原文標(biāo)題：
Comedy and exile
Too funny by half
Run out of Egypt for his jokes, Bassem Youssef is still making people laugh
喜劇與流亡
過于搞笑
由于講笑話，巴塞姆·尤瑟夫被埃及當(dāng)局驅(qū)逐出境，但他仍在講笑話

Laughter in the dark
A pioneer of political satire in Arabic has become an English-speaking stand-up comic
黑暗中的笑聲
一位阿拉伯政治諷刺先鋒已成為一名講英語(yǔ)的脫口秀演員

[Paragraph 1]
AS BASSEM YOUSSEF, an Egyptian comedian, sauntered onto the stage at the Royal Festival Hall in London on March 9th, members of the audience filmed his entrance.
3月9日，當(dāng)埃及喜劇演員巴塞姆·尤瑟夫走上倫敦皇家節(jié)日音樂廳的舞臺(tái)時(shí)，觀眾們紛紛拍攝他的入場(chǎng)。

No matter that they had been told repeatedly to put their phones away. “You guys just don’t listen to instructions,” chastised Mr Youssef. “It’s because of people like you we don’t get visas here.”
盡管觀眾們已經(jīng)被反復(fù)告知要把手機(jī)收起來。尤瑟夫責(zé)備道：“你們就是不聽指示。就是因?yàn)橄衲銈冞@樣的人，我們才拿不到簽證。”

[Paragraph 2]
The largely Egyptian audience roared with laughter. For many of the punters at his show, Mr Youssef is an icon.
這場(chǎng)演出的觀眾大多是埃及人，他們爆發(fā)出陣陣笑聲。對(duì)于他的許多觀眾來說，尤瑟夫是一個(gè)偶像。

He was one of the first people in the Arab world to host a political-satire show on television.
他是阿拉伯世界第一批在電視上主持政治諷刺節(jié)目的人之一。

A decade ago, during his Friday-night slot, generations of Egyptian families would huddle round screens to watch him; the streets of Cairo fell silent.
十年前，在周五的晚間時(shí)段，埃及家庭里的幾代人會(huì)圍在電視屏幕前觀看他的節(jié)目；開羅一時(shí)萬(wàn)人空巷。

Here, in a prestigious auditorium in London, things were different. Mr Youssef, known for his tongue-in-cheek Arabic humour, was performing almost entirely in English.
而在倫敦這個(gè)著名的禮堂里，情況有所不同。以半開玩笑的阿拉伯幽默而聞名的尤瑟夫，幾乎完全用英語(yǔ)表演。

[Paragraph 3]
His career in comedy began in 2011, during the Arab spring. Previously a heart surgeon, Mr Youssef began filming political satire in his laundry room and posting it to YouTube.
他的喜劇生涯始于2011年的阿拉伯之春。尤瑟夫原本是一名心臟外科醫(yī)生，他開始在自己的洗衣房里拍攝政治諷刺視頻并將其上傳到油管上。

He was funny—dangerously funny. A big television network?snapped him up and broadcast his show, “The Programme”.
他很有趣——危險(xiǎn)地有趣。一家大型電視網(wǎng)絡(luò)搶先簽下了他，并播出了他的節(jié)目《The Programme》。

At its peak it had between 30m and 40m viewers each week, more than a third of Egypt’s entire population.
在節(jié)目的巔峰時(shí)期，每周有3000萬(wàn)至4000萬(wàn)觀眾收看，超過了埃及總?cè)丝诘娜种弧?br>
[Paragraph 4]
In 2013 Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi came to power in a coup. The military dictator did not consider satire?a laughing matter, particularly when the jokes were on him.
2013年，阿卜杜勒-法塔赫·塞西通過政變上臺(tái)。這位軍事獨(dú)裁者并不認(rèn)為諷刺是件搞笑的事，特別是當(dāng)搞笑的對(duì)象是他本人時(shí)。

Mr Youssef’s humour was blocked from the airwaves; he received death threats. Eventually he fled, making his way to America.
尤瑟夫的節(jié)目在廣播中被禁；他還收到了死亡威脅。最終，他逃離了埃及，前往美國(guó)。

[Paragraph 5]
He did not know what he would do next, he says now. “The Programme” had been a product of those brief years of revolution.
他說，那時(shí)候他不知道接下來要做什么?！禩he Programme》是那短暫的革命歲月的產(chǎn)物。

A version of the show made in exile would be a pale replica of the original. In the end he decided on a complete reinvention.
在流亡中制作的節(jié)目版本將是原版的蒼白復(fù)制品。最終，他決定進(jìn)行徹底的改變。

Four years ago, he set out to become an English-speaking stand-up comedian.
4年前，他開始成為一名講英語(yǔ)的單口喜劇演員。

[Paragraph 6]
Doctor, doctor
醫(yī)生，醫(yī)生

It wasn’t easy. A new language came with new cultural references, and at its own pace.
這并不容易。新的語(yǔ)言有著新的文化素材，且有著自己的節(jié)奏。

“I discovered that the hard way,” recalls Mr Youssef. “There were nights when I did terribly [on stage] because I couldn’t find that rhythm.” But he has now mastered his craft.
尤瑟夫回憶道：“我是通過一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)摸索才學(xué)會(huì)的，有些晚間時(shí)段，我在舞臺(tái)上表現(xiàn)得很糟糕，因?yàn)槲艺也坏侥欠N節(jié)奏感?！?span id="s0sssss00s" class="font-size-16">但他現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)掌握了這門技藝。

