Whether it be the suspicion that he meddled in the Brexit referendum or the accusation that he ordered the poisoning of a former spy, President Vladimir Putin of Russia stirs strong emotions in Britain.

無論是遭懷疑干預英國脫歐公投，還是被指控下令毒殺一名前間諜，俄羅斯總統普亭總能激起英國民眾強烈的情緒。

Now, the BBC is hoping to mine the Russian leader’s fame — or infamy — with a comedy series presented by a digital effigy of Putin, who cackles in a trailer for the program that his next great geopolitical victory will be to host the “No. 1 chat show in the U.K.”

而現在，英國廣播公司打算推出一部由普亭數位人像擔任主持人的系列喜劇，希望好好利用這位俄羅斯領導人的高知名度，姑不論它是令譽還是惡名，而他在一支預告片中哈哈大笑說，他下一個偉大的地緣政治勝利將是主持「英國首屈一指的聊天節目」。

The satirical show, called “Tonight With Vladimir Putin,” uses a three-dimensional cartoon of Putin interviewing real guests in front of an audience, the BBC announced on May 22.

英國廣播公司5月22日宣布，這個名為「普亭今夜秀」的諷刺性節目，使用3D製作的普亭卡通人物在觀眾面前訪問真人來賓。

“He doesn’t often get mocked and I don’t think that he’ll like it,” said Joanna Szostek, a lecturer in political communication at the University of Glasgow.

格拉斯哥大學政治傳播講師喬安娜．史佐斯特克說：「他不常被嘲笑，我也不認為他會喜歡。」

“It’s not going to help bilateral relations, obviously,” Szostek added, noting that Moscow was likely to see the show as politically motivated because it considered the BBC a propaganda arm of the British government. The tone of the show could feed the Kremlin narrative that Western criticism of Putin was driven by an anti-Russian agenda, she said.

史佐斯特克接著說，「這顯然無助於雙方關係」，她並指出莫斯科很可能認為該節目有政治動機，因為它把英國廣播公司視為英國政府的宣傳部門。她說，這個節目的調性可能會助長克里姆林宮的說法，即西方對於普亭的批評，背後有個反俄行動計畫在推動。

The Putin caricature begins the trailer provocatively. “Greetings, people of the ‘United Kingdom’!” the digital puppet yells outside Buckingham Palace, miming air quotes in a less-than-subtle reference to the bruising political battles around Britain’s departure from the European Union and the fractious elections for the European Parliament .

這支預告片以普亭Q版人物的挑釁開場，這數位人偶在白金漢宮外諷刺地喊道「你好，『英國』的民眾！」，以手指在空中畫出引號，顯然指的是圍繞英國脫歐與激烈歐洲議會選舉而進行的慘烈政治鬥爭。

In the first episode, planned to air on June 14, “Mr. Putin” — or “everybody’s favorite bear-wrestling global strongman,” as the BBC described him — will meet Alastair Campbell, the onetime spokesman for former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

第一集預計6月14日播出，「普亭先生」，也就是英國廣播公司描述的「人人最喜愛的搏熊全球強人」，將會見曾任前首相布萊爾發言人的康貝爾。

The sharp intake of breath from observers of Russian politics was almost audible after the BBC’s announcement. Comments on Twitter from Moscow-based journalists and researchers included a face-palm emoji in reaction to the puppet’s accent and a warning that the broadcaster was “playing with fire.”

在英國廣播公司做出這項宣布後，幾乎可聽到俄羅斯政治觀察人士深深倒吸一口氣。莫斯科的記者和研究人員在推特上的評論，包括以用手摀住臉的表情符號來對該人偶的口音做出回應，以及警告該廣播公司正在「玩火」。

In Russia, such a caricature would be unthinkable nowadays. A show in the 1990s on the Russian network NTV, called “Puppets,” featured a cartoon figure of Putin and other prominent politicians, including former President Boris Yeltsin. But the show was discontinued soon after Putin assumed the presidency in 2000 and nothing like it has been shown on television since.

現今，這種諷刺節目在俄羅斯是無法想像的。1990年代，俄羅斯電視台NTV在名為「魁儡」的節目中，以普亭卡通人物以及前總統葉爾欽等知名政界人士為主要人物，但該節目在普亭2000年擔任總統後不久後就停播了，此後就再也沒有出現過類似電視節目。

※說文解字看新聞

除美國總統大選外，普亭也遭外界指控干預英國脫歐公投，而文中用meddle表示干預，意思近於interfere，常跟介系詞in或with搭配使用來表示干預的事物，此字還隱含「愛管閒事」之意，形容詞為meddlesome，如meddlesome neighbor（愛管閒事的鄰居）。另外，第二段單字mine為一動詞，在文中意譯成「利用」，該字還有「開採、挖掘」之意。

satirical為satire的形容詞，後者是文學中使用的諷刺手法，而前者跟sarcastic同義，但含意不同；satirical所含的諷刺是為了譴責，sarcastic則是惡意傷人的間接諷刺，又caricature指的是「諷刺畫、誇張模仿」。

此外，air quotes是指在空中用手指比出雙引號的手勢，常用來表達諷刺、嘲弄或挖苦。

文中俚語sharp intake of breath，則用來形容在聽聞意外或驚訝之事後的反應，其中intake指的是「吸氣」，又emoji（表情符號）是近幾年因即時通訊軟體及應用程式蓬勃發展而生的新單字，發源地是日本。

Of all the legendary Japanese beasts in the new film “Godzilla: King of the Monsters” from Warner Bros., Mothra is perhaps the unlikeliest of terrors. There’s Godzilla, of course, a T. rex-like creature with atomic breath, and Rodan, a turbocharged pterodactyl. King Ghidorah, the villain of the piece, is an enormous dragon with batlike wings and three flame-throwing heads.

