LEONARD COHEN MAKES IT DARKER (Part Two)

At eighty-two, the troubadour has another album coming. Like him, it is obsessed with mortality, God-infused, and funny.

原文: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/leonard-cohen-makes-it-darker

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导语：
这一部分，文章又回到了现在，从作者去采访科恩引入，讲述了两个大的方向，一个是记述采访科恩时他在晚年时的工作环境并捎带提到了采访的介绍人，对科恩在进行最后一张专辑制作的过程及生活状态进行的比较细致的描述；另一个则引出了科恩在没有成为歌手之前是梦想成为一名诗人作家的故事，同样也详尽的介绍了科恩成长的环境以及他在没有成为歌手之前对自己文学道路的定位和探索。

[1] Leonard Cohen lives on the second floor of a modest house in Mid-Wilshire, a diverse, unglamorous precinct of Los Angeles. He is eighty-two. Between 2008 and 2013, he was on tour more or less continuously. It is highly unlikely that his health will permit such rigors ever again. Cohen has an album coming out in October—obsessed with mortality, God-infused, yet funny, called “You Want It Darker”—but friends and musical associates say they’d be surprised to see him onstage again except in a limited way: a single performance, perhaps, or a short residency at one venue. When I e-mailed ahead to ask Cohen out for dinner, he said that he was more or less “confined to barracks.”

词汇词组：
1） Modest/ˈmɑːdɪst/：谦虚的，谦逊的；不太大的；不很贵的
例：The research was carried out on a modest scale.
2） Confine/kənˈfaɪn/：限制
例：The work will not be confined to the Glasgow area.
重难点句：
Cohen has an album coming out in October—obsessed with mortality, God-infused, yet funny, called “You Want It Darker”
科恩在10月份有一张专辑要发行了，这张专辑也是和死亡，上帝，甚至有点调侃戏谑有关，叫做“you want it darker”。
分析：这个句子其实我们在上次的节目里一开头就提到过了，其中的重点词汇词组我们也都提到了，只有come out这个词组需要强调一下，sth come out，指的是什么东西上市或者出现的意思。比如新专辑的发布，电影的上映都可以用这个词组。另一个要强调的词，也是我上一次由于犯了经验主义的错误而出现的一个知识性的错误，就是这个mortality，它是死亡的意思，而文中是有字母t的mortality，表示死亡或者死亡率这么一个概念，我当时在看文章的时候着急了，忽略了这个点，多谢张洁听友及时的向我提出了质疑，帮助我纠正了这个错误。如果说是mortality的话就更和文义相符了，科恩的最后一张专辑中的同名主打歌曲you want it darker中副歌部分有一句话唱到“I’m ready, my lord”，其实就是在讲自己已经指导死亡将近了，但面对死亡的时候，科恩并不惧怕，甚至还有一点戏谑的口吻，所以才会说yet funny，而且要注意到yet这个词，这个小词非常好，用法和but一样，表转折的概念。
When I e-mailed ahead to ask Cohen out for dinner, he said that he was more or less “confined to barracks.”
当我给科恩提前发邮件想邀请他出来吃晚饭的时候，他说他或多或少算是被限制在这个小房子里了。
分析：when引导了一个时间状语从句，“当怎么样的时候，谁怎么样了”，这样的一个句型，我们先看从句中有两个点，ahead，在这儿是个副词，提前的意思，我们都知道ahead of time这种短语的意思，后面的ask sb out，叫某人出来，其实也可以结合不同的语境理解为约会的意思，比如说，can I ask you out?我可以约你么？当然后面加上for dinner就是约会吃完饭的意思了。主句中，he said that，that后面跟的是一个宾语从句，more or less，字面意思就是多多少少，和我们中文的表达习惯是一样的感觉，但在这儿也可以替换成sort of或者是kind of，“有点”那个概念。从句中的主框架是sb be confined to sth，某人被限制在了什么里，barracks，注意，这儿是复数形式，它表示的是一幢建筑物，特定的语境下也可以表示兵营兵房的概念。

