LEONARD COHEN MAKES IT DARKER (Part Three)

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

[1] Cohen was also taken with music. As a kid, he had learned the songs in the old lefty folk compendium “The People’s Song Book,” listened to Hank Williams and other country singers on the radio, and, at sixteen, dressed in his father’s old suède jacket, he played in a country-music combo called the Buckskin Boys.

词汇词组：
compendium[kəm'pɛndɪəm]：纲要，概略
例：The Roman Catholic Church has issued a compendium of its teachings.
suede[swed]：绒面革（的）
例：Albert wore a brown suede jacket and jeans.
combo['kɑmbo]：小型乐队
例：Have you heard of the new-wave rock combo.

[2] He took some informal guitar lessons in his twenties from a Spaniard he met next to a local tennis court. After a few weeks, he picked up a flamenco chord progression. When the man failed to appear for their fourth lesson, Cohen called his landlady and learned that the man had killed himself. In a speech many years later, in Asturias, Cohen said, “I knew nothing about the man, why he came to Montreal . . . why he appeared at that tennis court, why he took his life. . . . It was those six chords, it was that guitar pattern, that has been the basis of all my songs, and all my music.”

词汇词组：
Spaniard['spænjəd]：西班牙人
Flamenco[flə'mɛŋko]：弗拉门科民歌；弗拉曼柯舞

[3] Cohen loved the masters of the blues—Robert Johnson, Sonny Boy Williamson, Bessie Smith—and the French storyteller-singers like Édith Piaf and Jacques Brel. He put coins in the jukebox to listen to “The Great Pretender,” “Tennessee Waltz,” and anything by Ray Charles. And yet when the Beatles came along he was indifferent. “I’m interested in things that contribute to my survival,” he said. “I had girlfriends who really irritated me by their devotion to the Beatles. I didn’t begrudge them their interest, and there were songs like ‘Hey Jude’ that I could appreciate. But they didn’t seem to be essential to the kind of nourishment that I craved.”

词汇词组：
jukebox['dʒʊk'bɑks]：自动唱机
indifferent[ɪn'dɪfrənt]：漠不关心的；中立的
例：People have become indifferent to the suffering of others.
irritate['ɪrɪtet]：激怒
例：Not surprisingly, her teacher is getting irritated with her.
begrudge[bɪ'ɡrʌdʒ]：嫉妒；怜惜
例：I certainly don't begrudge him the Nobel Prize.

[4] The same set of ears that first tuned in to Bob Dylan, in 1961, discovered Leonard Cohen, in
1966. This was John Hammond, a patrician related to the Vanderbilts, and by far the most perceptive scout and producer in the business. He was instrumental in the first recordings of Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Benny Goodman, Aretha Franklin, and Billie Holiday. Tipped off by friends who were following the folk scene downtown, Hammond called Cohen and asked if he would play for him.

词汇词组：
patrician[pə'trɪʃən]：贵族的，有教养的
例：Cameron was a rich man, a patrician.
scout[skaʊt]：星探，侦察机
Instrumental[,ɪnstrə'mɛntl]：起作用的，有用的
例：In his first years as chairman he was instrumental in raising the company's wider profile.
tip off：向...透露消息
例：Greg tipped police off about a drunk driver.

[5] Cohen was thirty-two, a published poet and novelist, but, though a year older than Elvis Presley, a musical novice. He had turned to songwriting largely because he wasn’t making a living as a writer. He was staying on the fourth floor of the Chelsea Hotel, on West Twenty-third Street, and filled notebooks during the day. At night, he sang his songs in clubs and met people on the scene: Patti Smith, Lou Reed (who admired Cohen’s novel “Beautiful Losers”), Jimi Hendrix (who jammed with him on, of all things, “Suzanne”), and, if just for a night, Janis Joplin (“giving me head on the unmade bed / while the limousines wait in the street”).

