★英語資源頻道為大家整理的高中英語學(xué)習(xí)資料：現(xiàn)代舞之母鄧肯的悲歡人生，供大家參考。更多閱讀請查看本站英語資源頻道。
伊莎多拉•鄧肯是一位富有傳奇色彩的女性。作為一個天才的舞蹈家，她用飄逸自如、浪漫不拘的曼妙舞姿征服 0
伊莎多拉•鄧肯是一位富有傳奇色彩的女性。作為一個天才的舞蹈家，她用飄逸自如、浪漫不拘的曼妙舞姿征服了整個世界；作為一個叛逆的夢想家，她推崇自然和自由表達(dá)之美，將其不羈的女權(quán)主義意識帶到了舞臺上，開創(chuàng)了現(xiàn)代舞的新時代；作為一位普通的母親，她飽嘗喪子之痛，卻在自己的悲劇中一次又一次地倔強(qiáng)而舞。她的一生，是燃燒的燦爛之旅，是絕處逢生的冒險，是絢爛之后的超脫。而鐫刻在世人腦海中的，也許永遠(yuǎn)都是她那身披薄紗、赤腳起舞的不朽舞臺形象，宛如森林中的美麗女神，訴說著生如夏花之絢爛。
Free thinking, free spirited, free moving Isadora Duncan brought her bohemian feminist consciousness to the dance stage and changed the art of dance forever. Although some critics ridiculed her flowing and expressive movements, Isadora brought flexibility and self-expression to the hidebound world of classical dance。
Isadora Duncan is known as the “Mother of the Modern dance”， but even ballet was influenced by the radical élan of her ideas. In many ways her life was tragic, but she left behind, not a sense of despair and loss, but the dynamic imagination of a true original。
思想自由、精神灑脫、動作奔放的伊莎多拉·鄧肯將其不羈的女權(quán)主義意識帶到了舞臺上，徹底改變了舞蹈這門藝術(shù)。盡管對她那行云流水般富有表現(xiàn)力的動作持嘲笑態(tài)度的批評家大有人在，但伊莎多拉卻為死板的古典舞蹈界帶來了靈動性和自我表現(xiàn)力。
伊莎多拉·鄧肯被譽(yù)為“現(xiàn)代舞之母”，就連芭蕾也受到了她銳不可當(dāng)?shù)募みM(jìn)觀念的影響。從很多意義上說，她的一生是悲劇性的一生，但她留給世人的卻不是絕望和失落，而是對一個真正具有獨(dú)創(chuàng)性的藝術(shù)天才的蓬勃想象。
An Early Dream in Childhood
Born the youngest child to Joseph Duncan and Mary Gray in 1877, Isadora was the family’s bright star. Mary was a virtuous, high-principled lady. Joseph, the poet, the dreamer, the connoisseur of arts, had lost his heart to another lady, and Mary divorced him。
Isadora was a quaint child, a strange mixture of practical common sense and worldly sophistication, and she was a dreamer like her father. She loved poetry, beauty, and rhythm, and she hated reality. She was, in fact, a rebel. Her childhood had been an unhappy one. There was strife and divorce, with her mother’s insistence that her father was a demon in human garb. However, when she eventually met her father, she found him a charming, lovable poet, and that heightened the confusion in her mind. Passing years tend to soften the intolerance of childhood, but Isadora Duncan never lost her contempt for the institution of marriage as she had seen it. When she was twelve years old she made a solemn vow that she would welcome love when it came, but she would never marry。
After the divorce, Mrs. Duncan found a small home in Oakland for her brood of four children. The constant poverty in which they lived was softened by the wealth of poetry and music that Mrs. Duncan brought into the home. The four of them loved to sing, loved to play-act, and above all, loved to dance. Isadora Duncan danced as soon as she could walk. She read every book, good or bad, and her reading carried her back to the classical culture of ancient Greece, and the natural, unaffected, spontaneous Grecian art became her inspiration and dream. Toe-dancing, social gymnastics, was to be scorned. She demanded, from the very beginning, self-expression unrestrained by rule and custom。
童年夢想
伊莎多拉生于1877年，是約瑟夫·鄧肯和瑪麗·格雷夫婦最小的孩子，也是這個家里一顆耀眼的明星?，旣愂且晃毁t淑善良、操守極佳的女性。約瑟夫則是一位詩人兼夢想家，同時還是一位藝術(shù)鑒賞家，由于他移情別戀，醉心于另外一位紅粉佳人，瑪麗結(jié)束了與他的婚姻。
