2019年经济学人 羊角号女能人珍妮·利特瓦克(1)

 

Call of the ages

时代的呼唤

Jennie Litvack, high mistress of the shofar, died on June 27th, aged¹ 55

羊角号女能人珍妮·利特瓦克于6月27日去世，享年55岁

The call came, appropriately enough, while she was walking through the Old City of Jerusalem, her husband said. They had stopped at a small shop near the Roman Cardo. By the door stood a barrel of shofars. Not regular ram²'s horn shofars, but the long curved Yemeni instruments made from the horn of the greaterkudu, an African antelope³. She blew each one in turn. What emerged was a deep throaty musical summons that almost quivered, casting those who heard it back to one of the most significant moments in Judaism when God stopped Abraham from sacrificinghis own son and ordered him to kill a ram instead. In the street a crowd began to gather.

她的丈夫说，呼唤到来的时候，她正在耶路撒冷老城散步。他们在罗马卡多附近的一家小商店停了下来。门口放着很多羊角号。不是普通的公羊的羊角号，但是这个长而弯曲的也门乐器是由大旋角羚的角做成的，大旋角羚是一种非洲羚羊。她依次吹了每个羊角号。出现的是一种几乎颤抖的深沉的喉音般的音乐召唤，把听到这声音的人带回犹太教中最重要的时刻之一，当时上帝阻止亚伯拉罕牺牲自己的儿子，而是命令他杀死一只公羊。在街道上人群开始聚集。

They had never heard such a sound before. And then, somewhere in the barrel, she found it—the shofar that produced the perfect deep baritone, the primal⁴ call she'd long dreamed of but never made. When she blew it, the crowd fell silent. Shopkeepers, tourists, old men pushing carts: they all stopped. They knew this one was different. And so was born a new ba'alat tokeah, a high mistress of the horn. It helped, of course, that she had played the trumpet⁵ since she was a child. At 14 she went up to Dizzy Gillespie after a concert at the Rising Sun jazz club in her native Montreal, and asked if she could have a go on his instrument—and a lesson. The next morning her mother dropped her at his hotel and waited patiently in the car outside.

他们以前从没听到过这样的声音。然后，在这堆羊角号里面，她发现了它-这个羊角号产生完美的深男中音的声音，这是她长久以来梦寐以求但从未发出的最原始的呼唤。当她吹这个羊角号的时，人群陷入了寂静。店主、游客、推着手推车的老人都停了下来。他们知道这个是不同的。就这样诞生了一位新的巴阿拉特·托克亚，吹羊角号的女能手。她从两岁起就开始吹这个乐器，这当然帮助了她。14岁时，她在家乡蒙特利尔的旭日爵士俱乐部参加完一场音乐会后，去了迪兹·吉莱斯皮那里，问她是否可以演奏一下他的乐器——上一节课。第二天早上，她妈妈把她送到他住的旅馆，在外面的车里耐心地等着。

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

3 antelope   

n.羚羊；羚羊皮

参考例句：

• Choosing the antelope shows that China wants a Green Olympics.选择藏羚羊表示中国需要绿色奥运。
• The tiger was dragging the antelope across the field.老虎拖着羚羊穿过原野。

4 primal   

adj.原始的；最重要的

参考例句：

• Jealousy is a primal emotion.嫉妒是最原始的情感。
• Money was a primal necessity to them.对于他们，钱是主要的需要。

5 trumpet   

n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘

参考例句：

• He plays the violin, but I play the trumpet.他拉提琴，我吹喇叭。
• The trumpet sounded for battle.战斗的号角吹响了。