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Culture
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Revisiting history
重访历史
Was Abraham Lincoln gay?
亚伯拉罕·林肯是同性恋吗？
A documentary re-examines the president’s relationships with men.
一部纪录片重新审视了林肯总统与男性的关系。
During America's civil war, in 1862, Abraham Lincoln reportedly began sharing a bed with his bodyguard, a soldier named David Derickson.
在美国南北战争期间，据说在1862年，亚伯拉罕·林肯开始与他的保镖——一个名叫大卫·德里克森的士兵——同床共枕。
The tittle-tattle was recorded in the diary of Virginia Woodbury Fox, the wife of Lincoln’s naval aide, who wrote about “a soldier here devoted to the president, drives with him, and when Mrs. L. is not home, sleeps with him”.
这条流言蜚语被记录在弗吉尼亚·伍德伯里·福克斯的日记中，她是林肯的海军助手的妻子，她写道：“这里有一个士兵对总统十分忠诚，他与总统一起开车，而且当林肯夫人不在家时，还与总统同床共枕。”
She added: “What stuff!”
福克斯又加了一句：“真是荒唐！”
Mere gossip, you might argue—or simply a sensible idea, given the target on Lincoln’s back.
你可能会说，这只是谣言，或者说，考虑到当时经常有枪瞄准林肯的后背，有一个贴身保镖是明智的做法。
But a new film, “Lover of Men”, examines four of Lincoln’s relationships, conducted from his 20s to his 50s, to claim that he had sex with men.
但是一部新纪录片电影《林肯总统不为人知的往事》审视了林肯从20多岁到50多岁的四段关系，并声称他与男性发生过性关系。
A popular comedy play, “Oh, Mary!”, presents Lincoln’s wife as his beard; its run on Broadway was recently extended until January.
一部颇受欢迎的喜剧《哦，玛丽！》将林肯的妻子描绘为他的胡须，最近该剧在百老汇的演出时间延长至明年1月。（注：胡须在剧中比喻林肯对妻子的漠视。）
In the early 1830s, while working at a general store in Illinois, Lincoln shared a cot with William Greene, his co-worker, for 18 months.
在19世纪30年代初，林肯在伊利诺伊州的一家杂货店工作时，他和同事威廉·格林共睡一张折叠床，长达18个月。
In 1837 Lincoln moved to Springfield to practise law and met Joshua Speed.
在1837年，林肯搬到斯普林菲尔德从事法律工作，并结识了约书亚·斯皮德。
They shared a bed for four years.
他们同床共枕了四年。
“No two men were ever more intimate,” is how Speed summarised their relationship.
斯皮德总结他俩的关系时说：“没有哪两个男人能（比我们）更亲密。”
Just how intimate is a touchy subject among scholars.
究竟有多么亲密，这是学者们之间的一个敏感话题。
“Such sleeping arrangements were not uncommon on the Illinois frontier,” asserts Michael Burlingame, a historian at the University of Illinois, who does not see any “proof of a homosexual relationship” in Lincoln’s bedsharing.
“这种睡觉安排在伊利诺伊州的边远地区并不罕见。”伊利诺伊大学的历史学家迈克尔·伯林盖姆断言，他在林肯的同床共枕中没有看到任何“同性恋关系的证据”。
Mattresses, after all, were expensive at the time.
毕竟，在当时床垫是很贵的。
But once he was a lawyer Lincoln “could have afforded not only a bed but a house”, Thomas Balcerski of Eastern Connecticut State University says in the film; Lincoln was offered housing elsewhere but chose to stay with Speed.
但东康涅狄格州立大学的托马斯·巴尔切斯基在影片中说，林肯成了律师之后，“不仅买得起床，还买得起房子”，有人给林肯提供了其他住处，但他选择继续和斯皮德住在一起。
When Speed returned to Kentucky in 1841, Lincoln became depressed.
当斯皮德于1841年回到肯塔基州时，林肯变得郁郁寡欢。
He wrote: “I am now the most miserable man living.
他写道：“我现在是世界上最痛苦的人。
If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.”
如果把我的感受平均分配到全人类身上，那么地球上连一张欢乐的脸都不会出现。”
The two men continued to exchange letters sharing their fears of marriage and women.
两个人继续交换信件，互相倾诉他们对婚姻和女人的恐惧。
Lincoln’s aversion to women was remarked on.
