2018.12.2纽约时报：美国前总统乔治·布什逝世，享年94岁

George Bush, 41st President, Dies at 94

美国前总统乔治·布什逝世，享年94岁

George Bush, the 41st president of the United States and the father of the 43rd, who steered the nation through a tumultuous period in world affairs but was denied a second term after support for his presidency collapsed under the weight of an economic downturn and his seeming inattention to domestic affairs, died on Friday. He was 94.

第41任美国总统、第43任总统的父亲乔治·布什(George Bush)于周五逝世，享年94岁。布什曾领导这个国家度过了一个国际风云变幻的时代，但是在经济下行的压力下，加之对国内事务显得缺乏关注，他在竞选连任时没有争取到足够的支持，最终未能获得第二任期。

His death, which was announced by his office, came less than eight months after that of his wife of 73 years, Barbara Bush.

布什去世的消息是由他的办公室公布的。不到八个月前，与他结婚73年的妻子芭芭拉·布什(Barbara Bush)过世。

Mr. Bush had a form of Parkinson’s disease that forced him to use a wheelchair or motorized scooter in recent years, and he had been in and out of hospitals during that time as his health declined. In April, a day after attending Mrs. Bush’s funeral, he was treated for an infection that had spread to his blood. In 2013, he was in dire enough shape with bronchitis that former President George W. Bush, his son, solicited ideas for a eulogy.

布什患有一种帕金森氏症，使他在最近几年中被迫只能用轮椅或老人电动车代步。4月，在参加布什夫人的葬礼后的第二天，他因血液感染而接受治疗。2013年，他曾因支气管炎住院超过六周。当时他的病情危重，以至于他的儿子、前总统乔治·W·布什(George W. Bush)曾咨询过有关悼词的意见。

But he proved resilient each time. In 2013 he told well-wishers, through an aide, to “put the harps back in the closet.”

然而他每一次都展现出顽强的生命力。2013年，他要一名助手去通知前来表达哀思的众人，“把竖琴收起来。”

Mr. Bush, a Republican, was a transitional figure in the White House, where he served from 1989 to 1993, capping a career of more than 40 years in public service. A decorated Navy pilot who was shot down in the Pacific in 1944, he was the last of the World War II generation to occupy the Oval Office.

作为一名共和党人，布什是白宫的一个过渡性人物，在任的时间是1989年至1993年。他在公共服务领域拥有超过40年的职业生涯。他曾是一名海军功勋飞行员，1944年，他驾驶的战机在太平洋上被击落，他是最后一位入主椭圆形办公室的二战一代。

Mr. Bush was a skilled bureaucratic and diplomatic player who, as president, helped end four decades of Cold War and the threat of nuclear engagement with a nuanced handling of the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Eastern Europe.

布什拥有娴熟的官场与外交技巧，在结束长达40年的冷战及解除核战威胁中发挥了作用，并以微妙的方式应对了苏联解体和东欧解放。

Yet for all his success in the international arena, his presidency faltered as voters, focused on domestic matters, seemed to perceive him as detached from their everyday lives. In a 1992 election that turned on the economy, they cast out Mr. Bush and chose a relatively little-known Democratic governor from Arkansas, Bill Clinton, a baby boomer, ushering in a generational shift in American leadership.

但是，尽管在国际舞台上取得了成功，注重国内事务的选民们似乎认为，他与他们的日常生活存在脱节，所以他竞选连任的努力以失败告终。1992年的竞选重点转向了经济，选民们放弃了布什，选择了名气相对较小的阿肯色州民主党州长比尔·克林顿(Bill Clinton)，后者是婴儿潮一代，开启了美国领导人的世代更迭。

If Mr. Bush’s term helped close out one era abroad, it opened another. In January 1991, he assembled a global coalition to eject Iraqi invaders from Kuwait, sending hundreds of thousands of troops in a triumphant military campaign that helped purge the ghosts of Vietnam. The victory led to years of American preoccupation with Iraq, however, culminating with a decision by Mr. Bush’s son to topple the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, a dozen years later in a war that taxed American resources and patience.

