来认识这个印度历史上最有名的土匪
关于《经济学人》讣告赏析系列可以参考：我读《经济学人》讣告。
这期我想写一写印度历史上最有名的土匪 Veerappan，上一次赏析反派人物的讣告还是在2014年1月（第 47 期：英国著名大盗 Ronnie Biggs 病逝）。我想起一篇采访《经济学人》讣告的作者 Ann Wroe 的文章中有这么一段：
Readers often write in to complain, “especially when it’s an evil man. They hate that. They do think, the Americans especially, that it’s a sign of honouring someone, a sign of respect.” Wroe says that when she receives such letters, “I write back and say that all human life is interesting.”
是的，这就是《经济学人》的立场，也正因为这样的立场和心胸，我们才得以读到很多耐人寻味的故事，更好地理解人的命运和人性的复杂性。《经济学人》写过的有争议的人物还包括潜逃到阿根廷的二战纳粹头目、东德间谍头子、美国黑帮大佬、英国老鸨、非洲独裁者等。我们应该有的心态是，“Judge not. Listen.”
讣告原文与赏析
Koose Muniswamy Veerappan, bandit, died on October 18th, 2004, aged 52
1 “BANDIT”, like “brigand”, has a romantic ring. To some ears it evokes fugitive outlaws—from Robin Hood to Jesse James—who have seemed nobler than the forces of law and order on their trail. It is probably how the man known throughout India simply as Veerappan would like to be remembered. That, however, would be an injustice to the 124 people he is said to have killed. Veerappan was a murderer, and a cruel one at that. An Osama-style old video shows him talking with relish of the pain inflicted on one victim before he blew his head off.
Robin Hood 和 Jesse James 是英文读者熟悉的劫富济贫的典范，中文读者可能马上能够想到武侠小说里面的例子。这里关键是体会“who have seemed nobler than the forces of law and order on their trail”是如何表达出这个意思的。
“however”一个词就让这个人物的戏剧性和争议性尽出。他究竟是有副热心肠的侠客还是杀人不眨眼的禽兽呢？这得看下文。
2 Veerappan was himself shot through the forehead when the police ambushed him and three henchmen. His proud killers posed around his corpse with broad smiles and their thumbs up, like tiger-hunters. But the applause for them was not universal. In the villages dotting the thick forest that was his stomping ground, some recalled Veerappan showering sweets on children and reports of his generosity to the poor. The families of the dozens he had killed as informers were incredulous. But some 20,000 packed the village where his funeral was held, drawn by his mystique and his fame. His distraught widow told journalists he was a good man, though her two daughters hardly knew him.
这段首句让人眼前一亮，和第一段的最后一句无缝对接，可见作者 Ann Wroe 挖掘写作对象素材的功夫之深，以及对结构和连贯性的把握之妙。第二句同样出彩。从“proud”、“pose”、“broad smiles”和“thumbs up”这些词可以看出拘捕者的得意，反衬出了 Veerappan 的狡猾、老道和击毙的不易。
“But the applause for them was not universal.” 第三句这个短句呼应第一段的第四句，再次说明了 Veerappan 的褒贬不一。紧接着第四句说的是褒，第五句是贬。第六句“But”开头，和第七句都是褒。加上第六句中的“drawn by his mystique and his fame”，足见这个人的争议性和复杂性，可能也是作者选择这个人物的原因吧。
3 Already, treasure-hunters were scouring the forest for the fortune he was supposed to have buried in plastic bags under trees. In death as in life, Veerappan, a petty thug with a gift for public relations, spread a potent myth. In this his hunters abetted him. A 750-strong special task-force had spent 14 years and a fortune trying to catch him. To explain their failure, it helped to credit him with near-supernatural powers—“like a forest ghost”, said one.
最后两句解释了第二段第二句中拘捕者的得意，几个细节反映了说明了 Veerappan 的狡猾：750人的拘捕队伍，14年和大把的钱。最好的细节当然是一个拘捕者的评价：like a forest ghost。
4 Veerappan started his career following in his father's footsteps as an ivory poacher in the thickly wooded hills between the Indian states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. He is said to have been 14 when he killed his first elephant, and to have slaughtered hundreds over the years.
