http://tinyurl.com/357yqp9 Remembering my friend Michael Jackson (by Gotham Chopra) 重点翻译 I was a junior in highschool when my friend Michael Jackson asked me to go on tour with him. He was spending the summer in Europe staging the largest ever (at the time) rock tour for his latest album DANGEROUS. I begged and pleaded with my parents to let me go. We'd known Michael for a few years by then and grown quite close. He'd even come and stayed at our house in suburban Boston for a few days. Who could forget the time he clumsily tried to make his bed in the guestroom in the morning in an effort to impress my mother so he might be invited back? Or the ill-fated breakfast he tried to cook for my sister and I that we forced down our throats with strained smiles as he carefully watched us? Aside from being the biggest celebrity on the planet, he seemed like a pretty good guy so eventually my parents relented and let me go. 高中时MJ邀我跟他去dangerous巡回 我们跟MJ认识很久 记得他来我家 他总是嚐试 每天早上整理好自己的床 想要给我妈妈好印象 也记得他想要帮我和我妹煮早餐 我们很痛苦的吞下去 因为他一直用热切的眼光看着我们吃 他是个很好的人 所以我爸妈就让我去了 To describe it in one word: impossibly awesome (because one word is not nearly enough). To be seventeen and the sidekick of the greatest rockstar the world had ever known was indescribable. Paris, Rome, London, Munich, Athens and more. Every city we went to essentially shut down to host him. Where Michael roamed, a million cameras followed. A buzz reverberated and the bright light of fame trailed. And I felt the halo effect, often donning one of his iconic fedoras, his signature sunglasses, and one of the countless slick tour jackets Pepsi supplied us with. Private planes, police escorts, marching soldiers (an inexplicable MJ favorite), Michael was more than happy to share his celebrity because he had more than he'd ever know what to do with. He joked that I could ride "shotgun" with him anytime I liked. He knew I was living vicariously through him and he was happy for it. 是无法用一个字来形容跟他在一起的生活 一个字太难了 我十七岁跟最红的明星环游世界 每个我们去的城市都会为了招待他关闭 他去哪里 上百万个摄影机跟着 私人飞机 警方开道 跟他游行的军人(这个是MJ的最爱) MJ很开心的跟我们分享 他还开玩笑说 如果我想要的话我随时可以跟他一起使用散弹枪 Arriving to stadiums hours before showtime, while he'd have to go through elaborate pre-show routines and wardrobe sessions, I'd wander out onto the stage where dozens upon dozens of sound techs, engineers, and roadies would be rigging the massive stage and prepping the show. Even four or five hours before showtime, thousands of fans would push as far forward as possible so as to get as close to MJ when the show began. You've seen the videos of crazy fans, dehydrated and dazed, having to be dragged out of the crowd by hustling paramedics. I saw it up close and personal - even got involved once or twice when fans started dropping by the dozens. 到了表演场地 他会彩排 我去舞台上看着各式各样的工作人员准备演出 演唱会前四五个小时 成千上万的歌迷就会想办法推挤进来想靠MJ更近 你在影片里看到的疯狂歌迷 昏倒 脱水 挤压 我都亲眼见到过 During the show itself, sometimes I'd hang around just off the stage watching Michael kill it. The man knew how to perform and it was like a meditation to just to witness it. At other times, I'd hang in his dressing room, outfitted to the nines with candy, orange juice, and video games. 在演唱会进行中 通常我就在场边看MJ 这个男人知道怎麽演出 有时我就待在他化妆间里 里面有很多糖果 果汁和电玩 After the show, Michael would retreat back to the dressing room too and then be forced to stand around awkwardly and greet VIPs, celebrity guests, sponsors and others who'd earned backstage privileges. It was easy to see that he was far more comfortable singing and dancing in front of a 100,000 strong than socializing with a dozen. 表演完後 他会回到化妆室 然後被迫去见那些名人 贵宾 和那些有後台许可证的 你可以看到他在舞台上远比去跟这些人社交还要自在 After those formalities, he and I would retreat back to his hotel, usually the biggest and best suite in the whole city. Michael almost always had the place stocked with old movies, more candy, and more orange juice. Even as thousands of adoring fans chanted his name from the streets below, we'd chat about music, movies, video games, girls, and occasionally the meaning of life. 之後回到旅馆 总是城里最豪华旅馆最大的房间 MJ会有很多老电影 糖果 果汁在房间 外面一堆歌迷鬼叫他名字 我们会聊音乐 电影 电玩 女孩 有时还聊生命的意义 But then something unexpected happened. The awesomeness wore off for me. Believe it or not, I started to get bored of sitting up in that suite with just MJ. And then I started to feel claustrophobic. I was seventeen years old, in freaking Europe, surrounded by a rock band, sexy dancers who could bend in all sorts of ways and backup singers who hit octaves I fantasized about. They liked to rage every night after the show and openly talked about their exploits the following day. Soon enough, I gained the courage to ask Michael if he minded if I slipped out with some of the others after his shows. 