如果说布什的任期帮助终结了国外的一个时代，那么他也开启了另一个时代。1991年1月，他召集一支国际联军，将伊拉克入侵者逐出了科威特，派遣数十万士兵进行了一次成功的军事行动，扫除了一些越战的阴影。但是，这次胜利导致美国在之后的很多年里把主要精力放在伊拉克上，并在十多年后达到了顶点：他的儿子决定推翻伊拉克领导人萨达姆·侯赛因(Saddam Hussein)，那场战争耗费了美国的大量资源和耐心。

Mr. Bush entered the White House with one of the most impressive résumés of any president. He had been a two-term congressman from Texas, ambassador to the United Nations, chairman of the Republican National Committee during Watergate, United States envoy to China, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and vice president under Ronald Reagan.

布什入主白宫时的履历是所有总统中最可观的一个。他曾担任两届德克萨斯州众议员、美国驻联合国大使、水门事件时的共和党全国委员会(Republican National Committee)主席、美国驻中国代表、中央情报局(Central Intelligence Agency)局长，以及罗纳德·里根(Ronald Reagan)的副总统。

And he achieved what no one had since Martin Van Buren in 1836: winning election to the presidency while serving as vice president. (Van Buren did so in the footsteps of Andrew Jackson.)

他取得了自1836年马丁·范布伦(Martin Van Buren)之后无人取得的成就：在担任副总统期间获得了总统竞选的胜利（范布伦继安德鲁·杰克逊[Andrew Jackson]后出任总统）。

A son of wealth and a graduate of Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass., and of Yale, Mr. Bush was schooled in the good manners and graciousness of New England privilege and civic responsibility. He liked to frame his public service as an answer to the call to duty, like the one that had sent him over the Pacific and into enemy fire as a 20-year-old. (“The cockpit was full of smoke and I was choking from it,” he told his parents in a letter from the submarine that had plucked him from the sea.)

布什出身优渥，毕业于马萨诸塞州安多弗的菲利普斯高中(Phillips Academy)和耶鲁大学，这让他有了一种新英格兰特权阶层的优雅举止和公民责任心。他喜欢把自己从事公职说成是回应责任的召唤，20多岁时，他正是响应这一召唤，被派到太平洋与敌人交火（“驾驶舱里充满浓烟，我被呛住了，”他在海上被潜水艇救起后给父母写信说道）。

He underscored the theme of duty in accepting his party’s nomination for the presidency in 1988 in New Orleans. “I am a man who sees life in terms of missions — missions defined, and missions completed,” he told Republican delegates in the Superdome, acknowledging a swell of applause. He said he would “keep America moving forward” and strive “for a better America.”

1988年，布什在新奥尔良接受共和党总统提名时，强调了责任这个主题。“我是一个用使命来定义人生的人——确定使命，完成使命，”他在超级巨蛋体育场(Superdome)对共和党代表说的这番话赢得了热烈的掌声。他说，他将“让美国继续前进”，为了“一个更美好的美国”而努力。

“That is my mission,” he concluded. “And I will complete it.”

“那就是我的使命，”他在演讲结尾时说道，“我会完成它。”

Tall (6 feet 2 inches) with an athlete’s graceful gait, Mr. Bush was genial and gentlemanly, except in the throes of a tough campaign, and an inveterate note writer who avoided the first person singular pronoun. He represented a “kinder” and “gentler” strain of Republicanism — the often-quoted words he used in his Inaugural Address to describe his vision for the nation and the world — that has been all but buried in a seismic shift to the right in the party.

