向官样文章宣战

Declaring War on Officialese

Italy, the land of Dante, declared war on officialese recently, vowing to simplify the way the state communicates with its citizens. "This is a cultural revolution in our relationship with citizens," Civil Service Minister Franco Frattini told a news conference to unveil a project to make bureaucratic language understandable. The project, called "Chiaro!" (Clear!), aims to rid the language used in bureaucratic texts of complex clauses and confusing terms. While Italians were keeping their fingers crossed* it would succeed, Frattini acknowledged it would be an uphill struggle. Many existing government texts would be changed into more simple language but the hardest part would be to teach old dogs new tricks. "It would be useless to translate the documents and not train personnel to stop using ancient, incomprehensible language," he said. Ministries would be encouraged to compete for a "Chiaro!" stamp, which would be awarded only to departments and ministries that wrote simply. Professor Alfredo Fioritto, who heads a task force of legal experts and linguists, admitted it was going to be tough. "There are hundreds of years of tradition to destroy, today the government speaks like it did in the nineteenth century," he said. "Simplifying language is very difficult. It means you have to know what you are talking about."

* keep one's fingers crossed：祈盼、祷告。

但丁的故乡意大利近日向官样文章宣战，并承诺简化政府与国民沟通的方式。意大利政府发起了一次旨在使公文语言明白易懂的行动。在宣布行动开始的记者招待会上，行政部长弗兰科·弗拉蒂尼说：“这是政府与国民关系的一次文化革命。”这次名为“奇亚罗！”（明白！）的行动目的是去除公文语言中那些复杂的从句和混乱的术语。意大利人都盼望这次行动能够成功，但弗拉蒂尼承认这会是一场艰苦的斗争。现有的许多政府公文都将被转换成更为简单明了的文字，但最困难的是让惯于打官腔的政府雇员学会使用新的表达方式。他说：“单是改变文件没什么用，必须培训有关人员，让他们停止使用古老的、无法理解的语言。”政府将鼓励各部门去争取“奇亚罗”标志，只有那些公文简明的部门才能获得这一荣誉。领导着由法律专家和语言学家组成的特别行动小组的阿尔弗雷多·菲奥里托教授承认这不会是件容易的事。“现在政府说话的方式与19世纪时如出一辙，他们得打破数百年的传统，”他说。“简化语言是很困难的事情。这意味着你必须知道自己在说什么。”

Remarks：教授的话正中要害。故弄玄虚易，举重若轻难，说话作文，概莫能外。