Sarah Kaminsky: My father the forger

Translator: federica bonaldi Reviewer: Thomas VANDENBOGAERDE

翻译人员: Chunxiang Qian 校对人员: Linying Deng

I am the daughter of a forger,

我是一个赝造者的女儿

not just any forger ...

不是一般的赝造者

When you hear the word "forger," you often understand "mercenary."

当听到“赝造”这个词 你会想到“唯利是图”

You understand "forged currency," "forged pictures."

会想到“赝币” “赝画”

My father is no such man.

我父亲不是这样的人

For 30 years of his life,

曾经有30年

he made false papers --

他从事文件伪造工作

never for himself, always for other people,

从来不为自己 只为别人

and to come to the aid of the persecuted and the oppressed.

为了受迫害和压迫的人

Let me introduce him.

请允许我介绍他

Here is my father at age 19.

这是我父亲19岁的时候

It all began for him during World War II,

一切开始于二战期间

when at age 17 he found himself thrust

年仅17岁的他

into a forged documents workshop.

被带进一个伪造文件的作坊

He quickly became the false papers expert of the Resistance.

很快他成为抵抗运动一方的文件伪造专家

And it's not a banal story --

这不是个平庸的故事

after the liberation he continued

解放后他一直

to make false papers until the '70s.

伪造文件直到70年代

When I was a child

当我还是孩子的时候

I knew nothing about this, of course.

当然什么都不懂

This is me in the middle making faces.

中间做鬼脸那个就是我

I grew up in the Paris suburbs

我在巴黎郊区长大

and I was the youngest of three children.

是三个孩子里最小的

I had a "normal" dad like everybody else,

我以为他像其他爸爸一样“平凡”

apart from the fact that he was 30 years older than ...

除了他（比妈妈）大30岁

well, he was basically old enough to be my grandfather.

差不多可以做我祖父了

Anyway, he was a photographer and a street educator,

他是一个摄影师 一个街头教育者

and he always taught us to obey the law very strictly.

他总是教育我们要遵纪守法

And, of course, he never talked about his past life

当然他从没透露过他的过去

when he was a forger.

关于他是赝造者的事

There was, however, an incident I'm going to tell you about,

但是 下面我要讲一件事

that perhaps could have led me suspect something.

这件事差点让我起疑

I was in high school and got a bad grade,

我上高中时 有一次考得非常差

a rare event for me,

那不是我的常态发挥

so I decided to hide it from my parents.

所以我决定藏起来不让父母知道

In order to do that, I set out to forge their signature.

为此我着手伪造他们的签名

I started working on my mother's signature,

我开始研究我母亲的签名

because my father's is absolutely impossible to forge.

因为我父亲的绝对没法伪造

So, I got working. I took some sheets of paper

于是我掏出几张纸

and started practicing, practicing, practicing,

开始练习 练习 练习

until I reached what I thought was a steady hand,

直到我觉得有把握了

and went into action.

就开始行动

Later, while checking my school bag,

后来 在检查我书包的时候

my mother got hold of my school assignment and immediately saw that the signature was forged.

我母亲翻出我的作业 立刻看到了伪造的签名

She yelled at me like she never had before.

她史无前例地大声责备我

I went to hide in my bedroom, under the blankets,

我躲到房里 藏在毯子底下

and then I waited for my father to come back from work

等着父亲下班回家

with, one could say, much apprehension.

很是提心吊胆

I heard him come in.

我听见他进来

I remained under the blankets. He entered my room,

但仍裹在毯子里 他进了屋

sat on the corner of the bed,

坐在床角

and he was silent, so I pulled the blanket from my head,

一声不吭 我就拉开毯子

and when he saw me he started laughing.

他看着我 开始大笑

He was laughing so hard, he could not stop and he was holding my assignment in his hand.

他笑得停不下来 手里还拿着我的作业

Then he said, "But really, Sarah, you could have worked harder! Can't you see it's really too small?"

他说 “莎拉 你还不够努力 没发现签得太小了吗？”

Indeed, it's rather small.

