《星尘》

When I put my hand in my mailbox, I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. The check I expected and badly needed wasn't there. The school secretary explained later that we, teachers, weren't paid until the end of the month. This was a problem. I had four dollars in my wallet, and the end of the month was a whole month away.

我把手伸进我的信箱时，心里咯噔一下。我迫切想要收到的那张支票不在里面。学校秘书后来解释说，我们这些教师的薪水要到本月底才能支付。这对我来说有些麻烦，我的钱包里只剩下4美元，而且此时刚刚月初。

What to do? The four dollars I had left wouldn't even pay for my cheap motel room that night, much less buy dinner. I had my trumpet in the car, as I played trumpet as well as a little piano, and my first thought was to find a "gig" that night, but it was too late in the afternoon, and I didn't know the city well enough to go looking. So I did something most musicians have done at one time or another. I decided to hock my horn.

我该怎么办？我仅有的这4美元甚至不够当天晚上廉价汽车旅店的房费，晚餐就更不用想了。我车里放着一把小号，而且我会吹小号，还会弹一点儿钢琴，因此我的第一个想法是当天晚上找到一个“现场演奏”的差事，但此时已接近傍晚，而且我对这座城市还不是很熟悉，找到这样的机会并非易事。于是，我做了大多数音乐家曾经做过的事情。我决定把我的小号“送去”典当行。

I drove downtown to an unpleasant area where the hock shops, cheap bars and winos were. I hocked my trumpet for fifteen dollars; enough money to get by for a day or two, but then what?

我把车开到市中心的一个环境较差的地方，这里到处是典当行、廉价酒吧，还有酒鬼。我的小号典当了15美元，这钱足够让我坚持一两天，但之后又该怎么办呢？

There was a little bar next to the pawn shop. I walked in, sat at the bar and ordered a thirty-five cent beer. I sat there sipping my beer and trying to think my way out of this problem." "You look like you lost your last friend, Sonny," said the bartender. "What's the matter?"

挨着典当行是一个小酒吧。我走进去，坐在吧台旁，点了一杯35美分的啤酒。我坐在那里啜饮着我的啤酒，试图想出摆脱困境的办法。“你像是遇到倒霉事了，年轻人。”调酒师对我说，“出了什么事？”

His name was Charlie, about 60, which seemed quite old to me at the time. I think I was about 24. I told him what had happened. Then I went back to staring at the old piano I had seen as I came in the door.

他的名字叫查理，60岁上下，当时对我来说这年纪似乎已经很大了，我记得自己当时也就大约24岁。我把自己遇到的麻烦告诉了他，然后继续盯着我进门时看到的那架旧钢琴发呆。

Charlie was watching me. "Play piano, too, do you?" he asked. "Just a little," I replied. "I'm not very good." A few moments went by. Pretty soon Charlie said, "Do you know "Stardust" by Hoagy Carmichael?"

查理看着我。“你也会弹钢琴，是吧？”他问。“只会一点点，”我回答说，“弹得不是很好。”我们彼此沉默了几分钟，然后查理突然说：“你会弹豪吉·卡迈克的《星辰》吗？”

I could, and I told him so."Sorta wish you would play it for me," said Charlie, "That's my favourite song." I shrugged my shoulders, went over to the piano, and played "Stardust" as well as I could. Charlie loved it and clapped his hands.

我告诉他我会。“希望你能为我弹奏这首曲子，”查理说，“这是我最喜欢的曲子。”我耸了耸肩，走到钢琴前，尽我所能地弹奏了“星尘”。查理鼓掌表示喜欢我的演奏。

"You're right," he said, "You're not very good, but that's a fine song. You're not so bad you'd run anybody off," he said. "Tell you what, if you'll come in here every night and play, I'll rustle you up enough tips to keep you going till you get your check from school."

“你说得对，”他说，“你弹得是不太好，但这首曲子非常不错。你弹得也不赖，不会让任何人失望的，”他说，“你要是每天晚上都来这里演奏，我会帮你弄到足够的小费，让你成功挺到从学校拿到薪水的日子。”

So the next evening, I played the old songs I knew the old customers loved: "Margie", "Tea for Two" and always "Stardust." The audience was much older than me, with tattered clothes, the women over made-up with too bright lipstick. They listened to the old songs I played so badly and many got tears in their eyes.

