口译时事：印度教徒庆祝Navrati节

　　Twice a year, in spring and fall, India"s Hindus celebrate Navrati, a nine-day festival during which they pray each day to a different female deity. Navrati culminates in 'kanya puja,' or a day of maiden worshiping: Every household invites over the young girls of the neighborhood and, led by the father or patriarch, bows before them, washes their feet, prays to them, offers them a specially prepared feast of vegetarian delicacies and showers them with gifts and money.

　　每年春秋两季，印度教徒都会庆祝Navrati节。在为期9天的庆典中印度人每天敬拜一位不同的女神。Navrati节会在“崇拜少女日”(kanya puja)当天达到高潮。当天，每家每户都会邀请附近的年轻女孩来到家中，整个家族会在父亲或者家族长老的带领下，向她们鞠躬，为她们洗脚，向她们祷告，奉上专门为其烹饪的素食大餐，并送上礼物和钱财。

　　Growing up, I would make several weeks' worth of allowance on that one day. But this ancient practice wasn't meant to pamper the girls. It served to remind men of the qualities─mental courage, spiritual wisdom, purity of mind and strength of character─embodied in the feminine spirit, without which, according to Hindu scriptures, the cosmos would collapse into decadence and chaos.

　　在我成长的经历中，那天得到的零用钱够花上好几个星期。但这个古老的传统并非为了宠爱女孩，而是为了提醒男人们一些女性精神气质中所体现的品质：勇气、心灵的智慧，灵魂的纯洁和性格的力量；如果失去这些品质，据印度教圣经所言，整个宇宙都会陷入衰退和浑沌。

　　Such veneration of women may surprise foreign observers of India, considering the recent epidemic of rapes there and publicity about the everyday harassment that Indian women face─lewd gestures, catcalls, groping and worse. Some have blamed modernity, suggesting that India needs to return to its past. But when it comes to 'eve teasing' (as this practice is euphemistically called), I would argue the opposite: It is precisely the stubborn hold of India's prudish culture that has made many Indian men so callow.

　　对女性的如此崇敬可能会让很多关注印度的外国人感到震惊，因为最近印度强奸案横行，对女性的性骚扰也颇为公开：诸如猥亵的手势，挑逗的口哨，“咸猪手”或者其他更恶劣的行为。一些人将这归咎于现代化进程，认为印度应该回归传统。但是当涉及“夏娃的诱惑”（这是性骚扰的委婉说法）时，我会坚持相反的观点：正是由于固守“假正经”的印度文化， 许多印度男人才在性方面没有经验。

　　Arun Arushi Narodin, who writes for the online magazine Bodhi Commons, reports that 90% of urban women in India experience harassment. But that almost certainly understates the problem. I've never met an Indian woman─rich or poor, upper or lower caste, pretty or homely, young or middle-age─who hasn't been harassed. Indeed, street-level harassment is like traffic for drivers, an unavoidable nuisance women confront whenever they leave the house. It fundamentally alters how they walk, talk, travel and dress in public. It impels them to assume a body language least likely to draw attention─to cover themselves, as it were, in an invisible burqa.

　　为网络杂志《菩提树下的议院》(Bodhi Commons)撰稿的阿伦·阿修罗·纳罗丁(Arun Arushi Narodin)报道称，印度90%的城镇女性都有被性骚扰的经历。而这一数据显然低估了问题的严峻程度。我所认识的印度女性，无论贫富、等级、相貌或年龄，没有一个没受到过性骚扰。实际上，街头性骚扰就像司机遇到堵车一样平常，只要踏出家门就会不可避免的遇到。这种情况从根本上改变了印度女性走路、说话、穿着的方式；也迫使她们采用最不引人注意的肢体语言，并穿上布卡(Burqa)覆盖全身来寻求保护。

　　I first felt myself donning this burqa sometime in my midteens as I walked with my mother to the market near our home in New Delhi and a group of young men started hooting, whistling and singing Bollywood songs. My mother hissed at me to walk quickly and avoid eye contact. Had we been accompanied by my father, the loud harassment would have been replaced with more surreptitious gestures. This mostly low-level nuisance turns into molestation in crowded buses or public spaces, as men grope or press against trapped women. My mother instructed me to have a sharp elbow or a safety pin always at the ready, advice that is still handed down to Indian girls today.

　　我记忆中第一次穿布卡大约是在少年时期，当时我和母亲一同前往位于新德里家附近的一个市场，一群男人开始对我们怪叫，吹口哨，还唱起宝莱坞(Bollywood)的歌曲。母亲示意我不说话快走，也不要有任何眼神接触。有的时候，如果父亲和我们一起，这些大声的骚扰则会转变为鬼鬼祟祟的手势。如果在拥挤的公车上或公共场合，这些低级的骚扰就会变成明目张胆的“折磨”，男人们通常会趁着拥挤对女性上下其手。母亲教导我要利用自己的胳膊肘或者随时待命的安全针保护自己。时至今日，这些方法仍在女孩中口口相传。

　　What is the cause of this phenomenon? Some argue that the uneven economic growth triggered by India's two-decade-old liberalization has left many men feeling emasculated. Young girls flaunting their newfound wealth in sparkling malls and fast-food restaurants, it is said, are producing a backlash of jealousy and envy from less-well-off men. 'Men's loss of power and control over women has made professional women particularly vulnerable, especially in male-dominated work environments and in public spaces,' writes Rasna Wahra for the Daily Nation. But street harassment predates liberalization by generations. My mother endured it 50 years ago.