布什身材高大（6英尺2英寸，约合1.88米），有着运动员的优雅步态，他很友善，具有绅士风度——除了在那场艰苦竞选中痛苦挣扎之时——他习惯写便条，总是避免使用第一人称单数代词。他代表着共和党人中“更友善”、“更温和”的类型——就职演说中，他用这两个词来描述自己对国家和世界的看法，此后经常被人引用——在该党突然转向右倾之时，这种类型几乎已被淹没。

Mr. Bush’s post-presidency brought talk of a political dynasty. The son of a United States senator, Mr. Bush saw two of his own sons forge political careers that brought him a measure of redemption after he was ousted as commander in chief. George W. Bush became the first son of a president since John Quincy Adams to follow his father to the White House, but unlike his father, he won re-election. Another son, Jeb Bush, was twice elected governor of Florida and ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 2016.

布什离开总统位置后，产生了政治王朝的话题。布什是一位美国参议员的儿子，而他自己的两个儿子也成就了一番政治事业，这在一定程度上弥补了他失去最高统帅地位的遗憾。乔治·W·布什成为继约翰·昆西·亚当斯(John Quincy Adams)之后第二个追随父亲的足迹入主白宫的总统之子，但是和父亲不同，他赢得了连任。另一个儿子杰布·布什(Jeb Bush)两次当选佛罗里达州长，在2016年的总统竞选中失利。

As the elder Mr. Bush watched troubles envelop the eight-year presidency of his son, however, what had been a source of pride, friends said, became a cause of distress. The contrast between the two President Bushes — 41 and 43, as they came to call each other — served to burnish the father’s reputation in later years. As the younger Mr. Bush’s popularity fell, the elder Mr. Bush’s public standing rose. Many Americans came to appreciate the restrained, seasoned leadership the 41st president had displayed; in an opinion poll in 2012, 59 percent expressed approval. Democrats, including President Barack Obama, praised the father as a way of rebuking the son.

然而，老布什的朋友们说，他看着儿子的八年总统任期麻烦不断，曾经让他骄傲的东西变成了沮丧的缘由。到后来，两位布什总统之间的对比——第41任和第43任总统，他俩之间渐渐也开始这样互相称呼——提升了父亲的声誉。随着小布什的受欢迎程度降低，老布什的公共地位开始上升。很多美国人开始欣赏第41任总统曾经表现出来的克制老练的领导风格。在2012年的一项民意调查中，59%的人对他表示赞赏。民主党人，包括贝拉克·奥巴马(Barack Obama)总统，也称赞这位父亲，作为指责儿子的一种方式。

It was a subject Mr. Bush avoided discussing in public but one he finally addressed in conversations with Jon Meacham, his biographer, in a book released by Random House in 2015. Mr. Bush blamed men who had long been part of his own life and who were later figures in his son’s orbit — Dick Cheney, his son’s vice president, and Donald H. Rumsfeld, his son’s secretary of defense, with whom the elder Mr. Bush had long feuded — for creating a “hard line” atmosphere in the White House that pushed an aggressive and ultimately destructive use of force around the world.

这是布什拒绝公开谈论的一个话题，但他最终在与传记作者乔恩·米查姆(Jon Meacham)的对话中谈到了它，那本传记于2015年由兰登书屋(Random House)出版。布什指责了那些长期存在于自己生活中、后来也围绕在儿子身边的人物——儿子的副总统迪克·切尼(Dick Cheney)和国防部长唐纳德·H·拉姆斯菲尔德(Donald H. Rumsfeld)，老布什与这两个人长期不和——指责他们在白宫营造了一种“强硬路线”的气氛，在世界各地侵略性地、最终破坏性地使用武力。

“I do worry about some of the rhetoric that was out there — some of it his, maybe, and some of it the people around him,” Mr. Bush said in the book, “Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush.”

“我的确为他公开发表的一些言论感到担忧——有些可能是他自己的想法，还有些是他身边人的想法，”布什在《命运与权力：乔治·休伯特·沃尔克·布什的美国奥德赛之旅》(Destiny And Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush)一书中说道。

He was particularly critical of Mr. Rumsfeld. “I don’t like what he did, and I think it hurt the president, having his iron-ass view of everything,” Mr. Bush said, adding, “Rumsfeld was an arrogant fellow and self-assured, swagger.”

