莱昂纳德·科恩: 忧郁教父

2017-04-10ByAnnPowers

英语学习 2017年3期

By+Ann+Powers

Popular music， like every creative form， has produced iconoclasts and idols， whose charisma intersects with the historical moment to carry them into a singular space of greatness.1 Leonard Cohen was not that kind of star. He was the other kind， arguably more necessary： the companionable genius， compelled by the need to track the muse through the hallways of the everyday， to understand how profane existence can be shot through with profundity.2 In 1966， Cohen， who died lately at 82， told his friend and frequent interlocutor Adrienne Clarkson that poetry was in some ways analogous to polishing shoes.3 She questioned this remark. He replied， “If you want people to have shiny shoes， you want to write those very good kinds of instructions.”

The Montreal-born Cohen was 32 then， a published poet whod recently finished the proto-postmodern novel Beautiful Losers and was contemplating a career as a country musician.4 （Hed played guitar in a trio5 called the Buckskin Boys as a McGill University student.） According to his biographer Sylvie Simmons， Cohens first goal was to write songs worthy of diner jukeboxes， and though he became known as the most bookish of songwriters， he always maintained that vernacular impulse.6 Early songs like “Suzanne” and “Dress Rehearsal Rag” mix religious imagery with lines about shopping at the Salvation Army and the way a face full of shaving cream can make a man look like Santa Claus.7 His earthiness allowed him to leave fingerprints as he grasped the sacred8—to make that grasp feel truly close and real. Half a century and 14 studio albums later， Cohen was still approaching lifes greatest mysteries with incomparable ease. You Want it Darker， the final work released just weeks before his death， is a deeply lucid conversation with the self that might be divine but is surely mortal.9 “I guess Im just somebody who has given up on the me and you，” he intones in “Traveling Light”； its a line， like so many of his， that could be from a honky-tonk heartbreaker or a Buddhist meditation on the nature of nonduality.10

Cohen famously studied Buddhism for much of his long life； he was equally steeped in the Jewish heritage that was his birthright， and the Catholic imagery that surrounded him in Montreal and which formed the basis for many of his most lyrical songs，11 from “Sisters of Mercy” to “Joan of Arc.” He loved the oldest stories， the ones he borrowed from world mythology and the Bible， but retold them in the rhythms of the Beat12， of jazz standards and blue comedy. His lifelong dialogue with Bob Dylan was marked by good-natured rivalry； in a 1969 poem fragment he wrote， “To those few high school girls/who preferred my work to Dylans/I leave my stone ear/and my disposable Franciscan13 ambitions.” But instead of emulating Dylans obstinate mysteriousness， Cohen wrote in a way that made his allusions and metaphysical insights accessible.14 His songs were like constantly unfolding commentaries upon themselves—profoundly Jewish commentaries on the act of reading and writing as a way of navigating the world.Reimagining pagan myths and the lives of the saints， talking back to his songwriter peers and his Zen teachers， Cohen wrote a holy book across the lines of hundreds of songs， some of which took him years to write， all of which felt like they arose in Talmudic discussions held over red wine and cigarettes.15

Cohen was never a rock and roll satyr or a pop dreamboat； his appeal lay in the aura of experience and sophistication that came， in part， because he was a writer before he was a pop troubadour.16 Yet as he grew older and kept making albums that attracted new generations of fans， Cohen did become a physical marvel， too. His lachrymose baritone was a voice otherwise unheard in the rock era，17 and working with producers like Sharon Robinson， Patrick Leonard， and finally his own son Adam， he learned to enhance it using electronics and other production techniques. As a live performer， he conquered early stage fright to become remarkably generous， assembling stellar bands that enabled him to deliver meanderingly cathartic sets that were like nothing else at the time.18 After financial troubles led him back to the stage in his 70s， Cohen would perform for hours， dropping to his knees repeatedly as if to offer himself as either a sacrifice or a channel—a mortal man resurrected within his own lifetime， showing that real human transcendence remains grounded in the body， in the joints that can still bend to genuflect.19

