中英双语新闻——257 永不落幕的《绯闻女孩》

 　　After six seasons, more than 120 episodes and dozens of upscale Manhattan shindigs, we finally said goodbye to Gossip Girl last December with a two-hour finale filled with shocking revelations, life-changing moments and a farewell that might have come a little too late.

 

　　经过漫长的六季，120多集以及十多次的曼哈顿上流舞会。终于到了向《绯闻女孩》说再见的时候了。2012年年末，《绯闻女孩》的最终篇用长达两个小时的时间揭示了一些令人震惊的秘密，改变一生的重大时刻，以及那个迟来的再见。

 

　　Gossip Girl, a teen soap based on a popular book series for young adults, in some ways was the first television show about the Internet. Or at least it was the first show that used the Internet in a crucial, central way.

 

　　从某种程度上来说，改编自同名畅销丛书的偶像剧《绯闻女孩》是讲述网络世界的电视剧开山之作。或者至少，从来没有哪部电视剧可以像《绯闻女孩》这样赋予网络一个如此重要的位置。

 

　　Gossip Girl was an anonymous¹ (until the finale) person who devoted² her (or at least we thought so) time to chronicling the lives of the wealthy youths of Upper East Side in New York.

 

　　绯闻女孩是一位匿名人士，她（至少我们都认为这是位女士）用心记录纽约上东区富家子弟的生活点滴，其身份直到结局才曝光。

 

　　While most storylines in the show revolved³ around other things, there was always the narration⁴ to remind us that all this drama was happening within the framework of a little blog. It wasn’t revolutionary, but in a strange way Gossip Girl did leave a little mark on this big, broad culture of ours.

 

　　虽然该剧中的故事情节大都围绕一些其他事情展开，但是旁白总是在提醒我们，这一幕幕剧情其实都是构架于微博博文之上的。这并非什么创新之举，但很奇怪的是，《绯闻女孩》的确在我们多元的大文化之中留下了自己的印记。

 

　　Gossip Girl unmasked

 

　　揭开“绯闻女孩”的面纱

 

　　One of the series’ biggest questions–who is the mysterious, omnipresent blogger calling herself (or himself as it turns out) Gossip Girl–was finally answered.

 

　　该剧最大的谜题之一便是：谁是那个神秘而又无所不在的博主“绯闻女孩”？答案最终揭晓。

 

　　To a degree, Dan Humphrey being unmasked as the blogger makes sense. He explained that he became Gossip Girl in order to shape the Upper East Side world that he wanted to get into. A young man in Brooklyn can only manipulate his way into uptown society, he can’t get there on merit alone.

 

　　在某种程度上来说，丹?汉弗瑞是“绯闻女孩”也在情理之中。他解释说，他化身“绯闻女孩”，为的是塑造出那个他一心想融入的上流世界的形象。一位住在布鲁克林的年轻人只有用点特殊手段才能融入上流社会，光靠才德是行不通的。

 

　　So, what, if anything, does the end of Gossip Girl mean? Well, it means that teenagers have gotten older, that kids who started watching the show in junior high are now sophomores⁵ in college, that kids who started watching it later in high school are now drifting around the professional world somewhere–it means that time has passed.

 

　　那么，如果你认为《绯闻女孩》的落幕有种特殊含义，那指的是什么呢？好吧，它代表着那些少男少女已经长大了：那些初中便开始追剧的少年现在已经是大二学生了，而那些高中时便开始追剧的少年现在已经在某个专业领域打拼了。这意味着时光流逝。

 

　　“That’s part of what you do when you recap a TV show; you try to crunch⁶ it down into context, place it on its appropriate shelf,” Richard Lawson, an editor for The Atlantic Wire, wrote in a recent article. “There’s a reverence⁷ for the show but there’s also an antagonism⁸, a sense of wanting to conquer a thing.”

 

　　来自《大西洋连线》的编辑理查德?劳森在最新文章中写道：“当你概括一部电视剧时，这是你所做的事情的一部分；你试着用文字概括它，给它妥善归类。对于剧集，你会持有一种尊敬态度，但同时你也有一种对抗情绪，想要征服一件事。”

 

　　Sign of something

 

　　一种标志

 

　　We all had a nice cultural moment with Gossip Girl when it first started. It said something to us about a luxury brand of New York privilege that most of us will never know. It then became a fable⁹, an alternate universe. It lied to us about lots of things–not just economics or New York social behavior, but also about matters of the heart (most television shows do that).