　　这种现象究竟缘何而起？一些人认为是印度自由化二十年来导致不平衡的经济发展，使许多男性失去了曾经的优越感。年轻女孩开始在奢华的商场和快餐店里炫耀她们的财富，而这随即催生了一些不那么富裕的男性的敌对性嫉妒心理。来自《国家日报》(Daily Nation)的Rasna Wahra写道：“男人权力的丧失以及无法再对女人实施操控，这使得职场女性尤为容易受到伤害，这点在以男性为主导的工作环境或公共场合中表现得尤为明显。”可是街头性骚扰比自由化要早了几十个年头，我母亲从50多年前就开始忍受了。

　　Others suggest that harassment is the product of rapid urbanization, which has flooded India's cities with village hicks, who lose their heads on seeing (relatively) liberated women roaming around freely. That would make sense if urban men from 'respectable' families weren't also among the offenders. And then there is the feminist explanation: patriarchy, which sees street-level harassment as an assertion of male domination. But India is arguably less patriarchal now than it has ever been, and the problem remains.

　　还有一些人认为性骚扰是席卷印度村落的城镇化进程的产物，这些村落里的男性可没见过什么受过教育的女性。不过这种说法，也只有当那些来自“有教养”家庭的城镇男子并不在骚扰者行列之内时，才说得通。女权主义认为：父权制社会中，街头性骚扰是维护男性主导地位的一个表现。可是即便当代印度正处于父权制最弱的时期，性骚扰问题依然存在。

　　Unlike rape and sex-selective abortion, which represent a genuine devaluing of women, sexual harassment in India is, I believe, an expression not of the power of Indian men but of their helplessness. It's a pathetic attempt to have a sexual encounter, no matter how meaningless and evanescent. Its real cause is free-floating male libido with no socially acceptable outlet.

　　在我看来，性骚扰同强奸和选择性别堕胎不同，后两项纯粹是对女性的贬低；而性骚扰则是印度男人对无助的表达，并非是他们对权利的诉求。通过这种毫无意义又十分短暂的性接触来解决需求的途径十分悲哀。其真正原因是这些膨胀的男性欲望没有可被社会所接受的宣泄口。

　　India's sexual mores and institutions are rooted in a pastoral past, when people died before 50, so marriages between minors were the norm. Families in villages would betroth their children, at birth sometimes, and have a formal ceremony after both attained puberty, when the girl went to live with her husband's family. This arrangement, now banned, had many horrendous downsides, but it produced an organic harmony between the sexual needs of individuals and the social expectations of monogamy and chastity.

　　印度有关两性的道德标准和社会制度植根于古旧的农业时代，那时候人们寿命超不过50岁，婚姻低龄化也就成为了习俗。农村人有时甚至会在孩子出生时就订好了娃娃亲，当他们到了青春期，女孩搬去同她的丈夫家人一同居住时，再举行一场正式的仪式。这样的安排有很多可怕的负面影响，现在已被禁止。但在那个时候，它创造了一种平衡的性需求结构，也同样符合了社会对于一夫一妻制以及持守贞操的期待。

　　Today the average marriage age in India has risen to 22 for women and 26 for men. Yet virginity and chastity─especially for women, but also men─remain prized virtues. The vast majority of marriages, even in large cosmopolitan cities, are arranged. But even love matches can't be openly consummated before marriage, thanks to the taboo against premarital sex. Girls are expected to go from their father's house to their husband's, virginity intact.

　　如今印度女性平均结婚年龄已经升至22岁，男性为26岁。但无论男女，尤其是对于女性来说，保持处子之身和贞操依然被视作一种至高的美德。印度大部分的婚姻，甚至在超级大城市里，依然属于包办性质。由于婚前性行为是禁忌，即便自由恋爱的情侣也不能在结婚前发生性行为。从父家到夫家居住之前，女孩都需要保持处女之身。

　　The upshot is legions of grown, unmarried men who have never had sex. It is their repressed libido that expresses itself in weird social pathologies such as harassment. Trying to stamp out harassment with the tougher laws that India has recently embraced─declaring stalking a crime, setting sentences of five years for groping, one year for lewd gestures─will help at the margins at best. A problem rooted in natural urges is unlikely to yield to legal quick fixes.

　　这就导致大批的成年未婚男子从未有过性行为。正因如此，他们压抑的性欲只能通过一些诸如性骚扰等病态的社会行为来释放。印度当局目前也在实施一些法律，试图杜绝性骚扰──尾随为犯罪行为，动手动脚会被判五年有期徒刑，猥亵动作也会被判刑一年──但这也是治标不治本。一个根植于自然原始冲动的问题并不太可能通过法律捷径得以解决。

　　What would work? Nothing short of transforming India's puritanical culture and giving men and women more freedom to forge sexually mature relationships outside of marriage. The reform process is already under way among the urbanized upper classes. Bollywood movies, generally a good barometer of social trends, are increasingly depicting cohabiting couples in a favorable light. 'Living together before marriage is not a crime,' Deepika Padukone, a famous actress, recently declared.

　　那有什么办法可以奏效呢？彻底改变印度过于拘谨的宗教文化，赋予男人和女人更多自由，不用等到婚后才能建立成熟的性关系。这个转变已经在城镇富裕阶层发生了。宝莱坞电影一向是社会风向的晴雨表，如今也越来越多地采用正面方式去刻画同居男女的关系。著名印度女演员迪皮卡·帕度柯妮(Deepika Padukone) 最近就声称“婚前同居并不是犯罪”。

　　But the process will take generations. Given India's starting point in ancient traditions, one can hope that it will result in a balance healthier than what has unfolded in the over-sexualized West. But unfold it must, because the status quo demeans India's daughters─and warps its sons.

　　但这个过程会延续几代人。介于印度的起点是古老的保守传统，我们期望达到的是开放与保守的平衡，而不是如西方一般过度开放的性文化。但解禁是势在必行的，因为现状不仅贬低了印度女性，也扭曲了印度男性。

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