On January 20, her husband, Donald Trump, will be inaugurated as the 45th president of the United States.
1月20日,她的丈夫唐纳德·川普(Donald Trump)将成为美国第45任总统。
Most Americans do not know much about 46-year-old Melania Trump.
大多数美国人对46岁的梅拉尼亚知之甚少。
She was born in the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia. It is a small country surrounded by Austria, Hungary, Italy and Croatia. It has a small coastline on the Adriatic Sea. Slovenia also has castles that are hundreds of years old, large forests and clear rivers.
她出生在前南斯拉夫的斯洛文尼亚共和国,这是一个被奥地利、匈牙利、意大利和克罗地亚所环绕的小国家。该国在亚得里亚海拥有一条小海岸线。斯洛文尼亚还拥有数百年历史的城堡,大片的森林和清澈的河流。
VOA recently traveled to the country to learn about Melania Trump's life before she came to the United States.
美国之音最近前往斯洛文尼亚了解梅拉尼亚来美国之前的生活。
Jakob Susteric operates a medical company in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia. He knows his country is not well-known. But he believes Melania Trump will change that.
雅各布·萨斯特里克(Jakob Susteric)在斯洛文尼亚首都卢布尔雅那经营一家医疗公司。他知道自己的国家并不出名。但他认为,梅拉尼亚会改变这点。
"Slovenia. What is Slovenia? Is that a food? Is that a car? Nobody knows it's a country. Nobody knows it's a nation, and nobody knows that Melania is from Slovenia. So this is a big opportunity that our two million-nation basically gets its place in Europe, in the world."
他说:“斯洛文尼亚是什么?是一种食物?还是一种汽车?没有人知道这是一个国家,也没有人知道梅拉尼亚来自斯洛文尼亚。所以这是个巨大的机会,让我们这个200万人口的国家在欧洲乃至世界都受到关注。”
Susteric says having a Slovenian in the White House says good things about the United States.
萨斯特里克表示,有一位斯洛文尼亚人入住白宫,表明了美国好的一面。
"It expresses the message that America is sending from past years which is that America is a land of opportunities, so anybody that lives (in) and comes to America can achieve great things."
他说:“它所传达出的就是美国过去多年来所发出的讯息:美国是一片充满机遇的土地。任何人到美国都有可能成就大业。”
Stane Jerko is a photographer. He says he was one of the first people to see Melania Trump's talent at a fashion show in Melania Trump's hometown of Sevnica in 1987. Jerko says she was a quiet 17-year-old.
斯塔内·耶尔克(Stane Jerko)是一名摄影师。他说,1987年他在梅拉尼亚家乡塞夫尼察的一场时装秀上发现了梅拉尼亚的天赋。耶尔克说她当时还只是一名文静的17岁女孩。
He said she was notable for her beauty and her energy.
他说,梅拉尼亚以她的美貌和活力而引人注目。
Melania Trump was born April 26, 1970.
梅拉尼亚出生于1970年4月26日。
She has said that when she is first lady she will work to fight cyber bullying. Petra Sedej, a friend and high school classmate, says Trump dealt with the difficult behavior that can be common with girls in high school.
梅拉尼亚说过,当自己成为第一夫人后要致力于打击网络霸凌。皮特拉·塞德吉(Petra Sedej)是梅拉尼亚的高中同学及好友。她说,梅拉尼亚正确处理了高中女生通常都会遇到的乖张行为。
"Because she was beautiful, she was a model, a lot of girls talked about this and they were also jealous. But she didn't react to this and I think this is something strong inside of her, because she knew that she was good. And if you know that you are good, you don't need to prove this with words."
她说,“因为她很漂亮,又是模特,很多女孩子就拿这个说事儿,她们也很是嫉妒。但是梅拉尼亚并没有反击。我觉得这是她内心有股强大的力量,因为她知道自己是优秀的。如果你认为自己是优秀的,你就不需要用言语去证明。”
Sedej says Communism and Yugoslavia were collapsing in Slovenia when she and Trump were in school together. She says they wondered how that would affect their future.
塞德吉说,当她和梅拉尼亚在斯洛文尼亚一起上学时,南斯拉夫当时面临崩溃。她说,她们想要知道这将会如何影响她们的未来。
"We talked about studying, about how to see the world, and she, like a model, she knew that Slovenia was too small for her."
