Obituary: George H.W. Bush died on November 30th
讣告：乔治·H·W·布什于 11 月 30 日逝世
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Wherever he went, as America’s president or before it, George Herbert Walker Bush usually carried a felt-tipped pen and a supply of note-cards. On these he wrote letters. Some were thank-yous; others a clumsy, but courteous, attempt to get his views across to other people; yet others just a “good to see you” kind of thing.
不管他去到哪里，无论是以美国总统的身份还是在那之前，乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什身上往往带着一支毡头笔和一叠便签卡片。他用这些写过各种各样的信：有简短的感谢信；也有他试图向别人陈述观点的意见信，辞令不甚圆滑却也谦恭有礼；再有，就是一些问候寒暄的小心意了。
When the time came to write his presidential memoirs, to salve some of that desperate hurt after Bill Clinton thrashed him in 1992, he published instead 600-plus pages of correspondence. They ranged from doting letters to new-born grandchildren to his worries, as a young seaman in 1943, that his girlfriend Barbara, “so darn attractive”, would drop him while he was away; from his attempt to explain the Watergate scandal to his four young sons, to his mortified account of throwing up in 1992 on the Japanese prime minister, “the damnedest experience”. He admitted that some of the letters were nutty. But they were also of the moment. As he said, “It’s all about heartbeat.”
撰写总统回忆录的时机到来之时，他顾及自己 1992 年大败于比尔·克林顿的伤心史，仅出版了 600 多页的个人信件，聊以慰藉。其中，从写给刚出生的孙子孙女的、慈爱满满的信，到他写在 1943 年的一封信，当时他仍是一名年轻的水兵，担心“能迷死个人”的女友芭芭拉趁他服役在外把他甩了；从他试图向四个年轻儿子解释水门事件的信，到他 1992 年不慎吐到日本首相身上的故事——写下“最活见鬼的经历”时，那种羞愧之情跃然纸上。他承认过，有几封信写得有点傻气。但它们也都是一时间真情实感的流露。正如他所说：“这些都是仿佛心跳一般的真性情。”
His forte, and first love, was foreign policy. He had been ambassador to the UN for Nixon, an envoy to China for Gerald Ford (he and Barbara riding round delightedly on bicycles) and head of the CIA, besides, as vice-president, a follower-of-the-hearse at dozens of state funerals. Instinctively, he thought in terms of global power games; fortuitously, his time as president coincided with the end of the cold war, a heady and fascinating moment.
外交政策是他的强项，也是事业上的“初恋”。他当过尼克松的常驻联合国代表，当过杰拉尔德·福特的的中国特使（他和妻子芭芭拉骑着自行车，神采飞扬），当过中情局长官，还曾在任职副总统期间，当过众多国葬仪式中跟随灵车的头脸人物之一。直觉上，他的思维模式是以全球为格局的权力博弈；机缘在于，他的总统生涯恰逢冷战的尾声——一个时人陶醉、今人神往的时代。
————— 文章来源 / 经济学人
重点词汇
felt-tipped pen/ˌfelt tɪpt ˈpen/
n. 毡头笔，记号笔
supply/səˈplaɪ/
n. 供给量；一些
e.g.
He has an endless supply of jokes.
thank-you/ˈθæŋk juː/
n. 谢意；表示谢意的物件
e.g.
thank-you gift
thank-you letter
courteous/ˈkɜːrtiəs/
adj. 彬彬有礼的
get sth. across
清楚地表达（想法、意见等）
salve/sæv/
v. 慰藉；抚平（创伤、伤害等）
e.g.
to salve one's conscience
hurt/hɜːrt/
n. 伤害，痛苦
thrash/θræʃ/
v. 彻底击败；抽打
correspondence/ˌkɔːrəˈspɑːndəns/
n. 信件，通信往来
range from … to …
在…之间，从…到…
seaman/ˈsiːmən/
n. 水兵
mortified/ˈmɔːrtɪfaɪd/
adj. 极其羞愧、窘迫的
nutty/ˈnʌti/
adj. 疯疯癫癫的，傻里傻气的
e.g.
This is driving me nuts! (adj.)
of the moment
顺应当下的；时下流行的、重要的
e.g.
man/woman of the moment
"打call" is the buzzword of the moment.
forte/ˈfɔːrteɪ/
n. 强项，特长
envoy/ˈenvɔɪ/
n. 使者，特使
fortuitously/fɔːrˈtuːɪtəsli/
adv. 偶然地，巧合地
coincide/ˌkoʊɪnˈsaɪd/
v. 同时发生；相符
heady/ˈhedi/
adj. 令人振奋的；头脑发热的
e.g.
the heady news of victory
