ROME — One ad pictured a woman holding an hourglass next to the words: Beauty has no age limit. Fertility does.

罗马——有一则广告描绘了一名女子举着一个沙漏，旁边写着：美没有年龄限制，生育有。

Another portrayed¹ a pair of baby shoes wrapped in a ribbon of the Italian flag.

另一幅广告上是一双婴儿鞋，上面用意大利国旗图案的丝带扎了个蝴蝶结。

Yet another showed a man holding a half-burned cigarette: Don’t let your sperm² go up in smoke, it read.

还有一幅显示一名男子夹着一根烧了一半的香烟，旁边写道：不要让你的精子随烟而逝。

They were part of a government effort to promote Fertility Day on Sept. 22, a campaign intended to encourage Italians to have more babies.

这属于政府为宣传9月22日生育日而开展的活动的一部分。这项宣传活动旨在鼓励意大利人生育更多孩子。

Instead, the ads set off a furor³, were denounced as being offensive and within days were withdrawn⁴.

但这些广告反倒引发了公愤，被人谴责粗俗无礼，在几天内就撤下了。

What they did succeed in doing, however, was to ignite a deeper and lasting⁵ debate about why it is that Italy has one of the lowest birthrates in the world, and what can be done about it.

不过，它们的确成功地激发了更深层次的持久讨论，促使人们探讨为何意大利是世界上生育率最低的国家之一，以及可以就此做些什么。

The problem is not a lack of desire to have children, critics of the campaign say, but rather the lack of meaningful support provided by the government and many employers in a country where the family remains⁶ the primary source of child care.

批评这项宣传活动的人士表示，问题不在于缺少生孩子的欲望，而是因为在一个依然主要由家庭照料孩子的国家里，人们缺少来自政府和雇主的实质支持。

I should be a model for their campaign, and I still feel very offended, said Vittoria Iacovella, 37, a journalist and mother of two girls, ages 10 and 8.

我应该是这次宣传活动的一个样板，但我到现在还觉得自己受到了很大的冒犯，37岁的维多利亚•亚科韦拉(Vittoria Iacovella)说。她是一名记者，养育了两个女儿，一个10岁，一个8岁。

The government encourages us to have babies and then the main welfare system in Italy is still the grandparents.

政府鼓励我们生孩子，但意大利主要的福利系统依然还是祖父母。

Many working women, without an extended family to care for a child face a dilemma⁷, as private child care is expensive.

很多没有大家族帮忙照顾孩子的职业女性要面临两难的选择，因为私人托儿所价格昂贵。

Some also worry that their job security may be undermined by missing workdays because of child care issues.

一些人也担心，因照顾孩子的问题而请假，会让她们工作不保。

Many companies do not offer flexible hours for working mothers.

许多企业没有给职业母亲提供灵活的工作时间。

Not surprisingly, Italy’s long slowdown in childbirth has coincided with its recent economic slump⁸.

意大利生育率长久以来的减退，恰好赶上了近些年的经济滑坡，这一点并不奇怪。

But Italian families have been shrinking for decades.

但意大利家庭的萎缩已经持续几十年了。

In 2015, 488,000 babies were born in Italy, the fewest since the country first unified⁹ in 1861.

在2015年，意大利共有48.8万名婴儿出生，是该国自1861年统一以来人数最低的一次。

It has one of the lowest birthrates in Europe, with 1.37 children per woman, compared with a European average of 1.6, according to Eurostat figures.

欧盟统计局(Eurostat)的数据显示，意大利是欧洲婴儿出生率最低的国家之一，平均每个女性生育1.37个子女，而整个欧洲的平均数字为1.6。

By contrast, in France, the economy has been flat, too, but a family-oriented system provides a far more generous social safety net that includes day care and subsidies¹⁰ for families to have children.

相比之下，法国的经济也不景气，但以家庭为重的制度提供的社会保障服务要丰富得多，包括日托和为家庭发放生儿育女的补贴。

There, women have two children each on average.

在法国，一名女性平均生育两个孩子。

On paper, Italian women have equal rights, said Tiziana Bartolini, editor of Noi Donne, one of Italy’s most prominent feminist¹¹ magazines.

从理论上讲，意大利女性拥有平等的权利，意大利知名女性主义杂志《我们女人》(Noi Donne)的主编蒂齐亚纳•巴尔托利尼(Tiziana Bartolini)说。

But reality tells us a different story.

但现实告诉我们的是另外一码事。

Women are expected to care for children.

大家期待由女性来照顾孩子。

If they live in regions where services are good, or in small towns, they keep their job.

