【好歌欣赏】Leonard Cohen - Alexandra Leaving

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.

(Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard)

Cohen从这首诗歌改编而来的歌，唱的是一位叫做Alexndra的女人，我觉得它更象是讲述无奈的爱情的离逝。。。

既然提到了安东尼，不能不顺便说说我很喜欢的HBO剧"Rome"（http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384766/）。我个人觉得这部剧很好看，把当时的人物刻画的很生动。演Mark Antony的是英国演员James Purefoy，我觉得他把Antony的骄傲自大，好斗逞强演的入木三分。既然是HBO show，肯定少不了少儿不宜的镜头。但最让我觉得shocking的是一幕Mark Antony冲澡的戏，居然有演员的full frontal。呵呵。可惜的是"Rome"只拍了两个season就惨遭被掐的命运，据说是后来budget不够了。