藍月星雨
本人信奉之藍人準則：但求三餐不愁。睡大覺，喝小酒，穿花衣裳。
By CATHERINE FIELD,
Herald correspondent 13.03.2003
法國外長多米尼克×德維爾潘，那個一手培植了法國在伊拉克問題上大膽的抵抗美國策略的人，就象是來自另一個時代的人物。
在這個外交部長們通常因為毫無棱角而成為乏味黨棍的時代，德維爾潘突出得如同一個時代的錯誤。他宛如一個文藝複興時期政治家的活化石， 博學多才，滿腔熱血。
甚至連他的外表都是個錯誤。1.9米的身高使他顯得鶴立雞群；運動型的瘦削身材；永遠彬彬有禮但又充滿激情；滿頭華發、巧於辭令，目光咄咄逼人。
兩個世紀前，他可以成為一個劍客，一個劍鋒如他的智慧一般銳利的火槍手，一個可以像贏得女士們的芳心一樣輕而易舉地結下仇敵的男子。
當德維爾潘出現時，一句老話――“玉樹臨風，風流倜儻”－－不知為何常常掠過腦海，一些外交官出於一種既崇拜又嫉妒的心理，把他稱作“佐羅”。
德維爾潘的劍術在過去幾個月中為實現當今最異想天開的外交策略而發揮得淋漓盡至：告訴躊躇滿誌地準備單邊發動戰爭的世界頭號“燒級大國”回到多邊的框架中來解決問題。
上個月，在安理會上跟美國國務卿鮑威爾“變臉”時，德維爾潘有過一番激動人心的表現，宣稱“戰爭最終意味著承認失敗”而贏得了安理會成員們熱烈的掌聲。
作為對美國所謂“舊歐洲”的回應，他針鋒相對地表明對戰爭的反對是“來自一個古老的國家，知道什麽是戰爭，什麽是占領，什麽是野蠻。”
據說鮑威爾對德維爾潘的表現由震驚而發展成怒不可遏，這個法國人從此成為一些美國媒體憎惡的對象。
傳媒界的評論家們動用各種詞匯把他形容為“油滑”，“不嚴肅，爽口型外交”並且（據華爾街時報刊登的一篇文章）是“一個地地道道的自大的怪胎，薩達姆的卑鄙的皮條客，一隻企圖咆哮的耗子”
德維爾潘根本不上鉤。他花時間去解釋――用他在美國磨煉出的出色的英語――法國堅持運用外交手段而不是戰爭來解決問題，並且重申他的國家和美國之間長期的友好關係。
當希拉克領導的保守派在國會成功地擊敗了占有多數席位的社會黨之後，德維爾潘僅僅在十個月前才登上國際外交舞台，但是他在國內早就因為充當希拉克總統的左膀右臂而聲名遠揚。
無論是對還是錯，在過去8年中他一直為希拉克的重要決定出謀劃策。失敗的例子包括在他的建議下，1997年解散議會，導致了社會黨人的勝利和其後五年的權利共享。最近，德維爾潘又由於把法國軍隊派到西非的象牙海岸而受到指責，因為軍隊在那裏陷入了日漸升級的血腥衝突之中。
這種類型的行動具有典型的德維爾潘風格，他熱切地相信意誌力並堅持法國的影響。
德維爾潘有著不知疲倦的口碑。在過去十個月裏，他出訪了七十多個國家。
工作之餘，他還繼續進行學術探索。他即將出版自己撰寫的關於他所崇拜的英雄拿破侖傳記的第二卷（第一卷受到評論家們的熱情接納），他還撰寫過幾本關於法國當代文學的著作，自費發表過兩本詩集。收集非洲雕塑和古籍並分享希拉克對中國瓷器的喜愛。
他的助手據說被他弄得筋疲力盡，因為他可以一天隻有四個半小時的睡眠。
周末時，他喜歡跑步，而且可以一口氣跑十公裏而臉不變色。
希拉克和德維爾潘之間的關係最近受到了仔細的審視。
盡管德維爾潘在伊拉克問題上的策略風險重重並偶有失手，但據說他得到了希拉克的全盤支持。“他理解問題的速度快得驚人，”希拉克曾這樣評價德維爾潘，“很難找到一個象他這樣既是一個出色詩人但同時又可以是一個卓越的軍事指揮官的人。”
原文見下方
13.03.2003
By CATHERINE FIELD, Herald correspondent
PARIS - French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, the man who has moulded France's bold strategy of standing up to the United States over Iraq, is like a man from another age.
