1.I just heard the best joke about Bond Emeruwa.
我刚听到一个关于Bond Emeruwa的最有意思的笑话。
2.I was having lunch with him just a few minutes ago, and a Nigerian journalist comes — and this will only make sense if you’ve ever watched a James Bond movie —
在几分钟前我刚和他共进午餐， 一个尼日利亚记者进来了——当然这只有在 你看过007电影的情况下才能领略其中奥妙——
3.and a Nigerian journalist comes up to him and goes, “Aha, we meet again, Mr. Bond!”
尼日利亚记者走到他面前说: “啊，我们又见面了，邦德先生！”
4.(Laughter) Ah, it was great.
（笑声） 啊，这真是太好了。
5.So, I’ve got a little sheet of paper here, mostly because I’m Nigerian, and if you leave me alone, I’ll talk for, like, two hours.
我拿了一张小纸片在这里， 主要由于我是个尼日利亚人，如果你不限制我， 我会滔滔不绝说上两个钟头。
6.But, I just want to say good afternoon, good evening.
但是，我只是想说声下午好，晚上好。
7.It’s been an incredible few days.
这真是令人难以置信的日子。
8.It’s downhill from now on. I wanted to thank Emeka and Chris.
从今往后都没有这么好了。我想感谢艾莫克和克里斯。
9.But also, most importantly, all the invisible people behind here that you just see flitting around the whole place that have made sort of this space for such a diverse and robust conversation.
但是，最重要的是这些幕后的不为人知的人们， 而你仅看到了一些在四处活动的人。 正是这样才使得这个地方有着如此多姿多彩、精力充沛的谈话。
10.It’s really amazing.
这真是太棒了
11.And I’ve been in the audience.
我也听过一些讲座。
12.I’m a writer, and I’ve been watching people with the slide shows and scientists and bankers, and I’ve been feeling a bit like a gangsta rapper at a bar mitzvah.
我是一个作家，我也看过那些带幻灯片来做演讲的人 科学家和银行家，我觉得有点 像一个黑帮说唱歌手在犹太教成人礼现场。
13.(Laughter) Like, what have I got to say about all this?
(笑声)? 我为什么说这些呢？
14.And I was watching Jane [Goodall] yesterday, and I thought it was really great, and I was watching those incredible slides of the chimpanzees, and I thought,
昨天我看了简(古道尔)的幻灯片。 我认为非常好，而且我看到 那些关于黑猩猩的非常好的幻灯，我想，
15.”Wow. What if a chimpanzee could talk, you know? What would it say?”
“哇，如果一只黑猩猩能说话，它将会说些什么？”
16.My first thought was, “Well, you know, there’s George Bush.”
我的第一个想法是：“哦，你知道，那是乔治.布什。”
17.But then I thought, “But why be rude to chimpanzees?”
然而随后我又想到：“为什么要对黑猩猩这么无礼？”
18.I guess there goes my green card.
我猜这么说完我的绿卡算是泡汤了。
19.(Laughter) There’s been a lot of talk about narrative in Africa.
(笑声) 关于非洲的叙事作品有很多。
20.And what’s become increasingly clear to me is that we’re talking about news stories about Africa; we’re not really talking about African narratives.
而对于我来说，越来越清晰地是 我们正在谈论关于非洲的新闻故事， 我们并没有真正谈及非洲的叙事作品。
21.And it’s important to make a distinction, because if the news is anything to go by, 40 percent of Americans can’t — either can’t afford health insurance
如果新闻只是随时间流逝的事情的话，那么在这里做一个区分非常重要。 40%的美国人不能负担健康保险
22.or have the most inadequate health insurance, and have a president who, despite the protest of millions of his citizens — even his own Congress —
或者只能拥有最不充足的健康保险， 他们有一位总统，这位总统不顾 上百万公民——甚至包括他自己的国会在内——的抗议，
23.continues to prosecute a senseless war.
坚持发动一场不义的战争。
24.So if news is anything to go by, the US is right there with Zimbabwe, right?
因此，如果新闻是顺便采访的一些东西， 那么美国就与津巴布韦没什么区别了，是不是？
25.Which it isn’t, really, is it?
它到底是不是这样呢？
26.And talking about war — my girlfriend has this great t-shirt that says, “Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity.”