5 As elephants became harder to find, he diversified into another endangered species: ancient sandal trees. Sandalwood, prized for its oil in soap, perfume and traditional ayurvedic medicine, is also, as incense, integral to Hindu religious ceremonies. Forty years ago the governments of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu imposed a monopoly on the ownership and felling of the trees. They restricted cultivation, trusting to their abundant wild crop.
6 As sandalwood prices rose, a black market flourished. Sandal trees, which take 25 to 40 years to reach maturity, were chopped down in private gardens and public parks. Veerappan was not the only bootlegger to turn abundance into shortage. But he was one of the most prolific. Eco-vandalism has a short-term commercial logic: scarcity inflates prices. In the long run, however, killing off your raw material is not a sustainable business model, and Veerappan branched out again.
7 His region had another money-spinning product: granite. Running a quarry was not Veerappan's style, but he spotted a way into the business's profits. In 1990, one of the first of many people he kidnapped was a quarry owner. This was a line of work with an inexhaustible supply of victims, and only some had to be killed to ensure the flow of ransom money.
第四段到第七段叙述了 Veerappan 的职业生涯。从象牙偷猎者到檀香木，再到花岗岩，可以看得出 Veerappan 是不折不扣的投机分子，哪里有机会就往哪里钻。Ann Wroe 精准的用词也体现了这种投机：ivory poacher, diversified into another endangered species, bootlegger, a black market flourished, not a sustainable business model, branched out again, another money-spinning product: granite, spotted a way into.
特别注意这几段段首句和第五、六段的段尾句的自然过渡。语言的过渡恰好也是 Veerappan 职业的过渡。妙。
Hitting the big time
8 Veerappan's fame began to grow. So did his moustache and his ego. He would pose for photographs with his rifle and his luxuriant handlebar. He mocked the policemen and politicians who condemned him. His gang acquired more and better weapons and its numbers swelled to more than 100. He even began to present himself as some kind of freedom fighter, a Tamil nationalist—like the “Tigers” of Sri Lanka, whom he resembled only in his brutality.
这段的中心词是“grow”，加粗的词汇都体现了 Veerappan 增长的态势，其他的描述也起到了这样的作用。第二句的幽默让人措不及防，但又在情理之中。
9 His career as a kidnapper reached its zenith in 2000, when he seized Rajkumar, one of the biggest stars of the Kannada-language film industry of Karnataka. A policeman who was involved in the transaction says that Rajkumar's release after 108 days in captivity cost 200m rupees ($4.4m) in ransom from the Karnataka state coffers. Two years later his victim was H. Nagappa, a former minister in that government, who had been one of his fiercest critics. This time the price paid was Mr Nagappa's life.
最后一句话让人毛骨悚然。试体会改写后句子的表达效果：This time Mr Nagappa's life was the price paid.
10 By the time he died, however, Veerappan was a diminished figure. His gang had dwindled to a handful, and had been infiltrated by the police. He was lured into a trap, leaving his forest hideout in a phoney ambulance on his way, he thought, to have a cataract operation. Even allowing for the punctured forehead, his corpse looked old and tired. Shockingly, his lush whiskers had been drastically trimmed. As vain as he was vicious, he would have been distressed that this was the last image he left his public.
这段和第八段形成了鲜明的对比，注意这几组对应表达：
grow -- diminished
swelled to more than 100 -- dwindled to a handful
growing moustache -- drastically trimmed whiskers
之前的势不可挡被颓势所取代，人气也大不如前。虽然在说到胡须剪得很短时，作者用了“shockingly”一词，我觉得其实是“understanably”，毕竟大势已去，剪短了作为彰显自尊心的胡须很正常。
11 Human-rights groups criticised the police for not nabbing him alive. Among Veerappan's boasts was that he had bribed powerful policemen and politicians in return for protection. Knowing the morals of their public servants and how long the hunt had taken, many Indians believed him, and suspected the police of deliberately silencing him. It is not just treasure-hunters who regret that he has taken his secrets to the grave.
结尾段还是回到了文章开头提出的人物的争议性，即没有人知道是应该相信 Veerappan 还是警察；也体现了人物的神秘性，即 Veerappan 究竟还有什么秘密。
关于这个版块有什么问题欢迎在评论区留言。也欢迎推荐《经济学人》历来的讣告人物。
题图：Veerappan; The Indian Express.
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