瓦格纳的圣诞诺言

理查德·瓦格纳（Richard Wagner），1813～1883，德国著名作曲家、指挥家。主要作品有：歌剧《尼伯龙根的指环》、《帕西法尔》等11部，9首序曲、1部交响乐、4部钢琴奏鸣曲及大量合唱曲、艺术歌曲等，著作《艺术与革命》、《歌剧与戏剧》等。

On Christmas Eve， 1870， Richard Wagner and his wife， Cosima， had agreed not to give each other Christmas presents. They were simply too poor. But Wagner was planning a surprise gift.

1870年的平安夜，理查德·瓦格纳和他的妻子柯西玛说好了不互送对方礼物——他们实在是太穷了。但瓦格纳还是计划准备一份惊喜礼物。

For more than two months he had been crafting a piece of music to be performed outside Cosimas bedroom door on Christmas morning. He had based it on themes1 later to be used in his opera Siegfried， plus2 a little nursery song3 he had written for their children two years earlier. He completed the Siegfried Idyll4 three weeks before Christmas and arranged for5 conductor6 Hans Richter to recruit7 the members of the small orchestra8. Richter did secret rehearsals9， first in Zurich then at a hotel in Lucerne.

两个多月来，瓦格纳一直在创作一首乐曲，准备圣诞节那天早晨在柯西玛的卧室外弹奏。他的曲子取材于他后来的歌剧《齐格费里德》的主旋律，另外加入一首两年前他写给孩子们的小童谣。在圣诞节前，瓦格纳写完了《齐格费里德田园曲》，就安排指挥家汉斯·里切斯特在一小型管弦乐团里选录演员。里切斯特秘密地排练了几场，先在苏黎世，后来在卢塞恩的一家旅馆。

Wagner invited philosopher10 Friedrich Nietzsche to the final rehearsal on Christmas Eve at the Hotel du Lac and they arrived together at the Wagners home in the village of Trihschen. There they found Cosima decorating11 the Christmas tree and preparing presents for the children.

平安夜，在杜拉奇酒店的最后一次排练时，瓦格纳把哲学家弗里德里希·尼采请了过来，随后他们一起到达瓦格纳位于萃斯琴村的家。在那里，他们看见柯西玛正在装饰圣诞树，为孩子们准备礼物呢。

At seven oclock on Christmas morning the musicians12 arrived and quietly arranged themselves on the stairs outside Cosimas room. They began to play.

圣诞节早晨七点，乐师们来了。他们悄悄地在柯西玛屋子外的楼梯上排好，然后开始演奏起来。

“As I awoke to the light of dawn，” Cosima said later， “my mind passed from one dream into another. Familiar sounds from Siegfried came to my ears. It was as if the house—or more accurately—our entire13 being， was rising up in music and going up to heaven14. Sacred memories， birdsong and sunrise， interwoven15 with music from Siegfried， soothed my heart and I came to realize that I was not dreaming， and yet was experiencing the most sublime of all dreams. Now at last I understood all of Richards writing in secret.”

“当我从晨光中醒来，”柯西玛后来回忆说，“一个梦接一个梦从我脑海掠过。忽然，熟悉的《齐格费里德》乐曲传入耳畔。当时，就好像整个房子——或更确切地说——所有的一切都和音乐一起跳跃起来，飘上了天堂。神圣的记忆、鸟鸣、日出等等都和《齐格费里德》的音乐交织融合在一起了。我深感安慰，开始意识到，我没有做梦，却享受到了最美妙的梦境。现在，我终于明白瓦格纳的创作秘密了。”

And yet Wagner had kept his pledge16 not to buy his wife a Christmas present. December 25th was Cosimas birthday.

然而瓦格纳还是遵守了不给他妻子买圣诞礼物的诺言，而12月25日是柯西玛的生日。

注 释

1. theme n. （乐曲的）主题 2. plus v. 加

3. nursery song 儿歌 4. Idyll n. 田园诗

5. arrange for 为……作安排 6. conductor n. 指挥

7. recruit v. 吸收新成员；招聘 8. orchestra n. 管弦乐队

9. rehearsal n. 彩排 10. philosopher n. 哲学家

11. decorate v. 装饰 12. musician n. 乐师；音乐家

13. entire adj. 全部的；整个的 14. heaven n. 天堂

15. interweave v. 使与……交织 16. pledge n. 誓言；保证