伊麗莎白女王臨終前留下兩封信:她“最后的未竟事業(yè)”

Before her death, Queen Elizabeth wrote two private letters—one for her son, King Charles, and another for her top aide.
伊麗莎白女王在去世前寫了兩封私人信件——一封給她的兒子查爾斯國王，另一封給她的高級助手。

In an excerpt of royal biographer Robert Hardman’s book, The Making of a King: King Charles III and the Modern Monarchy (out Jan. 18), in the Daily Mail on Friday, the author describes how staff discovered two private letters that the Queen had left behind after her death on Sept. 8, 2022.
王室傳記作家羅伯特·哈德曼的書《國王的形成:國王查理三世和現(xiàn)代君主制》(1月18日出版)摘錄于周五的《每日郵報》，作者描述了工作人員如何發(fā)現(xiàn)女王于2022年9月8日去世后留下的兩封私人信件。

In the aftermath of the Queen’s death at Balmoral Castle, senior staff, including the monarch’s private secretary Sir Edward Young, were mapping out the days ahead when a footman brought them one of the Queen’s famous red boxes. The red box is the daily dispatch of papers from ministers around the U.K. There may also be documents and correspondence from representatives from the Commonwealth and other countries around the world. 
女王在巴爾莫勒爾堡去世后，包括女王私人秘書愛德華·楊爵士在內(nèi)的高級官員正在規(guī)劃未來的日子，一名男仆給他們帶來了女王著名的紅盒子之一。這個紅盒子是英國各國部長每天發(fā)送的文件，也可能是英聯(lián)邦和世界其他國家代表的文件和信件。

“It was the last one that had gone up to the Queen before her death,” Hardman writes in the excerpt. “Like all red boxes, it had just two keys, one for the monarch and the other for her duty private secretary.”
哈德曼在節(jié)選中寫道:“這是女王去世前最后一封寫給她的信。”“像所有的紅盒子一樣，它只有兩把鑰匙，一把給女王，另一把給她的值班私人秘書。”

Inside the box, Young found that the Queen had left a sealed letter to Prince Charles and a private letter to himself. 
在盒子里，楊發(fā)現(xiàn)女王給查爾斯王子留下了一封密封的信，還有一封給他自己的私人信件。

“We will probably never know what they said. However, it is clear enough that the Queen had known that the end was imminent and had planned accordingly. Were they final instructions or final farewells? Or both?” Hardman writes. “Elizabeth II had been completing her own last pieces of unfinished business.”
“我們可能永遠不會知道他們說了什么。然而，很明顯，女王已經(jīng)知道末日即將來臨，并做出了相應(yīng)的計劃。這是最后的指示還是最后的告別?還是兩個?”Hardman寫道。“伊麗莎白二世一直在完成自己最后的未竟事業(yè)。”

The Queen also left behind her list of candidates to join the order of Merit — her final royal duty.
女王還留下了她的榮譽勛章候選人名單，這是她最后的王室職責(zé)。

“The Queen had always taken it extremely seriously,” Hardman writes in Daily Mail’s excerpt. “The paperwork had gone up to her two days before so that she could go through the notes and tick her choices. Here it was, completed and returned for Sir Edward to make the necessary arrangements. It was the last document ever handled by Queen Elizabeth II. Even on her deathbed, there had been work to do. And she had done it.”
哈德曼在《每日郵報》的摘錄中寫道:“女王一直非常認(rèn)真地對待這件事。她在兩天前就收到了文件，這樣她就可以瀏覽一下筆記，然后在上面打勾。信就在這兒，寫好了，交給愛德華爵士作必要的安排。這是女王伊麗莎白二世處理過的最后一份文件。即使在臨終之時，她也有工作要做。她做到了。”