The art of losing

来源: http://www.economist.com/news/business-and-finance/21696911-tech-fashion-old-management-idea-back-vogue-vertical-integration-gets-new

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导读：之前我们讲经济学人，文章都特别正。我们讲经济，讲政治，讲跨国公司，讲种族文化，今天这篇文章来自经济学人Book and Art专栏，借着前段时间世界读书日的热潮，我们也搭一个末班车，了解一下美国文学。

本篇文章的主人公是一位特立独行的女诗人。Elizabeth Bishop，她是美国十分著名的女诗人，曾获得桂冠诗人以及普利策奖。这篇文章主要叙述了她个人的生活情感经历，和她的作品。至于什么是the art of losing，读完文章，I’m sure you’ll get it。

[1] ELIZABETH BISHOP did not like to give much away about herself. While others were writing confessional poetry, she ensured that she wrote at a distance. Poems which in original drafts mentioned characteristics of a lover were revised, sometimes as many as 17 times, in order to make the final work as polished and as impersonal as possible. She was a lesbian who never publicly admitted to the term, even as younger gay poets in the 1970s embraced it (partners were friends or even a “secretary”). She was an alcoholic who was ashamed of her drinking, but never sought long-term treatment. Poetry was a way of “thinking with one’s feelings”, but those feelings were often obscured, hidden within a parenthesis or written from the perspective of someone very different from herself. This is why she makes a fascinating subject for a biographer.

Elizabeth Bishop：伊丽莎白·毕肖普（1911年2月8日－1979年10月6日），美国著名女诗人。她是美国1949-1950年度的桂冠诗人，并于1956年获普利策奖。代表作为《北方·南方》，《一个寒冷的春天》。
confessional [kənˈfɛʃənəl]
n. 忏悔室，（教堂内的）告解室; “confession”的派生;
adj. 忏悔的; 自白的; “confession”的派生;
[例句]The convictions rest solely on disputed witness and confessional statements
仅仅根据有争议的目击者证言和供词就定了罪。
confessional poetry
网络 自白派诗歌; 自白诗; 忏悔诗;
characteristics [ˌkærɪktə'rɪstɪk]
n. 性质; 特性，特征，特色，[数]（对数的）首数( characteristic的名词复数 ); 独特性;
[例句]The characteristics of the machine are fully detailed in our brochure.
在我们这本小册子里详尽地说明了这台机器的性能。
polished [ˈpɑ:lɪʃt]
adj. 磨光的，擦亮的; 完美的，精良的; 优雅的;
v. 使光滑，擦亮(polish的过去式和过去分词);
[例句]He is polished, charming, articulate and an excellent negotiator.
他文雅、迷人、能言善辩，是一名优秀的谈判人。
impersonal [ɪmˈpɜ:rsənl]
adj. 没有人情味的; 非个人的，和个人无关的; 不具人格的，一般性的; [语] 非人称的;
n. [语] 非人称动词; 非人称代名词; 不具人格的事物;
[例句]Before then many children were cared for in large impersonal orphanages
在那之前，许多孩子被安置在一个缺乏人情味的大孤儿院里。
lesbian [ˈlezbiən]
adj. 女同性恋的; 莱斯博斯岛的;
n. 女同性恋者; 莱斯博斯岛人;
[例句]Many of her best friends were lesbian.
她最要好的朋友中有很多都是女同性恋者。
secretary [ˈsekrəteri]
n. 秘书; 干事，书记员; 部长，大臣;
[例句]My grandfather was secretary of the Scottish Miners 'Union.
我的祖父是苏格兰矿工工会干事。
alcoholic[ˌælkəˈhɔ:lɪk]
adj. 酒精的，含酒精的; 酒精中毒的;
n. 酗酒者，酒鬼; 酒精中毒者;
[例句]He showed great courage by admitting that he is an alcoholic.
他以极大的勇气承认自己酗酒。
obscured [əb'skjʊrd]
v. 使…模糊不清，掩盖( obscure的过去式和过去分词 );
[例句]The veil she was wearing obscured her features.
她罩的面纱遮掩了她的面容。
parenthesis [pəˈrɛnθɪsɪs]
n. 圆括号; 插入语; 插入成分; 间歇;
[例句]In parenthesis, I'd say that there were two aspects to writing you must never lose sight of.
插一句，关于写作，我认为有两个方面你绝不能忽视。
biographer [baɪˈɑ:grəfə(r)]
n. 传记作者;
[例句]She's a successful novelist and biographer.
她是一个成功的小说家和传记作家。