词汇词组：
novice['nɑvɪs]：初学者，新手
例：I'm a novice at these things, Lieutenant. You're the professional.
limousine['lɪməzin]：豪华轿车
例：To register as a limousine company, all ten vehicles had to be inspected at once.

[6] After taking Cohen to lunch one day, Hammond suggested that they go to Cohen’s room, and, sitting on his bed, Cohen played “Suzanne,” “Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye,” “The Stranger Song,” and a few others.

[7] When Cohen finished, Hammond grinned and said, “You’ve got it.”

词汇词组：
grin[ɡrɪn]：漏齿而笑
例：Sarah tried several times to catch Philip's eye, but he just grinned at her.

[8] A few months after his audition, Cohen put on a suit and went to the Columbia recording studios in midtown to begin work on his first album. Hammond was encouraging after every take. And after one he said, “Watch out, Dylan!”

词汇词组：
audition[ɔ'dɪʃən]：试镜，试唱
例：It was an audition for a Broadway musical.

[9] Cohen’s links to Dylan were obvious—Jewish, literary, a penchant for Biblical imagery, Hammond’s tutelage—but the work was divergent. Dylan, even on his earliest records, was moving toward more surrealist, free-associative language and the furious abandon of rock and roll. Cohen’s lyrics were no less imaginative or charged, no less ironic or self-investigating, but he was clearer, more economical and formal, more liturgical.

