To the average American, Imelda Marcos is Marie Antoinette with shoes. Once one of the most reviled figures on the planet, the former first lady of the Philippines is remembered in the U.S. mostly for her collection of some 3,000 pumps, stilettos, and other high-end footwear.

    But Imelda Marcos is a quintessential survivor, and she has fashioned a remarkable, if partial, rehabilitation that has restored her and her family to the front ranks of national politics. Her husband Ferdinand's 20-year reign as president of the Philippines collapsed under the weight of cronyism and corruption in 1986. He died exiled and disgraced in Hawaii in 1989, and his successor, Corazon Aquino, pardoned Imelda three years later, allowing her return to the Philippines. In 1994, a Hawaiian court found Ferdinand guilty of human rights abuses. The more than 9,000 victims of imprisonment and torture eventually settled for $150 million. But only $21.5 million has been recovered. The courts have hit the estate with heavy judgments for concealing assets, though a Manila court recently ruled against enforcing the judgment.

    When a mutual contact offered me the chance to meet Imelda recently, I jumped at the chance. I looked forward to witnessing firsthand how a figure who'd risen so high, fallen to become a worldwide symbol of kleptocracy and ridicule, then staged a remarkable third act, would justify her tarnished legacy.

    I met Imelda at her apartment on the 34th floor of an upscale condo tower in the bustling, super-modern Makati business district of Manila. Her apartment is luxurious, but hardly palatial. Her place appears to share the floor with three other apartments. Imelda trods the wide-plank mahogany floors in a full-length turquoise gown, sporting her trademark jet-black bouffant. At 84, her erect posture accentuates her height. Her face is framed with rimless glasses with orange "temples" (the part that goes from the lens to the ear). I ask her to describe the museum-quality paintings on display -- evidence that she's still extremely rich. She points to two Fragonards, a Picasso, a Pissarro, and a magnificent Gauguin from his Tahitian period, as well as a bust and a Madonna-and-Child rendering that she creatively attributes to Michelangelo.

    Imelda is quick to claim that all the art was purchased with money privately accumulated by her late husband, not, as is constantly alleged, by looting the government. "When I first met Marcos, he was a lawyer for the mining companies," she says. "He was constantly buying gold. His basement was full of gold! I said, 'You've got to put it in the bank.'" Marcos replied that "I want to be president, and I already have a beautiful wife. If people find out how rich I am, I'll never be a man of the people. They'd never vote for me!" According to Imelda, she and her husband were worth billions when gold went from $30 to $800 an ounce in the early 1980s. "I could buy anything I wanted," she says, "and I did."

    Imelda claims the media unjustly blackened her reputation and the legacy of the Marcos regime. "The media is more powerful than the gun," she says, using one of her favorite expressions. "The gun can only kill you up to your grave but the media can kill you beyond the grave."

    Whatever your view of her media portrayal (and it's safe to say that her opinion remains in the minority), Imelda is still proudly playing the same role she's always played, albeit on a smaller stage. She portrays herself as both a queen and mother to the masses.

    伊梅尔达•马科斯在普通美国人眼里就是拥有一堆漂亮鞋子的玛丽皇后。这位菲律宾前第一夫人曾是这个星球上遭受最多唾骂的人物之一，她之所以被美国人铭记主要还是因为她收藏的大约3,000双舞鞋，高跟鞋和其他名牌鞋子。

    但伊梅尔达•马科斯是一位典型的幸存者，而且在某种程度上已经恢复了声誉，她和她的家人目前又重新回到国家政治舞台的一线。1986年，在任人唯亲和腐败的重压下，她的丈夫、菲律宾前总统费迪南德•马科斯对这个国家长达20年的统治终于坍塌。1989年，身败名裂的费迪南德在流亡夏威夷期间去世。3年后，他的继任者科拉松•阿基诺赦免了伊梅尔达的罪行，允许她重返菲律宾。1994年，一家夏威夷法院认定费迪南德犯有侵犯人权罪。9,000余名遭受监禁和酷刑的受害者最终勉强接受1.5亿美元的赔偿。但马科斯家族目前仅补偿了2,150万美元。数家法庭裁定伊梅尔达隐瞒了财产，但一家马尼拉法院最近拒绝强制执行该判决。

    前不久，伊梅尔达和我都认识的一位朋友提议说他可以安排我们见一面，我当然不会错过这样的机会。我期待着当面聆听，这样一位曾经攀升到这样的高位、尔后又堕落为全世界盗贼统治的象征和笑柄、随后竟然又上演精彩复出的人物会如何为自己失去光泽的遗产辩护。