[2] Not long ago, one of Cohen’s most frequent visitors, and an old friend of mine—Robert Faggen, a professor of literature—brought me by the house. Faggen met Cohen twenty years ago in a grocery store, at the foot of Mt. Baldy, the highest of the San Gabriel Mountains, an hour and a half east of Los Angeles. They were both living near the top of the mountain: Bob in a cabin where he wrote about Frost and Melville and drove down the road to teach his classes at Claremont McKenna College; Cohen in a small Zen Buddhist monastery, where he was an ordained monk. As Faggen was shopping for cold cuts, he heard a familiar basso voice across the store; he looked down the aisle and saw a small, trim man, his head shaved, talking intently with a clerk about varieties of potato salad. Faggen’s musical expertise runs more to Mahler’s lieder than to popular song. But he is an admirer of Cohen’s work and introduced himself. They have been close friends ever since.

词汇词组：
1） Ordained /ɔːrˈdeɪnd/：任命的
2） Basso / ˈbæ：s oʊ/低音部，男低音
3） Intently /ɪnˈtentli/：专心地
例：I listened intently to what she had to say.
重难点句：
As Faggen was shopping for cold cuts, he heard a familiar basso voice across the store; he looked down the aisle and saw a small, trim man, his head shaved, talking intently with a clerk about varieties of potato salad.
当Faggen在买冷切肉的时候，他听到了一个熟悉的男低音从商店的另一端传过来；他顺着过道看过去，看到了一个瘦小修长的男人，这个男人剃了光头，正聚精会神的和一个店员在讨论各种各样的土豆沙拉。
分析：同样，这一段是对Faggen遇见科恩是的描述，语言障碍并不大，但中间的一些个小词值得引起我们的注意。开头的部分as引导的是一个时间状语从句，shop for cold cuts，买什么东西，cold cuts是冷盘肉的意思，我们在吃西餐自助的时候冷盘拼盘上就是这种像火腿肠一样的切好的肉制品，我给大家一个图看一下就理解了。Familiar这个形容词特别好，要会用，有两种句型，大家注意一下，sb be familiar with sth或者是sth be familiar to sb。表示人对什么东西很熟悉。Basso这个词要记一下低音部或男低音的意思，文中是basso voice，一个男低音的声音，当然，BASS-bass, 也表示男低音的意思。接下来，he looked down the aisle，look down你会发现这个介词的用法，我们理解它的时候就想象成看过去望过去的感觉，a small，trim man，small好理解，trim本身有修剪的意思，做形容词的话，表示身材修长苗条或者是修建整齐的意思，所以结合语境，应该指的是科恩当时很瘦的感觉，毕竟他当时是个和尚，后面的his head shaved，talking intently都是表伴随状况的成分，动词都是非谓语的形式，intently要强调一下，它表示一心一意，聚精会神地意思，我们给一个例句看一下，I listened intently to what she had to say. 我当时很认真的听她要说什么。注意时态是过去时。

[3] Cohen greeted us. He sat in a large blue medical chair, the better to ease the pain from compression fractures in his back. He is now very thin, but he is still handsome, with a full head of gray-white hair and razory dark eyes. He wore a well-tailored midnight-blue suit—even in the sixties he wore suits—and a stickpin through his collar. He extended a hand like a courtly retired capo.

