双语：“现代舞之母”邓肯的悲欢人生

http://www.sina.com.cn   2010年04月28日 13:08   新浪教育

本文选自《新东方英语》的博客，点击查看博客原文

　　伊莎多拉•邓肯是一位富有传奇色彩的女性。作为一个天才的舞蹈家，她用飘逸自如、浪漫不拘的曼妙舞姿征服了整个世界；作为一个叛逆的梦想家，她推崇自然和自由表达之美，将其不羁的女权主义意识带到了舞台上，开创了现代舞的新时代；作为一位普通的母亲，她饱尝丧子之痛，却在自己的悲剧中一次又一次地倔强而舞。她的一生，是燃烧的灿烂之旅，是绝处逢生的冒险，是绚烂之后的超脱。而镌刻在世人脑海中的，也许永远都是她那身披薄纱、赤脚起舞的不朽舞台形象，宛如森林中的美丽女神，诉说着生如夏花之绚烂。

　　Free thinking, free spirited, free moving Isadora Duncan brought her bohemian feminist consciousness to the dance stage and changed the art of dance forever. Although some critics ridiculed her flowing and expressive movements, Isadora brought flexibility and self-expression to the hidebound world of classical dance。

　　Isadora Duncan is known as the “Mother of the Modern dance”， but even ballet was influenced by the radical élan of her ideas. In many ways her life was tragic, but she left behind, not a sense of despair and loss, but the dynamic imagination of a true original。

　　思想自由、精神洒脱、动作奔放的伊莎多拉·邓肯将其不羁的女权主义意识带到了舞台上，彻底改变了舞蹈这门艺术。尽管对她那行云流水般富有表现力的动作持嘲笑态度的批评家大有人在，但伊莎多拉却为死板的古典舞蹈界带来了灵动性和自我表现力。

　　伊莎多拉·邓肯被誉为“现代舞之母”，就连芭蕾也受到了她锐不可当的激进观念的影响。从很多意义上说，她的一生是悲剧性的一生，但她留给世人的却不是绝望和失落，而是对一个真正具有独创性的艺术天才的蓬勃想象。

　　An Early Dream in Childhood

　　Born the youngest child to Joseph Duncan and Mary Gray in 1877, Isadora was the family’s bright star. Mary was a virtuous, high-principled lady. Joseph, the poet, the dreamer, the connoisseur of arts, had lost his heart to another lady, and Mary divorced him。

　　Isadora was a quaint child, a strange mixture of practical common sense and worldly sophistication, and she was a dreamer like her father. She loved poetry, beauty, and rhythm, and she hated reality. She was, in fact, a rebel. Her childhood had been an unhappy one. There was strife and divorce, with her mother’s insistence that her father was a demon in human garb. However, when she eventually met her father, she found him a charming, lovable poet, and that heightened the confusion in her mind. Passing years tend to soften the intolerance of childhood, but Isadora Duncan never lost her contempt for the institution of marriage as she had seen it. When she was twelve years old she made a solemn vow that she would welcome love when it came, but she would never marry。

　　After the divorce, Mrs. Duncan found a small home in Oakland for her brood of four children. The constant poverty in which they lived was softened by the wealth of poetry and music that Mrs. Duncan brought into the home. The four of them loved to sing, loved to play-act, and above all, loved to dance. Isadora Duncan danced as soon as she could walk. She read every book, good or bad, and her reading carried her back to the classical culture of ancient Greece, and the natural, unaffected, spontaneous Grecian art became her inspiration and dream. Toe-dancing, social gymnastics, was to be scorned. She demanded, from the very beginning, self-expression unrestrained by rule and custom。

　　童年梦想

　　伊莎多拉生于1877年，是约瑟夫·邓肯和玛丽·格雷夫妇最小的孩子，也是这个家里一颗耀眼的明星。玛丽是一位贤淑善良、操守极佳的女性。约瑟夫则是一位诗人兼梦想家，同时还是一位艺术鉴赏家，由于他移情别恋，醉心于另外一位红粉佳人，玛丽结束了与他的婚姻。

