人是很奇怪的動(dòng)物,當(dāng)你聽到別人說(shuō)“我很快樂”,你的腦袋中也許會(huì)閃出上百個(gè)帶懷疑的問題,“你有沒有想過就業(yè)壓力?”,“你有沒有試過做好一切出門的準(zhǔn)備卻被告知約會(huì)取消?”……當(dāng)你為這個(gè)社會(huì)的諸多問題而煩悶,為他人或自己的愚笨而氣惱時(shí),停一停,給自己一個(gè)喘息的空間,承認(rèn)你我和這世界的不完美,并學(xué)著融入這種不完美的生活中,創(chuàng)造奇跡。
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Star Over Broadway百老匯之星
奧斯卡·漢默斯坦二世 (Oscar Hammerstein II, 1895–1960),著名的音樂劇劇作家、歌詞作家。在他那首揚(yáng)名世界的作品《老人河》(Ol’ Man River)中,漢默斯坦把密西西比河比作一個(gè)老人,世間的不平與不幸,仿佛都已與他無(wú)關(guān),他只顧緩緩地、頭也不回地向著大海流去。被譽(yù)為音樂劇里程碑的《俄克拉荷馬!》(Oklahoma!, 1943)和他之前的另一代表作《演出船》(Show Boat, 1927),同樣充分反映了美國(guó)本土生活和文化,對(duì)美國(guó)戲劇產(chǎn)生了不可估量的影響。漢默斯坦打破了傳統(tǒng)音樂劇以喜劇或“美腿”開場(chǎng)的僵硬模式,主張不要受任何模式的限制去探討最直接的,也是最佳的講述戲劇故事的方式,是一位承前啟后的音樂人。其后的《南太平洋》(South Pacific, 1949),《國(guó)王與我》(The King and I, 1951)和《音樂之聲》(The Sound of Music, 1959),讓漢默斯坦和他的最佳搭檔作曲家理查德·羅杰斯(Richard Rodgers)享譽(yù)全球。
I have an unusual 1)statement to make. I am a man who believes he is happy. What makes it unusual is that a man who is happy seldom tells anyone. The unhappy man is more communicative. He is eager to recite what is wrong with the world and he seems to have a talent for gathering a large audience. It is a modern tragedy that despair has so many spokesmen, and hope so few. I believe, therefore, that it is important for a man to announce that he is happy, even though such an announcement is less dramatic and less entertaining than the cries of his 2)pessimistic opposite.
Why do I believe I am happy? Death has deprived me of many whom I loved, 3)dismal failure has followed many of my most earnest efforts, people have disappointed me, I’ve disappointed them, I’ve disappointed myself.
From all this evidence, could I not build up a strong case to prove why I am not happy at all? I could, but it would be a 1 picture; as 1 as if I were to describe a tree only as it looks in winter. I would be leaving out a list of people I love who have not died. I would be leaving out an acknowledgement of the many successes that have 4)sprouted among my many failures. I would be leaving out the blessing of good health, the joy of walking in the sunshine. ①All these things are as much a part of my world as the darker worries that shade them.
The conflict of good and bad merges in thick 5)entanglement. You cannot isolate virtue and beauty and success and laughter and keep them all from contact with wickedness and ugliness and failure and weeping. The man who strives for such isolated joy is riding for a fall; he will wind up in isolated 6)gloom. ②I don’t believe anyone can enjoy living in this world unless he can accept its imperfection. He must know and admit that he is imperfect, that all other 7)mortals are imperfect, that ③it is childish to allow these imperfections to destroy all his hope and all his desire to live.
Nature is older than man and she is still far from perfect. Her summers do not always start promptly on June 21st, her 8)bugs and beetles and other insects often go beyond her obvious intentions, devouring the leaves and buds with which she has 9)adorned her countryside. After the land has remained too dry for too long, she sends relieving rains, but frequently they come in torrents so violent that they do more harm than good.
④Over the years, however, nature keeps going on in her imperfect way and the result, in spite of her many mistakes, is a continuing miracle. It will be 10)folly for an individual to seek to do better; to do better than go on in his own imperfect way, making his mistakes, 11)riding out the rough and 12)bewildering,exciting and beautiful storm of life until the day he dies.
我有一句不尋常的話要說(shuō)。我是一個(gè)相信自己很快樂的人。這話顯得不尋常的原因在于快樂的人很少告訴別人。不快樂的人則更樂于交流。他渴望講述世界的錯(cuò)誤,并且他似乎擁有聚集大批聽眾的天賦。絕望有如此多代言人,而希望的卻如此稀少,這是新時(shí)代的悲哀。