词汇词组：
1） Capo /ˈkɑːpoʊ/：犯罪集团头目，复数形式capos
重难点句：
He is now very thin, but he is still handsome, with a full head of gray-white hair and razory dark eyes. He wore a well-tailored midnight-blue suit—even in the sixties he wore suits—and a stickpin through his collar. He extended a hand like a courtly retired capo.
现在他（科恩）非常瘦，一头灰白色的头发加上那深邃锋利的眼神，依然很帅。他穿着一件剪裁得体的深蓝色的西装，甚至在他六十多岁的时候也穿西装，而且领子上还别着一个领夹。他伸出来来和你打招呼，像是一个有风度的已经退休的黑帮头目。
分析：把这一句拿出来分析是想让大家注意到，对人物描写是的一些技巧，伴随状况的应用，比如说，with a full head of grey-white hair and razory dark eyes，with a full head of grey-white hair，下次你在描写老人的时候可以尝试着用一下这个短语，tailor可作名词可作动词，指的是剪裁或者裁缝的意思，midnight-blue指的是深蓝色的概念，stickpin表示领夹，穿西装时的装饰品，collar就是领子，而且，我们平时说的白领或者蓝领，英语里的表达就是white collar或者blue collar后面的courtly是形容词表示彬彬有礼的，把ly去掉的话就完全变成另一个词了，court，场地或者法院的意思了，当然，court做动词的用法更复杂一点，有向某人献殷勤或者求爱的意思。Capo指的是黑帮或者犯罪集团的头目。

[4] “Hello, friends,” he said. “Please, please, sit right there.” The depth of his voice makes Tom Waits sound like Eddie Kendricks.

[5] And then, like my mother, he offered what could only have been the complete catalogue of his larder: water, juice, wine, a piece of chicken, a slice of cake, “maybe something else.” In the hours we spent together, he offered many refreshments, and, always, kindly. “Would you like some slices of cheese and olives?” is not an offer you are likely to get from Axl Rose. “Some vodka? A glass of milk? Schnapps?” And, as with my mother, it is best, sometimes, to say yes. One day, we had cheeseburgers-with-everything ordered from a Fatburger down the street and, on another, thick slices of gefilte fish with horseradish.

词汇词组：
1） Refreshment /rɪˈfreʃmənt/：茶点，点心，饮料
例：Light refreshments will be served during the break.
重难点句：
And then, like my mother, he offered what could only have been the complete catalogue of his larder: water, juice, wine, a piece of chicken, a slice of cake, “maybe something else.”
而且呢，跟我母亲一样，他会把他贮藏室里几乎所有的东西都拿给你：水，红酒，鸡肉，蛋糕或者是其他的什么。
分析：这句话我们重点来关注一下，offer后面的宾语从句，在从句里，主语就是what，could have been表示一种可能性，the complete catalogue of his larder，贮藏室里完整的条目，complete在这儿是个形容词，注意重音在第二个音节，表示完整的完全的，它也可以做动词，表示完成什么，比如说，did you complete the task?你完成那个工作了么？catalogue，表示目录条目的意思，后面的larder就是储物室或者贮藏室的意思。
And, as with my mother, it is best, sometimes, to say yes.
而且，如同面对我母亲一样，有时候，最好是说yes。
分析：这一小句的重点就是as的用法，当然，后面的sometimes副词的位置千变万化，放在中间也是可以的。As在这儿是个连词，表示如同，后面省去了as it is with my mother。

[6] Marianne’s death was only a few weeks in the past, and Cohen was still amazed at the way his letter—an e-mail to a dying friend—had gone viral, at least in the Cohen-ardent universe. He hadn’t set out to be public about his feelings, but when one of Marianne’s closest friends, in Oslo, asked to release the note, he didn’t object. “And since there’s a song attached to it, and there’s a story . . .” he said. “It’s just a sweet story. So in that sense I’m not displeased.”

