原文链接：What is Goth?
原文来自goth.net，大概是我读过最透彻的一篇介绍哥特文化的文章了，希望你不喜欢。
This is probably the hardest question any goth could try and answer, one may as well ask ‘what is society?’ as it has so many facets it defies any definitive explanation.
这可能是哥特人可以尝试回答的最难的问题了，就像问“什么是社会？”一个道理，因为它有那么多方面，任何解释都不可能面面俱到。
Goth in its simplest form, is a subculture. A group of people who feel comfortable within each others company. There is no specific thing that defines what you need to do or be to fit into the goth scene (except of course the implied black clothing). People in the goth scene all have different musical tastes, follow different religions, have different occupations, hobbies, and fashion sense.
哥特是最简单的形式，它是一种亚文化。他们是一群在一起感到舒适的人组成的团体。没有什么具体的事物可以定义你需要做什么或者适应哥特式的场景（当然，黑衣服不能少！）。哥特人都会有自己独特的音乐品味，遵循不同的信仰，有着不同的职业、兴趣和时尚感。
Why do people become goths?
为什么会变成哥特人?
Most goths become goths because they have been spurned by ‘normal’ society because the way they want to live their lives does not fit in with how most people are told to live theirs. Goths are free thinkers, people who do not accept the moral rules of society because they’re told ‘This is just how it is’ or ‘This is what God says!’. Rather goths tend to listen to what you have to say, and make up their own mind. This kind of free thinking and rejection of dogma earns only rejection in todays society.
大多数人成为哥特人是因为被“正常”社会所唾弃，因为他们的生活方式与这个社会告诉我们的不一样。哥特人是自由的思想者，他们不能接受社会的道德规则，因为人们会说：“这就应该是这样的”或者“这是上帝说的！”。而哥特人会倾听你的世界，并且思考。这种自由思想和对教条的排斥让当今社会也开始排斥他们。
However because of this rejection from ‘normal’ society, goths have banded together to associate with other free thinkers. This has a beneficial effect on both the individual and society as a whole. For the individual they have a sense of belonging, and friends they can associate with. For society it removes one more misfit filled with rage from society’s streets.
然而，由于“正常”社会的这种拒绝，哥特人已经团结在一起，与其他自由思想者联手。这对个人和整个社会都是有益的。对于个人，他们有归属感和可以联系的朋友。对于社会，它消除了那些充斥在街头的愤怒与格格不入（这句不是很懂怎么翻）。
This of course is not the case for all goths. Many goths today are goths for a variety of other reasons. They like the music, or the clubs are better, they have goth friends and joined in with them, or they just like staying up late nights and goths are the only ones awake to talk to.
当然，并不是所有哥特人都是这种情况。如今很多哥特人都是因为各种原因才变成哥特人。他们喜欢音乐，或者更喜欢俱乐部，他们有哥特朋友，并加入了他们，或者他们仅仅是呆在深夜里，哥特人是唯一能在深夜保持清醒对话的人。
The gothic stereotype
对哥特刻板的印象
Many stereotypes of goths exist these days. It seems everyone has their own way to define ‘what is goth’. From the stereotypes based on clothing to music right up to the stereotypes of all goths being satanists or part of some kind of cult. Categorically, all of these are false.
当今社会对哥特有一些刻板的印象。但似乎每个人都有自己的方式来定义“什么是哥特”，从基于服装到音乐的刻板印象，更严重到认为所有哥特人都是撒旦的信徒或是某个邪教组织成员。直截了当的告诉你，这些印象都是假的。
The goth scene is just as widely varied as society in general. There are many different professions represented in the scene, from highly skilled professionals like doctors and lawyers, to tradesman, to technically minded people to clerical workers. Many different musical tastes exist (and not all of them goth, there is a HUGE 80’s following in the goth scene for some reason). The fashion varies vastly from goth to goth from the traditional flowing victorian style garments to the buckled and studded style regalia (also called industrial style, which is often closely related with goths, and have come to an understanding of co-existance, if uneasily at times).
普遍来说，哥特式的场景和这个社会一样广泛而多变。在这个场景中有很多不同专业的人，从医生、律师这种高技能的专业人士，到商人或志同道合的文职人员。哥特人有许多不同的音乐品味存在（并不全是哥特音乐，因为某些原因，有一大批80年代的崇拜者出现在哥特式场景中）（前面括号中的句子翻译的不是很恰当，尽力了…）。哥特的时尚变化极大，从传统流行的维多利亚风格的服装到紧扣、褶皱和佩戴chfen(这个鬼词是什么我真的不知道！)式的勋章（这也被称为工业风格，这些往往与哥特紧密相关，如果你倍感不适，可以尝试重新理解有限存在是什么意思）。
How do I get into goth?
我是怎么变成哥特人的？
The gothic sense of humour is highly developed, and often leans toward the satirical. Quietly laughing at the more idiotic and less tolerant factions of society that seem to think yelling out of cars at us makes them cooler. Goths have learned to laugh at themselves and see society in a much different light. They have had to, and it is a trait most would not give up.
哥特式的幽默感是高度发达的，往往倾向于讽刺。在这个更多白痴、更少宽容的社会，我们安静的笑，似乎他们朝我们大喊大叫会让他们觉得自己更酷一样。哥特人已经学会了自我嘲笑，用不同的眼光去看待这个社会。这是我们不得不，而且最不愿放弃的特质。
Goths have for the most part (not unanimously of course, but mostly) dropped all forms of prejudice. Noone is afraid within the goth scene to come out as being gay, and noone has to hide their religion for fear of scorn from their peers or zealots wanting to convert them from the arms of Satan. In fact because of these facts (and the general lack of prejudice) the goth scene has a large proportion of gays/bisexuals, and followers of non-mainstream religions and views. This of course is the most important aspect of gothdom, and why most goths became goths in the first place, tolerance.