词汇词组：
penchant['pentʃənt]：嗜好，倾向
例：She is a stylish woman with a penchant for dark glasses.
tutelage['tʊtəlɪdʒ]：监护，指导
例：Under Babar's tutelage the Punjab government is installing several small hydro and solar power plants.
divergent[daɪ'vɝdʒənt]：相异的，分岐的
例：Two people who have divergent views on this question are George Watt and Bob Marr.
surrealist[sə'riəlɪst]：超现实主义的
例：Dali's shoe hat was undoubtedly the most surrealist idea he ever worked on with Schiaparelli.
furious['fjʊrɪəs]：狂怒的
例：He is furious at the way his wife has been treated.
liturgical[lɪ'tɜːdʒɪk(ə)l]：礼拜仪式的
例：The service, taking place the night before Easter Sunday, is the most important celebration of the liturgical year.
重难点句：
Cohen’s links to Dylan were obvious—Jewish, literary, a penchant for Biblical imagery, Hammond’s tutelage—but the work was divergent. Dylan, even on his earliest records, was moving toward more surrealist, free-associative language and the furious abandon of rock and roll. Cohen’s lyrics were no less imaginative or charged, no less ironic or self-investigating, but he was clearer, more economical and formal, more liturgical.
科恩和迪伦，两个人之间的共同点是很显然的，都是犹太人，文字功底深厚，都对圣经意向有着狂热的喜爱，又都受到了Hammond的指导，但是，两个人的作品确实不一样的。迪伦的作品，甚至是在他早期的唱片里，都更趋向一种超现实主义/文字语言运用自由，而且极其厌恶摇滚。科恩的歌词也从不缺乏想象力和炽热的感情，充满着讽刺和自我审视，但他像是一个净化器一样，更加简约和庄重，让人接受的洗礼如同做礼拜。
分析：首先第一个大句子当中，but并列链接了前后两个小分句，在前一个小分句里，破折号之后的词组短语都是来解释那个links到底是什么，也就是两个人之间的共同点到底有哪些，而破折号之前，Cohen’s links to Dylan were obvious, 这是一个基本的主席表结构，也就是说be动词之后加形容词的结构一般情况下都是系表结构，形容词作了表语，obvious，显而易见的，显然的，注意，这个单词开头的字母O在美语里发的是个典型的后元音“啊”的声音，第二个音节中的vious没有字母R，所以在美语里千万不要卷舌，换句话说，美语里的卷舌音也不是随随便便就能卷的，单词当中一定要有字母R时才能卷。Obvious，可以用要敢于用。Cohen’s links to Dylan, 这个短语里，link这个词经常搭配的介词有link to/link between以及link with，表示两者之间的联系，引申理解为共同点。那么破折号后面的这几个词语短语，分别是jewish，犹太人，literary表示文学的或者是精通文学的，文中我们就理解为，两个人的文字功底都很厉害了，值得注意一点的是，这个单词结尾处的发音，我在很早的一期节目里跟大家提到过一次，ary或者是ory或者是ery结尾的词，在美语里有的时候，甚至是大部分的时候都会有一点次重音的感觉，它就不是一个“额瑞”的声音了，就变成了一个小口的“e”，“ery”这样的声音了，要引起我们的注意，还是那句话，勤查字典。紧接着，a penchant for biblical imagery, a penchant for sth, 表示嗜好倾向，对什么的喜爱，而biblical形容词，表示和圣经有关的，biblical story圣经里的故事，后面的imagery，欸，你又要注意了，这个是ery结尾的词，查字典你会发现字典明明是imag-e-ry啊，为什么我听到的直接是一个“坠”的声音呢？如果你问我，我也不知道这是为什么，就像history这个词一样，大部分的美国人讲话的时候，都是“tree”的声音，但是你查字典的时候会看见一个schwa音，也就是音标里倒过来的那个e的符号，“额”的声音，但america native speakers大部分情况下都不发出来了。这是一种语音规律，没有为什么，最直接的最大可能就是省劲儿吧，回头可以问问John老师看看他是怎么理解的。说远了，回过来，a penchant for biblical imagery, 两个人都对宗教圣经意向非常热衷，a penchant for sth, 我们来看一个例句，Daisy is a stylish lady with a penchant for sunglasses. Daisy小姐姐是一个很时尚的女性，而且对非常喜欢太阳镜，没错，这个daisy小姐姐就是昨天和大家在一起的Daisy小姐，我只是觉得小姐听起来怪怪的，就又加了一个字，小姐姐，这样听起来就萌萌的了。Daisy is a stylish lady with a penchant for sunglasses. 继续，最后一个短语时hammond's tutelage，tutelage表示的是监护指导的意思。接下来，but the work was divergent, 但是两个人的作品确实不一样的，大家有没有想过，这个work为什么不是负数呢？我个人理解的是，the work表示的是作品方面，如果要用复数的话，那么就要把定冠词the去掉了。Divergent这个词啊，好啊！要用啊，这才是背单词的方法啊，下次你在想表示两者的不同，尤其是意见想法不同的时候就用divergent，就不要再用different了，我们给个例句，Two people who have divergent views on this question are Ethan and Daisy. 在这个问题上有着不同意见的两个人是Ethan和Daisy。接下来，Dylan, even on his earliest records, was moving toward more surrealist, free-associative language and the furious abandon of rock and roll. Even on his earliest records，这是个插入语，甚至在他早期的唱片里，was moving toward more怎么样，更倾向于，surrealist，超现实主义的，free-associative language，associative表示的是联想的结合的，随意结合的语言，就可以理解为用词随意，天马行空的感觉了。And furious abandon of rock and roll, furious，暴怒的是一种情绪上的宣泄，furious abandon of sth及其的鄙夷什么东西，abandon本身是放弃，我们在这儿理解为排斥鄙夷的态度。那么说到furious，我差一个题外话，速度与激情系列电影大家都很了解啊，英文名叫做，fast and furious series，但是如果你足够细心的话，你会发现，从7开始这个名字就变了，fast没了，只剩furious，速度没了，只剩激情了，你可以去细细品味一下好莱坞的制作人们在给电影明明时候的动机啊，这个系列主题的商业价值经过了这么多年还没有被消耗殆尽，制作人之所以叫furious也是更走心了，开始主打情感路线了，大伙儿自己也可以品味一下这电影命名里的区别。继续往后看，Cohen’s lyrics were no less imaginative or charged, no less ironic or self-investigating, but he was clearer, more economical and formal, more liturgical. 这句话当中，less imaginative表示缺少想象力，那么no less imaginative就是从来都不缺少想象力，charged这个词有意思了，charge这个词我们常见的就是开价/负责/控告啊这一类意思，但是charged加了一个D，就完全变成一个形容词了，表示的是情感上的兴奋，或者是氛围很紧张，比如说a wedding is an emotionally charged situation. 婚礼是一个激动人心的场合。后面的no less ironic or self-investigating，同样的理解，从来都不缺少讽刺和自我审慎，紧接着，but he was clearer, more economical and formal, more liturgical. 这里面的三个形容词都是比较级，而我在翻译的时候都转化为了名词性的理解，但他像是一个净化器一样，更加简约和庄重，让人接受的洗礼如同做礼拜。Clearer，本身的意思清澈透明，说的就是科恩自身，很通透的一个人不做作，把真实的自我展现出来，economical，就是表示简约的生活习惯，最后面的liturgical，形容词表示礼拜仪式的，当然，就最后一句话，如果你完全按照字面意思去理解也没有问题。

