《经济学人》双语：韩国顶流艺人金硕珍服兵役

原文标题：
Conscription in South Korea
BTS takes on Kim Jong Un
Military service may be a bit duller than stardom for Jin
韩国的征兵制度
防弹少年团挑战金正恩
对金硕珍来说，服兵役可能比当明星更沉闷一些
 
Boy band of brothers
男子乐团

[Paragraph 1]
KIM SEOK-JIN is in the globally trendsetting, fabulously lucrative prime of his career.
金硕珍正处于职业生涯的巅峰期，引领全球潮流，收入不菲。
 
As a member of BTS, the world’s biggest boy band, the 30-year-old has topped charts in many countries, been nominated for several Grammys, addressed the United Nations and met President Joe Biden.
作为世界上第一男子组合防弹少年团的成员，30岁的金硕珍，曾在许多国家的音乐排行榜上名列前茅，多次获得格莱美奖提名，并在联合国发表了演讲，甚至会见了美国总统乔·拜登。
 
Along with “Parasite” and “Squid Game”, his band is the go-to example of South Korean soft power.
他的乐队与《寄生虫》和《鱿鱼游戏》影片一样，是韩国软实力的典型代表。
 

[Paragraph 2]
Yet on December 13th Mr Kim undertook the same dull rite of passage as most South Korean men.
12月13日，金硕珍，和大多数韩国男人一样，进行了入伍仪式。
 
He became the first BTS member to begin military service.
这是第一位防弹少年团成员入伍服役。
 
[Paragraph 3]
Unless they have extenuating circumstances, all South Korean men must serve at least 18 months in the country’s 550,000-strong armed forces, starting before they turn 28.
除非有情有可原的情况，所有韩国男性，在28岁之前，必须在该国55万人的武装部队至少服役18个月。
 
BTS’s mega stardom is arguably such a circumstance (notwithstanding the useful capability its members boasted of in their hit, “We are bullet-proof”).
防弹少年团的超级巨星地位也可以算作一种情有可原的情况。（虽然他们在其热门歌曲《We are bullet-proof》中吹嘘了自己的防弹能力)。
 
South Korea’s parliament therefore passed a law in 2020 to allow those who “excel in popular culture and art” to postpone their service.
韩国议会也因此在2020年通过了一项法律，允许那些“在流行文化和艺术方面表现出色”的人推迟服兵役的年龄。
 
[Paragraph 4]
The BTS boys could probably have done so indefinitely.
防弹少年团的成员更希望能无限延期。
 
The government had been mulling giving them an exemption similar to that enjoyed by top athletes and classical musicians, who are allowed to do basic training and no more.
顶级运动员和古典音乐家享有免服兵役的权力，因此他们可以仅进行基本训练。政府也一直在考虑给予艺人们类似的豁免权。 
There was also talk of the pop stars being allowed to carry on making music as part of their service—just as those proficient in science and mathematics may continue their studies in a government-approved research department or company.
还有言论表示，流行歌星将可以继续做音乐，作为他们服兵役的一部分。就像那些精通科学和数学的人可以在政府批准的研究部门或公司继续做研究一样。
 
Yet Mr Kim and his colleagues appear to have concluded, like Elvis Presley in 1958, that dodging the draft would be more damaging to their reputations than military service would be dreary.
然而金硕珍和其他成员似乎已有定论，以1958年的埃尔维斯·普雷斯利（猫王）为例，比起服兵役的枯燥生活，逃避服兵役对他们声誉的损害更大。
 
“It’s curtain-call time,” Mr Kim, now sporting a crewcut instead of his usual stylish hairdo, told his fans on social media.
“谢幕时间到了，”金硕珍在社交媒体上对粉丝说，他也把以往时尚的发型改成了平头。

[Paragraph 5]
The opportunity cost of military service, exorbitant in his case, is a general burden on South Korean men.
像他这种情况，服兵役的机会成本过高。这也是韩国男性的普遍负担。
 
The country’s education system is highly competitive; a larger proportion of school-leavers go to university in South Korea than in any other country.
韩国的教育体系竞争激烈;该国的大学毕业生比例远高于其他国家。
 
