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Two weeks before Euro 2024 began, it came to me like a vision: it was time for a work sweepstake. So I clicked send all and hoped that more than one person would be interested. I needn’t have worried. I’ve never had so many responses to a group email.
欧洲杯开幕前两周，我灵光一现：是时候进行一次工作抽奖了。于是，我点击了“全部发送”，希望不止一个人感兴趣。我不必担心。我从来没有收到过这么多对群发邮件的回复。
The enthusiastic reception means I’ve ended up running two sweepstakes — one with allocated countries and one more complicated: involving goal predictions and a feverishly updated spreadsheet. It has triggered another side in me (did I mention the spreadsheet?) and in my colleagues too. One even brought in a Euro wall chart for the office while another ungenerously hailed me as a ladette, which I hope will be quietly retired as a nickname.
热烈的反响意味着我最终参与了两场抽奖活动——一个是分配国家的，另一个更复杂：涉及进球预测和频繁更新的电子表格。这激发了我和我的同事们的另一面。其中一位同事甚至为办公室带来了一张欧洲杯墙图，而另一位则不太友好地称我为“女汉子”(ladette)，我希望这个昵称能悄悄地被淘汰。
The office this year has been a microcosm of what the Euros initiate. Even my colleagues who don’t like football have been invoking it as bonus snark: Oh, is something happening today?, one intoned on a recent England match day. The tournament encourages a different energy in both its followers and dissenters. The inevitable starting points for conversation — “How are you” or “how was your weekend”: questions doomed for mundane answers or hedged responses — have turned to new and knowing half phrases. “Presumably you saw . . .?” It is not that anybody has changed, but that a dynamic has opened up.
今年的办公室成为了欧洲杯的一个缩影。即使是不喜欢足球的同事们也开始拿它开涮：哦，今天发生了什么吗？最近一次英格兰比赛日，有人这样说道。这个比赛鼓励着追随者和反对者们展现出不同的能量。对话的必然起点——“你好吗”或者“你周末过得怎么样”：注定会得到平凡答案或者含糊回应的问题——已经变成了新的、明白其中意味的半句话。“你应该看到了吧……？”并不是说有人改变了，而是一种动态被打开了。
When Bellingham’s bicycle kick landed the ball firmly in the back of the net, I felt myself as one of many exclaiming at the TV
当贝林厄姆的倒钩球稳稳地打入球网时，我感觉自己也像许多人一样在电视前惊呼
With the Euros, there’s an inevitable mutuality. It’s more wholesome than club football, where my Nottingham Forest scarf will prompt unpredictable reactions when I’m out and about. Instead, the days bring flashes of acknowledgment that we live amid many who care and fixate on the same thing. Sometimes that’s just a nod from a passer-by when I’m carrying a four-pack before a game, or small talk with a delivery driver. Sometimes it isn’t even about acknowledging but supposing — it acts as a reminder of our connections: that our evenings might have looked similar, and that the emotions packed within were likely shared. It was a recognition, strangely, that I repeatedly had during the pandemic — suddenly grouped together by a shared experience and knowing whoever I passed on the street was caught up in the same foreign world.
在欧洲杯期间，我们之间存在一种不可避免的相互性。这比俱乐部足球更有益，因为我的诺丁汉森林(Nottingham Forest)围巾在外出时可能引起不可预测的反应。然而，在这些日子里，我们会意识到我们生活在许多关心和专注于同一件事的人中间。有时，这只是我在比赛前拿着四包啤酒时路人的点头，或与送货司机的闲聊。有时，这甚至不是关于承认，而是关于假设——它提醒我们之间的联系：我们的晚上可能看起来很相似，情感可能是共享的。这是一种奇怪的认识，我在疫情期间反复有过——突然因为共同的经历而聚在一起，知道我在街上遇到的每个人都陷入了同样的异国世界。
The Euros is a cheerier equivalent. When Jude Bellingham’s bicycle kick landed the ball firmly in the back of the net last weekend, I felt myself as one of many exclaiming at the TV, shown the impossible that I had been willing the team to commit. I could see it like a kaleidoscope: one of millions on their sofa, at the pub or driving with the radio on, urging something to happen — followed by the thrilling shock when, beyond all probability, the call was heard.
欧洲杯是一个更加令人欢欣鼓舞的赛事。当裘德•贝林厄姆(Jude Bellingham)上周末的倒挂金钩将球稳稳地射入球门时，我感觉自己就像众多观众之一，在电视前惊叹不已，见证了我一直希望球队能够完成的不可能之举。我仿佛看到了一个万花筒：无数人坐在沙发上、在酒吧里或者开车时听着收音机，期待着某种事情的发生——随后是那激动人心的震惊，当超乎所有可能的呼声被应和时。
These moments become markers of understanding, later to be repeated: poor old Scotland . . . did you see the look on Modrić’s face? . . . how many times will Ronaldo fail to score before he finally retires? They become hints of a larger question — were you there? — that hits more significantly than the fact of whether you simply watched a game of football. As shared sightings they act like pen strokes, drawing a collective map of what a country, together and apart, has witnessed. It only amplifies when you begin to think of the fans in other countries, making some of the same marks alongside their own.
这些时刻成为理解的标志，以后还会重复出现：可怜的苏格兰……你看到莫德里奇的表情了吗？C罗在最终退役前会有多少次浪射？这些都暗示了一个更大的问题——你在那里吗？这比你是否只是观看了一场足球比赛更有意义。作为共同的见证，它们像笔触一样，描绘出一个国家的集体地图，无论是团结还是分离，都见证了什么。当你开始思考其他国家的球迷，他们也在自己的国家留下了同样的印记时，这种感觉就会更加强烈。
International football tournaments provoke in me a feeling that is usually unfamiliar — one of collectivity and representation. For a month, every few years, I taste what it is to be patriotic. More than that, it gives me an idea of what a purer patriotism could be. I recognise the irony — English football fans hardly have a reputation for healthy patriotism. But it’s what supporting England does for me.
国际足球锦标赛在我心中激起了一种通常不熟悉的感觉——一种集体性和代表性的感觉。每隔几年，我就会用一个月的时间来体会爱国的滋味。更重要的是，它让我了解了什么是纯粹的爱国主义。我知道这很讽刺——英格兰足球迷几乎没有健康爱国主义的名声。但这就是支持英格兰对我的意义。
England is a complicated place, with lurking racism and tired ideas of nationality. We are a rich country yet I can barely get a train, or a doctor’s appointment, let alone a home to call my own. All these and more make Englishness and a sense of collective identity fraught. But for a time, while our players are in the base camp, something in the air agitates and resettles. I can feel it. It makes me aspire to an Englishness I’m comfortable with. It’s a long-term game, one that far outlasts the buzz of a tournament. But it’s a welcome side effect.
英格兰是一个复杂的地方，潜伏着种族主义和陈旧的国籍观念。我们是一个富裕的国家，但我几乎无法乘坐火车、预约看医生，更别提拥有自己的住房了。所有这些都使英格兰人的身份和集体认同感变得脆弱。但是在我们的球员们在基地训练的时候，空气中有一种不安和重新安定的感觉。我能感觉到。它让我渴望拥有一种我感到舒适的英格兰人的身份。这是一个长期的游戏，远远超过了比赛的喧嚣。但这是一个受欢迎的副作用。
Rebecca Watson’s new novel, ‘I Will Crash’, is published by Faber
丽贝卡•沃森(Rebecca Watson)的新小说《我将坠毁》由Faber出版社发行