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Life in a Violin case 音乐人生

The turning point of my life was my decision to give up a promising business career and study music. My parents, although sympathetic, and sharing my love of music, disapproved of it as a profession.

放弃我前途无量的生意而去学习音乐，是我人生的转折点。我的父母尽管很理解我对音乐的热爱，但却不认为它是一门好营生。This was understandable in view of my family background. My grandfather had taught music for nearly forty years at Springhill College in Mobile and, though much beloved and respected in the community, earned barely enough to provide for his large family.

在我的家庭背景下，会有这种观点毫不奇怪。我的祖父在在莫比尔市的斯普林希尔学院教授了近四十年的音乐，虽然他深深赢得了当地人民的尊敬和爱戴，但挣的钱却只能艰难的支撑起他的大家庭。

My father often said it was only the hardheaded thriftiness of my grandmother that kept the wolf at bay. As a consequence of this example in the family, the very mention of music as profession carried with it a picture of a precarious existence with uncertain financial rewards.

我父亲常说，也就是像我祖母这样克勤克俭，才能勉强养活这么一大家子。因为家里有了这么个榜样， 每次提到有人要从事音乐的时候，浮现在大伙眼前的就是一幅陷入没有稳定收入的悲惨境地的影像。My parents insisted upon college instead of a conservatory of music, and to college I went—quite happily, as I remember, for although I loved my violin and spent most of my spare time practicing, I had many other interests.

所以我的父母坚持不让我去音乐学院而要把我送到大学去。不过幸运的是在我记忆中，大学那几年，我不仅和心爱的小提琴共度了许多闲暇时光，还培养起了许多其他兴趣。

Before my graduation from Columbia, the family met with severe financial reverses and I felt it my duty to leave college and take a job. Thus was I launched upon a business career—which I always think of as the wasted years.。

从哥伦比亚大学毕业前，我的家庭接连蒙受了好几次的经济危机，我意识到离开学校去找一份工作是我的责任。因此我踏上了我自认为使我浪费了许多年光阴的商场，

Now I do not for a moment mean to disparage business. My whole point is that it was not for me. I went into it for money, and aside from the satisfaction of being able to help the family, money is all I got out of it. It was not enough, I felt that life was passing me by.

在这里我不是想说经商不好，我只是想说自己并不是为经商而生的，我只是为了赚钱而已，除了能够帮助家人而带给我的满足感之外，我所得到的也就是钱罢了。

From being merely discontented I became acutely miserable. My one ambition was to save enough to quit and go to Europe to study music.

积聚的不满逐渐变成了难以忍受的痛苦，我唯一的愿望就是放下生意去欧洲学习音乐。 I used to get up at dawn to practice before I left for “downtown,” distracting my poor mother by bolting a hasty breakfast at the last minute. Instead of lunching with my business associates, I would

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seek out some cheap café, order a meager meal and scribble my harmony enough to enable me to go abroad.

我过去常常在天未亮的时候就起来以能够赶在去市中心前练会小提琴，然后在最后一分钟到可怜的妈妈跟前急急忙忙的囫囵吞下她准备的早餐。中午的我不是同事们一起吃，而是找廉价的咖啡馆，点个简餐，随便编几个和弦，想尽办法积聚去国外学习音乐的资本。

The family being once more solvent, and my help no longer necessary, I resigned from my position and, feeling like a man released from jail, sailed for Europe. I stayed four years, worked harder than I had ever dreamed of working before and enjoyed every minute of it.

这个家已经有足够钱应付生活，我的帮助不在那么必要，于是毅然辞了职，搭上了前往欧洲的航班，那感觉真好像刚从牢里放出来一般。我在欧洲待了整整四年，我以另人难以想象的刻苦来学习，并享受那里的每一分钟。

“Enjoyed” is too mild a word. I walked on air. I really lived. I was a free man and I was doing what I loved to do and what I was meant to do.

惬意这个词远不能形容我当时的快乐，我感觉自己好像飘到了天上，我的灵魂彻底苏醒了。我成了一个能自由自在的做自己喜欢的事的人, 做自己命中注定之事的人。

If I had stayed in business I might be a comparatively wealthy man today, but I do not believe I would have made a success of living. I would have given up all those intangibles, those inner

satisfactions that money can never buy, and that are too often sacrificed when a man’s primary goal is financial success.

我不甘心自己只是为了活着而活着。如果我还继续经商，今天也许我已经成为了一个大富翁，但我放弃的将是那些永远不能被金钱所买到的，那些无形财富，那些内心的满足。如果一个人活着只是为了赚钱的话，那真是太可怕了。

Money is a wonderful thing, but it is possible to pay too high a price for it. 金钱是美好的，但是也许它并不值得让我们为它付出这么多。

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