确实是挺小的

I was born in Algeria.

我出生于阿尔及利亚

There I would hear people say my father was a "moudjahid"

在那里我听见别人说我父亲是个"moudjahid"

and that means "fighter."

意思是“斗士”

Later on, in France, I loved eavesdropping on grownups' conversations,

后来在法国 我喜欢偷听大人们讲话

and I would hear all sorts of stories about my father's previous life,

我听到各种各样的关于我父亲过去的故事

especially that he had "done" World War II,

特别是他“参与”二战

that he had "done" the Algerian war.

及阿尔及利亚战争的事

And in my head I would be thinking that "doing" a war meant being a soldier.

在我的认知里参与战争就是成为士兵

But knowing my father, and how he kept saying that he was a pacifist and non-violent,

但我父亲一直宣称他是非暴力的和平主义者

I found it very hard to picture him with a helmet and gun.

很难想象他戴着头盔扛着枪

And indeed, I was very far from the mark.

确实 我完全猜错了

One day, while my father was working on a file

有天 我父亲在做一份证件

for us to obtain French nationality,

为了给我们申请法国国籍

I happened to see some documents

我正好看见一些文件

that caught my attention.

引起了我的注意

These are real!

这些都是真的

These are mine, I was born an Argentinean.

这些是我的 我成了阿根廷人

But the document I happened to see

但我看到的那份

that would help us build a case for the authorities

足够当局做立案证据的文件

was a document from the army

是一份来自军方

that thanked my father for his work

代表特情处

on behalf of the secret services.

向我父亲致谢的文件

And then, suddenly, I went "wow!"

我一看 “哇”出了声

My father, a secret agent?

我父亲是特工？

It was very James Bond.

特有007的范儿

I wanted to ask him questions, which he didn't answer.

我有很多问题想问 不过他没回答

And later, I told myself that

后来我想

one day I would have to question him.

总有一天我得问出来

And then I became a mother and had a son,

后来我做了母亲 有了一个儿子

and finally decided it was time -- that he absolutely had to talk to us.

终于我觉得是时候了 他必须如实告诉我们

I had become a mother

我当上母亲时

and he was celebrating his 77th birthday,

他正庆祝他的77岁生日

and suddenly I was very, very afraid.

我突然非常害怕

I feared he'd go

害怕他离开

and take his silences with him,

把他的沉默带走

and take his secrets with him.

把他的秘密带走

I managed to convince him that it was important for us,

我让他知道 他的故事对于我们

but possibly also for other people

或许还有别人

that he shared his story.

都是很重要的

He decided to tell it to me

他决定告诉我他的故事

and I made a book,

我将其写成一本书

from which I'm going to read you some excerpts later.

一会儿我会为各位读些摘录

So, his story. My father was born in Argentina.

关于他的故事 他出生于阿根廷

His parents were of Russian descent.

父母是俄裔

The whole family came to settle in France in the '30s.

全家人在30年代搬到法国

His parents were Jewish, Russian and above all, very poor.

他的父亲是俄裔犹太人 非常贫穷

So at the age of 14 my father had to work.

所以我父亲14岁就得开始干活

And with his only diploma,

而他的学历

his primary education certificate,

仅仅到小学水平

he found himself working at a dyer - dry cleaner.

只能到染洗店做工

That's where he discovered something totally magical,

在那儿他发现了奇妙的东西

and when he talks about it, it's fascinating --

他把那东西说得引人入胜

it's the magic of dyeing chemistry.

那就是神奇的染色化学

During that time the war was happening

正值战时

and his mother was killed when he was 15.

他母亲在他15岁时就被杀害了

This coincided with the time when

于是就在这时

he threw himself body and soul into chemistry

他开始全身心投入到化学中去

because it was the only consolation for his sadness.

这是他排解悲伤的唯一方式

All day he would ask many questions to his boss

每天他有一堆问题问老板

to learn, to accumulate more and more knowledge,

不断学习 积累越来越多的知识

and at night, when no one was looking,

夜深无人的时候

he'd put his experience to practice.

