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So high is the level of hysteria, it wouldn’t be surprising to discover that Princess Catherine has pricked her finger on a spinning wheel and fallen into an enchanted sleep. Since she went into hospital for abdominal surgery in January, and then remained out of view, speculation has ranged from her being in a coma, to having a facelift, to getting a divorce.
對於如此高度的歇斯底里，若發現凱特王妃因紡車刺傷手指而陷入魔法睡眠，恐怕也不會令人感到意外。自從她1月份因腹部手術入院以來，隨後便鮮少露面，外界的猜測從她處於昏迷狀態、進行了整容手術，到她正準備離婚等各種說法紛紛出現。
The Mother’s Day snap with her children, released in a clear attempt to end the relentless rumours, has instead stoked them. For once, the royal family must have wished for Meghan and Harry to pop up and divert attention from obsessive discussions about the photo-editing of a cardigan sleeve — all of it a cover for wanting to know what is really going on.
爲了試圖終結那些無止境的謠言，她發佈了與孩子們慶祝母親節的照片，結果卻意外地助長了謠言。王室這一次恐怕非常希望梅根和哈里能出現，以轉移公衆對一件開衫袖子照片編輯細節過度解讀的注意力——所有這一切，不過是人們想要探究真相的一種表現。
The travails of the Princess of Wales, who endearingly explained that she had clumsily manipulated the picture herself, are a bleak reminder of the Faustian pact between the monarchy and the public. Being on show is what has sustained the royal family for centuries. If someone disappears for too long, the public take their revenge.
威爾士王妃的遭遇，她那令人感到親切的解釋稱自己笨手笨腳地編輯了那張照片，這不僅是對君主制與公衆之間那種類似浮士德的契約的一種冷酷提醒。數百年來，公開亮相一直是王室得以維持其存在的核心。如果某人消失太長時間，公衆便會以自己的方式進行「報復」。
In the 1860s, the widowed Queen Victoria’s prolonged period of mourning for Prince Albert led to the most serious stirring of republican sentiment since the execution of Charles I. As Victoria remained invisible, refusing to meet even foreign dignitaries, MPs and campaigners began suggesting the country could do without the monarchy, with some radicals calling for an end to the public bankrolling of the royal family. Had it not been for a failed assassination attempt that brought her public sympathy — and her Scottish ghillie John Brown urging a return to the limelight — Victoria might have been Britain’s last monarch.
在19世紀60年代，寡居的維多利亞女王(Queen Victoria)爲了亡夫阿爾伯特親王(Prince Albert)而長時間的服喪，引發了自查理一世(Charles I)被處決以來最嚴重的共和主義情緒。由於維多利亞女王一直隱身，甚至拒絕與外國高官會面，國會議員和社運人士開始建議國家可以不需要君主制，一些激進分子呼籲停止公衆資助皇室家族。如果不是因爲一次未遂的暗殺企圖引起了公衆的同情，以及她的蘇格蘭侍從約翰•布朗(John Brown)敦促她重返公衆視野，維多利亞女王可能成爲英國的最後一位君主。
The paradox for Catherine is that she is suffering partly because of her popularity. Clothes that she wears regularly sell out, and she has just topped a national poll of royals. But the obsession with her private life may also be a consequence of the accidentally over-slimmed-down institution. With Prince Andrew disgraced, the Sussex circus transplanted to California, and William cancelling some public engagements to look after the couple’s children, the number of working royals has shrunk precipitously. Responsibilities are spread thin, and the personalities to gossip about are limited.
凱特所面臨的悖論在於，她的痛苦部分源於她極高的人氣。她所穿戴的服飾總是迅速售罄，近期她更是在一項全國性的皇室人氣調查中高居榜首。然而，對她私生活的過度關注可能也是因爲皇室機構不斷縮減的意外後果。隨著安德魯王子因醜聞而名聲掃地，蘇塞克斯家庭搬遷至加利福尼亞，以及威廉取消一些公務活動以照看孩子，主要承擔公務的皇室成員數量急劇減少。責任的負擔因而分散，人們可供八卦的對象也相應減少。
Looming above it all, ominously, is King Charles’s cancer. At this week’s Commonwealth Day service in Westminster Abbey, the King spoke by video link.
在這一切之上，更令人憂慮的是查爾斯三世國王(King Charles)的癌症問題。在本週於威斯敏斯特大教堂(Westminster Abbey)舉辦的英聯邦日服務儀式上，國王透過影片鏈接進行了講話。
The monarchy remains a global institution with considerable pulling power. The death of the Queen removed a much-loved figure who had been a constant presence in British life, outlasting 15 prime ministers and charming US presidents from Harry Truman to Joe Biden. In America last week, I was struck by how many people, hearing my accent, extended their best wishes for the King’s recovery. Three centuries after independence, I find many Americans more fascinated by the royals than we are. Our monarchs still play an indefinable, yet genuine role in projecting Britain.