词汇词组：
1） Go viral /ˈvaɪrəl/：散播开来，流行开来
例：Within 24 hours, the video went viral on YouTube and Facebook.
2） Ardent /ˈɑːrdnt/：热心的，热切的
例：an ardent supporter of European unity
重难点句：
Marianne’s death was only a few weeks in the past, and Cohen was still amazed at the way his letter—an e-mail to a dying friend—had gone viral, at least in the Cohen-ardent universe.
玛丽安去世的消息已经是几周前的事了，而科恩对于自己给一个即将去世的朋友的信，也就是一个邮件会流传开来感到不可思议，至少只在科恩的歌迷中流传开来而感到震惊。
分析：这一部分中，a few weeks in the past中的in the past可以替换成ago，几周之前，后面的be amazed at sth对什么感到惊奇感到不可思议，而这个sth宾语又是一个定语从句，对the way感到不可思议，后面的是the way的具体内容，an email to a dying friend had gone viral，一个给即将去世的朋友的邮件传播开来，注意这个dying它表示的是正在死亡，也就可以理解为即将去世的概念，had gone viral表示的是过去完成时，是发生在过去的过去，这种时态会有一个参考点，消息的走红是在觉得不可思议之前，而不可思议的时态是过去时，所以消息的散播就是在过去的过去，所以用到了had gone viral，而这儿go viral的词组非常好，一定要会用，我们来看一个例子，Within 24 hours, the video went viral on YouTube and Facebook. 24小时之内，这个视频就在youtube和facebook上流传开来。再给大家一个例子，比如说，within a couple hours, the rumor that Ethan has broken up with his girlfriend has gone viral. 才几个小时的时间，Ethan和他女朋友分手的传闻或者谣言就传播开了，rumor我们一般理解为谣言的意思，这个，这个确实是个谣言，不真实，the truth is that I don’t even have a…欸，真的是rumor啊，这是一个让人伤心的例句，我们，不说了不说了….另外最后面的ardent这个词，要了解一下，这个词理解为热切的热心的，我们通常跟的搭配是ardent supporter，我们看一下例子，an ardent supporter of European unity 一个欧洲共同体的热切支持者，在文中，in the Cohen-ardent universe,可以理解为在热衷支持科恩的这个圈子里，universe，一个什么范围圈子。

[7] Like anyone of his age, Cohen counts the losses as a matter of routine. He seemed not so much devastated by Marianne’s death as overtaken by the memory of their time together. “There would be a gardenia on my desk perfuming the whole room,” he said. “There would be a little sandwich at noon. Sweetness, sweetness everywhere.”

词汇词组：
1） Devastated /ˈdevəsteɪtɪd/：非常沮丧，极度震惊
例：His family is absolutely devastated.
重难点句：
He seemed not so much devastated by Marianne’s death as overtaken by the memory of their time together.
当科恩被他和玛丽安在一起的时光时的记忆所包围的时候，他似乎并没有因为玛丽安去世的消息而那么震惊沮丧。
分析：这句话里面的一个难点就是as这个词的理解，我们可以尝试着把这个句型改变一下，as的成分提前，也就是as overtaken by the memory of their time together, he seemed not so much, 这样就更容易理解了，而且那个as 后面跟的是一个非谓语的短语，省去了as he was overtaken by，overtake本来表示的是超过或者是强烈的影响的意思，在这儿我们理解为被他和玛丽安美好的时光的记忆包围着，当他被这记忆包围的时候，也并没有因为死讯而感到十分的震惊沮丧。另外要提到的就是devastated这个词，它表示的是extremely upset and shocked，非常的沮丧且极度震惊的感受，我们看一个例子，His family is absolutely devastated by his death. 他的家庭因为他的死讯而感到极度的震惊和沮丧。

[8] Cohen’s songs are death-haunted, but then they have been since his earliest verses. A half century ago, a record executive said, “Turn around, kid. Aren’t you a little old for this?” But, despite his diminished health, Cohen remains as clear-minded and hardworking as ever, soldierly in his habits. He gets up well before dawn and writes. In the small, spare living room where we sat, there were a couple of acoustic guitars leaning against the wall, a keyboard synthesizer, two laptops, a sophisticated microphone for voice recording. Working with an old collaborator, Pat Leonard, and his son, Adam, who has the producer’s credit, Cohen did much of his work for “You Want It Darker” in the living room, e-mailing recorded files to his partners for additional refinements. Age and the end of age provide a useful, if not entirely desired, air of quiet.