    我应邀来到马尼拉人流如织、超现代的马卡蒂商业区，在一栋高档公寓大楼的34层见到了伊梅尔达。除了她的公寓外，这层似乎还有三套其他人居住的公寓。伊梅尔达的公寓配有宽红木地板，看上去很豪华，但称不上富丽堂皇。伊梅尔达身穿一件长及小腿的绿松石礼服，头发乌黑，依然是标志性的高耸蓬松发型。84岁的伊梅尔达直立在那里，更加突显她的身高。她戴着一副“眼镜腿”（即从镜片到耳朵那部分）为橙色的无框眼镜。我请她介绍一下房间里陈列的博物馆馆藏级油画——这些油画证明她仍然极其富裕。据她描述，这些油画有两幅弗拉戈纳尔作品，一幅毕加索作品，一幅毕沙罗作品，一幅高更在大溪地时期绘制的恢弘画作，还有一幅半身像，以及一幅《圣母与圣婴》——她创造性地声称，画作的作者是米开朗基罗。

    伊梅尔达迅速指出，所有这些艺术品都是她已故的丈夫用私人储蓄买下的，尽管世人时常指控称，这些皆是掠夺政府的赃物。“我第一次见到马科斯的时候，他已经是好几家矿业公司的律师，”她说。“他那时不断地买入黄金，地下室里全是金子！我说，‘你应该把它存放在银行。’”马科斯回答说：“我打算竞选总统。我已经有了一位美丽的妻子。如果人们发现我还这么有钱，那我永远都无法成为人民的人。他们绝对不会投票支持我！”按照伊梅尔达的说法，上世纪80年代初，黄金价格从每盎司30美元飙涨至800美元，她和丈夫的净资产随之上升至数十亿美元。“我可以买任何我想要的东西，”她说。“而且我就是这么干的。”

    伊梅尔达声称，媒体非常不公正地诋毁她的声誉和马科斯政权的遗产。她说：“媒体比枪炮还要厉害，”这是她最喜欢使用的措辞之一。“枪炮最多只能把你送入坟墓，但媒体不仅能够要你的命，还让你死后不得安宁。”

    无论大家如何看待她对媒体的描绘（可以肯定地说，她的观点仍然属于少数），伊梅尔达依然在自豪地扮演着她一直扮演的角色，尽管是在一个更小的舞台上面。她声称自己既是一位女王，又是普罗大众的母亲。

    It's immediately clear that Imelda still relishes her image as an incredibly wealthy international celebrity, and reckons that image should be a great source of pride for her people. When I mention the Gauguin, the parade of famous names begins. "It was a present from Armand Hammer. I introduced him to China, where he did a big hydroelectric project." A large photo of Mao Tse-Tung kissing her hand dominates a living room wall. "Mao told me that he'd united a country, but had to do it with guns, and that we'd united a country with love," says Imelda, unfurling one of the many anecdotes she repeats frequently.

    We actually had lunch twice, since she invited me back the next day. The first meal was sushi, the second cheeseburgers served on a lazy susan turntable with milk shakes. After the first lunch, which featured a red sparkling wine with her photo on the bottle, she showed a video of Soviet leader Konstantin Chernenko's funeral in the Kremlin in 1985. A long line of heads of state greet Mikhail Gorbachev, among them Helmut Kohl of Germany and Margaret Thatcher of the U.K., "but I was always first in line!" boasts Imelda.

    Along with the regal side comes the mothering -- Imelda strives to portray herself as a champion of the poor and downtrodden. She's a success in politics selling that message. Imelda is now serving a second term as a congresswoman from Ilocos Norte, her late husband's province, and one of the nation's most important. In that role, she has built 11 "Mothering Centers" in the region, facilities that dispatch ambulances to rescue poor farmers who fall ill, and provide job counseling and legal advice. And she claims to be funding the centers with her own money. The Mothering Centers, says Francisco "Kit" Tatad, the Minister of Public Information for 11 years under the late Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and now a prominent columnist and political advisor, are a reminder of the creativity Imelda displayed as First Lady. She strove to promote the nation's native products, and found extremely original ways to do it. Tatad took me on a Sunday tour of the Coconut Palace, an Imelda creation that is currently the workplace for the Vice President. He recalls that Imelda virtually served as "foreman" on the project, supervising every detail of design and construction. The idea was to show the versatility of one of the nation's leading agricultural crops. The entire mansion, consisting mainly of six-side rooms, is made from coconut wood, including the columns, moldings, shutters, even the furniture.

