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E-Books (english-e-reader), Lord Mcdonald (1)

Lord Mcdonald (1)

Irish music is well known throughout the world. From Sydney to Buenos Aires, from London to New York, you can hear an Irish song, dance to a reel, and take a drop of Irish whiskey.

It is a sad thing, though, to see an Irishman far from home who is too fond of his glass...

My name is Michael Coleman and they say I am the finest fiddler that ever lived. They say I put a twist to a tune - I add something to it that no one else can. I have never been sure of where the twist comes from. I play that way because it is the only way I know. I play because I have to. I do not know where it comes from or what it is going towards.

My home is a small room in the South Bronx in New York, where the tall buildings shut out the sky. I don't understand the place at all. Two of my nieces passed through the city last week, on their way to look for work. We tried to talk about home but I could not, nor about here either. I picked up the fiddle and played a couple of tunes, and then there was no distance between me and them or The Bronx or Killavil in Ireland where I was born. That's what I have been able to do all my life.

I could talk to you forever, and still say less than you'd hear from the first few seconds of a tune called 'Lord McDonald'.

It was a calm, bright summer evening. I got the fiddle back once again - I'd had to pawn it because I needed the money. Times were hard, as they have been for years. I remember the days when we musicians were paid a working man's weekly wage for half a morning in the recording studio.

An Irish cop had hired me to play the fiddle at his daughter's birthday party. He had done well for himself since coming to the USA. Not only did he have money, he was also said to be honest. I spent the week before the party drinking to his honesty. A lot of money had been mentioned.

It was a short walk to his house, in good weather. As I went up the wide grey steps to the front door, there was an uneasy feeling in my stomach, the same anxious feeling I always have before I start to play.

Some nights I sit up and play and then I notice the sun has come up and is shining in the street outside. Then I find my face is wet with tears. 'Lord McDonald' is the tune I play.

I knocked at the cop's door, and a beautiful young woman in a blue dress opened it. She looked at me with a face full of puzzlement. There were holes in the elbows of my jacket. Nothing was said for a while.

'I'm Michael Coleman the fiddler. I'm here to play at the birthday party.'

The girl still said nothing, only looked me up and down for a few more moments. Then she turned and ran back inside.

I still remember the face of that cop. It was the face of a man who'd take terrible offence if you weren't enjoying yourself enough at his father's funeral party. A big man, nearly two meters tall, still the colour of a man who's spent many a long summer working on the farm. In a good suit and expensive shoes. He had more of the American accent than he should have had. I could never manage that trick, although I'm not sure, I missed much.

The cop rushed across the hall and tried to catch me by the throat. I stepped to one side and he dropped his hands. His right hand was opening and closing; he couldn't keep it still. There was no sound in the neat and tidy evening street. He was so angry that his tongue hit his teeth as he spoke.

'Well, Mickeen Coleman, the great fiddler. Ye dare to show your face here!'

I didn't know what was annoying the man at all.

'My daughter's birthday was this day last week. I had a hundred and fifty people waiting for ye. Damn it, where were ye?'

It's bad when you start making that sort of mistake. I really needed the money he'd have paid me.

'Well, Coleman, where were ye?'

'I made a mistake. I thought it was today I was supposed to be here.'

He banged his hand on the wall by the door. The man was nearly dancing with temper. There were a pair of young women standing in the hall behind him now. They were laughing at his shouting, and that was making him even angrier.

'I'll tell ye why ye weren't here, Mickeen. It's because ye were falling drunk around the South Bronx somewhere. I got plenty of warnings about ye but I didn't take them, fool that I am. Yourself and your friends are a poor advertisement for us Irish, drinking and fighting and bringing our name down in front of the Americans. Ye think ye're something, but ye're nothing.'

'I never aimed to be an advertisement for anyone, only myself.'

'Ye may all be famous but did any of ye ever do anything to give us a good name, did ye, did ye?' On about the second 'did ye' he hit me in the chest with his right hand and sent me rolling down the steps. I was on my feet before I reached the bottom one. I was always able to land on my feet.

I didn't say anything to the cop. I never even said goodbye. It was a grand evening. There wasn't enough wind to move grass.

I just walked off with the fiddle under my arm. Safe.