长难句1：
Poems which in original drafts mentioned characteristics of a lover were revised, sometimes as many as 17 times, in order to make the final work as polished and as impersonal as possible.
句子架构拆解：
Poems：名词放在句首作主语。
which in original drafts mentioned characteristics of a lover：which引导的定语从句作主语poems的后置定语。Which从句内部的主语是which充当，谓语动词是mentioned。In original drafts是介词短语作修饰语。
were revised：句子的谓语。被动语态，和主语合一起是poems were revised.
, sometimes as many as 17 times,：两个逗号中间为插入语，这里修饰revised，强调次数有17次那么多。
in order to ：表目的。
make the final work as polished and as impersonal as possible.：这是目的的内容，为了让最终版本尽可能的打磨好，尽可能无关乎个人的。
大意：初版里提到情人特征的诗都会被修订17次之多，为了保证最终版本尽可能的完美和无关乎个人。

[2] ”A Miracle for Breakfast”, the first full-length biography in two decades, ably manages to bring Bishop to life. Megan Marshall, who was taught by the poet at Harvard in 1976, recalls how she could seem prim and aunt-like to her students: “a grimmer, grayer, possibly even smaller woman than I’d remembered…dressed smartly but uncomfortably.” Yet beneath this prim veneer of control was a rich, turbulent personality. Bishop herself was aware of the contrast, writing to one lover while she was teaching at the University of Washington in 1966: “Everyone treats me with such respect and calls me Miss B—and every once in a while I feel a terrible laugh starting down in my chest…how different I am from what they think, I’m sure.”

ably [ˈeɪbli]
adv. 巧妙地; 熟练地; 精明强干地; 灵巧地;
[例句]He was ably assisted by a number of other members.
他得到其他一些成员的鼎力相助。
prim [prɪm]
adj. 整洁的; 循规蹈矩的; （人） 一本正经;
adv. 循规蹈矩地，整洁地;
v. （使） 一本正经; 使整洁;
[例句]On her blonde wavy hair, the white hat looked nicely prim.
这顶白色的帽子戴在她金色的卷发上显得非常雅致。
grim [ɡrɪm]
adj. 冷酷的，残忍的; 严厉的; 阴冷的; 可怕的，讨厌的;
[例句]They painted a grim picture of growing crime
他们描绘了犯罪率上升的严峻情形。
veneer [vəˈnɪr]
n. 饰面，护面; 外饰，虚饰; 表层饰板; 薄木片;
vt. 胶合; 给…镶以饰片; 虚饰，粉饰; 镶盖;
[例句]He was able to fool the world with his veneer of education
他打着受过良好教育的幌子到处欺瞒世人。
turbulent [ˈtɜ:rbjələnt]
adj. 骚乱的，混乱的; 激流的，湍流的; 吵闹的; 强横的;
[例句]They had been together for five or six turbulent years of rows and reconciliations
他们在一起生活了五六年，一直吵吵闹闹，分分合合，没有片刻安宁。

长难句2：
Megan Marshall, who was taught by the poet at Harvard in 1976, recalls how she could seem prim and aunt-like to her students: “a grimmer, grayer, possibly even smaller woman than I’d remembered…dressed smartly but uncomfortably.”
Megan Marshall：名词放在句首作主语。
, who was taught by the poet at Harvard in 1976,：两个逗号中间是插入语修饰主语，一个who引导的定语从句。
recalls how she could seem prim and aunt-like to her students：谓语动词诗recalls，how引导的名词性从句作recalls的宾语从句。
:：冒号表示解释说明。
“a grimmer, grayer, possibly even smaller woman than I’d remembered…dressed smartly but uncomfortably.”：用三个形容词修饰woman，后面的dressed smartly but uncomfortably也是修饰woman的。特别描述她是看起来怎样的一个女人。
大意：1976年在哈佛大学师从这位诗人的Megan Marshall回忆她对于她的学生来说她看起来如何整洁，像阿姨一样：比我记忆的更加严厉，更加苍白，更小的女人，穿得很精致但不舒服。

[3] Bishop’s past was indeed more complicated than many knew, even those close to her. Ms Marshall has had access to a previously unknown trove of letters that Bishop wrote to her psychiatrist and to various lovers, which became available after the death of her executor and last lover, Alice Methfessel, in 2009. These depict an unsettled, unhappy childhood. When Bishop was just three her mother was hospitalised for mental illness. She was brought up by a series of relatives. One uncle molested her and was violent, grabbing her by the hair and dangling her over of the railing of a second-floor balcony. “Maybe lots of people have never known real sadists at first hand,” Bishop later wrote to her psychiatrist. “I got to thinking that they [men] were all selfish and inconsiderate and would hurt you if you gave them a chance.”