    Imelda remains matriarch of the second most powerful political clan in the country to the reigning Aquinos, led by president Benigno Aquino III, whose grandfather was once Ferdinand Marcos's ally, then his rival, and whose assassination unleashed the popular protest that deposed Ferdinand. Her daughter Imee Marcos is the governor of Ilocos Norte. Her son Ferdinand, Jr., nicknamed "Bongbong," is a senator from the home province and a probable candidate to challenge Aquino in 2016. Her nephew, Alfred Romauldez, is the mayor of Tacloban, the city hardest hit by typhoon Yolanda. The disaster has ignited a new feud between the Aquino and Marcos-Romauldez dynasties, with the former claiming the mayor's response is incompetent, and the latter alleging that Aquino is withholding crucial support because of the clans' political rivalry.

    Imelda's family is standing behind a typically epic energy venture that she is tirelessly promoting and spoke about extensively during our lunches. She and her backers are convinced that the deep ocean trenches off the coast of the Philippines contain gigantic reserves of heavy water -- a compound called deuterium -- that is naturally created by the immense pressure at the depths of the ocean floor. It's been extensively reported that she's attempting to raise money to mine that deuterium, which would emerge as hydrogen gas to power cars and airplanes at extremely low cost, with zero pollution. "It will save the planet!" she declares.

    我很快就发现，伊梅尔达依然陶醉于她往昔的形象——一位富裕得令人难以置信的国际名人。她同时还认为，这种形象应该是一项让她的子民倍感自豪的资本。谈到高更的那幅油画时，她接连说出了一连串著名人物的名字。“这是阿莫德•哈默送我的礼物。是我把他介绍到中国的，他在那里完成了一个大型水电项目。”客厅一面墙壁上非常醒目地挂着一张毛泽东对她行吻手礼的大幅照片。伊梅尔达说：“毛泽东告诉我，他统一了一个国家，但不得不用枪杆子做到这一点，而我们用爱就把一个国家联合在了一起。”这是她经常讲述的众多轶事之一。

    我们其实吃了两顿午餐，因为伊梅尔达第二天邀请我重返她的公寓。第一顿饭是寿司，尤其令我印象深刻的是一瓶印有她个人照片的起泡红酒。第二顿是用一个转盘呈送上来的芝士汉堡和奶昔。第一次午餐后，她播放了一段1985年在克里姆林宫举行的前苏联领导人康斯坦丁•契尔年科的葬礼视频。一长排国家元首向戈尔巴乔夫致意，其中包括德国总理科尔和英国首相撒切尔夫人。“但我一直站在第一个！”伊梅尔达自豪地说。

    与女王阵势相伴的，是她母仪天下的一面——伊梅尔达力图把自己描绘为穷人和受压迫人民的守护者。宣扬这个讯息让她在政治上获得了成功。伊梅尔达目前正在履行第二个国会议员任期，代表的是其亡夫的家乡，菲律宾最重要的省份之一北伊罗戈省。在任这项职位期间，她已经在该地区建造了11座“慈母中心”。这些机构不仅派遣救护车救助生病的贫农，还提供就业辅导和法律咨询服务。她声称，这些设施是她自己出钱兴建的。在弗朗西斯科•塔塔德看来，这些慈母中心让人想起了伊梅尔达在担任第一夫人期间展现出来的创造力。塔塔德曾在菲律宾已故总统费迪南德•马科斯麾下担任过11年的公共信息部长，现在是一位著名的专栏作家和政治顾问。伊梅尔达曾经竭力推广菲律宾的土特产，而且她的推销方式极具原创性。一个星期天，塔塔德带我参观根据伊梅尔达的创意建造而成、目前作为副总统官邸的椰子宫( Coconut Palace)。他回忆说，居于幕后的伊梅尔达其实扮演着这项工程的“工头”角色，监督管理设计和施工的每一个细节。它的基本思路是，充分展示作为菲律宾主要农作物之一的椰子的多种用途。这栋宅邸的房间大多为六面形，柱子、装饰线条，百叶窗和家居都是用椰子木制作的。

