名人励志英语演讲 第156期:奏出生命中最美的乐曲(3)

 　　But no, I never went to college. I've slept in some strange places, but the library wasn't one of them. I studied rock and roll and I grew up in Dublin in the 70s; music was an alarm bell for me. It woke me up to the world. I was 17 when I first saw The Clash, and it just sounded like revolution. The Clash were like: "This is a public service announcement--with guitars." I was the kid in the crowd who took it at face value. Later I learned that a lot of the rebels were in it for the T-shirt. They'd wear the boots but they wouldn't march. They'd smash bottles on their heads but they wouldn't go to something more painful like a town hall meeting. By the way I felt like that myself until recently.

　　我没上过大学，我在一些陌生的地方睡过觉，但图书馆除外。我学的是摇滚音乐，在70年代的都柏林长大。音乐对我来说如同警钟，它唤醒了我，让我开始关注这个世界。我17岁那年第一次见到碰撞乐队，他们的音乐听起来像一次革新。这支乐队“用吉他演奏音乐，性质却是公益事业。”而我当时只是人群中的一个看热闹的小孩。后来我了解到，许多反叛者加入这支乐队只是为了得到一件T恤衫。他们会穿靴子，但他们不游行。他们会往头上砸瓶子，但不会去市政议会厅这些让人感到痛苦的地方。顺便说一句，就在前不久，我也喜欢那样做。

　　I didn't expect change to come so slow. So agonizingly slow. I didn't realize that the biggest obstacle to political and social progress wasn't the Free Masons, or the Establishment, or the boot heal of whatever you consider "the Man" to be. It was something much more subtle. As the provost just referred to, a combination of our own indifference¹ and the Kafkaesque labyrinth² of "no's" you encounter as people vanish down the corridors of bureaucracy.

　　我没有料想到变革来得如此之慢，慢得让人痛苦。我也没有意识到，政治和社会进步的最大障碍不是共济会，不是国教会，也不是权势集团，而是一些更为微妙的东西。就像院长刚刚说到的，是我们自身的冷漠和荒谬而令人困惑的事物的结合，就像人们在官僚主义的道路上迷失自己的那种感觉一样。

1 indifference   

n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎

参考例句：

• I was disappointed by his indifference more than somewhat.他的漠不关心使我很失望。
• He feigned indifference to criticism of his work.他假装毫不在意别人批评他的作品。

2 labyrinth   

n.迷宫；难解的事物；迷路

参考例句：

• He wandered through the labyrinth of the alleyways.他在迷宫似的小巷中闲逛。
• The human mind is a labyrinth.人的心灵是一座迷宫。