大学英语fame课文翻译

　　【大学英语fame课文】

　　Fame is very much like an animal chasing its own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. Fame and the exhilarating celebrity that accompanies it, force the famous person to participate in his or her own destruction. Ironic isn't it?

　　Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of possessing a single talent or skill: singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc. The successful performer develops a style that is marketed aggressively and gains some popularity, and it is this popularity that usually convinces the performer to continue performing in the same style, since that is what the public seems to want and to enjow. But in time, the performer becomes bored singing the same songs in the same way year after year, or the painter becomes bored painting similar scenes or portraite, or the actor is tired of playing the same character repeatedly. The demand of the public holds the artist hostage to his or her own success, fame. If the artist attempts to change his or her style of writing or dancing or singing, etc., the audience may turn away and look to confer fleeting fickle fame on another and then, in time, on another , and so on and so on.

　　Who cannot recognize a Tennessee Williams play or a novel by John Updike or Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or W. H. Auden or T. S. Eliot? The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, Dali or Picasso and it is true of movie makers like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kai-ge or Zhang Yimou. Their distinctive styles marked a significant change in the traditional forms and granted them fame and forturn, but they were not free to develop other styles or forms because their audience demanded of each of them what they originally presented. Hemingway cannot even now be confused with Henry James or anyone else, nor can Forst be confused with Yeats, etc. The unique forms each of them created, created them. No artist or performer can entirely escape the lure of fame and its promise of endless admiration and respect, but there is a heavy price one must pay for it.

　　Fame brings celebrity and high regard from adoring and loyal fans in each field of endeavor and it is heady stuff. A performer can easily come to believe that he or she is as good as his or her press. But most people, most artists do not gain fame and fortune. What about those performers who fail, or anyone who fails? Curiously enough, failure often serves as its own reward for many people! It brings sympathy from others who are delighted not to be you, and it allows family and friends to lower their expectation of you so that you need not compete with those who have more talent and who secceed. And they find excuses and explanations for your inability to succeed and become famous: you are too sensitive, you are not interested in money, you are not interested in the power that fame brings and you are not interested in the loss of privacy it demands, etc. ---all excuses, but comforting to those who fail and those who pretend not to notice the failure.

　　History has amply proven that some failure for some people at certain times in their lives does indeed motivate them to strive even harder to succeed and to continue believing in themselves. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Anger rejected 39 times before it was finally published and launched his career and created his fame. Beethoven overcame his tyrannical father and grudging acceptance as a musician to become the greatest, most famous musician in the world, and Pestalozzi, the famous Italian educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education. Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in fourth grade, at about age 10, because he seemed to the teacher to be quite dull and unruly. Many other cases may be found of people who failed and used the failure to motivate them to achieve, to succeed, and to become famous. But, unfortunately, for most people failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning. There are few, if any, famous failures.

　　Well then, why does anyone want fame? Do you? Do you want to be known to many people and admired by them? Do you want the money that usually comes with fame? Do you want the media to notice everything you do or say both in public and in private? Do you want them hounding you, questioning you and trying to undo you? In American politics it is very obvious that to be famous is to be the target of everyone who disagrees with you as well as of the media. Fame turns all the lights on and while it gives power and prestige, it takes the you out of you: you must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The politician, like the performer, must please his or her audiences and that often means saying things he does not mean or does not believe in fully. No wonder so few people trust politicians. But we have not answered the question at the beginning of this paragraph: why does anyone want fame? Several reasons come to mind: to demonstrate excellence in some field; to gain the admiration and love of many others; to be the one everyone talks about; to show family and friends you are more than they thought you were. Probably you can list some other reasons, but I think are reasonably common.

　　I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune， celebrity：good luck. But what will you do when you have caught your tail， your success， and your fame？ Keep chasing it？ If you do catch it， hang on for dear life because falling is not as painful as landing. See you soon famous and almost famous.