    伊梅尔达仍然是菲律宾第二大政治家族的女族长，这个家族的政治影响力仅次于执政的阿基诺家族。现任总统阿基诺三世的祖父曾经是费迪南德•马科斯的盟友，随后成为他的死对头，最终遭到暗杀。这起暗杀事件引发的民众抗议促使费迪南德黯然下台。伊梅尔达的女儿目前担任北伊罗戈省省长。绰号为“邦邦”(Bongbong)的儿子小费迪南德现在是代表北伊罗戈省的参议员，他或许将在2016年大选中挑战阿基诺三世的总统宝座。她的侄子阿尔弗雷德•罗穆亚尔德斯现任塔克洛班市市长。塔克洛班市是超级台风海燕的重灾区，这场灾难已经重新点燃了阿基诺家族和马科斯-罗穆亚尔德斯家族之间的累世宿仇。前者声称市长的反应不称职，后者则宣称阿基诺三世完全是出于两大家族的政治对立，才迟迟不愿给予至关重要的救援。

    伊梅尔达的家人正在支持一项史诗般的能源事业。我们共进午餐期间，她不厌其烦地宣扬，事无巨细地聊者她的这项事业。她和她的支持者相信，菲律宾沿岸的深海海沟储藏着巨额重水资源——这种名为氘的化合物是由海底深处的巨大压力自然形成的。根据媒体的广泛报道，她正在筹集资金，以挖掘这种氘化物。在伊梅尔达看来，这种氘化物有望成为轿车和飞机的氢气动力。它不仅成本极低，而且没有任何污染。“它将拯救地球！”她宣称。

    Scientists frequently disagree, stating that deuterium is just as plentiful in the sea water you swim and fish in. But her son Ferdinand is making hydrogen a crusade. Just before Christmas, prices for gasoline and electric bills rose steeply. Bongbong pounced on the issue, proposing major funding to promote ocean-bed hydrogen mining, which his mother just happens to be promoting, as the energy source of the future. In a highly futuristic, Jules Verne-like scenario where deep-trench deuterium is both reachable and plentiful, Imelda will look like a visionary. She's been paying fees, hundreds of millions in total, she claims, for more than 40 years to control the exclusive extraction rights. "I almost had to borrow $6 million last year to make the payment," she explains.

    Imelda is nothing if not unapologetic. You'd think she might be chagrined about her history with footwear. But today, no fewer than 765 pairs of her shoes are on display at the Footwear Museum of Marikana, named for a district famous for its cobblers -- and Imelda inaugurated the museum herself. For her, the Diors, Ferragamos, and local wares are, or should be, an immense source of pride for Filipinos. At the museum's opening ceremony in 2001, Imelda declared, "The museum is making a subject of notoriety into an object of beauty." She then described the palace raid that occurred after she and her husband fled in 1986: "They went into my closets looking for skeletons, but thank God, all they found were beautiful shoes!"

    Imelda Marcos can be mocked, ridiculed, and reviled. But she can never, ever be upstaged.

    科学家则频频否认这种看法，他们认为在人们游泳和捕鱼的海水中蕴含着同样充沛的氘化物。但她的儿子小费迪南德正在把挖掘氘化物作为自己的奋斗目标。就在圣诞节前夕，汽油价格和电费急剧上升。邦邦随即抓住并大肆利用这项议题，他建议募集大量资金，以推动海床氘化物挖掘。他的母亲恰好也在推动这项事业，同样将其奉为未来的能源来源。在这样一个极具未来主义风格、儒勒•凡尔纳般的场景（埋藏在海沟深处的氘化物既是可以触及的，也是异常充沛的）中，伊梅尔达看上去就像是一位富有创见的梦想家。她声称，40多年来，为了获得独家开采权，她已经支付了总计数亿美元的费用。她解释说：“我去年不得不借贷大约600万美元，以支付相关费用。”

    伊梅尔达毫无歉意。普通人或许认为，对于那段与鞋子相联系的历史，她肯定懊恼不已。但今天，不少于765双归她所有的鞋子正在马里卡纳鞋饰博物馆(Footwear Museum of Marikana，博物馆的名字源自当地一个以鞋匠闻名的城区)展出。为这家博物馆揭幕的正是伊梅尔达本人。在她看来，她收藏的迪奥(Dior)、菲拉格慕(Ferragamo)等奢华品牌和当地鞋饰是或者说应该是菲律宾人的一大骄傲。，伊梅尔达在2001年举行的博物馆开幕仪式上宣称：“这家博物馆正在把丑闻的靶子转变为美的化身。”她随后描述了1986年她和丈夫逃离后总统官邸被突袭的景象。“他们打开我的衣柜，试图寻找一些见不得人的东西。但感谢上帝，呈现在他们面前的全是漂亮的鞋子！”

    伊梅尔达•马科斯可以被嘲笑，被讥讽，被谩骂。但无论是过去，还是将来，她永远都不可能被其他人抢走风头。（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