BBC：上帝如何造就英国人（2012）

"空中有四架战斗机
我不知道..."
'There are four fighters up there
and I don't know what...'
1940年一个夏日的早晨
On a summer's morning in 1940,
数百架战斗机
从英国各地的跑道起飞
hundreds of fighter planes took
off from runways all over England.
从我出生那会儿上溯十年
这个国家面临着被灭绝的危险
A decade before I was born,
this country faced annihilation.
第二次世界大战时
我的父母亲都是军官
In World War II, my mother
and father were both army officers
我的整个童年时代
就是在他们的回忆中度过的
and all through my childhood
they looked back
那个夏日是那样的惊心动魄
to that most frightening summer.
"这场战争将决定基♥督♥教文明的存亡"
'Upon this battle depends the
survival of Christian civilisation.'
(丘吉尔首相的演讲)
这就是很快为人所知的"不列颠之战"
It was of course soon known
as the Battle of Britain.
尽管名字如此
But even though that was its name,
但实际上并非在整个不列颠群岛上空展开
it wasn't actually fought over
the whole of the British Isles.
空战在英格兰,苏塞克斯
肯特,东英吉利等地展开
It was the skies over
England, Sussex, Kent, East Anglia,
绝大多数的空战在上述地区发生
that saw most of the action.
不列颠之战不是孤立的
And the Battle of Britain
wasn't just a one off.
它属于一系列光荣显赫的胜利
It fitted into a glorious
series of victories,
克雷西战役(1346年英军大破法军)
阿金库尔战役(1415年英军于法国北部重创法军)
西班牙无敌舰队(1588年被英国击败)
特拉法加海战(1805年击败法国联合舰队)
Crecy, Agincourt,
the Spanish Armada, Trafalgar.
但是绝大多数的胜利不属于不列颠人
而是应归功于英国人
But most of those victories
were not British but English.
"前面两架后跟着一架喷火战斗机"
'And there's a spitfire just behind
the first two.
"他会击落它们的 哦,好的"
'He'll get them. Oh, yes.'
虽然幸存的几率很低
The odds of survival were low
但这些飞行员依然满怀英国人
一直就有的自信心
but those fighters had a confidence
that the English have always had.
现在还是那样
And still do.
它仍以自己的傲慢态度
向这个偏居一隅的岛国传达出一种信念
It's given this corner of an island
a belief in its own importance,
程度远远超越它所占据的地缘尺度
way beyond its geographical size.
但为何如此呢?
But why?
答案可能就在你料想不到之处
The answer lies somewhere
you might not expect.
英国人怀有无比自信的原因
The reason the English have always
felt supremely self confident,
就在于一千多年来他们坚信
is because for over a thousand
years they've believed
他们拥有着人们渴求的无尽宝藏
that they possessed the greatest
asset you could hope for,
那就是上帝
God.
如今,这种观念也许显得荒谬
Nowadays, such an idea might
seem preposterous.
可我希望将历史证据展现在你面前
But I hope to show you that
is the evidence from history.
在这部系列片中,我将去探索英国人的特质
In this series I'll be exploring
English identity.
竭力去探寻事物的原委
以及它的历史变迁
To try and find out what it is
and how it's changed through time.
你想象不到这事会发生在英格兰吧?
You can't imagine this happening
in England, can you?
我要向某些陈词滥调挑战
I'll be challenging some
stereotypes,
那就是,作为英国人就是要宽容
或者是,白种人
that to be English is to be
tolerant, or to be white,
就是盎格鲁-萨克森人的子孙
Anglo-Saxon.
我要揭示的是,民族特质
And I'll reveal
that national identity
从来就不是单一性的
has never been just one thing.
它是会演变的
It's evolved,
并非一成不变地能叫人豪情满怀
not always in ways to be proud of.
但有一样东西是永恒的
But there's been one constant,
宗教信仰
religion.
一种塑造了英国人灵魂的力量
A force that's shaped
the English soul.
我就从作为英国人要与众不同
And I'm starting with the idea that
to be English is to be special.
要超越别人开始吧
To be better than others.
让上帝站在你这边
To have God on your side.
我将追溯这个观念的起源
I'm going to trace the origins
of the idea
从欧洲中世纪一直到当代
from the Dark Ages
to the present day.
以此来展现这种信念
To show how this conviction
has fuelled
是如何激发起正义和责任的激♥情♥
a passion for justice and duty.
此外,还要让英国人感到自己是有资格
But has also made the English
feel entitled
给其他国家提出建议的
to tell the rest of the globe
what to do.
要使得英国人充满自信心
And give them the self confidence
来缔造这个世界上的庞大帝国
to create one of the largest
Empires in the world.
这就是英国人
This is the story of the English.
和上帝如何造就他们的故事
And how God made them.
上帝如何造就英国人
第一集:上帝的选民?
我们都知道陈词滥调是如何形容英国人的
We all know the cliches
of what the English are like.
保守,古怪
对于责任和公正信守承诺
Reserved, but eccentric, with
a commitment to duty and fair play.
英国人还有一种特质
And there's one characteristic
in particular
使之与联合王国其他地方的人
得以区分开来
that marks the English out from
the rest of the United Kingdom.
英国人为什么会显得
What makes the English different
与威尔士人,苏格兰人
还有爱尔兰人不一样呢?
from the Welsh the Scots
or the Irish?
我认为这可以从我年轻时代
听过的一首滑稽的歌♥里概括出
I think it's summed up in a comic
song from my youth,
佛兰德斯和斯旺(英国喜剧组合)
过去唱过的,开头是这样的
which Flanders and Swann
used to sing. The opening lines are,
# 英国人,英国人,英国人,他们最棒了
# The English, the English,
the English, they are best
# 我一点信不过其他人 #
# I don't give tuppence
for all the rest. #
这就是说,英国人认为自己是最棒的
That's it, you see, the English
think they are best.
正因为如此
Because of that,
他们将自己不仅仅视作历史的旁观者
they view themselves not as mere
spectators of history,
而且还是一个亲历其中
扮演重要角色的缔造者
but as a people called upon
to play a role in shaping it.
没有一处建筑能比英国议会大厦
And nowhere is more symbolic of
effortless English superiority
更能象征英国人与生俱来的优越感了
than the Houses of Parliament.
正式的名字叫做"威斯敏斯特宫"
Their official name
is the Palace of Westminster,
因为从11世纪起,这里就是君王的宫殿
and that's because from the 11th
century it was the home of Kings.
注意,是英格兰君王的宫殿
而不是不列颠君王的宫殿
And English Kings
not British kings.
从那时起,它就是英格兰的政♥治♥中心
Ever since, it's been
the heart of England.
我正迈向这所建筑的中心
I'm making for the centre
of this building
在那里你可以发现众多蛛丝马迹
where you can begin to find
clues as to why
探寻出英国人为何具有那种固有的优越感
the English have always believed
they're better than anyone else.
威斯敏斯特宫 中♥央♥大厅
你可以从方方面面得出原因
You could try explaining it
in all sorts of ways,
比如食物,天气,岛国环境等因素
the food, the weather,
the fact they live on an island.
但我相信,这一切都和上帝息息相关
But I believe it's got
everything to do with God.
这个地方充满了象征意味
This place is full of symbols
而最重要的象征意义就是宗教氛围
and the most important
symbols are religious.
我站在的这个地方叫"八角星"
What we've got here is
an eight-pointed-star,