伊莎多拉是一個古怪有趣的孩子，一個奇特的結(jié)合體，既具有很實(shí)際的常識，又不乏世俗的圓滑老練，同時，和父親一樣，她還是一個富有夢想的女孩。她喜歡詩歌，愛美，對節(jié)奏韻律情有獨(dú)鐘；她憎恨現(xiàn)實(shí)。事實(shí)上，她是一個叛逆者。她的童年很不快樂，經(jīng)歷了父母的不合和離異，她的母親始終認(rèn)定父親是個衣冠禽獸。然而，等到父女終得一見時，她卻發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的父親是一個極具魅力、招人喜歡的詩人，而這加深了她內(nèi)心的困惑。歲月的流逝，常常可以緩和童年時代的偏執(zhí)，可是伊莎多拉·鄧肯卻始終沒有改變對自己曾目睹的婚姻制度所持的鄙視立場。12歲時，她莊嚴(yán)起誓，她不排斥愛情，但決不結(jié)婚。
離異以后，鄧肯夫人為自己的四個孩子在奧克蘭找到了一處小小的安身之所。
鄧肯夫人為孩子們營造的充溢著詩歌和音樂的家庭氛圍，緩解了他們一直以來生活上的窮困。他們兄妹四人都喜歡唱歌，喜歡表演，尤其喜歡跳舞。伊莎多拉·鄧肯剛會走路時便能翩翩起舞了。她博覽群書，無論好壞什么都讀，閱讀將她帶回到了古希臘的經(jīng)典文化，而自然天成、單純率真、豪不造作的希臘藝術(shù)成了她的靈感源泉和夢想所在。踮起足尖舞蹈——這種社交體操將為她所不齒。從一開始，她就尋求不受規(guī)則和習(xí)俗所約束的自我表現(xiàn)。
Theatrical Life
Isadora didn’t like poverty and she didn’t like restrictions. There were distant horizons awaiting her. She read about them in her books, the faraway places that call to all imbued with the creative instinct. Any place would do as long as it was “away”. She induced her mother to take her to Chicago. Funds were found and, armed with a wealth of enthusiasm, mother and daughter started out。
The Eastern theatrical managers saw the girl dance, praised her, and told her it was all very lovely. But, after all, that wasn’t the accepted way to dance; it wasn’t the way of the theater. She’d better go home to San Francisco and be a schoolteacher! Their funds were gone, so they pawned their jewelry. Finally, starvation, not a threat but an actuality, faced them, and then Isadora received an engagement. At last, she was to dance in a music hall. In a fogged atmosphere of stale beer and tobacco smoke the girl appeared, a breath of ancient Greece. Her audience chewed on its cigars. This certainly wasn’t what they’d come to see! In short, they wished she’d get through so the next act could appear。
But in the audience one night sat a dreamer like herself. He was Augustin Daly, the theatrical producer. He saw what none of the others had seen—the vision, the ideal, and the dream behind the dancing of the girl. He cast her as one of Titania’s dancing fairies in his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perhaps she couldn’t force her audience to understand the beauty of simplicity, but at least this gave her the opportunity to dance, and to eat。
Thus the family settled to New York. One night Isadora danced to the music of Ethelbert Nevin; Nevin was in the audience, entranced. He arranged for concerts for her and suddenly blasé New York hailed a new star. Society accepted her. She danced for the four hundred in Newport’s exclusive salons. They made much of her, but just as swiftly they dropped her. And again the family purse was empty。
劇院生涯
伊莎多拉不喜歡窮困潦倒，也不喜歡條條框框的拘束。在遙遠(yuǎn)的地平線上，有什么正等待著她去追尋。她在書中讀到過那些遙遠(yuǎn)的地方，那些向所有所有充滿創(chuàng)作天賦的發(fā)出呼喚的地方。不管這些地方在哪兒，對她來說只要是“遠(yuǎn)在他鄉(xiāng)”就行。她勸服母親帶她去芝加哥。資金終于湊足，懷著滿腔熱忱，母女倆出發(fā)了。
東方的劇院經(jīng)理們看過小姑娘的舞蹈后，對她稱贊有加，說她跳得實(shí)在是妙極了。不過話又說回來，她的舞蹈畢竟不是公眾認(rèn)可的跳法，也不對劇院的套路。所以她還是打道回府，去舊金山當(dāng)一名教師算了！錢已經(jīng)花光，母女倆只好當(dāng)?shù)袅耸罪?。最紅，饑餓之災(zāi)，不是饑餓的威脅而是實(shí)實(shí)在在的饑餓——擺在了母女倆的面前。然后，伊莎多拉接到了一紙聘書。終于，她就要在一家劇場里跳舞了。在劇場那煙霧繚繞、酒氣熏天、渾濁不堪的氛圍中，小姑娘登場了，帶著一絲古希臘的氣息。她的觀眾兀自嚼著口中的雪茄。這無疑不對他們的胃口！簡而言之，他們希望她趕緊跳完，好讓下一個節(jié)目登臺。
但是，有一天晚上，觀眾席中來了一位和她一樣懷揣夢想的人。此人便是戲劇制作人奧古斯丁·戴利。他看到了別人沒有看到的東西，那便是女孩舞蹈背后的憧憬、理想和夢想。他讓她在他編排的《仲夏夜之夢》中出演了一個角色——泰坦尼亞王后的一個舞蹈仙女。也許她不能強(qiáng)迫自己的觀眾理解樸素之美，但是至少，這給了她跳舞——以及糊口——的機(jī)會。