有人评论过林肯对女人的厌恶。
He “never took much interest in the girls,” Sarah Bush Lincoln, his stepmother, said.
他的继母萨拉·布什·林肯说，他“对女孩从来没有多大兴趣”。
Marriage was helpful for public office, though, and Lincoln married Mary Todd in 1842.
尽管如此，婚姻对公职有帮助，所以林肯还是在1842年与玛丽·托德结婚了。
Lincoln had often signed his letters to Speed “yours forever”, but never missives to his wife.
林肯在写给斯皮德的信中常常落款“永远属于你”，但在写给妻子的信中却从未这样落款过。
To some, speculation about Lincoln’s sexuality is inevitable in an era obsessed with identity politics.
对一些人来说，在如今这个痴迷于身份政治的时代，对林肯性取向的猜测是不可避免的。
But such surmising is not new.
但这种猜测并不是新鲜事。
In a biography from 1926, Carl Sandburg, a Pulitzer-prizewinning biographer, wrote that the president had “a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets” (a euphemism for homosexuality).
在1926年的一本传记中，曾获普利策奖的传记作家卡尔·桑德堡写道，总统“有一些断袖气质，某些癖好如五月的紫罗兰”（这是对同性恋的委婉说法）。（注：薰衣草和紫罗兰表示同性恋或男性身上的女性气质。）
The passage was later removed.
这个段落后来被删除了。
It is only as same-sex relationships have gained legal and social acceptance that historians have reopened this line of inquiry.
直到同性关系获得了法律和社会的认可，历史学家才重新开启了这方面的探究。
“Lover of Men” is part of a larger trend in revisionist history—the challenging of orthodox views and narratives.
《林肯总统不为人知的往事》是修正主义历史这一更大趋势的一部分，这种趋势是对正统观点和正统叙事的挑战。
“Revisionism” can carry a pejorative connotation, and histories that dissent from conventional interpretation can be deemed heretical.
“修正主义”可能带有贬义，与传统阐释有分歧的历史可能会被视为异端邪说。
Yet historians often update their understanding of the past.
然而，历史学家经常更新他们对过去的理解。
New methods of analysis and perspectives introduced by fresh generations of scholars alter received wisdom.
由新一代学者所引入的新的分析方法和视角会改变已被接受的智慧。
For years scholars denied that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave, Sally Hemings, as it was a proposition too unsavoury to stomach.
多年来，学者们一直否认托马斯·杰斐逊与他的奴隶萨莉·海明斯育有子女，因为这一说法过于丑恶，令人无法接受。（注：托马斯·杰斐逊是美国的国父之一，参与起草《独立宣言》，但当时黑奴的子女不是自由人，奴隶主可以对奴隶进行性剥削。）
Today most historians accept that he did.
如今，大多数历史学家都承认了这一事实。
Interpretations of Lincoln’s relationships have “shifted considerably”, says John Stauffer, a historian at Harvard University.
哈佛大学历史学家约翰·斯托弗表示，对林肯与他人关系的解读已经“发生了很大的变化”。
Still, many scholars maintain that Lincoln’s relationships with men were platonic.
尽管如此，许多学者仍然坚称林肯与男性的关系是柏拉图式的。
One reason, according to Mr Stauffer, is that they treat Lincoln “as an almost godlike figure” and do not want to contemplate hidden sexual tastes.
据斯托弗的说法，一个原因是他们把林肯视为“近乎神一样的人物”，不想去细想隐藏的性取向问题。
“Lover of Men” is unlikely to precipitate a wholesale re-evaluation of Lincoln’s legacy.
《林肯总统不为人知的往事》大概率不会引发对林肯遗产的大规模重新评估。
Some Americans will continue to see the great patriot in much the same light as before; others will lambast the documentary’s findings as woke nonsense.
一些美国人将继续以大致相同的眼光看待这位伟大的爱国者，其他人则会抨击该纪录片的调查结果是觉醒文化的胡说八道。（注：觉醒文化指美国人对有色人种、同性恋社群和女性身份认同的左翼政治运动。）
In the 21st century, America remains a house divided.
直到如今的21世纪，美国仍然是一幢裂开的房子。（注：“裂开的房子”来自林肯参加竞选时的演讲，指美国南北不同的制度使国家分裂，一半自由，一半奴隶。）
