2021年经济学人 披头士乐队——一首悠长而曲折的颂歌

（单词翻译）

Books and Arts -- Book Review

文艺——书评

The Beatles -- A long and winding¹ ode

披头士乐队——一首悠长而曲折的颂歌

The Lyrics². By Paul McCartney.

《歌词》，作者：保罗·麦卡特尼。

The lives of distinguished³ people often take a lot of telling.

名人的生活往往有很多可讲的地方。

Yet even devotees might raise an eyebrow⁴ at the heft of Sir Paul McCartney’s memoir⁵: two volumes totalling 960 pages.

然而，即使是狂热粉丝可能也会对保罗·麦卡特尼爵士回忆录的篇幅感到讶异：两卷本共计960页。

Casual Beatles fans may be surprised by the title, too.

喜欢披头士时间不长的粉丝可能还会对这个头衔感到惊讶。

Though most would consider Sir Paul the band’s best musician (with an honourable⁶ mention for George Harrison), John Lennon typically gets the plaudits for writing.

尽管大多数人认为保罗爵士是乐队中最优秀的音乐家（乔治·哈里森曾获得荣誉提名），但得到赞赏的通常是约翰·列侬的写作。

In a poll by the BBC in 2001 to rank the greatest lyricists, Lennon received more than twice as many votes as McCartney.

在2001年英国广播公司对最伟大的作词人进行的投票中，列侬获得的票数是麦卡特尼的两倍多。

Superficially, “The Lyrics” is a coffee-table book.

从表面上看，《歌词》是一本适合摆在咖啡桌上的书。

Sir Paul has arranged 154 favourite compositions alphabetically⁷, with lots of glossy⁸ photos.

保罗爵士按字母顺序排列了154首最受欢迎的作品，还配上了许多精美的照片。

But in the essays that accompany each song, his underlying⁹ purpose is to affirm his status as a writer.

但从每首歌附带的随笔中，可以看出他的潜在目的是肯定自己作为作家的地位。

They are based on 50 hours of conversation with Paul Muldoon, a prizewinning poet, in which Sir Paul reflected on his life, his lyrics and the relationship between them.

这些随笔基于与获奖诗人保罗·马尔登长达50个小时的对话，在对话中，保罗爵士回顾了他的生活、他的歌词以及它们之间的关系。

Mr Muldoon calls Sir Paul a “great writer” who has learned from “an impressive array of literary masters: Dickens, Shakespeare, Robert Louis Stevenson, Lewis Carroll”.

马尔登先生称保罗爵士是一位“伟大的作家”，他从“一系列令人印象深刻的文学大师：狄更斯，莎士比亚，罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森，刘易斯·卡罗尔”身上汲取了营养。

Sir Paul flaunts¹⁰ his bookish side.

保罗爵士骄傲地展示着他书生气的一面。

He fondly recalls his favourite bookshop in Liverpool and an inspirational English teacher.

他深情回忆了他在利物浦最喜欢的书店和一位启发他灵感的英语老师。

The autobiographical snippets include many encounters with writers.

自传片段中记述了与作家们的许多接触。

As a young Beatle, he found himself talking to Bertrand Russell about imperialism¹¹, listening to Allen Ginsberg praise “Eleanor Rigby” and stumbling across Harold Pinter’s bathtub of champagne¹² bottles.

作为一名年轻的披头士成员，他发现自己在和伯特兰·罗素谈论帝国主义，听艾伦·金斯伯格称赞《埃莉诺·里格比》，还无意中撞见了哈罗德·品特满是香槟酒瓶的浴缸。

His songs are full of allusions¹³.

他的歌里充满了典故。

The index includes authors ranging from Edward Lear (mentioned in “Paperback Writer”) to Rabindranath Tagore (who inspired “Pipes of Peace”).

索引涵盖了从爱德华·李尔（《平装书作家》中引用）到拉宾德拉纳特·泰戈尔（他启发了《言归于好》的创作）等作家。

Echoes of Shakespeare recur¹⁴.

对莎士比亚的致敬反复出现。

“Lend me your ears” in “With a Little Help from My Friends” is pinched from “Julius Caesar”.

《得到了朋友们的一点帮助》中的“借我你的耳朵”是从《凯撒大帝》一书中摘录的。

Sir Paul says the girl who is “way beyond compare” in “I Saw Her Standing¹⁵ There” harks back to the sonnet¹⁶ about a summer’s day.

