The head of the United Nations glides silently into a waiting room at the organisation’s New York headquarters wearing a sombre dark blue suit, a white shirt and a pale blue tie with a UN tie clip.Ban Ki-moon, 71, has just been on the phone to British prime minister David Cameron, pleading with him, “as an important leader of Europe”, to take more refugees from Syria.

联合国秘书长潘基文(Ban Ki-moon)悄然步入联合国纽约总部大楼的一间等候室，他身穿白色衬衫和深蓝色西服，淡蓝色领带上面别着一枚联合国领带夹。现年71岁的潘基文在来之前刚刚和英国首相戴维愠蕓伦(David Cameron)通过电话，恳请他“作为欧洲的一位重要领袖”，接收更多叙利亚难民。

It is a topic close to Ban’s heart. Sixty-five years ago, as a child in Korea, he was forced to leave home when his village was sucked into the country’s brutal war. Ever since, he has felt a particularly strong affinity with victims of violence.

潘基文心系这些难民。65年前，还是一个孩子的潘基文所在的村子被卷入韩国残酷的战争，他被迫背井离乡。此后，他一直感到自己和暴行的受害者有一种特别深切的联系。

“I was six years old,” he recalls. “I had to flee with things on my back. It was big difficulty finding something to eat. I was always crying, crying, crying, without knowing what was going on. All the schools were destroyed. We were just sitting under the shadow of a tree, on the ground.”

“当时我才6岁，”潘基文回忆道，“我必须背着东西逃难。找不到什么吃的东西。我不停地哭，不懂得发生了什么事。所有的学校都被毁了。我们只能坐在树荫底下的地上。”

He looks me in the eye. “I was not really refugee,” he adds, speaking with the precision of someone who has spent hours studying legal definitions. “I was displaced person. But for us the United Nations flag was the protector.”

他直视我的眼睛。“我算不上真正的难民，”他补充道，用一种花了数小时研读法律定义般的精确感说。“我算流离失所的人。但对我们来说，联合国的旗帜就代表着保护者。”

The Korean peninsula was the first place in the world where UN peacekeepers, wearing their distinctive blue helmets, intervened to protect civilians. As a child, Ban idealised the United Nations — set up after the devastation of the second world war — as “a beacon!” But today, as it prepares to host its 70th General Assembly, pulling together representatives from all of its 193 countries, the organisation seems less beacon and more behemoth, and Ban, its secretary-general since 2007, has learnt the cruel limits of political power.

戴着独特的蓝色头盔的联合国维和部队首次介入执行保护平民任务的地方就是在朝鲜半岛。还是一个孩子的时候，潘基文将从二战的废墟之上建立起来的联合国视作“一座灯塔！”193个成员国代表全部到场的第70届联合国大会于9月15日开幕，但是这个机构似乎已经不那么像一座灯塔，而更像一只巨兽。自2007年以来一直担任联合国秘书长的潘基文也认识到了政治权力残酷的局限性。

The UN can still help deliver good; Ban has been pushing European leaders to face up to the Syrian refugee crisis. “Cameron told me that the UK would take 20,000 more,” he says. “I also called Angela Merkel, Fran Hollande — everyone!”

联合国依然在一些善举中发挥作用；潘基文一直敦促欧洲各国领导人直面叙利亚难民危机。“卡梅伦告诉我，英国将再多接收2万难民，”他说，“我还给安格拉默克尔(Angela Merkel)、弗朗索瓦攠朗德(Fran Hollande)——给所有人打了电话！”

But the organisation has become a sprawling mess: it has 15 specialised agencies, 12 different funds, and a secretariat that employs more than 40,000 people, costing $5.5bn in 2014-15. To complicate matters, all members have an equal vote on issues — and the five members of the “security council” that serves as the UN’s inner sanctum (US, China, Russia, France and Britain) have a veto over decisions. That leaves the institution mired in gridlock.

