2002年,一部电影让人们把焦点再次聚集在一个天才文学家身上。电影《时时刻刻》以不同时空的三位女性生命中的一天为展开点,描绘了她们各自在作人生最重要抉择的一个时刻。其中一个就是Virginia Woolf,1923年,经过几年肆意张扬的伦敦沙龙生活后,她原有的敏感和脆弱加深到难以控制的地步,丈夫Leonard Woolf带她到伦敦郊区,希望用宁静来治愈她。可惜,丈夫浓浓的爱却没能赶走她心灵最深处的黑暗。本选段是描写她刚到郊区,极度不适应,希望冲出去。电影的开头和结尾也交待了她的命运—You can not find peace by avoiding life。—十几年后,带着对世界的失望和不愿拖累丈夫的念头,她直面软弱,直面死亡,在心灵的危机没有真正解决之前,不虚伪地生活,而是选择以自己的方式抗议。
值得一提的是,剧中Virginia Woolf的扮演者Nicole Kidman以此角色优异的演出获得了该年度奥斯卡最佳女主角奖。
发音：英式发音
语速：150词/分钟
使用方法：精听+复述
(Virginia Woolf's writing her last words, Richmond, London suburban, 1941)
(1941年,伦敦郊外利奇蒙德镇,弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫在写她的遗书。)
Virginia Woolf: “Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of these terrible times, and I...shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and can't concentrate. So, I am doing what seems to be the best thing to do…”
弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫:“最亲爱的,我确定我又再次变得疯狂了。我感觉我们这次没法再熬过一个这样可怕的时刻了,而我……这次不会康复了。我开始幻听,无法集中精力。所以,我正在做的是最好的出路……”
(Richmond, London suburban, 1923)
(1923年,伦敦郊外利奇蒙德镇)
Virginia: Oh, Mr. Woolf, what an unexpected pleasure.
弗吉尼亚:哦,伍尔夫先生,真是个意外的荣幸啊。
Leonard Woolf: Perhaps you could tell me exactly what you think you're doing?
伦纳德·伍尔夫:或许你能告诉我你以为你在干什么?
Virginia: What I was doing?
弗吉尼亚:我在干什么?
Leonard: I went to look for you, and you weren't there.
伦纳德:我到处去找你,找不到你。
Virginia: You were working in the garden. I didn't wish to disturb you.
弗吉尼亚:你在花园干活,我不想打搅你。
Leonard: You disturb me when you disappear.
伦纳德:你失踪了才叫打搅我。
Virginia: I didn't disappear. I went for a walk.
弗吉尼亚:我没有失踪,我出来散步。
Leonard: A walk?! Is that all? Just a walk? Virginia, we must go home now. Nelly's cooking dinner. She's already had a very difficult day. It's just our obligation to eat Nelly's dinner.
伦纳德:散步吗?!是吗?只是散步?弗吉尼亚,我们必须回家了。娜莉(一个很凶的家仆)在做晚饭,她今天已经够麻烦的了。我们有义务吃娜莉做的晚饭。
Virginia: There is no such obligation. No such obligation exists.
弗吉尼亚:没有这样的义务,没有这样的义务存在。
Leonard: Virginia, you have an obligation to your own 1)sanity.
伦纳德:弗吉尼亚,你有义务保持清醒。
Virginia: I have endured this 2)custody! I have endured this 3)imprisonment.
弗吉尼亚:我在忍受着这种禁锢!我在忍受着这样的牢笼。
Leonard: Oh, Virginia!
伦纳德:哦,弗吉尼亚!
Virginia: I am attended by doctors, everywhere. I am attended by doctors who inform me of my own interests!
弗吉尼亚:我受着医生的控制,不管到哪里我都受着医生的控制。我的兴趣还要他们来告诉我!
Leonard: They know your interests.
伦纳德:他们知道你的兴趣。
Virginia: They do not! They do not speak for my interests.
弗吉尼亚:他们不知道!他们不代表我的兴趣。
Leonard: Virginia, I can...I can see that it must be hard for a woman of your...
伦纳德:弗吉尼亚,我知道……我知道像你这样的女人会很困难的……
Virginia: Of what? Of my what, exactly?
弗吉尼亚:像什么?像我这样的什么?
Leonard: Uh, your...your talents to see that she may not be the best judge of her own condition!
伦纳德:呃,像你这样……你这样有天分的女人,发现自己无法判断自身的处境会很难!
Virginia: Who, then, is a better judge?
弗吉尼亚:那还有谁能更了解?
Leonard: ①You have a history! You have a history of 4)confinement. We brought you to Richmond because you have a history of fits, moods, blackouts, hearing voices. We brought you here to save you from the 5)irrevocable damage you intended upon yourself. You've tried to kill yourself twice! I live daily with that threat. I set up the press...we set up the printing press not just for itself, not just purely for itself, but so that you might have a ready source of 6)absorption and of remedy.
伦纳德:你有病史!你有禁闭的病史。我们带你来利奇蒙德是因为你有昏厥、喜怒无常、眩晕、幻听的病史。我们带你来这里是想挽救你,让你不对自己做出无法挽回的伤害。你两次想自杀!我每天都提心吊胆地活着。我建立了印书社……我们建立了印书社,不是……不完全就只是为了建立个印书社。但这样你就可以有个好的环境专心治疗。
Virginia: Like needlework?
弗吉尼亚:就像针线活这些(是为了我的健康)?
Leonard: It was done for you! It was done for your betterment! ②It was done out of love! If I didn't know you better, I'd call this 7)ingratitude.
