Welsh soldier and writer, 'Lawrence of Arabia,' Thomas Edward Lawrence was born in Tremadog, Caernarvonshire, Wales, United Kingdom on this day in 1888.
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.”
―from SEVEN PILLARS OF WISDOM: A Triumph (The Authorized Doubleday/Doran Edition) by T. E. Lawrence
Renowned for his role in the Arab revolt against the Ottoman empire during World War I as well as his vivid writing, "Lawrence of Arabia" was born on August 16th, 1888. Warlike and scholarly, vain and modest, part showman, part hermit; he was also racked with self-doubt and guilt
"All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible."
--from "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" by T. E. Lawrence
In his classic book, T.E. Lawrence—forever known as Lawrence of Arabia—recounts his role in the origin of the modern Arab world. At first a shy Oxford scholar and archaeologist⋯⋯
更多'Lawrence in Arabia'
By SCOTT ANDERSON
Reviewed by ALEX VON TUNZELMANN
Historians have never known what to make of this scholar, writer, soldier and imperialist.
The Arab spring
Has it failed?
Despite the chaos, the blood and the democratic setbacks, this is a long process. Do not give up hope
No wonder some have come to think the Arab spring is doomed. The Middle East, they argue, is not ready to change. One reason is that it does not have democratic institutions, so people power will decay into anarchy or provoke the reimposition of dictatorship. The other is that the region’s one cohesive force is Islam, which—it is argued—cannot accommodate democracy. The Middle East, they conclude, would be better off if the Arab spring had never happened at all.
That view is at best premature, at worst wrong. Democratic transitions are often violent and lengthy. The worst consequences of the Arab spring—in Libya initially, in Syria now—are dreadful. Yet as our special report argues, most Arabs do not want to turn the clock back.
Putting the cart before the camel
Those who say that the Arab spring has failed ignore the long winter
before, and its impact on people’s lives. In 1960 Egypt and South Korea
shared similar life-expectancy and GDP per head. Today they inhabit
different worlds. Although many more Egyptians now live in cities and
three-quarters of the population is literate, GDP per head is only a
fifth of South Korea’s. Poverty and stunting from malnutrition are far
too common. The Muslim Brotherhood’s brief and incompetent government
did nothing to reverse this, but Egypt’s deeper problems were aggravated
by the strongmen who preceded them. And many other Arab countries fared
no better.This matters, because, given the Arab spring’s uneven progress, many say the answer is authoritarian modernisation: an Augusto Pinochet, Lee Kuan Yew or Deng Xiaoping to keep order and make the economy grow. Unlike South-East Asians, the Arabs can boast no philosopher-king who has willingly nurtured democracy as his economy has flourished. Instead, the dictator’s brothers and the first lady’s cousins get all the best businesses. And the despots—always wary of stirring up the masses—have tended to duck the big challenges of reform, such as gradually removing the energy subsidies that in Egypt alone swallow 8% of GDP. Even now the oil-rich monarchies are trying to buy peace; but as an educated and disenfranchised youth sniffs freedom, the old way of doing things looks ever more impossible, unless, as in Syria, the ruler is prepared to shed vast amounts of blood to stay in charge. Some of the more go-ahead Arab monarchies, for example in Morocco, Jordan and Kuwait, are groping towards constitutional systems that give their subjects a bigger say.
Fine, some will reply, but Arab democracy merely leads to rule by the Islamists, who are no more capable of reform than the strongmen, and thanks to the intolerance of political Islam, deeply undemocratic. Muhammad Morsi, the Muslim Brother evicted earlier this month by the generals at the apparent behest of many millions of Egyptians in the street, was democratically elected, yet did his best to flout the norms of democracy during his short stint as president. Many secular Arabs and their friends in the West now argue that because Islamists tend to regard their rule as God-given, they will never accept that a proper democracy must include checks, including independent courts, a free press, devolved powers and a pluralistic constitution to protect minorities.
This too, though, is wrong. Outside the Arab world, Islamists—in Malaysia and Indonesia, say—have shown that they can learn the habit of democracy. In Turkey too, the protests against the autocratic but elected prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have more in common with Brazil than the Arab spring. Turkey, for all its faults, is more democratic today than it was when the army lurked in the background.
The problem, then, is with Arab Islamists. That is hardly surprising. They have been schooled by decades of repression, which their movements survived only by being conspiratorial and organised. Their core supporters are a sizeable minority in most Arab countries. They cannot be ignored, and must instead be absorbed into the mainstream.