The acutely observed material in his new show, “Adam”—now bound for New York after a European tour—is a culmination of those laborious years.
他新節(jié)目《亞當(dāng)》中那些精心觀察到的材料——在歐洲巡演后即將前往紐約時(shí)——是那些辛苦歲月的結(jié)晶。

[Paragraph 7]
Besides the language of its delivery, “Adam” differs from Mr Youssef’s revolution-era comedy in two main ways.
除了表達(dá)方式的語(yǔ)言外，尤瑟夫的《亞當(dāng)》與革命時(shí)期喜劇節(jié)目的不同點(diǎn)主要體現(xiàn)在2個(gè)方面。

The first is its purpose. When he began wisecracking in 2011, he hoped his jokes would serve as a remedy to fear in febrile times.
第一個(gè)不同點(diǎn)是它的目的。當(dāng)2011年他開始講段子時(shí)，他希望他的段子能在緊張時(shí)期成為人們緩解恐懼的解藥。

Now his aim is to illuminate the experience of the Arab diaspora in the West (taking friendly jabs at stereotypical Egyptian behaviour along the way).
現(xiàn)在他的目標(biāo)是闡明阿拉伯僑民在西方的人生經(jīng)歷（順便對(duì)典型的埃及行為進(jìn)行友好的調(diào)侃）。

“In America we are a newer group of immigrants, compared to Asians or Latinos,” he explains. “It’s important that we tell our stories, instead of just talking to each other.”
他解釋說：“與亞裔或拉丁裔美國(guó)人相比，我們是一個(gè)相對(duì)較新的移民群體，重要的不僅僅是彼此交流，我們還需要講述我們自己的故事?！?br>
The second change is his newly direct style.
第二個(gè)不同點(diǎn)是他現(xiàn)在的表達(dá)方式很直接。

[Paragraph 8]
For all that, one thing remains the same: Mr Youssef’s life in America is still bound by limitations, albeit of a different kind from the old constraints in Egypt.
盡管如此，有一件事仍然保持不變：尤瑟夫在美國(guó)的生活仍然受到限制，盡管這種限制與曾在埃及時(shí)的限制不同。

To illustrate that point during the show, he tells the story of an Arabic-speaking woman who was detained at an airport for saying the word inshallah (“God willing”) on the phone before boarding a plane.
為了說明這一點(diǎn)，他在節(jié)目中講述了一位說阿拉伯語(yǔ)的女士的故事，她因登機(jī)前在電話中說了句“inshallah”（“上帝保佑”）就被拘留在了機(jī)場(chǎng)。

In practice, he explained to the non-Arabic-speaking listeners in the room, inshallah means “it’s never going to happen” (the Arabs in the audience chuckled knowingly at this paraphrase).
他向現(xiàn)場(chǎng)不會(huì)說阿拉伯語(yǔ)的觀眾解釋道，在實(shí)際生活中，inshallah的意思是“永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)發(fā)生”（觀眾席里的阿拉伯人聽到這個(gè)解釋后都心領(lǐng)神會(huì)地笑了）。

[Paragraph 9]
Along with some experiences of his own, this anecdote made Mr Youssef realise that, to some extent, he would still have to police his own behaviour in the “free world”.
除了自己的一些經(jīng)歷外，這個(gè)奇聞逸事使尤瑟夫意識(shí)到，在某種程度上，他仍然需要在“自由世界”中保持自我約束。

The only place he does not have to do this is on stage. Will he ever escape such strictures? There is hope, he says. But with a caveat: “Inshallah.”
唯一不需要這樣做的地方是舞臺(tái)。他到底能否擺脫這些束縛？他說有希望，但有一個(gè)前提：“上帝保佑。”

（恭喜讀完，本篇英語(yǔ)詞匯量716左右，有刪減）
原文出自：2023年4月1日《The Economist》Culture版塊。

精讀筆記來源于：自由英語(yǔ)之路

本文翻譯整理: Irene

本文編輯校對(duì): Irene
僅供個(gè)人英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)交流使用。

【補(bǔ)充資料】（來自于網(wǎng)絡(luò)）
Bassem Youssef 是一位埃及喜劇演員、作家、制片人、外科醫(yī)生、媒體評(píng)論家和電視主持人。他主持了一檔名為《El-Bernameg》（The Show）的諷刺新聞節(jié)目，2011年開始，2014年禁播。他的節(jié)目在埃及受到了廣泛的關(guān)注，但也因?yàn)榕u(píng)政府而引起了爭(zhēng)議。他被稱為是美國(guó)喜劇演員Jon Stewart的埃及版。

【重點(diǎn)句子】（3?個(gè)）
A version of the show made in exile would be a pale replica of the original. In the end he decided on a complete reinvention.
在流亡中制作的節(jié)目版本將是原版的蒼白復(fù)制品。最終，他決定進(jìn)行徹底的改變。

The first is its purpose. When he began wisecracking in 2011, he hoped his jokes would serve as a remedy to fear in febrile times.
第一個(gè)不同點(diǎn)是它的目的。當(dāng)2011年他開始講段子時(shí)，他希望他的段子能在緊張時(shí)期成為人們緩解恐懼的解藥。

Along with some experiences of his own, this anecdote made Mr Youssef realise that, to some extent, he would still have to police his own behaviour in the “free world”.
除了自己的一些經(jīng)歷外，這個(gè)奇聞逸事使尤塞夫意識(shí)到，在某種程度上，他仍然需要在“自由世界”中保持自我約束。