HAD William Safire written his own obituary, he would have laid down a few simple rules.

如果让威廉•赛菲尔写自己的讣告，他会立下几条简单的规矩。

The real thing about Safire, though, was not whether his columns made sense or not.It was that the man could write.

尽管如此，对萨菲尔来说真正的事情不是他的专栏是否有意义，而是这个人可以写它。

The real thing about Safire, though, was not whether his columns made sense or not. It was that the man could write.

尽管如此，对萨菲尔来说真正的事情不是他的专栏是否有意义，而是这个人可以写它。

Mr Safire did him a large favour, in 1959, by engineering a conversation between him and Nikita Khrushchev (Nik heated, Dick cool) at a trade fair in Moscow.

1959年，在莫斯科的一个交易会上赛菲尔安排尼克松和尼基塔•赫鲁晓夫进行了一段对话，从而帮了尼克松一个大忙（因为对话中的尼克显得情绪激动，而迪克则态度冷静）。

The word came from the second world war, describing the smoke from German anti-aircraft shells, and hence the puffed-up information or exaggerated shows Mr Safire and his sort provided.

该词来自第二次世界大战，本是描述德军防空炮弹爆炸时产生的浓烟，后来就转指赛菲尔先生和其公关业同行所提供的自吹自擂的信息或夸张的表演。