词汇词组：
1） Haunted /ˈhɔːntɪd/：闹鬼的；被什么东西笼罩着；担惊受怕的
例：There was a haunted look in his eyes.
2） Synthesizer /ˈsɪnθəsaɪzər/：音响合成器；电声合成器
3） Sophisticated /səˈfɪstɪkeɪtɪd/：见多识广的有经验的；精密的复杂的
例：Medical techniques are becoming more sophisticated all the time.
重难点句：
Cohen’s songs are death-haunted, but then they have been since his earliest verses. A half century ago, a record executive said, “Turn around, kid. Aren’t you a little old for this?”
科恩的歌都有一种死亡笼罩的意味，但是，从他早年间这的歌词诗句来看他一直都是这样。半个世纪前，一个录音制作人对他说，“转过来，孩子，你不觉得你聊这个年纪有点太大了么？”
分析：第一句话的前半句中，death-haunted，被死亡笼罩着的，或者是和什么相关的，但我们单把haunted这个词拿出来，他表示的是闹鬼的，担惊受怕的意思，我们看一个例句，There was a haunted look in his eyes. 他的眼神里充满了恐惧。后半句的句式中要注意到since这个词，表示自从，since前面用一般现在完成时，since后面通常会跟一个时间点或是一个具体的意象，文中就是his earliest verse，他早期的词句。接下来这个录音师说的话可能会有一点理解障碍，我最开始在看的时候，我觉得应该把old改成young，这样逻辑就说的通了，aren’t you a little young for this?翻译过来就是，你现在聊死亡，你还太年轻吧？但文中是aren’t you a little old for this?你现在做这件事儿，你不会太老了么？这样的语境一般情况下是，你看到我20几岁的一个小伙子在玩儿奥特曼玩具，你会对我说，aren’t you a little old for this?这是一般普遍的情况下，但是文中之所以会那么说是体现了一种讽刺的意味，讽刺着开玩笑的感觉。
But, despite his diminished health, Cohen remains as clear-minded and hardworking as ever, soldierly in his habits.
但是，尽管他的健康状况有所下降，科恩一直都保持着如军人般的习惯，清晰的思维以及一如既往的勤奋。
分析：despite，尽管，后面直接加名词性成分，表示让步，despite就等于in spite of。后面的as clear-minded and hardworking as ever表示的是一如既往的如何，最后的soldierly的意思是像军人一样的。
Age and the end of age provide a useful, if not entirely desired, air of quiet.
即使不全都是想要的，但年龄和人生的最后这个阶段都提供了一种有用的宁静氛围。
分析：if not entirely desired，是一个省略了主语和谓语的让步状语从句，放在了句子中间，所以我们把句子补充完整，并且把语序调整一下就是，if they are not entirely desired, age and the end of age provided怎么样，这就好理解多了，a useful air of quiet，一种宁静的氛围。

[9] “In a certain sense, this particular predicament is filled with many fewer distractions than other times in my life and actually enables me to work with a little more concentration and continuity than when I had duties of making a living, being a husband, being a father,” he said. “Those distractions are radically diminished at this point. The only thing that mitigates against full production is just the condition of my body.

词汇词组：
1） Predicament /prɪˈdɪkəmənt/：困境，窘况
例：I'm in a terrible predicament.
2） Radically /ˈrædɪkli/：彻底地，以激进的方式地
例：The new methods are radically different from the old.
3） Mitigate /ˈmɪtɪɡeɪt/：减轻，减缓
例：Soil erosion was mitigated by the planting of trees.
重难点句：
“In a certain sense, this particular predicament is filled with many fewer distractions than other times in my life and actually enables me to work with a little more concentration and continuity than when I had duties of making a living, being a husband, being a father,”
“在某种意义上，这种特殊的困境，比起来我生命中的其他时候，也充满了更少的杂念，比起来我曾经有着养家的责任做丈夫的责任以及做父亲的责任时期，让我能更专心并且持续地投入工作。”
分析：首先in a certain sense表示在某种意义上，predicament，抽象名词，困境窘境的意思，我们给个例句来看一下，I'm in a terrible predicament. 我现在处在非常糟糕的境遇。后面的be filled with sth充满了什么，宾语是distractions，在这个长句子里，than出现了好几次，作为对比来理解，enable sb to do sth能够让某人做某事，concentration和continuity这两个名词要尝试着用一下，一个表示集中精力，一个表示持续不断。最后的make a living表示的是生活养家的意思。

