精美英文欣赏:甜心陨落

Sweetheart Dethroned

甜心陨落

For some years Whitney Houston held the post of America's Sweetheart,pretty, God-fearing and patriotic¹.

曾经有许多年，她是美国人心目中的甜心。她美丽动人，虔诚爱主，忠诚爱国。

She went to the White House to discuss youth projects,and set up a foundation to fight illiteracy².

她曾在白宫讨论过青年计划，也曾建立以消除文盲为目的的基金会。

Her rendering³ of "The Star-Spangled Banner" at the Superbowl in 1991, during the Gulf⁴ war-cuddly as a teddy-bear in a white tracksuit-was so joyously⁵ rousing that it was reissued in the wake of the September 2001 attacks.

她曾在1991年的超级碗上演唱美国国歌。当时正值海湾战争期间，她穿着白色运动服，就像一只可爱的泰迪熊。她当时如此欢快地歌唱致使这场演唱的唱片后来被重新发行，以唤醒2001年9·11袭击过后美国人的活力。

Music allowed her to break onto MTV and the late-night chat shows,forging a new path for black women as Michael Jackson had done for the men.

她的美妙歌声让她频频出现在MTV和深夜谈话节目中，正如迈克杰克逊为黑人男子所作出的贡献一样，在音乐的世界里，惠特尼·休斯顿也为黑人女子锻造了一条新的道路，

It also proved, to many blacks,that she was not black enough,showing none of their fury and very little of the soulful gospel depths of Auntie Ree and Cousin Dionne.

在许多黑人看来，音乐同样暴露了她不是一个合格的“黑人”。她没有展现黑人的暴怒，也很少像其教母安蒂娜·雷和堂姐狄昂那样展示福音歌的灵魂深度。

The cutting urban hip-hop of the 1980s she found ugly,like listening to her brothers boast of the women they'd laid.

她觉得80年代用语尖刻的城市hip-hop粗俗难听，就像听她的兄弟在吹嘘他们睡过的姑娘那样。

When she tried angrier songs herself-as in "It's not Right But it's Okay", in 1998-they still seemed as cool and glossy⁶ as her blue sheath dress.

后来她开始尝试演唱那些愤怒的歌曲，诸如在1998年演唱的“不对但是没关系”。 这些歌曲听起来仍然像她那件蓝色女紧身连衣裙那样，冷淡而又大气。

The scratchy defiance⁷ of later albums owed more to the drug-ravaged thinness of her voice than the miseries⁸ of her recent life.

她后来的专辑中透出的嘶哑叛逆感，更多是因为她那被毒品摧毁而变得细弱的声音而非她近期痛苦生活的感悟。

Who she was, and what she really wanted,remained as unclear as her bathtub death in a Los Angeles hotel on the night before the Grammys-at which Adele, another big belter in the Houston style,carried away most of the prizes. 　

她是怎样的人，她真正想要的是什么，正如她在洛杉矶酒店浴缸里的死那样，仍然扑朔迷离。

She needed the give and take of an audience,Miss Houston said.

休斯顿女士曾经说过，她需要观众的互敬互让。

Besides, God had given her this gift to use.

此外，上帝赐予了她天赋以供她发挥。

Yet told by Oprah Winfrey in 2009 that her voice was a national treasure,and that some people thought she had squandered⁹ it,she could only whisper, terror-struck, "That's heavy."

然而，奥普拉·温弗瑞曾于2009年说过，惠特尼·休斯顿的嗓音是国家的财富，而有些人觉得她浪费了这个财富。对于这些言论，惠特尼·休斯顿受宠若惊，她只能低声耳语地说，“这，很沉重。”

Too heavy, was perhaps the truth.

太沉重了，也许这就是惠特尼·休斯顿的真正境遇。

1 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

2 illiteracy   

n.文盲

参考例句：

• It is encouraging to read that illiteracy is declining.从读报中了解文盲情况正在好转，这是令人鼓舞的。
• We must do away with illiteracy.我们必须扫除文盲。

3 rendering   

n.表现，描写

参考例句：

• She gave a splendid rendering of Beethoven's piano sonata.她精彩地演奏了贝多芬的钢琴奏鸣曲。
• His narrative is a super rendering of dialect speech and idiom.他的叙述是方言和土语最成功的运用。

4 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

5 joyously   

ad.快乐地, 高兴地

参考例句：

• She opened the door for me and threw herself in my arms, screaming joyously and demanding that we decorate the tree immediately. 她打开门，直扑我的怀抱，欣喜地喊叫着要马上装饰圣诞树。
• They came running, crying out joyously in trilling girlish voices. 她们边跑边喊，那少女的颤音好不欢快。 来自名作英译部分

6 glossy   

adj.平滑的；有光泽的

参考例句：

• I like these glossy spots.我喜欢这些闪闪发光的花点。
• She had glossy black hair.她长着乌黑发亮的头发。

7 defiance   

n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗

参考例句：

• He climbed the ladder in defiance of the warning.他无视警告爬上了那架梯子。
• He slammed the door in a spirit of defiance.他以挑衅性的态度把门砰地一下关上。

8 miseries   

n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人

参考例句：

• They forgot all their fears and all their miseries in an instant. 他们马上忘记了一切恐惧和痛苦。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• I'm suffering the miseries of unemployment. 我正为失业而痛苦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 squandered   

v.（指钱，财产等）浪费，乱花( squander的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He squandered all his money on gambling. 他把自己所有的钱都糟蹋在赌博上了。
• She felt as indignant as if her own money had been squandered. 她心里十分生气，好像是她自己的钱给浪费掉了似的。 来自飘（部分）