但这个机构正变得越来越庞杂：联合国拥有15个专门机构、12个基金、还有一个雇佣了4万多人的秘书处，2014到2015年双年度开支预算为55亿美元。更为复杂的是，所有成员国都对议题有平等的投票权，而联合国核心组织“安全理事会”的五个常任理事国（美国、中国、俄罗斯、法国和英国）对决议拥有一票否决权。这让联合国深陷僵局。

The question that hovers over the UN as it faces its big birthday is whether it has now outlived its purpose. Does Ban have an utterly hopeless job?

在联合国成立70年后，悬在这个组织头上的问题是，联合国是否已经失去了其存在意义？潘基文的这份工作是否是毫无希望的？

...嬠焀栀崀

...嬠焀栀崀

He gestures for me to follow him into the place on the top floor of the UN skyscraper that he has chosen for our lunch: a small official dining room, decorated in a bland corporate style with pale wooden walls. There is a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline but the only decoration of note is a gigantic blue UN flag.

他示意我跟着他去联合国大楼顶层，这里是他为我们的午餐选择的地点：一间小小的官方餐厅，采用朴素的企业式装修风格和淡色木墙。从这里看到的曼哈顿天际线令人惊叹，但我特别注意到一面巨大的蓝色联合国旗帜。

“Time is very limited,” he says, apologising for his choice of location. “I am dealing with 193 nations, and civil society and business community. There are almost unlimited actors who I have to have harmonious relations with.”

“时间不多，”潘基文说，为他选择的午餐地点致歉，“我要和193个国家、公民社会和商界打交道。我必须和数不清的人和机构保持融洽的关系。”

Waiters silently appear and present our first courses on white bone china plates with a blue UN logo. Before the meal, I was asked — in accordance with UN protocol — to complete a form indicating what I wanted to eat. I notice Ban has chosen the same starter as me: a smoked salmon and avocado salad. “I followed you,” he says, impassively.

侍者悄然出现，用带有蓝色联合国标志的白色骨瓷盘子呈上了我们的第一道菜。在餐前，根据联合国礼仪，我被要求填写一张表格，说明我想吃的食物。我注意到潘基文选择了和我一样的开胃菜：烟熏三文鱼和鳄梨沙拉。“我跟你吃一样的，”他淡泊地说。

I start by asking why he wanted to take on such a huge job. Suddenly, Ban’s polite expression becomes truly animated. He explains how, after his family escaped to the city of Cheongju, he eventually got an education. “Unesco and Unicef were providing a lot of humanitarian support — textbooks, toys and pencils and stationaries,” he says, waving his hands in the air; a non-native English speaker, he often uses gestures to communicate.

我首先问他，为何想要承担这样的重任？潘基文客气的表情突然生动起来。他解释说，在他全家逃到清州市(Cheongju)以后，他终于有机会接受教育。“联合国教科文组织(Unesco)和联合国儿童基金会(Unicef)提供了很多人道主义援助——课本、玩具、铅笔和文具，”他挥舞着手说。作为一个母语不是英语的人，他常常使用手势来帮助沟通。

He finished top of his school and, at the age of 17, was selected by the Red Cross to join a 100-strong peace-building delegation to the US of children from around the world. That took him to the White House, where he met US president John F Kennedy. “At that time it was the height of the cold war,” Ban recalls. “But I remember that President Kennedy told us: ‘Although governments are not getting along well, you young people can be good friends — there are no national boundaries.’ ”

他以顶尖的成绩从学校毕业，17岁时被红十字会(Red Cross)选中，参加一个由来自世界各地的100余名儿童组成的和平代表团并前往美国。这次行程中，潘基文进入了白宫，与当时的美国总统约翰F肯尼迪(John F Kennedy)会面。“当时正是冷战最严重的时候，”潘基文回忆道，“但我记得肯尼迪总统告诉我们：‘尽管政府之间关系不好，你们这些年轻人可以成为好朋友——这是没有国界的。’”

The experience left Ban determined to become a diplomat. “[My country] was so poor I was thinking that public service should be the right thing.” Over the next four decades he worked on missions from India to Austria, studied at Harvard’s Kennedy School and then ended up, in 2004, as South Korea’s foreign minister. Generally he avoided controversy; his nickname among Korean diplomats was “the slippery eel”.