　　伊莎多拉是一个古怪有趣的孩子，一个奇特的结合体，既具有很实际的常识，又不乏世俗的圆滑老练，同时，和父亲一样，她还是一个富有梦想的女孩。她喜欢诗歌，爱美，对节奏韵律情有独钟；她憎恨现实。事实上，她是一个叛逆者。她的童年很不快乐，经历了父母的不合和离异，她的母亲始终认定父亲是个衣冠禽兽。然而，等到父女终得一见时，她却发现自己的父亲是一个极具魅力、招人喜欢的诗人，而这加深了她内心的困惑。岁月的流逝，常常可以缓和童年时代的偏执，可是伊莎多拉·邓肯却始终没有改变对自己曾目睹的婚姻制度所持的鄙视立场。12岁时，她庄严起誓，她不排斥爱情，但决不结婚。

　　离异以后，邓肯夫人为自己的四个孩子在奥克兰找到了一处小小的安身之所。

　　邓肯夫人为孩子们营造的充溢着诗歌和音乐的家庭氛围，缓解了他们一直以来生活上的穷困。他们兄妹四人都喜欢唱歌，喜欢表演，尤其喜欢跳舞。伊莎多拉·邓肯刚会走路时便能翩翩起舞了。她博览群书，无论好坏什么都读，阅读将她带回到了古希腊的经典文化，而自然天成、单纯率真、豪不造作的希腊艺术成了她的灵感源泉和梦想所在。踮起足尖舞蹈——这种社交体操将为她所不齿。从一开始，她就寻求不受规则和习俗所约束的自我表现。

　　Theatrical Life

　　Isadora didn’t like poverty and she didn’t like restrictions. There were distant horizons awaiting her. She read about them in her books, the faraway places that call to all imbued with the creative instinct. Any place would do as long as it was “away”. She induced her mother to take her to Chicago. Funds were found and, armed with a wealth of enthusiasm, mother and daughter started out。

　　The Eastern theatrical managers saw the girl dance, praised her, and told her it was all very lovely. But, after all, that wasn’t the accepted way to dance; it wasn’t the way of the theater. She’d better go home to San Francisco and be a schoolteacher! Their funds were gone, so they pawned their jewelry. Finally, starvation, not a threat but an actuality, faced them, and then Isadora received an engagement. At last, she was to dance in a music hall. In a fogged atmosphere of stale beer and tobacco smoke the girl appeared, a breath of ancient Greece. Her audience chewed on its cigars. This certainly wasn’t what they’d come to see! In short, they wished she’d get through so the next act could appear。

　　But in the audience one night sat a dreamer like herself. He was Augustin Daly, the theatrical producer. He saw what none of the others had seen—the vision, the ideal, and the dream behind the dancing of the girl. He cast her as one of Titania’s dancing fairies in his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perhaps she couldn’t force her audience to understand the beauty of simplicity, but at least this gave her the opportunity to dance, and to eat。

　　Thus the family settled to New York. One night Isadora danced to the music of Ethelbert Nevin; Nevin was in the audience, entranced. He arranged for concerts for her and suddenly blasé New York hailed a new star. Society accepted her. She danced for the four hundred in Newport’s exclusive salons. They made much of her, but just as swiftly they dropped her. And again the family purse was empty。

　　剧院生涯

　　伊莎多拉不喜欢穷困潦倒，也不喜欢条条框框的拘束。在遥远的地平线上，有什么正等待着她去追寻。她在书中读到过那些遥远的地方，那些向所有所有充满创作天赋的发出呼唤的地方。不管这些地方在哪儿，对她来说只要是“远在他乡”就行。她劝服母亲带她去芝加哥。资金终于凑足，怀着满腔热忱，母女俩出发了。

