Leonard Cohen(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Cohen)是我很喜欢的一个加拿大歌手,他很全才,不仅唱歌好听,还自己写歌,写诗歌和小说。他低沉又富有磁性的声线充满了历史的沧桑感,有时候会让我反复听他的浅唱低吟,欲罢不能。他的歌里,我最喜欢的是"Alexandra Leaving",它是从希腊诗人Constantine P. Cavafy写于1911年的诗歌"The God Abandons Antony"(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_God_Abandons_Antony)得来的灵感。
诗歌"The God Abandons Antony"讲述的是安东尼在Alexandria战败被屋大维围困,听到远处的游行的音乐和人声穿过城市;与此同时,安东尼的保护之神狄俄尼索斯弃他而去。
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.