这段经历让潘基文立志成为外交官。“（我的国家）非常贫穷，我当时认为从事公共服务工作是正确的事情。”在接下来的40年里，他作为外交官前往印度、奥地利等地工作，在哈佛大学(Harvard)肯尼迪学院学习过，最后在2004年出任韩国外交部长。通常他会避免争论；他在韩国外交官中的外号是“滑头鳗鱼”。

His most startling manoeuvre came in 2006, when the term of the previous UN secretary-general — the charismatic Ghanaian Kofi Annan — ended. Ban unexpectedly threw his hat into the ring. His profile was low, his chances looked equally so, but he tirelessly visited all the key stakeholders. “Frankly speaking, I didn’t think that one day I could become secretary-general until very, very late,” he admits.

他最让人惊讶的一次举动是在2006年上任联合国秘书长——富于个人魅力的加纳人科菲褠坛(Kofi Annan)——任期结束的时候做出的。潘基文出人意料地宣布参加竞选。他并不知名，赢得竞选的机会看起来也不高，但他不知疲倦地走访所有关键的利益攸关方。“老实说，直到非常晚的时候，我都没有想过有一天我能成为秘书长，”他坦言。

Has the job been what he hoped? He smiles politely. “I know there is the question of whether, after 70 years, the UN is relevant and properly effective,” he says. “The UN is quite different from what it was 70 years — or even 20 years — ago. The number of members has increased and there is a dramatic increase in communications and technology and migration. And there has been much more individualistic way of thinking and doing business by each and every member state.”

这份工作是否如他当初所愿？他礼貌地微笑。“我知道，对于70年后联合国是否还有意义，是否确实有效率，人们存在质疑，”他说，“现在的联合国和70年前很不一样——甚至和20年前也很不一样。成员国的数量增加了，沟通、技术和移民显著增多。每一个成员国思考和处理事务的方式都变得更加我行我素。”

What does he think he has achieved? “It is very difficult for me to say something about me. It should be historians and scholars who say it.”

在他心目中，自己取得了什么成就？“我很难对自己做出评价，这该由历史学家和学者来评说。”

I groan inwardly. Some colleagues claim that Ban’s “quiet Confucian” style is exactly what is needed to orchestrate deals in a deeply fractured world; critics retort that his approach is too consensus-oriented and uncharismatic to get anything done. Either way, I have rarely encountered anyone as self-effacing in New York.

我在内心叹息。一些同事说，潘基文“宁静儒雅”的风度正是在一个严重分化的世界促成协议所需要的；批评者则反驳，他的行事方式太以共识为导向，缺乏魅力，无法完成任何事情。不管哪种说法是对的，我很少在纽约遇到一个如此谦逊的人。

I push him again to talk about his record. He pauses, then explains that he has tried to clean up the operations of the UN. Annan’s tenure was hit by scandals such as the “Oil-for-Food” saga, which surrounded a UN programme to aid suffering Iraqis and exposed deep managerial weaknesses. Ban has forced all senior UN officials to reveal their financial assets, implemented performance reviews, and recently even took the rare step of firing somebody (Babacar Gaye, the former head of the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic, whose troops were accused of sexual assault).