他将积累的经验用于实践

He was mostly interested in ink bleaching.

他最感兴趣的是墨水脱色

All this to tell you

说这么多的意思是

that if my father became a forger, actually,

我父亲成为一个赝造者

it was almost by accident.

其实是无心之为

His family was Jewish, so they were hounded.

他的家人都是犹太人 所以遭到追捕

Finally they were all arrested and taken to the Drancy camp

最终他们被捕带往德兰西集中营

and they managed to get out at the last minute thanks to their Argentinean papers.

多亏有阿根廷证件 他们得以离开

Well, they were out,

虽然他们出来了

but they were always in danger. The big "Jew" stamp was still on their papers.

但仍然危险 证件上还盖着“犹太人”的章

It was my grandfather who decided they needed false documents.

我祖父决定他们得弄到假证件

My father had been instilled with such respect for the law

我父亲一直被教导要做守法公民

that although he was being persecuted,

虽然他受到迫害

he'd never thought of false papers.

但从没想过办假证件这回事

But it was he who went to meet a man from the Resistance.

但他去见了一个来自抵抗军的人

In those times documents had hard covers,

那时文件是硬皮的

they were filled in by hand,

手写的信息

and they stated your job.

上面还要填写工作

In order to survive, he needed

为了生存 他需要工作

to be working. He asked the man

他让那个人写上

to write "dyer."

“染匠”

Suddenly the man looked very, very interested.

突然那个人很感兴趣地看着他

As a "dyer," do you know how to bleach ink marks?

你是染匠 那你知道怎么去掉墨迹吗？

Of course he knew.

他当然知道

And suddenly the man started explaining that

突然那个人开始解释

actually the whole Resistance had a huge problem:

抵抗军面临一个大问题

even the top experts

即使是顶级专家

could not manage to bleach an ink, called "indelible,"

也无法去除一种“不可磨灭”的墨迹

the "Waterman" blue ink.

即“威迪文”蓝墨水

And my father immediately replied that he knew exactly

我父亲立刻回答说他知道

how to bleach it.

怎么去除

Now, of course, the man was very impressed with this young man of 17

这下 那个人当然对这个17岁的年轻人刮目相看

who could immediately give him the formula, so he recruited him.

他能立刻给出方法 所以那个人雇了他

And actually, without knowing it, my father had invented something

实际上 我父亲自己都不知道 他发明了

we can find in every schoolchild's pencil case:

如今在每个学生笔盒里都能找到的东西

the so-called "correction pen."

所谓的“涂改液”

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

But it was only the beginning.

但那只是开始

That's my father.

我的父亲

As soon as he got to the lab,

他刚到实验室

even though he was the youngest,

虽然他是最年轻的

he immediately saw that there was a problem with the making of forged documents.

却立刻意识到伪造文件存在一个问题

All the movements stopped at falsifying.

所有工程都停在了篡改这一步

But demand was ever-growing

篡改已有的文件已经不易

and it was difficult to tamper with existing documents.

而且需求一直在增长

He told himself it was necessary to make them from scratch.

他告诉自己一切要从零开始

He started a press. He started photoengraving.

他安置印刷机 开始修照片

He started making rubber stamps.

做橡胶印章

He started inventing all kind of things --

发明各种各样的东西

with some materials he invented a centrifuge using a bicycle wheel.

他用一个自行车车轮和其他材料造出离心分离机

Anyway, he had to do all this

总之 他必须这么做

because he was completely obsessed with output.

因为这一切生死攸关

He had made a simple calculation:

他做了一个简单计算

In one hour he could make 30 forged documents.

他一个小时能做30份文件

If he slept one hour, 30 people would die.

如果他睡上一个小时 就会有30个人死去

This sense of

从17岁起

responsibility for other people's lives when he was just 17 --

这种对他人生命的责任感

and also his guilt for being a survivor,

以及没能带朋友一起逃出集中营

since he had escaped the camp when his friends had not --

而带来的愧疚感

stayed with him all his life.