如果是生活在服务比较好的地区或是小城镇里，她们可以保住自己的工作。

If they live in big, chaotic¹² cities and have no family nearby, they are very prudent¹³ about becoming pregnant.

而如果是生活在混乱的大都市，附近又没有亲戚倚靠，她们在怀孕这件事上就会很谨慎。

Or they stop working, she added.

要么就得放弃工作，她接着讲。

Yeah, sure, thought Maria Scioli, 41, a teacher who depends on her family to care for her 15-month-old boy, when she spotted¹⁴ the debate on her Facebook page.

嗯，好吧，41岁的教师玛丽亚•肖利(Maria Scioli)在自己的Facebook页面上看到那些争执时想。她依靠家人照顾15个月大的儿子。

I’d love to have a second child, Scioli said, but my job situation worries me.

我倒想再要一个孩子，肖利说，但我的工作状况让我感到担忧。

And I even feel lucky. I think about all those women my age or younger that couldn’t have babies and had to watch that offensive ad.

想到在我这个年龄或更年轻的女性无法要孩子，还得看这种令人不快的广告，我甚至感觉有些幸运。

Even Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, whose own health minister started the campaign, distanced himself from the ads in a radio interview, noting ironically that none of his friends had their kids after seeing an advert¹⁵.

在接受电台采访时，就连意大利总理马泰奥•伦齐(Matteo Renzi)也与由他手下的卫生部长发起的这项宣传活动保持距离。他不无讽刺意味地指出，自己的朋友没有一个是在看了广告之后要的孩子。

Renzi said that to increase the birthrate, structural¹⁶ issues like day care and services needed to be addressed.

伦齐表示，为了提高生育率，首先要解决日托和服务等结构性问题。

Under Renzi, Italy’s government has tried to help families with a so-called baby bonus of 80 to 160 euros (about $90 to $180) for low- and middle-income households, and has approved labor laws giving more flexibility¹⁷ on parental¹⁸ leave.

在伦齐的领导下，意大利政府在努力为家庭提供帮助，为中低收入家庭提供了数额在80至160欧元之间的婴儿津贴，还通过了一些劳动法规，让人们获得更灵活的产假。

But Italy allocates¹⁹ only 1 percent of its gross domestic product to social protection benefits — half the European average.

但意大利只拨出国内生产总值的1%用于社会保障福利，其额度仅为欧洲平均水平的一半。

One child out of three here is at risk of relative poverty.

在意大利，三个孩子中就有一个面临陷入相对贫困的风险。

Italy has a terrible combination: low birthrate, low women’s employment and high risk of child poverty, said Alessandro Rosina, a professor of demography²⁰ at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan.

意大利有一种糟糕的组合：生育率低、女性就业率低，以及儿童贫困风险高，在位于米兰的圣心天主教大学(Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore)担任人口学教授的亚历山德罗•罗西娜(Alessandro Rosina)说。

On this path, Italy can only but have increasing costs for aging people, and increased public debt.

沿着这条路往下走，意大利只会有更多的老龄化开支，也会背上更多的国债。

We defend our present, but can’t design the future, he said.

我们可以维持现状，却不能设计未来，他说。

Iacovella, the journalist, said her child’s kindergarten closed two hours before she got off work, and noted²¹ that working mothers are frustrated²² by the little help that Italy gives to women.

记者亚科韦拉表示她孩子所在的幼儿园在她下班两小时前就会关门，还指出职业母亲为意大利政府给予女性的帮助非常之少而感到失望。

She was so offended by the government ads that she vented²³ her anger on Facebook soon after they started appearing, and her comments went viral online.

政府的广告让她很生气，广告出现后不久她就在Facebook上发泄了自己的愤怒。她的评论在网上疯狂传播开来。

Italy’s health minister, Beatrice Lorenzin, responding on Facebook, wrote that the Fertility Day campaign was not a call to reproduction but a day to discuss the fertility issues that 15 percent of Italians deal with.

意大利卫生部长贝亚特丽切•洛伦津(Beatrice Lorenzin)在Facebook上做出了回应。她写道，设置生育日不是呼吁繁殖，而是让大家在这一天就15%的意大利人都要面对的生育问题进行讨论。

She promptly²⁴ canceled the campaign.

她迅速取消了这项宣传活动。

I am saddened that the launch of the advertising²⁵ campaign misled many people, Lorenzin said.

发起广告推广活动让很多人产生了误会，我感到很难过，洛伦津说。

I withdrew it to change it.

撤下广告是为了进行整改。