于是，第二天晚上，我在那里演奏了我知道年长的顾客们会喜爱的几首老曲子——《玛吉》、《两人茶》，以及绝对少不了的《星尘》。观众们的年龄都比我大得多，他们个个衣衫褴褛，女人们都浓妆艳抹，涂着颜色过于鲜艳的口红。他们用心听着我弹奏的一首首老曲子，许多人眼里都挂着泪花。

Charlie liked to call me Hoagy, because Hoagy had written "Stardust", and everyone loved it as much as Charlie. Several times a night, Charlie would yell out, "Play Stardust, Hoagy," and then he would pass the tip jar and cajole the customers. "We need to help this kid out," I would hear him say, and I could sometimes hear him tell them how I didn't get my check and had to hock my horn.

查理喜欢把我叫作“豪吉”，因为是豪吉写了《星尘》这首曲子，这里的每个人都像查理一样喜欢这首曲子。每晚，我都会弹奏好几遍《星辰》。查理会时不时大喊：“我们想听《星辰》，豪吉。”然后，他会在顾客间传递小费罐，并劝说他们给些小费。“我们应该多帮帮这孩子。”我会听到他这样说。有时还会听到他向顾客们讲述我没拿到薪水，还把自己的小号典当了的悲惨经历。

About the third evening when I took a short break and was standing at the bar next to an older lady wearing an old ill-fitting red dress, she spoke to me. "Honey," she said, "We haven't got the money to tip you much, but I can help some. My apartment is upstairs, and I don't come in at night. You can sleep there if you want, and you won't have to pay for a hotel room. You ain't the type to be stayin' in these old flophouses, anyway." The next night she brought me a key.

大约在第三天晚上，当我站在吧台旁休息一小会儿时，旁边的一位穿着不太合身的红色连衣裙的年长女士对我说：“小伙子，”她说，“我们没有钱给你很多小费，但我可以帮你些别的。我的公寓就在楼上，我晚上不住那，如果你愿意，你可以睡在那里。这样可以给你省些旅店的房费。你也不是住这种廉价旅店的那种人。”第二天晚上她给了我一把钥匙。

So I would teach at daytime, and play at Charlie's at night time, and I came to know and love those unfortunate people, as they did me. When, after a month, I finally got paid, I went back to play for them one more time. This time I told Charlie not to pass the tip jar around, that I had been paid. 

于是，我在白天教书，晚上会来查理的酒吧演奏，并且开始逐渐了解并喜欢上这些不幸的人，就像他们对我一样。一个月后，我终于拿到了薪水。我再次回到那间酒吧，为他们再演奏一次。这次，我告诉查理不要传递小费罐，因为我已经拿到薪水了。

So that night, he just left it on the bar, but the customers put their nickels, dimes and quarters in it anyway. When I emptied it, there was a twenty-dollar bill in there, too. That was probably from Charlie, but I'll never know for sure. 

因此，那天晚上，他把小费罐放在了吧台上，但客户们还是将他们的5美分、10美分、25美分硬币放进了小费罐里。当我把小费罐里的钱币全部倒出来时，发现里面还有一张20美元的纸币。这或许是查理给的，但已无从查证。

I left a little early that night after saying goodbye to everyone and thanking them. There were tears in all their eyes—and mine. By golly, we made it... together.

那天晚上我离开的比较早，离开之前，我分别向每个人告了别，并表达了谢意。他们的眼睛里都充满了泪水，我的也一样。最终，我们抑制住了悲伤，互相安慰，彼此告别......

I don't know what it is that makes poor folks, the down and outers, want so much to help their fellow man, and yet they're the least able to do so. As I became a good pianist in later years and played at the "ritzy" clubs, I can remember playing one where all the customers were multimillionaires, but not a one of them would have given me the scraps off his plate if I were starving. I like to believe they just need some 'stardust' to be kind.

我不知道是什么让这些贫穷、落魄的人，拥有如此强烈的愿望去帮助与他们有相似境遇的人，即便他们的能力非常有限。几年后，我成为了一名优秀的钢琴演奏者，并且开始在“高级”夜总会演奏。我记得一次演奏时，所有顾客全都是千万富翁，但在我饥饿难耐时，他们是不会分给我他们自己盘子里的残羹剩饭的。我愿意相信，要让这些人变得善良，只需要让他们多听几遍《星尘》。