朱柯州
作為《饑餓游戲2:星火燎原》(The Hunger Games: Catching Fire)的插曲,“We Remain” 恰如其分地表達了男女主人公在命運和困境前誓死共存的信念和決心,讓聽者振奮,看者鼓舞。而這除了得益于美國搖滾樂隊One Republic主唱Ryan Tedder的傾心制作外,還要歸功于美國流行天后Christina Aguilera的傾情獻唱。Christina曾是迪士尼的童星,在離開迪士尼之后憑借過人的才華與不可阻擋的個人魅力在全球大放異彩,并先后斬獲了五座格萊美獎。她音域寬闊,嗓音兼具黑人歌手的高亢渾厚與白人歌手的婉轉纖細,且轉換起來游刃有余,這在歌曲“We Remain”中體現(xiàn)得淋漓盡致。
這首歌兼具抒情和勵志的特點。歌手獨特的唱腔和強勁的轉音使歌曲的意境更加遼闊,歌曲結尾則一改開頭直入主題的方式,采用了漸漸淡出的方法,讓人回味無窮。盡管生命中不公平的待遇和無法逃避的苦難讓人窒息,盡管光怪陸離的人間和凄風苦雨的日子讓人垂頭喪氣,然而沒有人可以永遠過得云淡風輕、順風順水。正如Christina所唱得那樣:“In a cold night, there will be no fair fight. There will be no good night to turn and walk away.”面對無望的未來,我們要堅定信念不屈服,要攜手并肩向前走。清風拂面,我們心不變。不論發(fā)生什么,我們都要共同迎接人生的種種困境。
All the ways that you think you know me.
All the limits that you figured out,
Limits that you figured out (mmm).
Had to learn to keep it all below me,
Just to keep from being thrown around,
Just to keep from being thrown around.
▲ Yeah, every single time the wind blows,
Every single time the wind blows,
I see it in your face (mmm).
In a cold night,
There will be no fair fight.
There will be no good night
To turn and walk away.
* So, burn me with fire,
Drown me with rain.
I'm gonna wake up screaming your name.
Yes, I'm a sinner.
Yes, I'm a saint.
Whatever happens here,
Whatever happens here,
We remain! * ▲
Now we talk about a wasted future,
But we take a good look around.
Yeah, we take a good look around.
Ooooh ooh
Yeah, we know it hasn't been for nothing,
'Cause we'll never let it slow us down.
No, we'll never let it slow us down.
Refrain ▲
Said we remain, we remain!
Refrain *
·薦·歌·臺·
歡迎大家向本欄目推薦英文歌曲,要求歌曲主題積極向上,曲風不限。大家可以訪問http://www.dogwood.com.cn/intro.html在線推薦,也可以訪問Teens微博推薦(微博地址見本刊目錄頁),推薦時請寫明歌曲名、演唱者姓名及推薦理由。我們每期將從大家推薦的歌曲中選出一首刊登在雜志上,并為推薦者署名。推薦成功者可獲得精美禮品一份。有興趣者還可為自己推薦的歌曲寫樂評(限700字以內(nèi)),投稿請發(fā)送至Teens郵箱(teens@xdf.cn),郵件主題標明“樂評投稿”,稿件一經(jīng)采用即付稿酬并寄送樣刊一本。趕快來參與吧!
“We Remain”這首歌充滿了震撼人心的吶喊與堅定不移的信念,而這些情感都通過歌詞傳達了出來,下面我們就來看看歌詞中的地道表達。
All the limits that you figured out中的figure含義豐富,作為動詞,最常用的意思是“弄清楚,了解”,后通常接副詞out構成短語figure out,意為“想出;弄明白”。這句歌詞中的figure out就是這一含義,可以譯為“你了解我的所有極限”。再比如:Let's figure things out together. (我們一起來想想辦法吧。)除此之外,figure out還有“計算出;估計”的含義。比如:Have you figured out how much the trip will cost? (你算出這次旅行要花多少錢了嗎?)
接下來我們看看歌詞Just to keep from being thrown around中的詞組keep from,該詞組通常意為“阻止;防止”。比如:I bit my lip to keep from crying. (我緊咬著嘴唇以防哭出聲來。)與該詞組意思相近的還有prevent from,意為“遠離;阻止”。比如:The heavy snow prevents the children from going to school. (大雪使孩子們沒法去上學。)通過比較這兩個詞組大家不難發(fā)現(xiàn),雖然keep和prevent是反義詞,但兩個詞組卻意思相近,這主要是由于介詞from在詞組keep from中表示“阻止”之義。endprint
此外,這句歌詞中還出現(xiàn)了詞組throw around,意為“到處亂扔”,其中的副詞around表示位置,意為“四處”。比如:We sat around the table. (我們圍著桌子坐著。)在歌詞第四節(jié)最后一句we'll never let it slow us down中還有個詞組slow down,該詞組意為“放慢;減速”,其中的副詞down表示“向下”,如calm down (鎮(zhèn)靜)。像around、down這類既可以作介詞又可以作副詞的詞,我們該如何確定其詞性呢?有一個簡單的方法就是判斷其后能否直接加名詞??梢灾苯蛹用~的是介詞,反之則是副詞。比如:Their house is half-way down the hill中的down是介詞,意為“在……下方”;beat them down中的down是副詞。
除了上述這些介詞、副詞與動詞組成的詞組,我們在歌詞中還能看到一些特別能體現(xiàn)英文思維的詞,比如take a good look around中的take。在地道的英文表達中,take可代替意義更為具體的動詞。比如表達“她態(tài)度積極”,比起she adopted a positive attitude,she took a positive attitude更地道。
最后來看歌詞“burn me with fire, drown me with rain”,這里使用的是祈使句,以動詞直接開頭,唱起來朗朗上口,聽起來也極具氣勢。許多歌手和詩人對祈使句都鐘愛有加。比如貓王Elvis Presley榮獲奧斯卡獎的金曲“Love Me Tender”中就有類似的歌詞:Love me tender, love me sweet. 經(jīng)典組合Michael Learns to Rock那首膾炙人口的歌曲“Take Me to Your Heart”的歌詞中也使用了大量祈使句:Take me to your heart. Take me to your soul. Give me your hand before I'm old. Show me what love is. 此外,詩人Langston Hughes在其詩歌《夢》(Dreams)中也使用了祈使句來開篇:Hold fast to dreams/For if dreams die/Life is a broken-winged bird/That cannot fly.endprint