An Aging Boy Band Calls It Quits, but Japan Can’t Let Go
男孩樂團變老喊解散 日人不放手
By MOTOKO RICH

For nearly three decades, millions of Japanese have clamored for their every album, lined up with breathless anticipation for their concerts and gathered on Monday nights for their hit television show.
將近30年來，無數日本人每逢他們發專輯就叫好搶購，排隊屏息期待他們的演唱會，並在周一夜聚在一起觀賞他們火紅的電視節目。

Now, the nation is awash with anguish over word that SMAP – Japan’s longest-running boy band, if it can still be called that with its youngest member pushing 40 – is splitting up.
現在，SMAP即將解散這消息讓這個國家陷入了愁雲慘霧。SMAP是日本歷史最悠久的男孩樂團，如果它還能稱作男孩樂團的話，最年輕的成員都已年近40。

The news has dominated newspaper headlines and television talk shows since the band’s announcement this month. Even the mayor of Tokyo and two members of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s Cabinet have weighed in. One said he was worried about the effect on the Japanese economy, the world’s third-largest.
樂團決定解散的消息本月宣布後，隨即攻占報紙的頭條和電視談話節目。甚至東京都知事和首相安倍晉三內閣的兩位成員也發表看法。其中一人表示擔心日本經濟會受影響，日本是世界第三大經濟體。

“We will not let them stop!” a grieving fan wrote in one of more than a dozen petitions on change.org pleading with the aging heartthrobs to remain together. “If we let them go and disband, it means Japan is finished.”
change.org網站上懇求這個已有歲數的偶像天團不要解散的請願文一打不止，一名傷心粉絲寫道：「我們不准他們喊停！如果我們讓他們走和解散，日本也就完了。」

To understand the bedlam unfolding here, think of the Beatles’ breaking up, the airing of the final episode of “Seinfeld” and the “conscious uncoupling” of Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin all rolled into one – the end of an era on the Japanese cultural landscape.
想了解此間的抓狂狀態，不妨想像「披頭四」分手、「歡樂單身派對」播出最後一集，以及好萊塢女星葛妮絲派楚和丈夫克里斯馬丁「清醒分手」的三合一效果－它代表日本文化景觀一個時代的謝幕。

SMAP’s most famous saccharine single, “The Only Flower in the World,” is regularly taught in Japan’s schools. But SMAP is not just a wildly popular band whose albums have sold more than 35 million copies, making it one of the most successful musical acts in Japanese history.
SMAP最知名的甜蜜單曲「世界上唯一的花」，是日本學校的必教歌曲。SMAP唱片總銷量超過3500萬張，是日本史上最成功的樂團，然而它卻不只是個紅到不行的樂團。

For two decades, its five members – Masahiro Nakai, Takuya Kimura, Goro Inagaki, Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Shingo Kator – have also hosted one of Japan’s top-rated television programs, “SMAP X SMAP,” a family-friendly variety show in which they cook for celebrity guests, compete in games, perform comedic skits and, of course, sing. Each has starred on his own in numerous television series, movies and commercials. The frontman, Nakai, has been a newscaster for several Olympic Games.
20年來，SMAP的5位成員，中居正廣、木村拓哉、稻垣吾郎、草彅剛和香取慎吾，同時是日本收視率極高電視節目「SMAP X SMAP」的主持人。他們在這個適合闔家觀賞的綜藝節目中為名人嘉賓做菜、玩競賽遊戲、表演喜劇橋段，當然，還有唱歌。每一團員都獨自在許多電視連續劇、電影和廣告中擔綱。主唱中居正廣還是數屆奧運的新聞主播。

The group, whose members started out as teenagers performing on skateboards and now range in age from 39 to 44, managed to both broaden its audience beyond adolescent girls and hold on to them over the years. Many of their most ardent fans are women who grew up with them.
這個天團的成員出道時是青少年，在滑板上表演，現今年齡在39到44歲間。多年來他們既成功擴大觀眾群，不讓它只限於青少女，又牢牢抓住這些青少女。許多最死忠的粉絲是和他們一起長大的女性。

SMAP, an acronym for Sports Music Assemble People, also has legions of fans in China, South Korea, Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia.
SMAP是「運動音樂結合人類」的縮寫，在大陸、南韓、台灣和亞洲其他地區都有粉絲軍團。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/20/world/asia/japan-smap-breakup.html

2016-09-04．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．王麗娟譯

說文解字看新聞 王麗娟

日本偶像天團SMAP宣布將於今年底解散，不僅日本舉國譁然，紐約時報也特別報導。導言一連用了clamor for與line up以及gather來描述SMAP家喻戶曉的魅力，隨後更以1960年代的英倫天團「披頭四」解散、「酷玩」樂團主唱克里斯馬丁與奧斯卡影后葛妮絲派楚勞燕分飛（conscious uncoupling）做比喻，協助不是那麼熟悉SMAP的讀者進入狀況，是很有技巧的寫作方式。

