譯/李京倫
In a small showroom filled with replicas of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Lucia Borgonzoni, Italy's undersecretary for culture and a member of the right-wing League party, attested to the authenticity of her disgust with the French.
在一個滿是達文西名作複製品的小展間裡,義大利文化遺產部副部長、右翼「北方聯盟黨」成員陸琪亞.波爾宮佐尼,證明了她對法國人的厭惡真實不虛。
She accused France of trying to culturally appropriate Leonardo for a 2019 exhibition at the Louvre celebrating the 500th anniversary of his death. And that was just the beginning.France had treated Italy with "a lack of respect" and like a cultural "supermarket" by "sending a shopping list" of the works it wanted to borrow — essentially everything.
她指控法國企圖在文化上盜用達文西,好讓羅浮宮今年舉辦紀念達文西逝世500周年的展覽。事情還不止於此。
法國對義大利「缺乏尊重」,視之如文化「超市」,送來一張商借達文西作品的「採購清單」,幾乎什麼都要。
"Probably no other country would dare" to behave as France had, she said, warming to the topic as she faced a fake Mona Lisa in the Leonardo da Vinci Experience museum near the Vatican. She perused reproductions of Vitruvian Man and the Annunciation. "Let's give them these," she said with a laugh.
波爾宮佐尼說,「大概沒有哪個國家膽敢」跟法國一樣。她在梵蒂岡附近達文西體驗博物館內,面對一幅蒙娜麗莎複製品,聊起這個話題。她端詳達文西著名素描「維特魯威人」和油畫作品「聖母領報」複製品後,笑著說:「就給他們這些吧。」
Not much has been off limits as Borgonzoni's hard-right League party pushes its "Italians First" agenda. Italian women are encouraged to have more babies. Migrants are shown the door. Matteo Salvini, the party leader, fills his social media feeds with posts about Italian pasta and wine.
波爾宮佐尼的極右派北方聯盟黨推動「義大利人優先」政策時,幾乎百無禁忌。他們鼓勵義大利女人生更多小孩。驅逐移民,黨魁薩維尼的社群媒體帳號則充斥著關於義大利麵和葡萄酒的貼文。
Nationalism — taboo for half a century following World War II and the fall of Mussolini — is suddenly in, as every possible political dispute is cast in chauvinist hues. Culture had long been a relatively neutral terrain. Not anymore. And deliberately so.
二次大戰結束、義大利獨裁者墨索里尼倒台後長達半個世紀,國家主義一直是禁忌,現在卻突然流行起來,每個可能發生的政治糾紛都染上國家至上主義的色彩。文化長期以來是相對中立的領域。如今則不復如此,而且是刻意使然。
"Being from the League, it's our way of seeing the country, the society and the world," Borgonzoni said of the party's Italians First playbook.
波爾宮佐尼談到北方聯盟黨「義大利人優先」的核心思想時說:「這個觀念來自北方聯盟黨,是我們看待國家、社會和世界的方式。」
When it comes to Leonardo, the result is either an inelegant and amateurish faux pas, as her critics contend, or a political masterstroke before European Parliament elections in May. Either way, Borgonzoni has helped her party escalate tensions with France at a moment when Europe is already undergoing a dramatic political realignment.
在達文西這件事上,這樣的結果若不是批評者所指稱的粗俗且外行的失禮行為,就是在今年5月歐洲議會選舉前政治上的神來之筆。不論是哪一種,波爾宮佐尼都在歐洲正在經歷戲劇性政治重組之際,讓她的黨與法國的緊張關係加劇。
Along with the bureaucrats in Brussels, pro-European French President Emmanuel Macron has been the target par excellence of an Italian populist government that has repeatedly picked, and won, political fights on everything from migration to trade.
支持歐洲統合的法國總統馬克宏,跟布魯塞爾的歐盟官僚一樣,是義大利民粹政府的頭號攻擊目標,這個政府針對移民、貿易等各種議題一再挑起政治鬥爭,而且連戰皆捷。
"Surely our states are having a moment, not only in culture, of friction," said Borgonzoni, "Surely the fact that Europe is going to vote next year has raised the tension" on a range of issues including, now, Leonardo.
波爾宮佐尼說:「我們國家之間此際當然有摩擦,不只在文化上。歐洲今年要選舉,當然使」包括目前達文西事件在內一系列議題的「緊張情況升級」。
Born in 1452 outside Vinci, centuries before the creation of the Italian state, Leonardo grew up in Florence, lived in Milan and stopped off in Rome before moving to France, where he died and was buried.
達文西1452年在文西鎮郊外出生,當時離義大利建國還有幾世紀。他成長於佛羅倫斯,長居於米蘭,在羅馬短暫停留後移居法國,在法國過世並下葬。