译者 haifeng971
（TIME's Cover Story)The special branch had chased us across the city for hours, through the haunted, betel-nut-stained streets of old Rangoon, past street-side tailors hunched over ancient sewing machines and open-air bookstalls selling worm-eaten copies of Orwell and Kipling. Unable to shake the latest batch of state security men following us by foot, we jumped into a wheezing taxi of mid-20th century vintage. The young driver's eyes widened at the foreigners who hurled themselves in the back and ordered the car to move — fast. As we lurched into motion, he showed us where he stood by reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a laminated picture. It was, of course, of the Lady.
（时代周刊封面文章）穿过古老仰光被槟榔玷污的鬼街；越过路边弓着背扒在老式缝纫机上干活的缝纫工，以及兜售着奥威尔(1903-1950，英国著名的记者，小说家，评论家，译注）、吉卜林（1865～1936英国小说家、诗人 ，译注）发黄旧书的露天书摊，缅甸政治保安处的警察追赶着我们在市区东躲西藏达数小时。实在无法摆脱最新一队国安人员的步行跟踪，我们跳进了一辆产于20世纪中期轰轰作响的出租车。见到外国人拼命往后座上挤，并要求加速行驶，年轻的出租车司机瞪大了眼睛。当我们的车东摇西晃向前的移动时，司机把手伸进衬衣口袋，掏出一张塑封过的照片来向我们表明立场。当然，那是一张素姬夫人的照片。
Aung San Suu Kyi, the 65-year-old Burmese Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was released from house arrest on Nov. 13, was not in the taxi with my two colleagues and me. But she is always carried in the hearts — and her image in the pockets, lockets and secret hiding places — of millions of Burmese. Among the most oppressed and impoverished people on the planet, they draw sustenance from this graceful woman who, armed only with the principle of nonviolent resistance, dares to stand up to the generals who have controlled Burma for nearly five decades. For 15 of the past 21 years, the military regime kept her locked up. But if the generals wished for Suu Kyi to fade into obscurity, they failed. Continued confinement turned her into the world's most famous political prisoner. Emerging from her most recent stint of seven years in detention, she is just as determined to fight for the civil liberties of Burma's 50 million people. "What we are calling for is revolutionary change through peaceful means," she told me when we recently met in Rangoon. "I'm not afraid to say it, and I'm not afraid to ask for all the help I can get."
昂山素姬，这位诺贝尔和平奖殊荣获得者，11月13日结束软禁，获得释放的65岁缅甸人,没有与我及我的两位同事坐在出租车里，但是她却被数百万缅甸人民铭记在心里---她的照片被人们怀揣在衣服口袋里，珍藏在盒子里或藏匿在隐秘的地方。作为世界上最受压迫最贫穷的一份子，缅甸人民从这位秉持非暴力抵抗原则，敢于与统治缅甸五十载的将军们作斗争的温婉女人身上汲取精神养分。在过去21年中有15年她都被军政权软禁着。将军们若是想通过软禁使她屈服，那他们的如意算盘落空了。持续的软禁使她成为世界最知名政治囚徒。最近七年的软禁表明，她矢志不渝抗争的仅仅是五千万缅甸人民的公民自由。“我们所呼吁的是和平变革，”最近我们在仰光见面时，她这样对我说，“我不惧怕说出来，我也不惧怕请求得到一切可以得到的帮助。”
The extent to which the junta has gone to try to foil the Lady, as Suu Kyi is fondly and universally known in Burma, is remarkable. For refusing to participate in a rigged election in November that the junta's proxy party won, Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), was stripped of its political rights. The NLD overwhelmingly won at the polls in 1990, which presumably would have made Suu Kyi the nation's Prime Minister. But the junta ignored the people's verdict then, and a new constitution contains clauses specifically designed to keep her from ever serving as Burma's leader.
