诺贝尔奖能说明法国并未衰落吗

PARIS — When France won its second Nobel Prize in less than a week on Monday, this time for economics, Prime Minister Manuel Valls quickly took to Twitter, insisting with no shortage of pride that the accomplishment was a loud rebuke for those who say that France is a nation in decline.

巴黎——本周二，法国在不到一周的时间里获得了本年度的第二个诺贝尔奖，这次是经济学奖。法国总理曼纽尔·瓦尔斯(Manuel Valls)很快登上Twitter，非常自豪地声称，对于那些说法国正在衰落的人，这是一次响亮的回击。

“After Patrick Modiano, another Frenchman in the firmament: Congratulations to Jean Tirole!” Mr. Valls wrote. “What a way to thumb one’s nose at French bashing! #ProudofFrance.”

“继帕特里克·莫迪亚诺(Patrick Modiano)之后，又一个法国人登上巅峰：恭喜让·梯若尔(Jean Tirole)！”瓦尔斯写道。“这是对法国衰落论的冷眼蔑视！#ProudofFrance。”

Some in the country were already giddy after Mr. Modiano, a beloved author, whose concise and moody novels are often set in France during the Nazi occupation, won the Nobel Prize for literature last week. The award helped to raise the global stature of Mr. Modiano, whose three books published in the United States — two novels and a children’s book — before the Nobel had collectively sold fewer than 8,000 copies.

莫迪亚诺上周获得诺贝尔文学奖，已经让一些法国人沾沾自喜。莫迪亚诺是一名受人爱戴的作家，其小说文字简练、情绪多变，往往以纳粹占领时期的法国为故事背景。该奖项有助于提高莫迪亚诺的全球地位；在获奖之前，他在美国出版了三本书——两本小说和一本儿童读物——总共销量不足8000本。

Joining in the chorus, Le Monde suggested in an editorial that at a time of rampant French-bashing, Mr. Modiano’s achievement was something of a vindication for a country where Nobel Prizes in literature flow more liberally than oil. Mr. Modiano was the 15th French writer, including Sartre and Camus, to win the award.

法国的《世界报》(Le Monde)也秉持这一观点。它在一篇社论中指出，在法国衰落论甚嚣尘上之时，莫迪亚诺的获奖是对一个国家的认可。在这个国家，诺贝尔文学奖涌现得比石油还多。莫迪亚诺是赢得该奖项的第15名法国作家，加入了萨特和加缪的行列。

Yet this being France, a country where dissatisfaction can be worn like an accessory, some intellectuals, economists and critics greeted the awards with little more than a shrug at a time when the economy has been faltering, Paris has lost influence to Berlin and Brussels, the far-right National Front has been surging, and François Hollande has become one of the most unpopular French presidents in recent history. Others sniffed haughtily that while France was great at culture, it remained economically and politically prostrate.

然而这是法国，不满情绪就像穿戴配饰一样平常。经济步履蹒跚，巴黎失去了对柏林和布鲁塞尔的影响力，极右翼政党国民阵线(National Front)的势力急剧扩张，总统弗朗索瓦·奥朗德(FrançoisHollande)沦为法国近代史上最不受欢迎的总统之一。在这样的光景下，一些知识分子、经济学家和评论人士对诺贝尔奖的反应无非就是耸了耸肩。其他一些人则傲慢地表示不屑，虽然法国在文化上很伟大，但在经济和政治领域，它依旧不怎么样。

Even Mr. Modiano may have unintentionally captured the national mood when, informed of his prize by his editor, he said he found it “strange” and wanted to know why the Nobel committee had selected him.

就连莫迪亚诺本人也在无意中捕捉到了这种国民情绪。当他的编辑告知他获奖一事时，他说自己觉得“奇怪”，很好奇为什么诺贝尔委员会选中了他。

Alain Finkielkraut, a professor of philosophy at the elite École Polytechnique, who recently published a book criticizing what he characterized as France’s descent into conformity and multiculturalism, said that rather than showing that France was on the ascent, the fetishizing of the Nobel Prizes by the French political elite revealed the country’s desperation.

阿兰·芬基尔克罗(Alain Finkielkraut)是一名哲学教授，在菁英汇集的巴黎综合理工学院(École Polytechnique)担任教职。在最近出版的一本书中，他称法国陷入了同质化和多元文化，并对此加以批评。芬基尔克罗说，法国政治上层对诺贝尔奖的盲目迷恋，显示的不是法国正欣欣向荣，而是它身陷绝望。

“I find the idea that the Nobels are being used as a riposte to French-bashing idiotic,” he said. “Our education system is totally broken, and the Nobel Prize doesn’t change anything. I have a lot of affection for Mr. Modiano, but I think Philip Roth deserved it much more. To talk that all in France is going well and that the pessimism is gone is absurd. France is doing extremely badly. There is an economic crisis. There is a crisis of integration. I am not going to be consoled by these medals made of chocolate.”

