On Mahalaya, Radio Is an Unchanging Tradition

⊙By Rhitu Chatterjee翻譯：思葦

聽力難度美式發音 適合泛讀語速：150詞/分鐘

在很多地方，傳統是節日不可割舍的一部分，比如印度人在九夜節（Navaratri）的前一天就有一個必不可少的習俗：收聽一檔歷經80年風風雨雨、原汁原味從未改變的神話廣播劇。

1） Hindu ['h?ndu?] adj. 印度（教）的

2） Durga 杜爾迦，又名難近母，印度教神話中的主要女神之一，驍勇尚武，是廣受當地人民崇拜的降魔女神。為慶祝杜爾迦回家與親人團聚而舉辦的九夜節持續九天，是印度下半年最重要的宗教節日之一。

3） drift [dr?ft] v. 自然而緩慢地轉變

4） chant [t?a?nt] n. 圣歌，贊美詩

5） devotional [d?'v????n?l]adj. 虔誠的，用于祈禱的

6） rendition [ren'd??（?）n] n.表演，演唱

7） evolve [?'v?lv] v. 發展，進化

8） churn [t???n] n. 劇烈的攪動

I’m not a morning person, but yesterday I made sure I woke up early. I got up shortly after 5:00, just in time to catch the last part of a program on All India Radio. This program is broadcast on this particular day every year.

Yesterday was a special day for me and many Indians from the State of West Bengal. We Bengalis call this day “Mahalaya.” It marks the beginning of the1）Hindufestival season celebrating of the homecoming of the goddess2）Durga.

When I was growing up, my father would be the first to rise on Mahalaya Day. He’d switch on the radio at 4 a.m., wake the rest of us and then climb back into bed. We’d lie in our beds,3）driftingin and out of sleep, listening to the4）chantsand5）devotionalsongs.

As I lay in bed yesterday listening to the radio, it struck me that this was the exact same program from my childhood, not a new6）renditionof the old musical. I couldn’t believe this. Not that people have done away with traditions. Far from it. But traditions have7）evolvedto keep up with our faster-paced lives. So why hadn’t someone come up with a new version of this classic? How is it that it had survived for decades?

When I turned to the Internet for answers, I was even more surprised with what I found. The program was broadcast live for the first time in the 1930s. In 1976, All India Radio created a new version with a well-known actor as the narrator. The audience hated it and demanded that the radio stations return to the older version, and since then, no one has changed the program.

I’m happy to know that, in a country of constant8）churnand change, a single radio play has survived for more than eight decades, and that it continues to be part of the Mahalaya experience of kids today, holding as much meaning as it did for generations of Bengalis. And that is the best beginning I could have asked for this festival season.

Not that people have done away with traditions.

Do away with是一個口語表達，多用于非正式場合，當它后面跟的是sth.時，表達的是“擺脫某事物，廢除某事物”的意思；而當后面引出的是sb.時，這個詞組的意思是“殺死某人，干掉某人”，如：

● The death penalty has been done away with in many European countries. （許多歐洲國家已經廢除了死刑。）

● The doctor was afraid that Betty would do away

with herself.（醫生很擔心貝蒂會自殺。）

參考譯文

我并不是個習慣早起的人，但是昨天我下定了決心，一定要早早起床。五點剛過，我就爬起來了，剛好趕上了全印廣播電臺那檔音樂劇的最后一部分——在每年的這一天，電臺都會播放這個節目。

對我和許多住在西孟加拉邦的印度人來說，昨天是一個非常特別的日子。我們孟加拉人將這天稱為“馬哈拉雅”。它標志著這個慶祝女神杜爾迦歸來的印度節日的開始。

在我小時候，到了馬哈拉雅這一天，父親總是全家第一個起床的。他會在凌晨四點擰開收音機，把我們全部人都弄醒，然后爬回床上繼續睡覺。我們就這樣躺在床上，在半夢半醒間聆聽著那一首首圣歌和祈禱詩。

昨天早上，我躺在床上聽著電臺的節目，突然意識到這完全就是我在童年聽過的那個音樂劇，而不是什么老作品的全新演繹版本。我簡直不敢相信。這里的人們倒沒有拋棄傳統——完全沒有，但是印度的傳統風俗也在不斷改變，以適應我們現在這個節奏更快的生活。那為什么沒人給這部經典作品制作一個新版本呢？它怎么能歷經幾十年而不變呢？

我上網尋找答案，找到的結果讓我更加吃驚。這檔節目在20世紀30年代首次直播。1976年，全印廣播電臺制作了一個全新的版本，還請了一位著名演員來講故事。豈料聽眾們根本不買賬，強烈要求電臺換回舊版本，從那以后，再也沒有人對這檔節目進行改動了。

印度這個國家不斷發生著翻天覆地的變化，我很高興看到有一檔廣播劇能在這里持續播出八十多年，而且時至今天，它依然是孩子們在馬哈拉雅這天的節日活動之一，依然蘊含著能影響幾代孟加拉人的巨大文化意義。我想不出還有比這更好的節日開端了。