当我们谈论已故艺术家时，我们会谈论什么？| 经济学人文化

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Culture | Back Story

文化 | 幕后故事

英文部分选自经济学人20230910期文化板块

Culture | Back Story

文化 | 幕后故事

Lots of people mourn when famous writers and musicians die. Why?

许多人都会为著名作家和音乐家的离世表示哀悼，这是为什么呢？

What we talk about when we talk about dead artists

当我们谈论已故艺术家时，我们会谈论什么？

After Alexander Pushkin was shot in a duel in 1837, crowds of mourners formed in St Petersburg. Russia’s nervy authorities moved his funeral service and mustered 60,000 troops. When the wagon bearing the poet’s body reached Pskov province, where he was to be interred, devotees tried to unharness the horses and pull it themselves.

1837年，大文豪亚历山大·普希金（Alexander Pushkin）在一场决斗中中枪身亡，圣彼得堡涌集了大批哀悼者。俄国当局惴惴不安，调整了葬礼地点，还动员了6万名士兵。载着普希金遗体的马车抵达安葬地点普斯科夫州时，有崇拜者试图解下马匹的挽具，想要亲自拉车。

The death of Rudolph Valentino, a silent-movie idol, in 1926 set off similarly fervid lamentation. Mounted police restrained the fans who mobbed the funeral parlour in New York where he lay on view (several reportedly killed themselves). In 1975 some of the millions of Egyptians who paid their respects to Um Kalthoum, a megastar singer, took hold of her coffin and shouldered it for hours through the streets of Cairo.

无独有偶，默片巨星鲁道夫·瓦伦蒂诺（Rudolph Valentino）1926年离世，哀悼者同样疯狂。鲁道夫的遗体放在纽约一家殡仪馆中供人瞻仰，现场还有骑警控制围在楼外的粉丝（据说有几位粉丝当场自杀）。1975年，歌坛巨星乌姆·卡尔索姆（Um Kalthoum）去世，数百万埃及人到现场为其送行，有好事者夺过她的灵柩，扛在肩上，走过开罗的大街小巷，一走就是好几个小时。

Today’s celebrity obsequies tend to be less fanatical, and largely digital rather than in-person. But they are passionate all the same. In the past few months, grief has coursed around the internet for Martin Amis, Cormac McCarthy, Tina Turner and, most recently, Jimmy Buffett. If you stop to think about it, many such outpourings for writers, actors and musicians are odd, even irrational.

如今，名人的葬礼不再像过去那样狂热，也大都从线下转为线上，但热情依旧。过去几个月，网络哀声一片。马丁·艾米斯（Martin Amis）、科马克·麦卡锡（Cormac McCarthy）、蒂娜·特纳（Tina Turner）相继去世，最近吉米·巴菲特（Jimmy Buffett）不久前也与世长辞。但仔细想想，对作家、演员和音乐家真情缅怀大都有些奇怪，甚至不合理。

Unlike other kinds of grief, this one does not stem from personal intimacy. If you ever interacted with a cherished author, it was probably duringa book tour when, caffeinated to the eyeballs, she signed your copy of her novel and misspelled your name. Maybe you delude yourself that you once locked eyes with a frontman hero during a gig and that he smiled only for you. But you didn’t really know them, and they certainly didn’t know you.

与哀悼亲人、朋友不同，哀悼公众人物并非出于私人关系。你和某位偶像作家的交集可能也就是某场签售会，这位作家喝了不少咖啡，兴奋过头，给你签名时还写错了你的名字；演出现场，你也许会觉得，你炽热的眼神得到了乐队主唱的回应，他脸上的微笑也只为你绽放，这其实是自欺欺人。其实你并不了解他们，他们也根本不认识你。

Nor would you always have liked them if you had. Their books or songs may be touching and wise, but (in the parlance of criticism) it is a biographical fallacy to assume that the work reflects an artist’s life or beliefs. Your favourites may indeed have been lovely people; or perhaps, beneath their curated images, they were spiky money-grubbers, consumed by rivalry or solipsists who drove their families nuts. Rarely do you know for sure.