[10] Over the decades, Dylan and Cohen saw each other from time to time. In the early eighties, Cohen went to see Dylan perform in Paris, and the next morning in a café they talked about their latest work. Dylan was especially interested in “Hallelujah.” Even before three hundred other performers made “Hallelujah” famous with their cover versions, long before the song was included on the soundtrack for “Shrek” and as a staple on “American Idol,” Dylan recognized the beauty of its marriage of the sacred and the profane. He asked Cohen how long it took him to write.

词汇词组：
staple['stepl]：主要的，重要的；主要部分，重要活动
例：The Chinese also eat a type of pasta as part of their staple diet.
profane[prə'fen]：亵渎的，世俗的，异教的
例：Cardinal Daly has said that churches should not be used for profane or secular purposes.
重难点句：
Over the decades, Dylan and Cohen saw each other from time to time. In the early eighties, Cohen went to see Dylan perform in Paris, and the next morning in a café they talked about their latest work. Dylan was especially interested in “Hallelujah.” Even before three hundred other performers made “Hallelujah” famous with their cover versions, long before the song was included on the soundtrack for “Shrek” and as a staple on “American Idol,” Dylan recognized the beauty of its marriage of the sacred and the profane. He asked Cohen how long it took him to write.
在过去的几十年里，迪伦和科恩会不时地见到彼此。在80年代早期，科恩去看迪伦在法国的演出，第二天早上在一家小咖啡馆，他们聊他们最近的作品。迪伦尤其对“Hallelujah”这首歌感兴趣，早在有300个表演家对这首“Hallelujah”翻唱火之前，甚至远远在它成为“怪物史莱克”的插曲以及作为美国偶像真人选秀的重头戏之前，迪伦就看到了这首歌将神圣与异教的结合之美。他问科恩花了多久写出来这首歌。
分析：好，我们一句一句的来看，over the decades, 过去的几十年里，over表示的是一段时间的跨度，decade是十年的意思，但是在这儿我们常常理解为一个虚数的概念，几十年的意思，Dylan and Cohen saw each other from time to time. From time to time，一次又一次地，我们就翻译成两人不时的见面，至于这个saw怎么去理解，这种见面时约见还是碰见就不知道了，看个人的理解了。第二句话中，Cohen went to see Dylan perform in Paris中see sb do sth是一个固定的句型，当然也有see sb doing sth，两者的区别笼统来讲就是，do表示完完整整的看到了全过程，而doing强调的是看到的瞬间的动作，接下来，and the next morning in a café they talked about their latest work. The next morning和next morning的区别在于像文中的the next morning表示第二天上午，用于过去时和将来时，而不加冠词the的next morning明天上午，用一般时，后面的latest指的是最新的。接下来，Dylan was especially interested in “Hallelujah.”especially interested，格外的感兴趣，hallelujah这首歌，吐血推荐，非常好，一定要去听一听，不管你是不是一个基督徒，这首歌在一定程度上都会让你的心，平静下来。然后接下来的这个长句子，Even before three hundred other performers made “Hallelujah” famous with their cover versions, long before the song was included on the soundtrack for “Shrek” and as a staple on “American Idol,” Dylan recognized the beauty of its marriage of the sacred and the profane. Dylan之前的部分都是时间状语从句，even before，甚至在什么之前，这个before后面的句子中，made sth famous是核心谓语，使什么东西出名，their cover version，cover的意思是翻唱，在文中我们理解为翻唱版本，而且作者还又加了一个long before，更早在这首歌，was included on，被选在了shrek，怪物史莱克这部电影中当插曲，soundtrack，插曲尤其指电影配乐，后面的as a staple on “american idol”中的staple表示主要产品，主要的这个意思，也就是说，这首歌成为了美国偶像选秀节目的主要表演作品。接下来Dylan开头的那句话，Dylan recognized the beauty of its marriage of the sacred and the profane. Recognize，一般理解为认出某人某事，在这儿结合语境就是，迪伦看到了一种美，是将神圣与异教结合起来的美，marriage就是结合的意思。Profane这个单词表示亵渎的，异教等等，也就是和sacred对立的一面。最后一句就很简单了，他问科恩，写这首歌花了多久。

