斷弦的小提琴

PLAY VIOLIN WITH THREE STRINGS

On Nov.18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he walks with the aid of two crutches.

The audience sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair and begins his play. But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. We thought that he would have to stop the concert. But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.

The orchestra began and he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.

Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a harmonious work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.

When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium.

He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow and then he said—not boastfully, but in a quiet, sacred tone — “You know, sometimes it is the artist’s task to find out how much music he can still make with what he has left.”

This powerful line has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. Perhaps that is the definition of life—not just for artists but for all of us.

He has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, but all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, he finds himself with only three strings, so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings.

So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left. 

【助讀詞匯】

◇polio n. 脊髓灰質炎，小兒麻痹癥

◇crutch n. 拐杖

◇signal v. 向……發信號

◇conductor n.（樂隊等的）指揮

◇orchestra n. 管弦樂隊

◇harmonious  adj. 和諧的，協調的

【參考譯文】

斷弦的小提琴

1995年11月18日，小提琴家伊扎克·貝爾曼舉辦演奏會。如果你去過他的演奏會，你就知道登上臺對他有多不容易。他小時候患了小兒麻痹癥，所以走路得借助兩只拐杖。

觀眾們都安靜地看著他走到自己座位上開始演奏。但是這時出了問題。他剛拉完幾個音階，小提琴的一根弦就斷了。我們以為他會停止演奏會。但是他沒有。他等了一會，閉上眼睛，示意指揮再來一遍。

樂隊開始演奏了，他演奏得激情十足，強勁有力，音色純正，前所未聞。

當然，每個人都知道三根弦是演奏不出和諧的樂章的。這一點我知道，你知道，但那天晚上貝爾曼拒絕知道。

當他演奏完畢，大廳里一片肅靜。接著人們紛紛起身鼓掌致敬。觀眾席的每個角落都響起了熱烈的掌聲。

他笑了，擦去額上的汗水后說——沒有自吹，而是用一種平和神圣的語氣——“你知道，有時候藝術家就得看看僅憑自己所剩下的能演奏出什么。”

從聽到這句話起它就刻進了我腦里。說不定這就是人生的定義——不僅對藝術家如此，而且對我們每個人也是如此。

他一生都在練習如何用四根弦演奏，但在演奏會上突然只剩三根弦了，所以他得用這三根弦來演奏。那晚他用僅僅三根弦演奏出來的音樂比他以往任何一次在四根弦上表演得更美麗、更神圣、更令人難忘。

所以，在這瞬息變化、搖擺不定、充滿迷惑的世界里，我們的任務也許就是演奏音樂，開始我們演奏的時候什么都齊全，但是后來不再齊全就用剩下的來演奏。

【人生啟迪】

生活不可能是完美的。當你想完成某事的時候，不可能萬事俱備，這就是為什么成功來得格外辛苦的原因。不能用“只欠東風”做借口不采取行動。你需要做的是充分利用好你現在手上的資源。如果沒有本錢去成立公司，就從小做起，積累本錢；如果未能進入自己滿意的公司，充分利用業余時間為自己充電，為爭取今后更好的就業機會做好準備。