《纽约时报》前天有篇我感觉有点儿酸溜溜的文章，A Triumph for Putin, if Not for the Rest of a Sagging Russia，有点儿像几年前说北京奥运会（An ecstatic China finally got its Olympic moment on Friday night. And if the astonishing opening ceremonies of the 2008 Olympic Games lavished grand tribute on Chinese civilization and sought to stir an ancient nation’s pride, there was also a message for an uncertain outside world: Do not worry. We mean no harm.）——那时没什么感觉，这会儿却感觉那种自以为是的西洋眼光和口味真的很讨厌（也许是我对英文过敏？）。昨天写开幕式的，虽然用词带着变味儿的夸张，但概括还是不错的：

With an outsize extravaganza that reached deep into the repertoire of classical music and ballet, traversed the sights and sounds of the world’s largest geopolitical expanse, soared into outer space, and swept across 400 years of history in a celebration of everything from Czarist military might to Soviet Monumentalism, a swaggering, resurgent Russia turned its Olympic aspirations into reality on Friday night.

晚会最可爱的，当然就是它的古典音乐和芭蕾。一个有那么伟大的艺术传统的国家，是应该祝福的。开幕的第一个音符我就感到亲切。我是音盲，熟悉的旋律少得可怜，而它恰好是我喜欢的，与老柴的旋律一样美，真正的俄罗斯风味（说不清是什么味儿，反正与小莫和老贝们的不同），仿佛还荡漾着《罪与罚》和《战争与和平》的回声。

那歌儿是Borodin的歌剧Prince Igor的Polovtsian Dances中女奴们的唱段，又叫《波罗维茨人之歌》，歌词听不懂，如果没改的话，大概是，“我的歌儿，乘着风儿飞吧，飞向我的家乡，我们在那儿自由歌唱……”

Fly away on wings of wind

To native lands, our native song,

To there, where we sang you freely,

Where we were so carefree with you.

There, under the hot sky,

With bliss the air is full,

There, to the murmur of the sea, mountains doze in the clouds.

There, the sun shines so brightly,

Bathing [our] native mountains in light.

In the meadows, roses bloom luxuriously,

And nightingales sing in the green forests;

And sweet grape grows.

There is more freedom for you there, song…

And so, fly away!