is not a very good sales pitch. I said I know, but it’s true. And I meant it, it was true.
她微笑地看著我,那表情就像在問,這孩子在干嘛呢?她說道,這可不是一句很好的求婚臺詞。我說我知道,但我說的是實話,我也確實是這么想的。
I said I know most of the young Democrats our age who want to go into politics, they mean well and they speak well, but none of them is as good as you are at actually doing things to make positive changes in people’s lives.
我跟她說,我知道,絕大部分像我們這樣年輕的民主黨人如果想要步入政壇,他們多半是懷著美好的愿望,說著漂亮的話,但沒有哪個比得上你,用實際行動來改變?nèi)藗兊纳睢?/p>
So I suggested she go home to Illinois or move to New York and look for a chance to run for office. She just laughed and said, “are you out of you mind, nobody would ever vote for me.” 于是,我建議她回到伊利諾伊州,或者到搬到紐約去,在那些地方尋找競選參政的機會。她笑了,然后說,“你瘋了吧,沒有人會給我投票的。”
So I finally got her to visit me in Arkansas. And when she did, the people at the law school were so impressed they offered a teaching position. And she decided to take a huge chance. She moved to a strange place, more rural, more culturally conservative than any place she had ever been.
總之后來我成功邀請她來阿肯色州探訪我了。她來了之后,法學(xué)院的人都對她印象太好了,甚至希望她留下來教書。而她也就此決定冒一個大險,搬到這個陌生的地方,而此處比她到過的任何地方都要更偏僻,在文化上都更為保守。
And one day I was driving her to the airport to fly back to Chicago. When we passed this little brick house that had a for sale sign on it, she said, “boy, that’s a pretty house.” It had 1,100 square feet, an atticfan and no air conditioner in hot Arkansas, and a screened-in porch.
后來有一天,我開車送她去機場搭乘飛回芝加哥的航班。我們經(jīng)過一座貼著“出售”布告的小磚房時,她說:“嘿,這房子真漂亮。”那房子有1100平方英尺大(約102平方米),坐落在炎熱的阿肯色州卻只有吊扇而沒有空調(diào),還帶一個封閉式的門廊。
Hillary commented on what a uniquely designed and beautiful house it was. So I took a big chance. I bought the house. My mortgage was $175 a month.
希拉里夸它設(shè)計獨特,相當漂亮。所以,我決定賭一把,買下了這座房子。當時我按揭付款,每個月是175美元。
When she came back, I picked up her up and I said, “you remember that house you liked” She said yeah. I said, “while you were gone I bought it, you have to marry me now.”
她回來的那天,我去接她,問她:“還記得你說你喜歡的那個房子嗎?”她說記得呀。我說:“你走了以后我把它買下來了,現(xiàn)在你必須要嫁給我了。”
The third time was the charm.
嗯,凡事做到第三次總是會成功的。
兩人1975年10月11日在阿肯色州的費耶特維爾舉行了婚禮。
一秒毀掉小清新……
這篇演講字里行間都透著克林頓對妻子的綿綿愛意,不過,廣大吃瓜群眾表示,我們還沒有忘掉克林頓大叔那宗轟動一時的丑聞呢……