我请他再谈一谈自己的成就。他停顿了一下，然后说，他试图让联合国的运作更为廉洁。安南在任内遭到了如“石油换食品”等丑闻的打击，这桩丑闻与联合国对遭受苦难的伊拉克人的援助项目有关，暴露出联合国深层的管理问题。潘基文已经要求所有联合国高级官员公开自己的金融资产，开始实行绩效评估，最近甚至还罕见地解雇了某位官员（巴巴卡尔盖伊(Babacar Gaye)，联合国在中非共和国的维和部队的前长官，他的部队被指控进行性骚扰）。

He has also been trying — belatedly — to tackle the deep bureaucratic silos that make the UN hopelessly inefficient. “We are now finally connecting our computer systems,” he offers, as evidence. “It has taken us five years — five! ”

他还试图解决——迟迟未能解决的——下属不同机构各自为战的问题，这让联合国的运作低效得令人绝望。“我们现在终于把电脑系统连接起来了，”他主动提出一个证据，“这花了我们5年时间——5年！”

What about influence in the wider world? Climate change, he offers finally. “When I came here in January 2007 the climate change was not really very much appreciated or understood. So as a way to raise awareness I travelled to all the places of the world, from Antarctica and then the Arctic.” Carefully, he lists his trips, thanking different governments for their assistance, taking care to not mix up their names.

对于更广大的世界的影响呢？他最终提出，气候变化。“当我2007年1月来到这里的时候，气候变化不是很受重视或者理解。因此，为了提高人们的认识，我走访了世界各个地方，从南极到北极。”他仔细地罗列了他去过的地方，感谢各国政府的支持，并注意不把名字弄混。

“When I went to the Arctic I got full support from the Norwegian government — we took an aeroplane and then ice-breaking ship for 11 hours overnight. The thickness of the ice they had to hit — boom!” he claps his hands. “Two years ago I went to Greenland first, with prime minister of Denmark Helle Thorning-Schmidt. I saw falling chunks of ice — boom!” He claps again. “It is very important for me to sound alarm bells about climate change.”

“我去北极的时候，得到了挪威政府的全力支持——我们乘坐飞机和破冰船，连夜行进了11个小时。冰太厚了，他们必须撞击冰块——砰！”他击打了一下手掌。“两年前，我就先去过了格陵兰岛，和丹麦首相赫勒堠腢-施密特(Helle Thorning-Schmidt)一起。我看到掉落的冰块——砰！”他又击打了一下手掌，“对我来说，拉响气候变化的警铃非常重要。”

Our first course is taken away, and two more identical plates appear with blandly inoffensive piles of sea bream, beans and rice.

第一道菜撤了下去，又是两盘一模一样的菜肴端了上来，盘里面盛着口味清淡的海鲷、豆子和米饭。

Ban insists all this talk and travel has yielded results: last year, under UN pressure, the US and China finally signed up to an international climate-change deal and this year the UN will launch an initiative to provide $100bn of technological assistance to poor countries to help them cut emissions. “But it has been very difficult because governments have been focusing on their narrow national agendas.

潘基文强调，这些对话和走访取得了成效。去年，在联合国的压力下，美国和中国最终签署了一项国际性气候变化协议。今年联合国将发起一项举措，向贫穷国家提供1000亿美元的技术援助，以帮助这些国家减排。“但这种事一直非常困难，因为各国政府一直以来都只狭隘地盯着自己国内的议程。”

“If everything goes wrong, I become an easy scapegoat — we joke that “SG”, or secretary-general, is now standing for scapegoat,” he continues. “I don’t complain about this. But when there is a unity of purpose and solidarity among security council members, particularly the five permanent members, you can make real things.”

“如果出了问题，我就成了替罪羊——我们戏称联合国秘书长的缩写‘SG’(secretary-general)现在成了‘替罪羊’(scapegoat)的缩写了，”他接着说，“对此我并不抱怨。但是，如果安理会成员，尤其是5大常任理事国能够统一目标、团结一致，我们就能够做些实事了。”

When did that unity last appear? “Two years ago,” he sighs. That was when the security council briefly agreed to monitor chemical weapons in Syria. Ban is now imploring the group to take wider action in that country. But, to his disappointment, Russia and China have vetoed this.