It cost people a lot more than their fare for the ship when they came over here. Some of them lost all sense of who they were. The cop wasn't the worst of them. A lot of them wouldn't let you near enough their house to be able to throw you off their steps. They'd be ashamed in case someone caught them listening to old Irish tunes like 'The Sligo Maid' or 'The Kerry man's Daughter'. The same people even tried to destroy their accent, cutting bits off it like a man trying to give a block of wood a new shape.

At one time, there was always a place for us. A place for those who made others dance. Maybe people don't want to be reminded about what they came from. Because they're frightened they haven't moved as far away from it as they think they have.

The fiddle was pawned again, and I was in a bar. A quiet bar. Drinking whiskey. I learned to drink at those dances where you'd accidentally break a string on your fiddle if they weren't refilling your glass quickly enough. I used to take my whiskey with friends and laughter then. Now I like to drink alone. The drink only makes me feel okay these days. Still, in bad times okay is good.

The twist. That's what they say I have, what I put into a tune that the others can't. You can't try to put the twist into your playing, it has to be part of it. Some days I think I know what the twist is, but I can never catch it because it is inside me.

It is what I am. The drinking, the way I could never stay in one place, the blackness I see in front of me some days, the dreams I have in the night. All there in my fiddle. Whatever it was that was wrong with me leaked out through my fingers, and they heard it as the twist.

And sometimes I think I have nothing to do with it at all. When the first records were sold, 78s they were called, I saw men and women dancing and laughing and crying at the same time. At my playing. I am a farmer's son from Killavil. How could it be me that did that? Maybe the fiddle wasn't the instrument at all.

I heard there were men at home who wouldn't eat for a couple of days so they could buy those records. Men who knew me did that! We had to come to America to record this Irish music to be sent back to Ireland for people there to buy, and yet we'll never see Ireland again. Things are wrong in this world, so they are.

I was never too eager for work. That was well known around the place at home. All I wanted to do was walk the countryside and play music. Some men will kill for land, others will die for a woman. I lived for the music of the dance, fast and slow, sad and sweet.

Everything else on the face of this earth was forgotten when I picked up a fiddle. The coldness of the city meant nothing to me when I was playing well. If I could hear the twist, it meant the life I was living was all right for me.

I'd only just got back to Killavil from London when I came to the USA. Big cars and bright lights, a law against drinking, theatres full of girls singing and dancing, and dollars. You couldn't feel right in it unless you were born in it. And even then you might not. You'll always look back at the place you came from and think it was better.

At home, we started with an innocent life. Walking home from village dances across pale wet fields, looking at birds on the moonlit lake, playing a tune across the water in the early morning with no other sound in the clear cold air.

But it was a false life. False because it wasn't right to let people live a life like that if they weren't going to be allowed to stay in it, if they were already marked to go someplace else. It didn't prepare us for New York or London, Boston or Manchester.

There was bitterness and jealousy and hunger at home - that's true, I can't say it isn't. But is it fair to be punished with a slow death from a bleeding wound? I look at people's faces when they hear the names of tunes from home, 'The Boys of Ballisodare' and 'The Plains of Boyle', and I know they are dying inside.

The night the cop threw me down the steps, I called at Seamus Anderson's house. I was full of whiskey but I knew he had a fiddle in the house. I wanted to sit up and play music all night. I needed to feel that moment in the back of my head when I would know I'd got there. And then it would disappear before I could catch it, and I would have to try and create it again.

Seamus owned a bar. Like the cop, he lived in a good house in a good area. I managed to open the garden gate, although I couldn't see straight. But I could hear a tune in my head that would cure me if I was only allowed to play it. I never played a tune badly in my life. The drink would change everything around in my head but I would still play the same as ever. The twist would always be there.

I knocked on Seamus Anderson's door. There was light inside but there was no answer. There were plenty of voices. A light came on in the hall, so I tried to concentrate and look sober. Seamus was a churchgoing man who was strongly opposed to drink, although that didn't stop him selling it.

I held my breath and tried to force my eyes to look in the one place at the one time. All it did was make my head go round. I fell against the door. A woman's voice shouted.

