In Soccer, Power’s Always in Play
阿拉伯國家的足球權力學
By Cody Delistraty

On the pitch, soccer is a cipher for war, with uniforms, formations, victory and defeat. Beyond the pitch, soccer is power, with owners seemingly using their teams as much for the corollary benefits as for any love of the game.
在球場上，足球代表著戰爭，有制服、隊形、勝利與失敗，而到了球場之外，足球卻是一種力量，若論球隊擁有者操作球隊的動機，用以獲得必然的實際效益，似乎不下於對足球比賽的熱愛。

Sports in general, but especially soccer – given its global appeal – are an ideal way for tycoons to purchase prestige and for countries to burnish their reputations, particularly when governments have unsavory associations with issues such as human rights abuse, gender inequality or anti-democratic politics.
一般的運動，尤其是風行全球的足球，是大亨們獲得聲譽及各個國家美化形象的理想方式，特別是當一國政府跟侵犯人權、性別不平等或反民主政治等不名譽議題扯上關係之時。

“Soccer and the Arab World: The Revolution of the Round Ball,” an exhibition at the Arab World Institute in Paris that runs through July 21, surveys the modern history of the sport in Africa and the Middle East, charting changes in gender and racial politics, government and finance, through the lens of the game.
刻在巴黎阿拉伯世界文化中心舉辦的「足球與阿拉伯世界：圓球革命」展覽，展至7月21日，勘測非洲與中東的現代足球史，透過足球運動的視角描繪性別和種族政治、以及政府與財政的變化。

Viewing the Arab world from the French perspective, the show ranges from midcentury events like the rise of the first Algerian national team, whose players broke away from France even though Algeria was still a colony, to more recent ones, like the purchase in 2011 of the French soccer team, Paris St.-Germain, by a Qatari state-run company.
以法國角度來看阿拉伯世界的話，這項展覽包括世紀中葉發生的事件，例如阿爾及利亞即便仍為殖民地，選手仍脫離法國組成首支國家隊，另外還有比較晚近的事，像是2011年一家卡達國營企業收購法國巴黎聖日耳曼足球隊。

Binding the show together is an exploration of political clout: using soccer to explore the increasing reach of some Arab nations, while France’s global influence is decreasing – seen in the cultural legitimacy that the sport provides.
將這些展出內容結合在一起，旨在對政治影響力進行探究，藉由足球來探索一些阿拉伯國家日益擴大的影響力，同一時間法國的全球影響力則正在減弱，而這從該項運動提供的文化合法性中可以看出。

“New Arab countries are in the game,” said the show’s curator, Aurélie Clemente-Ruiz, on a recent tour of the exhibition. “It’s not only North Africa or the Middle East but all of these countries from the Arabian Peninsula – Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the Emirates – that are very involved in soccer, and it’s a way for them to exist in an international point of view. It’s a real soft power and, to them, very useful.”
策展人歐黑里·克雷蒙·芮斯日前參觀展覽時說：「新的阿拉伯國家成了玩家。不僅僅是北非或中東，還有來自阿拉伯半島的卡達、沙烏地阿拉伯和阿拉伯聯合大公國這些國家，也都深度介入足球，這也是他們在國際舞台上存在的一種方式。這是種真正的軟實力，對他們來說非常有用。」

At the root is the ability of sports to shape perceptions. For the likes of Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, being associated with global soccer can help divert attention from the international indignation at the killing of a dissident.
一切的根本在於，體育能塑造觀感。對沙烏地阿拉伯王儲穆罕默德這樣的人來說，跟全球足球運動扯上關係，有助於轉移國際社會對殺害一名異議分子的怒氣。

For Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan of Abu Dhabi, one of the United Arab Emirates, his ownership and lavish spending on the English team Manchester City automatically buys a certain fame and influence. Similar reasons inform Qatar’s control of Paris St.-Germain and the country’s efforts to win the right to host the men’s World Cup in 2022.
對阿拉伯聯合大公國成員阿布達比的曼蘇爾親王來說，他在英國曼城足球隊的所有權跟大手筆支出，自然會為他贏得一定的聲譽及影響力，而類似的原因也說明了卡達為何要掌控巴黎聖日耳曼隊，以及努力贏得2022年男子世界盃足球賽主辦權。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/arts/design/arab-world-institute-soccer-exhibition.html

2019-05-05．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．陳韋廷

說文解字看新聞 陳韋廷

足球是全球第一大運動，世界盃足球賽更是除奧運外最受歡迎賽事，球場內外均具有無比影響力，這讓中東國家及其王室貴族想藉足球提升知名度，甚或改善形象，而首段單字pitch指的是足球場，其他常見運動場地英文則還有baseball field（棒球場）、course（高球場）、court（籃/網/排/羽毛球場），賽車場則是racing track，velodrome則是專指室內自行車比賽場館。

clout則是新聞英文中的常見單字，意指影響力或權勢，同義詞有influence、sway及authority等等。另外必須注意的是，survey在文中指的是勘測，並非「調查」此一常見意思，而文中片語the likes of的意思是「像...這樣的」，介系詞of後須接人或事物。

