Do you remember President Barack Obama’s news conference after the school shooting in Newtown, Conn., that left 28 people, including 20 children, dead? I do. Freshest in my memory is how he fought back tears. He was hurting. He cared. And while we couldn’t bank on new laws to prevent the next massacre, we could at least hold on to that.
還記得巴拉克·奧巴馬總統在康涅狄格州紐敦校園槍擊案發生後舉行的記者會嗎？我記得。那次槍擊案導致包括20名兒童在內的28人死亡。我記憶中最清晰的是他強忍眼淚的樣子。他很傷心，也很在意。雖然我們不能指望有新的法律來阻止下一次大屠殺，但我們至少可以堅信奧巴馬是真情流露。
In The Washington Post a few days ago, Michael Gerson, a conservative who worked in Bush’s White House, wrote that Trump’s spirit is “a vast, trackless wasteland.” Not exactly trackless. There are gaudy outposts of ego all along the horizon.
幾天前的《華盛頓郵報》上，曾在布什政府工作的保守派人士邁克爾·格爾森寫道，特朗普的精神世界是“一個空曠無跡的荒原”。準確地說不是無跡。那裡的地平線上到處都是自負的花哨俗豔。
When the direness of this global health crisis began to be apparent, I was braced for the falsehoods and misinformation that are Trump’s trademarks. I was girded for the incompetence that defines an administration with such contempt for proper procedure and for true expertise.
這場全球健康危機的嚴重性開始顯現時，我已經準備好面對那些謊言和虛假信息——它們都是特朗普的招牌。我對無能也有所準備，這種“無能”定義了一個如此蔑視正確做法和真正專業知識的政府。
But what has taken me by surprise and torn me up inside are the aloofness, arrogance, pettiness, meanness, narcissism and solipsism that persist in Trump — that flourish in him — even during a once-in-a-lifetime emergency that demands something nobler. Under normal circumstances, these traits are galling. Under the current ones, they’re gutting.
但出乎我意料並令我心碎的是特朗普持續甚至漸長的冷漠、傲慢、小氣、刻薄、自戀和唯我，即使在這種需要表現得更加高尚、一生可能只有一次的緊急情況下。在正常情況下，這些特點令人惱火；而在眼下，這些特點讓人徹底失望。
“I don’t take responsibility at all.” “Did you know I was number one on Facebook?” To bother with just one of those sentences while a nation trembles is disgusting. To bother with both, as Trump did, is perverse.
“我完全不承擔責任。”“你知道我在臉書上排名第一嗎？”——在國家動盪不安時，有心思說出這兩句中的一句就夠令人作嘔了。像特朗普這樣說出兩句，簡直不通人事。
He continues to bash the media, as if the virus were cooked up in the bowels of CNN. He continues to play blame games and to lord his station over those of a lesser political caste, turning governors into grovelers and suggesting that they’re whiny piggies at the federal trough.
他不斷抨擊媒體，彷彿新冠病毒是CNN內部炮製出來的。他不斷玩推卸責任的把戲，把自己凌駕於那些政治等級比他低的人之上，他想讓州長們對他卑躬屈膝，並暗示他們是在聯邦政府飼料槽前嗷嗷爭食的豬仔兒。
He continues his one-man orgy of self-congratulation, so that in the same breath recently he speculated about a toll of 100,000 deaths in America from Covid-19 and crowed about what a great job he’s doing.
他不斷玩著沾沾自喜的一人狂歡，所以最近才會一邊推測美國將有10萬人死於新冠病毒肺炎，一邊揚揚自得地誇口自己正在做一份多麼偉大的工作。
And he continues to taunt and smear his perceived political adversaries. Last week, on Fox News, he called Nancy Pelosi “a sick puppy.” This is how he chooses to spend his time and energy?
