最后的滿族人
Et tu, Manchu?
滿語，還有你嗎？
The condemned in Texas can no longer choose their last meal
一百年后，以滿語為母語的人所剩無幾
A CENTURY ago it was the “national language” of a vast empire. Today Manchu mixes with cigarette smoke blown through the wrinkled lips of 86-year-old Zhao Lanfeng in Sanjiazi, a village in China’s north-east. The words she croaks in her thatch-roofed, mud-brick farmhouse are precious. Ms Zhao (pictured) calls herself one of only two fluent native speakers of Manchu left in the village, one of the last redoubts of a language that is verging on extinction.
一個世紀以前，它曾經(jīng)是廣袤帝國的“國語”。今天，滿語混合著香煙，從中國東北三家子村86歲的趙蘭鳳（音）老人干癟的嘴唇中吐出。她在這個泥磚修建的茅草屋中說出的每一個詞都彌足珍貴。趙女士（圖）說自己是村里僅存的兩個能流利地使用滿語的人之一，是阻止這門語言趨向消亡的最后陣地之一。
Even in 1911, when the hated Manchu rulers of China’s last imperial Qing dynasty were overthrown, the language was national only in name. Manchus formed only about 2% of the country’s population at the time. Most people spoke Chinese, the language of the majority Han people who were conquered in 1644 by the Manchus, a collection of ethnic groups from the country’s borderlands in what was once known as Manchuria. Even the last Manchu emperor, Puyi (who was six when he abdicated), was far from fluent, despite the court’s dogged efforts to keep the language alive.
即使在1911年，中國最后一個帝國——清朝的滿族統(tǒng)治者被推翻的時候，滿語也只是名義上的國語。那時候，滿族只占全國人口的2%。大多數(shù)人說漢語，即漢族的語言。漢族在1644年被滿洲人征服，滿洲人來自該國被稱作“滿洲”的邊境地區(qū)。即使是最后一個滿族皇帝溥儀（6歲退位）的滿語也遠遠稱不上流利，盡管朝廷費盡心思想要使這門語言得以延續(xù)。
Hundreds if not thousands of Manchu civilians, many of whom lived in separate communities walled off from their Han neighbours, were massacred during the revolution by vengeful Han troops. Many more changed their names, clothing and other giveaway features of their ancestry to escape persecution. But in some remote rural areas Manchu ways held out longer. In Sanjiazi, descendants of the Manchu troops who settled the village during the Qing period outnumbered Han residents. Ms Zhao grew up speaking Manchu.
滿族人居住的獨立村落被圍墻與漢族鄰居隔離開，在革命期間，成百上千居住在那里的滿族平民被復(fù)仇心切的漢族軍隊屠殺。更多的人更名易裝，改變可能暴露他們血統(tǒng)的特征，以躲避迫害。但是在一些偏遠農(nóng)村，滿族生活方式延續(xù)時間更久。在三家子，滿族軍隊自清代就駐扎在那里，他們的后代數(shù)量超過漢族居民。趙女士從小就說滿語。
Hers was the last generation to do so. In 1979 there were 50 fluent speakers left. The two remaining (the other is also 86) sometimes chat to each other in Manchu. But Ms Zhao says the last time this happened was about four months ago. A few others in Sanjiazi speak a bit of Manchu. But in all of China, there are only a handful of people like Ms Zhao.
她這一代人是最后一代從小就說滿語的人。1979年時，有50個流利說滿語的人。仍然健在的兩位（另一位也86歲）有時會用滿語聊天。但是趙女士說，上次聊天是四個月以前的事情了。三家子還有其他人能說一點滿語。但是在全中國范圍內(nèi)，只有很少像趙女士一樣的人。
Few Chinese have any interest in learning the dying language of their one-time oppressors. Wu Yuanfeng, a government archivist, says 2m out of 10m Qing documents in the country’s collection are written in Manchu. Yet he estimates there are only about 30 scholars in China who are truly expert in the language. Knowledge of the language is kept up mainly by people like him who belong to the Xibo people from China’s far north-west. The Xibo language is very close to Manchu, but Mr Wu says only about 20,000 speak it and their numbers are rapidly diminishing too.
在中國，很少有人有興趣學(xué)習(xí)昔日壓迫者這種瀕臨消亡的語言。吳元風(fēng)（音）是一名政府檔案管理員，他說國家收藏的清朝文檔有20%是用滿語寫的。他估計，全國大概只有30名學(xué)者真正精通滿語。關(guān)于這門語言的知識主要是靠向他這樣來自大西北的錫伯族人來傳承。錫伯語與滿語接近，但是吳先生說只有約20000人說錫伯語，并且數(shù)量也在快速減少。
About six years ago Sanjiazi set up the country’s first Manchu school. But Ms Zhao does not think this will make much difference. The Manchu teachers, she says, do not understand her Manchu. A big sign outside the village proclaims it as a “living fossil” of the language. Soon it might be a dead one.
大約六年前，三家子設(shè)立了全國第一個滿語學(xué)校。但是趙女士認為這并沒帶來什么變化。她說，滿語老師聽不明白她的滿語。村外巨大的標語寫著滿語是語言的“活化石”?？赡懿痪弥螅瑵M語就要消亡了。