由于素姬夫人家喻户晓，深受爱戴，这一次她将会在多大程度上受到军政府阻挠,引人关注。由于昂山素姬领导的全国民主联盟被剥夺政治权利，禁止参与11月份的选举，因此这场被操纵的选举最终以军政府代理党的获胜而落幕。1990年全国民主联盟曾以压倒性优势赢得选举，昂山素姬或被推选为国家总理。但军政府无视人民意愿，拒绝交权，之后在新修定的宪法中设计专门条款，防止昂山素姬成为缅甸领导人。
Since 1962, Burma's battle-hardened generals have faced down communist insurgents, ethnic armies, even the Western governments that impose economic sanctions on the regime. But they still act as if there is no greater enemy than this slight woman with flowers in her hair. Their fear of Suu Kyi is not entirely misplaced. "We think our leader is the ideal woman, not just for Burma but for the whole world," says Aye Aye Nyein, a teacher and member of the NLD's youth wing. "We Burmese live in a prison. She teaches us how to fight for our freedom." And the public's desire for freedom, of course, is why security agents were hunting us, snapping pictures with telephoto lenses fit for Hollywood paparazzi. Earlier that day, a total of at least a dozen special-branch officers trailed us, calling in our movements on their cell phones.
1962年以来，久经沙场的将军们历经共匪叛乱，少数民族分裂，甚至西方政府在经济上的强加制裁而不倒。但他们仍旧表现出，似乎任何敌人都不及这位头发上戴花的柔弱女人，对她的戒备从未解除。“我们领袖是完美女性，不仅对缅甸来说是如此，对世界也是如此。”一位教师，同时也是全国民主联盟青年分支成员Aye Aye Nyein说，“我们缅甸人如同生活在牢笼之中。是她教会我们如何为自由而战。”公众渴望自由，当然，就是为什么缅甸国安人员要追捕我们，要用好莱坞狗仔队才使用的长枪短炮偷拍我们。就在前一天，至少十几个政治保安处的警察盘问过我们，并用手机汇报我们的行踪。
It took the taxi driver only a couple of minutes to figure out we had a tail. Pointing back at a car practically on our bumper, he grinned and gunned the engine. For more than half an hour, our high-speed chase wound through the streets of Burma's moldering former capital, past the carcasses of Victorian-era government buildings abandoned when the junta mysteriously moved the seat of power to a remote redoubt five years ago. We circumnavigated the massive golden spire of Shwedagon pagoda, Burma's holiest site, and careened by the hulk of Insein prison, where Suu Kyi was once jailed and where some of the country's 2,200 political prisoners still languish.
不一会儿，出租车司机就发现我们被跟踪了。他指着后面那辆几乎碰上我们保险杠的车，咯咯直笑，然后加大油门向前冲去。约莫过了半个多小时，风驰电掣的出租车才穿过旧首都破败不堪的街道，越过建于维多利亚时期如今已被军政府废弃政府大楼，五年前，军政府将权力机构从这里迁到一座偏远的堡垒。我们绕着圣地仰光大金寺转了一大圈，然后再沿着庞大的永盛监狱行驶，那里曾关押过昂山素姬，现在仍有2200多名政治犯在忍受煎熬。
Dusk was falling. Screeching through an open-air market, the taxi finally shook our pursuers. Gratefully, we bid our driver goodbye. He reached into his pocket again, offering me Suu Kyi's picture as a gift. I was touched, but it was his talisman to cherish. I could leave Burma. He needed the Lady to keep him safe.
夜幕降临。出租车在露天市场的掩护下终于甩掉了追捕者。我们心存感激地与司机道别，他再次把手伸进衣服口袋，递给我们昂山素姬的照片作礼物。我深受感动，但那是他珍爱的护身符。我们可以离开缅甸，而他还要靠这张夫人的照片来保平安。
An Unending Struggle
抗争绵绵无绝期
Her carriage is regal, her English accent impeccable. The blossoms she customarily wears in her hair never seem to wilt, even as everything else droops in Burma's sullen heat. In the NLD office, with its intermittent electricity and maps of mildew spread across concrete walls, Suu Kyi floats like some otherworldly presence, calm and cool as others are flushed and frenetic. Ever since she was released in mid-November, Suu Kyi's days have been divided and subdivided into one-hour or 15-minute increments, during which she has met a dizzying array of people: foreign diplomats, AIDS patients, NGO directors, local economists, U.N. officials and the families of political prisoners. She even chatted by phone in December with former First Lady Laura Bush, who had championed the Burmese cause.