上一次团结一致是在什么时候？“两年前，”他叹息道。当时安理会短暂达成一致，同意对叙利亚的化学武器进行监督。潘基文现在恳请安理会对叙利亚采取进一步行动。但是，让他失望的是，俄罗斯和中国投了反对票。

What about Iran? This at least seems to be one area of real action: this summer a deal was signed for Iran to place its nuclear programmes under the surveillance of inspectors from the UN and other agencies, in exchange for a withdrawal of western sanctions. The deal is wildly controversial in the US and Israel: there are fears that Iran will evade the controls, just as North Korea defied world opinion to create a bomb. But Ban tries to be optimistic. “I know that there is some suspicion that this deal cannot be fully implemented. But based on my own personal experience there is a big difference between the current agreement with Iran and the North Korean nuclear issues,” he insists. “Many sanctions have been lifted but, depending on how the Iranians do, they can be snatched back.”

伊朗问题呢？这至少似乎是一个有实际行动的领域：今年夏天签署了一份协议，根据该协议，伊朗核计划要接受联合国和其他机构观察员的监督，以换取西方解除制裁。这份协定在美国和以色列广受争议：有人担心伊朗将会规避管控，像朝鲜一样，无视世界舆论制造出一枚核弹。但是潘基文竭力保持乐观。“我知道有人怀疑这份协议无法得到充分执行。但是基于我个人的经验，目前和伊朗签订的这份协议和朝鲜核问题有着很大的不同。”他坚称，“虽然很多制裁已被撤销，但是这些制裁可以重新实施，关键要看伊朗的行动。”

Isn’t that over-optimistic? He smiles. Our conversation moves on to some of the other geopolitical tensions that place the UN — and Ban — in a near-impossible position. Just before our lunch he attended a military parade in China to mark the end of the second world war. The move incensed the Japanese government but Ban insists the Japanese were wrong to complain. “I have been participating in all commemorative events to be fair and impartial,” he says.

这是不是过于乐观了呢？他微笑以对。我们的谈话继续进行，话题转向其他一些让联合国和潘基文处于近乎束手无策的境地的地缘政治问题。他不久前刚刚参加了中国纪念第二次世界大战结束的阅兵式。此举惹恼了日本政府，但潘基文坚持认为日本对此抱怨是错误的。“为了公正和公平起见，我一直参加各种纪念活动，”他说。

“The Japanese should look at the past and learn [their own] lessons. It is widely believed that they have not done enough [to apologise for the war] as the German government did. They have left large areas of discontent and disharmony with neighbour countries.”

“日本应该回顾过去，从中学到教训。人们普遍认为，和德国政府相比，日本（在为战争道歉上）做的还不够。他们和邻国之间还有大量不满与不和的问题没有解决。”

...嬠焀栀崀

...嬠焀栀崀

The waiter brings two plates of fruit tart with macaroons, and Ban talks about areas where the UN has been unable to deliver “as much as possible”. “The charter stipulated that we were to save succeeding generations from the scourges of war, But we have seen more wars and recurring genocides,” he says. “There is no other universal organisation which has legitimacy and I am quite confident that the United Nations will continue to exist. But it needs to evolve and change.”

侍者端上了两盘配有马卡龙的水果塔，潘基文谈到了一些联合国无法取得“尽可能多”的成效的领域。“联合国宪章规定我们要使后代免遭战争之祸，但是我们看到了更多的战争和反复出现的种族屠杀，”他说。“其他任何全球性组织都没有这样的合法性，我坚信联合国会继续存在下去。但是联合国需要发展与变化。”

How? One way, Ban suggests, would be to change how his successor is selected when his eight-year term ends in 2016. Until now, this has been done in secret by the security council. But some members want an open vote among all 193 countries. Ban supports this. “After 70 years there should be more transparency. I also think it is high time to have some woman of integrity and experience.”

