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“I am not a crook.” Richard Nixon resigned as president of the US 42 years ago, and of all the things he said in his political career this quote is the one that lives on. He did also popularize the phrase “the silent majority”, although it is seldom attributed to him. 注释：
翻译： 42年前的8月8日，理查德·尼克松辞去美国总统职务。在他政治生涯发表的所有言论中，“我不是骗子”这一句流传下来。虽然“沉默的大多数”这个提法风靡至今，但是现在很少有人注意到是尼克松先生最先提出的了。 △ 1973年11月17日，尼克松在新闻发布会上说：“我不是骗子”。
To state the obvious: we remember the first quote because it seems to us in hindsight to have been so audacious a lie. It takes its place with “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” (another US president, Bill Clinton) and the promise to “cut out the cancer of bent and twisted journalism in our country with the simple sword of truth and the trusty shield of British fair play”, by a man jailed after admitting perjury and perverting the course of justice (Nixon biographer Jonathan Aitken). 注释：
翻译： 说白了，我们之所以记住前面那一句，因为事后看来“我不是骗子”简直是一个鲁莽的谎言。可以跟这句话媲美的还有，“我没跟那个女人、莱温斯基女士发生性关系”（出自另一位美国总统比尔·克林顿），以及承诺“以简单的真理之剑和英国式公平竞争的信任之盾，切除腐败扭曲的新闻业之癌”，说这话的人在承认伪证罪和妨碍司法公正罪之后被投入监狱，他就是尼克松传记的作者乔纳森·艾特肯。 △ 尼克松的招牌剪刀手。 △ 招牌剪刀手 +“我不是骗子” = 影视作品的绝好题材。
But in the moment it was uttered, it is reasonable to assume it would have been pretty effective as a piece of rhetoric. “I am not a crook” is a special use of ethos (the speaker’s connection with the audience). Logically speaking, it is redundant: if you are accused of X, to say X is untrue is to deny, rather than to disprove, the charge. But by adding the barefaced lie to the mix you raise the stakes. It puts doubt in your audience’s mind. Indignation sounds – even though it is not – likeevidence of innocence. 注释：
翻译： 但在尼克松说出这句谎话的时候，人们有理由假定这句话是一种有效的辞令。“我不是骗子”巧妙地运用了一种精神特质，即发言者与听众之间的（信任关系）。但是从逻辑上讲，这句话又是多余的：如果你被指控犯有某罪，表态宣称某罪不属实，这种行为是否认指控，而不是在证明指控的错误性。但加上这句厚颜无耻的谎言，就像在一场赌局里增加了筹码，（看起来好像信心满满的样子）。这让听众产生疑惑，（也许真向他说的那样，总统先生不是骗子）。愤怒听上去像是——实际上不是——无辜的证据。 Something in all of us resists believing that people can look into a camera, or into our eyes, and shamelessly fib. Hitler argued that “the big lie” was effective with ordinary people because it “would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously”. Can anyone think that the fierceness of Lance Armstrong’s repeated doping denials was not part of what kept his lie afloat for so long? 注释：
She could hardly resist laughing。 她真忍不住要笑。
