Denzel Washington

Denzel Washington

                              

[原文]

Denzel first learned to fight growing up on the streets of Mount Vernon, a working-class suburb outside of New York City. His mother, Lenis, managed her own Beauty Shop, his father Denzel Senior was a Penacostel Preacher who ¹⁾held down two other jobs. Denzel went to church every Sunday but dreamed of becoming a professional athlete. He spent all of his free time here, at what was then "The Boy's Club".

Journalist: This was an important place for you?

Denzel: Yep, I lived here! My mother had to come get me.

Journalist: So you had a time when you had to come home?

Denzel: Nine O'clock, man, I had it timed. I knew how to get to the fish market by 8:54 and by the chicken joint¹ by 8:56 in order to make it home by 9 o'clock.

Journalist: Did she ever have to come looking for you?

Denzel: She did! She would! We were in a park and she came and they're like "Ahh D, your mom's here." And I got in the car and she was screaming. So I kinda look at everybody out the window like, you know, I got this. As I was turning around - POW! So I put my head under the ²⁾dashboard, "Just drive, ma, just drive."

Journalist: Your mother was important in you life?

Denzel: Oh yeah.

Journalist: She set the tone in the house? I mean, she was the ³⁾disciplinarian, not your father?

Denzel: Yeah, no, he was working, all the time.

Denzel says his mother Lattice saved his life when she ⁴⁾scraped together enough money to send him to Oakland Academy, a small ⁵⁾boarding school for boys in upstate New York.

Journalist: How did you end up here?

Denzel: I was in a public school, Malburnham High School, and my mother decided² it was best to get me outta there before I ended up like where a lot of my friends are now. You know in the grave, in the ⁶⁾penitentiary³. My mother had a good understanding what exposure would do for her children, and she tried to expose us to things. She used to ride us around in Scarsdale and we'd pick out houses that we wanted. "That one's gonna be mine! Oh, I'm going to get one like that！" You know, or "Take me to see the Nutcracker Sweet."

Journalist: You owe her a lot?

Denzel: I owe her everything!

Journalist: I assume you told her that?

Denzel : In many ways! Yeah.

Journalist: When you come back here with all the success you've had today and all the confidence you have today, do you still see you? The kid who was here and the man who is there now?

Denzel: It's and in a way, no, and I'll tell you why, because I'm an actor, so I'm ⁷⁾schizoid anyway. You know, you play and become so many... I've been so many people between then and now. I've played so many different roles. It's not a smooth line from there to here.

The roughest point on that line, Densel says, was when he was 20, ⁸⁾floundering ⁹⁾flunking out of college. Then he told us he was touched by an angel.

Denzel: I was in my mother's beauty shop and I was looking in the mirror, and I saw a woman sitting across the room from me. And she said to my mother, "Bring me a piece of paper, I have a ¹⁰⁾prophecy."-- It's the God honest truth, I've got the piece of paper, I keep it with me all the time -- and she wrote down, she said, "This boy is gonna speak to millions of people." I asked my mother afterwards, I said, "Who the hell is this? You know what she's talking about?" She said, "Well, she is one of the oldest church members in my branch and people say she has the gift of prophecy." I'm like, well, why didn't I meet her a year ago before I got kick out of school or something. You know, so I don't talk about that a lot, but I've kinda felt like maybe I've got some job to do.

With that job in mind, Denzel returned to New York's Fordham University where he found he had a gift, acting⁵, and he's never looked back. He now lives in Los Angeles with Pauletta, his wife, and their 4 children in a house bigger than anything he might have seen in Scarsdale. This gifted, ¹¹⁾purposeful man says he has found his voice through the men he plays and those voices speak to millions of people. That's the part of the job he cares about.

