The isolation ward.docxVIP

The isolation ward 闭关锁国 （陈继龙 译） Mar 1st 2007 From The Economist print edition MOST writing about the benighted[1] land of Burma, dubbed Myanmar by the grotesque[2] junta running it, falls into one of two traps. Either it plumps[3] for simplification, which is pardonable given the justness of its moral outrage. The conflict does indeed come closer than almost any other to one between baddies (the junta) and the followers of a super-goody (the almost-permanently detained opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi).At the other extreme, some writers become bogged down[4] in the bewildering complexity underneath this simple framework: the tangled[5] skein of ethnic rivalries and grudges that have fuelled one of the worlds longest running civil wars, fought by more than a dozen armed insurgencies around Myanmars borders. 缅甸（Myanmar）是一个愚昧落后的国家，荒唐可笑的执政军政府又称之为Burma。有关该国的大多数文学作品都难免走向两个极端之一。有的过于简单化，这倘若出于合情合理的道德义愤，倒是可以原谅的。这些作品通篇展现的几乎都是反派（指军政府）与正派（指几乎遭永久软禁的反对党领袖昂山素季）之间的冲突，别无它物。这是一个极端，另一个极端则是，有的作家过分纠缠于这一简单构架中所蕴藏的令人眼花缭乱的复杂性：缅甸边境地区十多个武装叛乱力量挑起的内战，在纷繁芜杂的种族对峙和积怨的推波助澜下，成了世界最旷日持久的内战之一。 Thant Myint-Us fine book seeks the middle ground. An academic historian and a former United Nations official, Mr Thant accuses the simplifiers of an “ahistorical” approach. He argues, justifiably, that Myanmar is “seen within the prism[6] of the past ten or 20 years, as if three Anglo-Burmese wars, a century of colonial rule, an immensely destructive Japanese invasion and occupation, and five decades of civil war, foreign intervention and Communist insurgency had never happened.” 相比上述两个极端，吴丹敏（Thant Myint-U）的优秀著作则中规中矩。吴丹敏是一位注重理论研究的历史学家，曾在联合国任职。他指责简单化者在对待缅甸历史问题上“一叶障目”。他认为，“这些人的眼里只有过去10年或20年的缅甸，三次英缅战争（Anglo-Burmese wars）、一个世纪的殖民统治、日本人侵占造成的巨大破坏以及长达五十年的内战、外国干涉内政和缅共叛乱，等等这些似乎从未发生过。” His book is part personal memoir, part history and part polemic[7]. He tells the history of Myanmar from ancient times in an accessible and engaging way. But this is intended also as a contribution to a debate that has raged for nearly