[Obituary] Leszek Kolakowski ②

99-3-468
His opponents in that argument seem to have landed on the dustheap of history. But Mr Kolakowski's distaste for communism did not make him an evangelist for free-market liberalism: he was too inquisitive, sceptical and irreverent to support any particular doctrine strongly. He was particularly critical of those who relied solely on science for answers to the big questions about life. He criticised too the emptiness of secular materialism. Increasingly, he became convinced that religion, in some form or other, was a necessary part of human existence. He was no churchgoer, but asked what his next target would be after communism, he replied, only half-jokingly, "the devil".
For those involved in the struggle against communism, on both sides of the iron curtain, he became a guru, ranking along with Czeslaw Milosz, the emigre Polish poet whose book "The Captive Mind", published in 1953, unpicked the mind-mangling effects of communist thought.

A. 어휘
opponent 반대자. argument 논쟁. dustheap 쓰레기(먼지) 더미.
distaste 嫌惡(혐오), 싫음. evangelist 전도사.
inquisitive 꼬치꼬치 캐묻는, 호기심이 강한. sceptical 懷疑的(회의적)인.
irreverent 사회와 관련성이 없는, 엉뚱한. doctrine 주의, 원리, 敎理(교리).
critical 비판적인. solely 주로, 오직. emptiness 공허.
secular materialism 세속적 물질주의. Increasingly 점점 더.
human existence 인간존재. devil 악마.
on both sides of the iron curtain 자유민주주의 사회와 공산독재사회.
guru 敎父(교부), 도사. emigre 망명자. captive 사로잡힌.
unpick 바늘 끝 따위로 후벼서 풀다. mangle 亂刀(난도)질 하다, 갈기갈기 찢다.
effect 영향, 결과, 효과.

B. 구문
- He was no churchgoer, but asked . . . only half-jokingly, "the devil".
[그는 교회는 나가지 않았지만 공산주의가 무너진 다음의 투쟁목표가 무엇이냐는 질문을 받았을 때 반 농담조로 “악마”라고 대답하였다.]

99-4-469
In those early days, of course, Mr Kolakowski was still a loyal, if critical, party member. Some of his fans preferred to forget that. They also overlooked his youthful tirades against Poland's Catholic church. As a zealous party member when the remnants of wartime anti-communism were still strong, he used to carry a pistol for fear of assassination. Remembering his father's murder during the Nazi occupation, the young Kolakowski accepted communism as an alternative both to Nazi militarism and to the failures of Poland's pre-war system of semi-authoritarian capitalism. Indeed his country's post-war communist rulers saw the brainy, determined youngster as a prize prospect and rewarded him with a trip to Moscow in 1950 to experience the delights of Soviet rule.
That backfired. He wrote later of the "material and spiritual desolation" he saw there, though it took two decades for his faith in Poland󰡑s socialist system to erode entirely. In the late 1960s, he made his way to America but found the radical campus leftism "pathetic and disgusting" no place to bring up his daughter, he felt. He visited America regularly, though, and it was in his Jefferson lecture, the highest honour the federal government gives for intellectual achievement, that he coined his best-known aphorism: "We learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are."

A. 어휘
loyal 충성스러운. party member 당원.
overlook 못보고 넘어가다, 눈감아 주다, 너그럽게 봐주다.
tirade 긴 비난 연설. zealous 열광적인, 열중한. remnants 殘餘(잔여), 자취.
assassination 암살. occupation 점령. alternative 대체, 代案(대안).
pre-war 〈2차 세계대전〉戰前(전전). semi-authoritarian 半(반) 독재적인.
post-war 戰後(전후). brainy 머리가 좋은, 총명한. prize 훌륭한, 1급의.
prospect 유망한 사람. backfire 예상에 어긋난 결과를 초래하다.
desolation 荒弊(황폐), 폐허. erode 서서히 파괴하다, 腐蝕(부식)하다.
the radical campus leftism 대학의 급진적인 좌파. pathetic 측은한, 불쌍한.
disgusting 역겨운. regularly 정기적으로. the federal government 연방정부.
coin 새로운 말을 만들어 내다. aphorism 금언, 격언.
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