At a time when foreign ministers are usually tedious party loyalists memorable only for their blandness, de Villepin stands out as a kind of anachronism. He is a living fossil of times when politicians were Renaissance men - intellectual omnivores who also had fire in their bellies.
Even his appearance is anachronistic. Standing 1.9m, he is commandingly tall; athletically slim; unfailingly polite and charming but also passionate; silver-haired yet also silver-tongued and wolf-eyed.
Two centuries ago, he would have been a swordsman, a musketeer whose blade would have been as sharp as his wits, a man who would win ladies' hearts as easily he would make male enemies.
An old-fashioned word - "dashing" - somehow always comes to mind when de Villepin makes an appearance, and some diplomats, with a mixture of admiration but also envy, have taken to calling him "Zorro".
De Villepin's rapier skills have been on impressive display in the past few months as he carries out one of the boldest diplomatic strategies of recent times: to do nothing less than take on the world's hyperpower just as it is pumped up for a unilateral war and to tell it to work within the multilateral framework.
In a faceoff with US Secretary of State Colin Powell at the United Nations Security Council last month, de Villepin gave an electrifying performance, getting a loud round of applause for declaring "war is always the sanction of failure".
He skewered America's criticism of "old Europe", noting that opposition to the conflict came from "an old country that has known war, barbarity, oppression".
Powell is reported to have been stung to anger by de Villepin's show and the sardonic Frenchman has become a hate figure for some American media.
Press commentators have variously called him "oily", that he "lacks seriousness [and is] diplomacy-lite" and (this in the Wall Street Journal) "a positive monster of conceit, the abject procurer for Saddam the rat that tried to roar."
De Villepin never rises to the bait. He takes his time to explain - in excellent English that he honed in America - the reasons for France's insistence on diplomacy rather than war, and reiterates his country's enduring friendship for the US.
De Villepin only came to international prominence 10 months ago after the Socialist-led majority in Parliament was routed by President Jacques Chirac's conservatives. But he is well known at home, where for years he has worked as Chirac's right-hand man.
Right or wrong, he has been the architect of almost all of Chirac's decisions of importance over the past eight years. The failures include his advice, as secretary-general to the presidency, to dissolve Parliament in 1997, which led to a Socialist victory and five sterile years of power-sharing. And de Villepin has been recently criticised for sending French troops to intercede in the former West African colony of the Ivory Coast, where they are getting sucked into an increasingly bloody civil feud.
Such actions are typical of de Villepin, who believes fervently in the philosophy of willpower and the assertion of French influence.
De Villepin has a reputation for tirelessness. In the past 10 months, he has visited more than 70 countries.
After a day's work, he carries on with his intellectual pursuits. He is about to publish the second of a four-volume biography of his hero Napoleon (the first volume was given a rapturous reception by critics); he has authored several books about contemporary French culture; and he has also written two self-published collections of poetry. He collects African sculptures and antique books, and shares with Chirac a love of Chinese porcelain.
His aides are said to be exhausted by de Villepin, because he can get by on just 4 1/2 hours' sleep.
At weekends, he likes to go jogging, and can do a 10km haul without breaking a sweat. He has admitted that he has little time to spend with his wife and three teenage children.
Chirac's relationship with de Villepin has come under close scrutiny of late.
Despite de Villepin's occasional missteps and risk-laden strategy on Iraq, he is said to enjoy Chirac's total support. "He understands things at fantastic speed," Chirac has said of de Villepin. "It is very rare to meet a man like him who at the same time is a good poet and a very good commando leader."