Lord Mcdonald (1) Lord Mcdonald (1) Lord Mcdonald (1) Lord Mcdonald (1) マクドナルド卿 (1) 로드 맥도날드 (1) Lord Mcdonald (1) Senhor Mcdonald (1) Лорд Макдональд (1) Лорд Макдональд (1) 麥當勞勳爵 (1)

Irish music is well known throughout the world. La musique irlandaise est connue dans le monde entier. From Sydney to Buenos Aires, from London to New York, you can hear an Irish song, dance to a reel, and take a drop of Irish whiskey. De Sydney à Buenos Aires, de Londres à New York, vous pouvez entendre une chanson irlandaise, danser sur un reel et boire une goutte de whisky irlandais.

It is a sad thing, though, to see an Irishman far from home who is too fond of his glass... Il est triste de voir un Irlandais loin de chez lui qui aime trop son verre...

My name is Michael Coleman and they say I am the finest fiddler that ever lived. They say I put a twist to a tune - I add something to it that no one else can. I have never been sure of where the twist comes from. Ich war mir nie sicher, woher der Twist kommt. I play that way because it is the only way I know. I play because I have to. Ich spiele, weil ich es muss. I do not know where it comes from or what it is going towards. Ich weiß nicht, woher das Geld kommt und wofür es verwendet wird. Я не знаю, откуда она берется и на что направляется.

My home is a small room in the South Bronx in New York, where the tall buildings shut out the sky. Mein Zuhause ist ein kleines Zimmer in der South Bronx in New York, wo die hohen Gebäude den Himmel verschliessen. I don't understand the place at all. Ich verstehe den Ort überhaupt nicht. Two of my nieces passed through the city last week, on their way to look for work. Zwei meiner Nichten kamen letzte Woche auf dem Weg zur Arbeitssuche durch die Stadt. We tried to talk about home but I could not, nor about here either. Wir versuchten, über zu Hause zu sprechen, aber ich konnte es nicht, und über hier auch nicht. I picked up the fiddle and played a couple of tunes, and then there was no distance between me and them or The Bronx or Killavil in Ireland where I was born. Ich nahm die Fiedel in die Hand und spielte ein paar Lieder, und dann gab es keine Distanz mehr zwischen mir und ihnen oder der Bronx oder Killavil in Irland, wo ich geboren wurde. That's what I have been able to do all my life. Das habe ich mein ganzes Leben lang tun können.

I could talk to you forever, and still say less than you'd hear from the first few seconds of a tune called 'Lord McDonald'. Ich könnte ewig mit dir reden und würde trotzdem weniger sagen, als du in den ersten paar Sekunden eines Liedes namens 'Lord McDonald' hören würdest.

It was a calm, bright summer evening. Es war ein ruhiger, heller Sommerabend. I got the fiddle back once again - I'd had to pawn it because I needed the money. Ich habe die Geige wieder zurückbekommen - ich hatte sie verpfänden müssen, weil ich das Geld brauchte. Times were hard, as they have been for years. Die Zeiten waren hart, wie schon seit Jahren. I remember the days when we musicians were paid a working man's weekly wage for half a morning in the recording studio. Ich erinnere mich an die Zeit, als wir Musiker für einen halben Vormittag im Aufnahmestudio den Wochenlohn eines Arbeiters bekamen.

An Irish cop had hired me to play the fiddle at his daughter's birthday party. Ein irischer Polizist hatte mich engagiert, um auf der Geburtstagsparty seiner Tochter die Geige zu spielen. He had done well for himself since coming to the USA. Seit er in die USA gekommen war, hatte er sich gut behauptet. Not only did he have money, he was also said to be honest. Er hatte nicht nur Geld, sondern auch den Ruf, ehrlich zu sein. I spent the week before the party drinking to his honesty. Ich habe die Woche vor der Party damit verbracht, auf seine Ehrlichkeit zu trinken. Неделю перед вечеринкой я пил за его честность. A lot of money had been mentioned. Es war von viel Geld die Rede.

It was a short walk to his house, in good weather. As I went up the wide grey steps to the front door, there was an uneasy feeling in my stomach, the same anxious feeling I always have before I start to play. Als ich die breite, graue Treppe zur Haustür hinaufging, hatte ich ein ungutes Gefühl im Magen, dasselbe ängstliche Gefühl, das ich immer habe, bevor ich zu spielen beginne.

