No Other Choice—别无选择（乔治·布莱克）（第二章~Section 5）
A rather colourful member of the family was uncle Max, the younger brother of my uncle Daniel. He was a tall, broad-shouldered man with handsome features. Being a sleeping partner in his brother's firm, he didn't do any work himself and led the life of a playboy. He had great charm and many mistresses. He used to get up late in the morning, spend a long time dressing and after lunch went out to play bridge, visit his many friends, and attend dinner parties. He usually ended the day in a fashionable nightclub. He took an amused, if somewhat detached, interest in me and was always very kind.
【马克斯姑父是我们家一个相当有趣的成员，他是我姑父丹尼尔的弟弟。他身材高大，肩膀宽阔，相貌英俊。作为他哥哥公司的合伙人，他自己什么工作也不做，过着花花公子的生活。他很有魅力，情妇也很多。他经常早上起床很晚，花很长时间穿衣服，午饭后出去打桥牌，拜访他的许多朋友，参加晚宴。他通常在时髦的夜总会结束一天的生活。他对我很感兴趣，虽然多少有些疏远，但他总是很和蔼可亲。】
Although we were all related to each other, one way or another, all the inhabitants of the large house had different nationalities. The Curiel family, having originally come from Tuscany, my uncle and aunt had Italian nationality. Uncle Max however, for some reason or other, had an Egyptian passport. My aunt Marie had retained her Turkish nationality. My cousin Raoul was French, but his brother Henri, about whom more later, out of solidarity with the Egyptian masses had opted for Egyptian nationality. I was a British subject.
【虽然我们彼此之间都有这样或那样的关系，但这所大房子里的居民都是不同的民族。库列尔家族最初来自托斯卡纳，我的姑父和姑姑有意大利国籍。同时，由于某种原因，马克斯姑父有埃及护照。我的姑姑玛丽保留了她的土耳其国籍。我的堂兄拉乌尔是法国人，但他的弟弟亨利(后来更多人提到亨利)出于与埃及民众的团结，选择了埃及国籍。我是英国的国籍。】
My uncle and aunt began by sending me to a French school so that I would learn to speak French fluently as soon as possible. In the years before the war French was the language used by educated people of the many national communities in the Middle East. They had intended to send me to the French Jesuit College in Cairo, where their two sons had been educated, but here I felt I had to put my foot down. I had been brought up in the Protestant tradition and the thought of going to a Catholic school and one run by Jesuits to boot, frankly shocked me. I told my aunt that my Dutch family would be very worried if they knew I was going to a Catholic school. She at once saw the point and decided to send me to the French Lycee, a secular establishment, instead. It had a very good reputation and ran special classes to teach French to the sons of well-to-do Egyptians. The year I spent at that school was not a very happy one, though I did learn to speak French pretty well. My class mates were mostly Egyptian, the spoilt sons of rich parents and several years older than myself. Outside the classroom they spoke Arabic with each other, a language I did not know at that time, so I had little contact with them. I made only one friend there and he was a Copt.
【我的姑父和姑姑一开始把我送到一所法语学校，以便我能尽快学会流利地说法语。在战争前的几年里，法语是中东许多国家受过教育的人使用的语言。他们本来打算把我送到位于开罗的法国耶稣会学院，他们的两个儿子就是在那里接受教育的，但在这里，我觉得我必须坚定自己的立场。我是在新教传统中长大的，一想到要上天主教学校，还有一所由耶稣会教士开办的学校，坦率地说，我就感到惊讶。我告诉姑姑，如果我的荷兰家人知道我要去一所天主教学校，他们会非常担心的。她立刻理解了，并决定把我送到法国中学，一个世俗的学校。它名声很好，专门为富裕的埃及人的儿子开设法语课程。我在那所学校度过的一年不是很快乐，尽管我确实学会了说一口很好的法语。我的同班同学大多是埃及人，他们都是富家子弟，比我大好几岁。在教室外，他们用阿拉伯语互相交流，这是一种我当时不懂的语言，所以我很少和他们接触。我在那里只交了一个朋友，他是科普特人。】
I have often wondered what would have happened if I had not objected and had gone to the Jesuit College. I might well have ended up a Jesuit father myself.
【我经常想，如果我没有反对，去了耶稣会学院，会发生什么。我自己可能会成为一个神父。】
My aunts and uncle were very kind to me and did everything they could to make me feel at home. Very soon I developed a great liking for my uncle and he for me. I started to accompany him on his walks or on visits to various Egyptian ministries where he frequently had appointments. From time to time he would take me with him to his office where I would sit in his room and listen to what was being transacted. He had given up all hope by that time that his sons, who both had strong left-wing views, would take over the family firm and I had a feeling that he began to look on me as a possible successor. I doubt whether I would have been suitable material. I had never felt attracted to business and had not felt in the least sorry that my father's firm had gone bankrupt. Be that as it may, violent upheavals were soon to occur which put an end to any such plans.
【我的姑姑和姑父对我很好，他们尽一切可能让我有家的感觉。很快我就喜欢上了姑父，他也喜欢上了我。我开始陪他散步，或去埃及的各个部门访问，在那里他经常有任命。他有时会带我去他的办公室，我坐在他的房间里，听他谈生意。到时候，他的两个儿子将接管家族企业，他们都有强烈的左翼思想，姑父已经不对他们有所期待了。我感觉到，他开始把我看作是一个可能的继承人。我怀疑自己是否是合适的人选。我从来没有对商业感兴趣过，也从来没有对父亲公司的破产感到过丝毫的遗憾。尽管如此，不久就会发生剧烈的动乱，使任何这样的计划都化为泡影。】
My uncle and aunt, in order to escape the heat of the Egyptian summer, every year spent a few months in Europe, mostly in France, where they had many relatives. I was given the choice of accompanying them or spending my school holidays in Holland. Without hesitation I opted for the latter. Although I was happy in Cairo, I missed my Dutch family very much and counted the days to the start of the summer holidays. On a small calendar over my bed I struck off the days as they passed.
