Music is medicine, music is sanity 音乐是良药，音乐令人心智健全Robert Gupta
One day, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a violin that only had two strings.
有一天， 洛杉矶时报的专栏作家 Steve Lopez走在洛杉矶 大街上 听到一曲美妙的乐曲 音乐是从一个男人 一个非裔男人 一个颇有魅力， 粗旷的流浪汉 用一把只剩下两根弦的小提琴在演奏
And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was turned into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr. acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the Juilliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid schizophrenia. Nathaniel dropped out of Juilliard, he suffered a complete breakdown, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book or to watch the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped shape that bond, and ultimately was instrumental -- if you'll pardon the pun -- in helping Nathaniel get off the streets.
我现在要讲的这个故事你们很多人已经知道了 因为Steve的专栏后来成了一本 书的基础，然后又被拍成电影 其中Robert Downey Jr 扮演Steve Lopez Jamie Foxx扮演了Nathaniel Anthony Ayer 他原本是茱莉亚音乐学院培训的双重贝斯手 不料他的职业生涯 却因为患上偏执型精神分裂症而不幸中断 Nathaniel从茱莉亚音乐学院辍学，他完全崩溃了 30年后的他流落在 洛杉矶 Skid Row 大街上无家可归 我鼓励大家都去看看Steve的书， 或者看看电影 不光是去理解这两个男人之间 建立的美好的纽带 而且也看看音乐是如果帮助建立这种纽带的 而那是最终改变Nathaniel流浪 生活的最有用的工具
I met Mr. Ayers in 2008, two years ago, at Walt Disney Concert Hall. He had just heard a performance of Beethoven's First and Fourth symphonies, and came backstage and introduced himself. He was speaking in a very jovial and gregarious way about Yo-Yo Ma and Hillary Clinton and how the Dodgers were never going to make the World Series, all because of the treacherous first violin passage work in the last movement of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. And we got talking about music, and I got an email from Steve a few days later saying that Nathaniel was interested in a violin lesson with me.
我和Ayers 先生在2008年相见 那是两年前在迪斯尼音乐厅 他才听了贝多芬第一，第四交响乐 到后天来自我介绍 他说话很愉快，很合群 提到了马友友和希拉里.克林顿 道奇队不可能进入世界联赛 而这都是因为最后一刻贝多芬第四交响乐中 开始的那段变幻莫测的小提琴演奏起的作用 我们谈了一会儿音乐。 几天后我收到Steve的来信 告诉我Nathaniel有兴趣跟我说学小提琴
Now, I should mention that Nathaniel refuses treatment because when he was treated it was with shock therapy and Thorazine and handcuffs, and that scar has stayed with him for his entire life. But as a result now, he is prone to these schizophrenic episodes, the worst of which can manifest themselves as him exploding and then disappearing for days, wandering the streets of Skid Row, exposed to its horrors, with the torment of his own mind unleashed upon him.
我应该提一下的是Nathaniel拒绝治疗 因为当初他接受的是电击疗法 用的是镇静剂和手铐 那些伤疤从此留在了他的生活中 结果呢， 他的 精神分裂症现在变得更容易发作 最糟糕的表现是 他发作后 会消失几天 在Skid Row大街上流浪 暴露着内心的恐惧，让心灵的煎熬 在身上释放
And Nathaniel was in such a state of agitation when we started our first lesson at Walt Disney Concert Hall -- he had a kind of manic glint in his eyes, he was lost. And he was talking about invisible demons and smoke, and how someone was poisoning him in his sleep.
Nathaniel当初就是处在这样的一种状态下 我们在迪斯尼音乐厅开始了第一课的时候 他的目光中夹杂着狂躁 他是一个迷失了方向的人 他提到了 无形的恶魔和烟雾 有人怎样在他睡觉时给他下毒
And I was afraid, not for myself, but I was afraid that I was going to lose him, that he was going to sink into one of his states, and that I would ruin his relationship with the violin if I started talking about scales and arpeggios and other exciting forms of didactic violin pedagogy. (Laughter) So, I just started playing. And I played the first movement of the Beethoven Violin Concerto.