便跟随了他一生

And this is maybe what explains why, for 30 years,

这也许是他30年间

he continued to make false papers

不断赝造文件的根源

at the expense of all kinds of sacrifices.

不惜任何代价

I'd like to talk about those sacrifices,

我想谈谈那些代价

because there were many.

因为那是很大的牺牲

There were obviously financial sacrifices

首先是经济上的牺牲

because he always refused to be paid.

他总是拒绝接受报酬

To him, being paid would have meant being a mercenary.

对他而言 接受报酬就意味着他的行为有功利性

If he had accepted payment,

如果他收了钱

he wouldn't be able to say "yes" or "no"

他就失去了选择做或者不做的权利

depending on what he deemed a just or unjust cause.

不管是否正义都要照做

So he was a photographer by day,

他白天摄影

and a forger by night for 30 years.

晚上造假 持续了30年

He was broke all of the time.

一生都穷困不堪

Then there were the emotional sacrifices:

同时他也付出了情感上的代价

How can one live with a woman while having so many secrets?

一个人怎么能带着这么多秘密与妻子生活在一起？

How can one explain what one does at night in the lab, every single night?

他要怎么解释每晚在实验室做什么？

Of course, there was another kind of sacrifice

当然 还有另一个牺牲

involving his family that I understood much later.

这牵扯到他的家庭 我过了很久才知道

One day my father introduced me to my sister.

有天父亲把我介绍给我姐姐

He also explained to me that I had a brother, too,

他说我还有个哥哥

and the first time I saw them I must have been three or four,

我头次见他们的时候大概三四岁

and they were 30 years older than me.

而他们比我长30多岁

They are both in their sixties now.

现在都已经60多了

In order to write the book,

为了写这本书

I asked my sister questions. I wanted to know who my father was,

我向姐姐询问 想了解父亲

who was the father she had known.

她眼中的父亲

She explained that the father that she'd had

她说她眼里的父亲

would tell them he'd come and pick them up on Sunday to go for a walk.

总是告诉他们周日会带他们去散步

They would get all dressed up and wait for him,

他们会穿得整整齐齐地等他

but he would almost never come.

但他几乎从来不出现

He'd say, "I'll call." He wouldn't call.

他说他会给他们打电话 但他没有

And then he would not come.

后来他不回家了

Then one day he totally disappeared.

有天他再也不出现了

Time passed,

时光飞逝

and they thought he had surely forgotten them,

他们觉得他一定早就忘记他们了

at first.

一开始是那样想

Then as time passed,

再后来 时光匆匆

at the end of almost two years, they thought,

大概两年后 他们想

"Well, perhaps our father has died."

也许父亲已经死了

And then I understood

然后我明白了

that asking my father so many questions

问父亲那么多问题

was stirring up a whole past he probably didn't feel like talking about

是在勾起他不愿重提的旧事

because it was painful.

因为那是很痛的回忆

And while my half brother and sister thought they'd been abandoned,

正当我的姐姐哥哥以为他们被抛弃

orphaned,

成为了孤儿的时候

my father was making false papers.

我父亲却在伪造文件

And if he did not tell them, it was of course to protect them.

他没告诉他们 当然是为了保护他们

After the liberation he made false papers

解放后 他伪造文件

to allow the survivors of concentration camps to immigrate to Palestine

帮助集中营的幸存者移民到巴勒斯坦

before the creation of Israel.

那时以色列还未建国

And then, as he was a staunch anti-colonialist,

后来他成为坚定的反殖民主义者

he made false papers for Algerians during the Algerian war.

在阿尔及利亚战争期间帮助阿尔及利亚人伪造文件

After the Algerian war,

阿战后

at the heart of the international resistance movements,

在国际抵抗运动的中心

his name circulated

流传着他的名字

and the whole world came knocking at his door.

越来越多人找他帮忙

In Africa there were countries fighting for their independence:

在非洲 有些国家在为独立而战

Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Angola.

几内亚 几内亚比绍 安哥拉

And then my father connected with Nelson Mandela's anti-apartheid party.