 

　　《绯闻女孩》开播时，我们都拥有一段美好的文化时光。它描述了不为大多数人所知的纽约权贵们的奢侈印记，稍后变成了一个虚构的平行世界。很多事情上，该剧可谓是谎话连篇，不仅仅是在经济或是纽约的社交行为方面，内心戏上更是如此（这是电视剧的老把戏了）。

 

　　“But because it was about kids, and for kids, Gossip Girl briefly¹⁰ stood out in some people’s eyes as a sign of something,” Jeff Jensen, TV critic for Entertainment Weeky, wrote. “Much like the similarly titled Girls does now.”

 

　　《娱乐周刊》的电视评论员杰夫?詹森写道：“但因为它讲述的是年轻人的故事，对于一些年轻人来说，《绯闻女孩》成为一部分眼中的某种标志，这点同时下热播的《都市女孩》如出一辙。”

 

　　A sign or not, Gossip Girl must have gotten something right. Although Dan declares in the final episode that Gossip Girl is dead, it’s clear that the entity¹¹ will never die: “You may be rid of Dan Humphrey, but you’ll never be rid of me. There’s always someone on the outside… Who am I now? That’s one secret I’ll never tell.”

 

　　不管是否成为一种标志，《绯闻女孩》的确给出了一份漂亮的答卷。尽管在最后一集中，丹宣称“绯闻女孩”已死，但很明显这样的个体永远存在。“你可以摆脱丹?汉弗瑞，但你永远也摆脱不了我。总会有局外人……我现在是谁？这个秘密我永远不会说出口。”

 

　　There’s a part of us that wishes Gossip Girl would live on in an alternate universe, just to see it all play out.

 

　　我们中也有一部分人希望“绯闻女孩”能在另一个平行世界中继续生活，让所有剧情演绎到极致。

 

　　It’s been a rocky six seasons, but the series finale reminded viewers of what Gossip Girl ultimately is and should be remembered as: a soapy, cheeky, guilty pleasure.

 

　　尽管六季的故事十分曲折，但是最后一集告诉了观众们“绯闻女孩”到底是谁，所以这样一部无下限，令人充满罪恶快感的肥皂剧，理应被人们铭记。

1 anonymous   

adj.无名的；匿名的；无特色的

参考例句：

• Sending anonymous letters is a cowardly act.寄匿名信是懦夫的行为。
• The author wishes to remain anonymous.作者希望姓名不公开。

2 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

3 revolved   

v.（使）旋转( revolve的过去式和过去分词 )；细想

参考例句：

• The fan revolved slowly. 电扇缓慢地转动着。
• The wheel revolved on its centre. 轮子绕中心转动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 narration   

n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体

参考例句：

• The richness of his novel comes from his narration of it.他小说的丰富多采得益于他的叙述。
• Narration should become a basic approach to preschool education.叙事应是幼儿教育的基本途径。

5 sophomores   

n.（中等、专科学校或大学的）二年级学生( sophomore的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are freshmen and they are sophomores. 我们是一年级学生，他们是二年级学生。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Over half the students in the course are sophomores. 听这门课的一大半是二年级学生。 来自辞典例句

6 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

7 reverence   

n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬

参考例句：

• He was a bishop who was held in reverence by all.他是一位被大家都尊敬的主教。
• We reverence tradition but will not be fettered by it.我们尊重传统，但不被传统所束缚。

8 antagonism   

n.对抗，敌对，对立

参考例句：

• People did not feel a strong antagonism for established policy.人们没有对既定方针产生强烈反应。
• There is still much antagonism between trades unions and the oil companies.工会和石油公司之间仍然存在着相当大的敌意。

9 fable   

n.寓言；童话；神话

参考例句：

• The fable is given on the next page. 这篇寓言登在下一页上。
• He had some motive in telling this fable. 他讲这寓言故事是有用意的。

10 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

11 entity   

n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物

参考例句：

• The country is no longer one political entity.这个国家不再是一个统一的政治实体了。
• As a separate legal entity,the corporation must pay taxes.作为一个独立的法律实体，公司必须纳税。