David Cameron’s acknowledgement that he was not greeted with a “wall of love” at last week’s EU summit demonstrated a flair for languid British understatement. In reality, the prime minister’s long-anticipated demand for a renegotiation of Britain’s membership of the EU has been met with a mixture of anger and incomprehension.
英国首相戴维•卡梅伦(David Cameron)承认，他在最近的欧盟峰会上没有得到“友爱”，这说明他还是有一点英国式轻描淡写的天赋的。实际上，他就英国的欧盟成员国身份重新举行谈判的要求，得到的是愤怒加不理解。人们早就料到他会提出这一要求。
The UK’s demands are doubtless inconvenient for the other EU leaders. But Mr Cameron is simply playing out the latest act in Britain’s ambivalent relationship with the rest of the European continent, a drama that has been going for centuries.
对其他欧盟国家的领导人来说，英国的要求无疑令人不快。但英国与欧洲其他国家的矛盾关系是一部持续数世纪之久的大戏，卡梅伦只是在演最新的一幕。

Britain’s debate about Europe echoes arguments that were taking place nearly 300 years ago when Sir Robert Walpole became [THE FIRST?]the first prime minister[OR IS THIS WHEN HE BECAME CHANCELLOR?]. Robert Tombs, the Cambridge historian, notes that Walpole, a Whig, believed Britain should play a “major role in Europe”, while his Tory [MIGHT HELP TO SAY HE WAS A WHIG]opponents preferred “overseas trade, not European commitments”.
英国关于欧洲的辩论，令人想起了近300年前罗伯特•沃波尔爵士(Sir Robert Walpole)成为首任英国首相时发生的争论。剑桥大学(Cambridge)历史学家罗伯特•图姆斯(Robert Tombs)指出，辉格党人沃波尔相信，英国应该“在欧洲扮演主要角色”，同时他的保守党对手则偏向“海外贸易，而不是致力于欧洲事务”。
As the leader of the modern Tories, Mr Cameron is the inheritor of his party’s traditional suspicion of European entanglements. Winston Churchill, the greatest of all Tory prime ministers, once told Charles de Gaulle that faced with a choice between Europe and “le grand large” (the open sea), Britain would always look beyond Europe.
作为现代保守党的领导人，卡梅伦继承了该党传统上对是否应参与欧洲纠葛的怀疑。最伟大的保守党首相温斯顿•邱吉尔(Winston Churchill)曾经告诉夏尔•戴高乐(Charles de Gaulle)，在欧洲和“广阔天地”（远海）之间做选择的时候，英国总是把目光投向欧洲以外。
Even Britain’s pro-Europeans have often taken a certain pride in steering clear of the worst upheavals on the European continent. Walpole boasted to the Queen in 1734: “Madam, there are 50,000 men slain in Europe this year, and not one Englishman.” Mr Cameron’s own audiences with the Queen have probably included similar sighs of relief over Britain’s ability to steer clear of the worst of the euro crisis.
甚至英国的亲欧人士也往往对英国没有陷入欧洲大陆最严重的动荡而感到某种程度的自豪。沃波尔曾在1734年向英国女王夸耀道：“陛下，今年欧洲有5万人遭到屠杀，但没有一个是英国人。”卡梅伦自己在觐见英国女王时，很可能也会同样对英国能够在欧元危机最严重时期免受影响，而长出一口气。
The commitment to a referendum is Mr Cameron’s concession to political forces that believe, like 18th-century Tories, that Britain should look to the world beyond Europe. Global Britain, one of the organisations campaigning for Britain to leave the EU, argues: “Britain’s destiny ceased to be European centuries ago when English settlers began their transatlantic odyssey.”
公投承诺是卡梅伦向一些政治力量的妥协。这些政治力量就像18世纪的保守党一样相信英国应该着眼于欧洲以外的世界。致力于英国脱欧的组织之一Global Britain辩称：“早在几个世纪前英格兰定居者开始跨越大西洋之旅的时候，英国的命运就不再在欧洲。”
Statements such as that make it easy to portray eurosceptics as backward-looking nostalgics. But there is also a forward-looking case to be made for Britain to take a global approach. The past few years of infighting and financial chaos have not been a compelling advertisement for the EU. The most dynamic economies in the world are in Asia and the most exciting technological developments are taking place in the US.
诸如此类的宣称让人很容易将欧元怀疑论者描述为向后看的怀旧者。但英国着眼全球也有前瞻性的理由。过去几年的内讧和金融危机可不是什么有说服力的欧盟广告。全球最具活力的经济体是在亚洲，最令人兴奋的技术发展发生在美国。
The real objection to the current case for Britain quitting the EU is simply that it poses a false choice between Europe and the rest of world. In reality, Britain has always attempted to be both a European and a global power.
