Every Passport Tells a Story每本护照都有一个故事

⊙ By David Leveille ⊙翻译：Wendy

Every Passport Tells a Story每本护照都有一个故事

⊙ By David Leveille ⊙翻译：Wendy

申领的护照到手，我们通常会翻到个人信息页，吐槽一下自己的照片，顶多把各项个人信息检查一遍就完事了。可是你知道吗，护照不仅仅是表明一个人国籍和身份的证件，它更体现了一国文化和历史，人们可以从一本被多次使用的护照看到世界政治和外交的风云变幻。来听听护照收藏家是怎么说的。

Host:If only old passports could talk.They’d tell you about the people that held them,and the1)border crossing 过境，出入境border crossingsthat went2)smoothly [΄smuːðlɪ] adv.平稳地smoothlyor perhaps not so smoothly.Tom Topol is fascinated by old passports.He collects them and then digs into their back-stories.

Tom:It really started in Japan,when I was looking around there and I found a really,really nice old Japanese passport from the Japanese Empire from 1931,I believe.I opened the book and it was almost perfect condition,even it wastravelled.So,I opened the book and saw the passport picture,which was showing a…a young girl in the traditional3)kimono [kɪ΄məʊnəʊ] n.和服kimono,and that was just beautiful.I was really in love with this piece of document,so,I bought it! And that was really the start of [sic] all.

I was collecting more and more,just looking on the visual aspect of such documents.Are there stamps of travelling inside? Then,of course,at some time,you dig deeper so you go in,into the history of the passports,really.I’m looking more for the historical aspects,for example,when a country was changing,you know,from one government to another government,what they changed there.Did they change the4)coat of arms 国徽coat ofarms? Did they change the signatures? Did they change the forms? Or really going more into detail,what was the reason to change the passports?

Host:You ever hear about stories like that,where history kind of overtakes the5)validity [və΄lɪdɪtɪ] n.有效性validityof a passport?

Tom:So,I had a…a year ago the chance to acquire an old British Palestine passport…

Host:Uhm.

Tom:…which was issued under British Palestine6)mandate [΄mændeɪt] n.托管，授权mandateto a sailor,actually a captain of a ship.This captain had also a stamp in his passport entering then,in 1949,Israel,when Israel was founded.That’s,of course,quite interesting,because you have the old British Palestine on that passport,but in this passport,you have a stamp of Israel.Quite unique.

Host:That is a history book right in itself,isn’t it?

Tom:Right,it is,it is.

Host:Which country,today,has the “coolest”passport?

Tom:Well,that’s not so easy to answer,but I would say Norway,Sweden,the7)Nordic [΄nɔːdɪk] adj.北欧人的Nordiccountries.They are quite cool now.It also reflects the culture of the country somehow.And they have a lot of security features,so not even the police knows everything about this passport,so some security features are really hidden only for the passport printer to make the final decision if a passport is fake,8)forge [fɔːdʒ] v.伪造forged,whatever.

Host:And then there’s the9)Finnish [΄fɪnɪʃ] adj.芬兰人的，芬兰语的Finnishpassport which actually has,like,a10)flipbook [flɪp΄bʊk] n.动画书；flip v.快速翻动flipbook.

Tom:That’s a cool thing,too.If you take the passport book in your hand,and you…you flip to all pages,then you see actually I think it’s a11)reindeer [΄reɪndɪə（r）] n.驯鹿reindeerrunning.

Host:…that’s really cool.You definitely want to12)flaunt [flɔːnt] v.炫耀flauntthat at the13)departure [dɪ΄pɑːtʃə（r）] n.出发，离开departureline.Just so people can see how cool that is.

◆British Palestine 英属巴勒斯坦托管地：第一次世界大战结束时，奥斯曼帝国瓦解，国际联盟在1920年委托英国暂时统治巴勒斯坦，管治范围分两部分：约旦河以西的巴勒斯坦地区和约旦河以东的外约旦地区，大致上包括了现今的以色列及约旦两国。外约旦于1946年5月25日独立，以色列于1948年5月14日独立；1948年5月14日，英国对此地区的管治正式结束。

参考译文

主持人：要是旧护照能说话就好了，那它们会向你讲述护照持有人的故事，告诉你哪几次出入境顺畅无阻，又有哪几次出入境磕磕绊绊。汤姆·托波尔迷上了旧护照，他收藏旧护照，然后挖掘隐藏在它们背后的故事。

汤姆：我收集护照始于日本。当时我在那里四处逛，发现了一本非常、非常精致的日本旧护照，我相信它是日本帝国在1931年签发的。我翻看那本护照，看到它尽管曾被多次使用，却几乎完好无损。我打开那本护照，看到里面的照片是一个……一个身穿传统和服的年轻姑娘，很漂亮。我即时爱上了这本证件，就把它买下来了，由此开始了我的护照收藏之路。

我不断收集越来越多的护照，只是想看看这种证件在视觉方面的细节，比如说里面有没有留下各种签证和出入境印章？然而，有时候，当你深究下去，你就能进一步了解这些护照的历史，确实是这样。我会更多地从历史的角度去关注它们，比如，当一个国家发生了变化，你知道，出现了政权更替，该国的护照也会有什么变化吗？护照上的国徽会变吗？签名呢？他们只是做形式上的改变还是连细节也会变？更改护照的原因是什么？

主持人：你有没有听过一些因为历史事件而使护照失效的故事？

汤姆：是这样，一年前我得到了一本英属巴勒斯坦的旧护照……

主持人：嗯。

汤姆：……那是由英属巴勒斯坦托管地签发给一名海员的，准确地说他是名船长。这位船长的护照上还有在1949年进入以色列时的入境章，那时以色列已经成立了。那当然是非常有趣的，因为这本护照有前英属巴勒斯坦的标志，但在同一本护照上，还有以色列的印章，太特别了。

主持人：这本身就是一本历史书，对吗？

汤姆：对，确实，确实如此。

主持人：如今，哪个国家的护照最“酷”？

汤姆：嗯，这个问题不是那么好回答，不过我会说是挪威、瑞典这些北欧国家。现在他们的护照相当酷，也在某种程度上反映了这些国家的文化。这些护照还有大量的安全功能，即使是警察也不了解护照上隐藏的所有信息，其中一些安全功能非常隐蔽，只有护照制作部门才能最终判定一本护照是否被冒仿、被伪造，等等。主持人：还有芬兰的护照，它做得像一本动画书。

汤姆：那也是一件很酷的事。如果你将护照拿在手上，你……你快速翻动整本护照，我想你就会看到一只正在奔跑的驯鹿。

主持人：真的很酷。在排队等待出发时，你肯定想炫耀一下，就是要让其他人看看你的护照有多酷。