伤心咖啡馆之歌 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe · Benny

为你读英语美文· 第269期： 伤心咖啡馆之歌 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe · Benny 主播：Benny 坐标：马德里 The Ballad of the Sad Cafe 《伤心咖啡馆之歌》 作者：Carson McCullers What sort of thing, then, was this love？ 我们所说的爱到底是什么？ First of all, love is a joint experience between two persons. 首先，爱情是发生在两个人之间的一种共同的经验。 But the fact that it is a joint experience does not mean that it is a similar experience to the two people involved. 不过，说它是共同的经验并不意味着它在有关的两个人身上所引起的反响是同等的。 There are the lover and the beloved, but these two come from different countries. 世界上有爱人者，也有被爱者，这是截然不同的两类人。 Often the beloved is only a stimulus for all the stored up love which has lain quiet within the lover for a long time hitherto. 往往，被爱者仅仅是爱者心底平静地蕴积了好久的那种爱情的触发剂。 And somehow, every lover knows this. 每一个恋爱的人都多少知道这一点。 He feels in his soul that his love is a solitary thing. 他在灵魂深处感到他的爱恋是一种很孤独的感情。 He comes to know a new, strange loneliness and it is this knowledge which makes him suffer. 他逐渐体会到一种新的、陌生的孤寂，正是这种发现使他痛苦。 So there is only one thing for the lover to do. 因此，对于恋爱者来说只有一件事可做。 He must house his love within himself as best he can, he must create for himself a whole new inward world. 他必须尽可能深地把他的爱情禁锢在心中，他必须为自己创造一个全然是新的内心世界。 A world intense and strange, complete in himself. 一个认真的、奇异的、完全为他单独拥有的世界。 Let it be added here that this lover about whom we speak need not necessarily be a young man saving for a wedding ring. 我还得添上一句，我们所说的这样的恋爱者倒不一定得是一个正在攒钱准备买结婚戒指的年轻人。 This lover can be man, woman, child, or indeed any human creature on this earth. 这个恋爱者可以是男人、女人、儿童，总之可以是世界上任何一个人。 Now, the beloved can also be of any description. 至于被爱者，也可以是任何一种类型的人。 The most outlandish people can be the stimulus for love. 最最粗野的人也可以成为爱情的触发剂。 A man may be a doddering great grandfather and still love only a strange girl he saw in the streets of Cheehaw one afternoon two decades past. 一个颤巍巍的老爷子可能仍然钟情于二十年前某日下午他在奇霍街头所见到的陌生姑娘。 The preacher may love a fallen woman. 牧师也许会爱上一个堕落的女人。 The beloved may be treacherous, greasy headed, and given to evil habits. 被爱的人可能人品很坏，油头滑脑，染有不良恶习。 Yes, and the lover may see this as dearly as anyone else. 是的，恋爱者也能像别人一样对一切认识得清清楚楚。 But that does not affect the evolution of his love one whit. 可是这丝毫也不影响他的感情的发展。 A most mediocre person can be the object of a love which is wild, extravagant, and beautiful as the poison lilies of the swamp. 一个顶顶平庸的人可以成为一次沼泽毒罂粟般热烈、狂放、美丽的恋爱的对象。 A good man may be the stimulus for a love both violent and debased, or a jabbering madman may bring about in the soul of someone a tender and simple idyll. 一个好人也能成为一次放荡、堕落的恋爱的触发剂，一个絮絮叨叨的疯子没准能使某人头脑里出现一曲温柔、淳美的牧歌。 Therefore, the value and quality of any love is determined solely by the lover himself. 因此，任何一次恋爱的价值与质量纯粹取决于恋爱者本身。 It is for this reason that most of us would rather love than be loved. 正因如此，我们大多数人都宁愿爱而不愿被爱。 Almost everyone wants to be the lover. 几乎每一个都愿意充当恋爱者。 And the curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. 道理非常简单，人们朦朦胧胧地感到，被人爱的这种处境，对于许多人来说，都是无法忍受的。 The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. 被爱者惧怕而且憎恨爱者，这也是有充分理由的。 For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. 因为爱者总是想把他的所爱者剥得连灵魂都裸露出来。 The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain. 爱者疯狂地渴求与被爱者发生任何一种可能的关系，纵使这种经验只能给他自身带来痛苦。 ▎主播介绍 Benny：加拿大人，现居在马德里，从事英语教学工作，个人主页： http://onelobomotomyplease.com/ 录音：Benny, 制作：永清 特别感谢：严喆 文字，音乐，图片非商业用途，版权归作者或版权方所有