后来我父亲接触到尼尔森·曼德拉的反种族隔离党派

He made false papers for persecuted black South Africans.

他为受迫害的南非黑人伪造文件

There was also Latin America.

还有拉丁美洲人

My father helped those who resisted dictatorships

我父亲帮助那些不屈从独裁统治的人

in the Dominican Republic, Haiti,

先是在多米尼克共和国 海地

and then it was the turn of Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, El Salvador, Nicaragua,

然后是巴西 阿根廷 委内瑞拉 厄尔萨瓜多尔 尼加拉瓜

Colombia, Peru, Uruguay, Chile and Mexico.

哥伦比亚 祕鲁 乌拉圭 智利和墨西哥

Then there was the Vietnam War.

后来越战期间

My father made false papers for the American deserters

我父亲为美国逃兵伪造文件

who did not wish to take up arms against the Vietnamese.

因为他们不想对越南人使用暴力

Europe was not spared either.

欧洲也没被漏掉

My father made false papers for the dissidents

我父亲为持不同政见者伪造文件

against Franco in Spain, Salazar in Portugal,

有西班牙反弗朗科者 葡萄牙反萨拉萨尔者

against the colonels' dictatorship in Greece,

希腊反上校团独裁统治者

and even in France.

甚至在法国

There, just once, it happened in May of 1968.

只有一次 那是1968年的5月

My father watched, benevolently, of course,

我父亲看到了五月游行

the demonstrations of the month of May,

但他仅仅是看而已

but his heart was elsewhere, and so was his time

他的心不在那 也没时间理会

because he had over 15 countries to serve.

因为他要为15个国家服务

Once, though, he agreed to make false papers

有次 他同意给一个人伪造文件

for someone you might recognize.

这个人你们也许认识

(Laughter)

（笑声）

He was much younger in those days,

那时候他还很年轻

and my father agreed to make false papers

我父亲同意做假证件

to enable him to come back and speak at a meeting.

使他可以回国到一个会议上发言

He told me that those false papers were the most media-relevant

他告诉我那是他做过的最和媒体相关

and the least useful he'd had to make in all his life.

也是最没用的证件

But, he agreed to do it,

但他还是同意了

even though Daniel Cohn-Bendit's life was not in danger,

尽管丹尼尔·科恩·本迪没有生命危险

just because

只是因为

it was a good opportunity

那是个嘲弄政府的

to mock the authorities,

好机会

and to show them that there's nothing more porous than borders --

并且能告诉他们国界线有多不严实

and that ideas have no borders.

思想是没有国界的

All my childhood,

我小的时候

while my friends' dads would tell them Grimm's fairy tales,

朋友们的爸爸都会给他们讲格林童话

my father would tell me stories about very unassuming heroes

我父亲却给我讲低调的英雄

with unshakeable utopias

他们怀抱建立乌托邦的坚定理想

who managed to make miracles.

创造出奇迹

And those heroes did not need an army behind them.

那些英雄不需要军队

Anyhow, nobody would have followed them,

本来也没有人愿意跟随他们

except for a handful [of] men and women of conviction and courage.

除了少数有信仰和勇气的人

I understood much later

我后来才知道

that actually it was his own story my father would tell me to get me to sleep.

他哄我睡觉时讲的都是他自己的故事

I asked him whether, considering the sacrifices he had to make,

我问他 牺牲了这么多

he ever had any regrets.

他是否后悔过

He said no.

他说不

He told me that he would have been unable

他说他无法

to witness or submit to injustice without doing anything.

对非正义行为视而不见

He was persuaded, and he's still convinced

他曾受过迫害 但他仍然相信

that another world is possible --

有这样一个世界

a world where no one would ever need a forger.

那里不需要赝造者

He's still dreaming about it.

他现在仍如此期望

My father

我的父亲

is here in the room today.

今天就在这个房间

His name is Adolfo Kaminsky and I'm going to ask him to stand up.

他的名字是阿道夫･卡明斯基 我将请他站起来

(Applause)

（鼓掌）

Thank you.

谢谢