If Shakespeare were alive today, he would have had a good line in business books. Macbeth is a primer in how (not) to be a corporate wife; The Merchant of Venice is a cautionary tale about reckless lending. The play Stanley Ho should have read, however, is The Tragedy of King Lear.
如果莎士比亚活到今天，他肯定能在商业书籍中占据一席之地。《麦克白》(Macbeth)讲的是如何成为（或者不要成为）企业高管的夫人；《威尼斯商人》(The Merchant of Venice)是一个警戒鲁莽放贷的故事。而何鸿燊(Stanley Ho)应该看的，则是《李尔王》(The Tragedy of King Lear)。
It is not clear how the ageing king of Macao’s casinos intended to divide his gambling empire among his progeny. Instead, as in the play, it became apparent this week that the kingdom Mr Ho had built – and thought was his to distribute – had already been lost. How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child, as King Lear himself said.
现在尚不清楚的是，这位年事渐高的澳门赌王会如何在子女之间拆分自己的博彩帝国。就像剧中发生的一样，本周的事态显示出，何鸿燊本以为自己打造的这个王国可以由自己来分配，但实则早已失去了它。如李尔王所说，一个忘恩负义的孩子简直比毒蛇的牙更尖利。
Ingratitude, thou marble-hearted fiend, Mr Ho must have muttered when he discovered that the majority stake in his gaming and hotels business was already held by his third wife and five children from his second marriage. It would be understandable if Mr Ho, like Lear, had difficulty distinguishing confessions of devotion from the real thing. After all, he has had four wives and at least 15 children. But he shares the king’s fate in now accusing his relatives of grabbing the family business.
在得知他的博彩和酒店帝国已经落入第三房太太和第二段婚姻中的五个子女手中时，何鸿燊一定会说：“忘恩负义啊，尔等铁石心肠之徒”。如果何鸿燊像李尔王一样，看不出忠心誓言背后的真实目的，也算可以理解，毕竟他有四房太太、十五个子女。但他也落得了李尔王一样的下场——现在只能指责家人夺取了家族生意。
Lear could have told Mr Ho to make clear and public provision for distributing his estimated $3.1bn fortune among “younger strengths”. Instead, Mr Ho this week repeatedly changed his instructions. Storms raged around an anguished Lear; the jangle of slot machines must be clanging in Mr Ho’s head.
李尔王应该会建议何鸿燊，应当清楚公开地指示，要如何在“年轻力量”中分配他那近31亿美元的财富。然而，何鸿燊在一周内却反复更改指令。痛苦的李尔王在肆虐的暴风雨中挣扎，而何鸿燊脑海里此刻响起的，一定是老虎机的叮铛声。
Mr Ho’s decades-long monopoly of the Macao casinos won him enemies as well as friends, but this is a sorry saga for a man “at the verge of life”. King Lear teaches us not to hope for a sweet ending now – this is Shakespeare’s ultimate tragedy that plays out in five painful acts. With teams of lawyers, 21st-century financial systems and far more progeny, the unfolding tale of Mr Ho’s disappearing kingdom looks set to go on for far longer than that.
何鸿燊在澳门博彩市场长达几十年的垄断给他赢得了朋友，但也树立了敌人。但这却是一个“处在生命边缘”的人的悲剧故事。李尔王告诉我们，活在现下，别梦想总会有美满结局——这出莎士比亚悲剧中的悲剧，用痛苦的五幕讲述了这个故事。但因为庞大的律师团队、21世纪的金融体系、数量更多的子女会纷纷出场， 何鸿燊濒临消失的帝国故事的演出时间，恐怕会长很多。
No comments:
Post a Comment