No Other Choice—别无选择（乔治·布莱克）（第四章）
The first few days after my return passed in a whirl. My sisters, who were both working as nurses in London hospitals, came home for the weekend to see me and it was one of those occasions, very rare in our later life, when we were all home together. My sudden and unexpected arrival from the enemy-occupied continent aroused much interest among my mother's friends and I had to tell my story many times. When the first excitement had died down, I had plenty of time to take a good look at England at war and begin to explore London. What struck me at once was the tremendous sense of solidarity among the people, their friendliness and their desire to help each other. The 'we are all in this together' spirit; the quiet discipline, which manifested itself in such things as people forming up in orderly queues outside shops or the strict observance by everybody of the black-out regulations and the civil defence rules; the stern sense of duty, which made people anxious to do their bit and inspired elderly ladies to drive mobile canteens and ambulances or serve in hospitals for the troops, while others, less agile, formed groups to make camouflage material; the cheerful courage shown under enemy air attack and the stoicism with which those who had close relatives killed bore their loss; all these things I found most impressive. I thought the English women and the cheerfulness and competence with which they undertook heavy and frequently dangerous work, normally done by men, especially admirable. Seeing them at work, often with a cigarette stuck between their lips, I drew at first an entirely wrong conclusion. Holland before the war was a rather puritanical country and very few women wore lipstick or make-up and they certainly did not smoke. As far as I knew, only women of easy virtue did these things. I was therefore surprised when I went about London in the first days after my arrival to see so many women apparently belonging to that profession. It was a little while before I realised that in England even women with the highest moral standards smoked and made-up.
【我回来后的头几天过得很忙。我的姐姐们都是伦敦医院的护士，她们周末回家看我，这是我们生活中非常难得的一次，我们都在家里。我从被敌人占领的大陆突然且幸运地来到这里，引起了母亲朋友们的极大兴趣，我不得不把我的故事讲了很多遍。当最初的兴奋平静下来后，我有足够的时间去好好看看战争中的英国，并开始探索伦敦。给我留下深刻印象的是伦敦人民之间的巨大团结感，他们之间友好且互相帮助。这是“我们同舟共济”的精神;群众间的纪律，表现在人们在商店外面有秩序地排队，或者每个人都严格遵守停电条例和民防条例;强烈的责任感表现在人们渴望尽自己的一份力量，老年妇女开流动食堂和救护车，或到医院为部队服务，而其他不太灵便的人组成小组制作伪装材料;在敌人的空袭下表现出的令人振奋的勇气和那些有近亲阵亡的人所表现出的坚忍;所有这些都让我印象深刻。我认为英国妇女在从事通常由男人做的繁重而危险的工作时表现出的发自内心的快乐和能干，尤其令人钦佩。看到她们工作时，嘴里经常叼着一根烟，我一开始得出了一个完全错误的结论。荷兰在战前是一个相当保守的国家，很少有妇女涂口红或化妆，当然她们也不吸烟。据我所知，只有放荡的女人才会做这些事。因此，当我到伦敦的头几天里，看到这么多显然属于这一职业的女性时，我感到很惊讶。过了一段时间我才意识到，在英国，即使是道德标准最高的女人也会吸烟和化妆。】
There seemed to be also a relative absence of black-market activities, so marked a feature of life in Europe at that time. Most people considered it unpatriotic, unfair and beneath their dignity to have anything to do with it. It is true that the food situation was far better than in the occupied territories. With bread and potatoes off the ration, nobody need ever go hungry. On my walks, I used to enjoy stopping for tea in one of the small tea-shops kept by two elderly spinsters in an old cottage where one got delicious home-made scones and jam. It was something typically English, very pleasant, that I believe has now almost completely disappeared.
【黑市活动似乎也相对较少，这是当时欧洲生活的一个特征。大多数人认为这样做是不爱国的，不公平的，有失尊严的。的确，英国的粮食状况比被占领土要好得多。不会有面包和土豆供应不足，没有人会挨饿。在我散步的时候，我常常喜欢在一个小茶馆里停下来喝茶，这个茶馆是两个老太太开的，住在一幢老房子里，在这里可以吃到美味的自制烤饼和果酱。这是典型的英国风格，我现在的异乡感几乎完全消失了。】
I confidently expected that I would be called up very soon. But the weeks passed and still I did not receive the expected notification. I began to miss the excitement and tension to which two years of illegal existence had accustomed me and my thoughts began to turn increasingly to the possibility of returning.
【我满怀信心地认为我很快就会被征召入伍。但几周过去了，我仍然没有收到预期的通知。我开始怀念两年的逃亡生活使我习惯的那种兴奋和紧张，我开始越来越多地思考回去的可能性。】
Tired of waiting for the call-up which did not come, I decided to volunteer for the Navy. In those days there was a recruiting office for the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in Trafalgar Square and it was there that I applied for the necessary forms. Two weeks later I was summoned for an interview. Together with several other young men I was first given a written examination, consisting of a mathematics paper, a general knowledge paper and an intelligence test. This was followed by an interview. A few weeks later I received a letter, informing me that I had been accepted and would in due course receive instructions where and when to join.