　　东方的剧院经理们看过小姑娘的舞蹈后，对她称赞有加，说她跳得实在是妙极了。不过话又说回来，她的舞蹈毕竟不是公众认可的跳法，也不对剧院的套路。所以她最好还是打道回府，去旧金山当一名教师算了！钱已经花光，母女俩只好当掉了首饰。最红，饥饿之灾，不是饥饿的威胁而是实实在在的饥饿——摆在了母女俩的面前。然后，伊莎多拉接到了一纸聘书。终于，她就要在一家剧场里跳舞了。在剧场那烟雾缭绕、酒气熏天、浑浊不堪的氛围中，小姑娘登场了，带着一丝古希腊的气息。她的观众兀自嚼着口中的雪茄。这无疑不对他们的胃口！简而言之，他们希望她赶紧跳完，好让下一个节目登台。

　　但是，有一天晚上，观众席中来了一位和她一样怀揣梦想的人。此人便是戏剧制作人奥古斯丁·戴利。他看到了别人没有看到的东西，那便是女孩舞蹈背后的憧憬、理想和梦想。他让她在他编排的《仲夏夜之梦》中出演了一个角色——泰坦尼亚王后的一个舞蹈仙女。也许她不能强迫自己的观众理解朴素之美，但是至少，这给了她跳舞——以及糊口——的机会。

　　就这样，他们一家人在纽约安顿了下来。一天晚上，伊莎多拉以埃塞尔伯特·内文的音乐为伴奏舞了一曲；内文当时就在观众席中，他看得入了迷。他为她安排了几场音乐会，冷漠的纽约一下子沸腾了，为一颗新星的诞生而欢呼。社会认可了她。在纽波特限制慎严的沙龙里，她为上层社会的人士跳舞。他们极力吹捧她，但就像这吹捧来得迅猛一样，他们抛弃她的速度也同样迅疾。于是，家里的钱袋子又空了。 Turning Point in Dance Career

　　But the lodestone of distant horizons beckoned once again. What did it matter that the family had no money? They would go to London. After Isadora had borrowed right and left from her former friends, the Duncans sailed。

　　In London, a few engagements brought a few dollars, but the few dollars weren’t enough to fill the young hungry stomachs. Then one night Isadora and one of her brothers were dancing in their Grecian veils in a small garden. They danced by the light of the stars and their only audience was their own shadows. Quite unexpectedly, a beautiful lady came and stood watching them and was amazed. When they had finished their dance she swooped down upon them and took them to her own home. She was Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the idol of the London stage. She played for them and they danced for her; she sobbed dramatic tears, and introduced them to London society。

　　The meeting with Mrs. Campbell was the turning point in the story of Isadora Duncan. London society acclaimed them, and British royalty honored them. Life became busy, hectic, and full to overflowing with triumphs—and setbacks. Duncan, the dancer, had arrived, but the girl, Isadora, was still a rebel against customs and traditions—and marriage。

　　She danced in Paris and was cheered. She danced in Berlin, and the art-loving Germans went mad with enthusiasm. Life was gorgeous. But always at the back of her persistent mind was her dream. Some day she would dance in the land of ancient culture where the Athenian maidens had made the dance a religion. Some day she would bring back the beauty of classical simplicity to the people of the nineteenth century. Isadora went to Athens and took her mother, brothers, and sister with her。

　　舞蹈生涯的转折点

　　但远方地平线的磁石再次向她招手示意。家里没钱又有什么关系？这次他们要去伦敦。伊莎多拉从自己从前的一些朋友那儿东凑西借了一点钱后，邓肯一家便起身了。

　　在伦敦，她们拿到了寥寥几分签约，挣了区区几个小钱，可这一点点收入远远不够填饱这些年轻人如饥似渴的胃。一天夜晚，伊莎多拉和她的一个哥哥在一个小花园里披着他们的希腊面纱翩然起舞。借着星光，兄妹俩就这样舞着，仅有的观众就是他们自己的影子。然而，非常出乎预料的是，一位美丽的贵夫人来到花园，驻足观看了他们的舞蹈，她惊呆了。待兄妹俩跳完后，她冲过去一把抓住他们，将他们带回了家。这位女士就是帕特里克·坎贝尔夫人，伦敦舞台上的偶像。她为兄妹俩伴奏，兄妹俩为她跳舞；她为她们的舞蹈所感动，泪如雨下，她将兄妹俩引荐给了伦敦社交界。