他特别批评了拉姆斯菲尔德。“我不喜欢他做的事，我认为那伤害了总统，他对所有的事情都持强硬态度，”布什说。他还说，“拉姆斯菲尔德是个傲慢的家伙，自以为是，趾高气昂。”

After his loss to Mr. Clinton in an election in which the independent candidate Ross Perot won almost a fifth of the vote — a loss that left him dispirited and humiliated, by his own account — Mr. Bush and his wife, Barbara, repaired to their home in Houston and to their oceanfront compound in Kennebunkport, Me. But he did not quite retire.

在连任竞选中输给克林顿之后——在那场竞选中，独立候选人罗斯·佩罗(Ross Perot)赢得了近五分之一的选票，据布什自己说，这次失败让他心灰意冷，无地自容——他和妻子芭芭拉(Barbara)在他们的休斯敦家中和缅因州肯纳邦克波特的海滨别墅疗伤。但他并没有退休。

He celebrated several milestone birthdays, including his 90th, with parachute jumps. He traveled the globe on White House missions, joining Mr. Clinton to raise funds for the victims of the tsunami that ravaged Asia in 2004, and of Hurricane Katrina the next year.

他用跳伞庆祝了自己的几个重要生日，包括90岁生日。他肩负白宫使命在世界各地旅行，和克林顿一起为难民筹款，包括2004年给亚洲造成极大破坏的海啸以及次年的“卡特里娜”飓风(Hurricane Katrina)。

Until these undertakings, Mr. Bush had made little effort to mask his disdain for Mr. Clinton, but they forged an unlikely, almost familial bond, growing so close that Mrs. Bush described her husband as the father Mr. Clinton never had.

在参加这些活动之前，布什几乎毫不掩饰对克林顿的蔑视，但他们后来结成了一种不可思议的、近乎亲人的关系，变得非常亲密，布什夫人曾说自己的丈夫像是克林顿从未能拥有的父亲。

The two former presidents became a symbol of bipartisanship in an increasingly partisan age. If Mr. Bush’s embrace helped scrub Mr. Clinton’s reputation of some of its tawdrier aspects, Mr. Clinton helped transform Mr. Bush’s image from that of a vanquished one-term president who had never fully escaped the shadow of his popular predecessor, Reagan, to one of a respected elder statesman.

在这个党派政治日益严重的时代，这两位前总统成为两党合作的象征。如果说布什的接纳帮助克林顿洗刷了某些坏名声，那么克林顿也帮助布什转变了形象——从一直生活在受欢迎的前任总统里根阴影下，且未能赢得连任的落败总统，转变为受人尊敬的前辈政治家。

Mr. Bush was president during a shift in the world order that had begun under Reagan. His measured response to upheaval in Eastern Europe drew complaints that he was not seizing the reins of history. But he chose a collaborative approach, working with the Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev to allow for the reunification of Germany, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. The two leaders signed treaties mandating historic reductions in their countries’ nuclear and chemical weapons.

布什的总统任期正值一场始于里根时代的世界秩序转型。他对东欧动荡局势的反应是谨慎的，导致一些人批评他没有掌握历史的主动。但是他选择了一种合作的方式，与苏联领导人米哈伊尔·S·戈尔巴乔夫(Mikhail S. Gorbachev)一起接受了德国统一、苏联解体以及冷战的结束。两位领导人签署了条约，要求对各自的核武器和化学武器储备进行削减，对历史产生深远影响。

“George H. W. Bush was the best one-term president the country has ever had, and one of the most underrated presidents of all time,” James A. Baker III, the former secretary of state and Mr. Bush’s closest adviser for nearly 50 years, said in an interview in 2013. “I think history is going to treat him very well.”

