1. He enjoys the liberties hard won over centuries by the alliance of philosophic genius and political heroism, consecrated by the blood of martyrs (烈士) ; he is provided with comport and leisure by the most productive economy ever known to mankind; science has penetrated the secrets of nature in order to provide him with the marvellous, life like electronic sound and image reproductions he is enjoying. 2. Each highbrow did and does congratulate himself on being unique in his unlikeness to other men; and conversely each lowbrow now congratulate himself on being in some mystical way unique in his likeness—on being, so to say, outstandingly average and extraordinarily ordinary. 3. As for the lowbrows’ claim to be specially “human”, I for one have never been able to understand why it should be “inhuman” to use the faculties that distinguish us from pigs and geese and “human” to use those which we share with the lower animals. 4. There is no disputing, says the proverb, about taste—though, in fact, human beings spend at least half their leisure doing nothing else—and if highbrowism and lowbrowism were exclusively ( as it is certain that they are in great part) matters of individual taste, there would be no more to say about them than what I have said in the preceding lines. 5. Thus I desire a great deal less pleasure from jazz and thrillers than from the music, let us say, of Beethoven(贝多芬) or the novels, for example, of Dostoievsky; and the sex appeal of the girls on the covers of magazines seems to me less thrilling than the more complicated appeal to a great variety of feelings made by a Rubens, an EI Greco, a Constable, a Seurat. 6. One need only ask first-year university students what music they listen to , how much of it and what it means to them, in order to discover that the phenomenon is universal in America, that it begins in adolescence or a bit before and continues through the college years. 7. They start, like the pharisee in the parable , by thanking God that the are not as other men are, and proceed to paint a picture of those other men, hardly more flattering than that which Swift painted of the Yahoos. 8. Each time the dream was a promise out of our ancient articles of faith, phrases from the constitution, lines from the great anthem of the nation, guarantees from the Bill of Rights, all ending with a vision that they might one day all come true. 9. For many the day seemed an adventure, a long outing in the late summer sun—part liberation from home, part Sunday school picnic, part political convention, and part fish fry. 10. It may not “look to it” at once, since it is looking to so many things, but it will be a long time before it forgets the melodious(悦耳的) and melancholy (忧郁的) voice of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther Jr., crying out his dreams to the multitude(大众).
1.他享受着数世纪来哲学天才和政治英雄们联合取得的自由,这是被烈士的鲜血神圣化了的自由;着人类有史以来最发达的经济提供的舒适与休闲;科学解开了自然的奥秘,使他能享受神奇逼真的音响和影像效果。 2.每个有学问的人庆幸着自己与其他人的不一般;反过来没有学问的人则正庆幸着自己说不清的与别人的相似性——对于存在,这么说吧,杰出的大众化和非凡的普通。 3.对于没学问者自称特殊的“人类”,有一点我一直搞不明白,为什么是“非人类”去使用那些设施来将我们和猪啊、鹅啊划分,而“人类”去使用那些我们与低等动物共享的东西。 4.谚语中说对于口味来说,是没有争议的——尽管在事实上,人类一—至少在一半的休闲时间里什么也不做——并且如果阳春白雪和下里巴人对于个人口味的问题是排外(这一点在很大程度上是肯定的),那么对于他们来说,除了我在前面讲的,就没什么说的了。 5.因此我从爵士乐和刺激性事物中找到的乐趣需比音乐里的少得多,比如说,贝多芬的或者是Dostoievsky的小说;杂志封面上的性感女郎比Rubens,Greco,Constablet Seurat所创造的精细复杂的情感对于我来说要逊色得多。 6.只要问问大学一年级的学生他们听什么音乐,那对他们有多重要或者说意味着什么,就可以发现在美国是个普遍现象,它开始于青春期或更早的时候但会延续整个大学时代。 7.像寓言中的古法利赛人一样,他们感谢上帝——他们与普通人不一样,去画那些人的图画,几乎比Swift画的人形兽还要好看。 8.每一次梦想都是来自于古老的忠诚的承诺,宪法中的词句,国歌中的歌词,****法案所保证,都是以希望有一天它能成为现实的期望来结束的。 9.对于许多人来说,这一天像冒险活动,在盛夏和阳光下长时间等着——有的是从家里出来轻松,有的是学校周日野炊,有的是政治会议,有的烤鱼吃。 10.也许不能注意到它,因为在注意着许多事情,但是很长时间后也很难忘记Rev.Dr.Martin.Luther.Jr.,用悦耳忧郁的声音向大众呼喊出他的梦想。
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