Leonard Cohen(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen)是我很喜歡的一個加拿大歌手,他很全才,不僅唱歌好聽,還自己寫歌,寫詩歌和小說。他低沉又富有磁性的聲線充滿了曆史的滄桑感,有時候會讓我反複聽他的淺唱低吟,欲罷不能。他的歌裏,我最喜歡的是"Alexandra Leaving",它是從希臘詩人Constantine P. Cavafy寫於1911年的詩歌"The God Abandons Antony"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Abandons_Antony)得來的靈感。
詩歌"The God Abandons Antony"講述的是安東尼在Alexandria戰敗被屋大維圍困,聽到遠處的遊行的音樂和人聲穿過城市;與此同時,安東尼的保護之神狄俄尼索斯棄他而去。
The God Abandons Antony
When suddenly, at midnight, you hear an invisible procession going by with exquisite music, voices, don’t mourn your luck that’s failing now, work gone wrong, your plans all proving deceptive—don’t mourn them uselessly. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, say goodbye to her, the Alexandria that is leaving. Above all, don’t fool yourself, don’t say it was a dream, your ears deceived you: don’t degrade yourself with empty hopes like these. As one long prepared, and graced with courage, as is right for you who proved worthy of this kind of city, go firmly to the window and listen with deep emotion, but not with the whining, the pleas of a coward; listen—your final delectation—to the voices, to the exquisite music of that strange procession, and say goodbye to her, to the Alexandria you are losing.