【好歌欣賞】Leonard Cohen - Alexandra Leaving

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.

(Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard)

Cohen從這首詩歌改編而來的歌，唱的是一位叫做Alexndra的女人，我覺得它更象是講述無奈的愛情的離逝。。。

既然提到了安東尼，不能不順便說說我很喜歡的HBO劇"Rome"（http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384766/）。我個人覺得這部劇很好看，把當時的人物刻畫的很生動。演Mark Antony的是英國演員James Purefoy，我覺得他把Antony的驕傲自大，好鬥逞強演的入木三分。既然是HBO show，肯定少不了少兒不宜的鏡頭。但最讓我覺得shocking的是一幕Mark Antony衝澡的戲，居然有演員的full frontal。嗬嗬。可惜的是"Rome"隻拍了兩個season就慘遭被掐的命運，據說是後來budget不夠了。