来自纽约街头陌生人的琴声 A NYC Street Stranger's Music Gift By YUAN

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5 years passed. Now I am back in New York. A city where I used to live and study at. A city that I used to hate and love at the same time.

5年过去了，如今我又回到了纽约，一个我过去生活和学习过的城市，一个曾让我欢喜让我忧的城市。

Despite many life changes I've gone through, the Big Apple remains the same: imposing skyscrapers, comings and goings of New Yorkers of different races, and their aloofness mixed with occasional friendliness. As an outsider, you can sense such a paradox from just their eyes even though most parts of their faces are covered by a mask in COVID time.

尽管我的生活发生很多变故，“大苹果城”一点都没变：壮观的摩天大楼，来来去去、不同肤色的纽约客，以及他们时而友善，时而冷淡的气场。作为外来者，通过他们的眼神你就能感受到他们矛盾的性格，尽管在疫情期间，他们的脸上都被口罩遮住了。

In this era of the pandemic, most have hidden their adventurous spirits in the closet of their hearts and international travels become a rarity. So my visit to New York against this backdrop had my family worried especially when the Omicron of COVID was hitting the Big Apple.

在疫情的年代，大多人都把探险的热情藏在了心中的角落，跨国旅行也不再常见。所以这次我来纽约让我的家人十分担忧，尤其是纽约正在经历着新冠的变种病毒——奥密克戎的侵袭。

Yet, I still chose to come to New York. An omen directed me here. It'd told me I should come here to find a hidden "treasure".

但是，我仍然来到了纽约。一个征兆将我带到了这里。它告诉我应该来到这去找到一个隐藏的“宝藏”。

As for whether I've found the treasure or not here, it is another story. Maybe I'll turn into a story into my first fiction. Today's protagonist is not me. It's Carlos.

至于我是否找寻到了宝藏，那是另外一个故事。可能我会把它写成我的第一部小说。但今天故事的主角不是我，是卡洛斯。

Though it was mid-December in New York, the city was still in the colors of fall. The Ginko trees alongside the narrow street of Manhattan were still dotted by their last canary leaves. Hudson River under sunset was like a crumpled napkin, showing wrinkles of orange and navy blue. New Yorkers, donning colorful garments—some even wore shorts and short skirts in day time—constituted the most lively colors in this metropolis painting. And of course, my friend and I were also fortunate dots in this picture as well.

虽然纽约已经进入十二月中旬了，但城市仍然保留着秋天的颜色。曼哈顿岛狭窄街道两旁的银杏树仍旧被金色的叶子装饰着。夕阳下的哈德逊河像一张褶皱的餐巾纸，有些褶皱挂着橘色，有些挂着深蓝。纽约客打扮各异，有些甚者白天还穿着短裤和短裙，是这一幅城市画布中最活跃的颜色。当然，我和我的朋友也有幸成为这幅画卷中的两个墨点。

It was a Friday morning. We were walking in Central Park. I was still quite spent from the recent long international flight from China to New York. Such a man-made forest in the middle of the busiest and crowded city in the world was a perfect place to forget all my traveling fatigues and sorrows in my life. My rooted shyness was defrosted a little thanks to the good company of my friend and children's laughter in the park.

那是一个周五的早上，我们在中央公园散步。由于中美的长途飞行，我的身体依旧疲惫。在世界上最繁忙和拥挤的城市中央有这样一片人工森林，对我来说，这简直是让我让忘记所有旅行疲惫和生活悲伤的完美之地。住在我心里的羞涩也因为我朋友的陪伴和公园里孩子们的笑声解冻了一些。

Then my friend decided to take me to a place in the park. Her secret go-to place. Knowing my friend well, I knew I'd be regular at this place as well even though I had no idea what'd happen and whom we'd meet in this secret spot.

我的朋友决定带我去公园的一个地方，她经常去的一个秘密地方。因为我们的熟络，她知道这个地方也会是我很喜欢去的角落，虽然我并不知道后面会发生什么，我们会碰到谁。

It was an underground hallway under a bridge. The mosaic roof and wall tiles and the Roman columns would fool you to believe that you were in Europe. In the middle of the spacious hallway sat an empty chair.

我们来到了一个桥下的地下大厅。大厅屋顶和墙壁的马赛克瓷砖以及罗马柱可能会让你以为这是在欧洲。在大厅的中央，是一张空的椅子。

"Oh, nooooo... He's not here today." My friend broke the silence in the hallway.

"Who's not here?"

"The guitarist. I take you here to listen to him." A disappointment showed in her voice.

"Aw...It's ok. We will come back for another day."

“噢，不。他今天没来。”我的朋友打破了大厅的沉默。

“谁没来？“

“弹吉他的人。我带你来就是来听他的。”她的声音中略显失望。

“哎呦。没事儿的。我们改天再来。”

We walked inside and around the hallway for a while. As we were about to find our next soothing corner in the city, a mellow sound of classic guitar made our eyes open in astonishment.

