Queen Elizabeth II, No Stranger to Full Agenda, Pencils In a 90th Birthday
By DAN BILEFSKY

LONDON — She has been served by 12 prime ministers, starting with Churchill; navigated the decline of the British Empire; braved the tragedies of her family and the nation; and, on Sept. 9, edged out Queen Victoria as the longest-reigning monarch in British history: 64 years now. And she is lauded for having the stiffest upper lip in the realm.

On Thursday, Queen Elizabeth II will celebrate her 90th birthday, and a grateful Britain will honor a woman her biographer Douglas Hurd, a former foreign minister, has called “The Steadfast.”

Through seven decades, she has remained gloriously and relentlessly enigmatic in one of her signature pastel outfits and colorful hats, chosen, royal experts say, so onlookers can spot her in a crowd.

This being Britain, the occasion will be celebrated with pageantry; warm beer; longer pub hours; equestrian displays; and an appearance by the actress Helen Mirren, who won an Oscar for portraying the queen.

But befitting a workhorse who carried out 341 engagements last year, Elizabeth kicked off birthday celebrations on Wednesday in a dutiful display: at a Royal Mail delivery center, where she and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, watched workers sort mail and were serenaded by a choir of postal employees. On Thursday, she is to light the first of more than 900 celebratory beacons. On Friday, President Obama will offer the queen birthday wishes at Windsor Castle.

And the frenzy will not end this week.

Pub opening times in England and Wales will be extended by two hours, until 1 a.m. on June 10 and 11. (Her birthday is officially celebrated in June for ceremonial purposes.) A British artist has also paid tribute to her service as an Army mechanic during World War II by using 800 car parts to create a giant sculpture of the queen’s head, including a crown made with spark plugs. There is a new set of stamps to honor the birthday, featuring four generations of royals, including little Prince George. They will be first class, of course.

Retailers and canny subjects are cashing in. Those who cannot afford the bespoke 22-karat gold “God Save the Queen” music box (retailing for $1,425) can buy a souvenir waistcoat emblazoned with the queen’s image ($50, on eBay).

In a reflection of how multicultural Britain has become during her reign, Nadiya Hussain, a head scarf-wearing Muslim baker who won the BBC’s wildly popular “Great British Bake Off,” will prepare an orange drizzle birthday cake with orange curd and orange buttercream for the queen. (A 68-year-old slice of the queen’s wedding cake fetched $719 at a September auction.)

The queen could be forgiven for showing emotion when she blows out her candles. But it is unlikely.

Vernon Bogdanor, an eminent constitutional scholar at King’s College London, commended the queen for her self-restraint and for keeping her views to herself, arguing that the enigma of her persona has been essential to her success at symbolizing and unifying the nation.

“She grew up during the war when people had to show emotional restraint,” he said. “Not like today when you have to let everything out.”

Professor Bogdanor said he could recall only two gaffes by the queen: The first came on a trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1994, when she evidently told a young Russian biologist, who had studied in Manchester, England, that the city was “not such a nice place.” (Buckingham Palace denied it at the time.) More memorably, in 1997, the queen misread the public mood after Princess Diana died in a car crash in Paris and initially remained in Balmoral, Scotland, with her grandsons, rather than returning to London to emote before a grieving nation.

Retaining the sparkle of a creaking institution is not easy. Britons also recently got a rare glimpse inside the royal household in an ITV documentary “Our Queen at 90,” in which her subjects learned that her 2-year-old great-grandson, Prince George, calls her “Gan-Gan.” His father, Prince William, second in line to the throne, noted that some people are so overwhelmed when they meet his grandmother that they faint.

Born on April 21, 1926, Elizabeth was initially third in line to the throne. In 1947, she defied her parents to marry Prince Philip, who is part Danish and Greek; she was smitten when she saw him at age 13. She acceded to the throne in 1952, after the death of her father, King George VI; his older brother, King Edward VIII, had abdicated in 1936 to marry Wallis Simpson, an American.

Though the monarchy is associated with the class system, wealth and privilege, Peter York, a leading cultural commentator, argued that the queen’s unbridled blandness was a form of “human bondage.” Britons, he said, relished reports of her legendary thriftiness, including stories, apocryphal or not, that she roams Buckingham Palace turning off lights, enjoys soap operas and eats “nonbanquet dinners out of Tupperware containers.” In private, she is said to have a keen sense of humor.

“She should be congratulated for living this long,” Mr. York said. “The certainty of her life reminds Britons of the continuity of their own.”

Mr. York said the queen could also display barely decipherable piques of annoyance, as when she asked in 2008, during a visit to the London School of Economics, why no one had foreseen the financial crisis, which had dented her wealth.

“Every so often you see a little lip-tightening that suggests, ‘What fresh hell is this?’ when she is forced to endure something hideous or idiotic,” Mr. York said.

The queen’s mother lived to 101, and Elizabeth shows little sign of slowing down, but Stephen Bates, the author of “Royalty Inc.: Britain’s Best-Known Brand,” said that in Buckingham Palace, uttering the word “abdication” was akin to swearing in a church.

He also expressed concerns that the queen’s line of presumed successors — Charles, Prince of Wales; Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; and Prince George — may lack her luster. “William has become just another middle-aged bald bloke in a suit,” he said.

Whatever the challenges, the queen appears to have kept the promise she made on her 21st birthday: “I declare before you all, that my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service.”

英女王90大壽 四代同堂曬合照

英國女王伊麗莎白二世廿一日將與家人低調慶祝九十歲生日，這位英國史上在位最久的君主依然和過去一樣受到人民愛戴，根據新民調，七成的英國人認為她應該繼續在位，為一九八一年以來最高。

女王在位已超過六十四年，仍沒有遜位計畫，不過近年已把一些職責交給年輕的王室成員。

女王生日當天將在溫莎堡外為去年啟用的「女王步道」（The Queen’s Walkway）揭牌匾，這條六點三公里的步道連接溫莎堡的六十三個景點，紀念女王在去年九月九日超越維多利亞女王，以在位六十三年又七個月，成為英國在位最久的君主。

女王隔天將宴請來訪的美國總統歐巴馬夫婦，蜜雪兒原未陪伴歐巴馬出訪，特定前來為女王慶生。

由於女王官方生日在六月，官方將在六月舉辦為女王慶生的大型慶祝活動，包括閱兵和在白金漢宮外廣場的萬人午餐。

白金漢宮廿日公布女王與王儲查理、威廉王子及喬治小王子的四代君主與未來君主的合照。

威廉王子接受天空新聞台訪問時，罕見地提到戴安娜王妃喪生後，女王給他很大的支持，陪他度過喪母傷痛。威廉說：「她是堅強的女性，在我年幼喪母時對我影響很大，我有女王讓我仰望，對我很重要。」

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/21/world/europe/queen-elizabeth-90-birth.html

Slideshow：Queen Elizabeth II Turns 90
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2016/04/21/world/europe/queen-elizabeth-ii-turns-90/s/21Queen-Slideshow-slide-IB4D.html

Video：The Coronation Of Queen Elizabeth II
Archival footage shows Queen Elizabeth being crowned in London on June 2, 1953.
http://nyti.ms/1Su3kyr

2016-04-21．聯合報．A13．國際/兩岸．編譯田思怡