THE youth of the three brothers that is described in “Brothers Emanuel” is interesting because one of them is Rahm Emanuel, the mayor of Chicago, President Barack Obama’s former chief of staff and a leading figure in Democratic politics. Rahm is the middle sibling. The eldest is Ezekiel, a medical ethicist and vice-provost at the University of Pennsylvania, and the author of this memoir. The youngest is Ari, a Hollywood agent and the role model for the character Ari Gold in “Entourage”, an American television series.
在《伊曼纽尔兄弟》一书的描述中，三兄弟的童年生活是相当有趣的。三兄弟之一的拉姆•伊曼纽尔是芝加哥市长、奥巴马总统的前幕僚长同时也是民主党的领头人物。拉姆在三兄弟里排行第二。三兄弟中最年长的是医学伦理学家且担任宾夕法尼亚大学校长的以西结，他同时也是这本回忆录的作者。最小的是好莱坞著名经纪人阿里，同时他也是美国电视连续剧《明星伙伴》中阿里•高登的原型。
hey grew up in Chicago in the 1960s—before supervised playdates, constant communication and fears of abduction. They explored their neighbourhood and even spent entire days on the beach alone. The alternative was to allow them to conduct their raids, sneak attacks, skirmishes, mock battles and combat missions indoors. Close in age, their wild play resulted in some bloody wounds including the loss of four teeth and the removal (fortunately temporary) of four fingers from two different brothers.
他们成长于20世纪60年代的芝加哥——在这个时代还没有经过严格审查的娱乐节目、人际交往也没有现在频繁与繁杂，更没有对拐骗之类的担心。他们天天在自己家附近玩耍甚至在沙滩上一呆就是一天。要不然他们就打打闹闹，你推我搡，战斗不停，因为年龄所差无几，他们玩耍的后果就是一些带血的惨痛教训，包括其中两兄弟掉了四颗牙，断了四根手指头（还好只是暂时的。）。
Born in Jerusalem, their father, Ben, was briefly a member of the Irgun, a Zionist paramilitary group in British-mandated Palestine. Their mother was the daughter of a Chicago trade-union organiser. She was active in the civil-rights movement and often took her children to protests.
三兄弟的父亲本出生于耶路撒冷，曾有一段时间加入了英国统治巴勒斯坦时期犹太复国主义组织伊尔根。他们的母亲是一个芝加哥工会组织者的女儿。她对民权运动十分热心，还经常带着她的三个儿子参加游行。
Emanuel père had a practice as a paediatrician, but the family was not materially wealthy; the children were privately schooled and any spare cash was spent on cultural outings. Passionate debate around the dinner table was the norm. Everyone was expected to be well informed and the boys were allowed to swear. Tempers could run high. A discussion of “The Deer Hunter”, a 1978 film, ended in a brawl. For all the chaos, though, there were rules: no prejudice, cruelty or stupidity.
伊曼纽尔三兄弟的父亲曾是一名儿科医师，但是这个家庭并不是特别富裕。三个孩子都没是自己在家教育，家里的钱大多都用在与文化有关的短期出行上。在晚餐桌上进行的激烈辩论也是伊曼纽尔家的特色。他们的初衷是让每个人都能对事物有准确的了解，甚至连开口大骂也是允许的。但是要知道是脾气都有控制不住的时候。有一次，他们关于1978年的电影《猎鹿人》在他们家饭桌上的讨论最终又导致了一次大争吵。但是，无论怎么争，怎么吵，准则仍在：绝不歧视，不能残忍，不可犯糊涂。
Although Rahm started out as the quiet child, the roots of his assertiveness, tenacity, beliefs and even style are easy to find. At home, as the middle child, he was the politician. Outside he was notorious in challenging authority. In an argument with the father of a good schoolfriend he said “Fuck you, Uncle Bill”, and then launched into a tirade about how the man was an Archie Bunker—a television character who was a politically incorrect, conservative curmudgeon.
尽管拉姆•伊曼纽尔在小时候算是个安静的孩子，但是他的魄力、韧性、信仰和他的独特风格从他的成长中也可觅踪影。在家里，他是排行老二的孩子，上忍哥哥，下让弟弟，就像政治家一样。在外面，他是个因为爱挑战权威而名声昭著的政客。又一次，他与一位交好的学校同学的父亲起了争执，他说：“比尔叔叔，你去死吧。”然后便开始了他的长篇大论，说那个人是个像电视角色亚奇邦克式一般自大顽固的人。
Ezekiel is more informative about Rahm than analytical. He attributes all three brothers’ success to active parenting, but it is hard not to conclude that their greatest influence might have been each other. They slept in the same room, ate at the same table, played as a group and, for many summers, explored Israel together.
以西结对拉姆并没有深入的分析，而是用很多信息来支撑。他将三兄弟的成功归于良好的家庭教育。但是人们还是会不禁将他们的成功与他们对互相的影响联系起来。他们住一间房间，在同一张桌子上吃饭，一块儿玩耍，在那么多个夏天一起在以色列探险。
They also formed strategies for how to appease their mother’s tempestuous moods. Her life was always destined to be hard—her father made her give the money she saved up for university to her brother Sheldon. It was Marsha Emanuel’s blessing and her burden to find herself bringing up three tiger cubs. Her influence was deeply pervasive, though, and it now seems inevitable that the Emanuels were destined to impose themselves on the world, rather than the other way round.
他们对怎么安抚他们妈妈的脾气也自有套路。她的生活仿佛注定是艰辛的——她父亲逼着她把自己存着上大学的钱给了她的哥哥谢尔登。但是能够养育这三个如猛虎般孩子的母亲必然也是得到了老天的眷顾。然而，她对于孩子的影响随处可见，现在看起来，伊曼纽尔三兄弟会闻名世界才是命中注定，三兄弟也绝对不可能是默默无闻的。