你如果真正了解了他们，就不一定会喜欢他们了。他们的书或歌曲可能感人至深、充满智慧，不过，按照文学批评的说法，艺术作品反映了艺术家本人的生活或观点是一种“生平谬误”（biographical fallacy）。你的“爱豆”也许确实是可爱之人，但精心包装人设背后，他们可能利欲熏心，争强好斗、目中无人，让家人抓狂。这很难说。

Though the artists are gone, meanwhile, the art you prize is not. Death does not delete it—on the contrary, curiosity and nostalgia often drive up sales. (David Bowie’s only number-one album in America was “Blackstar”, released days before he died in 2016.) The dead, it is true, write no more books and record no songs. Philip Roth will never set a novel in the era of Donald Trump; you will never hear another operatic Meat Loaf ballad. The cold reality, however, is that many artists’ best work was done long before their demise.

艺术家们虽然离世了，但人们珍视的艺术作品并没有消亡。死亡并不会将作品抹去，反而会激起人们的好奇心和怀旧之情，销量往往不降反增。大卫·鲍伊（David Bowie）在2016年去世前几天发布的《Blackstar》，是他唯一一张在美国获得销冠的专辑。诚然，已故作家不能再写书，已故歌手不能再录歌。菲利普·罗斯（Philip Roth）的小说不可能以特朗普时代为背景；你永远无法再听到密特·劳弗（Meat Loaf）的摇滚歌剧。然而，冰冷的现实是，很多艺术家的最佳作品早在去世前就已经创作出来了。

The sorrow makes more sense when a star dies young or violently. Had she not perished at 27, like Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, who knows what musicAmy Winehouse would have added to her small, exquisite oeuvre? Sinéad O’Connor, another casualty of 2023, lived a troubled life that ended too soon. Buddy Holly (killed in a plane crash), Amedeo Modigliani (dead of tubercular meningitis at 35), Wilfred Owen (slain in action a week before the armistice in 1918): such premature and cruel exits are tragic.

若艺术家英年早逝或意外暴毙，人们的悲痛则会更容易理解。歌手艾米·怀恩豪斯（Amy Winehouse）产量低但质量高，如果她不像吉米·亨德里克斯（Jimi Hendrix）和詹妮丝·乔普琳（Janis Joplin）一样27岁时就离世，谁知道她还会创造出什么样的音乐呢？今年过世的另一位艺术家辛妮德·奥康纳（Sinéad O’Connor）一生坎坷且短暂。巴迪·霍利（Buddy Holly）死于坠机，阿梅代奥·莫迪利亚尼（Amedeo Modigliani）35岁时死于结核性脑膜炎，威尔弗雷德·欧文（Wilfred Owen）1918年一战停战一周前被杀害。生命过早结束（且以残酷方式）令人悲痛。

Objectively, though, the death of a long-lived and fulfilled artist is far from the saddest item in an average day’s headlines. And whereas most mortals sink into oblivion, laureates live on in their output, which Horace, a Roman poet, called a “monument more lasting than bronze”. The standard reasons for mourning don’t apply. Why, then, are these losses felt so widely and keenly?

客观来说，长寿、功成名就的艺术家离世远算不上最让人难过的日常头条新闻。大部分普通人离世后会慢慢被遗忘，而成功的艺术家则永垂不朽。正如罗马诗人贺拉斯（Horace）所言，作品是“比青铜像屹立更久的纪念碑”。因此，对名人的哀悼并不能用常理解释。那么，为何有那么多人如此热切地追悼逝去的艺术家呢？

One interpretation is that the departed celebrities are merely the messengers. The real news is death itself, which comes for everyone, immortal or impervious as some may seem. If the reaper calls for Prince, with all his talent and verve, he will certainly knock for you. As Jim Morrison sang before he, too, died at 27: “No one here gets out alive.”

一种解释是，逝去的名人不过是“信使”。真正的消息是死亡本身，有些人看似永垂不朽或无懈可击，但终究难逃一死。既然死神会带走王子（Prince），带走他的才华与热情，那死神必定也会敲响你的门。吉姆·莫里森（Jim Morrison）27岁逝世前唱道，“人终将逝去。”   

Part of your past—the years in which the mute musician was the soundtrack, the silenced writer your ally—can seem to fade away with them. Just as plausibly, the grief can be seen as a transmuted form of gratitude for the solidarity and joy they supplied. On your behalf, they undertook to make sense of the world and distil beauty from the muck of life.