[10] “For some odd reason,” he went on, “I have all my marbles, so far. I have many resources, some cultivated on a personal level, but circumstantial, too: my daughter and her children live downstairs, and my son lives two blocks down the street. So I am extremely blessed. I have an assistant who is devoted and skillful. I have a friend like Bob and another friend or two who make my life very rich. So in a certain sense I’ve never had it better. . . . At a certain point, if you still have your marbles and are not faced with serious financial challenges, you have a chance to put your house in order. It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels. Putting your house in order, if you can do it, is one of the most comforting activities, and the benefits of it are incalculable.”

词汇词组：
1） Odd /ɑːd/：奇怪的，奇特的
例：The odd thing was that he didn't recognize me.
2） Circumstantial /ˌsɜːrkəmˈstænʃl/：推测的间接的，详尽的
例：The case against him was largely circumstantial.
3） Analgesic /ˌænəlˈdʒiːzɪk/：镇痛药，止痛剂
重难点句：
“For some odd reason,” he went on, “I have all my marbles, so far. I have many resources, some cultivated on a personal level, but circumstantial, too: my daughter and her children live downstairs, and my son lives two blocks down the street.
“由于某种奇特的原因，”他继续说，“到目前看，我拥有我所有的优势和特长。我有很多资源特质，一些事在我个人身上的修养，而另一些是间接的：比如我的女儿和她的孩子住在楼下，我的儿子住在离这儿两个街区的地方。”
分析：开头的地方，for some odd reason，reason是单数的形式，但是前面有some啊，那是因为在这儿some作为形容词表示的是某一个某种的意思，odd，是形容词表示奇怪的奇特的。接下来科恩又说，I have all my marbles, so far. 这个地方marbles不好理解，它最本身的意思是大理石，但是在这儿表示的是优势或者智慧才气的意思，他后文又继续说，I have many resources, 这个resources复数的形式表示的是个人素质特质的意思，当然你也可以理解为资源，因为他后面也解释了，不但有自身的资源提高，身边也有资源，就是他的家庭成员，some cultivated on a personal level, 一些是在自身的修养上，but circumstantial too, circumstantial，作为形容词表示间接的，可以理解为，这种情况有直接在我自己身上发生的，也有间接的发生在我身边的，后面解释说，比如我闺女怎么样，我儿子怎么样。
It’s a cliché, but it’s underestimated as an analgesic on all levels.
这（收拾家里）可能有点太废话了，但它经常在各个层面上都被低估作为一种止痛剂。
分析：就这句话而言，你可能会觉得有的时候外国人讲话用的那种比喻很奇怪啊，这是因为我们还一直都在用我们习惯的思维去理解他们的语言，所以，结合着上下文来看，科恩，在讲他现在的生活，在不愁经济问题的前提下，把家里收拾的井井有条的，是一件非常有意义的事情，而这件有意义的事儿且被大家经常看作是一种止痛剂，也就是说生活给了你一巴掌的时候你才会去做的事儿，给了一巴掌就相当于生活中遇到了困难嘛。但是科恩想表达的是，把家里整理的规规矩矩所带来的好处是incalculable，后文中出现了这个词。

[11] Cohen came of age after the war. His Montreal, however, was nothing like Philip Roth’s Newark or Alfred Kazin’s Brownsville. He was brought up in Westmount, a predominantly Anglophone neighborhood, where the city’s well-to-do Jews lived. The men in his family, particularly on his father’s side, were the “dons” of Jewish Montreal. His grandfather, Cohen told me, “was probably the most significant Jew in Canada,” the founder of a range of Jewish institutions; in the wake of anti-Semitic pogroms in the Russian imperium, he saw to it that countless refugees made it to Canada. Nathan Cohen, Leonard’s father, ran Freedman Company, the family clothing business. His mother, Masha, came from a family of more recent immigrants. She was loving, depressive, “Chekhovian” in her emotional range, according to Leonard: “She laughed and wept deeply.” Masha’s father, Solomon Klonitzki-Kline, was a distinguished Talmudic scholar from Lithuania who completed a “Lexicon of Hebrew Homonyms.” Leonard went to fine schools, including McGill and, for a while, Columbia. He never resented the family’s comforts.