但有些无预警的事发生了 不管你相不相信 我开始觉得跟MJ一个人在饭店有点无聊 很像得了幽闭恐惧症 一个十七岁的男孩在诡异的欧洲 旁边是摇滚乐团 性感舞者 还有合音歌手 他们每个晚上在表演後 总爱大声讨论舞台上的事 我很羡慕 不久我终於鼓起勇气问麦可 我可不可以在演唱会後跟他们出去 Not only did he say it was okay, he encouraged me. Outfitted with his fedora, sunglasses, and tour jackets, getting the best table at the best restaurants, into the VIP sections of the hottest clubs, and the adulation of all the local girls was easier than could be imagined. Often when I got back from a night on the town, Michael would call me in my hotel room and summon me. I'd head up to his suite and proceed to narrate my night's misadventures to him and debrief him on all the latest gossip surrounding his band. I didn't really need to dramatize my exploits, but I did anyway because I knew that he was living vicariously through me and I was happy for it. 他不只说好 还鼓励我带他的间谍帽 太阳眼镜 巡回的夹克 在最好的餐馆有最好的位置 去最红的夜店的VIP室 而要钓当地的女孩这想也知道这就很容易了 我回来後麦可总会打电话来要我跟他讲发生了什麽事 跟他讲他乐团的八卦 我通常不太需要讲的太戏剧化 但我常常会这样做 It's a cliché to say that your highschool summers are the most memorable of your life, but I challenge anyone to say how mine could not be. For years, I wore the badge of that summer and my many exploits over it boldly and boastfully. Then of course, as time passed and Michael became embroiled in scandals involving teen boys, all of a sudden my summer as his teen sidekick didn't have the same glamour to it. Now it was a stigma, something I treasured but certainly did not tout. 说你高中暑假是你人生最值得的回忆有点陈腔滥调 但我的真的是 好多年 我总是带着我那年夏天的通行证 讲我当时发生的事 当然 不久後MJ就被扯入性亲小男孩的丑问 Over the years my brotherhood with Michael evolved. When I went to college in NYC and lived uptown, he lived at the Four Seasons in midtown and I'd see him regularly, sharing with him collegiate exploits and adventures. Years later when he became a father, he invited me over to Neverland to see "the greatest thing he ever created" - his son Prince. More time passed. I watched as he endured the agony of his dramatic fall from grace, his resurrection through his children Prince, Paris, and Blanket, and then once again the agony of his descent into the shadows of things he couldn't control. 之後几年我和MJ的情感像兄弟 我去上纽约大学 住在上城 而他总是住在中城的四季酒店 我常常见到他 几年後他变成父亲 他请我去梦幻庄园看他创造出最伟大的作品 他的儿子 Prince 这几年我看到他从光芒万丈 跌入无尽的痛苦 但是藉由他三个孩子 他重生了 但不久 他又再次跌入无尽的痛苦阴影而无法自拔 During the last years of his life, I got to see his creativity up close and personal once again. He and I were working on a graphic novel together entitled THE FATED. He had big plans for it. One day he wanted to direct it as a film, impress his mentor Steven Spielberg, and have his favorite actor Will Smith be in it. It was classic MJ in terms of process, intense at times, with intermittent months of total inaction in between. The story of an iconic Rockstar worn out by the agony of his fame, driven to the most desperate measures, only to discover that his super-stardom has him "fated" for far more than just fame and fortune. Of course, I eventually realized Michael was giving me a window into his own personal allegory and I felt privileged to help record it. Sadly, we never were able to complete the story and I was left instead with an eerie tale without a proper ending (note: I hope with the assistance of Michael's Estate - in the hands of some very capable and conscious stewards - that we'll one day be able to share The Fated with all the dignity it and Michael deserves). 在他人生最後几年 我再次见到了他的创意 他和我正再写一本小说 书名叫The Fated 他有很大的计画 他想要执导这部小说 好让史蒂芬史匹柏印象深刻 他想要他最喜欢的 演员威尔史密斯主演 过程就是非常的典型的MJ 故事是讲一个巨星深受他盛名所累 但最终发现这一切其实是他的使命 而他的使命不只是名气和财富 当然我了解MJ给了我一个他个人的寓言故事 我很荣幸可以有机会记录他 很不幸的是我们永远无法完成这个故事 (他希望和遗产公司合作完成这本书 和大家共享) Like The Fated, we never got to see a proper ending to Michael's tale. Instead there's a tangled legacy, the bright light of fame shining over the tumbled necropolis of unfounded allegations twisted around the neverending tenderness for his own children. it's funny to me how in the last year, in death Michael has been canonized by many of the same commentators who were so relentless in tearing him down while he lived. He'd see the irony in it and call them bad names - the man could curse like a drunken sailor. 就像书中一样的 我们无法见到MJ的故事有个适当的结局 有太多有的没的传言和扭曲的 事情缠绕他的孩子们 对我而言最有趣的是去年 当MJ死时 那些在他生前将他撕成碎片的 评论员突然把他讲的跟伟人一样 他一定觉得这些实在太讽刺了 然後说他们的坏话 这个人骂人时可是像喝醉的水手一样的 One night while on that tour with him, toward the end when I was getting ready to go back to school and the real world, Michael asked me if I was glad that I had come, even though I couldn't stay for the whole tour. He knew I was sad that I wouldn't get to stay until the very end. Still, it was an insane question and I told him so. "Are you kidding?" I said. "Every second I was here with you was a privilege. Thank you for letting me ride shotgun even for a little while." 我要回去学校的晚上 麦可问我我是不是很开心跟他一起来了 虽然我不能待整个巡回 他知道我很难过我不能留到最後 但是这还仍然是个疯了的问题 我告诉他 你开玩笑吗 我跟你在一起的每一秒都太棒了 谢谢你让我来 这篇有点难翻 有的实在是很难用中文确切描述 大家加减看吧 原文比较有趣 --

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