Some nights I sit up and play and then I notice the sun has come up and is shining in the street outside. In manchen Nächten sitze ich auf und spiele, und dann bemerke ich, dass die Sonne aufgegangen ist und draußen auf die Straße scheint. Then I find my face is wet with tears. 'Lord McDonald' is the tune I play. Lord McDonald' ist die Melodie, die ich spiele.

I knocked at the cop's door, and a beautiful young woman in a blue dress opened it. Ich klopfte an die Tür des Polizisten, und eine hübsche junge Frau in einem blauen Kleid öffnete sie. She looked at me with a face full of puzzlement. Sie sah mich mit einem verwirrten Gesicht an. There were holes in the elbows of my jacket. Meine Jacke hatte Löcher in den Ellbogen. Nothing was said for a while. Некоторое время ничего не было сказано.

'I'm Michael Coleman the fiddler. I'm here to play at the birthday party.'

The girl still said nothing, only looked me up and down for a few more moments. Then she turned and ran back inside.

I still remember the face of that cop. It was the face of a man who'd take terrible offence if you weren't enjoying yourself enough at his father's funeral party. Es war das Gesicht eines Mannes, der furchtbar beleidigt sein würde, wenn man sich auf der Beerdigungsfeier seines Vaters nicht genug amüsieren würde. Это было лицо человека, который ужасно обиделся бы, если бы вы не получили достаточно удовольствия на похоронах его отца. A big man, nearly two meters tall, still the colour of a man who's spent many a long summer working on the farm. Ein großer Mann, fast zwei Meter groß, immer noch die Farbe eines Mannes, der viele lange Sommer auf dem Bauernhof gearbeitet hat. In a good suit and expensive shoes. He had more of the American accent than he should have had. I could never manage that trick, although I'm not sure, I missed much. Das ist mir nie gelungen, obwohl ich mir nicht sicher bin, dass ich viel verpasst habe. Я никогда не мог справиться с этим трюком, хотя я не уверен, я многое упустил.

The cop rushed across the hall and tried to catch me by the throat. I stepped to one side and he dropped his hands. Я отступил в сторону, и он опустил руки. His right hand was opening and closing; he couldn't keep it still. Его правая рука открывала и закрывала; он не мог удержаться на месте. There was no sound in the neat and tidy evening street. He was so angry that his tongue hit his teeth as he spoke.

'Well, Mickeen Coleman, the great fiddler. Ye dare to show your face here!'

I didn't know what was annoying the man at all.

'My daughter's birthday was this day last week. I had a hundred and fifty people waiting for ye. Damn it, where were ye?'

It's bad when you start making that sort of mistake. Es ist schlimm, wenn man anfängt, solche Fehler zu machen. I really needed the money he'd have paid me. Ich brauchte das Geld, das er mir gezahlt hätte, wirklich.

'Well, Coleman, where were ye?'

'I made a mistake. I thought it was today I was supposed to be here.'

He banged his hand on the wall by the door. The man was nearly dancing with temper. Мужчина едва не танцевал от гнева. There were a pair of young women standing in the hall behind him now. They were laughing at his shouting, and that was making him even angrier.

'I'll tell ye why ye weren't here, Mickeen. — Я скажу тебе, почему тебя здесь не было, Миккин. It's because ye were falling drunk around the South Bronx somewhere. I got plenty of warnings about ye but I didn't take them, fool that I am. Ich habe viele Warnungen erhalten, aber ich habe sie nicht beachtet, ich Dummkopf, der ich bin. Я получил много предупреждений о тебе, но я не принял их, дурак, какой я есть. Yourself and your friends are a poor advertisement for us Irish, drinking and fighting and bringing our name down in front of the Americans. Sie und Ihre Freunde sind ein schlechtes Aushängeschild für uns Iren, die trinken und kämpfen und unseren Namen vor den Amerikanern in Verruf bringen. Ye think ye're something, but ye're nothing.'

'I never aimed to be an advertisement for anyone, only myself.'

'Ye may all be famous but did any of ye ever do anything to give us a good name, did ye, did ye?' «Вы все можете быть знамениты, но кто-нибудь из вас когда-нибудь сделал что-нибудь, чтобы дать нам доброе имя, не так ли, не так ли?» On about the second 'did ye' he hit me in the chest with his right hand and sent me rolling down the steps. I was on my feet before I reached the bottom one. Я был на ногах, прежде чем я достиг нижней. I was always able to land on my feet. Я всегда мог приземлиться на ноги.