 

丹泽·华盛顿

 

[译文]

    丹泽原本在弗农山——纽约市郊一个工薪阶层区——的街道上打架长大。他的母亲列宁思开有一家美容院，父亲老丹泽是名传教士，还兼有两份其他的工作。丹泽每个星期天都上教堂做礼拜，可他的梦想是成为一名职业运动员。他把所有的空余时间都泡在一个叫“男孩俱乐部”的地方。

记者：这地方对你的意义很重大吧？

丹泽：对，我以前就住在这儿！母亲还得来接我回家。

记者：那么说你还要按时回家？

丹泽：我9点钟就要到家。我还知道要在8点54分赶到鱼市，8点56分赶到鸡市，这样9点钟才能准时到家。

记者：她有没有出来找过你？

丹泽：有啊！她会来找我！我们在公园里，她来了，他们说“啊，阿丹，你妈来了。”我上了车，她便大声吆喝。我就望着车窗外的大伙儿，瞧吧，我妈就这样。然后我一转头——啪！挨了一记。我抱着头躲到仪表板底下，“开车吧，妈，你开车吧。”

记者：你母亲对你的一生影响深远吗？

丹泽：噢，是的。

记者：在家里是她说了算吗？我是说，你家里是严母而不是严父？

丹泽：是严母不是严父，父亲总是工作又工作。

 丹泽说他的母亲拉蒂思苦苦攒下足够的钱送他上奥克兰学院，是挽救了他的命运，那是在纽约州北部的一所小寄宿学校。

记者：你是怎么来到这的？

丹泽：我原来是在马本翰公立中学念书，后来妈妈认为最好还是趁我没步其他朋友后尘之前转学的好。他们现在有的躺在坟墓里，有的进了监狱。我妈妈很清楚地知道该让孩子看什么有好处，她会带我们去多面接触。从前她常开车带我们上斯卡德尔逛，让我们挑选合心意的房子。“我要这一套！喔，我要买套那样的！”或者说“带我去看《甜胡桃夹》吧。”

记者：你很感激她吧？

丹泽：我感激她的一切。

记者：我想你向她表达过了？

丹泽：是的，以许多方式表达了！

记者：今天你取得了巨大成功，带着满满的自信来重游旧地，你是否仍然能看到自己呢？我是说，当初那个小男孩的影子和现在的这个男子汉？

丹泽：从某方面来说，看不到了，我跟你解释这原因：因为我身为演员，会有多重性格。演出过很多……一直以来我扮演过很多人，演过许多不同的角色。由彼及此的路途不是平平稳稳的。

丹泽说，这条路上最难走的一段是他20岁的时候从大学退学，一筹莫展。然后他说他遇到一位天使。

丹泽：那时我到妈妈的美容院去，从镜子里看到对面坐着一个女人。她对我妈妈说：“给我一张纸，我有预言。”——这件事千真万确，我保留着那张纸，一直随身带着——接着她往纸上写字，她说：“这个男孩将会对无数人说话。”后来我问妈妈：“这人到底是谁？你知道她说了什么吗？”她说：“她是我这支教会中年纪最大的教友之一，别人说她有预言的能力。”我就在想，啊，一年前被学校开除之前我怎么没遇到她。我没怎么提过这件事，可那多少让我觉得，或许天生我材必有用吧。

    丹泽带着这样的想法回到纽约福德罕大学，在那里，他发现了自己的表演天分，从此一往无前。现在他和妻子宝丽塔以及四个孩子一起住在洛杉矶，他的住房比从前在斯卡德尔看到的任何一座都大。这个聪明坚毅的人说，他通过自己扮演过的角色找到了自己的声音，并用此声音向无数人说话。那是他所热爱的工作。

 

注释：

1) hold down （非正式）保住工作

2) dashboard [5dAF7bC:d] n. 汽车等的仪表板

3) disciplinarian [7disipli5nZEriEn] n. 厉行纪律的人

4) scrape [skreIp] v. 艰难地积攒

5) boarding school 寄宿学校

6) penitentiary [peni5tenFEri] n. 收容所，教养所

7) schizoid [5skizCid] a. 精神分裂的

8) flounder [5flaundE] v. 挣扎，辗转

9) flunk⁴ out （口）因不及格而退学

10) prophecy [5prCfisi] n. 预言

11) purposeful [5pE:pEsful] a. 有目的，坚定

 

 

1 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 penitentiary   

n.感化院；监狱

参考例句：

• He worked as a warden at the state penitentiary.他在这所州监狱任看守长。
• While he was in the penitentiary her father died and the family broke up.他坐牢的时候，她的父亲死了，家庭就拆散了。

4 flunk   

v.(考试)不及格(=fail)

参考例句：

• I will flunk him if my student doesn't learn the material in the course.如果我的学生没有掌握课程的内容，我就会让他不及格。
• If you flunk finals,you don't get the chance to do them again.如果你没通过期末考试，就没有机会再考一次了。

5 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。