(单词翻译:单击)
O’Toole’s We Don’t Know Ourselves is in a category all its own, a blend of reporting, history, analysis, and argument, explored through the lens of the author’s sensibility and experience:
奥图尔的《我们不了解自己》自成一类，融合了报道、历史、分析和论说，通过作者的情感和经验进行了探索:
his boyhood in the Crumlin housing estate; his education at the hands of the fearsome Christian Brothers; his awareness, as a political journalist in Dublin, of clerical cover-ups and government chicanery; his impatience with the “silences and evasions” of Irish life.
他在克拉姆林住宅区度过的童年; 他受到可怕的基督教兄弟会的教育; 作为都柏林的一名政治记者，他察觉到神职人员的遮掩和政府的欺诈; 他无法容忍爱尔兰生活的“沉默与逃避”。
O’Toole was born in 1958, the son of a bus conductor and a homemaker, into an Ireland where in many respects time seemed to have stopped.
奥图尔1958年出生在爱尔兰，父亲是一名公交售票员，母亲是一名家庭主妇。那时的爱尔兰，时间似乎在很多方面都停止了。
The failed Easter Rebellion had led eventually to the Anglo-Irish Treaty, which decreed partition for the island and granted independence to the southern Free State.
复活节起义的失败最终导致了《盎格鲁-爱尔兰条约》的签订，该条约规定对该岛进行分割，并允许南部自由州独立。
It also brought on a bloody civil war—the original “Troubles.”
这也带来了一场血腥的内战——最初的“麻烦”。
Eamon De Valera, a commandant in the uprising who was spared execution in 1916 in part because he was an American citizen, opposed the Anglo-Irish Treaty but went on to lead the nation it created.
埃蒙·德·瓦莱拉是起义的指挥官之一，1916年他没有被处决，部分原因是他是美国公民。他反对《盎格鲁-爱尔兰条约》，但后来领导了这个条约创建的国家。
He warned against “amorphous cosmopolitanism,” as if that were imminent.
他警告人们抵制“虚无的世界大同主义”，好像这种主义即将来临似的。
Through decades of economic torpor, the country’s chief export was beef. Its other export was people.
爱尔兰经历了几十年的经济低迷，该国的主要出口商品是牛肉。另一个主要出口的是人。
The Ireland of De Valera’s aspiration was Catholic, rural, Irish-speaking, and, as he himself put it, “as self-contained as possible.”
德·瓦莱拉所向往的爱尔兰是天主教，乡村，爱尔兰语，正如他自己所说，“尽可能的独立”。
Church and state—specifically, De Valera’s long-dominant Fianna Fáil party—worked hand in glove, a regime of mutual reinforcement.
教会和政府——尤其是德·瓦莱拉长期占据主导地位的共和党——携手合作，形成了一种相互强化的体制。
The fusion was symbolized by the use of the term martyrs for the Easter rebels.
用“烈士”一词来表示复活节起义者，象征着这种结合。
The year of O’Toole’s birth was also the year when a government minister named T. K. Whitaker produced a report with the bland name “Economic Development.”
在奥图尔出生的那一年，一位名叫惠特克的政府部长发表了一份名为《经济发展》的平淡无奇的报告。
It was so calm and academic—the “Grey Book,” in shorthand—that it quietly became national policy.
该报告是那么充满冷静和具有学术性——简写为“灰书”——以至于它悄无声息地成为了国家政策。
The report’s broad impetus was Ireland’s backward condition as a kind of charming North Korea.
这份报告的主要推动力是爱尔兰像朝鲜一样的落后状况。
The more immediate spark, Whitaker later acknowledged, had been a cover image on Dublin Opinion magazine showing a sign sprouting from an empty island.
惠特克后来承认，更直接的导火线来自《都柏林意见》杂志的一张封面照片，照片展示了一个空岛萌芽的指示牌。
The sign read shortly available: undeveloped country / unrivalled opportunities / magnificent views, political and otherwise / owners going abroad.
标牌上写着很快就可以得到:不发达国家/无与伦比的机会/壮丽的景色，政治或其他/所有者出国。
Whitaker’s report provided a blueprint for opening the Irish economy to outside investment and ultimately to Europe.
惠特克的报告为爱尔兰经济向外部投资开放并最终向欧洲开放提供了蓝图。
It embodied what O’Toole refers to as “the great gamble”—that “everything would change economically but everything would stay the same culturally.”
该报告体现了奥图尔所说的“一场豪赌”——“经济上的一切都会改变，但文化上的一切都会保持不变。”
