The Future of The English
英国人的未来
J . B. Priestley
JB普里斯特利
To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different.
若想用世界上流行的标准政治术语，即左、中、右三派这种毫无意义的陈腔老调来描述英国人的话，那多半是白费时间，徒耗精力。英国人可是与众不同。
The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are.
他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，倒是同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。
And what they feel-Englishness again-is more important than what they think.
而他们所感觉到的…这一点再次反映出英国人的特性-比他们想象到的更为重要。
It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England.
在英国，决定一切事物形式和色彩的不是人的理性思维，而是人的本能感觉。
For example, although the English seem to be so sharply divided, always indulging in plenty of loud political abuse, there are nothing like so many Communists or neo-or potential Fascists in England as there are in most other countries.
举例来说，尽管英国人表面上似乎存在着严重的意见分歧，彼此之间进行政治上的攻击谩骂也是常有的事，但英国却不像许多其他国家一样有那么多的共产主义者以及新的或潜在的法西斯主义分子。
Again, although the English seem to have more than their share of rallies, protest marches, confrontations with authority, what could begin to look like a murderous encounter in France or America,
再如，虽然英国人举行的群众集会、示威游行、与当局对抗的事件似乎比一般国家多，但有些在法国或美国有可能发展成生死搏斗，
or might be a bloody street battle in Japan, would in England end at the worst in a few scuffles and arrests.
在日本有可能演变成街头血战的恶性事件，而在英国至多也不过以一阵扭打或几个人被拘捕的结局了事。
This is because there are fewer fanatical believers among the English, and at the same time, below the noisy arguments, the abuse and the quarrels, there is a reservoir of instinctive fellow-feeling, not yet exhausted though it may not be filling up.
这是因为在英国人当中狂热的盲从分子较少，同时，在他们那一片乱哄哄的争论、谩骂和吵闹的背后，还蕴藏着一股河海般深厚、纯真的同胞之情。这种情谊虽然还不到充溢的程度，却还没有枯竭。