保罗爵士说《我看见她站在那里》中的那个“无与伦比”的女孩是以那首描写夏日的十四行诗为原形的。

His link to Hamlet’s near-dying words—“but let it be”—seems more of a stretch.

但他将“但随它去吧”与哈姆雷特临终前的话语联系起来似乎有点牵强。

The melody usually comes first, Sir Paul says of his writing process.

保罗爵士在谈到他的写作过程时说，旋律通常是先出现的。

The tune¹⁷ of “Yesterday” arrived in a dream; its working title was “Scrambled Eggs”.

《昨天》的曲调于睡梦中响起；当时给它暂定的歌名是《炒鸡蛋》。

Next he looks for characters to sketch¹⁸: “Once you get into creating a narrative¹⁹ and storytelling, it is so much more entertaining.”

接下来，他寻找字词写初稿：“一旦你开始创作记叙性的故事，这个过程就会变得有趣很多。”

Some songs are ensembles²⁰ of voices, such as “Band on the Run” and “Penny Lane” (written partly in free indirect speech).

有些歌曲是各种人物话语的混合，比如《逃亡乐队》和《便士巷》（部分是用自由间接引语写的）。

Others are portraits, such as the solitary²¹ woman in “Another Day”, or Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Beatles’ spiritual adviser²², in “The Fool on the Hill”.

还有一些是人物刻画，比如《另一天》中的孤独女人，或者《山上的傻瓜》中的玛哈西·马赫什·约吉，他是披头士乐队的精神导师。

Even when Sir Paul uses the first person, he often inhabits another persona.

即使保罗爵士使用第一人称书写，他也经常扮演另一个角色。

For “The Long and Winding Road” he pretended to be Ray Charles; mimicking²³ other writers is a habitual²⁴ “disappearing trick”.

在《漫长而曲折的道路》中，他假装自己是雷·查尔斯；模仿其他作家是一种习惯性的“消失把戏”。

Of “Maybe I’m Amazed”, usually interpreted as an ode to Linda, his first wife, he insists that: “Starting with myself, the characters who appear in my songs are imagined.”

在《也许我很惊讶》（这首歌通常被解读为献给第一任妻子琳达的颂歌）中，他坚称：“我歌曲中出现的人物都是我想象出来的。”

Overall he makes a strong case for treating his work as poetry.

总的来说，他极力主张将他的作品视为诗歌。

Lennon, he says, “never had anything like my interest in literature”.

他说，列侬“从来没有像我这样对文学感兴趣”。

It was cynicism that secured his bandmate’s acclaim²⁵: “It’s easier to get critical approval if you rail against things and swear a lot.”

正是这种愤世嫉俗的态度为他的乐队成员赢得了赞誉：“如果你对一些事情喋喋不休，骂骂咧咧，就更容易得到评论家的认可。”

Frequently he contrasts Lennon’s tough childhood, in which guardians²⁶ absconded²⁷ or died, with the jolly, loving family who gave Sir Paul an optimistic outlook.

他经常把列侬艰难的童年（监护人逃跑或去世了）与他欢乐的、充满爱的家庭进行对比，这些让保罗爵士拥有了乐观的生活态度。

That is why his songs are often about the happiness of ordinary folk.

这就是为什么他的歌曲经常描绘普通人的幸福。

Lennon is arguably the main character in “The Lyrics”, memories of Sir Paul’s best friend and fiercest rival popping up in songs written long after his death.

列侬可以说是《歌词》一书的主角，保罗爵士对他这位最好的朋友、也是最凶猛的对手进行了回忆，在列侬死后很久，保罗才在歌曲中写到他。

Harrison and Ringo Starr rarely intrude²⁸.

哈里森和林戈·斯塔尔很少出现。

All the same, this is an enlightening account of how some of the greatest-ever songs came about.

尽管如此，有关一些有史以来最伟大的歌曲是如何产生的，这本书还是进行了富有启发性的描述。

It also illuminates²⁹ Sir Paul’s attachment³⁰ to his Liverpudlian and Irish heritage, the challenges of going solo and his musical ambitions today.

这本书也展现出了保罗爵士对他利物浦和爱尔兰传统的依恋、单飞后的挑战以及他如今的音乐抱负。

If at times it is rambling³¹ and repetitive, what fan will not enjoy a meander³² that feels like a long private audience with one of the Fab Four?

有时候他的行文有些漫无目的和重复，但哪个歌迷会不喜欢这样的漫步呢？那感觉就像是披头士四成员之一的私人听众一样。