金泳三从绝食斗士到韩国总统 Activist who went from hunger striker to president
In November 1997, Kim Young-sam began the final weeks of his presidency by seeking a massive bailout from the International Monetary Fund in an attempt to rescue South Korea’s crisis-hit economy.
1997年11月，金泳三(Kim Young-sam)以争取国际货币基金组织(IMF)的大规模纾困作为其总统任期最后几周的开始，试图借此拯救受到危机冲击的韩国经济。
“We cannot avoid the criticism that we’ve hesitated on bold reforms,” he said in a grim televised address, after failing to find alternatives to the tough conditions that would accompany IMF assistance. “The economic management of the past has reached its limit.”
他表情严肃地在电视讲话中表示：“我们不能回避那种认为我们没有决心实施大胆改革的批评。过去的经济管理方式已达到极限。”在此之前，他未能找到替代方案，来避免因接受IMF援助而必须满足的苛刻条件。
The Asian financial crisis brought a traumatic finale to a four-decade political career that was one of the most important in South Korea’s tumultuous journey to democracy. Kim, who died yesterday aged 87, was a leading opposition figure during 32 years of military rule, finally becoming the civilian president who brought that period to an end.
亚洲金融危机为金泳三的政治生涯画上了一个令人难过的句号。他四十年的从政生涯，在韩国颠簸曲折的民主进程中极为重要。金泳三于昨日逝世，享年87岁。他在韩国32年的军事统治时期曾是头号反对派人物，并最终成为结束这一时期的文职总统。
Born on the southern island of Geoje on December 20 1927, Kim became the youngest MP in modern Korean history when he was elected in 1954 at the age of 26. But he truly rose to prominence in the years after the authoritarian leader Park Chung-hee pushed through a new constitution in 1972 that in effect granted him absolute power.
金泳三1927年12月20日出生在韩国南部的巨济岛(Geoje)。1954年，26岁的金泳三当选议员，成为现代韩国历史上最年轻的议员。不过，他真正在政坛崛起，还是在1972年独裁领导人朴正熙(Park Chung-hee)推动通过新宪法后的几年里。那部新宪法实际上赋予了朴正熙绝对的权力。
Elected leader of the opposition New Democratic party two years later, Kim took the fore in demands for political reform.
两年后，金泳三当选反对党新民党(New Democratic Party)领导人，带头要求韩国实施政治改革。
A climactic point came in 1979, when Kim granted sanctuary in his party headquarters to about 170 dismissed female workers from a wig factory, who had been evicted and beaten by police. The building was stormed by a thousand policemen, who injured dozens of people and killed one of the workers. The incident drew international condemnation, emboldening Mr Kim to step up his criticism of the government, which in turn prompted Park to have him expelled from parliament.
1979年，局面发展到高潮。那一年，金泳三在其新民党总部为大约170名被一家假发厂开除的女工提供庇护，这些女工此前曾遭警方的驱赶和殴打。1000名警察冲进新民党总部大楼，导致数十人受伤，一名女工丧生。这一事件引起了国际社会的谴责，鼓舞了金泳三加大对政府的批评力度，这反过来又促使朴正熙将金泳三逐出韩国议会。
Park’s assassination later that year resulted in the accession to power of the repressive general Chun Doo-hwan, who oversaw the killing of hundreds of people following protests in the city of Gwangju in 1980. Kim marked the third anniversary of the atrocity with a 26-day hunger strike that ended only when he was detained and force-fed.
同年晚些时候，朴正熙遭到暗杀，这使实行高压政策的全斗焕(Chun Doo-hwan)将军上位，他在1980年光州(Gwangju)的抗议活动之后下令武力镇压，导致数百人死亡。金泳三在那次暴行三周年时进行了长达23天的绝食抗议，在被拘留和强迫进食后才结束绝食。
Opposition to military rule continued to grow, and Kim played a big role in organising the protests that persuaded the government to hold direct elections in 1987. But when Kim and his fellow campaigner Kim Dae-jung both ran, the split allowed Roh Tae-woo, Chun’s chosen successor, to win the contest.
反对军事统治的力量持续增强，金泳三在组织抗议、最终说服政府在1987年举行直选中发挥了重要作用。但当时金泳三和与他一起开展运动的金大中(Kim Dae-jung)都竞选了总统，这种分裂造成全斗焕选择的继任者卢泰愚(Roh Tae-woo)赢得了大选。
Both Kims ran again five years later — but this time Kim Young-sam emerged triumphant. A year into his term, North Korea refused to allow international inspectors into a plutonium reprocessing plant, sparking a stand-off between Pyongyang and Washington. In his memoirs, Kim wrote that he had persuaded President Bill Clinton not to launch air strikes against North Korea’s nuclear facilities, telling him it would have prompted attacks on South Korea.
金泳三和金大中都在5年后再次参选——但这一次金泳三获得了胜利。金泳三当选总统一年后，朝鲜拒绝让国际核查人员进入一处钚再处理工厂，这引发了朝鲜和美国的对峙。在回忆录中，金泳三写道，他说服美国前总统比尔克林顿(Bill Clinton)不对朝鲜核设施发动空袭，因为那将使韩国遭到袭击。
Kim’s domestic record was mixed. He oversaw a law forbidding bank accounts under false names, a favoured tool of corrupt businessmen and politicians. In 1996 his predecessors Chun and Roh were respectively sentenced to death and jailed for life for crimes committed in office; Kim pardoned both in the final days of his presidency.
金泳三的内政记录毁誉参半。他推动一项禁止用假名开设银行账户的法律获得通过，这种做法曾是腐败商人和政客青睐的手段。1996年，他的前任全斗焕和卢泰愚分别因掌权时犯下的罪行而被判处死刑和无期徒刑，金泳三在总统任期的末期赦免了两人。
But he faced controversy over economic policy — notably a labour law that gave companies the right to shed workers and declared the country’s second biggest union illegitimate. After weeks of demonstrations the government scrapped the law. This climbdown, along with the bribery conviction of a son (one of five children who survive him along with his wife Son Myung-soon), left his authority depleted.
但他的经济政策面临争议——尤其是一部允许企业裁员的劳动法，以及宣布韩国第二大工会为非法组织。在数周的游行示威后，政府撤回了这部劳动法。这一退让、以及他的一个儿子（金泳三的五个子女之一，他与金泳三的妻子孙命顺(Son Myung-soon)依然在世）因受贿被判罪，让他的权威消失殆尽。
Yet perhaps more than for his time as president, Kim will be remembered for his defiant work in opposition — as characterised by his most celebrated aphorism, delivered in the face of state intimidation in 1979: “Dawn will come — even if you wring the rooster’s neck.”
比起金泳三任总统时的作为，人们可能更多地会因他在野时的反抗活动而铭记他——这些反抗可以用他在1979年面对政府恐吓时发表的最著名的一句格言来概括：“黎明总会到来——即使你拧断了公鸡的脖子。”
