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Many years ago, when I was in high school, I was a pretty good wrestler.
多年前，我上高中时，曾是一个很好的摔跤手。
But when a friend jokingly remarked that I’d be a good guy to have alongside him in case of a mugging,
不过，当一个朋友打趣道，万一遇到拦路抢劫，有我在他身边会是个不错的选择时，
I remember my younger brother chiming in: “Yeah, as long as he could tell the mugger, ‘Stay inside that circle. And stop if the referee blows the whistle!’”
我记得弟弟插嘴说: “是啊，只要他能告诉那个抢劫犯，‘待在圈内。如果裁判吹哨，就停下来!’”
Similarly constrained fights, but with real-world implications, have been raging this week on both sides of the Atlantic as two of the world’s leading democracies – the United States and Britain – moved formally to sanction men who, not too long ago, held the reins of power.
类似受限却颇具现实意义的搏斗也在大西洋两岸激烈进行着，本周，全球两个位居前列的民主国家——美国和英国——正式采取行动，制裁不久前还掌权之人，
The decision by the U.S. Justice Department to indict former President Donald Trump for alleged security breaches and obstruction and Britain’s move to punish ex-Prime Minister Boris Johnson for what an inquiry has deemed serial lies to Parliament were unprecedented.
美国司法部决定以涉嫌违反安全规定与妨碍公务为由起诉前总统唐纳德·特朗普，英国对前首相鲍里斯·约翰逊的处罚史无前例，因为一项调查认为他向议会撒了一连串的谎。
And they were bound to provoke a political firestorm.
他们必然会引发一场政治风暴。
But beyond the public drama, and the dueling claims of “due process” and “witch hunt,” the moves by the U.S. and British authorities represented an attempt to meet a challenge that has been building ever since Mr. Trump and Mr. Johnson first sought high office.
但是，除了公开的闹剧事件，以及关于“正当程序”与“政治迫害”这样的针锋相对的说法之外，英美政府的举动代表了一种尝试，即应对自特朗普和约翰逊首次谋求高层职位以来一直在形成的挑战。
It is this: How can the centuries-old institutions, written rules, and long-accepted conventions of these two venerable democracies accommodate a brand of 21st-century politician that neither system was designed, or equipped, to cope with?
这个挑战是: 这两个古老的民主国家，有着数百年历史的制度、成文规则以及长期被认可的惯例，如何才能适应21世纪的政客类型，而这两个系统都不是为了应对这种政客而设计或配备的。
The answer will matter, a lot, to the future shape of democratic government in America and Britain; to Messrs.
这个挑战的答案对英美民主政府的未来形态至关重要; 对各位先生(政客)也至关重要。
Trump and Johnson, out of office yet hopeful of regaining power; and to their admirers at the head of other, less robustly rooted democracies such as Hungary and Poland, Turkey and Israel.
特朗普和约翰逊，已经下台，却仍有希望重新掌权; 以及在其他根基不那么稳固的民主国家(如匈牙利、波兰、土耳其和以色列)，这些国家的领导人(这两位人物的钦佩者)也是如此。
For Donald Trump and Boris Johnson are strikingly similar figures.
因为唐纳德·特朗普与鲍里斯·约翰逊这两人惊人相似。
Both were initially dismissed as almost comically unlikely to rise to rule their countries.
人们最初都认为这两人不太可能统治国家，因为这太滑稽了。
Both did so, with enormous impact.
但两人都成为了执政者，且产生了巨大影响。
Mr. Johnson ended Britain’s decadeslong membership in the European Union.
约翰逊结束了英国持续几十年的欧盟成员国身份。
Mr. Trump reshaped America’s approach to the world, shrugging off traditional alliances in favor of purely transactional deals he decided were of value.
特朗普重塑了美国对世界的态度，抛弃了传统的盟国，支持他认为有价值的纯交易性协议。