I didn't say anything to the cop. I never even said goodbye. It was a grand evening. There wasn't enough wind to move grass. Ветра не хватало, чтобы шевельнуть траву.

I just walked off with the fiddle under my arm. Safe.

It cost people a lot more than their fare for the ship when they came over here. Es kostete die Leute viel mehr als der Fahrpreis für das Schiff, als sie hierher kamen. Это стоило людям намного больше, чем их проезд на корабле, когда они прибывали сюда. Some of them lost all sense of who they were. Einige von ihnen haben jegliches Gefühl dafür verloren, wer sie waren. The cop wasn't the worst of them. Der Polizist war nicht der Schlimmste von ihnen. A lot of them wouldn't let you near enough their house to be able to throw you off their steps. Viele von ihnen würden dich nicht in die Nähe ihres Hauses lassen, um dich von der Treppe werfen zu können. Многие из них не подпустили бы вас к своему дому настолько, чтобы вы могли сбить вас со своего пути. They'd be ashamed in case someone caught them listening to old Irish tunes like 'The Sligo Maid' or 'The Kerry man's Daughter'. Sie würden sich schämen, wenn jemand sie beim Hören alter irischer Lieder wie 'The Sligo Maid' oder 'The Kerry man's Daughter' erwischen würde. The same people even tried to destroy their accent, cutting bits off it like a man trying to give a block of wood a new shape. Dieselben Leute versuchten sogar, ihren Akzent zu zerstören, indem sie Teile davon abschnitten, wie ein Mann, der einem Holzklotz eine neue Form geben will.

At one time, there was always a place for us. Früher gab es immer einen Platz für uns. A place for those who made others dance. Ein Ort für diejenigen, die andere zum Tanzen gebracht haben. Maybe people don't want to be reminded about what they came from. Vielleicht wollen die Menschen nicht daran erinnert werden, woher sie kommen. Because they're frightened they haven't moved as far away from it as they think they have. Weil sie Angst haben, haben sie sich nicht so weit von ihr entfernt, wie sie glauben, dass sie es getan haben.

The fiddle was pawned again, and I was in a bar. Die Fiedel wurde wieder verpfändet, und ich war in einer Bar. A quiet bar. Drinking whiskey. Whiskey trinken. I learned to drink at those dances where you'd accidentally break a string on your fiddle if they weren't refilling your glass quickly enough. Ich habe das Trinken bei diesen Tänzen gelernt, bei denen einem versehentlich eine Saite auf der Geige reißt, wenn man sein Glas nicht schnell genug nachfüllt. Я научился пить на тех танцах, где ты случайно порвал струну на своей скрипке, если они не наполняли твой стакан достаточно быстро. I used to take my whiskey with friends and laughter then. Damals habe ich meinen Whiskey mit Freunden getrunken und gelacht. Now I like to drink alone. The drink only makes me feel okay these days. Das Getränk sorgt dafür, dass ich mich in diesen Tagen gut fühle. Still, in bad times okay is good. Doch in schlechten Zeiten ist alles gut.

The twist. Die Wendung. Поворот. That's what they say I have, what I put into a tune that the others can't. Das ist es, was man mir nachsagt, was ich in eine Melodie packe, was die anderen nicht können. Это то, что, по их словам, у меня есть, то, что я вкладываю в мелодию, которую другие не могут. You can't try to put the twist into your playing, it has to be part of it. Du kannst nicht versuchen, den Twist in dein Spiel einzubauen, er muss ein Teil davon sein. Some days I think I know what the twist is, but I can never catch it because it is inside me. An manchen Tagen denke ich, dass ich weiß, was die Wendung ist, aber ich kann sie nicht erkennen, weil sie in mir steckt.

It is what I am. Das ist es, was ich bin. The drinking, the way I could never stay in one place, the blackness I see in front of me some days, the dreams I have in the night. Das Trinken, die Art und Weise, wie ich nie an einem Ort bleiben konnte, die Schwärze, die ich an manchen Tagen vor mir sehe, die Träume, die ich in der Nacht habe. All there in my fiddle. Whatever it was that was wrong with me leaked out through my fingers, and they heard it as the twist. Was auch immer mit mir los war, es sickerte durch meine Finger, und sie hörten es als Drehung.