“乔治·H·W·布什是美国历史上最好的未连任总统，也是最被低估的总统之一，”前国务卿、辅佐布什近50年的顾问詹姆斯·A·贝克三世(James A. Baker III)在2013年接受采访时说。“我认为历史会给他一个非常好的评价。”

In his first year at the White House, Mr. Bush sent troops into Panama to oust its strongman, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega. The rapid, relatively bloodless conclusion of the Persian Gulf war of 1991 earned him a three-minute standing ovation and shouts of “Bush! Bush!” when he addressed a joint session of Congress that March. It also sent his voter approval ratings soaring to close to 85 percent during the four-day aerial bombardment of Baghdad, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll. It was the pinnacle of his presidency, yet it lulled him, not to mention some potentially formidable Democrats, into assuming his re-election was certain.

在入主白宫的第一年，布什出兵巴拿马，推翻了那里的铁腕统治者曼努埃尔·安东尼奥·诺列加(Manuel Antonio Noriega)。1991年海湾战争的速战速决以及相对来说较少的流血，让他在那年三月的一次国会联席会议演讲上得到三分钟的全体起立鼓掌，人们高喊着“布什！布什！”据纽约时报/CBS新闻民调，为期四天的巴格达空袭把他的选民满意度推到了将近85%。那是他总统任期的巅峰，然而也让他产生了一种错觉，以为自己的连任已经十拿九稳，一些可能构成威胁的民主党人当时也是这样认为。

Iraq was not an unalloyed victory. Mr. Bush felt compelled to defend his decision to suspend the assault before it could topple Mr. Hussein, and his critics questioned his earlier effort to give Mr. Hussein financial aid and intelligence data. Still, foreign policy successes were the hallmark of his presidency. Not so his domestic record.

伊拉克并非一场全然的胜利。布什被迫要对自己的决策做出辩解，他在推翻侯赛因之前停止了进攻，而他此前向侯赛因提供财政援助和情报数据的事，也遭到了批评者的质疑。然而，外交政策上的成功依然是他总统任期的重要标志。与他在国内的作为不可同日而语。

By the midpoint of his term, leaders of both the Republican and Democratic Parties complained that in the midst of the worst economy any American president had faced since the end of World War II, Mr. Bush had no domestic agenda. Many questioned his sensitivity to the worries of ordinary Americans. Though stung by the criticism, he did little to dispel that perception on a visit to an economically reeling New Hampshire during his re-election campaign, when he announced in January, “Message: I care.”

在四年任期进行到一半的时候，共和党和民主党领袖都表达了不满，他们认为，面对二战后最严峻的经济形势，布什没有一个国内议程。很多人质疑他对美国百姓的苦难置若罔闻。尽管被批评声刺痛，他在经济形势不妙的新罕布什尔进行连任竞选时的表现，并没有驱散人们的这种印象，他在一月宣称，“要传达的讯息：我在乎。”

His signal domestic decision was almost certainly the 1990 budget deal, which sought to address deepening deficits by raising taxes on the wealthy. If it helped put the nation back on solid financial footing, it nevertheless reversed one of the most explicit campaign pledges ever uttered by a major-party presidential candidate: “Read my lips: No new taxes.”

他的国内决策的标志几乎可以肯定是1990年的预算协议，该协议意在通过向富人征税应对日益恶化的赤字问题。它让国家财政重新站稳脚跟，然而却背弃了有史以来大党总统候选人所做过的最为明确的竞选承诺：“看我口型：不会加税。”

That promise had been delivered to roars of approval in his acceptance speech at the 1988 Republican National Convention in New Orleans, and the turnabout provoked a chorus of reproach. Conservative Republicans revolted. Democrats found an opening for a bruising attack. And the stage was set for an unexpectedly strong third-party challenge by Mr. Perot, a fellow Texan. “It did destroy me,” Mr. Bush told his biographer Mr. Meacham years later as he assessed the damage he had suffered from breaking his 1988 campaign pledge.