词汇词组：
1） Come of age：成年或指18-20岁左右
例：The money will go to the children when they come of age.
2） predominantly /prɪˈdɑːmɪnəntli/：绝大多数，主要的
例：She works in a predominantly male environment.
3） Anglophone /ˈæŋɡloʊfoʊn/：讲英语的人
4） Don /dɑːn/：大学里的老师
5） Anti-Semitic/ˌænti səˈmɪtɪk/：反犹太人的
6） Pogrom/ˈpoʊɡrəm/：（种族）大屠杀
例：The film shows interviews with survivors of the pogrom.
7） Imperium：统治权，主权
8） Talmudic/ˌtælˈmʊdɪk/：犹太教法典
9） Homonym/ˈhɑːmənɪm/：同音异义词
10） Resent/rɪˈzent/：憎恨，憎恶
例：I deeply resented her criticism.
重难点句：
Cohen came of age after the war. His Montreal, however, was nothing like Philip Roth’s Newark or Alfred Kazin’s Brownsville. He was brought up in Westmount, a predominantly Anglophone neighborhood, where the city’s well-to-do Jews lived.
科恩成年是在二战之后了。但是他的故乡蒙特利尔和Philip Roth的故乡Newark以及Alfred Kazin的故乡Brownsville一点都不像。他在montwest长大，那是一个主要以说英语的人聚集的小区，并且住着的都是有钱的犹太人。
分析：这一部分的句式并不复杂，只是中间出现了很多人名地名，这都不重要，你用ABCD代替都是可以的。开头的地方came of age，要提一下，表示的是成年的意思。战后成年，当然跟于年代数我们可以推算出是第二次世界大战。Montreal，蒙特利尔，是科恩的故乡，however，表转折，经常会放在主语之后，但是was nothing like什么东西，后面就是做对比的内容了，两个提到的人名都是作家身份，我们在这儿就不做详细的了解了，他们都是犹太人，而且后面的地名都是他们的故乡长期居住地，各自的文学作品都有大量描写这些地方的影子。接下来he was brought up in someplace，他在哪个地方长大，后面进一步来解释这个地方是什么样的，predominantly和anglophone这两个词要认识，predominantly表示的是主要的绝大多数的，anglophone指的是讲英语的人，最后面的where引导的一个地点状语从句，城市里的有钱的犹太人居住的地方，well-to-do表示的是有钱人的意思，它和wealthy以及rich的概念是一样的。
in the wake of anti-Semitic pogroms in the Russian imperium, he saw to it that countless refugees made it to Canada.
在前苏联统治区内的反犹太人大屠杀之后，他看到了无数的难民来到加拿大。
分析：这一句话难就难在有几个关键词大家可能不认识，首先，in the wake of sth表示的是在什么之后或者作为什么的结果，anti-Semitic表示反犹太人的，pogrom种族大屠杀的意思，imperium统治区的概念，伴随着前苏联统治区的反犹太人大屠杀而来的是，他，也就是科恩的祖父看到了，saw to it，看到了it，it后面还有一个同位语从句，that，无数的难民来到了加拿大。

[12] “I have a deep tribal sense,” he said. “I grew up in a synagogue that my ancestors built. I sat in the third row. My family was decent. They were good people, they were handshake people. So I never had a sense of rebellion.”

词汇词组：
1） Synagogue /ˈsɪnəɡɑːɡ/：犹太教堂
2） Rebellion /rɪˈbeljən/：反抗，造反
例：The army put down the rebellion.