我们走进了大厅，在大厅附近转了一会。正当我们要去找寻我们在城市中下一个舒心的角落时，一段温柔的古典吉他旋律让我们吃惊的睁大双眼。

"Could it be ...?" The same inner voice asked us as we shared a look.

“难道是？”面面相觑的我们有着一个同样的心声。

It was him. A middle-aged man in his red down coat, holding his guitar that had seen better days, sat on the chair that was empty before. Even with his mask on, you could know that he was a man of many stories. His fingers were dancing fast yet softly on the guitar board, producing a very mellow version of Ryuichi Sakamoto's "Merry Christmas, Mr. Laurence". His taste in music was as good as his skill and the softness in his eyes.

确实是他，一个穿着红色羽绒服的中年大叔，抱着他陈旧的吉他，坐在之前的空椅子上。虽然他带着口罩，你能感觉到他是一个有故事的人。他的手指在琴版上轻快、温柔的跳着舞，带着柔情，他在弹着的是坂本龙一创作的“圣诞快乐，劳伦斯”。他对音乐的品味和他的琴技和眼中的温柔一样棒。

We stayed for two more tunes amidst comings and goings of others. But just as we clapped and readied ourselves to put some money in the donation box in front of him, he played another tune. A tune so familiar to Chinese ears, "The Moon Represents My Heart". My friend and I shared a look with a big reticent smile under our masks. With great appreciation to the musician, we hummed along with the guitarist's beautiful rendition of this old Chinese love song. I knew what was on her mind and so did she.

在行人来来去去的大厅，我们又听了两曲。正当我们鼓掌，准备上前在他面前的捐助盒子里放些零钱时，他又弹了一曲。一段中国听众再熟悉不过的旋律：“月亮代表我的心”。我和我的朋友会心的看了看对方，口罩背后露出笑颜。带着对音乐家极大的感恩，我们一起哼唱着这首来自中国的情歌。我知道她的所思所想，她也一样。

Finally, we walked towards him. I was still shy, but Carlos' softness in the corners of his kind eyes melted my shyness completely. Yes, his name is Carlos and he is from Chile. He'd played in this spot for the last 10 years. And his worn guitar is 28 years old, almost as good as me. But I'm sure the soul that lives in his guitar has seen and listened more than mine.

最后，我们还是走向他。我仍旧羞涩，但卡洛斯眼角的温柔彻底的融化了我的羞涩。是的，他的名字是卡洛斯，他的老家在智利。他在这个地方已经弹了十年的琴了，他的那把旧吉他也28年了，差不多赶上了我的年龄。但我确信，住在吉他里的灵魂一定比我见过更多的世面，听过更多的旋律。

Carlos asked me what I did for a living and how I liked New York now. I told him I was building my own mobile bookstore and would be living in my van while touring the world. And I told him I'd prefer to live in a quiter place than a big city like New York. He shared a story after hearing mine. It was about a homeless person he knew in the park. He used to live in the park, feeding on the overflow of leftover food wasted by the city. He told Carlos that one can never die of hunger in New York because of how much food people waste every day. Since hunger is not an issue, he moved to the mountains near New York as he wanted to live a quieter life now. Homeless as he was, but he sounded like one very happy man in the words of Carlos. Besides his music, Carlos taught me another life lesson: "choose life".

卡洛斯问我以什么为生，以及我现在对纽约的感觉。我告诉他我在建造自己的移动书屋，然后打算开着它周游世界，并且以此为家。我告诉他我更喜欢在安静的地方生活，而不是像纽约这么大的城市。在听过我的故事后，他也分享了一个故事给我。他之前在中央公园认识的一个流浪汉，他以纽约浪费的剩菜剩饭为生。他告诉卡洛斯，在纽约你是不会饿死的，因为每天都有人浪费太多的食物了。饥饿并不是一个问题，所以他搬到了纽约附近的山中居住，因为他想要一个更清净的生活。虽然他居无定所，但在卡洛斯的言辞中，他听起来是一个非常快乐的人。除了他的音乐，卡洛斯还传授给我一个人生之道：选择生活。

As a farewell gift, he played my friends' favorite composer's piece--Ennio Morricone's "Love Theme" featured in the movie "Cinema Paradiso". After this final tune, we hugged him goodbye and left with warm tears in our eyes…

临别之际，他弹了我朋友最喜欢的作曲家的曲目——埃尼奥·莫里康尼的“Love Theme”，作为礼物。在这终曲结束时，我们拥抱致意！转身离别时，泪水浸满了眼眶……

Why tears? You might ask. Nothing is more beautiful than the love flowing among humanities.

为什么会流泪？你可能会问。没有什么能比人类之间传递的爱，更加美丽了。

009 睡前英文 | 来自纽约街头陌生人的琴声 by YUAN #美国 15:35 Share

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009 睡前英文 | 来自纽约街头陌生人的琴声 by YUAN #美国