【我厌倦了继续等待征召，决定志愿参加海军。在那些日子里，在特拉法加广场有一个皇家海军志愿预备役的征兵办公室，我就是在那里申请必要的表格。两个星期后，我被叫去面试。和其他几个年轻人一起，我第一次参加了笔试，包括数学试卷、常识试卷和智力测验。接着是一次会谈。几周后，我收到一封信，通知我已被录取，并将在适当的时候我会收到通知，告诉我何时何地加入海军。】
Meanwhile time began to drag and I felt that I could not go on sitting at home doing nothing. A friend of ours in the Dutch government was quite prepared to help and arranged for me to get a temporary job in the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. It had its offices in Arlington House, St James's, and for nearly five months throughout that summer of 1943 I commuted every day like a civil servant between Northwood and the West End. It taught me something I had already suspected; I was not made for a nine-to-five office job.
【与此同时，时间开始过得很慢，我觉得我不能再呆在家里无所事事了。我们在荷兰政府的一位朋友很乐意帮忙，为我安排了一份在荷兰经济部的临时工作。它的办公室设在圣詹姆斯的阿灵顿宫，1943年夏天的近五个月里，我每天都像公务员一样往返于诺斯伍德和伦敦西区之间。它使我明白了一些我已经怀疑过的东西：我不是朝九晚五坐办公室工作的料。】
My call-up finally came in October. I was to report for my initial naval training to HMS Collingwood, a -large camp not far from Portsmouth. I was there for ten interesting but exhausting weeks. We were kept going all the time and at the end I was a great deal fitter than at the beginning. Those of us who had volunteered for the Naval Reserve and had been earmarked for a commission received special attention; we had to remain constantly on the mark.
【我终于在10月份接到了征召。我要去科林伍德号进行初步的海军训练，那是一个离朴次茅斯不远的大型营地。我在那里待了10个星期，很有趣，但也很累。我们一直在进步，到最后我比开始的时候好多了。我们当中那些自愿加入海军预备役并被指定担任一项任务的人受到了特别的关注；我们必须时刻保持自己不被刷掉。】
I passed out with high marks, getting a so-called Commodore's recommendation to the next part of the course, a spell on a training cruiser based at Rosyth. I can only explain this recommendation by the fact that my final interview went well.
【测试我考了高分，得到了所谓的准将对下一部分课程的推荐，在罗赛斯的一艘训练巡洋舰上上了一段时间。对于这件事我只能用我的最后一次面试很顺利来解释。】
Late one evening in early January, our draft arrived in Rosyth and we were taken by tender to the cruiser Diomede, at anchor in the middle of the Firth of Forth. It was pitch dark and bitterly cold and we had difficulty in climbing the ice-covered rope ladder. This introduction to life at sea was in keeping with the whole period that we served afloat. If the initial training course had been hectic, this part was not only hectic but uncomfortable to a degree bordering on hardship. I believe that the guiding idea behind this part of the training was to create as close an imitation of life at sea in the eighteenth century as it was possible to achieve in the twentieth, and thus to recapture and instil in us the 'Nelson spirit'.
【一月初的一个傍晚，我们的船抵达罗赛斯，我们被送到停泊在福斯湾中央的巡洋舰狄俄米德号上。天又黑又冷，我们艰难爬上被冰覆盖的绳梯。这种对海上生活的介绍与我们在海上服务的整个时期是一致的。如果说最初的培训课程是繁忙的，那么这部分不仅是繁忙的，而且是不舒服的，几乎到了困难的程度。我相信这部分训练背后的指导思想是尽可能地模仿18世纪的海上生活，就像在20世纪那样，从而重新获得并灌输给我们“纳尔逊精神”。】
Six weeks on the cruiser were followed by two months at Lancing College, the well-known public school, with its cathedral-like chapel rising high on the downs. It had been taken over by the Navy as an officers' training establishment. The accent on the training at Lancing was on polish, to make sure that we would not only be officers but also gentlemen. Although we were still ordinary seamen and dressed as such, we now had our meals together with the officers on the staff in the high, wainscoted hall and were served by Royal Marines. Once a week there was a guest-night dinner at which the traditional protocol reserved for this occasion was meticulously observed. Usually these guest nights were preceded by a talk or lecture, given by the guest of honour.
【在巡洋舰上待了六个星期之后，又在著名的公立学校兰斯学院待了两个月，那里的小教堂耸立在高地上。它被海军接管，成为军官训练的场所。在兰开斯训练的重点在于礼仪，以确保我们不仅是军官，而且是绅士。虽然我们仍然是普通的海员，也穿得像普通的水手，但现在我们和参谋部的军官们一起在装有护壁板的高厅里吃饭，由皇家海军陆战队供应。每周都有一次宾客晚宴，宴会上严格遵守为这一场合保留的传统礼仪。通常这些来宾之夜之前会有贵宾的演讲或演讲。】
The commander-in-charge of our training had somehow heard about my journey from occupied Europe. One day he called me to his office and asked me to give a talk about it on one of the guest nights. I had had no previous experience of speaking in public and the prospect frightened me.
【我们训练的指挥官不知怎么听说了我从被占领的欧洲来的旅行。有一天，他把我叫到他的办公室，让我在一个招待客人的晚上做一个关于它的演讲。我以前没有在公众面前演讲的经验，这个演讲使我感到紧张。】
