A friendly dragon is waddling along the sun-drenched centre of Swindon, smiling at passers-by. It's St George's Day and the blow-up dragon is on hand, along with Swindon's town crier, to do a bit of PR on behalf of England.
一条友好的巨龙在阳光普照的斯温顿市中心摇摇摆摆地走着，向路人微笑。正值圣乔治日，这条充气巨龙与斯温顿的市政司仪一同亮相，代表英格兰进行一波公关宣传。
Mid-morning shoppers give the dragon, who was, of course, slain in the legend by England's patron saint, sympathetic looks.
上午中段购物的路人投给这条龙（传说中它当然被英格兰的主保圣人圣乔治所杀）同情的目光。
Fay Howard, the then mayor of Swindon, arranged the April parade because she felt the English could do more to celebrate their national day.
时任斯温顿市长的费伊·霍华德安排了这场四月游行，因为她觉得英格兰人本可以更多地庆祝他们的国庆日。
The mayor posed for pictures with shoppers in a mock picture frame decorated in the English national colours of red and white. But, ahead of the May elections, there was no sign of the Cross of St George flag.
市长与购物者在装饰着英格兰红白国旗色的仿制相框前合影留念。然而，鉴于五月选举在即，圣乔治十字旗却不见踪影。
'I've been careful about using the flag this year because it is an election time and because I represent everybody in Swindon and I want to be fair to everybody in Swindon.'
“今年我在使用旗帜时格外谨慎，因为正值选举期，而且我代表斯温顿的每一个人，我希望公平对待这里的每一个人。”
There, in a nutshell, is the dilemma around English identity: a mayor seeking to bring her community together but nervous that the nation's flag could be seen as divisive.
简而言之，这便是英格兰身份认同的困境：一位市长试图凝聚社区，却又担心国旗会被视为分裂的象征。
And that sensitivity comes as the perennial debate about English identity has taken on a harder edge since February last year.
这种敏感性恰逢围绕英格兰身份的长期争论自去年二月以来变得愈发尖锐。
Influential figures on the right have provoked a highly contentious debate by saying that English identity cannot be acquired. It is, to them, related to ancestry, potentially dating back centuries.
右翼有影响力的人物引发了极具争议的辩论，他们声称英格兰身份是无法后天习得的。在他们看来，这与血统有关，甚至可能追溯到几个世纪前。
The striking moment last year came when the Russian-born podcaster Konstantin Kisin suggested that Rishi Sunak could be considered British but not English because he is a 'brown Hindu'.
去年引人注目的时刻出现在俄罗斯出生的播客主持人康斯坦丁·基辛暗示里希·苏纳克可能被视为英国人而非英格兰人，因为他是一个“棕皮肤的印度教徒”。
Kisin made his remarks after the political journalist Fraser Nelson told him on the 'Triggernometry' podcast that the Southampton-born former Conservative prime minister is as English as 'Tizer and Y-Fronts'.
基辛是在政治记者弗雷泽·纳尔逊于《Triggernometry》播客中告诉他，这位出生于南安普顿的前保守党首相“像Tizer饮料和Y字内裤一样英格兰”之后，才做出上述言论的。
A short while after that podcast, the former Conservative home secretary, Suella Braverman, described herself as 'British Asian' but not English.
在该播客播出不久后，前保守党内政大臣苏拉·布拉弗曼将自己描述为“英籍亚洲人”而非英格兰人。
Braverman, who was born in England of Indian heritage, questioned in a Daily Telegraph column how many generations it could take to become English, raising the prospect that it could be as many as five or six.
布拉弗曼出生于英格兰，拥有印度血统，她在《每日电讯报》的专栏中质疑成为英格兰人需要多少代，并提出了可能需要五到六代人的可能性。
Englishness can evoke two broad emotions: a benign feeling or divisiveness.
英格兰性（Englishness）能唤起两种广泛的情绪：一种 benign（良善/温和）的感觉，或是分裂感。
English warmth is epitomised in the lines of its unofficial anthem of Jerusalem: 'And did those feet in ancient time, Walk upon England's mountains green'.
英格兰的温情在其非官方颂歌《耶路撒冷》的歌词中得到了缩影：“远古时代，那双脚曾踏遍英格兰翠绿的山峦。”
Flags can appear in the spirit of those balmy emotions – cue the World Cup. But sometimes English flags are associated with different emotions.
旗帜可以带着这些温和的情感出现——比如世界杯期间。但有时英格兰国旗也与不同的情感联系在一起。
Some took exception to the Raising the Colours campaign last summer when English and Union flags appeared on motorway bridges.
去年夏天，当英格兰国旗和联合杰克旗出现在高速公路桥上时，一些人对此提出了异议（took exception）。
But the debate has been taken to a whole new level with the controversial suggestion that to be considered truly English you need to trace your lineage back multiple generations or even centuries.
但随着一种极具争议的说法出现，辩论被推向了全新的高度：要被视为真正的英格兰人，你需要将血统追溯到数代甚至数百年前。
Sunder Katwala, who runs the British Future think tank, says he respects Braverman's belief that she is not English. But he takes issue with her suggestion that it could take five or six generations to acquire an English identity.
经营“英国未来”智库的桑德·卡特瓦拉表示，他尊重布拉弗曼认为自己不是英格兰人的信念。但他对她的观点提出异议，即获得英格兰身份可能需要五到六代人。
Katwala, who is of mixed Indian and Irish heritage, sets out what he sees as the flaw in her suggestion: 'I think maybe the Huguenots didn't think they were English, but their grandchildren certainly did.'
卡特瓦拉拥有印度和爱尔兰混血背景，他指出了她观点中的缺陷：“我认为也许胡格诺派教徒当时不认为自己是英格兰人，但他们的孙子孙女肯定认为是。”
Around 50,000 French Protestant Huguenots settled in England in the 17th century to escape persecution.
约五万名法国新教胡格诺派教徒在17世纪定居英格兰以逃避迫害。
Katwala says that around 90% of people believe that if you are born in England, identify as English and are brought up in England then you are seen as English.
卡特瓦拉表示，约90%的人认为，如果你出生在英格兰，认同自己是英格兰人，并在英格兰长大，那么你就会被视为英格兰人。
elites in canberra love a culture war to distract from the fact they've sold out the working class. 'who is english?' is just code for 'who is on our side?' while the real enemies ignore the economy.
堪培拉的精英们最爱搞文化战争，好掩盖他们把工人阶级卖了的真相。“谁是英格兰人？”不过是“谁是我们这边的人？”的代名词，而真正的敌人却在无视经济。