SMAP分手的理由，各界揣測紛紜，除非當事人出面解釋，將永遠成謎。SMAP解散，除了印證合久必分道理，紐時文章標題和內文均用aging（已有歲數、不再年輕、老化、）一字形容該團，雖然aging後面接的是heartthrob（萬人迷）一字，說明SMAP魅力仍在，筆者使用aging應是認為這個老大不小的男孩團體或許真的到了該單飛的時候。

長江後浪推前浪，即使不是現在，SMAP應該早晚還是會分。儘管SMAP的地位永在，已有跡象顯示這個國民天團有逐漸被取代的態勢。東京原宿的傑尼斯店已不在檯面上擺放SMAP的卡片供歌迷選購，只有時下新生代男孩團體的卡片。

Despite Risks, Heroes Rise Amid Terror
不怕危險 英雄在恐攻中誕生
By ALISSA J. RUBIN

Terrorist attacks in France come often enough that they can seem to be variations on a painful pattern: carnage followed by disbelief, then condemnations, condolences, and shrines of flowers, candles and letters for the dead.
法國的恐怖攻擊真多，彷佛同一痛苦模式以不同樣貌出現：一場屠殺和其後人們的無法置信，緊接著是譴責，哀悼，和以鮮花、蠟燭、寫給死者的信完成的靈堂。

Yet to see the attacks only that way is to miss the one element that might buoy the national spirit: In nearly every terrorist episode here, ordinary individuals risked their own safety to try to halt the attack or to lend a hand to the wounded rather than running away.
然而，只以這種方式看待這些攻擊，就忽略了能讓國人士氣一振的一項元素：幾乎此間發生的每一恐怖事件，都有尋常百姓甘冒性命危險，試圖阻止攻擊或對傷者伸出援手，而不是逃之夭夭。

“What I saw was horrible, people crushed – it had to be stopped,” said a 48-year old man named Franck who would not give his surname even after he was decorated by the city of Nice for his effort to stop the driver of a cargo truck that ran over scores of people July 14 at a Bastille Day celebration.
法國尼斯7月14日國慶日慶祝活動期間，發生一男子駕卡車輾過數十人事件，名叫法蘭克的48歲男子因力圖阻止這名司機而獲尼斯市頒發獎章。他說：「我看到的是一個恐怖景象，人們被車子輾過。一定要阻止才行。」但即使在獲頒獎章後他仍不願透露姓氏。

A worker at the Nice airport, Franck, who was on a motor scooter, decided in a split second to chase the truck and, when he caught up, rammed it – to no avail – and was knocked off. He got up and ran after the truck, managed to climb onto the running boards and began hitting the driver through the open window. As the driver, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, tried to shoot Franck, his gun failed and, at the same time, Franck tried to open the door of the truck, then tried climbing through the window, but the driver struck him on the head with the gun and he fell, breaking a rib and badly bruising his back.
法蘭克是尼斯機場工人，當時騎著一輛速克達，剎那間他決定追車，追上時猛力撞上去，可惜無濟於事，自己還摔下車來。他站起身，追著卡車跑，設法登上車側腳踏板，從敞開的車窗毆打司機。司機穆罕默德．拉胡艾吉．布勒爾試圖槍殺法蘭克，同一時間，法蘭克也嘗試打開卡車門，後來又想爬進車窗，但司機拿槍敲他的頭，他再度摔落，一根肋骨斷裂，背部擦傷嚴重。

Franck said he was satisfied that when the driver was fighting with him, he was not running over more people. “He was concentrating on me; in that moment he could not kill people,” he said.
法蘭克說，他最滿意的，是司機和他打鬥時無法衝撞更多人。他說：「他專心對付我，那一刻，他無法再殺人。」

At least two other men made similar, if less prolonged, efforts and also received medals from the city: Alexander Migues, pursued the truck on a bicycle, and Gwenael Leriche, a 26-year-old delivery man, ran after the truck armed with nothing but a penknife and tried to jump onto the running boards as the truck came to a halt.
至少還有兩人做了類似的事，即使時間沒那麼長，這兩人也獲該市授予獎章。亞歷山德．米格騎著腳踏車追逐卡車，26歲的送貨員奎尼爾．勒里施追著卡車跑，手上除了一把小摺刀什麼也沒有，卡車停車時還試圖跳上腳踏板。

They were not unique. Almost every attack or attempted attack in France since the assault on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on Jan. 7, 2015, produced local heroes.
英雄不只限於他們幾個。自從諷刺雜誌查理周刊2015年1月7日遭受攻擊後，法國幾乎每次恐攻或是恐攻未遂，都有當地英雄出現。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/23/world/europe/france-terrorist-attacks.html

2016-09-04．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．王麗娟譯