我感到很害怕 不是为我自己的安全担心， 而是害怕 我会失去他 他又会沉浸到他的某一种他的状态中 而我会毁了他和小提琴建立起来的关系 如果我开始讲音阶 和琶音和其他形式的精彩 的说教式的小提琴教学法 (笑声) 于是， 我开始拉琴 我演奏了贝多芬小提琴协奏曲的第一乐章
And as I played, I understood that there was a profound change occurring in Nathaniel's eyes. It was as if he was in the grip of some invisible pharmaceutical, a chemical reaction, for which my playing the music was its catalyst. And Nathaniel's manic rage was transformed into understanding, a quiet curiosity and grace. And in a miracle, he lifted his own violin and he started playing, by ear, certain snippets of violin concertos which he then asked me to complete -- Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius. And we started talking about music, from Bach to Beethoven and Brahms, Bruckner, all the B's, from Bartók, all the way up to Esa-Pekka Salonen.
当我演奏的时候 我知道Nathaniel的眼睛里有一种 奥妙的变化 好象他抓住了什么隐形的药 象是经历了化学反应，而我的演奏 就是催化剂 他的狂躁愤怒 也转化成理解 安静的好奇， 和优雅 神奇的是，他拿起了他的小提琴 他也跟着开始演奏 小提琴协奏曲的某些片断 然后他又要我来完成，门德尔松 柴可夫斯基，西贝柳斯 于是我们开始谈论音乐：从巴赫 到贝多芬，布拉姆斯 布鲁克纳， 所有名字以B打头的人 从巴托克一直到艾沙·佩卡·萨洛宁
And I understood that he not only had an encyclopedic knowledge of music, but he related to this music at a personal level. He spoke about it with the kind of passion and understanding that I share with my colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And through playing music and talking about music, this man had transformed from the paranoid, disturbed man that had just come from walking the streets of downtown Los Angeles to the charming, erudite, brilliant, Juilliard-trained musician.
我了解到他不但 是一本音乐大百科全书 而且他能将这些音乐跟他个人的感受联系起来 他讲到那些东西时充满了激情和对音乐 深刻的理解，仿佛是我跟我在洛杉矶 交响乐团的同事们之间交流时一样 通过演奏音乐， 谈论音乐 这个人从一个 偏执，不安的 刚才还在洛杉矶 大街上晃悠的流浪汉 变成了一个迷人，博学 优秀的受过朱丽亚音乐学院教育的音乐家
Music is medicine. Music changes us. And for Nathaniel, music is sanity. Because music allows him to take his thoughts and delusions and shape them through his imagination and his creativity, into reality. And that is an escape from his tormented state. And I understood that this was the very essence of art. This was the very reason why we made music, that we take something that exists within all of us at our very fundamental core, our emotions, and through our artistic lens, through our creativity, we're able to shape those emotions into reality. And the reality of that expression reaches all of us and moves us, inspires and unites us.
音乐是良药。音乐改变着我们 对nathaniel来说， 音乐是帮助他开启心智 因为音乐可以帮他将他的思维 妄想，转换成形 通过他的想象力和创造力 变成现实 而正是这个帮助他从煎熬 中解脱出来 而我知道这就是艺术的真髓 这正是我们创造音乐的原因 我们用我们每个人都拥有的一种内在 我们的最根本的核心 我们的感情 通过我们的艺术的镜头 通过我们的创造力，将我们的情感塑造成现实 而这种现实的表达 传递给我们所有的人 感动我们， 启迪我们，团结我们
And for Nathaniel, music brought him back into a fold of friends. The redemptive power of music brought him back into a family of musicians that understood him, that recognized his talents and respected him. And I will always make music with Nathaniel, whether we're at Walt Disney Concert Hall or on Skid Row, because he reminds me why I became a musician. Thank you. (Applause)
而对Nathaniel 音乐把他带回到一群朋友中 音乐的挽救力将他 带回到音乐的大家庭 这里人们理解他 承认他的天赋 尊重他 而我会永远为他创造音乐 无论是在迪斯尼的音乐厅 或者Skid Row的大街上， 因为他提示着我 为什么我要做音乐家 谢谢 (鼓掌)
Bruno Giussani: Thank you. Thanks. Robert Gupta. (Applause)
Bruno Giussani:谢谢，谢谢 Robert Gupta. (鼓掌 )
Robert Gupta: I'm going to play something that I shamelessly stole from cellists. So, please forgive me.
Robert Gupta：现在我给大家演奏一段我厚颜从大提琴手那里窃来的曲子 所以请原谅我
(Laughter) (Music) (Applause)
(笑声) (音乐) (鼓掌)
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