她举止端庄，英语无可挑剔。哪怕缅甸闷热的天气令万物枯萎，她习惯性戴在头发里的花儿却似乎从未凋零。在全国民主联盟办公室，电力供应时断时续，发霉的地图贴满混凝土墙壁，当别人面红耳赤，狂躁不安的之时，昂山素姬宛若漂浮着的超凡脱俗的精灵，冷酷而又冷静。素姬11月中旬获释后的日程，被细分，再细分成1小时或15分钟时段，在此期间，安排与她会晤过的人目不暇接：外国使节，艾滋病患者，非政府组织领导人，当地经济学家，联合国官员以及政治犯家属。12月她甚至还与支持缅甸事业的前美国第一夫人劳拉·布什通电话。
But even as the world watches Burma with renewed interest in the wake of Suu Kyi's release, she has not yet met the people with whom she most wants to talk. The regime has ignored her repeated offers for national reconciliation dialogue. Since releasing her, the junta has dealt with Suu Kyi by acting as if she didn't exist, expunging mentions of her from the local press and hoping that, despite her busy calendar and the huge crowds that gather wherever she goes, she will somehow dwindle into irrelevance. "I wish I could have tea with them every Saturday, a friendly tea," Suu Kyi says of the generals, who refused to allow her dying husband one last visit to Burma in 1999. And if they turn down a nice cup of tea? "We could always try coffee," she says wryly.
但是，就在全世界从昂山素姬的获释窥见缅甸政局松动的迹象之时，她却依然没能见到她最渴望见到的人。当局对她反复要求获得国家认同谈判也充耳不闻。尽管出狱后的素姬日理万机，所到之处人山人海，军政府对此却视而不见，将她从当地媒体屏蔽掉，希望借此使她无缘无故地淡出公众视野。“我希望在每周六可以和他们品茶，品友好之茶”在谈到1999年拒绝她回到缅甸与弥留之际的丈夫见最后一面的将军们时，昂山素姬说，“如果他们拒绝一杯好茶，那我们还可以随时喝咖啡”她戏谑地说。
Far from being a simple morality tale of good vs. evil, the Lady against the generals, what happens in Burma carries global significance. Jammed between Asia's two emerging powers, China and India, Burma is strategically sensitive, a critical piece in the new Great Game of global politics. This is no totalitarian backwater like North Korea. Even though many Western governments have imposed sanctions on Burma's military regime for its atrocious human-rights record, a new competition is unfolding in this crossroads nation: regional powers are scrambling for access to Burma's plentiful natural gas, timber and minerals. Already, resource-strapped China is building oil and gas pipelines across Burma to create another vital artery to feed its economic engine. Beijing's cozy ties with Burma have spooked democratic India, which has exchanged earlier condemnation of the junta for trade missions — a stance that earned President Barack Obama's public disapproval when he visited India in November. For Burma's top brass — who have at their disposal a 400,000-strong military corps and a record of institutionalized rape, torture and forced labor — democratic reform would mean not only ceding political supremacy but also surrendering the opportunity to siphon wealth from ever growing state coffers.
昂山素姬与将军之间的斗争，超越了简单道德故事中正与邪的范畴，缅甸发生的一切都带有全球意义。夹在亚洲两个新兴大国---中国和印度之间战略敏感地带的缅甸，是世界政治新格局博弈中很重要的一部份。缅甸不同于极权封闭的朝鲜。尽管很多西方政府因缅甸残暴的人权记录对军政权强加制裁，而新的竞争已经在这个处于十字路口的国家展开：区域内大国正对其丰富的天然气，木材及矿产资源展开争夺。受到能源掣肘的中国正在通过修建横跨缅甸的石油，天然气管线，打造另一条重要的能源大动脉来满足其经济发展。北京与缅甸的亲密关系让民主国家印度不安，印度早前和缅甸军政府达成以贸易换取拒绝谴责共识，这一立场遭到11月到访印度的美国总统奥巴马公开反对。对于控制着40万特种兵，身负强奸，刑讯逼供以及强制劳动等罪行记录，厚颜无耻的缅甸高层而言，民主改革不仅仅意味着摒弃政治至上的思维，还意味着要放弃从国库捞金，中饱私囊。
Unlike South Africa's apartheid government when Nelson Mandela was released from prison, Burma's dictatorship is not in its death throes. If anything, because of burgeoning foreign investment in Burma, especially over the past five years, the junta is even more entrenched than when Suu Kyi was last free, in 2003. Two previous attempts at popular protest have ended with the crackle of gunfire and the silence of a cowed populace. The most recent tragedy came in 2007 when soldiers ended weeks of monk-led protests by mowing down dozens of unarmed civilians.
