A Singer Who Always Wins

王蒙

Wang Meng

有一位歌手，有一次她唱完了歌，竟没有一个人鼓掌。于是她在开会的时候说道：“掌声究竟能说明什么问题呢?难道掌声是美?是艺术?是黄金?掌声到底卖几分钱一斤?被观众鼓了几声掌就飘飘然，就忘乎所以，就选成了歌星，就坐飞机，就灌唱片，这简直是胡闹!是对灵魂的腐蚀!你不信，如果我扭起屁股唱黄歌儿，比她得到的掌声还多!”

Once a singer finished her performance without receiving any applause from the audience.Afterwards she remarked at a meeting, “What does applause mean? Is it beauty, art, or gold?How much is it worth after all? Once one gets some applause, one’s head will swell. And onewill be treated like a star, given free plane trips and invited to have one’s voice recordedeverywhere. It’s ridiculous! It is nothing but corruption of the mind! Believe it or not, if I hadswayed my hips and sung obscene songs, I would’ve got more applause than the stars.”

她还建议，对观众进行一次调查分析，分类排队，以证明掌声的无价值或反价值。

Then the singer came up with a suggestion that the audience should be investigated, analysed,and classified in order to prove their applause being worthless or even worse for its negativeeffects.

后来她又唱了一次歌，全场掌声雷动。她在会上又说开了：“歌曲是让人听的，如果人家不爱听，内容再好，曲调再好又有什么用?群众的眼睛是雪亮的，群众的心里是有一杆秤的，离开了群众的喜闻乐见，就是不搞大众化，只搞小众化，就是出了方向性差错，就是孤家寡人，自我欣赏。我听到的不只是掌声，而是一颗颗火热的心在跳动!”

Later, she gave another performance which won thunderous applause from the audience. Shespoke at another meeting, “Songs are to be appreciated by the audience. What’s the use ofsongs with good content and nice melody if no one likes them? The audience is the best judgewho knows how to strike a balance in the heart. Without the masses’ appreciation, one willonly be serving the few instead of many. And one will be taking the wrong direction by keepingaloof from the masses and indulging in self-admiration. What I heard from the audience wasnot only warm applause, but the beatings of their warm hearts!”

过了一阵子，音乐工作者又开会，谈到歌曲演唱中的一种不健康的倾向和群众的趣味需要疏导，欣赏水平需要提高。她便举出了那一次唱歌无人鼓掌作为例子，她宣称：

Some time later, members of the musical circles held a symposium and suggested that anunhealthy tendency should be stopped in singing performances, that appreciation levels beraised and good taste be cultivated. The singer then cited her first performance that haddrawn no applause from the audience and claimed,

“我顶住了!我顶住了!我顶住了!”

“See, I dared it! The unhealthy tendency! I dared it indeed!”

又过了一阵子，音乐工作者又开会，谈到受欢迎的群众歌曲还是创作、演唱得太少。她又举出了另一次掌声如雷的例子宣称：

After a period of time, there was another symposium among the musical circles. This time it wasproposed that more popular songs be composed and sung. And the singer took her secondperformance as an example to prove her claim,

“我早就做了，我早就做了，我早就做了!”

“See, I did it! The popular songs! I did it indeed!”