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The World War II memorial in DC is imposing and serious. And it should be.
华盛顿特区的二战纪念碑庄严肃穆，这是应该的。
But it would be a mistake to forget the joke that helped keep GIs going.
然而，忘记这个让美国兵坚持下来的笑话就不对了。
It was amazingly similar to a modern meme.
这个笑话特别像是当代的文化基因。
And his name was Kilroy.
他的名字就是基洛。
Soldiers scrawled this face and “Kilroy Was Here” all around the world.
士兵们在世界各地留下这张脸和“基洛到此一游”的涂鸦。
The joke was that Kilroy, peeking out, had been everywhere before the GIs got there.
好笑的是，大兵每到一处，基洛就已经在那里探出他的头了。
He greeted them in Okinawa and Casablanca, and in Sicily, he cheered them in Berlin.
他在冲绳，在卡萨布兰卡、西西里岛跟他们照面，在柏林给他们打气。
Everywhere soldiers went, seeing unfamiliar landmarks and reading signs in languages they couldn’t speak,
无论士兵们走到哪里，眼里看到的是陌生的风景，看不懂的标志，
they graffitied the same picture and signed the same name on every available surface.
他们都会在涂上留下同一个涂鸦，签上同一个名字。
He was a joke, but he was also a kind of assurance, a hero who’d been there before and still made it out OK.
基洛是个笑话，但也是一颗定心丸，一个早已到达那里，现在表现依然出色的英雄。
We don’t really know where Kilroy came from.
我们并不知道基洛来自哪里，
The picture showed up around the world — in England, he was Mr. Chad, where he complained about skimpy rations.
世界各地都有这张画——在英国，他又化身成了抱怨给养太少的查德先生，
At some point, that guy was mashed up with the phrase “Kilroy Was Here.”
在某个时刻，有人又给它配上了“基洛到此一游” 。
Who was Kilroy?
基洛到底是谁？
The legend’s that a shipyard inspector named James J. Kilroy wrote “Kilroy Was Here” on all of his inspected work.
传说，一位名叫詹姆斯·J. 基洛的造船厂检查员在他经手的所有产品上都会写上“基洛到此一游”。
Soldiers saw it and turned it into a joke that showed up on bomber wings and became latrine literature.
士兵们看到就把它变成了一个笑话，还把它绘制在轰炸机的翅膀上，甚至发展成了厕所文学。
James Kilroy won a contest for supposedly being the real Kilroy, but - eh - Kilroy was bigger than him.
詹姆斯·基洛赢得了一场比赛，据推测他就是真实的基洛，但是 - 基洛比他高大。
There were rumors Stalin was spooked by Kilroy graffiti at Potsdam,
有传闻说斯大林被波茨坦出现的基洛涂鸦吓坏了，
and after the war he popped up in movies, whiskey ads, and really weird novelty songs.
战争结束后，电影，威士忌广告和奇怪的新奇歌曲里也可以看到基洛的身影。
“Kilroy was here. We want Kilroy. And even Edgar Hoover admits he’s quite a mover — Kilroy was here. Ha, I’m Kilroy!”
“基洛到此一游。我们要基洛。连埃德加·胡佛都承认他是一个很有前途的人 - 基洛到此一游。哈，我就是基洛！“
Today, Kilroy’s faded from bathroom walls,
如今，基洛已经从厕所的墙上消失了，
but if you go to the World War II Memorial,
但大家如果去二战纪念馆，
past a fountain you can’t make wishes in, near an area that’s closed for construction,
走过一个不能许愿的喷泉，靠近一个因为施工不对外开放的地方，
you can peer through a fence and see that even in this place Kilroy got here before you.
大家还是可以穿过栅栏，看到即使是这个地方，基洛也赶在你前面来过了。
