《宋氏快译》英汉对照（35）：猴肉也能惹官司

《宋氏快译》英汉对照（35）：猴肉也能惹官司


Monkey Meat at Center of NYC Court Case
By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer
Sat Nov 24, 3:17 PM ET

猴肉, 纽约市法院案例的焦点

美联社作家 汤姆。海斯 文 宋德利 译



NEW YORK — From her baptism in Liberia to Christmas years later in her adopted New York City, Mamie Manneh never lost the longing to celebrate religious rituals by eating monkey meat.

纽约 -从她在利比亚接受的洗礼，到数年后来到异国他乡纽约度过的那些圣诞节，玛米。曼妮赫从来也没有丢弃自己以吃猴肉来庆祝宗教礼仪的渴望。


Now, the tribal customs of Manneh and other West African immigrants have become the focus of an unusual criminal case charging her with meat smuggling, and touching on issues of religious freedom, infectious diseases and wildlife preservation.

现在，曼妮赫以及其他西非移民的部落习俗已成为一宗不同寻常的刑事案件的焦点，她被指控肉类走私，同时还涉及到宗教自由、传染病和野生物的保护问题。


The case "appears to be the first of its kind relating to that uniquely African product," defense attorney Jan Rostal wrote in a pending motion to dismiss. "Unfortunately, it represents the sort of clash of cultural and religious values inherent in the melting pot that is America.

此案“似乎是与那种独特非洲产品相关案件的首例，”辩护律师简。罗斯塔尔在一份旨在进行辩驳而急迫提出的诉讼请求中这样写道。“不幸的是，它代表了美国这个大熔炉里固有的文化和宗教价值冲突。”


At the center of the case in federal court is a modest woman with nine children and a history of domestic discord.

处于联邦法院此案中心的主角是一名温和的女子，她有9个孩子，还有一段不和美的家庭史。


The case dates to early 2006, when federal inspectors at JFK Airport examined a shipment of 12 cardboard boxes from Guinea.

案发日期要回溯到2006年初，当时联邦检查人员正在肯尼迪机场检查一批货物，其中包括来自几内亚的12个纸箱。

注视：
Shipment，此处不是装运，而是货物。a shipment， 一批货。


They were addressed to Manneh and, according to a flight manifest, contained African dresses and smoked fish with a value of $780.

它们（纸箱）都是寄给曼妮赫的，根据一份飞行舱单，纸箱里装有非洲服装和熏鱼，价值为780 美元。


Instead, stashed underneath the smoked fish, the inspectors found what West Africans refer to as bushmeat: "skulls, limbs and torsos of non-human primate species" plus the hoof and leg of a small antelope, according to court papers.

但是，根据法院的文件说的，检查员在熏鱼低下发现，那里隐藏着一些西非国家称为丛林之肉的东西：“非人类灵长类物种的骷髅，肢体和躯干”，再加上一个小羚羊的蹄和腿部。


Three days later, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agents were at Manneh's door, where she told them she ran a smoked fish importing business.

三天后，美国鱼类和野生动物服务代理商在找上了曼妮赫的家门，她告诉他们，她经营一项熏鱼进口业务。


According to the agents, she initially denied ordering any bushmeat from Africa or ever eating it while in the United States.

据该代理商说，她最初否认在美国期间从非洲定购过，或者吃过任何丛林野生动物肉。


But after she consented to a search, the agents came across a tiny, hairy arm hidden in her garage.

但经过她同意进行搜查之后，代理商就发现有一只毛茸茸的小手臂藏在她的车库里。


"Monkey," she explained, claiming the arm was sent to her out of the blue "as a gift from God in heaven."

“猴，”，她这样解释，并声称这只手臂是天上的上帝作为礼物突然送给她的。


Federal prosecutors hit Manneh with smuggling charges that accused her of violating import procedures and suggested she was a menace to man and beast alike.

联邦检察官击中以走私罪名起诉曼妮赫，指控她违反进口程序，并暗示他对人和兽类同样是一种威胁。


A criminal complaint cited evidence that the illegal importation of bushmeat encourages the slaughter of protected wild animals.