与曼德拉出狱后面对南非种族隔离政府不同的是，缅甸的独裁统治还未到鱼死网破的地步。军政府的统治，比上次，也就是2003年，素姬的释放时更加牢固，这得益于过去五年缅甸快速增长的外国投资。前两次颇具民众基础的抗议示威均以武力镇压和受惊民众的沉默而告终。最近一次杯具发生在2007年，那场由僧侣发起，持续数周的抗议，以军人射杀，数十名无名平民死亡结束。
The other foiled democracy movement was in 1988, when Suu Kyi found herself literally thrust on the political stage. The daughter of assassinated independence hero Aung San, she spent much of her early life overseas in India, the U.S., Japan, Bhutan and England. In the 1980s she was content to focus on academic research and serve as the mother of two sons and the wife of a British academic at Oxford. On picnics in the English countryside, Suu Kyi wore shorts and drank soda; she gave little hint of the democracy icon she would become.
另一场失败的民主运动发生在1988年，昂山素姬就此被推向政治舞台。在独立英雄昂山将军被暗杀之后，昂山素姬的早年是在印度，美国，日本，不丹及英格兰等海外度过的。1980年代初期，素姬把主要精力放在学术研究和相夫教子上。在英国郊外的野餐聚会上，昂山素姬身穿短裤，喝汽水，没有迹象表明有朝一日她会成为民主的象征。
In 1988 the dutiful Asian daughter went home to care for her ill mother. That Rangoon summer grew into Burma's version of a Prague spring. The generals' mismanagement had turned what was once one of Asia's breadbaskets into an economic basket case, and students, monks and workers gathered by the hundreds of thousands to call for the regime's downfall. The army fired on the protesters, some of whom tried to fight back. As the child of the revered general who had vanquished the colonial British, Suu Kyi thought she might have the authority to prevent further clashes. In front of half a million people, she made her first public address, mixing Buddhist values with Gandhian principles of nonviolent resistance. Less than a month after Suu Kyi's plea for peace, the army unleashed another crackdown, killing hundreds. Two years later, the electoral victory of the NLD, the party she helped found, was disregarded. It was as if time stopped in Burma.
1988年这位孝顺的亚洲乖乖女回家照料生病的母亲。那个仰光之夏演变成缅甸的布拉格之春。(唤醒人权之春，是1968年1月5日开始的捷克斯洛伐克国内的一场政治民主化运动 ）由于军政府管理不善，导致这个昔日的亚洲粮仓经济瘫痪，成千上万的学生，僧侣以及工人举行集会要求当局下台。军队向示威者开枪，有些示威者试图予以还击。作为曾经征战过英殖民地，德高望重的昂山将军之女，昂山素姬觉得可凭自己威信防止冲突升级。于是面对数百万缅甸人民，素姬发表了融合佛教思想与非暴力抵抗原则的首次公开演讲。在昂山素姬和平请愿一个月之后，军队又展开了新一轮镇压，数百人被杀。两年后，由她协助创立的全国民主联盟赢得大选，但军政府拒绝交权。那一刻的缅甸，时间仿佛停止。
Multiple Fronts
前方道路纷繁复杂
Today, despite Suu Kyi's release and the influx of foreign investment that has brought the occasional Hummer and day spa to Rangoon, Burma is still a country preserved in amber. Tropical totalitarianism is deceptive. In North Korea, the broad, desolate avenues and drably dressed citizens make for a perfect tableau of authoritarianism. Burma's sprays of bougainvillea, its gilded pagodas and the sway of schoolgirls dressed in the sarongs called longyis all create a false sense of contentment. But life in Burma is not easy. Roughly 40% of the national budget is spent on the army, while just around 1% each is reserved for health and education. The new capital in Naypyidaw, which means "abode of the kings," was built with billions of dollars, even as nearly a third of Burmese live below the poverty line. For farmers, a hand-to-mouth existence is made worse by routine land seizures and orders to work without pay for the military. Even in Rangoon, power outages are as common as junta informants; both leave the populace in the dark. In a sign of just how removed the generals are from their subjects, confidential U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks refer to the junta lavishing money on a nuclear program with alleged help from North Korea, while junta supremo Than Shwe pondered spending $1 billion on Manchester United at the behest of his soccer-loving grandson.
