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显示标签为“McLean”的博文。显示所有博文

2008年4月13日星期日

文森特

写上一篇的时候,还没有关掉的 YouTube 网站,侧栏上是麦卡连的另一支名曲: 《满是星星的夜晚》



此歌是献给文森特.梵高,那个被视为疯子的艺术家,一个从未被理解的人。

Starry, starry night.
Paint your palette blue and grey,
Look out on a summer's day,
With eyes that know the darkness in my soul.
Shadows on the hills,
Sketch the trees and the daffodils,
Catch the breeze and the winter chills,
In colors on the snowy linen land.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

Starry, starry night.
Flaming flowers that brightly blaze,
Swirling clouds in violet haze,
Reflect in Vincent's eyes of china blue.
Colors changing hue, morning field of amber grain,
Weathered faces lined in pain,
Are soothed beneath the artist's loving hand.

Now I understand what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they did not know how.
Perhaps they'll listen now.

For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.

Starry, starry night.
Portraits hung in empty halls,
Frameless head on nameless walls,
With eyes that watch the world and can't forget.
Like the strangers that you've met,
The ragged men in the ragged clothes,
The silver thorn of bloody rose,
Lie crushed and broken on the virgin snow.

Now I think I know what you tried to say to me,
How you suffered for your sanity,
How you tried to set them free.
They would not listen, they're not listening still.
Perhaps they never will...


解读《美国饼》

说的不是那部反映青春期萌动的低俗电影,而是三十七年前 Don McLean 的一首歌。

背景是更早十二年前 (Don McLean 还是孩子的时候)的一场飞机失事中,三位歌手(Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson)不幸遇难。之后的十二年发生了很多事,这首歌差不多是那段历史的回顾与见证。在歌中 Don McLean 不止一次的感慨“音乐已死”。

歌词的大部分前言不搭后语,没有经历过那段历史的人(比方说我)根本不知道他说什么。即便是土生土长的美国人,对于歌词的解读也见仁见智。一下是 YouTube 上的一种解读:



尽管内容比较悲观,但这歌听来的确很爽。如同读白居易《琵琶行》或李白《梦游天姥吟留别》的感觉,丰富流畅,一气呵成,

“古来圣贤皆寂寞”,诗人们大多有生活在末世的感觉,动则叹息“今不如昔”。如果 1971 年的时候如麦卡连所说,音乐已死(而且是死在上世纪五十年代末),那么活到二十一世纪的我真不知该说什么了。郁闷,郁闷。相比之下,李白破罐破摔的结尾似乎给人们指明了方向:


世 間 行 樂 亦 如 此 ,
古 來 萬 事 東 流 水 。
別 君 去 矣 何 時 還 ?
且 放 白 鹿 青 崖 間 ,
須 行 即 騎 向 名 山 。
安 能 摧 眉 折 腰 事 權 貴 ,
使 我 不 得 開 心 顏 。