大部分哥特人（并不是全是这样，但几乎是）放弃了所有形式的偏见。在哥特场景下，没有人害怕公布自己是同性恋的事实，也没有人会隐藏自己的宗教信仰，因为不必担心同龄人或狂热分子的嘲笑，没有人硬要把你从撒旦的怀抱中拯救出来。事实上，就是由于这些事实（并且普遍缺乏偏见），哥特场景下有很多同性恋/双性恋，以及非主流宗教的观点和追随者。这当然是哥特最重要的方面，为什么会成为哥特人，第一点：宽容。
But they think weird!
但他们觉得很怪诞！
Ah, but this is the beauty of goths. Most subjects that are taboo in ‘normal’ society are freely discussed and debated about. Death, religion, magick, mysticism, and many other topics that are only roached carefully outside of the gothic community. Most goths have realised that fear is only a reaction instilled in us by dogmatic propaganda, and once you realise there is nothing to fear from the topic, whats to stop you discussing it?
啊，但这正是哥特的美所在。大多数在“正常”社会中的禁忌话题，在这里都可以自由讨论和辩论。死亡、宗教、魔法、神秘主义，和许多其他仅在哥特社区之外精心狩猎的话题。大多数哥特人都意识到，恐惧只是在教条宣传、灌输下的一种反应，一旦你意识到没有什么可怕的话题，还有什么能阻止你讨论？
Goths often revel in the fear given to them by society as a whole. Often the behavior exhibited by society to them based on society’s perception of them from stereotypes, rumour, etc are a constant source of entertainment. Of course, most of the rumours are totally unfounded, goths are people like everyone else, however when you already have a reputation, going for the shock factor is often far too tempting to see how much society at large is willing to believe (or deduce) with only a little encouragement.
哥特人常常以整个社会对他们的恐惧为乐。通常，社会对他们的态度是基于刻板印象的感知和谣言等，这对哥特人来说是源源不断的娱乐来源。当然，大部分谣言是根本没有根据的，哥特人和其他人一样都是人，无论如何，当你拥有了声誉，都会面临巨大的诱惑，全社会没有多少人愿意去相信（或推测）并伴随着一点鼓励。（这句真的不会翻了，我果然是渣男，渣渣…）
This does not totally fall away once you get inside the scene unfortunately, and goths are all too often tempted to try for the shock factor within the scene (which turns out more tacky than shocking). Goths when you get down to it can be a rather pretentious bunch, trying for those extra ‘goth points’ on the gothier than thou scale, but it adds to the enjoyment.
这并没有完全结束，一旦你进入不幸的场景，哥特人会怂恿你去做一些刺激的事（结果往往比你想象的更令人震惊）。当哥特人下定决心做时，他们是一群相当自命不凡的人，他们会做超出哥特范畴的事（又是一句bullshit translate），但这也增添了乐趣。
History of Goth
哥特的历史
Modern goth (ignoring where the name itself originally comes from) started in the early 80’s as part of the punk subculture (which is itself was a rejection of most societal values, and anything considered part of the ‘norm’). The phrase was coined by the band manager of Joy Division, Anthony H. Wilson, who described the band as ‘Gothic compared with the pop mainstream’. The term stuck, and as punk eventually died, Goth survived and became its own subculture. The punk clothing and hairstyles mellowed, and the core ‘rejection of society’ attitude alone lived on in the gothic subculture. Over time this itself has been modified to be more of a ‘no more blind acceptance of society’s values’ as opposed to rejection because it was there to be rejected (and because you could get away with it!).
现代哥特（忽略其名字本身的出处）早在80年代就成为朋克文化的一部分（这本身就是一种排斥社会的价值观，以及被定义为“规范”的事物）。现代哥特这个短语是由 Joy Division 乐队的经理 Anthony H. Wilson 杜撰出来的，他把乐队描述为“与流行主流音乐相比较的哥特式音乐”。朋克的服装和发型风格，以及核心的“排斥社会”态度，孤独的生活在社会的亚文化中。随着时间的推移，这种态度本身已经被改进成“不再盲目的接受社会的价值观”，而不是去拒绝，因为它在那儿被拒绝（因为你可以摆脱它）。
Movies such as The Crow, and bands such as the Bauhaus helped establish the gothic image as dark, depressing, and even evil. As more and more ‘dark’ movies came out, numbers in the gothic subculture expanded, and there is now a gothic community in almost every major city around the world, and quite a number of towns have their own representative contingent. Nowdays there are more goth bands around than ever, and it has turned from an 80’s phenomenon into a 90’s way of life for many people. Unlike the punk subculture that it spawned from, there even exists a class of mature goths, still following the scene around even past their 20’s and into their 30’s and beyond.
像乌鸦这类电影，以及Bauhaus这类乐队，有助于建立哥特式的形象，如黑暗、压抑、沮丧、甚至是邪恶。伴随着越来越多“黑暗”题材电影的出现，哥特亚文化的影响不断扩大，世界上几乎每一个主要城市都有一个哥特社区，相当多的城镇都有自己的代表团。当今的哥特乐队比以往任何时代都多，它已经从80年代的非凡到90年代融入大多数人的生活。它的产生不同于朋克亚文化，甚至存在一类成熟的哥特人，哥特伴随他们度过20岁，迈入30岁以及更久远的岁月。
本文译者：余震（Freak）
译文出处：Rockjins Blog
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