今天，尽管昂山素姬已被释放，外资涌入也为仰光带来了难得一见的悍马车和温泉水疗会所，但缅甸仍然是一个如同琥珀般禁锢的国家。狂热的极权主义是虚幻的。在朝鲜，宽阔，空旷的街区和着装单调的市民就是一幅极权主义的真实写照。盛开九重葛花，镀金的宝塔以及穿在女学生身上叫做腰布的摇摆长筒裙，也勾勒出缅甸和谐的幻像。然而，缅甸人的日子并不好过。接近40%的国家预算用于军队，用于健康和教育的开支仅占约1%。被寓为“帝王之所”的新首都内比都，耗资数十亿美元打造，而缅甸约三分之一人口还生活在贫困线以下。对农民而言，惯常的强行征地以及不计酬劳的为军队卖命，令他们勉强糊口的日子更加雪上加霜。就算是在仰光，停电也如同军政府的告密者般频繁，二者都使人们的生活陷入黑暗。据维基解密网站公布的美国大使馆可靠情报，缅甸军政府以获得朝鲜帮助发展核武器之名大肆挥霍钱财，而前军政府最高领导人丹瑞将军为讨好酷爱足球的孙子，曾考虑花10亿美元赞助曼联。
Although Suu Kyi's moral imprimatur helped bring Western sanctions against the regime, the fact that many ordinary Burmese also feel their effects hasn't escaped her. "I am ready to reconsider my support of sanctions if it's for the benefit of all of us," she told me with surprising vehemence, countering critics who think her too unyielding. "I'm not afraid to consider change." Her openness will surely ignite further debate in Washington, where there is a growing recognition that sanctions on Burma, despite their moral appeal, have not worked.
尽管西方国家出于对昂山素姬的道德赞许才使缅甸免于受到制裁，而事实上很多普通缅甸民众仍受波及，她心知肚明。“如果制裁对大家都好，我准备重新掂量对制裁的支持。”素姬气势惊人的对我说出这番话，回击那些批评她过于顽固的人。“我不惧怕思考变革。”尽管西方国家的道德感召，尚未奏效，但是昂山素姬的坦率无疑将在制裁缅甸的声音甚嚣尘上的华盛顿引发热议。
But the most immediate revolution is needed within Suu Kyi's party. Ever since the unfair outcome of the 1990 elections, the NLD has been stuck in a time warp, endlessly arguing over arcane policy and political theory even as many of its leaders get grayer and more stooped. There is a strange parallel between Burma's geriatric opposition leaders, known as the Uncles, and the junta's clutch of aged generals. In a 2008 cable released by WikiLeaks, an American diplomat in Rangoon bemoaned, "The way the Uncles run the NLD indicates the party is not the last great hope for democracy and Burma." Since then, a leadership reshuffle has reinvigorated the party to a certain extent, and Suu Kyi's release has galvanized a new generation of political youth. But it's no wonder that a younger NLD faction called the National Democratic Force defied the NLD's (and Suu Kyi's) call for an electoral boycott and contested the November polls. Suu Kyi says she's not worried about a possible split in the opposition. "We are all fighting for democracy," she says. "Our goals are the same."
然而，昂山素姬领导的全国民主联盟才是最迫切需要改革的。经历1990年那场不公正选举之后，全国民主联盟仿佛停顿在了时间隧道里，即使一些领导人头发花白，伛腰曲背，他们却还在就神秘政策及政治理论等进行着无休止的争论。在缅甸有一种怪现象，那就是被称之为“叔叔们”的老龄反对派领导人与军政府的老年将军之间是一种对等关系。2008年维基解密公布的一份情报称，仰光一名美国外交官感叹“叔叔们运作全国民主联盟的方式表明该党不再是缅甸及其民主最后的稻草。”此后，领导层的重新洗牌在某种程度上使该党焕发出新的生机。昂山素姬的释放也激励了新一代政治青年。难怪乎，一个叫做全国民主力量的小派系敢公然叫板素姬领导的全国民主联盟，呼吁选民抵制全国民主联盟并参与角逐11月大选。素姬称她并不担心全国民主力量会分裂成反对派。“我们的目标是一致的”她说，"我们都是为民主而战."