trove [troʊv]
n. （物主不明的） 发掘出来的金银财宝;
[例句]This Islington shop is a treasure trove of beautiful bridalwear.
这家位于伊斯灵顿区的商店里汇聚了各种漂亮的新娘服装。
psychiatrist [saɪ'kaɪətrɪst]
n. 精神病医生; 精神病专家，精神病医生;
[例句]Alex will probably be seeing a psychiatrist for many months or even years.
亚历克斯今后好几个月甚至几年都可能要去看精神科医生。
executor [ɪɡˈzɛkjətɚ, ˈɛksɪˌkjutɚ]
n. 遗嘱执行人; 执行者; 实行者;
[例句]The TORQUE system includes three daemon processes: the server, the scheduler, and the job executor.
TORQUE系统包含三个守护进程：服务器、调度器和作业执行器。
unsettled [ʌnˈsɛtl:d]
adj. （天气、政治形势等） 不稳定的; 未定居的; 未解决的; 未决定的;
v. 扰乱，使不安宁( unsettle的过去式和过去分词);
[例句]A lot of people wake up every day with a sense of being unsettled and disturbed
很多人每天起床的时候都感到无法集中精力、心烦意乱。
hospitalized
v. 送…住院，使留医( hospitalize的过去式和过去分词 );
[例句]Most people do not have to be hospitalized for asthma or pneumonia.
大多数哮喘或肺炎患者无需住院。
hospitalised
网络 住院治疗;
molest [məˈlɛst]
vt. 妨害; 骚扰，干扰; 调戏，（对女性）动手动脚;
[例句]When it gets near it will jump and molest you!
什麽时候它得到接近的它将跳和干扰你！
grab [ɡræb]
vt. 抢先，抢占;
vt. 夺取或抓住; 抢夺，霸占; 匆匆拿走; 〈俚〉吸引注意力;
vi. 夺取; 抓住，攫取;
[例句]I managed to grab her hand
我抓到了她的手。
dangle [ˈdæŋɡəl]
vi. 悬荡，垂着摆动; 尾随，追逐;
vt. 使摇晃地挂着或摆荡; 悬而未定;
[例句]A gold bracelet dangled from his left wrist
一只金手镯在他的左手腕上晃来晃去。
balcony [ˈbælkəni]
n. 阳台; 包厢; （电影院等的） 楼厅，楼座;
[例句]She led us to a room with a balcony overlooking the harbour
她把我们领进了一个带阳台的房间，从那里可以俯瞰海港。
sadist [ˈseɪdɪst]
n. （性） 施虐狂者;
[例句]A sadist's on the loose, some think he's a mystical recluse.
一个施虐狂逃跑了，有人认为他是一个神秘教的隐士。
inconsiderate [ˌɪnkənˈsɪdərɪt]
adj. 轻率的; 不替别人着想的; 不体谅别人的; 考虑不周的;
[例句]Motorists were criticised for being inconsiderate to pedestrians.
开车的人因不考虑行人而受到指责。

长难句3：

Ms Marshall has had access to a previously unknown trove of letters that Bishop wrote to her psychiatrist and to various lovers, which became available after the death of her executor and last lover, Alice Methfessel, in 2009.
Ms Marshall：名词放在句首作主语。
has had：动词的现在完成时态作句子的谓语。
access to a previously unknown trove of letters：名词后面接了介词短语作修饰语。Access是句子的宾语。
that Bishop wrote to her psychiatrist and to various lovers：that引导的定语从句修饰名词letters。
which became available after the death of her executor and last lover, Alice Methfessel, in 2009：which引导的从句跳跃that从句修饰名词letters。
大意： Marshall女士已经接触到了之前不为人知的信件，这些信件是Bishop写给她的心理咨询师和不同的情人的，这些信件在2009年她的遗嘱执行人和她最后一个爱人Alice Methfessel死后流传出来的。

[4] Bishop’s adult life was no less tumultuous. A man she briefly dated committed suicide a year after she rejected his marriage proposal. He sent her a postcard as a suicide note: “Elizabeth, Go to hell.” One of her lovers managed to crash a car carrying Bishop and one of her friends (whom she was also in love with); Bishop and her lover were fine, but her friend, who had been a painter, lost her arm and could not paint again. Bishop often drank herself into a stupor, starting “the hour before dawn” and sometimes continuing even until she was hospitalised. Her partner of over a decade, Lota de Macedo Soares, a Brazilian self-taught landscape designer, overdosed after a breakdown partly caused by Bishop’s infidelity.