谈及战争，我的女朋友有一件很棒的T恤， 上面写道：“以轰炸求和平就如同通过做爱来找处女。”
27.It’s amazing, isn’t it.
这话写得很绝，难道不是吗？
28.The truth is, Americans — everything we know about America, everything Americans come to know about being American, isn’t from the news.
事实是，美国人——我们所知道的关于美国的每件事， 美国人所了解的作为美国人的每件事， 并非源于新闻。
29.It — we — I lived there.
它——我们——我曾生活于此。
30.We don’t go home at the end of the day and think, “Well, I really know who I am now because the Wall Street Journal says that the Stock Exchange
我们没有在一天结束回家之时想着 “好的，我现在已经知道我是谁了。” “因为华尔街新闻说股票交易”
31.closed at this many points.”
“在多少点上已经收盘了。”
32.What we know about how to be who we are comes from stories.
是一些故事让我们知道如何成为我们自己。
33.It comes from the novels, the movies, the fashion magazines.
它来自小说，电影，时尚杂志。
34.It comes from popular culture.
它来自流行文化。
35.In other words, it’s the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are. And this is important to remember, because, you know, in Africa,
换句话说，是我们想象力的代言者 将我们塑造成我们自己。必须记住， 因为，如你所知，在非洲，
36.the complicated questions we want to ask about what all of this means has been asked from the rock paintings of the San people, through the Sundiata epics of Mali, to modern, contemporary literature.
我们思考过很多复杂的问题， 人生，世界的意义，都被质疑过 从岩画到桑河人类， 穿越马里Sundiata 史诗，直到现代、当代文学。
37.If you want to know about Africa, read our literature — and not just Things Fall Apart, because that would be like saying, “I’ve read Gone with the Wind, and so I know everything about America.”
如果你想了解非洲，请阅读我们的文学作品—— 不仅仅是阅读Things Fall Apart《支离破碎》，因为那相当于是说， “我已经读了《飘》，因此我对美国了如指掌。”
38.That’s very important.
这一点非常重要。
39.There’s a poem by Jack Gilbert called “The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart.”
杰克.吉尔伯特写了首诗，题为“被遗忘的心语”
40.He says, “When the Sumerian tablets were first translated, they were thought to be business records.
他写道：“当闪族人的书简初次被翻译，” “它被认为是商业记录，”
41.But what if they were poems and psalms?
“但是，它们要是诗篇和圣歌呢？”
42.My love is like twelve Ethiopian goats standing still in the morning light.
“我的爱如同十二只埃塞俄比亚山羊，” “站立在静寂的晨光中。”
43.Shiploads of thuja are what my body wants to say to your body.
“满船的金钟柏是我的身体想要对你的诉说。”
44.Giraffes are this desire in the dark.”
“长颈鹿正是这黑暗中的渴望。”
45.This is important.
这一点非常重要。
46.It’s important because misreading is really the chance for complication and opportunity.
因为误读确实会给 复杂化以可能性和机会。
47.The first Igbo Bible was translated from English in about the 1800s by Bishop Crowther, who was a Yoruba.
第一本伊博人的圣经翻译自英文， 于1800年代由克鲁瑟主教所译。 这个主教是约鲁巴人。
48.And it’s important to know Igbo is a tonal language, and so they’ll say the word “igwe” and “igwe”: same spelling, one means “sky” or “heaven,”
要知道伊博语是一种注音语言， 因此他们说一个词”igwe” 和 “igwe” 拼法相同，一个意思是“天空”或“天堂”，
49.and one means “bicycle” or “iron.”
而另一个意思是“自行车”或“铁”。
50.So “God is in heaven surrounded by His angels”
所以“上帝在天堂里被他的天使围绕”
51.was translated as — [Igbo translation] And for some reason, in Cameroon, when they tried to translate the Bible into Cameroonian patois,
被翻译成 (伊博语翻译) 由于某种原因，在喀麦隆，当他们试图 把圣经翻译成喀麦隆方言时，
52.they chose the Igbo version.
他们选择了伊博语版本。
53.And I’m not going to give you the patois translation; I’m going to make it standard English.
而我并没有打算给你这种方言译文， 我想让它成为标准的英文。
54.Basically, it ends up as “God is on a bicycle with his angels.”