就這樣，他們一家人在紐約安頓了下來。一天晚上，伊莎多拉以埃塞爾伯特·內(nèi)文的音樂為伴奏舞了一曲；內(nèi)文當(dāng)時就在觀眾席中，他看得入了迷。他為她安排了幾場音樂會，冷漠的紐約一下子沸騰了，為一顆新星的誕生而歡呼。社會認(rèn)可了她。在紐波特限制慎嚴(yán)的沙龍里，她為上層社會的人士跳舞。他們極力吹捧她，但就像這吹捧來得迅猛一樣，他們拋棄她的速度也同樣迅疾。于是，家里的錢袋子又空了。
Turning Point in Dance Career
But the lodestone of distant horizons beckoned once again. What did it matter that the family had no money? They would go to London. After Isadora had borrowed right and left from her former friends, the Duncans sailed。
In London, a few engagements brought a few dollars, but the few dollars weren’t enough to fill the young hungry stomachs. Then one night Isadora and one of her brothers were dancing in their Grecian veils in a small garden. They danced by the light of the stars and their only audience was their own shadows. Quite unexpectedly, a beautiful lady came and stood watching them and was amazed. When they had finished their dance she swooped down upon them and took them to her own home. She was Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the idol of the London stage. She played for them and they danced for her; she sobbed dramatic tears, and introduced them to London society。
The meeting with Mrs. Campbell was the turning point in the story of Isadora Duncan. London society acclaimed them, and British royalty honored them. Life became busy, hectic, and full to overflowing with triumphs—and setbacks. Duncan, the dancer, had arrived, but the girl, Isadora, was still a rebel against customs and traditions—and marriage。
She danced in Paris and was cheered. She danced in Berlin, and the art-loving Germans went mad with enthusiasm. Life was gorgeous. But always at the back of her persistent mind was her dream. Some day she would dance in the land of ancient culture where the Athenian maidens had made the dance a religion. Some day she would bring back the beauty of classical simplicity to the people of the nineteenth century. Isadora went to Athens and took her mother, brothers, and sister with her。
舞蹈生涯的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)
但遠(yuǎn)方地平線的磁石再次向她招手示意。家里沒錢又有什么關(guān)系？這次他們要去倫敦。伊莎多拉從自己從前的一些朋友那兒東湊西借了一點(diǎn)錢后，鄧肯一家便起身了。
在倫敦，她們拿到了寥寥幾分簽約，掙了區(qū)區(qū)幾個小錢，可這一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)收入遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠填飽這些年輕人如饑似渴的胃。一天夜晚，伊莎多拉和她的一個哥哥在一個小花園里披著他們的希臘面紗翩然起舞。借著星光，兄妹倆就這樣舞著，僅有的觀眾就是他們自己的影子。然而，非常出乎預(yù)料的是，一位美麗的貴夫人來到花園，駐足觀看了他們的舞蹈，她驚呆了。待兄妹倆跳完后，她沖過去一把抓住他們，將他們帶回了家。這位女士就是帕特里克·坎貝爾夫人，倫敦舞臺上的偶像。她為兄妹倆伴奏，兄妹倆為她跳舞；她為她們的舞蹈所感動，淚如雨下，她將兄妹倆引薦給了倫敦社交界。
與坎貝爾夫人的這次不期而遇成了伊莎多拉·鄧肯經(jīng)歷的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。倫敦社交界對兄妹倆大加贊賞，英國王室還授予了他們榮譽(yù)稱號。生活開始變得忙碌、紛亂起來，隨之而來的是捷報頻傳——外加挫折不斷。作為舞蹈家的鄧肯終于破繭成蝶，但作為小姑娘的伊莎多拉依然是一個叛逆者，對抗習(xí)俗、傳統(tǒng)——還有婚姻。
她登上了巴黎的舞臺，贏得了喝彩。她走進(jìn)了柏林的劇院，熱愛藝術(shù)的德國人表現(xiàn)出了近乎瘋狂的熱情。生活真可謂絢麗多彩。但在她那顆執(zhí)意無悔的內(nèi)心深處裝著的始終是她的夢想。有朝一日，她定要到那片有著古老文化的大地上翩翩起舞，在那里，雅典少女將舞蹈變成了一種宗教?？傆幸惶欤ㄒ獙⒐诺涞臉闼刂缼Щ氐绞攀兰o(jì)的人們眼前。伊莎多拉去了雅典，與她同行的還有她的母親、兩個哥哥和一個姐姐。
Love and Art
In the Athenian hills Isadora gathered a class of small Grecian boys about her. She taught them dances. Bare-legged, with sandaled feet and flowing draperies, the Duncans danced from village to village, and the world called them mad. A year passed, and their purse was empty, Isadora and her kin returned to modern civilization and Vienna。