His insistence on making profundity palpable allowed Cohen to write what has come to be known as one of the greatest secular hymns of the late 20th century.20“Hallelujah” may not be the song that ardent fans consider Cohens best， although it does boast a melody thats now nearly as indelible in the contemporary American consciousness as “Amazing Grace”.21 And since Jeff Buckleys definitive 1994 recording pushed it into newstandard territory， the song has definitely become one of pops most carelessly over-covered numbers， with singers leaning into its churchy elements while missing the point of its lines about catastrophic love and psychic22 brokenness. Yet “Hallelujah” does show what made Leonard Cohen so great—not the sweep of its arching choruses but the grime on the floor of its verses， the lines about being tied to a kitchen chair and realizing love isnt victory， but defeat， and the way that Cohen places one of his favorite words， “broken”， right next to the one he borrowed from some old hymnal.23 There it is： the spit that produces the polish.24 It comes from the same mouth that offers a kiss and a prayer. More than anyone， Leonard Cohen helped us know that.

流行音樂与其他类型的创作一样盛产叛逆者和偶像，超凡的个人魅力碰上恰到好处的历史时机，便能造就伟大。但莱昂纳德·科恩并非这类明星，他属于另一种类型——也许是人们更加需要的：亲切友好的天才，创作的灵感来自日常生活中的点点滴滴，他深知凡人世俗生活中蕴含深奥大义。科恩不久之前去世，享年82岁。1966年，他告诉他的朋友兼采访者阿德里安·克拉克森说，从某些方面来说，诗歌和擦皮鞋道理相通。她质疑了这一说法，他回答说：“如果你想让人们穿上光亮的皮鞋，那么你得写出详尽的擦鞋指南。”

出生于蒙特利尔的科恩其时才32岁，已是一位有出版作品的诗人，刚刚出版了加拿大最早的后现代小说《美丽的失败者》，考虑着把乡村音乐作为自己的事业。（他在麦吉尔大学读书时，在一个名叫Buckskin Boys的三人乐队里担任吉他手。）根据他的传记作者西尔维·西蒙斯所述，科恩的首要目标是写出适合酒吧点唱机的歌曲，尽管他是众所周知的最具书卷气的歌曲作家，但他总保持着简朴直白的创作风格。早期的歌曲比如《苏珊》和《彩排的破布》把宗教意象糅进讲述世俗事件的歌词里，比如在“救世军”慈善二手店里购物，或是涂满剃须泡沫的脸看起来就像圣诞老人。他在写到神的歌曲里，这种接地气的特色十分突出，这种特色让神变得亲近而又真实。经过半个世纪，推出了14张专辑之后，他依然坚持用最浅显易懂的方式去探讨生命的终极问题。他最后的作品是《你渴望更黑暗》，就在他去世的前几周刚刚发布，这是一场与自己的极为直白的对话，既神圣又世俗。“我想我是一个放弃了你和我的人。”他在《轻装前行》中吟唱道。这句歌词和他很多其他歌词一样，可能出自一个伤心失意的在廉价酒吧里买醉的人，也可能出自一个正在冥想不二论本质的佛教徒。

众所周知，科恩漫长一生中的大部分时间都在研习佛学；同时，由于出生背景，他继承了犹太文化；而在他生活的蒙特利尔地区，周围都是天主教的建筑——这些形成了他大部分浪漫抒情歌曲的基础，比如《仁慈姐妹》和《圣女贞德》。他喜欢那些从世界各地的神话和《圣经》中借用的最古老的故事，但用Beat、爵士标准曲和蓝调喜剧的节奏将之进行复述。他一生与鲍勃·迪伦保持着一种亦敌亦友的竞争关系。在1969年的一个诗歌片段中，他写道：“对于寥寥数位比起鲍勃·迪伦/更喜欢我的作品的高中女生/我献出我的耳石/以及我随时可用的方济各野心。”他并不模仿迪伦一贯的神秘风格，科恩用易于理解的方式引经据典和表达深奥抽象的观点。他的歌曲就像层层打开的自我剖析——这也许源于犹太人把阅读和写作看作探索世界的方式。通过想象异教神话和圣徒的生活，以及与同行作曲家和禅宗老师对话，他把整本圣书写进成百上千首歌的歌词中，其中有些歌曲他花了数年时间才完成。他的所有歌曲都像是来自伴随着红酒和香烟的关于犹太法典的讨论。