And sometimes I think I have nothing to do with it at all. Und manchmal denke ich, dass ich überhaupt nichts damit zu tun habe. When the first records were sold, 78s they were called, I saw men and women dancing and laughing and crying at the same time. Als die ersten Schallplatten, 78er genannt, verkauft wurden, sah ich Männer und Frauen tanzen, lachen und weinen zugleich. At my playing. Bei meinem Spiel. I am a farmer's son from Killavil. Ich bin ein Bauernsohn aus Killavil. How could it be me that did that? Wie konnte ich das nur tun? Maybe the fiddle wasn't the instrument at all. Vielleicht war die Fiedel gar nicht das Instrument.

I heard there were men at home who wouldn't eat for a couple of days so they could buy those records. Ich habe gehört, dass es zu Hause Männer gab, die ein paar Tage lang nichts gegessen haben, um diese Platten kaufen zu können. Men who knew me did that! Männer, die mich kannten, haben das getan! We had to come to America to record this Irish music to be sent back to Ireland for people there to buy, and yet we'll never see Ireland again. Wir mussten nach Amerika kommen, um diese irische Musik aufzunehmen, die dann nach Irland zurückgeschickt wird, damit die Leute sie dort kaufen können, und trotzdem werden wir Irland nie wieder sehen. Нам пришлось приехать в Америку, чтобы записать эту ирландскую музыку, чтобы отправить ее обратно в Ирландию, чтобы люди там могли ее купить, и все же мы больше никогда не увидим Ирландию. Things are wrong in this world, so they are. Die Dinge in dieser Welt sind falsch, so ist es.

I was never too eager for work. Ich war nie besonders erpicht auf Arbeit. That was well known around the place at home. Das war bei uns zu Hause sehr bekannt. All I wanted to do was walk the countryside and play music. Alles, was ich tun wollte, war, durch die Landschaft zu wandern und Musik zu machen. Some men will kill for land, others will die for a woman. Manche Männer töten für Land, andere sterben für eine Frau. I lived for the music of the dance, fast and slow, sad and sweet.

Everything else on the face of this earth was forgotten when I picked up a fiddle. Alles andere auf dieser Welt war vergessen, als ich eine Geige in die Hand nahm. The coldness of the city meant nothing to me when I was playing well. Die Kälte der Stadt hat mir nichts ausgemacht, wenn ich gut gespielt habe. Холод города ничего не значил для меня, когда я играл хорошо. If I could hear the twist, it meant the life I was living was all right for me. Wenn ich den Twist hören konnte, bedeutete das, dass das Leben, das ich führte, für mich in Ordnung war. Если я мог услышать поворот, это означало, что жизнь, которой я жил, была для меня хорошей.

I'd only just got back to Killavil from London when I came to the USA. Ich war gerade erst von London nach Killavil zurückgekehrt, als ich in die USA kam. Я только что вернулся в Киллавил из Лондона, когда приехал в США. Big cars and bright lights, a law against drinking, theatres full of girls singing and dancing, and dollars. Große Autos und helle Lichter, ein Gesetz gegen Alkohol, Theater voller singender und tanzender Mädchen und Dollars. Большие машины и яркие огни, закон против пьянства, театры, полные девушек, поющих и танцующих, и доллары. You couldn't feel right in it unless you were born in it. Man konnte sich darin nicht wohlfühlen, wenn man nicht darin geboren wurde. And even then you might not. Und selbst dann vielleicht nicht. You'll always look back at the place you came from and think it was better.

At home, we started with an innocent life. Zu Hause haben wir mit einem unschuldigen Leben begonnen. Walking home from village dances across pale wet fields, looking at birds on the moonlit lake, playing a tune across the water in the early morning with no other sound in the clear cold air. Vom Dorftanz über blasse, nasse Felder nach Hause gehen, die Vögel auf dem mondbeschienenen See beobachten, frühmorgens über das Wasser eine Melodie spielen, ohne dass ein anderes Geräusch in der klaren, kalten Luft liegt.

