在爱尔兰,总统是一个象征性的职位,拥有的实权很有限。人们将总统视为宪法的守护者,人民的长辈,以及国家的代表人。
从这一点上来看,迈克尔·霍金斯(Michael D Higgins)确是一位不可多得的国家总统。
走进爱尔兰总统——迈克尔·霍金斯
霍金斯1941年出生在爱尔兰的一个贫寒家庭里,如今已经77岁高龄,从上世纪60年代开始参政,一直以来热衷于推广爱尔兰语,他不仅仅是总统,还是诗人,曾经出过3本诗集。
霍金斯是那种你第一眼看上去就会愿意亲近的人。他身高1米61,在普遍高大的欧洲人中间显得格外“迷你”。他两鬓雪白,自年轻时起就是秃顶,戴着一副小巧的眼镜,身体圆胖,一笑起来笑容会在脸庞上漾开,很真诚,给人一种温暖的感觉。
跟霍金斯总统照相,你可以像对待祖父那样搂住他的肩膀。
与爱尔兰身高2米1的橄榄球运动员Devin Toner握手,球员们看起来像是总统先生的强大保镖。
霍金斯2011年当选爱尔兰总统,当时他获得了超过100万张选票,在爱尔兰人口不足500万,而当时参加选票的选民只有170万,从这一点来看,老爷子的魅力实在是不一般的。
比大狗貌似高不了太多的可爱总统。
很多人都知道英国女王喜欢养柯基,不过在爱狗方面,霍金斯总统也是毫不逊色。
霍金斯总统喜欢的是伯恩山犬(Bernese Mountain dog),这种狗体型很大,不过性格友好,喜欢吐着舌头跟人合影。而且经过总统府的训练,颇懂礼仪,格外能讨别人欢心。
宴会上,大狗们是调节气氛的专家,也是宾客们关注的一大焦点。
2016年的一个周末,当地理发师Danny Callaghan到总统府所在的凤凰公园散步,照片中霍金斯总统和两只大狗实力抢镜。
英国哈里王子和梅根访问爱尔兰,迎接他们的自然也少不了两只毛茸茸的家伙,为此肯辛顿宫还特地发推特,感谢爱尔兰总统夫妇和狗狗们的“warm welcome”。
爱尔兰人一向对宠物喜爱有加,据统计高达半数的爱尔兰人家都养了狗。因此霍金斯总统对狗的喜爱也必然能引起民众的共鸣。
相比于大多数总统高高在上的形象,霍金斯总统可谓十分低调。不是在工作中或者当众演讲的时候,他就像你身边一个活力十足的爷爷。
70多高龄的他跨上自行车,精神不逊于年轻人。有趣的是,他的这个形象和著名动画片《邮递员派特叔叔》(Postman Pat)里的教区牧师简直一模一样,甚至让人怀疑这不是巧合。
霍金斯总统也经常和明星们合影。在与马丁·辛(Martin Sheen,好莱坞演员,曾出演《现代启示录》《白宫群英》等电影电视剧)的合照中,总统先生一脸纯粹的快乐和喜悦。这张照片他摆在了自己的办公室里。
当选后,总统先生很多生活习惯一如从前,比如他仍然会去银行ATM机排队取款,绝不插队。
爱尔兰人也觉得自己的总统实在太可爱了,于是开动脑筋把他设计成了各种卡通形象,甚至是童话书的主角。
这个叫做Michael Tea Higgins的茶壶可谓经典,要是去爱尔兰旅游,怎么也得带一个回来才好。
这是童书《总统先生的眼镜》(The President’s Glasses)里的一副插画,这本书出版于2017年10月,讲的是总统先生弄丢了自己的眼镜,又在足智多谋的鸽子的帮助下把它找回来的故事。
作为少见的“诗人总统”,霍金斯一向是一个很有人情味的人。
下面这个孩子的父亲是海岸警卫员,在直升机坠毁事故中丧生。总统出席了葬礼,脸上有一种让人能切切实实感受到的悲伤与怜爱。
总统的演讲也是著名地温暖人心,每年他都会数次依照爱尔兰总统府的传统,和夫人一起举办宴会,欢迎来到爱尔兰的移民家庭以及通过收养来到爱尔兰的孩子们。
下面邀请爱尔兰总统来为我们朗诵一首诗歌:《为我女儿的祈祷》。
为我女儿的祈祷
作者:威廉·巴特勒·叶芝(爱尔兰)
译者:傅浩
朗诵者:迈克尔·希金斯 | 爱尔兰总统
A Prayer for My Daughter
Once more the storm is howling, and half hid
Under this cradle-hood and coverlid
My child sleeps on. There is no obstacle
But Gregory’s wood and one bare hill
Whereby the haystack- and roof-levelling wind,
Bred on the Atlantic, can be stayed;
And for an hour I have walked and prayed
Because of the great gloom that is in my mind.
I have walked and prayed for this young child an hour
And heard the sea-wind scream upon the tower,
And under the arches of the bridge, and scream
In the elms above the flooded stream;
Imagining in excited reverie
That the future years had come,
Dancing to a frenzied drum,
Out of the murderous innocence of the sea.
May she be granted beauty and yet not
Beauty to make a stranger’s eye distraught,
Or hers before a looking-glass, for such,
Being made beautiful overmuch,
Consider beauty a sufficient end,
Lose natural kindness and maybe
The heart-revealing intimacy
That chooses right, and never find a friend.
Helen being chosen found life flat and dull
And later had much trouble from a fool,
While that great Queen, that rose out of the spray,
Being fatherless could have her way
Yet chose a bandy-leggèd smith for man.
It’s certain that fine women eat
A crazy salad with their meat
Whereby the Horn of Plenty is undone.
In courtesy I’d have her chiefly learned;
Hearts are not had as a gift but hearts are earned
By those that are not entirely beautiful;
Yet many, that have played the fool
For beauty’s very self, has charm made wise,
And many a poor man that has roved,
Loved and thought himself beloved,
From a glad kindness cannot take his eyes.
May she become a flourishing hidden tree
That all her thoughts may like the linnet be,
And have no business but dispensing round
Their magnanimities of sound,
Nor but in merriment begin a chase,
Nor but in merriment a quarrel.
O may she live like some green laurel
Rooted in one dear perpetual place.
My mind, because the minds that I have loved,
The sort of beauty that I have approved,
Prosper but little, has dried up of late,
Yet knows that to be choked with hate
May well be of all evil chances chief.
If there’s no hatred in a mind
Assault and battery of the wind
Can never tear the linnet from the leaf.
An intellectual hatred is the worst,
So let her think opinions are accursed.
Have I not seen the loveliest woman born
Out of the mouth of Plenty’s horn,
Because of her opinionated mind
Barter that horn and every good
By quiet natures understood
For an old bellows full of angry wind?
Considering that, all hatred driven hence,
The soul recovers radical innocence
And learns at last that it is self-delighting,
Self-appeasing, self-affrighting,
And that its own sweet will is Heaven’s will;
She can, though every face should scowl
And every windy quarter howl
Or every bellows burst, be happy still.
And may her bridegroom bring her to a house
Where all’s accustomed, ceremonious;
For arrogance and hatred are the wares
Peddled in the thoroughfares.
How but in custom and in ceremony
Are innocence and beauty born?
Ceremony’s a name for the rich horn,
And custom for the spreading laurel tree.
(1919)
叶芝于1923年获得诺贝尔文学奖,由瑞典国王亲自颁奖,获奖理由是“用鼓舞人心的诗篇,以高度的艺术形式表达了整个民族的精神风貌”。诗人艾略特称赞其为“当代最伟大的诗人”。
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