　　与坎贝尔夫人的这次不期而遇成了伊莎多拉·邓肯经历的转折点。伦敦社交界对兄妹俩大加赞赏，英国王室还授予了他们荣誉称号。生活开始变得忙碌、纷乱起来，随之而来的是捷报频传——外加挫折不断。作为舞蹈家的邓肯终于破茧成蝶，但作为小姑娘的伊莎多拉依然是一个叛逆者，对抗习俗、传统——还有婚姻。

　　她登上了巴黎的舞台，赢得了喝彩。她走进了柏林的剧院，热爱艺术的德国人表现出了近乎疯狂的热情。生活真可谓绚丽多彩。但在她那颗执意无悔的内心深处装着的始终是她的梦想。有朝一日，她定要到那片有着古老文化的大地上翩翩起舞，在那里，雅典少女将舞蹈变成了一种宗教。总有一天，她定要将古典的朴素之美带回到十九世纪的人们眼前。伊莎多拉去了雅典，与她同行的还有她的母亲、两个哥哥和一个姐姐。

　　Love and Art

　　In the Athenian hills Isadora gathered a class of small Grecian boys about her. She taught them dances. Bare-legged, with sandaled feet and flowing draperies, the Duncans danced from village to village, and the world called them mad. A year passed, and their purse was empty, Isadora and her kin returned to modern civilization and Vienna。

　　Vienna took her to its gay heart, and success and wealth returned. But Isadora Duncan learned that life without the fullness of love was incomplete. Then, in Berlin, in 1905, she met Gordon Craig, the colorful, handsome, glamorous son of Ellen Terry. This was the great love; this was life at its highest. The world sighed, and giggled, and was delighted. A baby was born, and they named her Deirdre. Isadora adored her。

　　Then she came to the United States and danced to the music of Walter Damrosch’s orchestra. America was shocked, and delighted. Of course, everyone had a body, but one didn’t acknowledge the fact. Even modest ankles weren’t to be exposed. That nonsense was ended by an edict from no less a wielder of strong opinion than Teddy Roosevelt. “Isadora Duncan,” he proclaimed, “seems to me as innocent as a child dancing through the garden in the morning sunshine and picking the beautiful flowers of her fantasy。” So the master politician became poet, and Isadora danced and was forgiven her sins。

　　She built a school where she taught young girls the beauty of the dance. She was the priestess of the dance, and in that role did more to return it to its ancient glory than any other single man or woman in the world’s history of terpsichore。

　　爱情与艺术

　　在雅典的山丘上，伊莎多拉召集了一班希腊小男孩跟在自己身边，教他们跳舞。裸着腿，穿着凉鞋，披着飘逸的织物，邓肯一家人从一个村庄跳到另一个村庄，成了世人眼中的疯子。一年过去，他们的钱袋空了，伊莎多拉同家人又回到了现代文明，来到维也纳。

　　维也纳将敞开欢快的胸怀拥抱了她，成功和财富又回来了。但伊莎多拉·邓肯渐渐明白，缺少圆满爱情的生活是不完满的。在这之后的1905年，她于柏林邂逅了埃伦·特里的儿子戈登· 克雷格，一个情趣十足、仪表堂堂、魅力四射的人。这是一场伟大的爱情；这是一段极至的生活。世人为之感叹、为之欢笑、为之欣喜。他们的爱情结晶降生了，他们给她起名迪尔德丽。伊莎多拉将她视为掌上明珠。