在華納兄弟新電影《哥吉拉II：怪獸之王》中的所有日本傳奇怪獸中，摩斯拉可能是最不恐怖的。片中當然還有會原子吐息、長得像暴龍的生物哥吉拉、渦輪增壓翼龍拉頓，而這部作品中的反派王者基多拉，則是個有著蝙蝠般翅膀，而且會噴火的三頭巨龍。

Mothra? At the beginning of the picture, she’s a newly hatched caterpillar.

摩斯拉？在片子一開始的時候，她是隻剛孵化的毛毛蟲。

What Mothra might lack in apparent fierceness, however, she more than makes up for in fans, at least in her native Japan. Since her first appearance in the Toho Studios film “Mothra” in 1961, the supersized moth has appeared in 16 movies, including the 1964 classic “Mothra vs. Godzilla,” the first cinematic meeting of the two titans.

摩斯拉雖然看起來不夠兇猛，卻由於她有眾多粉絲而瑕不掩瑜，別具魅力，至少在她的家鄉日本是如此。自她1961年在東寶影業的《摩斯拉》一片中首度亮相以來，這隻超大飛蛾共出現在16部電影中，包括1964年經典的《摩斯拉對哥吉拉》，兩隻巨獸首次在電影中碰頭。

Among the dozens of fearsome creatures in Toho’s 87-year history, Mothra is second only to Godzilla in appearances and starring roles.

在東寶87年歷史中出現的數十隻可怕生物中，摩斯拉在出場與擔任主角次數上僅次於哥吉拉。

“Godzilla: King of the Monsters,” which debuts May 31, is surprisingly Mothra’s first appearance in an American film.

5月31日首映的《哥吉拉II：怪獸之王》，令人驚訝的是摩斯拉第一次出現在美國電影中。

Mothra has always been a force for good, communicating with us puny humans through a telepathic link with two even punier beings, the foot-tall Shobijin, twin female fairies played in the original 1961 film by the Japanese pop duo the Peanuts.

摩斯拉一直是個善良的力量，透過跟2個更小的生命、僅1英尺高的小美人進行心靈感應來跟我們這些弱小的人類溝通，而在1961年摩斯拉初登場電影中出現的這對雙胞胎女精靈，是由日本流行雙人組「花生」成員所飾演。

Unlike the capricious Godzilla, who goes from stomping Japan to bits in one movie to protecting it in another, Mothra is always a heroine, saving Japan from reptilian hotheads like Godzilla and protecting the cave-dwelling residents of Infant Island, who worship her as a goddess.

哥吉拉善變，在一部電影中將日本踩到破碎不堪，卻在另一部中保護日本，摩斯拉則不同，一直是位女英雄，從哥吉拉之屬魯莽爬蟲手中拯救日本，並保護將她當作神崇拜、聖嬰島上山洞中的居民。

Sometimes she’s an egg, sometimes she’s a caterpillar, her life cycle repeated over and over, as the old Mothra “dies” and a new one hatches. “There’s even this theme of Christian imagery associated with her,” William Tsutsui, author of “Godzilla on My Mind: Fifty Years of the King of Monsters,” said.

她有時是蛋，有時是毛毛蟲，她的生命週期一遍又一遍地重複，舊的摩斯拉「死」了，一個新的又孵化出來。著有《我心中的哥吉拉：怪獸之王的五十年》的威廉．筒井說：「甚至還有與她有關的基督教意象主題。」

In his latest incarnation, Godzilla is about three times the size he was back in the 1950s, and the other monsters, it seems, have followed suit. How’s a moth, even a giant one, to compete?

在他最新化身中，哥吉拉體型大約是1950年代的三倍，而其他的怪物似乎也比照辦理。那麼一隻飛蛾，即使是隻巨大的飛蛾，又該如何競爭呢？

To keep the fights fair, the filmmakers created a fiercer, more weaponized Mothra, borrowing design elements from more intimidating members of the insect family (praying mantises, wasps).

為了讓戰鬥公平，製片公司創造出更兇猛、武器化程度更高的摩斯拉，借用了昆蟲家族中更具威脅的成員（螳螂，黃蜂）的設計元素。

Even so, the director of the new film, Michael Dougherty, didn’t want to change the core elements that have made Mothra one of Toho’s most beloved monsters.

即便如此，這部新片的導演麥可道格堤卻也不想改變那些使摩斯拉成為東寶最受喜愛怪物之一的核心元素。

“She’s a very benevolent character, whereas all the other kaiju are obviously a bit more prone to destruction,” he added, using the Japanese term for these movie monsters. “She’s the yin to Godzilla’s yang.”

他還用日文稱呼這些電影怪物的名詞說道：「她是個非常仁慈的角色，而所有其他怪獸顯然都更具有破壞傾向。相對於哥吉拉的陽，她屬於陰。」