That is why Egypt’s coup is so tragic. Had the Muslim Brotherhood remained in power, they might have learned the tolerance and pragmatism needed for running a country. Instead, their suspicions about democratic politics have been confirmed. Now it is up to Tunisia, the first of the Arab countries to throw off the yoke of autocracy, to show that Arab Islamists can run countries decently. It might just do that: it is on its way to getting a constitution that could serve as the basis of a decent, inclusive democracy. If the rest of the Arab world moves in that direction, it will take many years to do so.
That would not be surprising, for political change is a long game. Hindsight tends to smooth over the messy bits of history. The transition from communism, for instance, looks easy in retrospect. Yet three years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Europe was overrun by criminal mafias; extremist politicians were prominent in Poland, Slovakia and the Baltics; the Balkans were about to degenerate into war and there was fighting in Georgia. Even now, most people in the old Soviet bloc live under repressive regimes—yet few want to go back.
Don’t hold back the tide
The Arab spring was always better described as an awakening: the real
revolution is not so much in the street as in the mind. The internet,
social media, satellite television and the thirst for education—among
Arab women as much as men—cannot co-exist with the deadening
dictatorships of old. Egyptians, among others, are learning that
democracy is neither just a question of elections nor the ability to
bring millions of protesters onto the street. Getting there was always
bound to be messy, even bloody. The journey may take decades. But it is
still welcome.中東地區自古以來就是多事的地方。本書裡邊說的是第一次世界大戰期間阿拉伯人配合英國人擺脫土耳其帝國統治的故事。這可以說是中東現代史的第一幕。從那個 時候起到第二次世界大戰結束是第二幕。一九四八年以色列國登場,中東現代史進入第三幕。黎巴嫩內戰和伊朗伊拉克戰爭爆發的不是標志著新的一幕的開始,還得 等著瞧。
本書的后紀里講到伊拉克和外約旦這兩個受英國保護的阿拉伯國家建立起來為止。除這兩國之外,敘利亞和黎嫩是法國“委任統治地”,巴勒斯坦是英國的“委任統 治地”,這都是巴黎和會的決定。敘利亞的阿拉伯人一直不服法國人的統治,不斷起來反抗,但是沒用,直到二次大戰才獲得正式獨立。巴勒斯坦除阿拉伯人不服英 國統治外,又增加了一個新的不安定的因素——猶太復國主義。
---
2011/5/21
以總理:不能退到戰前邊界
2011-05-21
以色列總理內塔尼亞胡20日在華盛頓說,以色列不能退回到1967年戰爭以前的邊界線。內 塔尼亞胡在白宮與美國總統奧巴馬舉行會談後共同會見記者時說,他和奧巴馬都認為「基於錯誤觀念的和平最終都將撞上中東現實的岩石」,而他認為要實現和平, 巴勒斯坦人必須接受一些「基本現實」:一是儘管以色列準備為實現和平作出「慷慨妥協」,但不能退回到1967年戰爭以前的邊界線;二是以色列不能與一個得 到巴勒斯坦伊斯蘭抵抗運動(哈馬斯)支持的巴勒斯坦政府談判,巴勒斯坦民族權力機構主席阿巴斯必須作出「簡單的選擇」——要麼維持與哈馬斯的協議,要麼與以色列講和;三是巴勒斯坦難民問題必須在巴勒斯坦國框架內、而非以色列境內加以解決。
內塔尼亞胡還說,與巴勒斯坦人實現和平後,以色列還須在巴勒斯坦與約旦交界處長期駐紮軍隊。
奧 巴馬19日就西亞北非問題發表講話,呼籲以色列和巴勒斯坦以1967年戰爭前邊界線為基礎展開談判,從而為兩國確立「安全並獲得承認的邊界」。他還闡述了 對以巴安全安排的構想,提出未來巴勒斯坦國必須實現非軍事化,以色列軍隊則逐步並完全撤離所佔領土。內塔尼亞胡在奧巴馬講話後當即發表聲明說,讓以色列退 回到1967年邊界意味著災難。
以色列在1967年6月的中東戰爭中吞併了東耶路撒冷、約旦河西岸和加沙地帶。目前,東耶路撒冷和約旦河西岸猶太人定居點上分別居住著大約18萬和30萬以色列人。巴勒斯坦人希望建立以東耶路撒冷為首都的巴勒斯坦國,以色列則宣稱整個耶路撒冷是以色列不可分割的首都。
中東問題有關四方——聯合國、美國、歐盟和俄羅斯20日發表聲明對奧巴馬構想予以「堅定支持」。聲明說,奧巴馬構想以領土和安全為基礎,為以巴通過「嚴肅和實質性談判」最終解決衝突並就所有核心問題達成協定提供了基礎。
以巴衝突核心問題包括安全、邊界、耶路撒冷地位和難民等。
*****
"沙漠革命記" Revolt in the Desert, 是 "智慧七柱"Seven Pillars of Wisdom 的摘要 (近半)
兩書分別在台灣和中國都已有譯本
"沙漠革命記" 的翻譯者是中國著名的語言學家呂叔湘,他在1941年暑假譯/印的。
他留英, 此書是1930年代英國的暢銷書
他採取摘譯 --聯結和後續處 ( 後紀 債 一章), 都參考專書.....