这个承诺是在1988年新奥尔良共和党全国大会的接受提名演讲里做出的，当时引起了一片叫好，而他的出尔反尔遭到众人斥责。保守派共和党人开始倒戈。民主党人则看到了严重打击他的机会。此事还成就了第三政党挑战者、德州老乡罗斯·佩罗(Ross Perot)出人意料的强劲势头。“我的确是被这事毁掉的，”多年后，他跟自己的传记作者米查姆谈起背弃1988年竞选承诺一事，是这样评价它造成的破坏的。

Barely a year after the world had hailed his success in Iraq, Mr. Bush found himself almost losing the Republican presidential primary in New Hampshire to the conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan. Mr. Bush won the nomination but was weakened by the Buchanan challenge and accordingly veered sharply to the right. He then lost to Mr. Clinton. Mr. Perot’s 19 percent of the popular vote helped deny both Mr. Bush and Mr. Clinton a majority.

在伊拉克的胜利给他带来的欢呼声过去仅一年，布什就发现自己在新罕布什尔的共和党总统初选上差一点输给保守派政治评论员帕特里克·J·布坎南(Patrick J. Buchanan)。他最终赢得了提名，但布坎南的挑战以及右派阵营的立场改变削弱了他的势头。他随后输给了克林顿。佩罗得到19%的普选票，让布什和克林顿都没能拿到多数票。

By any yardstick, Mr. Bush was an aristocrat, a product of moneyed Greenwich, Conn., where he was instilled with an enduring sense of noblesse oblige.

无论以什么标准，布什都是一名贵族，康涅狄格州格林尼治富有阶层的产物，那里的潜移默化给了他一种不可磨灭的高贵姿态。

As a candidate, he was known to ask his Secret Service detail to stop at traffic lights. He wrote enough thank-you notes, courtesy cards and letters of sympathy — Mr. Bush seemed to know someone in every town in America — to fill a book, literally.

作为总统候选人期间，他要求自己的特勤局车队按照红绿灯行驶的事广为人知。他写过许多致谢便条、礼节卡和悼唁信——布什似乎在全美每一个城镇里都认识人——多到结集成书的地步。

Its title was his customary signoff, “All the Best, George Bush.” Published in 1999, the book appeared in lieu of a traditional presidential memoir, which he thought would be unseemly for a man whose mother, Dorothy W. Bush, had taught him the importance of modesty.

书名就是他惯用的落款，“祝事事顺利，乔治·布什”。这本出版于1999年的书取代了传统的总统回忆录，他的母亲多萝西·W·布什(Dorothy W. Bush)曾教导他谦卑的重要性，出回忆录在他看来是不妥当的。

But the patrician image also hurt him politically. He drew barbs for his drawing-room mannerisms and expressions. When a waitress serving coffee at a New Hampshire truck stop during the 1988 presidential campaign asked him if he would like a refill, he nodded, saying yes, he’d have another “splash.”

然而高贵的形象在政治上也曾给他带来不利。他在待人接物上的仪态和用语招来过嘲弄。1988年总统竞选期间，在新罕布什尔一个卡车驿站里，服务生问他咖啡要不要续杯，他点点头说好的，他想再“点上一些”咖啡。

His critics saw him as out of touch with ordinary Americans, pointing to what they portrayed as his amazed reaction during a demonstration of a supermarket scanner when he visited a grocers’ convention while president. (He later insisted that he had not been surprised.)

他的批评者认为他不识民间疾苦，他们的一个事例是，在任总统期间，布什曾参加一个食品杂货商展会，在看到超市扫码器演示时表情十分诧异。（他后来坚称自己并没有感到意外。）

In a debate during the 1992 campaign, he became flustered when a woman asked him how he could respond to the economic distress “of the common people” if he had “no experience with what’s ailing them.” Mr. Bush gazed uneasily at his questioner.