基本上，结果它就翻成是“上帝和他的天使骑在自行车上”。
55.This is good, because language complicates things.
这很好，因为语言让事情变复杂了。
56.You know, we often think that language mirrors the world in which we live, and I find that’s not true.
如你所知，我们常认为语言反映 我们所生活的世界，但是，我发现并非如此。
57.The language actually makes the world in which we live.
实际上是语言造就了我们所生活的世界。
58.Language is not — I mean, things don’t have any mutable value by themselves; we ascribe them a value.
语言并非——我是说，事情对于 它们自身并没有易变的价值——具有我们所赋予它们的价值。
59.And language can’t be understood in its abstraction.
而且语言不能在抽象中被理解。
60.It can only be understood in the context of story, and everything — everything, all of this — is story.
它只能在故事的上下文中被理解。 而且每件事都是故事。
61.And it’s important to remember that, because if we don’t, then we become ahistorical.
必须记住 因为如果我们不这样，我们就将变成跟历史无关的。
62.We’ve had a lot of — a parade of amazing ideas here.
我们已经有很多——一堆令人惊异的观点。
63.But these are not new to Africa.
但这些对于非洲并不新鲜。
64.Nigeria got its independence in 1960.
尼日利亚于1960年独立。
65.The first time the possibility for independence was discussed was in 1922, following the Aba women’s market riots.
第一次讨论独立的可能性 是在1922年，紧随阿巴妇女市场骚动之后。
66.In 1967, in the middle of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, Dr. Njoku-Obi invented the Cholera vaccine.
在1967年，在比夫拉-尼日利亚内战中， Njoku-Obi医生发明了霍乱疫苗。
67.So, you know, the thing is to remember that, because otherwise, 10 years from now, we’ll be back here trying to tell this story again.
因此，这事该被记住， 因为，否则10年后， 我们将回头来继续再说同样的故事。
68.So … what it says to me, then, is that it’s not really — the problem isn’t really the stories that are being told or which stories are being told;
因此，对于我来说，它并非真的么？ 问题并不在于被讲述的故事 或者是哪些故事正在被讲述；
69.the problem really is the terms of humanity that we’re willing to bring to complicate every story, and that’s really what it’s all about.
真正的问题在于关于人性， 我们要带入多少，来复杂化每个故事 这才是问题所在。
70.Let me tell you a Nigerian joke.
我给你们讲个尼日利亚笑话。
71.Well, it’s just a joke, anyway.
不管怎样，这都只是个笑话。
72.So there’s Tom, Dick, and Harry and they’re working construction.
张三、李四和王五，他们都是搞建筑的。
73.And Tom opens up his lunch box and there’s rice in it, and he goes on this rant about, “Twenty years, my wife has been packing rice for lunch.
张三打开午餐盒，里面有米饭， 他叫道：“20年了，” “我老婆一直只给我带米饭作午餐。”
74.If she goes it again tomorrow, I’m gonna throw myself off this building and kill myself.”
“如果明天还是这样，我就” “跳楼自杀。”
75.And Dick and Harry repeat this.
李四和王五也重复了同样的话。
76.The next day, Tom opens his lunchbox, there’s rice, so he throws himself off and kills himself, and Tom, Dick, and Harry follow.
第二天，张三打开饭盒，还是米饭， 因此他跳楼自杀， 李四和王五也效仿。
77.And now the inquest — you know, Tom’s wife and Dick’s wife are distraught.
警方调查之中，张三的老婆 和李四的老婆悔得肠子都青了
78.They wished they’d not packed rice.
她们希望自己没有装米饭。
79.But Harry’s wife is confused, because she said, “You know, Harry had been packing his own lunch for 20 years.”
但是王五的老婆很迷惑，因为她说，“你知道，” “王五自己装午饭装了20年了。”
80.(Laughter) This seemingly innocent joke, when I heard it as a child in Nigeria, was told about Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa, with the Hausa being Harry.
(笑声) 当我孩提时代在尼日利亚听到的时候，我觉得这个表面上很无知的笑话 是用来指伊博人、约鲁巴人和豪萨人的， 而豪萨人就是那个王五。
81.So what seems like an eccentric if tragic joke about Harry becomes a way to spread ethnic hatred.