Suu Kyi, a woman who first used a cell phone on the day of her release, says she's committed to nurturing a new generation of technologically savvy political youth. "The advantage is they're very electronic. They can communicate with the world," she says, referring to the NLD youth wing's members who use Facebook to debate politics when there's enough electricity to power computers. "Everything goes on the Internet. Did you know that?" The equalizing power of the digital revolution ties in nicely with the philosophy that has inspired Suu Kyi, that of Czech dissident and fellow Peace Prize laureate Vaclav Havel, who wrote of "the power of the powerless." "My very top priority is for people to understand that they have the power to change things themselves," she says. "Then we can do it together. Then we'll be home and dry."
昂山素姬，这位获释当天才第一次使用手机的女人，承诺将用新的科技知识培育新一代政治青年“年轻人的优势是他们懂电子，他们可以和世界沟通。”谈到有充足电力供给电脑之时，全国民主联盟青年分支成员就可以在Facebook上讨论政治时，她说，“网上什么都有，你们知道吗？”数码革命的平等与哲学的美妙融合为昂山素姬带来灵感，她引用诺贝尔和平奖得主，捷克异议人士瓦茨拉夫·哈维尔所写的“弱势者的力量”中的话说，“我最迫切的当务之急是让人们知道他们有能力改变自己”她说，“共同携手，我们才能最终实现目标。”
A Heavy Burden
路漫漫其修远兮
It's a lot to ask of one woman: rejuvenate her banned party, persuade the generals to talk, make the cause of Burma a global priority, minister to the sick, comfort the families of political prisoners. Serving as an icon of democracy is hard enough, without having to deal with the nitty-gritty of everyday political life. Add to that the real worry that Suu Kyi may be operating on borrowed time. "Our people are in and out of prison all the time," she says. "All I have to say is, 'Is so-and-so in or out?' and they know exactly what I mean."
党的振兴，说服将军谈判，创造条件让缅甸走在世界前沿，服侍病人，安慰政治犯家属，这些问题对于一个女人来说过于繁重。担当起民主象征就已不易，更不用说事必躬亲处理日常政治生活的细权末节了。若把这些与真正的忧患加在一起，就算素姬能借来时间，恐怕也处理不完。“我们的人民每天都从监狱进进出出”她说，“我要说的是，难道就只是那样进进出出吗？他们应该能懂我的意思”。
For now, she is out. But there's little doubt that if the junta sees in her any realistic challenge to its authority, she will be sent in again on whatever spurious charge the military can concoct. "I want to do as much as I can while I'm free," she says. "I don't want to tire myself out, but we never know how much time we have."
现在，她自由了。但若军政府认为她对其统治构成实质性挑战，那么“欲加之罪，何患无辞”，没有人怀疑她会再进去。“在我尚且自由之时，我想做尽可能多的事”她说“我也不想把自己累垮，但是谁都不知道自己的时日还有多长。”
Beyond the possibility of rearrest, Suu Kyi's safety is an even more fundamental concern. The army has shown it is quite prepared both to lock her up and to endanger her life. On three occasions, Suu Kyi and her supporters have been attacked by mysterious thugs, with resulting fatalities. "She is like her father in that she has no qualms about losing her life," says Win Htein, an NLD elder who was released in July after 14 years in jail. Suu Kyi gasps when I ask her whether she would consider wearing a bulletproof vest. "I wouldn't dream of it," she says. "Then it would look like I'm trying to protect myself from the people who support me."