1992年的一次竞选辩论中，布什面对一名女子的提问面红耳赤，此人说如果他“没有经历过困扰着平民百姓的问题”，那么又怎能对经济困境做出应对。布什不安地盯着提问者。

“Help me with the question, and I’ll try to answer it,” the president said.

“帮我认清问题，我会努力去回答，”总统说。

Moments afterward, he watched as Mr. Clinton strode eagerly across the stage to engage the woman and, some said, win over much of the electorate.

在那之后，他看着克林顿热切地与那名女子展开交流，在很多人看来，当时后者赢得了许多选民。

Aware of his boarding-school image, Mr. Bush liked to point to his earthier chapters: his years in the Texas oil business, his wartime service. He reminded listeners that he did not wear button-down dress shirts or striped ties, thank you very much, and that he liked country music, horseshoes and pork rinds.

清楚自己有一种贵族学校学生形象的布什，喜欢把人们的注意力引向一个自己人生比较平凡的时期：在德州石油业的工作，以及战时的军旅生活。他提醒听众他并不穿带纽扣领的正装衬衫或条纹领带，他喜欢乡村音乐、马掌和猪皮。

His courteousness was often taken — mistaken might be the better word — for docility. In 1987, Newsweek published a cover of him with the headline “Fighting the ‘Wimp Factor.’” (“The cheapest shot I’ve seen in my political life,” Mr. Bush fumed in his diary.) But he could be fiercely competitive in both politics and play. He ran a harsh campaign to beat Michael S. Dukakis in 1988. He did not simply play golf, he played what the White House physician called “aerobic golf,” a mad rush from green to green.

他的彬彬有礼时常被认为——准确说是被误会成——是个性温顺的表现。1987年，《新闻周刊》(Newsweek)发表了一张他的封面，标题是《克服‘懦弱因子’》（“那是我政治生涯里见过的最下三滥的攻击，”布什在自己的日记中怒不可遏地写道。）但是无论在政治还是比赛中，他是可以极端好斗的。他在1988年进行了一场残酷的竞选，击败迈克尔·S·杜卡基斯(Michael S. Dukakis)。他打高尔夫球的方式，用白宫医生的话说，不是一般的高尔夫，而是“有氧高尔夫”，急匆匆打完一洞立刻奔向下一洞。

Mr. Bush was given to malapropisms, a trait he may have handed down to his son George. He tangled his sentences, particularly when he was nervous. And he supplied a stream of entries into the American political lexicon. He talked about the “Big Mo” to describe the momentum that a victory in the Iowa caucuses had given his campaign; tough moments were “tension city”; in asking voters not to pity him, he plucked a line from the musical “Evita,” saying, “Don’t cry for me, Argentina.”

布什喜欢谐音笑话，这一点似乎被儿子乔治继承了。他的语句乱作一团，在紧张的时候尤其如此。他给美国政治字典源源不断地加入新词。他用“Big Mo”形容在艾奥瓦党团会议获得的胜利给竞选带去的重大利好；艰难时刻叫做“tension city”(紧绷之城）；在请求选民不要怜悯他时，他引用了音乐剧《艾薇塔》(Evita)中的一句台词：“别为我哭泣，阿根廷。”

His speeches were delivered with a clipped cadence and a nasal voice that invited parody. The comedian Dana Carvey made his Bush imitation a staple of “Saturday Night Live.” (“Not gonna do it. Wouldn’t be prudent.”) Rarely did Mr. Bush display the kind of emotional acuity that could move an audience. In a debate in 1992, a television camera captured him glancing at his wristwatch, as if he were bored.

他的演讲磕磕绊绊，有一种容易被取笑的鼻音。喜剧演员丹纳·卡维(Dana Carvey)模仿的布什曾经是《周六夜现场》(Saturday Night Live)的一个固定内容。（“不可以的。那是不审慎的。”）布什很少展现能打动观众的那种情感上的敏锐性。在1992年的一次辩论中，电视摄像机捕捉到他在看表，仿佛感到无聊。

Yet for all these moments, Mr. Bush could exhibit a gracious charm and authenticity. He was that rare figure in Washington: a man without enemies — or with very few, at any rate.