因此这看来有些古怪，如果关于王五的悲剧性笑话 成为一种宣扬种族仇恨的途径。
82.My father was educated in Cork, in the University of Cork, in the ’50s.
我父亲于20世纪50年代在科克（爱尔兰港口）的科克大学上学。
83.In fact, every time I read in Ireland, people get me all mistaken and they say, “Oh, this is Chris O’Barney from Cork.”
实际上，每次我在爱尔兰阅读时， 人们总是弄错，他们说， “哦，这是来自科克的克里斯.欧巴内”
84.But he was also in Oxford in the ’50s, and he had — growing up as a child in Nigeria, my father used to say to me, “You must never eat or drink
“但是他50年代的时候也在牛津。” “而且他在尼日利亚度过童年时代。” 我的父亲曾对我说：“你必须不吃不喝”
85.in a Yoruba person’s house because they will poison you.”
“在一个约鲁巴人家里，因为他们会给你下毒。”
86.It makes sense now when I think about it, because if you’d known my father, you would’ve wanted to poison him, too.
当我想起这话时，现在知道是什么意思了。 因为如果你认识我父亲， 你也会想给他下毒。
87.(Laughter) So I was born in 1966, at the beginning of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, and the war ended after three years.
(笑声) 我生在1966年， 在比夫拉-尼日利亚内战之初，这场战争在三年后结束。
88.And I was growing up in school and the federal government didn’t want us taught about the history of the war, because they thought it probably would make us
我在学校里成长，联邦政府 不希望我们学习这段战争的历史。 因为他们认为这有可能使我们
89.generate a new generation of rebels.
成为新的背叛的一代。
90.So I had a very inventive teacher, a Pakistani Muslim, who wanted to teach us about this.
因此，我有了一位极富创造性的老师，一个巴基斯坦的穆斯林， 他想教我们这些战争历史。
91.So what he did was to teach us Jewish Holocaust history, and so huddled around books with photographs of people in Auschwitz, I learned the melancholic history of my people
他所做的是教我们犹太人大屠杀历史， 书中充满了奥斯维辛集中营的照片。 我学到了关于我的人民的悲惨的历史
92.through the melancholic history of another people.
通过其他民族的悲惨史。
93.I mean, picture this — really picture this.
我说，想象这幅画面——真正地想想看
94.A Pakistani Muslim teaching Jewish Holocaust history to young Igbo children.
一个巴基斯坦穆斯林教犹太大屠杀历史 给幼小的伊博儿童。
95.Story is powerful.
故事充满了力量。
96.Story is fluid and it belongs to nobody.
故事是流淌的，它不属于任何人。
97.And it should come as no surprise that my first novel at 16 was about Neo-Nazis taking over Nigeria to institute the Fourth Reich.
它必须波澜不惊地出现。 因此我写于16岁时的第一篇小说是关于新纳粹 第四帝国体制接管尼日利亚。
98.Makes perfect sense.
特别说得通
99.And they were to blow up strategic targets and take over the country, and they were foiled by a Nigerian James Bond called Coyote Williams,
他们突然打击战略目标 掌握了整个国家，结果被一个人阻止了， 这人是一个尼日利亚的詹姆士.邦德，名叫考尔欧特.威廉姆斯.
100.and a Jewish — a Jewish Nazi hunter.
和一个犹太人——一个犹太的“纳粹猎人”。
101.And it happened over four continents.
这个故事涉及四个大陆。
102.And when the book came out, I was heralded as Africa’s answer to Frederick Forsyth, which is a dubious honor at best.
当此书一出版，受到广泛欢迎， 我被看作非洲版的弗莱德里克.福塞斯，这最好是个值得怀疑的荣誉。
103.But also, the book was launched in time for me to be accused of constructing the blueprint for a foiled coup attempt.
但是，这本书发行的时候正值我被控 有意谋反。
104.So at 18, I was bonded off to prison in Nigeria.
因此在18岁时，我被关进尼日利亚的监狱。
105.I grew up very privileged, and it’s important to talk about privilege, because we don’t talk about it here.
我在有特权的情况下成长， 谈及特权非常重要，因为我们在这里不谈论它。
106.A lot of us are very privileged.
我们中的很多人享有特权。
107.I grew up — servants, cars, televisions, all that stuff.
我长大的过程中有仆人、汽车、电视，所有这些东西。
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