2020年经济学人 街头女歌手莉莉·利昂(4)（在线收听）

When Piaf invited her to come and see her at Gerny’s, an ultra-chic cabaret, she felt too shy to go. Street singing was dying fast, though. By the beginning of the 1950s those 30 groups were fast disappearing. Soon she was the last. And more glittering worlds beckoned: cabaret, variety, film, television. She had tried film once, for Marcel Carné in “Les Portes de la Nuit”, but had been fired for saying that she couldn’t imagine singing the film’s main number in the street.

当琵雅芙邀请她去格尼，一个超时髦的卡巴莱夜总会看她时，她感到太害羞而不敢去。但是，街头歌唱正在快速消逝。到20世纪50年代初，那30个街头团体正在迅速消失。很快，莉莉成了最后一个。还有更多光鲜亮丽的世界在招手：歌舞表演、综艺、电影和电视。她尝试过一次电影，参演了马塞尔·卡恩的《夜之门》，但她说自己无法想象在大街上演唱这部电影的主题曲，因此被解雇。

For three years, despite being married (marriage never got in her way), she kept company with Vincent Scotto, an old, grey, high-living songwriter, in hopes he might make a star of her. But he tried to take her over, changing her name, her hair and her clothes. Especially, he stopped her singing in the street; so she marched out. There were recordings later, and regular appearances on a tv show compèred by Pascal Sevran, whom she had helped when he started out in 1963.

三年来，尽管结婚了（婚姻从未妨碍过她），她和年迈、白发苍苍的文森特·斯科托在一起，希望这位生活富足的作曲家能让她成为明星。但他试图控制她，改变她的名字，她的头发和她的衣服。尤其是，他不让她在街头唱歌，所以她就坚决离开了。后来莉莉还录过唱片，并定期在帕斯卡尔·塞夫兰主持的电视节目上露面。1963年塞夫兰刚开始工作时，她曾帮助过他。

No breakthrough came, though. Occasionally in the 1970s she would do a little turn on the Paris streets, ringing out the old songs while the station queues looked on, largely uncomprehending. The city had changed. Most people ran now; they had no time to stop and listen any more. Fraternitéand gaiety had gone, with the songs. But every bit that was left seemed to gather round her at the local bistro near her flat in rue de Buzenval where she still lived in proud independence, raising a song and a glass to her on her 100th birthday in 2017, on the first of May.

不过，没有取得任何突破。在20世纪70年代，她偶尔会在巴黎的街道上做一些表演，唱起那些老歌，站里排队的人注视着，却几乎无法理解。城市已经变了。大多数人现在都在跑，他们没有时间停下来再倾听了。伴着歌声，兄弟情谊和欢乐都消失了。但是，她仍骄傲地独立生活在布曾瓦尔街。2017年5月1日，她100岁生日时，在她公寓附近的一家小酒馆里，她举杯欢畅。剩下的点滴美好似乎都萦绕在她身旁。