(单词翻译:单击)
The future of democracy may well be decided in a drab office building on the outskirts of Vilnius, alongside a highway crammed with impatient drivers heading out of town.
民主的未来很可能在维尔纽斯郊区一座单调乏味的办公大楼里决定，旁边的高速公路上挤满了不耐烦的司机，他们正驶出城。
I met Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya there this spring, in a room that held a conference table, a whiteboard, and not much else.
今年春天，我在那里遇到了斯维亚特拉娜·齐卡努斯卡娅，在一个只有会议桌和白板的房间里。
Her team—more than a dozen young journalists, bloggers, vloggers, and activists—was in the process of changing offices.
她的团队——包括十几名年轻的记者、博客作者、视频博主和活动分子——正处于更换办公室的过程中。
But that wasn’t the only reason the space felt stale and perfunctory.
但这并不是这个空间显得陈旧和敷衍的唯一原因。
None of them, especially not Tsikhanouskaya, really wanted to be in this ugly building, or in the Lithuanian capital at all.
没有一个人，尤其是齐卡努斯卡娅，真的想住在这个丑陋的建筑里，或者根本不想住在立陶宛首都。
She is there because she probably won the 2020 presidential election in Belarus, and because the Belarusian dictator she probably defeated, Alexander Lukashenko, forced her out of the country immediately afterward.
她在那里是因为她很可能赢得了2020年白俄罗斯的总统选举，也因为她可能击败的白俄罗斯独裁者亚历山大·卢卡申科在选举结束后立即迫使她离开了这个国家。
Lithuania offered her asylum. Her husband, Siarhei Tsikhanouski, remains imprisoned in Belarus.
立陶宛为她提供了庇护。 她的丈夫Siarhei Tsikhanouski仍被关押在白俄罗斯。
Here is the first thing she said to me: “My story is a little bit different from other people.”
这是她对我说的第一件事:“我的故事和其他人有点不同。”
This is what she tells everyone—that hers was not the typical life of a dissident or budding politician.
这就是她告诉所有人的——她的生活不是一个典型的持不同政见者或崭露头角的政治家。
Before the spring of 2020, she didn’t have much time for television or newspapers.
在2020年春天之前，她没有太多时间看电视或看报纸。
She has two children, one of whom was born deaf.
她有两个孩子，其中一个孩子生下来就听不见。
On an ordinary day, she would take them to kindergarten, to the doctor, to the park.
在平常的日子里，她会带他们去幼儿园，去看医生，去公园。
Then her husband bought a house and ran into the concrete wall of Belarusian bureaucracy and corruption.
然后她的丈夫买了一套房子，撞上了白俄罗斯官僚主义和腐败的水泥墙。
Exasperated, he started making videos about his experiences, and those of others.
恼怒之下，他开始制作视频，讲述自己和其他人的经历。
These videos yielded a YouTube channel; the channel attracted thousands of followers.
这些视频催生了一个YouTube频道; 该频道吸引了成千上万的粉丝。
He went around the country, recording the frustrations of his fellow citizens, driving a car with the phrase “Real News” plastered on the side.
他开着一辆贴着“真实新闻”字样的车，走遍全国，记录他的同胞们的挫折。
Siarhei Tsikhanouski held up a mirror to his society.
Siarhei Tsikhanouski为他的社会树立了一面镜子。
People saw themselves in that mirror and responded with the kind of enthusiasm that opposition politicians had found hard to create in Belarus.
人们在这面镜子里看到了自己，并做出了热情的回应，这种热情是反对派政治家在白俄罗斯很难创造出来的。
“At the beginning it was really difficult because people were afraid,” Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya told me.
“一开始真的很难，因为人们很害怕，”斯维亚特拉娜·齐卡努斯卡娅告诉我。
“But step-by-step, slowly, they realized that Siarhei isn’t afraid.”
“但一步一步，慢慢地，他们意识到Siarhei并不害怕。”
He wasn’t afraid to speak the truth as he saw it; his absence of fear inspired others.
他不怕说出他所看到的事实; 他的无畏鼓舞了其他人。
