On Mahalaya, Radio Is an Unchanging Tradition

⊙By Rhitu Chatterjee翻譯：思葦

聽力難度美式發(fā)音 適合泛讀語速：150詞/分鐘

在很多地方，傳統(tǒng)是節(jié)日不可割舍的一部分，比如印度人在九夜節(jié)（Navaratri）的前一天就有一個(gè)必不可少的習(xí)俗：收聽一檔歷經(jīng)80年風(fēng)風(fēng)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(dāng)?shù)厝嗣癯绨莸慕的瘛閼c祝杜爾迦回家與親人團(tuán)聚而舉辦的九夜節(jié)持續(xù)九天，是印度下半年最重要的宗教節(jié)日之一。

3） drift [dr?ft] v. 自然而緩慢地轉(zhuǎn)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(fā)展，進(jìn)化

8） churn [t???n] n. 劇烈的攪動(dòng)

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(gè)口語表達(dá)，多用于非正式場(chǎng)合，當(dāng)它后面跟的是sth.時(shí)，表達(dá)的是“擺脫某事物，廢除某事物”的意思；而當(dāng)后面引出的是sb.時(shí)，這個(gè)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(guó)家已經(jīng)廢除了死刑。）

● The doctor was afraid that Betty would do away

with herself.（醫(yī)生很擔(dān)心貝蒂會(huì)自殺。）

參考譯文

我并不是個(gè)習(xí)慣早起的人，但是昨天我下定了決心，一定要早早起床。五點(diǎn)剛過，我就爬起來了，剛好趕上了全印廣播電臺(tái)那檔音樂劇的最后一部分——在每年的這一天，電臺(tái)都會(huì)播放這個(gè)節(jié)目。

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

在我小時(shí)候，到了馬哈拉雅這一天，父親總是全家第一個(gè)起床的。他會(huì)在凌晨四點(diǎn)擰開收音機(jī)，把我們?nèi)咳硕寂眩缓笈阑卮采侠^續(xù)睡覺。我們就這樣躺在床上，在半夢(mèng)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(tái)的節(jié)目，突然意識(shí)到這完全就是我在童年聽過的那個(gè)音樂劇，而不是什么老作品的全新演繹版本。我簡(jiǎn)直不敢相信。這里的人們倒沒有拋棄傳統(tǒng)——完全沒有，但是印度的傳統(tǒng)風(fēng)俗也在不斷改變，以適應(yīng)我們現(xiàn)在這個(gè)節(jié)奏更快的生活。那為什么沒人給這部經(jīng)典作品制作一個(gè)新版本呢？它怎么能歷經(jīng)幾十年而不變呢？

我上網(wǎng)尋找答案，找到的結(jié)果讓我更加吃驚。這檔節(jié)目在20世紀(jì)30年代首次直播。1976年，全印廣播電臺(tái)制作了一個(gè)全新的版本，還請(qǐng)了一位著名演員來講故事。豈料聽眾們根本不買賬，強(qiáng)烈要求電臺(tái)換回舊版本，從那以后，再也沒有人對(duì)這檔節(jié)目進(jìn)行改動(dòng)了。

印度這個(gè)國(guó)家不斷發(fā)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(xù)播出八十多年，而且時(shí)至今天，它依然是孩子們?cè)隈R哈拉雅這天的節(jié)日活動(dòng)之一，依然蘊(yùn)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(jié)日開端了。