Saint-Saens on Music and Musicians

書評(píng)：《圣桑論音樂與音樂家》

By Roger Nichols 

推薦閱讀：紀(jì)念圣·桑丨Saint-Saens: On Music and Musicians

Camille Saint-Sa?ns is a memorable figure not only for his successes as a composer of choral and orchestral works, and the eternally popular opera Samson et Dalila, but also because he was a keen observer of the musical culture in which he lived. 

圣·桑是一個(gè)令人難忘的人物，不僅因?yàn)樗且幻艹龅淖髑?，在合唱和管弦樂作品的?chuàng)作領(lǐng)域和著名的歌劇作品《參孫與達(dá)麗拉》取得巨大成功，還因?yàn)槭ァどＪ桥c之共生的音樂文化的熱心觀察者。

A composer of vast intelligence and erudition, Saint-Sa?ns was at the same time one of the foremost writers on music in his day. From Wagner, Liszt and Debussy to Milhaud and Stravinsky, Saint-Sa?ns was at the center of the elite musical and cultural fin de siècle and early 20th Century world.

作為一位擁有巨大智慧和博學(xué)的作曲家，圣·桑同時(shí)也是他那個(gè)時(shí)代音樂界最重要的作曲家之一。從瓦格納、李斯特和德彪西到米爾豪德和斯特拉文斯基，圣·桑是20世紀(jì)早期世界精英音樂和文化藝術(shù)的中心人物。

 He championed Schumann and Wagner in France at a period when these composers were regarded as dangerous subversives whose music should be kept well away from the impressionable student.

在法國時(shí)他欣賞舒曼和瓦格納，當(dāng)時(shí)這兩位作曲家被認(rèn)為是危險(xiǎn)的顛覆者，他們的音樂應(yīng)該遠(yuǎn)離那些敏感的學(xué)生。

Yet Saint-Sa?ns himself had no aspirations to being a revolutionary, and his appreciation of Wagner the composer was tempered by his reservations over Wagner the philosopher and dramatist, suspicious as he was of what he called 'the Germanic preoccupation with going beyond reality.'

雖然圣·桑自己并沒有成為一名顛覆者的意愿，因?yàn)樗麑?duì)瓦格納所謂的“超越現(xiàn)實(shí)的日耳曼思想”持懷疑態(tài)度。他對(duì)瓦格納的哲學(xué)家和劇作家身份持保守態(tài)度，這也使得圣桑對(duì)于瓦格納的欣賞程度大打折扣。無論是為梅耶貝爾辯護(hù)，去否認(rèn)那些對(duì)梅耶貝爾創(chuàng)作技巧的質(zhì)疑；

Whether defending Meyerbeer against charges of facility or Berlioz against those who questioned his harmonic grasp, Saint-Sa?ns was always his own man: in both cases, he claimed, it was 'not the absence of faults but the presence of virtues' that distinguishes the good composer.

還是為柏遼茲和聲設(shè)計(jì)而辯護(hù)，圣·桑始終堅(jiān)持自我。在為這兩人辯護(hù)時(shí)圣·桑聲稱，區(qū)分優(yōu)秀作曲家的，不是“缺點(diǎn)”而是“閃光點(diǎn)”。

Saint-Sa?ns's writings provide a well-argued counter-discourse to the strong modernist music critics who rallied around Debussy and Ravel during the fin de siècle. And above all, they demonstrate a brilliantly sharp and active brain, expressing itself through prose of a Classical purity and balance, enlivened throughout with flashes of wit and, at times, of sheer malice.

《圣桑論音樂與音樂家》（Saint-Saens on Music and Musicians）這部著作為那些在19世紀(jì)末團(tuán)結(jié)在德彪西和拉威爾周圍的強(qiáng)大的現(xiàn)代主義音樂評(píng)論家提供了一個(gè)很好的反論。最重要的是，這些文章證明圣桑擁有敏銳而靈活的頭腦，他通過充盈著古典的圣潔和平衡感的文字來表達(dá)自己的觀點(diǎn)，整部著作中不斷有智慧之光閃爍其間現(xiàn)，有時(shí)甚至充滿了狡黠的惡意。

（譯者注：Fin de siècle，意思是世紀(jì)的結(jié)束,一個(gè)術(shù)語通常包含兩個(gè)類似的英語習(xí)語的意義的世紀(jì),也使引用一個(gè)時(shí)代的結(jié)束和另一個(gè)的開始。這個(gè)詞通常用來指19世紀(jì)末。）

In this generously annotated volume, renowned scholar, seasoned translator and radio broadcaster Roger Nichols brings some of the composer's most striking and evocative writings brilliantly to life in English translation, many for the first time.

在這本注解豐富的書中，著名學(xué)者、經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的翻譯家和無線電節(jié)目廣播員羅杰·尼科爾斯用英文翻譯了圣桑這部最引人入勝的作品，其中許多文字是第一次被譯成英文。

 Nichols has carefully chosen these selections for their intrinsic interest as historical documents to create a well-balanced and engaging view of the man, the music, and the age.

尼科爾斯慎之又慎地遣詞造句，使得這本譯作作為歷史文獻(xiàn)資料充分展現(xiàn)它的內(nèi)在價(jià)值，并恰到妙處傳達(dá)出屬于圣桑的人生觀、音樂觀、以及時(shí)代觀。

歡迎加入編譯組一起做翻譯！