　　随后，她来到了美国，在沃尔特·达姆罗施指挥的管弦乐队的伴奏下起舞。美国震惊了，而且欣喜若狂。是的，当然，人人都有一个躯体，但谁都不肯承认这个事实。就连最朴实无华的脚踝也不得暴露在外。但这样的荒唐论调被一道诏书给废止了，颁布这道诏书的正是一言九鼎的西奥多·罗斯福。“伊莎多拉·邓肯，”他宣告说，“在我看来，就像一个天真无邪的孩子，跳着舞穿过沐浴在晨曦中的花园，去采摘自己想象中的美丽花朵。”就这样，一代政坛大师成了诗人，让伊莎多拉因此可以舞之蹈之，使她的罪过得到了宽恕。

　　她创办了一所学校，向年轻女孩传授舞蹈之美。她是舞蹈这门艺术的女祭司，站在祭司的位置上，她将舞蹈这门艺术重新回归至其古时的辉煌地位。而在这一方面，世界歌舞史上还没有哪个人——无论男女——能望其项背。

　　Dance in Tragedy

　　Then, one night in Paris, Isadora Duncan danced to the haunting melody of Chopin’s Funeral March, and a vision of tragedy came to her. She danced with eyes closed and saw her two children threatened by evil. A few days passed and the father of her son stood before her. His lips were dry and his eyes were haggard. He told of the death of her two children。

　　Life was dead; dreams were dead; the world was empty. Isadora Duncan, the rebel, had won her rebellion and lost all that was worth the fight. She felt she would never dance again. But she did dance. In her tragedy she had become a giantess, and life does not or cannot stand still. She faced new tragedy in 1914 when, under the shadow of the dawn of the first World War, another baby was born—dead. Still she danced, and still she continued to teach her girls. She danced her Ninth Symphony to an audience that sat as though in the presence of a creature divine. Her greatest creative dream had become a reality。

　　Isadora Duncan died in 1927. A veil caught in the wheel of her automobile. There was the grinding of brakes—and then darkness. She died tragically, horribly, and the world was upset for a few hours and then went about its business. But those who had loved her and who knew her dream of beauty mourned her passing of a human creature who had been an honest builder of dreams. She had done more for the art of the dance than any other man or woman in history。

　　悲剧连连舞不停

　　在巴黎的一天晚上，伊莎多拉·邓肯踏着肖邦的《葬礼进行曲》那萦绕的旋律翩翩起舞，此时一幅悲剧的幻象映入了她的眼帘。她闭目而舞，却分明看见了自己的两个孩子面临着不幸的威胁。几天后，儿子的父亲站在了她面前，嘴唇干枯，两眼憔悴。他告诉了她两个孩子的死讯。

　　生命死了；梦想死了；世界空了。叛逆的伊莎多拉·邓肯赢得了叛逆，却失去了值得为之奋斗的一切。她感到自己再也不能跳舞了。可她还是跳了。在自己的悲剧中，她变成了一个女巨人，而生活没有也不可能止步不前。1914年，她面临了新的悲剧，在第一次世界大战爆发前的阴霾笼罩下，又一个孩子降生了——又夭折了。她依然跳舞，依然继续教她身边的那些小姑娘。她在观众面前演绎了自己的《第九交响曲》，观众坐在那里，神情就像面对神灵。她最伟大的创作梦想已经变成了现实。

　　伊莎多拉·邓肯卒于1927年。她围在脖子上的长纱卷进了她的车轮。刹车发出了刺耳的声音，接着便是一团漆黑。她死了，死得如此悲惨、如此可怕，世人为此不安了几个小时，之后便又各忙各的事去了。但那些曾经爱过她了解她美丽梦想的人都在为她哀悼，哀悼一个坦诚的筑梦人的离去。她为舞蹈这门艺术所做出的贡献，超越了历史上的任何一个人。(作者：SamuelDickson 译者：覃学岚)

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