在英国，差不多每个人都可以告诉你，1997年8月31日早晨，他们在哪里，在做什么。当时，威尔士王妃戴安娜(Diana, Princess of Wales)在巴黎发生车祸身亡的消息传遍了世界。在世界其他地方，肯定还有数百万人也是如此。
The British people still haven’t got over the event. It is not so much that they cannot adjust to the death of a hugely pretty princess who seemed to embody the little girl’s dream gone bad, as what her death represented. It was the moment the royal family entered the modern world.
这件事让英国人至今无法释怀。在很大程度上，这并非因为他们无法接受一位非常美丽的王妃(在她身上，小女孩的梦想变成了噩梦)离开人世，而是因为他们无法接受她的离世所代表的东西——就在那一刻，英国王室进入了现代世界。
Diana had been the last of the royal consorts to be chosen on the antediluvian prejudices of a household clearly baffled by the world beyond the palace gates. She was one of the last victims of a cast of mind which thought the main purpose of educating girls was to teach them how to wear white gloves and open village fêtes.
戴安娜是最后一个在王室的陈旧偏见下被选中的王室配偶。宫门之外的世界显然让王室感到困惑。有一种思想认为，教育女孩的主要目的是教会她们如何戴白手套和举办乡村聚会。戴安娜是这种思想的最后受害者之一。
I once chaired a quiz featuring the question “Diana, Princess of Wales’s only formal qualification from her school days was a certificate for the best kept what?” One table answered “virginity”. (The correct answer was hamster or gerbil or something.) But the fact is that she did not achieve a single O-level, despite sitting the exams twice.
我曾主持过一个小测验，测验的问题是“威尔士王妃戴安娜学生时代取得的唯一正式证书是什么?”有一桌的回答是：“最佳守贞证书”。(正确答案是最佳仓鼠还是沙鼠什么的养育者证书。)然而她的普通程度考试(O-level)一门都没考过，尽管她参加了两回考试。
Then it was off to Swiss finishing school and cookery classes, followed by a job as a playgroup school assistant. That was how the toffs treated girls. Kate Middleton, the air hostess’s daughter who married Diana’s eldest son, has at least earned a degree (in art history) from St Andrews university, by the sweat of her own brow in open competition.
然后是去瑞士留学和参加烹饪课，接着在一所幼儿园担任助理。这就是过去上流社会对待女孩的方式。空姐的女儿、嫁给戴安娜长子的凯特•米德尔顿(Kate Middleton)起码通过自己的努力在公开竞争中考入圣安德鲁斯大学(St Andrews University)，并拿到了一个学位(艺术史专业)。
When Diana’s marriage to Prince Charles went bad and they divorced in 1996, they merely did what thousands of other people did that year. (Since then, the divorce rate has tumbled: largely, it is thought, because of public acceptance of cohabitation.) Diana and Charles had been required to spend the nights before their wedding in separate buildings. Today, no one — not even the Daily Express — bats an eyelid at stories of Prince Harry’s alleged girlfriend spending nights with him in Kensington Palace.
1996年，戴安娜与查尔斯王子(Prince Charles)的婚姻失败、两人离婚，而同一年英国有几十万人离婚。(自那时起，离婚率大幅下降：据认为，主要原因在于公众对同居的接受。)在举行婚礼前，戴安娜和查尔斯王子被要求在不同的楼里过夜。如今，对哈里王子(Prince Harry)与据称为他女友的女性在肯辛顿宫(Kensington Palace)过夜的故事，大家连眼睛都不会眨一下，甚至连《每日快报》(Daily Express)都是如此。
It is tragic, of course, that it took a grotesque accident to force the royal household to adapt to social changes others had embraced years before. And for a few days, the House of Windsor looked dithery and uncertain. The audible silence allowed imbecilic “experts” to demand the royal ensign be flown at half-mast over Buckingham Palace. It cannot be, for the simple reason that the country is never without a monarch — hence: “The king is dead. Long Live the King.”
当然，需要一场可怕的事故来迫使王室接受其他人许多年前已经接受的社会变化，是可悲的。事故发生后头几天，温莎王朝(House of Windsor)看起来犹豫不决、不知所措。突兀的沉默让一些傻瓜“专家”竟然要求白金汉宫(The Buckingham Palace)王室旗降半旗。王室旗是不能降半旗的，原因很简单，因为英国君主永存——因此会有：“国王死了。吾王万万岁”。
Instead, the monarchy emerged sadder and wiser from Diana’s death. It remains the grandest European royal house, and it will be years — if it ever happens at all — before it becomes one of the “bicycling monarchies”. Change comes slowly to the House of Windsor. But that is perhaps one of the secrets of its longevity.
戴安娜的死让英国王室悲伤、同时也更明智了。它仍是欧洲最大的王室，再过许多年、甚至永远也不会变成一个“王室成员骑自行车”的王室。温莎王室的变化很缓慢。但是，那或许正是它长存于世的秘诀之一。
In the years since Diana’s death, the Queen’s standing has been restored, and while no one claims that Prince Charles is a popular figure, the public have warmed to his new wife. And all monarchists understand the principle that succession is by accident of birth, which means you have to accept that some members of this uniquely privileged family will be popular, some unpopular, some wise, some foolish, some beautiful and some plain. Like the rest of us.
在戴安娜去世后的这些年里，女王的声望已恢复，尽管没人声称查尔斯王子受到公众欢迎，但公众开始接受他的新妻子了。所有的君主主义者都理解这一原则，即继承权的取得是出生时的造化决定的。这意味着，你必须接受，这个拥有独一无二特权的家族的有些成员将受欢迎，有些将不受欢迎，有些将很聪明，有些将很愚蠢，有些将很美丽，有些将相貌平常。就像我们其他人一样。
The biggest change seems to have been to the country of which Diana might, one day, have been queen. Something akin to hysteria swept Britain in the days after her death, leaving many observers baffled. But outbursts of popular emotion have never been far below the surface, as accounts of Nelson’s homecoming, Kitchener’s death and Churchill’s funeral all attest. The British are still a dutiful and reserved people. But the stiff upper lip was just a stoical, Victorian fashion, and Diana’s obsequies marked an end to it.
最大的变化似乎发生在这个戴安娜本可能成为女王的国家身上。戴安娜死后，一种类似歇斯底里的情绪横扫了英国，令许多观察人士感到困惑。但民众情绪的爆发其实无时无刻不在酝酿，正如有关纳尔逊(Nelson)回家、基奇纳(Kitchener)之死和邱吉尔(Churchill)葬礼的记述所证实的那样。英国人仍是一个恭顺、保守的民族。但保持庄重不过是一种维多利亚时代的克制，戴安娜的葬礼标志着这种行为方式的结束。
In recent television documentaries to mark the anniversary of Diana’s death, her sons have spoken frankly about their grief, and if they can do so, why not anyone?
在近来纪念戴安娜去世的电视纪录片中，她的儿子们坦率地说出了心中的悲痛，如果他们可以这么做，其他人这么做有何不可?
Of course Britain is not the country it was in 1997. Diana’s end came as a terrible shock for everyone. It took the death of a privileged young woman to free those who might one day have been her people.
今天的英国当然不是1997年时的英国。那时，戴安娜的去世对每个人都是一个可怕的打击。一位尊贵的年轻女性的死，才换来了原本可能成为她的子民的人们的解放。
