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来源：新东方在线 编辑：学长

ONE night in April 1958, the cold war was broken by a gap-toothed smile. The jury of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow had reached a near-unanimous decision and the audience was going wild over the likely winner: a 23-year-old Texan called Van Cliburn. But Stalin was barely five years dead and no one was going to risk a spell in Siberia by awarding first prize to an American. So a nervous Emil Gilels, a pianist, wasdispatched to see the minister of culture, and the minister went trembling to report to the Communist Party chief, Nikita Khrushchev, who was just back from reimposing Russian terror in Budapest.

1958年4月的一个夜晚，整个冷战都被这一露齿的笑容所粉碎。莫斯科柴可夫斯基音乐大赛上一位23岁的德克萨斯州人——范·克莱本赢得了的近乎所有裁判委员们的一致肯定，观众们也都为这位即将取胜的冠军疯狂。但那时斯大林仅仅去世5年，没人愿意冒着被流放的西伯利亚的危险来将该奖颁给一个美国人。因此一位小提琴家埃米尔·吉尔利斯(Emil Gilels,)奉命小心翼翼地去拜访文化大臣，而这位大臣随后又胆战心惊地报告了刚刚从布达佩斯重申俄罗斯政权回来的共产党主席赫鲁晓夫。

“We don’t know what to do,” bleated the minister, presenting the jury’s report.

“我们不知道该怎么办，”这位大臣哭诉着提交了裁判委员委员会的报告。

“Is he the best?” Khrushchev demanded. “In that case, give him the first prize.”

“他是最优秀的吗?”赫鲁晓夫问道。“就事论事，第一名给他吧。”

The Soviet leader followed up with a beaming public bear-hug for the victorious Cliburn, who towered a head above the pudgy Khrushchev. In that historic freeze-frame, the cold-war ice cap began to melt

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随后这位苏联主席在公开场合给了克莱本一个热情的熊抱，克莱本头向上抬着，与矮墩墩的赫鲁晓夫形成了鲜明的对比。在那个历史上冰封的时刻，冷战地坚冰开始了融化。

Nigel Cliff, a British journalist and one-time contributor to The Economist, has written a freshly sourced account of these momentous Moscow nights. He places them aptly at the heart of the nuclear conflict and poignantly in the personal odyssey of a lanky, gay pianist from a small prairie town who never wanted to do much except play Russian music. His mother, it was said, had once met Rachmaninoff.

随即奈杰尔·瑟夫(Nigel Cliff)，一位曾经就职于《经济学人》的英国新闻记者，便以此为原型撰写了一篇文章，以一位瘦弱的同志钢琴师孤独的人生轨迹为线索，极为恰当并深刻地将人物与故事冲突编排于其中，这位钢琴师来自一个草原小镇，除了俄罗斯音乐他别无向往。书中还描述了钢琴师的母亲曾与拉克玛尼诺夫见过面。

　　

When the Soviet Union announced a contest that would demonstrate cultural and educational superiority over a decadent West, Cliburn was living in digs near Carnegie Hall, taking lessons with Rosina Lhevinne at the Juilliard School. He had always wanted to see Moscow and many other Westerners were too scared to go. The Russians rustled up two front-runners, Lev Vlassenko and Naum Shtarkman. The Chinese sent Liu Shikun. But from the moment Cliburn first played, the Moscow public took him to their hearts. He had a unique stage presence, at once languid and intense, projecting an almost papal serenity. No other pianist matched Cliburn’s poise or his physical appeal. The inimitable Sviatoslav Richter, a loner in the jury room, reportedly awarded him full marks for each round and zero to other contenders. In the streets of Moscow the winner was mobbed like a Hollywood star.

他一直想去看看许多西方人不敢去的莫斯科。俄罗斯找到两位领先者——列夫·拉斯科(Lev Vlassenko)和史塔克曼(NaumShtarkman)。中国则派刘诗昆前去。但是当克莱本首次弹奏时，他便征服了莫斯科听众们的心。他有自己独特的表演形式，突然地慵懒或激烈，投射出一种近似宗教般宁静。在自信或肢体语言的魅力方面，没有其他钢琴家可与克莱本相匹敌。无与伦比的斯维亚托斯拉夫·里赫特(Sviatoslav Richter)，独自在陪审团的房间里，据说他的每轮比赛都是满分并且无任何竞争者。在莫斯科的街头，获胜者就好像好莱坞明星一样。

His victory made headlines in New York, but it took two days for the State Department to wire official congratulations and even longer for President Eisenhower to respond. Returning home to a ticker-tapeparade, Cliburn insisted on being conducted in America by Kirill Kondrashin, a Russian, thus doing all he could to extend the cultural thaw, even as the Cuban crisis was growing.

他的成功登上了纽约的头条新闻，然而美国国务院却在两天后才正式地发文祝贺，艾森蒙威尔总统更是很久后才作出回应。(当他)回国时，举行了热烈的欢迎仪式，在美国克莱本仍坚持由一位俄罗斯人——Kirill Kondrashin的来向大众介绍自己，因此即使古巴的危机仍在恶化，他也倾尽所有促进文化的解冻。

Cliburn enjoyed a life of glory, with a Texas piano competition endowed in his name and recordings that sold in millions. Arriving once in Washington, DC, without his concert wear, he borrowed tie and tails from a fellow Texan, Lyndon B. Johnson. Leaders of both powers vied for his attention. Spy agencies kept him under a wary eye. Cliburn returned to Moscow for the last time in 2011, two years before his death, to serve as honorary chairman of the Tchaikovsky piano competition. He did not vote for fear of harming another artist.

德克萨斯的一场钢琴比赛使克莱本一举成名，他因此享受着荣耀的生活，同时(他的)唱片也被销售了上百万张。(他)第一次到华盛顿时，没有演出的服装，于是他便向他的德克萨斯伙伴——林登·约翰逊(Lyndon B.Johnson)借了领带和燕尾服。两位相当有权威的领导人为他激烈的竞争。间谍机构对他进行秘密地监视。克莱本最后一次回到莫斯科，是他去世的前两年——2011年，(他)以一名光荣的柴可夫斯基钢琴大赛的主席身份返回。(在比赛中)他没有参与投票，因为他害怕伤害另一名艺术家。

His fellow runners-up in 1958 all had to give up music. Vlassenko became a teacher, Shtarkman spent eight years in Soviet jails for homosexuality and Mr Liu was incarcerated for seven years during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Cliburn knew that his glory was earned at the expense of his Moscow friends. Mr Cliff does well, despite some musical infelicities, to describe the big game of culture wars and Khrushchev’s capricious adventurism. Cliburn himself remains an enigma, even if his triumph was to show that music sometimes has the power to shape history

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小情人他获得亚军的同伴在1958年都放弃音乐。拉斯科(Vlassenko)成为了一名教师，史塔克曼(Shtarkman)因为同性恋在苏联监狱呆了八年，而Liu先生在中国的文化大革命期间受了七年的牢狱之灾。克莱本知道他的荣誉都是在他莫斯科朋友们的帮助下取得的。Cliff先生在描述这场盛大的文化战争和Khrushchev变化无常的冒险主义方面他做得很好，尽管存在一些音乐方面的贬损之词。即便他的成就表明了音乐有时拥有改变历史的强大力量，克莱本其人仍是一个谜。

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