他還不斷奚落和誹謗他眼中的政治對手。上週，在福克斯新聞的節目上，他稱南希·佩洛西是“一隻有病的小狗”。這就是他選擇消磨時間和精力的方式嗎？
At those beloved daily briefings of his, where he talks and talks and talks, he sometimes seems to regard what’s happening less as a devastating scourge than as a star-studded event. Just look at the nifty degree of prominence it’s conferring on everyone and everything involved! He has mused aloud about how well known Anthony Fauci has become. He has marveled at the disease’s celebrity profile.
他在自己深愛的每日簡報會上一開口就沒完沒了，有時似乎並不把正在發生的事當作一場毀滅性的災難，而是一場明星薈萃的活動。看看簡報會給涉及到的每個人、每件事帶來了多麼精彩的露臉機會吧！他曾大聲自言自語，感慨安東尼·福奇如今名揚天下。他驚歎新冠病毒肺炎出了大名。
“Become a very famous term — C-O-V-I-D,” he said on Thursday. Was that envy in his voice?
“竟然成了個非常有名的詞兒——新-冠-病-毒-肺-炎。”他週四說道。從他的調調裡聽出嫉妒了嗎？
He leaps from tone deafness to some realm of complete sensory and moral deprivation.
他從充耳不聞轉入了感官和道德全喪的境地。
“I want to come way under the models,” he said on Friday, referring to casualty projections. “The professionals did the models. I was never involved in a model.”
“我想要比模型低很多的數字。”他週五說，指的是病患人數的預測，“模型是專業人士做的。我從來沒摻和過任何模型。”
“At least this kind of model,” he added. No context like a pandemic for X-rated humor.
“至少沒摻和過這種。”他補充道。沒有比大流行病更好的限制級幽默背景了。
It’s an extraordinary thing: to fill the air with so many words and have none of them carry any genuine sadness or stirring resolve.
做到這一點真不容易：如此大放厥詞而沒有一個詞承載任何真正的悲傷或打動人心的信念。
I can hear his admirers grumble that he doesn’t do camera-perfect emotions, that Obama was just a better actor, that Trump is the more authentic man.
我可以聽到特朗普的崇拜者們發牢騷說，他不會在攝像機前做完美的情感表演，奧巴馬不過是個更好的演員，特朗普則是個更真實的人。
To which I answer: What’s the point of having a showman for a president if he can’t put on the right kind of show? Performances count, even if they’re just performances. And Trump clearly isn’t averse to artifice. Just look at his hair.
我對此的回答是：如果讓一個喜歡錶演的人當總統，但他卻演不出好戲，那又有什麼意義？表演很重要，即使只是表演。特朗普顯然不反對使用道具，看看他的頭髮就知道了。
A cheap shot? I’m feeling cheap. A loss of life and livelihoods on this scale will do that to you.
這種攻擊低劣嗎？我感到低劣。如此大規模失去生命和生計就會讓人做出這樣的攻擊。
As of this writing, at least 9,600 people with the coronavirus have died in the United States. That’s more than three times the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. New York State alone reported 630 new deaths on Saturday. No school shooting has taken even a small fraction of as many lives.
我寫這篇文章時，美國已有至少9600人死於新冠病毒——這是9·11恐怖襲擊死亡人數的三倍多。週六，僅紐約州就通報了630例死亡。相比之下，那些校園槍擊案奪走的生命大概只是個零頭。
And while I’m not looking to Trump for any panacea, is it too much to ask for some sign that the dying has made an impression on him, that the crying has penetrated his carapace and that he’s thinking about something other than his ratings? I watch. I wait. I suspect I’ll be doing that forever.
雖然我不指望特朗普能提供什麼靈丹妙藥，但還是想看到有跡象表明，不斷的病亡已經觸動他，持續的哭聲已經穿透他的保護殼，除了自己的收視率以外他還能想些其他事——這，不算太過分吧？我觀察著，等待著。我懷疑自己的觀察和等待將無限期地持續下去了。
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