　　【翻译】

　　名声就像一只追逐自己尾巴的动物，当它抓住它的时候，它不知道还能做什么，只能继续追逐它。名声和随之而来的令人兴奋的名声，迫使名人参与到他或她自己的毁灭中。讽刺的不是吗？

　　获得名望通常获得它的人由于拥有一个天赋或技能：唱歌，跳舞，绘画，或写作，等等。成功的表演者积极开发销售的风格并获得一些声望，和这个流行通常让表演者继续在同一风格的表现，因为这就是公众似乎想要和enjow。但随着时间的推移，表演者厌倦了同样的歌曲，年复一年地唱着同样的歌，或者画家厌倦了画类似的场景或肖像，或者演员厌倦了反复扮演同一个角色。公众对艺术家的要求使他或她自己的成功成为人质。如果艺术家试图改变他或她的写作风格、舞蹈或歌唱等，观众可能会转向别处，寻求稍纵即逝的浮躁的名声，然后，在时间上，在另一个，如此等等。

　　谁不认识田纳西·威廉姆斯的戏剧或者约翰·厄普代克（John Updike）或欧内斯特·海明威（Ernest Hemingway）的小说，还是罗伯特·弗罗斯特（Robert Frost）或w·h·奥登（w 。 h 。 Auden）或艾略特（t 。 s 。 Eliot）的一首诗？像莫奈、雷诺阿、达利或毕加索这样的.画家也是如此，像希区柯克、费里尼、斯皮尔伯格、陈凯歌或张艺谋这样的电影制作人也是如此。他们独特的风格标志着传统形式的显著改变，并赋予他们名声和力量，但他们因为他们的观众要求他们每个人最初呈现的东西，所以他们没有自由发展其他的风格或形式。海明威甚至不能与亨利·詹姆斯或其他任何人混淆，也不能与叶芝混淆。这些独特的形式创造了他们，创造了他们。没有一个艺术家或表演者能完全逃脱名声的诱惑，也没有得到无限钦佩和尊重的承诺，但必须付出沉重的代价。

　　在每一个领域都有名人和忠诚的粉丝，这是令人兴奋的事情。一个表演者很容易就会相信自己和他的媒体一样优秀。但大多数人，大多数艺术家并不会名利双收。那些失败的表演者，或者失败的人怎么办？奇怪的是，失败往往是对许多人的奖赏。它能带给那些不喜欢你的人的同情，它允许家人和朋友降低对你的期望，这样你就不必与那些有更多天赋的人竞争。他们找借口和解释对你无法成功和成名：你太敏感，你的钱不感兴趣，你不感兴趣的名声带来的力量，你不感兴趣的隐私要求，等等都是借口，但安慰那些失败，那些假装没有注意到失败。

　　历史已经充分证明，某些人在某些时刻的失败确实激励他们更加努力地取得成功，并继续相信自己。美国小说家托马斯·沃尔夫（Thomas Wolfe）第一部小说《回家看》（Look Homeward），愤怒被拒绝了39次才最终出版发行职业生涯并创造了他的名声。贝多芬克服了他残暴的父亲和勉强接受作为一个音乐家成为最伟大的，世界上最著名的音乐家，和裴斯塔洛齐，在19世纪意大利著名教育家，在每一份工作，他曾经失败，直到他来到教会孩子的想法和发展基本理论产生一种新形式的教育。托马斯·爱迪生在四年级的时候被学校开除了，大约10岁，因为他觉得老师很呆板，不守规矩。许多其他的案例可能被发现是那些失败的人，他们利用失败来激励他们取得成功，成功，并成为名人。但不幸的是，对于大多数人来说，失败是他们奋斗的终点，而不是开始。几乎没有什么著名的失败。

　　那么，为什么有人想要出名呢？你呢？你想要被许多人所了解，被他们所崇拜吗？你想要那些通常伴随名誉而来的钱吗？你想让媒体注意到你在公共和私人场合所做的一切吗？你是想让他们追着你，问你，想要解开你？在美国的政治中，很明显，要出名，就得成为所有不同意你和媒体的人的目标。名声把所有的灯都打开，当它赋予权力和威望时，它将你从你身上带出：你必须是公众认为你是什么，而不是你真正的或可能的。政治家，像表演者一样，必须取悦他或她的听众，这通常意味着说他不代表或不相信的事情。难怪很少人会这么做。