你过去的部分岁月——那些年，听着歌，读着书——好似随着歌手和作家的逝去而湮灭。也可以说，你通过悲痛表达感激之情，感激他们的作品陪伴着你，给你带来欢乐。以你之名，他们致力于理解世间奥义，从生活的泥沼中开出美丽的花。

Yet as much as anything else, the passing of an artist is an occasion for communion. In an atomised age, in which the default tone is abrasive, a beloved figure’s death is a chance to share benign feelings and memories with fellow admirers. Like water-cooler moments in a cemetery, these sombre holidays from spite and strife are the artists’ parting gifts.

然而，和其他事情一样，艺术家的去世也是一个交流机会。在个人主义盛行、以冲突为基调的时代，偶像的离世让人们有机会同其他仰慕者一起分享美好感觉，追忆往昔。好比在墓地与他人闲话家常，让你在这些令人神伤的时刻远离恶意与纷争，这是艺术家们的离别礼物。

翻译组：

Xiao，富春江小翻译

Alfredo，男，真实主义歌剧发烧友

Dodo，愿识乾坤大、犹怜草木青的同传Dodo

琚儿，女，QE在职，梦想能仗翻译/音乐/健康走天涯

雪迪，开眼看世界

Lucian，灵魂在杰作中冒险

YY，愿逆风如解意，容易莫摧残

Constance，痛终有时，爱必将至

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观点|评论|思考

本次感想

Constance，痛终有时，爱必将至

著名作家和音乐家纷纷离世，人们深感哀痛。在触及内心悲伤与思考的同时，人们表达了对名家作品及其影响力的尊敬和怀念。

作家和音乐家的作品常常超越时空限制，触动人们内心深处的情感。通过文字和音乐，他们传递着情感、思想和人生意义，深深地影响着一代又一代的读者和听众。因此，当这些创作者离世时，对许多人来说就像失去了心灵导师和引路人。他们的作品在人们心中留下了无比深刻的印记，因此他们的离去使人感到尤为悲痛。

作家和音乐家的作品与一段段的个人经历和回忆紧密相连。这些歌曲、小说、诗歌等作品成为许多人生活中的慰藉，陪伴着人们度过许多个或欢乐或悲伤的时刻。这些作品融入进了人们的生活，成为了许多人生命中的一部分，同个人情感和记忆紧紧相扣。因此我们不难发现，当艺术家离世时，人们为此哀悼同样也是怀念自己曾经历过的美好时光和难忘回忆。他们的离去，昭示着人们也将同样失去曾陪伴自己成长的“心灵伙伴”。

艺术家的逝去提醒着人们，生命既脆弱且有限。人们被迫开始意识到，无论是艺术家还是普通人，生命对于每个人来说都一样。生命很短暂，随时都可能结束。这种意识促使人们欣赏和珍视艺术家们的作品，同时也使人们开始反思个体生活和价值观念。这个过程恰似一面镜子，提醒人们关注生命的意义和价值，珍惜眼前的每一天。

艺术家的离世也成了一个交流的契机。不同的人群一同表达对艺术家们的喜爱和敬意，追忆往昔美好。在当下个人主义盛行、冲突和矛盾成为时代主题的今天，逝去的艺术家和艺术其实为人们提供了一个远离恶意与纷争的机会。人们一同追忆和缅怀，离别此时却是一份珍贵的礼物，人们重新思考生活的真善美，并与他人分享新的思绪和心得。

总之，人们哀悼并怀念逝去的艺术家，原因多种多样。有些作品触动了他人的情感，超越了时空的限制，与个人经历和回忆紧密相连。此外，艺术家的离去敬告人们，生命脆弱且有限。同时，追悼艺术家也为人们促成了一个相互交流的机会。艺术家的离去使人感到悲痛，但也促使人们更加珍视他们留给后世的馈赠。我们哀悼离人、怀念美好，我们一同向逝去的艺术家致以最深切的敬意。

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