By J.K. Rowling

来自J.K罗琳

Originally published on 

on Oct 6th 2016

发布在potter more上于2016年10月6日

 

Origins

起源

The Magical Congress of the United States of America, known to American witches and wizards by the abbreviation MACUSA (commonly pronounced as: Mah – cooz – ah) was created in 1693, following the introduction of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy. Wizards worldwide had reached a tipping point, suspecting that they could lead freer and happier lives if they built an underground community that offered its own support and had its own structures. This feeling was particularly strong in America, due to the recent Salem Witch Trials.

MACUSA was modeled on the Wizards’ Council of Great Britain, which predated the Ministry of Magic. Representatives from magical communities all over North America were elected to MACUSA to create laws that both policed and protected American wizardkind.

 

美利坚合众国魔法国会，缩写为MACUSA(通常发音为:Mah - cooz - ah)，是在《国际巫师保密法》出台之后于1693年成立的。世界各地的巫师已经达到了一个临界点，他们怀疑，如果他们建立一个地下社区，提供自己的支持和自己的结构，他们可以过上更自由、更幸福的生活。这种感觉在美国尤其强烈，因为最近的塞勒姆女巫审判。

马库萨是仿照大不列颠巫师委员会(Wizards’s Council of Great Britain)的，那是在魔法部成立之前成立的。来自北美各地魔法社区的代表被选为“美国魔法协会”，以制定既监管又保护美国魔法界的法律。

 

MACUSA’s primary aim was to rid the continent of Scourers, corrupt wizards who had hunted their fellow magical beings for personal gain. MACUSA’s second great law enforcement challenge was the number of wizarding criminals who had fled to America from Europe and beyond, precisely because of the lack of organised law enforcement such as existed in their own countries.

 

美国的主要目标是清除那些为了个人利益而追捕其他魔法生物的邪恶巫师。美国在执法方面面临的第二大挑战是，有多少巫师罪犯从欧洲或其他地方逃到了美国，而这恰恰是因为他们自己国家缺乏有组织的执法。

 

The first President of MACUSA was Josiah Jackson, a warlike wizard who was voted into post by his fellow representatives because he was considered tough enough to deal with the difficulties of the post-Salem Witch Trials era.

In these first years, MACUSA had no fixed meeting place. Meetings were held in different locations to avoid No-Maj detection.

 

MACUSA的第一任总统是乔赛亚·杰克逊(Josiah Jackson)，他是一名好战的巫师，他被其他代表投票任命为总统，因为大家认为他足够坚强，能够应对后塞勒姆女巫审判时代的困难。

在这些最初几年,MACUSA没有固定的聚会场所。会议在不同地点举行，以避免无重大事件被发现。

 

Law Enforcement

执法

President Jackson’s immediate priority was to recruit and train Aurors. The names of the first dozen volunteers to train as Aurors in the US have a special place in United States’ wizarding history. There were so few of them, and the challenges they faced so great, that they knew they might be required to lay down their lives when they took the job. The descendants of these witches and wizards have been given particular respect in the US ever since. 

 

杰克逊总统的当务之急是招募和训练傲罗。在美国，首批十几名接受傲罗培训的志愿者在美国魔法史上有着特殊的地位。他们人数很少，面临的挑战又如此巨大，他们知道当他们接受这份工作时，他们可能会被要求献出自己的生命。从那以后，这些巫师的后代在美国受到了特别的尊重。

 

The original twelve were:

Wilhelm Fischer

Theodard Fontaine

Gondulphus Graves

Robert Grimsditch

Mary Jauncey

Carlos Lopez

Mungo MacDuff

Cormac O’Brien

Abraham Potter

Berthilde Roche

Helmut Weiss

Charity Wilkinson

 

最初的12个是:

威廉•菲舍尔

西奥多·方丹

冈杜弗斯·格雷夫斯

罗伯特·格里姆斯迪奇

玛丽·琼西

卡洛斯·洛佩兹

蒙戈麦克达夫

科马克•奥布莱恩

亚伯拉罕·波特

伯蒂尔德·罗切

赫尔穆特•韦斯

查莉蒂·威尔金森

 

Of these twelve, only two survived into old age: Charity Wilkinson, who would become MACUSA’s third President, and Theodard Fontaine, whose direct descendant Agilbert is the present day Headmaster of Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Also of note are Gondulphus Graves, whose family remains influential in American wizarding politics, and Abraham Potter, whose distant relationship to the famous Harry Potter would be uncovered by eager genealogists centuries later.