翻译： 所有人都有这样一种心理倾向，即拒绝相信有人会对着镜头或我们的眼睛，不知羞耻地撒谎。希特勒（曾利用过人们的这种心理倾向），说：“弥天大谎”能骗得过普通人，是因为“他们从未有过撒欺世大谎的想法，他们也不相信别人放肆到不顾廉耻地扭曲真相的地步”。该不会有人否认，兰斯·阿姆斯特朗(Lance Armstrong)情绪激动地反复否认吸毒，是使他的谎言得以延续原因之一吧？ △ 1974年8月8日，尼克松辞去总统职务，表情无辜，神态痛苦。 Nixon welcomed the Watergate investigation because “people have got to know whetheror not their president is a crook”. He had triumphed by going on the offensive in a tight spot before. Whatever his ethical shortcomings, he was a brilliant speaker. Take his 1952 “Checkers Speech” – delivered to counter criticism of an election-expense slush fund when he was running for vice-president. He used the accusation to turn the tables on his accusers: making himself a spokesman for the honest common man against the corrupt Washington establishment. His wife Pat didn’t own a mink coat, he said, but “a respectable Republican cloth coat. And I always tell her that she’d look good in anything.” 注释：
翻译： 尼克松表示欢迎接受水门事件的调查，那是因为“民众必须知道他们的总统到底是不是骗子”。他以前曾在困境中摆出进攻的架势，结果取胜了。撇开他的道德瑕疵不论，尼克松确实是一位杰出的演说家。比如他在1952年发表的“跳棋演讲”，那次演讲他对竞选副总统时“基金”事件的回应。他巧妙利用对方的指控猛轰对方：把自己包装成诚实普通人的代言人，对抗着华盛顿的体制内人士。他说，他妻子帕特连一件貂皮大衣都没有，只有“一件像样的共和党式布外衣。我总是告诉她，她穿任何衣服都很美丽。”
He famously poured on the pathos, revealing that a political supporter had sent him a gift: a cocker-spaniel puppy. “Our little girl – Tricia, the sixyear old – named it Checkers. And you know, the kids, like all kids, love thedog and I just want to say this right now, that regardless of what they sayabout it, we’re gonna keep it.” Now thatreally was shameless. And without Checkers, we probably would never have had “Iam not a crook”. 注释：
翻译： 在那场著名的哭穷演说中，尼克松透露了一件轶事：一位支持者送给他一只可卡犬幼崽作为礼物。“我们的小女儿，6岁的特里西娅给它起名叫‘跳棋’。你们知道，孩子们，就像所有的孩子那样，都喜欢狗，我现在想说的是，不管他们怎么说，我们都要把它留下。”现在看来，那真是太无耻了。要不是那场“跳棋演讲”，我们很可能根本没有机会听到他说出“我不是骗子”这样的谎言。
△ 美国前总统尼克松在白宫宣布辞职后发表讲话。 The personal, flat, categorical denial is the all-or-nothing bet: a manoeuvre of absolute last resort. If you are lucky it works and the caravan moves on. But when the wheels fall off: oh boy. 注释： all-or-nothing，要么大获全胜，要么一无所有，即孤注一掷。 manoeuvre， 策略、伎俩、花招。 caravan，大篷车。这里用“caravan”做比喻，指尼克松的政治前途。 翻译： 以个人的身份进行断然而明确的否认，这是孤注一掷的行为。拼命地最后一搏吧，如果运气够好，这办法奏效了，政治生涯的大篷车将继续前行。但是如果车轮不幸地掉了下来，那就有你好瞧的了。 The high-stakes poker player who goes all-in with 7-2 unsuited, the worst hand possible, and comes unstuck is the one we remember. We do not even notice the one who does the same thing and quietly wins the pot when his opponent folds. 注释： high-stake， 敢于冒险。这里把尼克松比喻成孤注一掷的赌徒。 pot，赌注总额，牌桌上放筹码的地方，代指赌局。 fold，因失利而退出游戏，即赌输的意思。这里fold的主语“his opponent”指的是尼克松。 翻译： 这位敢于冒险的赌徒押上了所有筹码，结果摸到的却是一手烂牌，于是我们记住了这个赌输的家伙。我们甚至没有注意那个做了同样的事，然后在对手罢手的悄悄赌赢的那个人。 That is why Nixon’s quote lives on. It might just as easily not have. And had he not been a crook, he might have been remembered as a great orator. 翻译： 这就是尼克松那句知名谎话流传至今的原因。假设尼克松说出“我不是骗子”而且瞒天过海，那么这句话也就不会流传下来了。所以，如果他不是骗子，那么他将作为一位伟大的演说家而被铭记。
△ 尼克松虽然在政治上赌输，但是他的家人始终支持着他。 |
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