TED演讲:音乐令人心智健全

 　　One day, Los Angeles Times columnist¹ Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of downtown Los Angeles 有一天，洛杉矶时报的专栏作家Steve Lopez走在洛杉矶大街上

　　when he heard beautiful music.  听到一曲美妙的乐曲

　　And the source was a man, an African-American man, 音乐是从一个男人，一个非裔男人

　　charming, rugged², homeless, playing a violin that only had two strings³. 一个颇有魅力，粗旷的流浪汉用一把只剩下两根弦的小提琴在演奏

　　And I'm telling a story that many of you know,  我现在要讲的这个故事你们很多人已经知道了

　　because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was turned into a movie, 因为Steve的专栏后来成了一本书的基础，然后又被拍成电影

　　with Robert Downey Jr. acting⁴ as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, 其中Robert Downey Jr扮演Steve Lopez，Jamie Foxx扮演了Nathaniel Anthony Ayer

　　the Juilliard-trained double bassist  他原本是茱莉亚音乐学院培训的双重贝斯手

　　whose promising⁵ career was cut short by a tragic⁶ affliction with paranoid schizophrenia. 不料他的职业生涯却因为患上偏执型精神分裂症而不幸中断

　　Nathaniel dropped out of Juilliard, he suffered a complete breakdown⁷, Nathaniel从茱莉亚音乐学院辍学，他完全崩溃了

　　and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid⁸ Row in downtown Los Angeles. 30年后的他流落在洛杉矶Skid Row大街上无家可归

　　I encourage all of you to read Steve's book or to watch the movie  我鼓励大家都去看看Steve的书，或者看看电影

　　to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, 不光是去理解这两个男人之间建立的美好的纽带

　　but how music helped shape that bond,  而且也看看音乐是如果帮助建立这种纽带的

　　and ultimately was instrumental -- if you'll pardon the pun -- in helping⁹ Nathaniel get off the streets. 而那是最终改变Nathaniel流浪生活的最有用的工具

　　I met Mr. Ayers in 2008, two years ago, at Walt Disney Concert Hall. 我和Ayers先生在2008年相见，那是两年前在迪斯尼音乐厅

　　He had just heard a performance of Beethoven's First and Fourth symphonies,  他才听了贝多芬第一，第四交响乐

　　and came backstage and introduced himself.  到后天来自我介绍

　　He was speaking in a very jovial¹⁰ and gregarious¹¹ way about Yo-Yo Ma and Hillary Clinton 他说话很愉快，很合群，提到了马友友和希拉里·克林顿

　　and how the Dodgers¹² were never going to make the World Series,  道奇队不可能进入世界联赛

　　all because of the treacherous¹³ first violin passage work in the last movement of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. 而这都是因为最后一刻贝多芬第四交响乐中开始的那段变幻莫测的小提琴演奏起的作用

　　And we got talking about music, and I got an email from Steve a few days later  我们谈了一会儿音乐。几天后我收到Steve的来信

　　saying that Nathaniel was interested in a violin lesson with me.  告诉我Nathaniel有兴趣跟我说学小提琴

　　Now, I should mention that Nathaniel refuses treatment  我应该提一下的是Nathaniel拒绝治疗

　　because when he was treated it was with shock therapy and Thorazine and handcuffs, 因为当初他接受的是电击疗法，用的是镇静剂和手铐

　　and that scar has stayed with him for his entire life.  那些伤疤从此留在了他的生活中

　　But as a result now, he is prone¹⁴ to these schizophrenic episodes, 结果呢，他的精神分裂症现在变得更容易发作

　　the worst of which can manifest themselves as him exploding and then disappearing for days, 最糟糕的表现是，他发作后会消失几天

　　wandering the streets of Skid Row, exposed to its horrors, with the torment¹⁵ of his own mind unleashed¹⁶ upon him. 在Skid Row大街上流浪，暴露着内心的恐惧，让心灵的煎熬在身上释放

　　And Nathaniel was in such a state of agitation¹⁷ Nathaniel当初就是处在这样的一种状态下

　　when we started our first lesson at Walt Disney Concert Hall --  我们在迪斯尼音乐厅开始了第一课的时候

　　he had a kind of manic glint in his eyes, he was lost. 他的目光中夹杂着狂躁，他是一个迷失了方向的人

　　And he was talking about invisible demons¹⁸ and smoke, 他提到了无形的恶魔和烟雾

　　and how someone was poisoning him in his sleep.  有人怎样在他睡觉时给他下毒

　　And I was afraid, not for myself, but I was afraid that I was going to lose him, 我感到很害怕，不是为我自己的安全担心，而是害怕我会失去他

　　that he was going to sink into one of his states,  他又会沉浸到他的某一种他的状态中

　　and that I would ruin his relationship with the violin  而我会毁了他和小提琴建立起来的关系

　　if I started talking about scales and arpeggios and other exciting forms of didactic violin pedagogy. 如果我开始讲音阶和琶音和其他形式的精彩的说教式的小提琴教学法

1 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

2 rugged   

adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的

参考例句：

• Football players must be rugged.足球运动员必须健壮。
• The Rocky Mountains have rugged mountains and roads.落基山脉有崇山峻岭和崎岖不平的道路。

3 strings   

n.弦

参考例句：

• He sat on the bed,idly plucking the strings of his guitar.他坐在床上，随意地拨着吉他的弦。
• She swept her fingers over the strings of the harp.她用手指划过竖琴的琴弦。

4 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

5 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。

6 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。

7 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

8 skid   

v.打滑 n.滑向一侧；滑道 ，滑轨

参考例句：

• He braked suddenly,causing the front wheels to skid.他突然剎车，使得前轮打了滑。
• The police examined the skid marks to see how fast the car had been travelling.警察检查了车轮滑行痕迹，以判断汽车当时开得有多快。

9 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

10 jovial   

adj.快乐的，好交际的

参考例句：

• He seemed jovial,but his eyes avoided ours.他显得很高兴，但他的眼光却避开了我们的眼光。
• Grandma was plump and jovial.祖母身材圆胖，整天乐呵呵的。

11 gregarious   

adj.群居的，喜好群居的

参考例句：

• These animals are highly gregarious.这些动物非常喜欢群居。
• They are gregarious birds and feed in flocks.它们是群居鸟类，会集群觅食。

12 dodgers   

n.躲闪者，欺瞒者( dodger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a crackdown on fare dodgers on trains 对火车逃票者的严厉打击
• But Twain, Howells, and James were jeeringly described by Mencken as "draft-dodgers". 不过吐温、豪威尔斯和詹姆斯都是被门肯讥诮地叫做“逃避兵役的人。” 来自辞典例句

13 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

14 prone   

adj.(to)易于…的，很可能…的；俯卧的

参考例句：

• Some people are prone to jump to hasty conclusions.有些人往往作出轻率的结论。
• He is prone to lose his temper when people disagree with him.人家一不同意他的意见,他就发脾气。

15 torment   

n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠

参考例句：

• He has never suffered the torment of rejection.他从未经受过遭人拒绝的痛苦。
• Now nothing aggravates me more than when people torment each other.没有什么东西比人们的互相折磨更使我愤怒。

16 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

18 demons   

n.恶人( demon的名词复数 )；恶魔；精力过人的人；邪念

参考例句：

• demons torturing the sinners in Hell 地狱里折磨罪人的魔鬼
• He is plagued by demons which go back to his traumatic childhood. 他为心魔所困扰，那可追溯至他饱受创伤的童年。 来自《简明英汉词典》