Vienna took her to its gay heart, and success and wealth returned. But Isadora Duncan learned that life without the fullness of love was incomplete. Then, in Berlin, in 1905, she met Gordon Craig, the colorful, handsome, glamorous son of Ellen Terry. This was the great love; this was life at its highest. The world sighed, and giggled, and was delighted. A baby was born, and they named her Deirdre. Isadora adored her。
Then she came to the United States and danced to the music of Walter Damrosch’s orchestra. America was shocked, and delighted. Of course, everyone had a body, but one didn’t acknowledge the fact. Even modest ankles weren’t to be exposed. That nonsense was ended by an edict from no less a wielder of strong opinion than Teddy Roosevelt. “Isadora Duncan,” he proclaimed, “seems to me as innocent as a child dancing through the garden in the morning sunshine and picking the beautiful flowers of her fantasy?！?So the master politician became poet, and Isadora danced and was forgiven her sins。
She built a school where she taught young girls the beauty of the dance. She was the priestess of the dance, and in that role did more to return it to its ancient glory than any other single man or woman in the world’s history of terpsichore。
愛情與藝術(shù)
在雅典的山丘上，伊莎多拉召集了一班希臘小男孩跟在自己身邊，教他們跳舞。*著腿，穿著涼鞋，披著飄逸的織物，鄧肯一家人從一個村莊跳到另一個村莊，成了世人眼中的瘋子。一年過去，他們的錢袋空了，伊莎多拉同家人又回到了現(xiàn)代文明，來到維也納。
維也納將敞開歡快的胸懷擁抱了她，成功和財富又回來了。但伊莎多拉·鄧肯漸漸明白，缺少圓滿愛情的生活是不完滿的。在這之后的1905年，她于柏林邂逅了埃倫·特里的兒子戈登· 克雷格，一個情趣十足、儀表堂堂、魅力四射的人。這是一場偉大的愛情；這是一段極至的生活。世人為之感嘆、為之歡笑、為之欣喜。他們的愛情結(jié)晶降生了，他們給她起名迪爾德麗。伊莎多拉將她視為掌上明珠。
隨后，她來到了美國，在沃爾特·達(dá)姆羅施指揮的管弦樂隊(duì)的伴奏下起舞。美國震驚了，而且欣喜若狂。是的，當(dāng)然，人人都有一個軀體，但誰都不肯承認(rèn)這個事實(shí)。就連最樸實(shí)無華的腳踝也不得暴露在外。但這樣的荒唐論調(diào)被一道詔書給廢止了，頒布這道詔書的正是一言九鼎的西奧多·羅斯福?！耙辽嗬む嚳希彼嬲f，“在我看來，就像一個天真無邪的孩子，跳著舞穿過沐浴在晨曦中的花園，去采摘自己想象中的美麗花朵。”就這樣，一代政壇大師成了詩人，讓伊莎多拉因此可以舞之蹈之，使她的罪過得到了寬恕。
她創(chuàng)辦了一所學(xué)校，向年輕女孩傳授舞蹈之美。她是舞蹈這門藝術(shù)的女祭司，站在祭司的位置上，她將舞蹈這門藝術(shù)重新回歸至其古時的輝煌地位。而在這一方面，世界歌舞還沒有哪個人——無論男女——能望其項(xiàng)背。
Dance in Tragedy
Then, one night in Paris, Isadora Duncan danced to the haunting melody of Chopin’s Funeral March, and a vision of tragedy came to her. She danced with eyes closed and saw her two children threatened by evil. A few days passed and the father of her son stood before her. His lips were dry and his eyes were haggard. He told of the death of her two children。
Life was dead; dreams were dead; the world was empty. Isadora Duncan, the rebel, had won her rebellion and lost all that was worth the fight. She felt she would never dance again. But she did dance. In her tragedy she had become a giantess, and life does not or cannot stand still. She faced new tragedy in 1914 when, under the shadow of the dawn of the first World War, another baby was born—dead. Still she danced, and still she continued to teach her girls. She danced her Ninth Symphony to an audience that sat as though in the presence of a creature divine. Her greatest creative dream had become a reality。