This makes its graduate jobs market extremely tough, and the enforced career interruption that military service represents—most conscripts take time out to serve in the middle of their degree course—commensurately painful.
这也形成了一个极其艰难的就业市场。服兵役导致职业生涯强行中断--大多数应征入伍的学生在攻读学位期间也要抽出时间服役--这让他们相当痛苦。
[Paragraph 6]
Military service also tends to be boring.
军中生活也很乏味。

Fighting across the demilitarised zone (DMZ) that separates South Korea from  the north is very rare.
韩国与朝鲜之间的非军事区罕少发生战争。
 
Suicide is by far the biggest cause of death among conscripts.
自杀才是迄今为止入伍士兵死亡的最主要原因。
 
The only thing 28-year-old Han Seung-joo recalls battling at his station close to the DMZin Yeoncheon, where Mr Kim will do his basic training, was the weather.
据28岁的韩升洲回忆，在涟川靠近非军事区的兵站服役时，唯一的不好就是天气。金硕珍也将在那里进行基础训练。
 
“There was a lot of snow-shovelling,” he recalled. “We would shovel the snow and look back and there would be more snow.”
他回忆道：“在那里会有很多铲雪活动，感觉雪总也铲不完。”
 
[Paragraph 7]
Many never get near the front.
很多入伍服役的士兵从未去过前线。
 
The closest Kim Young-cheol, a 28-year-old software engineer who served in the auxiliary police, came to action was overseeing, generally uneventful, political protests.
28岁的软件工程师金永哲曾在辅警部队服役，他最接近前线的一次行动是监督政治抗议活动，这并不具危险性。
 
He reckoned each 12-hour shift his squad served amounted to 180 hours of wasted labour.
他估计他们的小队每执勤12小时，就有15个人处于无所事事的状态。
 
“All these men were sitting on the bus and just doing nothing,” he said.
他说:“所有这些人都坐在公共汽车上，什么都不做。”
 
[Paragraph 8]
Those medically unfit to serve also tend to be assigned humdrum labour.
那些身体状况不适合服役的人通常会给安排单调的劳动。
 
Lee Sang-yup, who has scoliosis, was posted to a primary school to help serve lunch.
患有脊柱侧凸的李相烨被派到了一所小学帮忙供应午餐。
 
“It always felt like a waste of time,” he recalls. “I would do everything to get out of it.”
他回忆道：“我总觉得这是在浪费时间，想尽一切办法摆脱这种生活”。
 
[Paragraph 9]
The fact that Korean women need not serve strikes many men as unfair.
而女性不需要服兵役的事实，令韩国男性感到不公。
 
Some believe it gives women an advantage in the job market.
甚至一些人认为这让女性在就业市场上更具优势。
 
If so, it is cancelled out by other factors.
如果事实果真如此，这也会被其他因素抵消掉这些优势。
 
Many firms are alleged to give men preferential treatment to reward them for their service.
据称，许多公司给予男性优惠待遇，以奖励他们的服役。
 
The gap between male and female wages in South Korea is larger than in any other country in the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries.
韩国男女之间的工资差距大于经合组织中的任何其他国家。经合组织是由发达国家组成的俱乐部。
 
Still, conscription is a persistent male grievance, which politicians shamefully exploit.
尽管如此，男性仍长期地对服役抱有不满情绪，而政客们则无耻地对服役加以利用。
 
Yoon Suk-yeul, South Korea’s president, won election this year in part by vowing to abolish the country’s gender-equality ministry.
韩国总统尹锡悦今年赢得大选，在一定程度上是因为他宣誓会废除韩国的性别平等部门。
 
He is trying to make good on that promise.
他也在努力兑现承诺。
 
[Paragraph 10]
There are compensations for the enforced tedium of service, including camaraderie and a sense of duty fulfilled.
被迫服役虽然枯燥但却是有补偿的，同时也会获得战友间的同志情谊和履职责任感。
 
Nearly half of men in their 20s purport to believe that military service is beneficial to them.
在20多岁的男性中，近乎一半的人认为服兵役是有益的。
 