伦纳德:这是为了你!这是为了你的康复!这全是出于爱!要不是我很了解你,我会认为你这样做是不领情。
Virginia: I am ungrateful? You call me ungrateful? ③My life has been stolen from me. I'm living in a town I have no wish to live in. I'm living...a life I have no wish to live. How did this happen? It is time for us to move back to London. I miss London. I miss London life.
弗吉尼亚:我不领情?你说我不领情?我的生活被偷走了。住在一个我不愿意居住的小镇,我过着……我不愿意过的生活。怎么会这样?我们该搬回伦敦了,我想念伦敦,我想念伦敦的生活。
Leonard: This is not you speaking, Virginia. This is an aspect of your illness. It's not you.
伦纳德:这不是你的想法,弗吉尼亚。是你的病让你这样。这不是真正的你。
Virginia: It is me. It is my voice.
弗吉尼亚:这是我,这是我的想法。
Leonard: It's not your voice.
伦纳德:这不是你的心声。
Virginia: It's mine and mine alone.
弗吉尼亚:这是我的,我的想法。
Leonard: This is the voice that you hear.
伦纳德:这是你的幻听。
Virginia: It is not! It is mine! I'm dying in this town!
弗吉尼亚:不是幻听!是我的想法!我要死在这镇上了!
Leonard: If you were thinking clearly, Virginia, you'd recall it was London that brought you low.
伦纳德:如果你仔细想清楚,弗吉尼亚,你会想起,正是伦敦让你这样低沉的。
Virginia: If I were thinking clearly...if I were thinking clearly...
弗吉尼亚:如果我仔细想清楚……如果我仔细想清楚……
Leonard: We brought you to Richmond to give you peace.
伦纳德:我们带你来利奇蒙德,让你可以得到安宁。
Virginia: If I were thinking clearly, Leonard, I would tell you that I wrestle alone in the dark, in the deep dark, and that only I can know, only I can understand my own condition. You live with the threat...you tell me you live with the threat of my extinction. Leonard, I live with it, too. This is my right. It is the right of every human being. I choose not the 8)suffocating 9)anesthetic of the suburbs, but the violent 10)jolt of the capital. That is my choice. I wish, for your sake, Leonard, I could be happy in this quietness. But if it is a choice between Richmond and death, I choose death. You can not find peace by avoiding life, Leonard.
弗吉尼亚:如果我仔细想清楚,伦纳德,我会告诉你,我一个人呆在黑暗中,深深的黑暗中,只有我才知道,只有我才能明白我的情况。你提心吊胆地活着……你告诉我你在对我的突然消失提心吊胆。伦纳德,我也有这样的担心。(但)这是我的权利,每个人都有的权利。我选择不封闭在这个小镇的宁静祥和里,宁愿面对大都市的动荡,这是我的选择。我多希望,看在你的份上,伦纳德,我能在这份宁静中找到快乐啊。可如果让我在利奇蒙德和死亡之间选择,我选择死亡。伦纳德,你不能够用逃避生活来寻找安宁的。
(Virginia killed herself in 1941.)
(1941年,弗吉尼亚投湖自尽了。)
Virginia's last words: “…Dear Leonard, to look life in the face, always to look life in the face, and to know it for what it is. At last, to know it, to love it for what it is, and then to put it away. Leonard, always the years between us, always the years, always the love, always the hours.”
弗吉尼亚的遗书:“……亲爱的伦纳德,要直面人生,永远直面人生,去了解它的真谛,最终了解它,爱它的本质,然后,把它抛在一边。伦纳德,愿我们共度的岁月能长久,愿岁月能长久,愿爱能长久,愿那些时刻能够长久。”
Smart Sentences
① You have a history! 你有病史(前科)!
you have a history: used to indicate what's being discussed is nothing new and the past should be taken into consideration, usu. in negative term(你有不良历史;你有前科)。例如:
Why should I trust you? You have a history. You've lost ten of my favorite CDs.
我为什么要相信你?你可是有不良记录的,你弄丢了十张我喜爱的CD。
② It was done out of love! 这全是出于爱!
do sth. out of (a reason): sth. is done because of a feeling or a reason(由于,出于)。例如:
I gave her the money out of pity, not guilt.
我是因为可怜她才给她钱,不是因为内疚。
③ My life has been stolen from me. 我的生活被偷走了。
my life has been stolen from me: my life is not in my control(我的生活由别人操纵)。
例如:
Since I started boarding school, my life has been stolen from me.
自从我上寄宿学校开始,我的生活就都掌控在别人的手里了。
文化小链接:
Virginia Woolf and The Bloomsbury Group
弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫和布鲁姆斯伯里派
Virginia Woolf(1882-1941),英国女作家,被誉为二十世纪现代主义与女性主义的先锋。两次世界大战期间,她是伦敦文学界的核心人物,同时也是布鲁姆斯伯里派的成员之一。最知名的小说包括《奥兰多》(Orlando)、《戴洛维夫人》(Mrs. Dalloway)、《灯塔行》(To the Lighthouse)、《雅各的房间》(Jacob's Room)等。
20世纪初期,伦敦的布鲁姆斯伯里城区汇集了一群充满智性的年轻人——弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫、克莱夫·贝尔、罗杰·弗莱、E·M·福斯特、梅纳德·凯恩斯……他们聚谈终夜,彼此欣赏,珍视理性碰撞的火焰,信奉宽容和怀疑精神,蔑视“维多利亚英国”的审美情趣和道德习俗。他们的交往圈松散而富有个性,备受攻击也极享尊崇,在五花八门的定义下,在褒贬不一的评论中,为英国现代文化史留下了精彩的一笔。而他们聚集的中心就是Virginia Woolf和Vanessa Bell两姐妹的家。“The Bloomsbury”现在已经成为一种恃才傲物和摒弃传统生活方式的代名词。