Isadora Duncan died in 1927. A veil caught in the wheel of her automobile. There was the grinding of brakes—and then darkness. She died tragically, horribly, and the world was upset for a few hours and then went about its business. But those who had loved her and who knew her dream of beauty mourned her passing of a human creature who had been an honest builder of dreams. She had done more for the art of the dance than any other man or woman in history。
悲劇連連舞不停
在巴黎的一天晚上，伊莎多拉·鄧肯踏著肖邦的《葬禮進(jìn)行曲》那縈繞的旋律翩翩起舞，此時一幅悲劇的幻象映入了她的眼簾。她閉目而舞，卻分明看見了自己的兩個孩子面臨著不幸的威脅。幾天后，兒子的父親站在了她面前，嘴唇干枯，兩眼憔悴。他告訴了她兩個孩子的死訊。
生命死了；夢想死了；世界空了。叛逆的伊莎多拉·鄧肯贏得了叛逆，卻失去了值得為之奮斗的一切。她感到自己再也不能跳舞了。可她還是跳了。在自己的悲劇中，她變成了一個女巨人，而生活沒有也不可能止步不前。1914年，她面臨了新的悲劇，在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)前的陰霾籠罩下，又一個孩子降生了 ——又夭折了。她依然跳舞，依然繼續(xù)教她身邊的那些小姑娘。她在觀眾面前演繹了自己的《第九交響曲》，觀眾坐在那里，神情就像面對神靈。她最偉大的創(chuàng)作夢想已經(jīng)變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。
伊莎多拉·鄧肯卒于1927年。她圍在脖子上的長紗卷進(jìn)了她的車輪。剎車發(fā)出了刺耳的聲音，接著便是一團(tuán)漆黑。她死了，死得如此悲慘、如此可怕，世人為此不安了幾個小時，之后便又各忙各的事去了。但那些曾經(jīng)愛過她了解她美麗夢想的人都在為她哀悼，哀悼一個坦誠的筑夢人的離去。她為舞蹈這門藝術(shù)所做出的貢獻(xiàn)，超越了歷的任何一個人。
伊莎多拉•鄧肯是一位富有傳奇色彩的女性。作為一個天才的舞蹈家，她用飄逸自如、浪漫不拘的曼妙舞姿征服 0
伊莎多拉•鄧肯是一位富有傳奇色彩的女性。作為一個天才的舞蹈家，她用飄逸自如、浪漫不拘的曼妙舞姿征服了整個世界；作為一個叛逆的夢想家，她推崇自然和自由表達(dá)之美，將其不羈的女權(quán)主義意識帶到了舞臺上，開創(chuàng)了現(xiàn)代舞的新時代；作為一位普通的母親，她飽嘗喪子之痛，卻在自己的悲劇中一次又一次地倔強(qiáng)而舞。她的一生，是燃燒的燦爛之旅，是絕處逢生的冒險，是絢爛之后的超脫。而鐫刻在世人腦海中的，也許永遠(yuǎn)都是她那身披薄紗、赤腳起舞的不朽舞臺形象，宛如森林中的美麗女神，訴說著生如夏花之絢爛。
Free thinking, free spirited, free moving Isadora Duncan brought her bohemian feminist consciousness to the dance stage and changed the art of dance forever. Although some critics ridiculed her flowing and expressive movements, Isadora brought flexibility and self-expression to the hidebound world of classical dance。
Isadora Duncan is known as the “Mother of the Modern dance”， but even ballet was influenced by the radical élan of her ideas. In many ways her life was tragic, but she left behind, not a sense of despair and loss, but the dynamic imagination of a true original。
思想自由、精神灑脫、動作奔放的伊莎多拉·鄧肯將其不羈的女權(quán)主義意識帶到了舞臺上，徹底改變了舞蹈這門藝術(shù)。盡管對她那行云流水般富有表現(xiàn)力的動作持嘲笑態(tài)度的批評家大有人在，但伊莎多拉卻為死板的古典舞蹈界帶來了靈動性和自我表現(xiàn)力。
伊莎多拉·鄧肯被譽(yù)為“現(xiàn)代舞之母”，就連芭蕾也受到了她銳不可當(dāng)?shù)募みM(jìn)觀念的影響。從很多意義上說，她的一生是悲劇性的一生，但她留給世人的卻不是絕望和失落，而是對一個真正具有獨(dú)創(chuàng)性的藝術(shù)天才的蓬勃想象。
An Early Dream in Childhood
Born the youngest child to Joseph Duncan and Mary Gray in 1877, Isadora was the family’s bright star. Mary was a virtuous, high-principled lady. Joseph, the poet, the dreamer, the connoisseur of arts, had lost his heart to another lady, and Mary divorced him。
Isadora was a quaint child, a strange mixture of practical common sense and worldly sophistication, and she was a dreamer like her father. She loved poetry, beauty, and rhythm, and she hated reality. She was, in fact, a rebel. Her childhood had been an unhappy one. There was strife and divorce, with her mother’s insistence that her father was a demon in human garb. However, when she eventually met her father, she found him a charming, lovable poet, and that heightened the confusion in her mind. Passing years tend to soften the intolerance of childhood, but Isadora Duncan never lost her contempt for the institution of marriage as she had seen it. When she was twelve years old she made a solemn vow that she would welcome love when it came, but she would never marry。