如何做到呢？潘基文的一个建议是，当2016年他的八年任期结束后，选择继任者的方式需要改变。至今，秘书长的遴选都是在安理会秘密进行的。但是一些成员国希望在193个国家中进行公开投票。潘基文赞同这样的方法。“70年过去了，联合国需要变得更加透明。我也认为如今应该选任一些正直并经验丰富的女性。”

Ban lives in New York with Soon-taek, his wife of more than 40 years — they have three grown-up children — but spends so much of his life in meetings, or on planes travelling to different disaster zones or diplomatic hotspots, that he almost never gets a day off. What will he do when he leaves, I ask as coffee arrives — might he run for president of South Korea? “I am too busy doing my work here to think of anything else,” he says, as I groan silently once more.

潘基文和结婚40余年的夫人柳淳泽(soon-taek)在纽约居住——三个子女都已成年——但是，他大量时间都花费在参加会议，或者乘机飞往不同的灾区或外交热点地区上，几乎没有一天休息。咖啡端上来后我问到，卸任后他会做些什么呢？——会竞选韩国总统吗？“我在这儿的工作太忙了，还顾不上想别的，”他说。我再一次暗暗叹了口气。

Before we end I ask what gives him most satisfaction in his role. Quietly, he reveals that he gets some sense of fulfilment from visiting refugee camps. That is partly because he is trying to exercise his “power of persuasion” to encourage governments to treat refugees well. But he also wants to spread a personal message about resilience — and finding hope in some unlikely places.

在结束午餐前，我问他，这份工作中带给他最大满足感的是什么？他平静地说，他从走访难民营中得到了一些成就感。一个原因是他试图行使他的“劝说的权力”，鼓励政府善待难民。但他也希望传递个人关于适应逆境——以及在一些不可能的地方找到希望——的想法。

“When I go to camps — and I have just been to Jordan, Turkey, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria and other places I cannot name — I always tell the young people, ‘Don’t despair!’ ” he says, looking animated again. “I say, ‘I was like you at one time. But the boy that I was has become the secretary-general. Don’t despair!’ ”

“当我去难民营的时候——我近期去过了约旦、土耳其、伊拉克、索马里、尼日利亚和其他一些我叫不上来的地方——我总是告诉年轻人，‘不要绝望！’”他说，他的表情又生动起来，“我说，‘我以前就像你一样。但我已经从当年的那个男孩变成了联合国秘书长。不要绝望！’”

As he speaks, a vision of the six-year-old Ban, carrying his possessions on his back, pops into my mind. It is, I reflect, a remarkable tale. But how many other children will enjoy that happy ending?

在他说话的时候，6岁的潘基文背着东西的景象浮现在我的脑海中。我想，这是个不同寻常的故事。但又有多少孩子能够有这样的美好结局？

He admits that he has been horrified by the squalor he sees in today’s refugee camps. What worries him even more, though, is their air of permanence. In the 1950s, being a “refugee” was considered a temporary affair; today it is estimated that more than 60m people are displaced, a record, and many are being tossed into a never-ending limbo.

他承认，他为今天的难民营里看到的恶劣条件感到惊骇。然而，更让他忧虑的是，这些难民营里弥漫的一种似乎永无尽头的气氛。在上世纪50年代，成为“难民”被认为是一种暂时的事情；而今天据估计有创纪录的逾6000万人流离失所，许多人正落入永远无法结束的不安定状态。

“Today these children think the camps are their entire world. I wonder: what will be the future of those children? What?” His voice trails off. He has no clear answer; nor does the UN. But I know that, once lunch is over, Ban will be working the phones again, trying to persuade reluctant world leaders to act. If only they would listen.

“如今这些孩子以为难民营就是他们的整个世界。我想知道：这些孩子们的未来会是怎样的呢？怎样的呢？”他的声音渐渐低沉下来。他没有明确的答案；联合国也没有。但是我知道，一等午餐结束，潘基文又将拿起电话，努力去说服那些不情愿的各国领导人采取行动。要是他们能够听取就好了。