[13] When Leonard was nine, his father died; this moment, a primal wound, was when he first used language as a kind of sacrament. “I have some memories of him,” Cohen said, and recounted the story of his father’s funeral, which was held at their house. “We came down the stairs, and the coffin was in the living room.” Contrary to Jewish custom, the funeral workers had left the coffin open. It was winter, and Cohen thought of the gravediggers: it would be difficult to break the frozen ground. He watched his father lowered into the earth. “Then I came back to the house and I went to his closet and I found a premade bow tie. I don’t know why I did this, I can’t even own it now, but I cut one of the wings of the bow tie off and I wrote something on a piece of paper—I think it was some kind of farewell to my father—and I buried it in a little hole in the back yard. And I put that curious note in there. . . . It was just some attraction to a ritual response to an impossible event.”

词汇词组：
1） Sacrament/ˈsækrəmənt/：圣历，圣事
2） Contrary to：与…相反
例：Contrary to popular belief, many cats dislike milk.
3） Ritual/ˈrɪtʃuəl/：仪式
重难点句：
When Leonard was nine, his father died; this moment, a primal wound, was when he first used language as a kind of sacrament.
当科恩9岁的时候他的父亲去世了；这一刻，这最初的伤痛，也就是在那一刻，他开始第一次用语言作为一种圣历。
分析：这句话的前半句很好理解，但后半句有点难度，this moment和a primal wound应该是并列的同一个结构内容，后半句中逗号后面的was是整个后半句的核心谓语，而宾语就是when he first used language as a kind of sacrament. Sacrament的意思是和宗教有关的神圣的事儿，我们理解为圣历，神圣的经历。

[14] Cohen’s uncles made sure that Masha and her two children, Leonard and his sister, Esther, did not suffer any financial decline after her husband’s death. Leonard studied; he worked in an uncle’s foundry, W. R. Cuthbert & Company, pouring metal for sinks and piping, and at the clothing factory, where he picked up a useful skill for his career as a touring musician: he learned to fold suits so they didn’t wrinkle. But, as he wrote in a journal, he always imagined himself as a writer, “raincoated, battered hat pulled low above intense eyes, a history of injustice in his heart, a face too noble for revenge, walking the night along some wet boulevard, followed by the sympathy of countless audiences . . . loved by two or three beautiful women who could never have him.”

词汇词组：
1） Foundry /ˈfaʊndri/：铸造厂
2） Battered /ˈbætərd/：破旧的
例：She wore a battered old robe.
3） Sympathy /ˈsɪmpəθi/：同情心
例：I have no sympathy for Jan, it's all her own fault.
重难点句：
划线的句子我们就不翻译了，句子不难理解，我觉得这种话翻译成中文就没有那么酷了，something is better left non-translated.

[15] And yet a rock-and-roll life was far from his mind. He set out to be an author. As Sylvie Simmons makes plain in her excellent biography “I’m Your Man,” Cohen’s apprenticeship was in letters. As a teen-ager, his idols were Yeats and Lorca (he named his daughter after Lorca). At McGill, he read Tolstoy, Proust, Eliot, Joyce, and Pound, and he fell in with a circle of poets, particularly Irving Layton. Cohen, who published his first poem, “Satan in Westmount,” when he was nineteen, once said of Layton, “I taught him how to dress, he taught me how to live forever.” Cohen has never stopped writing verse; the poem “Steer Your Way” was published in this magazine in June.

词汇词组：
1） Apprenticeship /əˈprentɪʃɪp/：学徒期
重难点句：
And yet a rock-and-roll life was far from his mind. He set out to be an author.
（那个时候）摇滚的生活还离他的想法很遥远。他想成为一名作家。
分析：这句话并不难，但点出了这一整段的中心思想。要注意一点的是，yet这个小词，之前我们也提到过，yet可以等同于but去用，但是在这句话当中yet是配合句子体现否定的一个尚未怎样的状态，还没有怎么样的感觉，be far from体现的就是一个否定的句意。不过，你如果就单纯的把yet理解为表转折也是说得通的。

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