“我觉得，用诺贝尔奖来还击法国衰落论的做法很愚蠢，”他说。“我们的教育体系完全失灵，诺贝尔奖不会改变任何东西。我很喜欢莫迪亚诺，但我认为菲利普·罗斯(Philip Roth)远远更该获奖。说法国一切运行良好、悲观已经消失，这种说法很荒谬。法国目前的状况极为糟糕。有经济危机，也有融合危机。这些巧克力奖牌不会令我感到安慰。”

Robert Frank, a history professor emeritus at the University of Paris 1 — Sorbonne, and the author of “The Fear of Decline, France From 1914 to 2014,” echoed that the self-aggrandizement that had greeted the prizes among the French establishment reflected a country lacking in self-confidence. In earlier centuries, he noted, the prize had been greeted as something obvious.

罗伯特·弗兰克(Robert Frank)是巴黎第一大学(University of Paris 1 — Sorbonne)的历史学荣休教授，著有《对衰落的恐惧，从1914年到2014年的法国》(The Fear of Decline, France From 1914 to 2014)一书。他也认为，法国掌权者对奖项的欢迎姿态，反映了这个国家缺乏自信。他指出，早前几个世纪，人们把法国获奖视为理所当然的事情。

When French writers or intellectuals won Nobels in the mid-20th century, “there was no jolt at that time, because France still saw itself as important, so there wasn’t much to add to that,” he said. “Today, it may help some people to show that France still counts in certain places in the world. This doesn’t fix the crisis of unemployment, however, that is sapping this society.”

在20世纪中期，当法国作家或知识分子荣获诺贝尔奖时，“不会带来震撼，因为法国人仍然认为自己是个大国，锦上添花作用不大，”他说。“而今天，它可以帮一些人展示：在世界上的某些地方，法国还是很重要的。这不能解决失业的危机，然而，那才是会侵蚀这个社会的东西。”

In academic economic circles, Mr. Tirole’s winning the 2014 Nobel in economic science for his work on the best way to regulate large, powerful firms, was greeted as a fitting tribute to a man whose work had exerted profound influence. It added to an already prominent year for French economists, as seen from Thomas Piketty’s book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” which became an immediate best-seller when translated into English six months ago.

梯若尔因其在“对实力雄厚的大型企业进行监管的最佳方式”上所做的研究，荣获了2014年诺贝尔经济学。学术经济圈认为他的成果产生了深远影响，这个奖项实归名至。法国经济学家今年已经风头很劲：托马·皮克提(Thomas Piketty)的作品《二十一世纪资本论》(Capital in the Twenty-First Century)六个月前翻译成了英文后，立即成为了畅销书。

Mr. Tirole’s work gained particular attention after the 2008 financial crisis, which revealed problems in the regulation of financial firms in the United States and Europe.

2008年发生金融危机之后，梯若尔的研究吸引了特别多的关注，因为它揭示了美国和欧洲在监管金融机构的方式中存在的问题。

But some noted the paradox of the award going to an economist from a nation where the economy was less than shimmering, and where many businesses and critics bemoan a culture of excessive red tape.

但有人指出，这个奖项有其矛盾之处：它被颁给了来自法国的经济学家，而那里的经济状况相当糟糕，许多企业和批评人士都抱怨该国文化充满了官僚作风。

Others like Sean Safford, an associate professor of economic sociology at Institut d’Études Politiques de Paris, the elite institute for political studies known as Sciences Po, said Mr. Tirole, a professor of economics at the University of Toulouse in France, was notable for coming at a time of economic malaise and brain drain, when so many of the country’s brightest are emigrating elsewhere in Europe or to the United States. “The average French person, who is struggling to pay the bills, is not going to rejoice,” he said.

著名政治研究机构巴黎政治学院（Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris，也称Sciences Po）的经济社会学副教授肖恩·萨福德(Sean Safford)等人表示，值得注意的是，图卢兹大学(University of Toulouse)的经济学教授梯若尔出现在经济困难和人才外流的时代，法国最优秀的人才中有许多正在移居欧洲其他地方或者美国。他说，“正在为支付账单发愁的普通法国人不会为此感到高兴。”

At a time when France is trying to overhaul its social model amid withering resistance to change, others said the award had laid bare the country’s abiding stratification between a small, hyper-educated elite and the rest of the country.

此时此刻，法国正试图在抵制变革的强大力量下全面调整社会模式。有人说，诺贝尔奖暴露了法国受教育程度极高的精英小群体和其他人群之间长期存在的隔阂。

Peter Gumbel, a British journalist living in France who most recently wrote a book on French elitism, said that while the prize would provide some sense of national validation, the two men did not reflect the country as a whole.

在法国生活的英国记者彼得·冈贝尔(Peter Gumbel)最近写了一本关于法国精英主义的书。他说，虽然诺贝尔奖能在某种程度上让人觉得国家得到了认可，但两个人并不能反映国家全貌。

“Undoubtedly the French ecosystem produces incredibly smart people at the very top end, who are capable of winning prizes, and who fall into a grand tradition, and that is what the French school system is geared to produce,” he said.

“毫无疑问，法国的生态系统在社会顶层造就了一群极度聪明的人。这些人拥有获奖的能力，遵循大传统，而这就是法国的学校系统应该生产出来的东西，”他说。

As for the prizes countering French-bashing, he added, “The French are the biggest bashers of France themselves.”

在提到这些奖项能否反击法国衰落论时，他还说，“法国人自己才是最唱衰法国的人。”