塞德吉说:“我们谈论学习,谈论如何看待这个世界。她和模特一样,知道斯洛文尼亚这个舞台对自己来说太小。”
Melania Trump left Sevnica when she was still a teenager and went to live with her sister in the city of Ljubljana. She began working as a model there. Later, she traveled to Milan, Italy and Paris, France.
梅拉尼亚年少时就离开了塞夫尼察,到卢布尔雅那市和她姐姐一起生活。她开始在这里从事模特工作。随后,她去了意大利米兰和法国巴黎。
Then she went to New York where she met Donald Trump at a fashion event in 1999. They dated for about a year. They restarted their relationship a few years later.
然后她到了纽约,并在1999年的一场时装活动上遇到了川普。他们约会了一年左右。几年之后,他们再次走到了一起。
In April, 2004, Donald Trump asked Melania to marry him.
2004年4月,川普向梅拉尼亚求婚。
Melania was first named Melanija Knavs. She then changed her name to Melania Knauss. She became Melania Trump when she married Donald Trump in Florida on January 22, 2005.
梅拉尼亚最初得名为Melanija Knavs,然后她改名为Melania Knauss。2005年1月22日,她在佛罗里达州同川普结婚,成为了梅拉尼亚·特朗普(婚后冠夫姓)。
He was 58 years old. She was 30. It was her first marriage and his third. There were 500 guests at the wedding, including Oprah Winfrey, Prince Charles of Britain, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Muhammad Ali.
川普当时58岁,而她30岁。这是梅拉尼亚的初婚,也是川普的第三段婚姻。婚礼上有500位客人,包括奥普拉·温弗瑞、英国查尔斯王子、阿诺德·施瓦辛格和穆罕默德·阿里。
Donald and Melania Trump have one child: a son named Barron William Trump. He was born in 2006.
川普和梅拉尼亚在2006年生下了一个儿子,取名为巴龙·威廉·特朗普(Barron William Trump)。
In Sevnica, friends of Melania Trump's family say her father Viktor Knavs was a lot like Donald Trump.
在塞夫尼察,梅拉尼亚的朋友们说她的父亲维克多·科纳夫斯(Viktor Knavs)和川普很像。
Zdravko Mastnak says Knavs was ambitious and a good businessman. He says he always looked for a way to improve his life beyond the money he could earn selling cars at a state-owned company.
兹德拉科夫·马斯特纳克(Zdravko Mastnak)表示,科纳夫斯是一位雄心勃勃的、能干的商人。他说,科纳夫斯在一家国营企业销售汽车,他总是在此之外想办法赚钱改善自己的生活。
Only about 5,000 people live in Sevnica, which was affected by World War II. After the war, many mass graves were found there.
塞夫尼察只有大约5千人口,这里受到了二战的影响。战后在这里发现了很多乱葬岗。
When communists took control of Sevnica after the war, it became a center of furniture manufacturing.
共产党人在战后控制了塞夫尼察,这里成为了家具制造中心。
In the town, graffiti-covered trains speed past large apartment buildings built when the Communist Party ruled Yugoslavia. Some large buildings, like Communism, have collapsed. It is easy to understand why someone would want to leave the town although some parts of it are beautiful.
在镇上,画满涂鸦的火车从南斯拉夫时期修建的大型公寓楼群前疾驰而过。有些大楼已经垮塌。有人想要离开该镇也是可以理解的,虽然它的一些地方非常美丽。
Nusa Vidmar owns a cake shop in Sevnica near the apartment building where Melania Trump grew up.
努萨·维德玛尔(Nusa Vidmar)在塞夫尼察拥有一家蛋糕店,这里离梅拉尼亚长大的公寓大楼不远。
"We were very proud of Melania's success. She used to be one of us and we are really happy for her, so everything what we do is making cakes, so we create simple but luxury cake that was, we wanted to have a beautiful cake like she is."
她说:“我们为梅拉尼亚的成功倍感自豪。她曾经是我们中的一员,我们真的为她感到高兴。我们就会做蛋糕,所以呢,就制作了一个既简单又奢华的蛋糕,希望能和她一样的美丽。”
Zdravko Mastnak is a family friend who makes wine. He says he hopes Melania Trump and her husband will visit Sevnica.
兹德拉夫科·马斯特纳克(Zdravko Mastnak)是梅拉尼亚的一位家族好友,他从事酿酒。他说希望梅拉尼亚及其丈夫能够访问塞夫尼察。