[11] “Two years,” Cohen lied.

[12] Actually, “Hallelujah” had taken him five years. He drafted dozens of verses and then it was years more before he settled on a final version. In several writing sessions, he found himself in his underwear, banging his head against a hotel-room floor.

[13] Cohen told Dylan, “I really like ‘I and I,’ ” a song that appeared on Dylan’s album “Infidels.” “How long did it take you to write that?”

[14] “About fifteen minutes,” Dylan said.

[15] When I asked Cohen about that exchange, he said, “That’s just the way the cards are dealt.” As for Dylan’s comment that Cohen’s songs at the time were “like prayers,” Cohen seemed dismissive of any attempt to plumb the mysteries of creation.

词汇词组：
dismissive[dɪs'mɪsɪv]：不屑一顾的
例：Mr. Jones was dismissive of the report, saying it was riddled with inaccuracies.
plumb[plʌm]：探索，使垂直，垂直的
例：She never abandoned her attempts to plumb my innermost emotions.

[16] “I have no idea what I am doing,” he said. “It’s hard to describe. As I approach the end of my life, I have even less and less interest in examining what have got to be very superficial evaluations or opinions about the significance of one’s life or one’s work. I was never given to it when I was healthy, and I am less given to it now.”

[17] Although Cohen was steeped more in the country tradition, he was swept up when he heard Dylan’s “Bringing It All Back Home” and “Highway 61 Revisited.” One afternoon, years later, when the two had become friendly, Dylan called him in Los Angeles and said he wanted to show him a piece of property he’d bought. Dylan did the driving.

词汇词组：
steep[stip]：泡，沉浸；陡峭
例：San Francisco is built on 40 hills and some are very steep.

[18] “One of his songs came on the radio,” Cohen recalled. “I think it was ‘Just Like a Woman’ or something like that. It came to the bridge of the song, and he said, ‘A lot of eighteen-wheelers crossed that bridge.’ Meaning it was a powerful bridge.”

[19] Dylan went on driving. After a while, he told Cohen that a famous songwriter of the day had told him, “O.K., Bob, you’re Number 1, but I’m Number 2.”

[20] Cohen smiled. “Then Dylan says to me, ‘As far as I’m concerned, Leonard, you’re Number 1. I’m Number Zero.’ Meaning, as I understood it at the time—and I was not ready to dispute it—that his work was beyond measure and my work was pretty good.”

词汇词组：
Dispute['dɪs'pjʊt]：争论
例：He disputed the allegations.

[21] Dylan, who is seventy-five, doesn’t often play the role of music critic, but he proved eager to discuss Leonard Cohen. I put a series of questions to him about Number 1, and he answered in a detailed, critical way—nothing cryptic or elusive.