Park Jong-tae, a 29-year-old engineer whose main responsibility was guard duty, is proud of his “small contribution” to national security.
29岁的朴钟泰是一名工程师，主要职责是警卫，他为自己对国家安全的“小贡献”感到自豪。
 
He nonetheless suggests that most conscripts could do with being given more “meaning and a common goal”.
尽管如此，他还是希望大多数应征入伍的士兵可以获得更多的“意义和共同的目标”。
 
[Paragraph 11]
With luck, Mr Kim will find some of that in Yeoncheon.
如果幸运的话，金硕珍会在涟川站找到一些服役的意义和目标。
 
Anyway, he can at least look forward to resuming mega stardom in due course.
总之，他至少可以期待在服役结束时恢复超级明星的身份。
 
Asked whether his impending service would kill his career, Elvis replied: “That’s the $64 question. I wish I knew.”
在被问及接下来的服役是否会断送事业时，埃尔维斯回答道:“这是一个很难回答的问题，我希望我知道答案。”
 
If the King is any guide, Mr Kim and his fellow band members should be OK.
如果猫王是一个很好的例子，金硕珍及其他成员也会相继选择服兵役。
 
（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量812左右）
原文出自：2022年12月17日《The Economist》Asia版块。
精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Maree本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
韩国兵役制度：20岁至28岁的男性公民必须服兵役，兵种不同，服役期限也不同，但期限最短的兵种也需要服役23个月。韩国对男性实行征兵制。“蓄意拒绝服役者”（Conscientious Objector）会被判刑监禁。对于身体检查未合格者、体育或学业成绩有特殊表现者、一些取得国外永久居留权且未在国内停留超过一年者可免除兵役。韩国政府正在研究缩短兵役长度的方案。只有那些有严重疾病或者为国家做出巨大贡献的人才可能减免兵役。服役期间训练和日常生活都极为艰苦，而每月的津贴折合人民币只有约1800元左右。
 
免服与推迟条件:高学历或小学文化水平，医生或神职人员等特殊行业；在亚运会夺得金牌或奥运会夺得奖牌的选手。2020年12月22日，“大众文化艺术领域优秀者”列入可以延期征集军队的对象，将推迟入伍到30周岁。
 
DMZ，是英文“demilitarized zone”的缩写，中文名称为“隔离区”，也称“非军事化区”。它是为了解决安装防火墙后外部网络的访问用户不能访问内部网络服务器的问题，而设立的一个非安全系统与安全系统之间的缓冲区。
 

埃尔维斯·普雷斯利（Elvis Presley，1935年1月8日-1977年8月16日）,又称猫王 、The King。按照当时美国的征兵法，年满18岁、身体健康的年轻人都有义务服两年兵役，然后再服四年预备役 。1957年12月20日，埃尔维斯·普莱斯利接到了入伍通知。1960年3月，埃尔维斯·普莱斯利正式退伍，退伍费为109.54美元 。

$64 qestion：这个习语源自二次大战期间美国广播中的一个问答节目,这个节目于1940年4月开始设立,名称叫Take It or Leave It（非拿即留），鲍勃・霍克(Bob Hawk)为首任节目主持人。节目首先由主持人在录音现场选出参赛者，只要你有闯通关的本领，就可逐次抽题，回答七道由易至难的迷题。当然，中间若答错就遭淘汰。第一关问题得奖金是2元，累积到最后第七关总共是64元。由于节目风靡全国，不仅带动一堆类似的益智节目，英文也旋即造出“很难回答的问题”的同义词叫 $64 qestion。其拼法还有: sixty-four dollar question, sixty four thousand dollar question。
 
【重点句子】（3 个）
KIM SEOK-JIN is in the globally trendsetting, fabulously lucrative prime of his career.
金硕珍正处于职业生涯的巅峰期，引领全球潮流，收入不菲。
 
The opportunity cost of military service, exorbitant in his case, is a general burden on South Korean men.
像他这种情况，服兵役的机会成本过高。这也是韩国男性的普遍负担。
 
The fact that Korean women need not serve strikes many men as unfair.
而女性不需要服兵役的事实，令韩国男性感到不公。