科恩从来不是摇滚高手或流行乐星，他的吸引力在于其丰富经验和世故老道，部分原因是他在成为一名流行民谣歌手之前是一名作家。然而随着年龄渐长，他创作出的专辑依旧能够吸引一代又一代的粉丝，其本身已成为一个奇迹。他的嗓音深沉而又催人泪下，在这个盛行摇滚的年代并不多见，通过与其他音乐制作人如莎伦·罗宾逊、帕特里克·伦纳德以及最后他儿子亚当一起合作，他学会了利用电子手段和其他制作技术将其声音进行强化。作为一名现场表演歌手，他克服了早期的怯场而在台上挥洒自如，组建了杰出的乐队，使他得以唱出绵延的深情，这种唱法在当时颇为与众不同。七十多岁的他由于经济问题重回舞台，他可以连续歌唱数小时不间断，不时双膝跪地，就像是祭祀仪式上的祭品或通神的灵媒——一个有血有肉之人在有生之年重回巅峰，向人们展示真正的自我超越是基于身体本身，基于那对还能灵活弯曲跪地的膝盖。

他坚持用浅显的语言去讲述深奥大义，从而写出20世纪末最伟大的世俗圣歌之一。尽管《哈利路亚》是一首现代美国人脑海里抹不掉的《奇异恩典》般的曲调，但科恩的狂热粉丝们也许认为这首歌不是他最好的作品。自从杰夫·巴克利在1994年录制的唱片把这首歌推向新标准领域，它在不知不觉中已成为听众最多的流行歌曲之一。哼唱它的人取其宗教因素，却未曾注意到歌词中关于毁灭性的爱和灵魂破碎的含义。然而《哈利路亚》确实体现了科恩的伟大之处，他的伟大不在于那众人皆耳熟能详的曲调，而是歌词里蕴含的微言大义——比如歌词中描述一个人被捆在厨房的椅子上，意识到爱不是胜利，而是被打败；以及他把自己最喜欢的一个词“心碎”与他从某些古老的赞美诗中借来的词（指Hallelujah）放在一起。换言之，吐出口水才能擦亮皮鞋——这句话出自亲吻和祷告的同一人之口。除了莱昂纳德·科恩，没有人让我们更明白这一点。

1. iconoclast：攻击传统观念的人；charisma：超凡的个人魅力；intersect with：与……交叉。

2. companionable：友好的，友善的；compel：強迫，迫使；muse：女神缪斯，喻指灵感；profane：世俗的，尘世的；profundity：深奥，深刻。

3. interlocutor：对话者；analogous：相似的，可比拟的。

4. proto-postmodern：前缀proto- 用于构成形容词和名词，表示“最初的”，postmodern意为“后现代的”；contemplate：深思熟虑。

5. trio：三人组合，（尤指）三重唱。

6. biographer：传记作者；jukebox：（酒吧等处的投币式）自动点唱机；bookish：书呆子气的；vernacular：白话的，通俗语的。

7. imagery：形象，意象；line：歌词，台词；the Salvation Army：这里指的是美国一家名叫“救世军”的慈善二手商店；Santa Claus：圣诞老人。

8. earthiness：朴实，直率；the sacred：神圣。

9. lucid：清楚明白的；divine：神圣的，天赐的；mortal：凡人的。

10. intone：吟诵，吟咏；honky-tonk：嘈杂的低级酒吧；Buddhist：佛教的，佛教徒的；non-duality：不二论，最早出现于印度最古老的吠檀多哲学流派，主张最高我和个我在本质上同一不二。该思想在佛教大乘的经典中也有多次探讨。

11. be steeped in：沉浸于；lyrical：抒情诗般的，浪漫的。

12. Beat：一种音乐形式。