词汇词组：
cryptic['krɪptɪk]：神秘的，含义模糊的
例：He has issued a short, cryptic statement denying the spying charges.
elusive[ɪ'lusɪv]：难懂的，易忘得
例：In Denver late-night taxis are elusive and far from cheap.

[22] “When people talk about Leonard, they fail to mention his melodies, which to me, along with his lyrics, are his greatest genius,” Dylan said. “Even the counterpoint lines—they give a celestial character and melodic lift to every one of his songs. As far as I know, no one else comes close to this in modern music. Even the simplest song, like ‘The Law,’ which is structured on two fundamental chords, has counterpoint lines that are essential, and anybody who even thinks about doing this song and loves the lyrics would have to build around the counterpoint lines.

词汇词组：
celestial[sə'lɛstʃəl]：天空的
例：But in the end the weather gods made sure that the celestial spectacle eluded them.
essential[ɪ'sɛnʃl]：必须的，基本的
例：As they must also sprint over short distances, speed is essential.

[23] “His gift or genius is in his connection to the music of the spheres,” Dylan went on. “In the song ‘Sisters of Mercy,’ for instance, the verses are four elemental lines which change and move at predictable intervals . . . but the tune is anything but predictable. The song just comes in and states a fact. And after that anything can happen and it does, and Leonard allows it to happen. His tone is far from condescending or mocking. He is a tough-minded lover who doesn’t recognize the brush-off. Leonard’s always above it all. ‘Sisters of Mercy’ is verse after verse of four distinctive lines, in perfect meter, with no chorus, quivering with drama. The first line begins in a minor key. The second line goes from minor to major and steps up, and changes melody and variation. The third line steps up even higher than that to a different degree, and then the fourth line comes back to the beginning. This is a deceptively unusual musical theme, with or without lyrics. But it’s so subtle a listener doesn’t realize he’s been taken on a musical journey and dropped off somewhere, with or without lyrics.”

词汇词组：
interval['ɪntɚvl]：间隔，间歇
例：The process is repeated after a short interval of time.
condescend[,kɑndɪ'sɛnd]：屈尊，对某人表现出优越感
例：When he condescended to speak, he contradicted himself three or four times in the space of half an hour.
mock[mɑk]：嘲笑
例：I thought you were mocking me.
quiver['kwɪvɚ]：震动，颤抖
例：Her bottom lip quivered and big tears rolled down her cheeks.
deceptively[dɪ'sɛptɪvli]：迷惑的，骗人的
例：Time will tell, but from where I'm sitting this deceptively routine cop movie runs deep.

[24] In the late eighties, Dylan performed “Hallelujah” on the road as a roughshod blues with a sly, ascending chorus. His version sounds less like the prettified Jeff Buckley version than like a work by John Lee Hooker. “That song ‘Hallelujah’ has resonance for me,” Dylan said. “There again, it’s a beautifully constructed melody that steps up, evolves, and slips back, all in quick time. But this song has a connective chorus, which when it comes in has a power all of its own. The ‘secret chord’ and the point-blank I-know-you-better-than-you-know-yourself aspect of the song has plenty of resonance for me.”

词汇词组：
sly[slaɪ]：狡猾的，淘气的
例：His lips were spread in a sly smile.
resonance['rɛznəns]：共鸣，反响
例：The ideas of order, security, family, religion and country had the same resonance for them as for Michael.

[25] I asked Dylan whether he preferred Cohen’s later work, so colored with intimations of the end. “I like all of Leonard’s songs, early or late,” he said. “ ‘Going Home,’ ‘Show Me the Place,’ ‘The Darkness.’ These are all great songs, deep and truthful as ever and multidimensional, surprisingly melodic, and they make you think and feel. I like some of his later songs even better than his early ones. Yet there’s a simplicity to his early ones that I like, too.”

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