 

这十二个人中，只有两个活到了老年:一个是后来成为马库萨第三任总统的查利蒂·威尔金森，另一个是现任伊尔莫尼魔法学校校长的西奥多·方丹。同样值得注意的还有冈杜弗斯·格雷夫斯(Gondulphus Graves)，他的家族在美国巫师政治中仍然有很大的影响力;还有亚伯拉罕·波特(Abraham Potter)，他与著名的哈利·波特(Harry Potter)的远亲在几个世纪后才被热心的族谱学家发现。

 

Challenges

挑战

America remained one of the most hostile environments for magical people, mainly because of Scourer descendants who had vanished permanently into the No-Maj community and who kept suspicion of magic alive. Unlike most Western countries, there was no cooperation between the No-Maj government and MACUSA.

Initially, an enchanted edifice was created in the Appalachian Mountains as MACUSA headquarters, but over time this became an inconveniently remote location, especially as wizards, like No-Majs, were increasingly congregating in cities.

 

美国仍然是对魔法人类最不利的环境之一，主要是因为那些掠夺者后代永久地消失在这个没有魔法的社区里，他们一直对魔法抱有怀疑。和大多数西方国家一样，没有少将政府和马库萨政府之间没有合作。

起初，阿巴拉契亚山脉曾建造了一座施了魔法的大厦作为MACUSA的总部，但随着时间的推移，这座大楼变成了一个不太方便的偏远地点，尤其是巫师们，比如御术师，越来越多地聚集在城市里。

 

In 1760, MACUSA relocated to Williamsburg, Virginia, home of the flamboyant President Thornton Harkaway. Among many other interests, President Harkaway is credited with breeding Crups – dogs that closely resemble Jack Russells, apart from the forked tail. The Crup’s devotion to wizards is only surpassed by its aggression towards non-magical people. Unfortunately, President Harkaway’s pack savaged several local No-Majs, who afterwards were only able to bark for a period of 48 hours. This breach of the Statute of Secrecy led to Harkaway leaving office in disgrace. (It might not be coincidence that Williamsburg was the first city in the US to have a dedicated psychiatric hospital. Sightings of odd happenings around President Harkaway’s residence might account for the admission of No-Majs who were, in fact, perfectly sane.)

 

1760年，美国国会迁往维吉尼亚州威廉斯堡(Williamsburg)，那里是浮夸的桑顿·哈卡威(Thornton Harkaway)总统的家。除了分叉的尾巴外，哈尔卡韦总统还培育出了一种与杰克·罗素极为相似的狗。克虏伯对巫师的忠诚，只有对非巫师的进攻才能超越。就在这时，哈尔卡韦总统的狼群袭击了几名当地的反抗者，这些人后来只能吠48小时。这一违反《保密法》的行为导致哈卡威不光彩地离职。(威廉斯堡是美国第一个拥有专门精神病院的城市，这也许不是巧合。在哈卡威总统官邸附近发生的怪事，或许可以解释为什么会允许那些实际上完全正常的“大人物”进入白宫。)

 

MACUSA relocated to Baltimore, where President Able Fleming had his home, but the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, followed by the arrival of the No-Maj Congress in the city, made MACUSA understandably nervous and they departed for what is now known as Washington.

 

美国搬到了巴尔的摩，那里是总统弗莱明的家，但是革命战争的爆发，以及在该市的No-Maj Congress的到来，使MACUSA感到紧张是可以理解的，他们动身前往现在被称为华盛顿的地方。

 

It was there that President Elizabeth McGilliguddy presided over the infamous ‘Country or Kind?’ debate of 1777. Thousands of witches and wizards from all over America descended upon MACUSA to attend this extraordinary meeting, for which the Great Meeting Chamber had to be magically enlarged. The issue for discussion was: did the magical community owe their highest allegiance to the country in which they had made their homes, or to the global underground wizarding community? Were they morally obliged to join American No-Majs in their fight for liberation from the British Muggles? Or was this, simply put, not their fight?

 

是伊丽莎白·麦吉利古迪总统主持了这个臭名昭著的“国家还是仁慈的国家”吗?1777年的辩论。成千上万的女巫和男巫从美国各地来到马库萨参加这个特别会议，为了这个会议，大会议厅必须用魔法扩大。讨论的问题是:魔法界是对他们所居住的国家效忠，还是对全球地下魔法界效忠?他们是否在道义上有义务加入美国的“无辜者”行列，为从英国麻瓜手中解放出来而战斗?或者，简单地说，这不是他们的战斗?

 

The arguments for and against intervention were protracted and the fight became vicious. Pro-interventionists argued that they might be able to save lives; anti-interventionists that wizards risked their own security by revealing themselves in battle. Messengers were sent to the Ministry of Magic in London to ask whether they intended to fight. A four-word message returned: ‘Sitting this one out.’ McGilliguddy’s famous response was even shorter: ‘Mind you do.’ While officially the American witches and wizards did not engage in battle, unofficially there were many instances of intervention to protect No-Maj neighbours and the wizarding community celebrated Independence Day along with the rest of American society – although not necessarily alongside them.