tumultuous [tu:ˈmʌltʃuəs]
adj. 骚乱的; 吵闹的; 狂暴的; 激烈的;
[例句]It's been a tumultuous day at the international trade negotiations in Brussels.
那是布鲁塞尔国际贸易谈判中纷乱的一天。
stupor [ˈstu:pə(r)]
n. 昏迷; 恍惚; 目光呆滞; 惊愕;
[例句]He fell back onto the sofa in a drunken stupor
他烂醉如泥，瘫倒在沙发上。
overdosed
v. 使…用药过量( overdose的过去式和过去分词 );
[例句]The city, he concluded, had overdosed on design.
他的结论是这座城市过分重视规划设计了。
breakdown [ˈbrekˌdaʊn]
n. 分解; 崩溃，倒塌; 损坏，故障; 垮，衰竭;
[例句]He argues that the breakdown in the legal system has spawned a black market.
他认为司法体系的不健全导致了黑市的出现。
infidelity [ˌɪnfɪˈdɛlɪti]
n. 无信仰; 不忠实; 不贞的行为;
[例句]George ignored his partner's infidelities
乔治对伴侣的不忠行为视而不见。

长难句4：
One of her lovers managed to crash a car carrying Bishop and one of her friends (whom she was also in love with); Bishop and her lover were fine, but her friend, who had been a painter, lost her arm and could not paint again.
句子架构拆解，本句是一个并列句，分号连接。
One of her lovers：名词放在句首作主语。
managed to crash：managed to do sth这个搭配合起来作谓语动词。
a car：名词作宾语。
carrying Bishop and one of her friends：doing分词结构作名词后置定语。Carrying整个结构修饰car。
(whom she was also in love with)：这个括号中得定语从句修饰one of her friends。
;:分号在这里连接前后完整得句子。SVO;SVO.并列句。
Bishop and her lover were fine：分号后还是一个并列句，but是并列连词，这是第一个分句。
But： but在这里是并列连词，语法功能类似于and，只是含义不同。
her friend, who had been a painter, lost her arm and could not paint again：这是but并列得第二个分句，句子主干是her friend lost her arm and could not paint again，中间who引导定语从句修饰her friend。
大意：她的一个情人撞车了，车上带着她和她的一个朋友（也是一个她爱的人）；她和她的爱人没事，但是她的朋友，原本是个画家，失去了她的胳膊再也不能画画了。

[5] Ms Marshall’s skill prevents this narrative from becoming depressing. The Bishop that emerges from her telling may be at times morose or ashamed of her drinking (wishing, as she wrote to Methfessel, that she could be more like writers who “drink worse than I do, at least badly & all the time, and don’t seem to have any regrets or shame—just write poems about it”). But she also appears vivacious, attractive and full of life. Even the worst heartbreak brought out wonderful poetry, such as her most famous poem, “One Art”, which starts: “The art of losing isn’t hard to master;/so many things seem filled with the intent/to be lost that their loss is no disaster.”

narrative [ˈnærətɪv]
n. 故事; 记叙文; 叙述，记事; 叙述手法;
adj. 叙述的，叙事体的; 善于叙述的;
[例句]Sloan began his narrative with the day of the murder.
斯隆以发生谋杀案的那天作为故事的开端。
morose [məˈroʊs]
adj. 闷闷不乐的，阴郁的;
[例句]She was morose, pale, and reticent.
她面色苍白、忧郁孤僻，并且沉默寡言。

vivacious [vɪˈveʃəs, vaɪ-]
adj. 活泼的，快活的;
adv. 快活地，活泼地;
[例句]She's beautiful, vivacious, and charming.
她漂亮活泼，魅力十足。

[6] Three relationships in particular illuminate a lighter side to Bishop: her time with Soares in Brazil, which inspired some of her finest work (“Hidden, oh hidden/in the high fog/the house we live in,/beneath the magnetic rock…”); her later years with Methfessel; and her friendship with Robert “Cal” Lowell, the one other writer with whom she immediately felt at ease.

illuminate [ɪˈluməˌnet]
vt. 照亮，照明; 阐明，说明; 装饰; 使灿烂;
vi. 照亮;
[例句]No streetlights illuminated the street
这条街上没有照明的路灯。