至於軟實力（soft power）一詞是由美國學者奈伊所提出，是相對於經濟與軍事的一種力量，指的是政治、文化、體育與價值觀等方面的影響力。

Woven Into the Style of France
巴黎聖母院 融入法國時尚
By Vanessa Friedman

There has never been a fashion show inside the Cathedral of Notre Dame, or in the piazza splayed in front of it, the way there have been in French cultural landmarks like the Louvre, the Palais de Justice and the National Archives.
巴黎聖母院主教座堂內部或前方寬闊廣場上，從來沒有像法國其他文化地標一樣辦過時尚秀，如羅浮宮、司法宮和國家檔案館。

But there might as well have been. It is embedded on the psychographic style map of the city, its two towers as defining a silhouette as the New Look, its image practically a brand in itself.
不過其實也跟舉辦過沒什麼兩樣。聖母院已深植於這座城市的心理圖像風格地圖之中，它的兩座鐘樓就和「新風貌」一樣，為時裝風格定了調，它的意象實際上就是一個品牌。

Four times a year, as the couture and ready-to-wear shows dawn in Paris, town cars and editors and retailers shod in stilettoes or Stan Smiths would crisscross the quais from the Tennis Club de Paris to Bercy, Austerlitz to the Pompidou.
時裝設計和成衣秀每年在巴黎登場四次，每一次，豪華轎車和穿著細跟高跟鞋或經典史密斯運動鞋的總編輯和零售業者，都會在各個碼頭之間縱橫交錯，從巴黎網球俱樂部到貝西地區，從奧斯特里茨地鐵站到龐畢度中心。

Each time, they would swirl past the towers and rose windows of the cathedral on the Île de la Cité, the nexus of a diagonal from the Sixth Arrondissement headquarters of Sonia Rykiel to the Fourth Arrondissement home of Azzedine Alaïa, all around it other showrooms and ateliers like pearls on a string.
每一回，這些人總會匆匆經過西堤島上這個主教座堂的鐘樓和玫瑰窗。聖母院是一條對角線的樞紐，線一端是巴黎第六區索尼亞．里基爾品牌總部，另一端則是巴黎第四區時裝設計師阿萊亞故居，其他最新商品展示場和工作室環繞著聖母院，像一條線上的一顆顆珍珠。

When it burned, so did one of the poles by which the fashion world orients itself, and not just geographically.
當聖母院焚毀時，時尚世界賴以定向的極點之一也毀了，而且不是只在地理上。

The tragedy at Notre Dame pierced viewers around the world, and leaders of all kinds have responded with emotion and support. For the French, there’s a more visceral connection between French fashion and French monuments that has to do with definitions of the country’s culture and how it is disseminated around the world.
聖母院的悲劇讓世界各地觀者心如刀割，各界領袖帶著感情和支持的心回應。對法國人而言，法國時尚與法國紀念建物的連結更為深刻入骨，這種連結與法國文化的定義和它如何傳遍全球有關。

To designers of French brands, whose identity is wrapped up in the history of Paris, Notre Dame is not just an example of gorgeous architecture (though it is that, and designers often cite various buildings as catalysts for their imagination), nor is it just another tourist draw that helps bring their customers to France (though it is that, too).
法國品牌設計師的認同與巴黎史緊密相繫，對設計師來說，聖母院不只是宏偉建築的範例（雖然它的確是，且設計師也常說各類建物觸發他們的想像力），也不只是又一個把客戶引來法國的景點（雖然它同樣也是）。

It is, in a more abstract sense, part of their own patrimony, an example and embodiment of the values they hold dear and that define their work at its best: beauty, artisanship, handwork, heritage, the emotion that can be evoked by creativity. A concrete – or rather, stone and wood – example of the worth that resides in these concepts. A character in the myth of Frenchness written by Victor Hugo and Disney.
在更抽象的意義上，聖母院是法國品牌設計師祖傳遺產的一部分，是他們所珍視價值的代表和化身，這些價值界定了他們作品的極致：美、工藝、手藝、傳統、創造力喚起的情感。是這些概念裡潛藏價值具體的—或寧可說，石磚和木材的—實例。是作家雨果和媒體集團迪士尼撰寫的法國風範神話中一個角色。

And for anyone trying to capture that elusive quality of Frenchness and give it form – which is, let’s face it, part of the promise of French fashion, especially those brands that are synonymous with that je ne sais quoi (Dior, Saint Laurent, Givenchy, Chanel and Hermès) – Notre Dame was an essential reference.
而對於想抓住難以捉摸的法國風範，並賦予形式的人而言，聖母院是不可或缺的範例。老實說吧，抓住法國風範並給予形式，正是法國時尚所具魅力的一部分，尤其是等同於「難以名狀迷人特質」的品牌（迪奧、聖羅蘭、紀梵希、香奈兒和愛馬仕）。

Just as it was shorthand for the sagas that surround it, be they of Joan of Arc, Napoleon or de Gaulle, which also provide the elements of a sartorial vocabulary all designers share.
正因為聖母院見證過周遭的一些英雄故事，不論是關於聖女貞德、拿破崙或是戴高樂的，所以也提供了所有設計師共享的服裝語彙要素。

原文參照：
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/16/fashion/notre-dame-paris-fashion.html

2019-05-05．聯合報．D4．紐約時報賞析．李京倫