[2008.12.13] 舞蹈：翩然起舞的男人

Dance
舞蹈

The man who wasn’t there
翩然起舞的男人

Dec 11th 2008
From The Economist print edition

WHO was Fred Astaire? A dancer and singer, he starred in 32 Hollywood musicals along with other films, beginning during the Depression in the early 1930s and continuing until shortly before his death in 1987. Although the titles of many of those films are now forgotten, there are also a handful of works that can justly be called unforgettable, including “Swing Time”, “Shall We Dance?” and his masterpiece, “Top Hat”. In almost all of his most memorable works Astaire was partnered by Ginger Rogers, a lesser artist who by temperament and adaptive talent somehow managed to be both match and foil. None of the films was burdened with plot, dialogue or characterisation that could be called credible. What they did display was a dizzying record of what the choreographer George Balanchine called “the most interesting, the most inventive, the most elegant dancer of our times.”

弗雷德•阿斯泰尔何许人也？他是位舞蹈家，也是位歌唱家，20世纪30年代初美国大萧条时期，他便开始在好莱坞的32部音乐剧与其它电影中扮演角色，而且他继续活跃在银幕之上，直至1987年逝世前夕。尽管这些电影中，许多的影片名称都已被人遗忘，但仍有一些作品能被授予”经久不衰”的美称，其中包括”摇摆时分”，”我们跳舞吧？”以及他的杰作”大礼帽”。在阿斯泰尔的几乎所有最令人难忘的作品中，他的舞伴自始至终都是琴吉•罗杰斯–她是处于次要地位的艺术家，但无论在性情与适应能力上都能与前者相配合并发挥衬托的作用。他的电影中少了许多的繁文缛节，如故事情节、对话或称得上可靠的人物性格描写。他们向观众所展现的是一种光彩绚丽的记录，也就是舞蹈指导乔治•巴兰钦所说的”我们时代最为生动有趣、最富创造力也最具典雅举止的舞蹈艺术家。”

So that is who he was. Yet look a little harder and Astaire begins to disappear. Born Frederick Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1899, his background was painfully modest: his story reads like the plot of a Broadway musical about a simple provincial boy who makes it in a Broadway musical. There was a serially unsuccessful immigrant father (“a bit of a bust” is how Joseph Epstein describes him in this book), and a doggedly ambitious mother fixated on show business. It was a gruelling childhood and, later in life, Astaire would just say that he didn’t want to talk about it.

这就是弗雷德•阿斯泰尔。然而，如果我们更为严肃地去了解阿斯泰尔，舞蹈大师的翩翩身影就会慢慢地消逝。他于1899年出生于美国内布拉斯加州的奥马哈，取名为弗雷德里克•奥斯德立兹，他出身极为卑微：他的故事听起来就像是一处百老汇音乐剧–一个天真纯朴的乡下男孩在百老汇音乐剧中获得成功。他父亲不断申请向美国移民，却屡遭失败（正如约瑟夫•埃普斯坦在本书描述的，”运气糟糕透了”）；而他那有着远大抱负的母亲则固执地醉心于演艺事业。他的童年生活充满了沉重的精神压力，而在后来的生活中，阿斯泰尔则会轻描淡写地说他不愿谈及此事。

Indeed, he never spoke publicly of anything that touched on the personal. He merely worked exceptionally hard until he became an outstandingly successful stage dancer and singer in partnership with his more colourful sister, Adele. When Adele retired into an aristocratic marriage, he moved to Hollywood, worked even harder, became a film star recognised and admired the world over…and that’s all.

的确，他从来没有公开说起个人隐私的一些事情。他只是格外努力地工作，与人生更加丰富多彩的妹妹阿戴尔搭档，知道成为一位世界瞩目的舞蹈家与歌唱家。当阿戴尔结婚，退出舞台，过起贵妇般的生活时，阿斯泰尔搬到了好莱坞，工作越加努力，之后成为了全世界公认并敬仰的电影明星…这就是他的人生。

None of the turmoil that routinely attends film-star existence ever seemed to visit the Astaire household. In the diaries and memoirs and gossip columns of the period he may be glimpsed about town, at a Hollywood party or a première-but always fleetingly, always impeccably turned out and always going home early. This elusive, almost invisible quality was more than a mere habit. Self-effacement was the essence of his technique. He was an actor who needed to disappear into his art.

如果还有任何不为世人所知的事情，阿斯泰尔则会让其成为秘密。那时经常在电影明星身上发生的糗事从来不会发生在阿斯泰尔身上。从当年的日记、回忆录与八卦专栏中，你也许能了解到他去城市某处一游，亦或参加了一个好莱坞晚会或首映式–但他总是迅速以完美形象出现在大家前然后又早早回家了。这种捉摸不透的无形品质不仅仅只是一个良好习惯。自我谦逊是他艺术技能的精致所在。他就是这样一位艺术家，一位需要沉浸在他的表演艺术中的演员。

His jaw line was wide without being strong. Although he was prematurely bald he could never shake off a look of invincible innocence. He was also on the short side. Yet all of these disqualifications evaporated when Astaire danced. And that dancing was the result of what must have been the hardest, most relentless work schedule of any Hollywood film actor before or perhaps since.

他的脸太长，下颌的轮廓很宽却不够硬朗。尽管他提早秃头了，但他却无法掩盖脸上那纯真无邪的气质。他同样也是个矮个头。然而，当他飘然起舞时，所有这些不足之处也就烟消云散了。任何一位在阿斯泰尔之前或之后的好莱坞电影明星都必须经过最艰苦卓绝与持之以恒地训练才可与之匹敌。

This book from Yale University Press is not a biography but an account of Astaire’s place in the firmament of great American popular artists. Mr Epstein understands his subject pretty well, knows the background and has plenty to say that is of interest-but it could all have been better said in a quarter of the space. The padding and repetition is a reminder that academic publishing meets popular culture at its peril.

耶鲁大学出版社的这本书不是一本传记，而是对阿斯泰尔在美国伟大艺术家圈子里的地位的真实写照。埃普斯坦先生对他的主角洞察得非常明晰，深知他的背景并有大量有趣的东西告诉读者–其实用其四分之一的篇幅就可以叙述很非常精妙了。这种填料与重复式的写作手法告知读者，学术出版在其即将衰竭时不得不迎合流行文化。

Meanwhile Astaire the man continues to elude everyone. In imagination he seems perpetually to be dancing up one of those great curving ballroom staircases that feature so frequently in Hollywood musicals, the audience always hoping that he will stay a little longer. But as his very name suggests, he is the star who does not stay-like that other man upon the stair, the man who wasn’t there.

与此同时，阿斯泰尔这位非凡的男人仍继续躲避着每个人。在人们的想象中，他似乎自始至终都会出现在高贵的跳舞场的楼梯旁（好莱坞的音乐剧中经常出现），并在那里欢快起舞，观众们也总是希望他能够多表演一会儿。但正如他的名字所意味的那样，他不是一位会长久表演的明星，–就像楼梯上的另一个男人，那个根本不在那里的男人。

译者：jerrywhitt  编辑：zhs2046 http://www.ecocn.org/bbs/viewthread.php?tid=16070&extra=page%3D1