【我的姑父和姑姑为了躲避埃及夏天的炎热，每年都要在欧洲呆几个月，主要是在法国，在那里他们有很多亲戚。我可以选择陪他们去，或者去荷兰度假。我毫不犹豫地选择了后者。虽然我在开罗过得很开心，但我非常想念我的荷兰家人，我会数着暑假开始的日子。我在床头的小日历上记下每天的日子。】
A friend of ours in Rotterdam was a shipping agent and he secured a passage for me as a passenger on a Norwegian freighter, which plied regularly between Antwerp and Piraeus, calling at various Mediterranean ports. When, early in June, I climbed up the companion ladder of the SS Bruse Jarl as she lay at anchor off the Greek port of Patras an unforgettable period in my boyhood years began. For the next month I led the kind of life most boys at the age of fourteen dream of. At first I was simply a passenger, but gradually I became involved in the ship's life and by the end of the voyage I had become almost a full-blown member of the crew. I would regularly take my turn at the wheel and in between help with the chipping and painting or, if it was foggy, go up aloft in the crow's nest as a look-out.
【我们在鹿特丹的一位朋友是一位货运代理，他安排我成为了一艘挪威货轮的乘客，这艘货轮定期往返于安特卫普和比雷埃夫斯之间，停靠地中海的各个港口。六月初，当布鲁斯·贾尔号停泊在希腊佩特拉斯港外时，我爬上舷梯，童年时代一段难忘的时光便开始了。在接下来的一个月里，我过着大多数14岁男孩梦寐以求的生活。一开始我只是一名乘客，但渐渐地我融入了这艘船的生活，到航行结束时，我几乎已经成为一名成熟的船员。我会定期轮流驾驶，在此期间，我还会帮忙清理碎片和油漆，如果有雾的话，我还会到高空的观景台上去望风。】
The last port of call before Antwerp was London and so for the first time in my life I was to set foot on the land to which by nationality I belonged and for which the precepts of my father had filled me with deep respect and admiration. As we proceeded up the Channel a feeling of mounting excitement, as if before some great event, began to get hold of me, heightened by the general air of anticipation and bustle usual on board a ship approaching a big port after some time at sea. It was a beautiful summer morning with a slight haze when I got my first glimpse of England, the low shore line and white and black lighthouse of Dungeness where we picked up the pilot. I looked at him with interest for he seemed to me a rather special person, the first Englishman I saw who actually lived in England. Late that afternoon a small tug pulled us through the locks into East India Dock. As soon as the ship was tied up and the gangway had been lowered, I stepped ashore. As I was familiar with the atmosphere of Rotterdam, its dockland areas, its working-class houses, its pubs, warehouses, railway lines, disreputable cafes and seamen's clubs, my first walk in London along the Commercial Road brought nothing new except that everything seemed just that little bit grimier and shabbier than in my home town. What struck me most was the people. Did these often undersized, sharp featured, agile and wiry men belong to the same nation as those tall, good-looking, languid young officers I had seen playing polo at the Gezira Sporting Club? I had not then heard of Disraeli's two nations, but this was exactly the impression I got on that first visit. It was as if two nations inhabited England, different not only in habits, language and culture, but even in physical appearance.
【安特卫普之前的最后一个停靠港是伦敦，因此，我一生中第一次踏上了这片土地，因为我的国籍是属于这块土地的，我父亲的训诫使我对这块土地充满了深深的敬意和钦佩。我们沿着英吉利海峡向前驶去，一种越来越激动的感觉开始攫住了我，仿佛即将发生什么大事似的。当一艘船在海上航行了一段时间后，驶近一个大港口时，船上通常会有一种期待和忙碌的气氛，这种气氛使我的心情变得更加激动。那是一个美丽的夏日早晨，我第一次看到了英国，我看到了低处的海岸线和邓杰内斯黑白相间的灯塔，我们在那里找到了飞行员。我饶有兴趣地看着他，因为对我来说，他似乎是一个相当特殊的人，是我见到的第一个真正生活在英国的英国人。那天下午晚些时候，一艘小拖船把我们拉过船闸，驶进了东印度码头。船一系好，跳板放下，我就上岸了。是我熟悉的鹿特丹的环境，熟悉的鹿特丹的码头区，熟悉的鹿特丹工人阶级的房屋，熟悉的鹿特丹的酒吧、仓库、铁路、声名狼藉的咖啡馆和海员俱乐部。我第一次沿着伦敦商业路漫步，除了觉得这里的一切都比我的家乡更肮脏、更破旧之外，并没有什么新鲜的东西。给我印象最深的是这里的人民。这些身材矮小、眉清眼秀、身手敏捷、瘦削结实的男人，是不是和我在杰济拉体育俱乐部见到的那些身材高大、相貌英俊、无精打采的年轻军官们属于同一个国家呢?当时我还没有听说过迪斯雷利的两个国家，但这正是我第一次访问时的印象。就好像居住在英国的是两个民族，他们不仅在习惯、语言和文化上不同，甚至在外表上也不同。】