One of the most significant American magical laws was created in 1790, when MACUSA approved an edict to enforce total segregation of the wizarding and No-Maj communities. Rappaport’s Law, named after then-President Emily Rappaport, was created as a result of one of the worst breaches of the International Statute of Secrecy ever known, a breach in which the daughter of Rappaport’s Keeper of Treasure and Dragots and a Scourer descendant almost exposed the existence of magic worldwide. With the passing of Rappaport’s Law, intermarriage and even friendship between wizards and No-Majs became illegal in the United States.

MACUSA’s base remained in Washington until 1892, when an unforeseen uprising of the Sasquatch population caused another security breach. Historians place the blame for the rebellion on Irene Kneedander, Head of the Body for Protection of Magical Species (Humanoid), whose interpretation of her job title had involved attacking any Sasquatch that ‘stepped out of line.’ The arrival in Washington of the Sasquatch necessitated mass Obliviations and extensive repairs to headquarters.

 

支持和反对干预的争论旷日持久，斗争变得激烈起来。支持干预的人认为，它们可能能够挽救生命;反对干预的人认为，巫师冒着自身安全的危险在战斗中暴露自己。信使被派往伦敦的魔法部，询问他们是否打算开战。一条只有四个字的信息回复道:“这张票不要坐。”麦吉利古迪著名的回答甚至更简短:“请注意。”“虽然在官方上，美国巫师并没有参战，但在非官方上，有许多干预的例子，以保护没有主要成员的邻居，巫师社区和美国社会的其他人一起庆祝独立日——尽管不一定和他们一起。

美国最重要的魔法法之一是在1790年制定的，当时马库萨批准了一项法令，强制强制巫师和非主流群体实行完全隔离。帕波特法以当时的总统埃米莉·拉帕波特的名字命名，是国际保密法有史以来最严重的违规之一，拉帕波特的宝藏和掠夺者的女儿和一个鞭打者的后裔几乎揭露了全世界魔法的存在。随着拉帕波特法的通过，异族婚姻，甚至巫师和无法无天者之间的友谊在美国都成为非法的。

马库萨的基地一直在华盛顿，直到1892年，一场意外的大脚野人起义造成了另一个安全漏洞。历史学家把这次叛变的责任归咎于保护神奇物种机构(类人)的负责人艾琳·尼丹德(Irene Kneedander)，她对自己职位的解释包括攻击任何“越界的大脚野人”。“大脚野人抵达华盛顿后，必须对总部进行大规模维修。

 

MACUSA needed a new refuge, and over the course of several years, wizards infiltrated the construction team of a new building in New York. By the time the Woolworth Building was completed it could both house No-Majs and – if activated by the correct spells – transform into a space for wizards. The only outer mark of the MACUSA’s new secret location was the owl carved over the entrance.

 

马库萨需要一个新的避难所，经过几年的时间，巫师们渗透进了纽约一座新建筑的施工队。当伍尔沃斯建筑完工时，它既可以容纳无主者，如果使用正确的咒语，它也可以变成巫师的空间。马库萨新秘密地点唯一的外部标志是刻在入口处的猫头鹰。

 

MACUSA in the 1920s

20世纪20年代的马库萨

As with most other magical governing bodies, the Department of Magical Law Enforcement is the largest department in MACUSA.

Rappaport’s Law was still in operation in the 1920s and several offices in MACUSA had no counterpart in the Ministry of Magic; for example, a sub-division dealing with No-Maj Fraternisation and an office issuing and verifying wand permits, which everyone, citizen and visitor, was supposed to carry within the States.

 

和大多数其他魔法管理机构一样，魔法法律执行司是马库萨最大的部门。

拉帕波特的法律在20世纪20年代还在执行，马库萨的几个办事处在魔法部没有对应的机构。例如，有一个处理无重大亲善关系的部门，还有一个签发和验证魔杖许可证的办公室，每个人，无论是公民还是访客，都应该在美国境内携带魔杖。

 

 

 

A significant difference between the wizarding governments of the United States and the UK of this time was the penalty for serious crime. Whereas British witches and wizards were sent to Azkaban, the worst criminals in America were executed.

 

在当时，美国和英国的巫师政府最大的区别就是对严重犯罪的处罚。英国的巫师被送到阿兹卡班，而美国最坏的罪犯则被处决。

 

In the 1920s the President of MACUSA was Seraphina Picquery from Savannah. The Department of Magical Law Enforcement was headed by Percival Graves, a well-respected descendant of one of the original twelve American Aurors.

 

20世纪20年代，MACUSA的总统是萨凡纳的萨拉菲娜·皮查尔。魔法法律执行司由珀西瓦尔·格雷夫斯领导，他是最早的十二个美国傲罗之一的后裔，备受尊敬。