英國王室依舊是一個擁有巨大吸引力的全球性機構。女王的逝世意味著一個深受愛戴的人物從英國人的生活中消失，她一直是英國社會的常青藤，歷經15任首相，並從哈里•杜魯門到喬•拜登的美國總統中贏得了無數的心。上週在美國，當人們聽到我的口音後，紛紛向我表達對國王康復的良好祝願，這讓我深受感動。三個世紀過去，獨立之後，我發現許多美國人對王室的迷戀甚至超過了我們英國人。我們的君主在塑造英國形象方面仍扮演著一個難以明言卻真切存在的角色。
Charles’s candour about his condition has been unprecedented, according to royal watchers. He wisely anticipated that being open about having cancer early on would be the right thing to do — and would win him some respite from inquiries about the details. Catherine and William’s advisers have not been quite so shrewd. The poor woman deserves some privacy — not least as a mother of three. Since the death of Princess Diana we have all seen the prurient horror bubble this family endures. But announcing that she would be out of action from December until Easter, with no satisfactory explanation and no public appearances, was not the best way to dampen interest.
根據皇室觀察家的說法，查爾斯王子對自己病情的坦誠是前所未有的。他明智地認爲，早期公開患癌的事實是正確之舉，這不僅能讓他避免過多的細節詢問，還能爲他贏得一絲喘息之機。相比之下，凱特和威廉的顧問們就顯得沒有那麼機敏了。他們並沒有那麼精明。這位身爲三個孩子之母的女士，理應享有一些私人空間。自黛安娜王妃去世以來，我們已經目睹了這個家庭所承受的刺探性恐怖。但宣佈她將從12月至復活節期間停止所有公開活動，卻沒有給出一個令人滿意的解釋，這並不是減少公衆興趣的最好方式。
It will do the princess’s homespun, friendly image no harm that she decided to take her own family portraits. The photo agencies seem to have delighted in issuing a “kill notice” to take the picture out of circulation and expose her lack of professionalism. But one of the absurd aspects of “Kate-Gate” is that celebrity photo retouching is routine. Portrait painters have been helping the royals for centuries. Cecil Beaton, the great society photographer, used all sorts of tricks to flatter his subjects after replacing what he called “hazardous candid camera shots”. His official 1953 Coronation portrait of Elizabeth II was in fact taken at home, according to the royal biographer Robert Hardman, with a fake Abbey backdrop.
王妃親手拍攝家庭肖像的決定對她那樸實無華、親和力十足的形象毫無損害。相反，照片機構發佈「撤回通知」以停止照片流通並指出她的非專業性，似乎對此感到十分滿意。然而，「凱特門」事件荒唐的一面在於，名人照片修飾早已是業界常態。數個世紀以來，肖像畫家就一直在爲皇室成員美化形象。著名社會攝影師塞西爾•比頓用盡各種手段來美化他的攝影對象，取代他所說的「危險的抓拍」。根據皇室傳記作者羅伯特•哈德曼的說法，他爲伊麗莎白二世拍攝的1953年加冕正式肖像實際上是在家中完成的，背景是一個假的大教堂。
Where should the modern line be drawn, between openness and privacy? Part of the royal family’s success has always been its mystique. “We must not let in daylight upon magic,” wrote the constitutionalist Walter Bagehot. The fairytale is built on theatricality, ceremony, duty and service: gratitude for which gives the royals a certain amount of respect for their private lives.
在現代社會，開放與私隱之間的界限應如何劃定？皇室家族的部分成功源於其神祕性。「我們絕不可讓陽光照入魔法之地，」憲政學者沃爾特•白芝浩(Walter Bagehot)所言。這種童話般的故事是建立在戲劇性、儀式感、責任與服務之上的：正是對這些元素的感激之情，爲王室成員的私生活贏得了一定程度的尊重。
How will this play out? “The great advantage the royals have is time”, says Simon Lewis, former communications chief to the Queen. “They can let issues gestate”. Concerns about the prospect of Camilla becoming Queen, for example, were assuaged over a period of years while the idea was gently mooted, debated, considered.
這將如何展開？「王室最大的優勢是時間，」女王的前通訊總監西蒙•劉易斯指出。「他們可以讓議題逐漸成熟。」比如，對於卡米拉可能成爲女王的擔憂，在幾年時間裏透過緩和的提出、討論和考量而得到了緩解。
And this is an institution that has recovered from far worse. Charles I was beheaded in 1649; the House of Hanover was dogged by sex scandals; George III lost his mind and he also lost America, which wasn’t terribly popular.
而這個機構曾經從更嚴重的挫折中恢復過來。1649年，查理一世被處決；漢諾威王朝頻繁爆出性醜聞；喬治三世不僅失去了理智，也失去了美國，後者並沒有得到很好的評價。
Queen Elizabeth II once said that she had to be “seen to be believed”: and that remains the bargain. The enormous goodwill towards Kate seems hard to square with the current level of prying. But they are two sides of the same coin.
伊麗莎白二世女王曾言：「非親見，難信其真。」這一理念至今仍然適用。人們對凱特的深厚好感似乎難以與當前對她的過度關注相協調。然而，這兩者實際上是一枚硬幣的兩面。