On Mahalaya, Radio Is an Unchanging Tradition

⊙By Rhitu Chatterjee翻译：思苇

听力难度美式发音 适合泛读语速：150词/分钟

在很多地方，传统是节日不可割舍的一部分，比如印度人在九夜节（Navaratri）的前一天就有一个必不可少的习俗：收听一档历经80年风风雨雨、原汁原味从未改变的神话广播剧。

1） Hindu ['hɪnduː] adj. 印度（教）的

2） Durga 杜尔迦，又名难近母，印度教神话中的主要女神之一，骁勇尚武，是广受当地人民崇拜的降魔女神。为庆祝杜尔迦回家与亲人团聚而举办的九夜节持续九天，是印度下半年最重要的宗教节日之一。

3） drift [drɪft] v. 自然而缓慢地转变

4） chant [tʃaːnt] n. 圣歌，赞美诗

5） devotional [dɪ'vəʊʃənəl]adj. 虔诚的，用于祈祷的

6） rendition [ren'dɪʃ（ə）n] n.表演，演唱

7） evolve [ɪ'vɒlv] v. 发展，进化

8） churn [tʃɜːn] n. 剧烈的搅动

I’m not a morning person, but yesterday I made sure I woke up early. I got up shortly after 5:00, just in time to catch the last part of a program on All India Radio. This program is broadcast on this particular day every year.

Yesterday was a special day for me and many Indians from the State of West Bengal. We Bengalis call this day “Mahalaya.” It marks the beginning of the1）Hindufestival season celebrating of the homecoming of the goddess2）Durga.

When I was growing up, my father would be the first to rise on Mahalaya Day. He’d switch on the radio at 4 a.m., wake the rest of us and then climb back into bed. We’d lie in our beds,3）driftingin and out of sleep, listening to the4）chantsand5）devotionalsongs.

As I lay in bed yesterday listening to the radio, it struck me that this was the exact same program from my childhood, not a new6）renditionof the old musical. I couldn’t believe this. Not that people have done away with traditions. Far from it. But traditions have7）evolvedto keep up with our faster-paced lives. So why hadn’t someone come up with a new version of this classic? How is it that it had survived for decades?

When I turned to the Internet for answers, I was even more surprised with what I found. The program was broadcast live for the first time in the 1930s. In 1976, All India Radio created a new version with a well-known actor as the narrator. The audience hated it and demanded that the radio stations return to the older version, and since then, no one has changed the program.

I’m happy to know that, in a country of constant8）churnand change, a single radio play has survived for more than eight decades, and that it continues to be part of the Mahalaya experience of kids today, holding as much meaning as it did for generations of Bengalis. And that is the best beginning I could have asked for this festival season.

Not that people have done away with traditions.

Do away with是一个口语表达，多用于非正式场合，当它后面跟的是sth.时，表达的是“摆脱某事物，废除某事物”的意思；而当后面引出的是sb.时，这个词组的意思是“杀死某人，干掉某人”，如：

● The death penalty has been done away with in many European countries. （许多欧洲国家已经废除了死刑。）

● The doctor was afraid that Betty would do away

with herself.（医生很担心贝蒂会自杀。）

参考译文

我并不是个习惯早起的人，但是昨天我下定了决心，一定要早早起床。五点刚过，我就爬起来了，刚好赶上了全印广播电台那档音乐剧的最后一部分——在每年的这一天，电台都会播放这个节目。

对我和许多住在西孟加拉邦的印度人来说，昨天是一个非常特别的日子。我们孟加拉人将这天称为“马哈拉雅”。它标志着这个庆祝女神杜尔迦归来的印度节日的开始。

在我小时候，到了马哈拉雅这一天，父亲总是全家第一个起床的。他会在凌晨四点拧开收音机，把我们全部人都弄醒，然后爬回床上继续睡觉。我们就这样躺在床上，在半梦半醒间聆听着那一首首圣歌和祈祷诗。

昨天早上，我躺在床上听着电台的节目，突然意识到这完全就是我在童年听过的那个音乐剧，而不是什么老作品的全新演绎版本。我简直不敢相信。这里的人们倒没有抛弃传统——完全没有，但是印度的传统风俗也在不断改变，以适应我们现在这个节奏更快的生活。那为什么没人给这部经典作品制作一个新版本呢？它怎么能历经几十年而不变呢？

我上网寻找答案，找到的结果让我更加吃惊。这档节目在20世纪30年代首次直播。1976年，全印广播电台制作了一个全新的版本，还请了一位著名演员来讲故事。岂料听众们根本不买账，强烈要求电台换回旧版本，从那以后，再也没有人对这档节目进行改动了。

印度这个国家不断发生着翻天覆地的变化，我很高兴看到有一档广播剧能在这里持续播出八十多年，而且时至今天，它依然是孩子们在马哈拉雅这天的节日活动之一，依然蕴含着能影响几代孟加拉人的巨大文化意义。我想不出还有比这更好的节日开端了。