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【第195期】让你的灵魂成长 Make Your Soul Grow · 永清
主播:永清
坐标:北京
Dear Xavier High School, and Ms. Lockwood, and Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer and Congiusta:
亲爱的泽维尔高中,Lockwood女士,Messrs Perin, McFeely, Batten, Maurer 和 Congiusta:
I thank you for your friendly letters. You sure know how to cheer up a really old geezer (84) in his sunset years. I don't make public appearances anymore because I now resemble nothing so much as an iguana.
我要感谢你们友好的来信,你们很知道怎么样让一个84岁的老家伙在他的日落之年振作起来。我不再公开露面,因为我现在已经老态龙钟了。
What I had to say to you, moreover, would not take long, to wit: Practice any art, music, singing, dancing, acting, drawing, painting, sculpting, poetry, fiction, essays, reportage, no matter how well or badly, not to get money and fame, but to experience becoming, to find out what's inside you, to make your soul grow.
我想和你们说的,并不长,即:尝试任何一种形式的艺术:音乐,唱歌,跳舞,表演,素描,绘画,雕塑,诗歌,小说,散文,哪怕是写篇小报道。无论你做得好还是糟糕,不为名利,纯粹地去体验这个过程,发现内心深处的自己,让你的灵魂成长。
Seriously! I mean starting right now, do art and do it for the rest of your lives. Draw a funny or nice picture of Ms. Lockwood, and give it to her. Dance home after school, and sing in the shower and on and on. Make a face in your mashed potatoes. Pretend you're Count Dracula.
我是认真的!我的意思是,从现在开始,让艺术伴你一生。给Lockwood女士画一幅有趣的,或者好看的画,然后给她。放学以后去跳舞,洗澡的时候唱歌…用土豆泥做个鬼脸,假装你是德古拉伯爵(风度翩翩的吸血鬼)。
Here's an assignment for tonight, and I hope Ms. Lockwood will flunk you if you don't do it: Write a six line poem, about anything, but rhymed. No fair tennis without a net. Make it as good as you possibly can. But don't tell anybody what you're doing. Don't show it or recite it to anybody, not even your girlfriend or parents or whatever, or Ms. Lockwood. OK?
今天晚上,给你们布置一份作业,如果你们不完成的话,我希望Lockwood女士判你们不及格:写一首六行诗,关于什么都行,但要押韵。无规矩不成方圆。尽力把这首诗写道最好,但是不要告诉别人你在干什么,不要展示或者读给任何人听,哪怕是你女朋友,爸妈,Lockwood女士都不行。Ok吗?
Tear it up into teeny-weeny pieces, and discard them into widely separated trash receptacles. You will find that you have already been gloriously rewarded for your poem. You have experienced becoming, learned a lot more about what's inside you, and you have made your soul grow.
把这首诗撕碎,然后分散地扔到远远的垃圾桶里,你会发现,你已经因为这首诗,受到了无限光荣的奖励。你已经体会到了,也学到了更多内心的自己,你已经让你的灵魂成长。
God bless you all!
愿上帝保佑你们!
Kurt Vonnegut
库尔特·冯内古特
作者:库尔特·冯内古特,翻译:永清
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