After the divorce, Mrs. Duncan found a small home in Oakland for her brood of four children. The constant poverty in which they lived was softened by the wealth of poetry and music that Mrs. Duncan brought into the home. The four of them loved to sing, loved to play-act, and above all, loved to dance. Isadora Duncan danced as soon as she could walk. She read every book, good or bad, and her reading carried her back to the classical culture of ancient Greece, and the natural, unaffected, spontaneous Grecian art became her inspiration and dream. Toe-dancing, social gymnastics, was to be scorned. She demanded, from the very beginning, self-expression unrestrained by rule and custom。
童年夢想
伊莎多拉生于1877年，是約瑟夫·鄧肯和瑪麗·格雷夫婦最小的孩子，也是這個家里一顆耀眼的明星?，旣愂且晃毁t淑善良、操守極佳的女性。約瑟夫則是一位詩人兼夢想家，同時還是一位藝術(shù)鑒賞家，由于他移情別戀，醉心于另外一位紅粉佳人，瑪麗結(jié)束了與他的婚姻。
伊莎多拉是一個古怪有趣的孩子，一個奇特的結(jié)合體，既具有很實(shí)際的常識，又不乏世俗的圓滑老練，同時，和父親一樣，她還是一個富有夢想的女孩。她喜歡詩歌，愛美，對節(jié)奏韻律情有獨(dú)鐘；她憎恨現(xiàn)實(shí)。事實(shí)上，她是一個叛逆者。她的童年很不快樂，經(jīng)歷了父母的不合和離異，她的母親始終認(rèn)定父親是個衣冠禽獸。然而，等到父女終得一見時，她卻發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的父親是一個極具魅力、招人喜歡的詩人，而這加深了她內(nèi)心的困惑。歲月的流逝，常常可以緩和童年時代的偏執(zhí)，可是伊莎多拉·鄧肯卻始終沒有改變對自己曾目睹的婚姻制度所持的鄙視立場。12歲時，她莊嚴(yán)起誓，她不排斥愛情，但決不結(jié)婚。
離異以后，鄧肯夫人為自己的四個孩子在奧克蘭找到了一處小小的安身之所。
鄧肯夫人為孩子們營造的充溢著詩歌和音樂的家庭氛圍，緩解了他們一直以來生活上的窮困。他們兄妹四人都喜歡唱歌，喜歡表演，尤其喜歡跳舞。伊莎多拉·鄧肯剛會走路時便能翩翩起舞了。她博覽群書，無論好壞什么都讀，閱讀將她帶回到了古希臘的經(jīng)典文化，而自然天成、單純率真、豪不造作的希臘藝術(shù)成了她的靈感源泉和夢想所在。踮起足尖舞蹈——這種社交體操將為她所不齒。從一開始，她就尋求不受規(guī)則和習(xí)俗所約束的自我表現(xiàn)。
Theatrical Life
Isadora didn’t like poverty and she didn’t like restrictions. There were distant horizons awaiting her. She read about them in her books, the faraway places that call to all imbued with the creative instinct. Any place would do as long as it was “away”. She induced her mother to take her to Chicago. Funds were found and, armed with a wealth of enthusiasm, mother and daughter started out。
The Eastern theatrical managers saw the girl dance, praised her, and told her it was all very lovely. But, after all, that wasn’t the accepted way to dance; it wasn’t the way of the theater. She’d better go home to San Francisco and be a schoolteacher! Their funds were gone, so they pawned their jewelry. Finally, starvation, not a threat but an actuality, faced them, and then Isadora received an engagement. At last, she was to dance in a music hall. In a fogged atmosphere of stale beer and tobacco smoke the girl appeared, a breath of ancient Greece. Her audience chewed on its cigars. This certainly wasn’t what they’d come to see! In short, they wished she’d get through so the next act could appear。
But in the audience one night sat a dreamer like herself. He was Augustin Daly, the theatrical producer. He saw what none of the others had seen—the vision, the ideal, and the dream behind the dancing of the girl. He cast her as one of Titania’s dancing fairies in his production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perhaps she couldn’t force her audience to understand the beauty of simplicity, but at least this gave her the opportunity to dance, and to eat。
Thus the family settled to New York. One night Isadora danced to the music of Ethelbert Nevin; Nevin was in the audience, entranced. He arranged for concerts for her and suddenly blasé New York hailed a new star. Society accepted her. She danced for the four hundred in Newport’s exclusive salons. They made much of her, but just as swiftly they dropped her. And again the family purse was empty。