当前真正反对英国退出欧盟的理由仅仅是，它提出了在欧洲和世界其他地区之间二选一的错误选择。实际上，英国总是试图在欧洲和全球同时称雄。
Both Walpole and his foes turned out to be right. The Tories were correct to spot that Britain’s greatest commercial and political opportunities would lie outside Europe. The Whigs were right to believe it would be impossible to avoid European “entanglements”.
事实证明，沃波尔和他的对手都是正确的。保守党正确地指出，英国最大的商业和政治机遇将在欧洲以外的地区。辉格党正确地认为，避开欧洲“纠葛”将是不可能的。
Next month Britain celebrates the 200th anniversary of victory in the ultimate European entanglement: the Battle of Waterloo. There is a eurosceptic version of Waterloo that portrays it as a British triumph over an ambitious European centraliser: Napoleon. The europhile version points out that Wellington commanded a multinational coalition and secured victory only after the late arrival on the battlefield of the Prussians.
英国将在本月庆祝在终极欧洲纠葛——滑铁卢战役(Batttle of Waterloo)中取得胜利200周年。欧元怀疑论者将滑铁卢战役描述为英国对野心勃勃的欧洲集权者拿破仑的胜利。亲欧者则指出，惠灵顿公爵只是在普鲁士人后来抵达战场之后才指挥多国联军获得胜利。
The construction of winning coalitions in Europe has, so far, not been Mr Cameron’s forte. Last year, in a conference chamber a few miles from Waterloo, he went down to a heavy defeat in his effort to block the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. On this occasion British hopes for the Germans to come to the rescue were disappointed.
迄今为止，卡梅伦并不擅长在欧洲联合盟友取得胜利。去年，在距滑铁卢数英里之外的一个会议室里，他阻止让-克洛德•容克(Jean-Claude Juncker)担任欧盟委员会(European Commission)主席的努力遭遇严重挫败。这一次，英国人希望德国人出面救援的愿望落空了。
If Mr Cameron sustains further defeats in his efforts to cut a new deal with the EU, those[BIG C?] who want Britain to leave Europe will be emboldened. They will argue that engagement with Europe need not entail membership of the EU. And they will add that if Britain wants to trade successfully with the rest of the world, it will do better if it frees itself from suffocating European regulation.
如果卡梅伦与欧盟缔结新协议的努力再次失败，那些希望英国退出欧盟的人将会受到鼓舞。他们将辩称，与欧洲打交道不需要成为欧盟成员国。他们还会接着说，如果英国希望成功地与世界其他国家开展贸易，摆脱令人窒息的欧洲监管会让它做得更好。
Both arguments sound plausible, but both are flawed. The fact is that every other large country in Europe, bar Russia, is now a member of the EU. If Britain leaves, it will have to adapt to EU policies that it will have no hand in formulating. The price of continuing unfettered access to the EU’s single market is likely to be acceptance of the very regulations Britain’s anti-Europeans dream of escaping.
这两种观点听起来貌似有理，但它们都是错误的。事实上，除了俄罗斯，欧洲的其他大国现在都是欧盟成员国。如果英国退出欧盟，它将不得不适应自己无法插手制定的欧盟政策。继续自由进入欧盟单一市场的代价，可能就是接受英国反欧人士梦想逃避的那些监管。
Finally, the idea that EU regulation prevents Britain from competing in global markets is a myth. Germany exports five times more to China than Britain[SOURCE/LINK?] — despite the alleged handicap of EU membership. The real challenge of Mr Cameron’s renegotiation is one that Tory anti-Europeans barely mention: maintaining British influence within the EU while staying outside the European single currency.
最后，欧盟监管妨碍英国在全球市场竞争的观点是天方夜谭。尽管有欧盟成员国身份的所谓桎梏，但德国对华出口仍是英国对华出口的5倍。卡梅伦重新谈判欧盟成员国身份的真正挑战是保守党的反欧人士很少提及的：如何保持英国在欧盟内部的影响力，同时留在欧洲单一货币之外。
Mr Cameron certainly knows that. His challenge is to retain control of the modern Tory party while maintaining a Walpole-like determination to maintain British engagement with Europe.
卡梅伦当然知道这一点。他的挑战在于，在像沃波尔那样保持决心让英国继续与欧洲打交道的同时，保持对现代保守党的控制。