然而回顾这许多的瞬间，布什呈现了一种优雅的气度和诚挚。他是华盛顿的一个异类：一个没有敌人的男人——或者说敌人少之又少。

“You don’t see anybody trashing this president,” Mr. Baker said in the 2013 interview. “Whether they agreed with him on certain policy positions or not, people respected him and liked him.”

“你没见过有谁去唾弃这位总统，”贝克在2013年采访中说。“无论在具体某个政策立场上是否认同他，人们都会尊重他，喜欢他。”

Mr. Bush is survived by his sons George, Jeb, Neil and Marvin; his daughter, Dorothy Bush Koch; two brothers, Jonathan and William; a sister, Nancy Walker Bush Ellis; 20 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Robin, died of leukemia at age 3 in 1953. His older brother, Prescott S. Bush Jr., died in 2010.

布什身后留有他的儿子乔治、杰布、尼尔(Neil)和马文(Marvin)；他的女儿多萝西·布什·科赫(Dorothy Bush Koch)；两个兄弟，乔纳森(Jonathan)和威廉(William)；妹妹南希·沃克尔·布什·艾利斯(Nancy Walker Bush Ellis)；20个孙辈；七个曾孙辈。他还有一个女儿罗彬(Robin)在1953年三岁时因白血病夭折。他的哥哥小普莱斯科特·S·布什(Prescott S. Bush Jr.)于2010年去世。

Mr. Bush remained physically and mentally robust well into his later years, pursuing a retirement seemingly as frenetic as his career had been. At Kennebunkport, when not golfing, he was often found roaring atop the waves, piloting his speedboat, grinning while often terrifying visitors who dared to join him.

步入晚年的布什一直保持着强健的身心，在退休生活中倾注了不亚于其政治生涯的活力。在肯纳邦克波特，他有时打高尔夫，有时开着自己的快艇在海浪间疾驶，脸上挂着笑容，却让那些敢于一同前往的宾客惊恐万分。

The day before he turned 80, in 2004, he gave a eulogy at Reagan’s funeral in California. Back in Texas, he celebrated his birthday with about 5,000 invited guests, including Mr. Gorbachev, at a gala dinner in Houston’s baseball stadium. The day after that, as 3,000 people watched from below, Mr. Bush strapped on a parachute and jumped out of a plane.

2004年的80岁生日前一天，他前往加州，在里根的葬礼上致辞。回到德州后，他在休斯敦棒球场大摆筵席，邀请了5000名宾客为他庆生，其中一位客人是戈尔巴乔夫。次日，在地面的3000人注视下，他穿上降落伞从飞机上跳下。

Mr. Bush was never a man comfortable with self-examination, but in an interview with Mr. Meacham, his biographer, he evinced some insecurity about how history might judge him. “I am lost between the glory of Reagan — monuments everywhere, trumpets, the great hero — and the trials and tribulations of my sons,” Mr. Bush said.

布什向来不喜做自我评价，不过在接受传记作者米查姆的采访时，他对自己的历史地位显得没什么信心。“我迷失在了里根的荣光——到处是他的纪念碑，赞美，大英雄——和我的儿子们的拼搏之间，”布什说。

At another point, he asked of those who would examine his career, “What if they just find an empty deck of cards?”

还有一次，他谈起那些将评判他的功过是非的人说，“万一他们只能找到一摞空白卡片怎么办？”

But the 41st president may have best summed up his talents and ambitions in a diary entry on the last day of 1989, as the first year of his presidency drew to a close.

然而在1989年最后一天的日记里，第41任美国总统也许对自己的才能与雄心做出了最佳的描述，那是他总统任期第一年的尾声。