劇院生涯
伊莎多拉不喜歡窮困潦倒，也不喜歡條條框框的拘束。在遙遠(yuǎn)的地平線上，有什么正等待著她去追尋。她在書中讀到過那些遙遠(yuǎn)的地方，那些向所有所有充滿創(chuàng)作天賦的發(fā)出呼喚的地方。不管這些地方在哪兒，對她來說只要是“遠(yuǎn)在他鄉(xiāng)”就行。她勸服母親帶她去芝加哥。資金終于湊足，懷著滿腔熱忱，母女倆出發(fā)了。
東方的劇院經(jīng)理們看過小姑娘的舞蹈后，對她稱贊有加，說她跳得實(shí)在是妙極了。不過話又說回來，她的舞蹈畢竟不是公眾認(rèn)可的跳法，也不對劇院的套路。所以她還是打道回府，去舊金山當(dāng)一名教師算了！錢已經(jīng)花光，母女倆只好當(dāng)?shù)袅耸罪?。最紅，饑餓之災(zāi)，不是饑餓的威脅而是實(shí)實(shí)在在的饑餓——擺在了母女倆的面前。然后，伊莎多拉接到了一紙聘書。終于，她就要在一家劇場里跳舞了。在劇場那煙霧繚繞、酒氣熏天、渾濁不堪的氛圍中，小姑娘登場了，帶著一絲古希臘的氣息。她的觀眾兀自嚼著口中的雪茄。這無疑不對他們的胃口！簡而言之，他們希望她趕緊跳完，好讓下一個節(jié)目登臺。
但是，有一天晚上，觀眾席中來了一位和她一樣懷揣夢想的人。此人便是戲劇制作人奧古斯丁·戴利。他看到了別人沒有看到的東西，那便是女孩舞蹈背后的憧憬、理想和夢想。他讓她在他編排的《仲夏夜之夢》中出演了一個角色——泰坦尼亞王后的一個舞蹈仙女。也許她不能強(qiáng)迫自己的觀眾理解樸素之美，但是至少，這給了她跳舞——以及糊口——的機(jī)會。
就這樣，他們一家人在紐約安頓了下來。一天晚上，伊莎多拉以埃塞爾伯特·內(nèi)文的音樂為伴奏舞了一曲；內(nèi)文當(dāng)時就在觀眾席中，他看得入了迷。他為她安排了幾場音樂會，冷漠的紐約一下子沸騰了，為一顆新星的誕生而歡呼。社會認(rèn)可了她。在紐波特限制慎嚴(yán)的沙龍里，她為上層社會的人士跳舞。他們極力吹捧她，但就像這吹捧來得迅猛一樣，他們拋棄她的速度也同樣迅疾。于是，家里的錢袋子又空了。
Turning Point in Dance Career
But the lodestone of distant horizons beckoned once again. What did it matter that the family had no money? They would go to London. After Isadora had borrowed right and left from her former friends, the Duncans sailed。
In London, a few engagements brought a few dollars, but the few dollars weren’t enough to fill the young hungry stomachs. Then one night Isadora and one of her brothers were dancing in their Grecian veils in a small garden. They danced by the light of the stars and their only audience was their own shadows. Quite unexpectedly, a beautiful lady came and stood watching them and was amazed. When they had finished their dance she swooped down upon them and took them to her own home. She was Mrs. Patrick Campbell, the idol of the London stage. She played for them and they danced for her; she sobbed dramatic tears, and introduced them to London society。
The meeting with Mrs. Campbell was the turning point in the story of Isadora Duncan. London society acclaimed them, and British royalty honored them. Life became busy, hectic, and full to overflowing with triumphs—and setbacks. Duncan, the dancer, had arrived, but the girl, Isadora, was still a rebel against customs and traditions—and marriage。
She danced in Paris and was cheered. She danced in Berlin, and the art-loving Germans went mad with enthusiasm. Life was gorgeous. But always at the back of her persistent mind was her dream. Some day she would dance in the land of ancient culture where the Athenian maidens had made the dance a religion. Some day she would bring back the beauty of classical simplicity to the people of the nineteenth century. Isadora went to Athens and took her mother, brothers, and sister with her。
舞蹈生涯的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)
但遠(yuǎn)方地平線的磁石再次向她招手示意。家里沒錢又有什么關(guān)系？這次他們要去倫敦。伊莎多拉從自己從前的一些朋友那兒東湊西借了一點(diǎn)錢后，鄧肯一家便起身了。
在倫敦，她們拿到了寥寥幾分簽約，掙了區(qū)區(qū)幾個小錢，可這一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)收入遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)不夠填飽這些年輕人如饑似渴的胃。一天夜晚，伊莎多拉和她的一個哥哥在一個小花園里披著他們的希臘面紗翩然起舞。借著星光，兄妹倆就這樣舞著，僅有的觀眾就是他們自己的影子。然而，非常出乎預(yù)料的是，一位美麗的貴夫人來到花園，駐足觀看了他們的舞蹈，她驚呆了。待兄妹倆跳完后，她沖過去一把抓住他們，將他們帶回了家。這位女士就是帕特里克·坎貝爾夫人，倫敦舞臺上的偶像。她為兄妹倆伴奏，兄妹倆為她跳舞；她為她們的舞蹈所感動，淚如雨下，她將兄妹倆引薦給了倫敦社交界。