[7] Bishop first met Lowell in 1947 at a dinner party in New York. They stayed in touch for the rest of their lives, writing over 400 letters to one another. Lowell supported her and helped her find grants and postings, and praised her work. He carried around a poem of hers in his wallet as a talisman. They were so different; Lowell wrote hundreds of confessional poems, often quoting from other people’s letters to him.

postings ['poʊstɪŋz]
n. 任命，委派( posting的名词复数 );
[例句]Postings on the Internet can be accessed from anywhere in the world.
因特网上的帖子在世界任何一个地方都能读到。
talisman [ˈtælɪsmən, -ɪz-]
n. 护身符; 法宝; 驱邪物; 有不可思议的力量之物;
[例句]Me, I had stopped praying not long after I had read The Talisman, by Sir Walter Scott.
我，在我读了沃尔特。斯科特爵士的《魔符》之后就停止了祈祷。

[8] The relationship between the two is one of the joys of this book. As Ms Marshall puts it: “Elizabeth would always remember the younger poet’s endearingly ‘rumpled’ dark-blue suit and the ‘sad state of his shoes’ on the night of their first meeting, how handsome he was despite needing a haircut, and, most of all, ‘that it was the first time I had ever actually talked with someone about how one writes poetry’.”

endearingly
adv. 讨人喜欢地;
[例句]Rather endearingly, Mr Goh admitted he did not quite know what people wanted.
有点可爱的是，吴作栋承认，他不太清楚人们的需求。
rumpled
v. 弄皱，使凌乱( rumple的过去式和过去分词 );
[例句]I hurried to the tent and grabbed a few clean, if rumpled, clothes.
我赶紧跑到帐篷里，抓起了几件虽然有些皱，但是很干净的衣服。
长难句5:
As Ms Marshall puts it: “Elizabeth would always remember the younger poet’s endearingly ‘rumpled’ dark-blue suit and the ‘sad state of his shoes’ on the night of their first meeting, how handsome he was despite needing a haircut, and, most of all, ‘that it was the first time I had ever actually talked with someone about how one writes poetry’.”
As Ms Marshall puts it:正如Marshall所说，冒号后面是其所说的内容，我们进行拆解。
Elizabeth would always remember：Marshall所说内容的句子主干，强调她能一直记得。
the younger poet’s endearingly ‘rumpled’ dark-blue suit and the ‘sad state of his shoes’：第一项宾语，是两个名词的并列，一个是年轻诗人讨人喜欢的皱皱巴巴的深蓝色西装，和他悲伤的鞋子。
on the night of their first meeting,：时间状语。
how handsome he was despite needing a haircut：how引导的名词性从句，作为宾语的第二项。
and：and并列连词并列remember的三个宾语。
, most of all, 插入语。意思是最重要的是。
‘that it was the first time I had ever actually talked with someone about how one writes poetry’：that引导的名词性从句作为第三项宾语。这个从句非常复杂，从句的核心是it was the first time，time后面又跟了定语从句I had ever actually talked with someone about sth，这里的sth又是一个how引导的名词性从句。
大意：正如Marshall所说：Elizabeth将会永远记住第一次见面的晚上，年轻诗人穿的讨人喜欢的皱巴巴的深蓝西装和脏脏的鞋子，虽然没有理发但是依然各种帅气，还有最重要的是他是第一个她可以真正讨论如何写诗的人。

[9] Ms Marshall intersperses chapters about Bishop with chapters of memoir, which touch upon her time as Bishop’s student. This gives the biography a sense of authenticity, but it interrupts the flow of the narrative. It also seems in sharp contrast with her intensely private subject. But this is a small price to pay for a biography which at last illuminates one of America’s finest, and most elusive, poets.

intersperse [ˌɪntərˈspɜ:rs]
vt. 点缀; 散布，散置;
[例句]Originally the intention was to intersperse the historical scenes with modern ones.
最初是想用现代景观点缀历史景观。
memoir [ˈmɛmˌwɑr, -ˌwɔr]
n. 回忆录，自传; 记事录;
[例句]He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.
他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
Authenticity [ˌɔθənˈtɪsətɪ]
n. 可靠性，确实性，真实性;
[例句]The entire production evinces authenticity and a real respect for the subject matter
整部作品表现出真实性以及对主题的真正尊重。
elusive [ɪˈlusɪv]
adj. 难以捉摸的; 不易记住的; 逃避的; 难以找到的;
[例句]In London late-night taxis are elusive and far from cheap.
在伦敦，深夜时难以打到出租车，而且车费非常贵。

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