But it was a false life. Aber es war ein falsches Leben. False because it wasn't right to let people live a life like that if they weren't going to be allowed to stay in it, if they were already marked to go someplace else. Falsch, denn es war nicht richtig, Menschen ein solches Leben führen zu lassen, wenn sie nicht darin bleiben durften, wenn sie bereits gezeichnet waren, woanders hinzugehen. Ложь, потому что было бы неправильно позволять людям жить такой жизнью, если бы им не позволили остаться в ней, если бы они уже были отмечены, чтобы идти куда-то еще. It didn't prepare us for New York or London, Boston or Manchester. Es hat uns nicht auf New York oder London, Boston oder Manchester vorbereitet.

There was bitterness and jealousy and hunger at home - that's true, I can't say it isn't. Zu Hause herrschten Bitterkeit, Eifersucht und Hunger - das ist wahr, das kann ich nicht bestreiten. But is it fair to be punished with a slow death from a bleeding wound? Aber ist es gerecht, mit einem langsamen Tod durch eine blutende Wunde bestraft zu werden? Но справедливо ли быть наказанным медленной смертью от кровоточащей раны? I look at people's faces when they hear the names of tunes from home, 'The Boys of Ballisodare' and 'The Plains of Boyle', and I know they are dying inside. Wenn ich in die Gesichter der Leute schaue, wenn sie die Namen von Melodien aus ihrer Heimat hören, 'The Boys of Ballisodare' und 'The Plains of Boyle', dann weiß ich, dass sie innerlich sterben.

The night the cop threw me down the steps, I called at Seamus Anderson's house. In der Nacht, als der Polizist mich die Treppe hinunterwarf, rief ich bei Seamus Anderson zu Hause an. I was full of whiskey but I knew he had a fiddle in the house. Ich war voll mit Whiskey, aber ich wusste, dass er eine Fiedel im Haus hatte. Я был полон виски, но я знал, что у него есть скрипка в доме. I wanted to sit up and play music all night. Ich wollte die ganze Nacht aufbleiben und Musik machen. I needed to feel that moment in the back of my head when I would know I'd got there. Ich musste diesen Moment in meinem Hinterkopf spüren, in dem ich wusste, dass ich es geschafft hatte. And then it would disappear before I could catch it, and I would have to try and create it again. Und dann verschwand es, bevor ich es auffangen konnte, und ich musste versuchen, es erneut zu erstellen. А потом он исчезнет, прежде чем я смогу его поймать, и мне придется попытаться создать его снова.

Seamus owned a bar. Seamus besaß eine Bar. Симус владел баром. Like the cop, he lived in a good house in a good area. Wie der Polizist wohnte er in einem guten Haus in einer guten Gegend. I managed to open the garden gate, although I couldn't see straight. Es gelang mir, das Gartentor zu öffnen, obwohl ich nicht richtig sehen konnte. Мне удалось открыть садовую калитку, хотя я не мог видеть прямо. But I could hear a tune in my head that would cure me if I was only allowed to play it. Aber ich konnte eine Melodie in meinem Kopf hören, die mich heilen würde, wenn ich sie nur spielen dürfte. Но я мог слышать мелодию в своей голове, которая вылечила бы меня, если бы мне только разрешили ее сыграть. I never played a tune badly in my life. Ich habe noch nie in meinem Leben eine Melodie schlecht gespielt. Я никогда в жизни плохо не играл мелодию. The drink would change everything around in my head but I would still play the same as ever. Der Drink veränderte alles in meinem Kopf, aber ich spielte immer noch so wie immer. The twist would always be there. Die Wendung würde immer da sein.

I knocked on Seamus Anderson's door. There was light inside but there was no answer. Drinnen brannte Licht, aber es gab keine Antwort. There were plenty of voices. Es gab viele Stimmen. A light came on in the hall, so I tried to concentrate and look sober. Im Flur ging ein Licht an, also versuchte ich, mich zu konzentrieren und nüchtern auszusehen. Seamus was a churchgoing man who was strongly opposed to drink, although that didn't stop him selling it. Seamus war ein kirchlicher Mann, der den Alkohol strikt ablehnte, was ihn aber nicht davon abhielt, ihn zu verkaufen.

I held my breath and tried to force my eyes to look in the one place at the one time. Ich hielt den Atem an und versuchte, meine Augen zu zwingen, immer nur an eine Stelle zu schauen. All it did was make my head go round. Es hat mir nur den Kopf verdreht. I fell against the door. Ich fiel gegen die Tür. A woman's voice shouted. Eine Frauenstimme rief.