一项刑事申诉举出证据证明非法进口丛林野生动物肉会鼓励屠宰受保护的野生动物。


More ominously, the complaint warned of "the potential health risks to humans linking bushmeat to diseases like Lassa fever, Ebola, HIV, SARS and monkeypox.

更有甚至，这项申诉还把丛林野生动物肉与拉沙热，埃博拉病毒，艾滋病毒，萨斯和猴痘之类的疾病相联系，从而警告说这对人类存在着潜在的健康风险。


Defense attorney Rostal has countered by accusing the government of picking on a poorly educated immigrant.

辩护律师罗斯特尔予以反驳，指责政府对低学历移民鸡蛋里挑骨头。


Her client's only offense, she said, was her inability to grasp Western attitudes and highly technical regulations regarding bushmeat.

她说，她的当事人唯一的还击就是对西方国家对待丛林野生动物肉的态度和高技术性法规还吃不透。


Defense papers also argue that the U.S. demand for the meat involved in the Manneh case — from Africa's green monkey population — is "too small to have any significance for conservation."

辩方文件还辩称，美国对曼妮赫案涉及到的肉类 – 来自非洲绿猴种群- 需求量太少，和动物保护问题根本就不沾边儿。


Manneh, 39, testified last year that before arriving in the United States more than 25 years ago, monkey meat was critical to her religious upbringing.

39 岁的曼妮赫，去年作证说，25年前来到美国之前，猴肉对于她宗教信仰的形成至关重要。


At age 7, "I was baptized and they used that for the baptizing ceremony," she told a judge.

“我7岁那年洗礼，他们就用那个（猴肉）举行洗礼仪式，” 她告诉法官。


Manneh is already serving a two-year sentence in state prison for trying to run over a woman she suspected of sleeping with her husband, Zanger Jefferson. If convicted of the federal charges she faces up to five more years in prison and deportation.

曼妮赫已经在州立监狱服刑两年，罪名是她怀疑一个女人和她丈夫桑格。杰佛逊一起睡觉，于是就开车试图把她碾死。如果承认联邦指控，她还将面临另外5年的牢狱之灾，并被递解出境。


"The government's taking a woman away from her children," complained Jefferson, who's struggling to raise the children alone. "It's very depressing, especially with the holidays right around the corner."

"政府这是在把一个女人从她孩子身边拉开， “杰弗逊抱怨说。目前他正在为单独抚养孩子而抗争。“这太郁闷了，尤其是假日快到的时候。”


The prosecution also has dampened spirits at the church in Staten Island where Manneh and other African immigrants once packed the pews to practice a religion blending Christianity and tribal customs.

检方也挫伤了斯塔顿岛教堂里的神祉，曼妮赫与其他非洲移民，曾经坐满了教堂里的靠背长椅，去实践一种融汇基督教和部落习俗的宗教。


One of the few worshippers left, Leona Artis, says the congregation's appetite for monkey meat is deeply misunderstood.

所剩无几的崇拜者之一，里昂纳。阿提斯说，会众对猴肉的味口被深深地误解了。


Take Thanksgiving.

以感恩节为例。


"Where some people have turkey, we'll have monkey meat," Artis said."I've been eating it all my life. It's delicious."

"有些人吃火鸡，而我们则吃猴肉，”阿提斯说。 "我已经吃了一辈子。味道美极了。”


Baptisms, Easter, Christmas, weddings — all are occasions for eating monkey, Manneh's supporters said in a sworn statement filed with the court.

曼妮赫的支持者在向法庭提请的一份宣誓声明中说，洗礼，复活节，圣诞节，婚礼 – 这些都是吃猴肉的时机。


The statement was vague about how the meat is obtained, but explains that it always arrives dried and smoked. Once blessed by a pastor, "we usually prepare it by cooking it for several hours into a stew," they said.

这份声明对肉的来源含糊其词，但解释说，猴肉得来时不是干燥的就是烟熏的。
他们说，一旦得到神父的鼓励，“我们通常就会准备一点猴肉，然后炖上几个小时，直到炖成为大杂烩。


For them, the exotic import is more than just food.

对于他们来说，外国引进品决不单单是食物。


"We eat bushmeat," they said, "for our souls."

“我们为自己的灵魂吃丛林野生动物的肉”，他们说。