箴言篇
Proverbs 共 31 章
第九章
智慧邀人赴宴
- 智慧建造了房舍,雕琢了七根石柱,
- 宰殺了牲畜,配製了美酒,舖設了飯桌,
- 派出自己的使女,在城市高處吶喊:「
- 誰是無知的,請轉身到這裏來! 」她對愚鈍的人說:「
- 你們來,吃我的食糧,飲我配製的酒!
- 你們應放棄無知,好使你們得以生存,並在明智的道路上邁進。」 智慧勸告世人
- 誰矯正輕狂的人,只有自招羞辱;誰責斥邪惡的人,只有自找凌辱。
- 你不要責斥輕狂的人,免得他恨你;卻要責斥明智的人,他必會愛你。
- 你若指教明智的人,他必更明智;你若教訓正義的人,他必更有見識。
- 敬畏上主是智慧的肇基;認識至聖者就是睿智。
- 藉著我,你的歲月纔可增多,你的壽命纔可延長。
- 你若有智慧,你必蒙受其惠;你若是輕狂也只有自食其果。 愚昧邀人赴宴
- 愚昧太太,浮燥愚蠢,一無所知。
- 她坐在自家門前,坐在城內高處的座位上,
- 向一往直前的路人喊說:「
- 誰是無知的,請轉身到這裏來! 」她向愚鈍的人說:「
- 偷來的水,更香甜;背地吃的餅更有味。」
- 他卻不知冥域正在那裏,她的客人都在陰府的深處。
http://www.answers.com/topic/t-e-lawrenceLieutenant Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence, CB, DSO (16 August 1888[5] – 19 May 1935), known professionally as T. E. Lawrence, was a British Army officer renowned especially for his liaison role during the Arab Revolt against Ottoman Turkish rule of 1916–18. The extraordinary breadth and variety of his activities and associations, and his ability to describe them vividly in writing, earned him international fame as Lawrence of Arabia, a title popularised by the 1962 film based on his First World War activities.
Aug 16, 1888. British soldier, archaeologist and writer, born at Tremadoc, North Wales. During WWI, led the Arab revolt against the Turks and served as a spy for the British. His book, Seven Pillars of Wisdom, is a personal account of the Arab revolt. He was killed in a motorcycle accident at Dorset, England, May 19, 1935.
English
- Seven Pillars of Wisdom, 1926
- Revolt in the Desert, 1926
- The Mint, first edition 1936, 1955
- Crusader Castles, thesis
- The Letters of T. E. Lawrence
沙漠革命记
作者: T.E劳伦斯译者: 吕叔湘
出版社: 辽宁教育出版社
出版年: 1997-03
页数: 129
目录 · · · · · ·
重印图记译序
前纪 地与人
第一章 吉达
第二章 费萨尔
第三章 北进
第四章 政术与战术
第五章 沙漠旅行
第六章 一路打到海边
第七章 新形势
第八章 炸车
第九章 塔菲拉
第十章 马安
第十一章 虚虚实实
第十二章 最后胜利
后纪债
人名表 此表的缺點是只用姓名之一字
重印題記
譯序
前紀 地與人
第一章 吉達
第二章 費薩爾
第三章 北進
第四章 政術與戰術
第五章 沙漠旅行
第六章 一路打到海邊
第七章 新形勢
第八章 炸車
第九章 塔菲拉
第十章 馬安
第十一章 虛虛實實
第十二章 最后勝利
后紀債
人名表
沒有留言:
張貼留言