2009/10/25

Montblanc’s $25,000 Gandhi pen stirs controversy 萬寶龍2萬5000美元的甘地紀念筆引發爭議

◎俞智敏

An incongruous billboard has appeared high above Mumbai’s slums:A thin Mohandas Gandhi, the ascetic father of India’s independence, sits wrapped in simple white cloth above the image of a fat Montblanc pen.

孟買貧民窟上方出現了一幅極不搭調的海報:形容瘦削的甘地,也就是奉行苦行的印度獨立之父,裹著簡樸的白布坐在一支粗厚的萬寶龍鋼筆照片上。

German luxury penmaker Montblanc launched a limited-edition commemorative fountain pen in honor of Gandhi, just in time for the 140th anniversary of his birth. The price? 17,000 euros.

德國精品鋼筆公司萬寶龍最近推出了一款限量版紀念鋼筆,以慶祝甘地誕生140年。價錢呢?1萬7000歐元。

The decision to turn a man who shunned foreign-made products and pushed simple living to new extremes into a "brand ambassador" for a global luxury goods maker has left some Indians puzzled and others angry.

該公司決定把一位畢生避用外國製品,並把簡樸生活推至新極限的人,變成一家全球精品製造商的「品牌大使」,讓不少印度人感到不解,還有人感到憤怒。

One group filed a lawsuit to try and halt distribution of the pen. "Mahatma Gandhi advocated a simple lifestyle," said Dijo Kappen, who filed the suit and is managing trustee of the Center for Consumer Education in the southern state of Kerala.

有一個組織甚至提出訴訟,希望阻止這隻鋼筆的銷售。「甘地提倡簡單的生活方式,」訴訟提起人卡鵬表示,他是印度南部喀拉拉邦的消費者教育中心執行理事。

Just 241 commemorative fountain pens will be sold-a nod to the number of miles Gandhi walked in his famous 1930 "salt march," a mass protest against salt taxes levied by the British that dealt an early blow to their control over the subcontinent.

只有241隻紀念鋼筆會售出,這是為了向甘地在1930年代著名的「食鹽長征」致意,甘地當時走了241英里的路,發起大規模示威,以抗議英國政府徵收食鹽稅,甘地此舉對英國在印度次大陸的控制帶來初步打擊。

新聞辭典

ascetic:形容詞,指禁慾主義的、苦行的,如Monks lead ascetic lives.(僧侶過著禁慾生活)。ascetic當名詞時,指修道者、苦行者、禁慾者。

nod:名詞,指點頭,文中引申為表示贊成或同意,如The contestant got the nod from the judges.(這名參賽者得到評審的認同。)

deal a blow to sb/sth:對某人/某事造成打擊,如The latest trade figures have dealt a severe blow to hopes of an early economic recovery.(最新的貿易數據對經濟迅速復甦的希望帶來嚴重打擊。)

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