TED演讲：请求的艺术(2)

 　　And I would get harassed¹ sometimes. People would yell at me from their cars. "Get a job!"  有时候我会被骚扰。开车路过的人从车里对我大喊。“找份工作去！”

　　And I'd be, like, "This is my job." But it hurt, because it made me fear that I was somehow doing something un-joblike and unfair, shameful².  我的反应是“这就是我的工作。”但是这让我很伤心，因为这让我感觉我的工作不正经、不公平和可耻。

　　I had no idea how perfect a real education I was getting for the music business on this box.  我没想到站在这个盒子上以音乐谋生的经历竟会是有如此深刻的教育意义。

　　And for the economists³ out there, you may be interested to know I actually made a pretty predictable income, which was shocking to me, given I had no regular customers,  经济学家们你们可能会对这一点感兴趣，我的收入其实相当稳定，因为我没有固定的顾客，这一点让我自己也非常吃惊，

　　but pretty much 60 bucks⁴ on a Tuesday, 90 bucks on a Friday. It was consistent. 我一般周二挣60美元，周五挣90美元。我的收入是稳定的。

　　And meanwhile, I was touring locally and playing in nightclubs with my band, the Dresden Dolls.  同时，我还在本地巡演与我的乐队the Dresden Dolls一同在夜店演出。

　　This was me on piano, a genius drummer.  这是我在弹钢琴，旁边是一位天才鼓手。

　　I wrote the songs, and eventually we started making enough money that I could quit being a statue,  我还搞歌曲创作，我们的收入逐渐增加，最终，我不需要再做活人雕塑赚钱了，

　　and as we started touring, I really didn't want to lose this sense of direct connection with people, because I loved it.  我们开始巡演之后我依然不想失去这种与人直接交流的感觉，因为我喜欢这种感觉。

　　So after all of our shows, we would sign autographs and hug fans and hang out and talk to people,  所以我们在表演结束之后一定会签名、拥抱我们的歌迷，和人交流互动，

　　and we made an art out of asking people to help us and join us,  我们将请求他人给予帮助或加入我们的过程变成了一门艺术，

　　and I would track down local musicians and artists and they would set up outside of our shows,  我会找来当地的音乐家和艺术家在我们的演出门口表演，

　　and they would pass the hat, and then they would come in and join us onstage,  他们会传递一个帽子，随后他们进入演出场馆和我们一起登上舞台，

　　so we had this rotating smorgasbord of weird⁵, random⁶ circus guests. 也就是说，我们有着不断更替的、各种各样的、随机的、古怪的表演嘉宾。

1 harassed   

adj. 疲倦的，厌烦的 动词harass的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He has complained of being harassed by the police. 他投诉受到警方侵扰。
• harassed mothers with their children 带着孩子的疲惫不堪的母亲们

2 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

3 economists   

n.经济学家，经济专家( economist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sudden rise in share prices has confounded economists. 股价的突然上涨使经济学家大惑不解。
• Foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 bucks   

n.雄鹿( buck的名词复数 )；钱；（英国十九世纪初的）花花公子；（用于某些表达方式）责任v.（马等）猛然弓背跃起( buck的第三人称单数 )；抵制；猛然震荡；马等尥起后蹄跳跃

参考例句：

• They cost ten bucks. 这些值十元钱。
• They are hunting for bucks. 他们正在猎雄兔。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。