除了可能再度被捕，昂山素姬的人身安全更值得担忧。显然，军队已经准备好随将她逮捕或者取了她的命。在三个公开场合，素姬及其支持者遭到神秘暴徒裂击，并有伤亡。“在这一点上她很像他父亲，那就是，不怕死。”入狱14年，今年七月获释的全国民主联盟老党员，温藤（昂山素姬副手）说。当我问及是否会考虑穿防弹衣时，她叹了口气，说：“我做梦都不会想，那样会让支持我的人觉得我只想保护自己。”
Suu Kyi may cherish her interactions with ordinary Burmese, but there is a distant quality to her, a sense that she lives most comfortably in her head, not among the crowds. Part of her remove is born of circumstance. She speaks proudly of being her father's favorite child, yet he was assassinated by political rivals when she was just 2. For so much of her recent life, Suu Kyi has been sequestered from normal human contact; noble ideas and fine words have kept her company. While under house arrest, she obsessively read books ranging from biographies to spy thrillers. "People think that I had nothing to do [while in detention]," she says. "But I spent five or six hours listening to the radio every day. If you're under house arrest and you miss one item, there's no one there to tell you about it, so I listened very carefully." Even her taste in classical music speaks to her sense of discipline and composure. Mozart, she says, makes her happy, which is all well and good. But she prefers Bach. "He makes me calm," she says. "I need calm in my life."
素姬可能也珍惜与缅甸普通民众之间的互动交流，但却不太符合她的性格，从某种意义上说，最令她惬意的是活在思想里，而不是嘈杂的人群中。迫于环境，她发生过些许改变。刚满2岁的她，在父亲尚未被政治暗杀时，曾是父亲的最爱，谈及此，她流露出自豪。最近这些年，昂山素姬几乎与世隔绝，崇高的思想与良善的语言与之相伴。在软禁期间，素姬也读书，从个人传记到间谍冒险都让她着迷。“人们可能会以为被关押的日子无所事事”她说，“但我每天都要听五、六小时收音机。你是软禁的人，如果错过了什么新闻，是没有人会告诉你的，所以我听得很仔细。”就连她喜欢听的经典音乐也提醒着她要戒骄戒躁。莫扎特，她说，令她快乐，他的那些音乐很好很不错。但她更喜欢巴赫。“巴赫的音乐让我冷静”她说，“我的人生需要时刻保持冷静。”
Right now, Suu Kyi is in the eye of a storm, a place of deceptive tranquility. Rangoon is a city of whispers, and while the people I met there used different words — a honeymoon, a window, a reprieve — their hushed intent was the same: this, they felt, was the calm before the crackdown. The November elections were part of what the generals call a transition to a "discipline-flourishing democracy." One thing is certain: when the fig leaf of civilian government arrives in 2011, there will be no place in it for the Lady.
现在，昂山素姬正处于风暴中心，山雨欲来风滿楼。仰光是一座耳语之城，接受我采访的人虽用词不同---有人说是蜜月期，有人说是窗口期，有人说是暂缓期---但他们要表达的内涵其实都是相同的：这，在他们看来，只不过是暴风雨来临前短暂的平静。11月的选举是将军们所谓迈向“自律-繁荣民主”转变的一部份。无庸置疑的是：当有名无实的民选政府在2011年上台之时，将再无素姬夫人一席之地。
Still, for all her years of imprisonment and whatever travails may come, Suu Kyi considers herself lucky. It's not because of the people's adoration of her but because of their respect — a value she believes stems from a generosity of spirit. "In my life, I have been showered with kindness," she says. "More than love, I value kindness. Love comes and goes, but kindness remains." When her son Kim was in Rangoon to see her for the first time in a decade, his kindness came in the form of a gift, a puppy to keep her company. "He's my guard dog," she jokes, even though the tiny mutt hasn't shown much bark or bite. "He has an active tail and lets me know when someone is coming. That should be enough, don't you think? A little wag of the tail?"
尽管历经多年监禁，未来充满艰辛，昂山素姬仍然觉得自己是幸运的。这种幸运不是因为人们对她的崇拜，而是尊重----她坚信那是一种源自人们灵魂深处的大爱。“我的一生，与人为善”她说，“在我看来，善超越爱，爱来去匆匆，而善始终如一。”当儿子金时隔十载首次到仰光看望她时，为她带了一条小狗作伴，那是儿子表达善的礼物。“牠是我的看门狗”她开玩笑说，尽管这小傻瓜不怎么叫也不怎么咬。“牠摆动的尾巴提醒我有人来了，这就足够了，你不觉得吗?只要轻轻摇一摇小尾巴，就够了。”
