Japan

Out goes Abe（I） 安倍走了(上)

Sep 12th 2007 | TOKYO
From Economist.com

王毅回国，安倍下台，是某种巧合，还是中日新一轮波澜的预兆？但愿，我只是杞人忧天。

Japan's unimpressive prime minister, Shinzo Abe, quits

Unimpressive:对于中国人来讲，也许安倍并非如此让人没有印象。毕竟，他是扭转中日关系“冰点”的关键先生。

顺便多一句，……,quits.是典型的Economist风格。把关键谓语放在长句最后，凸显地位。

BOWING to the inevitable, but with surprising timing, Shinzo Abe announced his resignation as Japan’s prime minister on Wednesday September 12th, just under a year after coming to office. The grandson of a famous post-war prime minister and son of a foreign minister, Mr Abe had his whole life been groomed to be prime minister—not least by his domineering mother, who last year insisted that he bid for his party’s leadership while grandees of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) were urging him to bide his time. If only, he must now be thinking, he had heeded their advice, for it is hard to think of a less glorious term than Mr Abe’s.

Under a year：在less than a year以外，我们又多了一种地道的表述。

Groom：准备：为特定身份或目地而准；to prepare, as for a specific position or purpose。

Domineering：专横的。Domineer指专制，作威作福。

Grandee：显贵。

Bide one’s time：等待。bide= wait。

Heed：注意，留意。Economist常见词，尤其在heed one’s attention中现身。

It had started well. Mr Abe was relatively young—the first prime minister born after the second world war. He had the blessing of the outgoing prime minister, Junichiro Koizumi, who had dazzled the nation with his message of change. Mr Koizumi had a year earlier won a landslide general election, appealing over the heads of his party in favour of essential reforms, notably the privatisation of the postal-savings system, a fount of political patronage. Thanks to Mr Koizumi, Mr Abe inherited a huge majority for the LDP-led coalition in the lower house of the Diet (parliament) and a newly empowered office of the prime minister. Japan’s economy also looked to be returning to health after long years of slump. At the outset, Mr Abe’s government enjoyed huge popularity.

Outgoing：即将离任的。

Dazzle：令人眼花缭乱的。小泉任上进行了大刀阔斧的改革，尤其是国家邮政的私有化，对比我们国家怎么也拆不掉的行业垄断，确实勇气可嘉，也为他赢得了国内极高的民调。对于小泉在国内经济上的作为，我们还是要充分肯定。毕竟我们常说，看人要一分为二，更何况看一只狗。

Fount：源泉

Diet：日本议会

At the outset：outset=onset

Yet the tide in Mr Abe’s affairs only ebbed. True, early on he made a notable opening towards China, with whom relations had been strained under Mr Koizumi. Other than that, Mr Abe showed an inability to impose discipline upon a cabinet of the corrupt and incompetent. Worse, he had a tin ear for the political mood. Voters, it turned out, were not in fact keen on cost-cutting and structural reform, which entailed pain and uncertainty, particularly in rural regions and among the old. Mr Abe, uninterested in domestic policy, failed to reassure them. Mr Abe’s inert response to a bureaucratic scandal involving 50m missing pensions records underscored how out of touch he was.

Early on：在早期

tin ear (for)：听觉不灵的耳朵, 畸形的耳朵

entailed pain and uncertainty：entail，使蒙受，使承担

inert response：inert迟钝的。

Underscore：划线于……下，引申为“突出”。

In late July voters handed his government a crushing defeat in elections for the Diet’s upper house. For the first time in the LDP’s half-century existence the party lost its upper-house majority, to the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ). LDP heavyweights soon began calling for Mr Abe’s resignation. That he was able to carry on was a measure of his party’s disarray. On August 27th a cabinet reshuffle saw his callow band of brothers leave for a team of LDP heavies.

Heavyweights：重量级人物。

a measure of his party’s disarray：体现/说明/衡量出安倍党内的混乱。Disarray：混乱。

Reshuffle：改组。

Callow：年轻而无经验的；鸟未生羽毛的；immature。