與坎貝爾夫人的這次不期而遇成了伊莎多拉·鄧肯經(jīng)歷的轉(zhuǎn)折點(diǎn)。倫敦社交界對兄妹倆大加贊賞，英國王室還授予了他們榮譽(yù)稱號。生活開始變得忙碌、紛亂起來，隨之而來的是捷報頻傳——外加挫折不斷。作為舞蹈家的鄧肯終于破繭成蝶，但作為小姑娘的伊莎多拉依然是一個叛逆者，對抗習(xí)俗、傳統(tǒng)——還有婚姻。
她登上了巴黎的舞臺，贏得了喝彩。她走進(jìn)了柏林的劇院，熱愛藝術(shù)的德國人表現(xiàn)出了近乎瘋狂的熱情。生活真可謂絢麗多彩。但在她那顆執(zhí)意無悔的內(nèi)心深處裝著的始終是她的夢想。有朝一日，她定要到那片有著古老文化的大地上翩翩起舞，在那里，雅典少女將舞蹈變成了一種宗教?？傆幸惶欤ㄒ獙⒐诺涞臉闼刂缼Щ氐绞攀兰o(jì)的人們眼前。伊莎多拉去了雅典，與她同行的還有她的母親、兩個哥哥和一個姐姐。
Love and Art
In the Athenian hills Isadora gathered a class of small Grecian boys about her. She taught them dances. Bare-legged, with sandaled feet and flowing draperies, the Duncans danced from village to village, and the world called them mad. A year passed, and their purse was empty, Isadora and her kin returned to modern civilization and Vienna。
Vienna took her to its gay heart, and success and wealth returned. But Isadora Duncan learned that life without the fullness of love was incomplete. Then, in Berlin, in 1905, she met Gordon Craig, the colorful, handsome, glamorous son of Ellen Terry. This was the great love; this was life at its highest. The world sighed, and giggled, and was delighted. A baby was born, and they named her Deirdre. Isadora adored her。
Then she came to the United States and danced to the music of Walter Damrosch’s orchestra. America was shocked, and delighted. Of course, everyone had a body, but one didn’t acknowledge the fact. Even modest ankles weren’t to be exposed. That nonsense was ended by an edict from no less a wielder of strong opinion than Teddy Roosevelt. “Isadora Duncan,” he proclaimed, “seems to me as innocent as a child dancing through the garden in the morning sunshine and picking the beautiful flowers of her fantasy?！?So the master politician became poet, and Isadora danced and was forgiven her sins。
She built a school where she taught young girls the beauty of the dance. She was the priestess of the dance, and in that role did more to return it to its ancient glory than any other single man or woman in the world’s history of terpsichore。
愛情與藝術(shù)
在雅典的山丘上，伊莎多拉召集了一班希臘小男孩跟在自己身邊，教他們跳舞。*著腿，穿著涼鞋，披著飄逸的織物，鄧肯一家人從一個村莊跳到另一個村莊，成了世人眼中的瘋子。一年過去，他們的錢袋空了，伊莎多拉同家人又回到了現(xiàn)代文明，來到維也納。
維也納將敞開歡快的胸懷擁抱了她，成功和財富又回來了。但伊莎多拉·鄧肯漸漸明白，缺少圓滿愛情的生活是不完滿的。在這之后的1905年，她于柏林邂逅了埃倫·特里的兒子戈登· 克雷格，一個情趣十足、儀表堂堂、魅力四射的人。這是一場偉大的愛情；這是一段極至的生活。世人為之感嘆、為之歡笑、為之欣喜。他們的愛情結(jié)晶降生了，他們給她起名迪爾德麗。伊莎多拉將她視為掌上明珠。
隨后，她來到了美國，在沃爾特·達(dá)姆羅施指揮的管弦樂隊(duì)的伴奏下起舞。美國震驚了，而且欣喜若狂。是的，當(dāng)然，人人都有一個軀體，但誰都不肯承認(rèn)這個事實(shí)。就連最樸實(shí)無華的腳踝也不得暴露在外。但這樣的荒唐論調(diào)被一道詔書給廢止了，頒布這道詔書的正是一言九鼎的西奧多·羅斯福?！耙辽嗬む嚳希彼嬲f，“在我看來，就像一個天真無邪的孩子，跳著舞穿過沐浴在晨曦中的花園，去采摘自己想象中的美麗花朵。”就這樣，一代政壇大師成了詩人，讓伊莎多拉因此可以舞之蹈之，使她的罪過得到了寬恕。
她創(chuàng)辦了一所學(xué)校，向年輕女孩傳授舞蹈之美。她是舞蹈這門藝術(shù)的女祭司，站在祭司的位置上，她將舞蹈這門藝術(shù)重新回歸至其古時的輝煌地位。而在這一方面，世界歌舞還沒有哪個人——無論男女——能望其項(xiàng)背。
Dance in Tragedy
Then, one night in Paris, Isadora Duncan danced to the haunting melody of Chopin’s Funeral March, and a vision of tragedy came to her. She danced with eyes closed and saw her two children threatened by evil. A few days passed and the father of her son stood before her. His lips were dry and his eyes were haggard. He told of the death of her two children。
Life was dead; dreams were dead; the world was empty. Isadora Duncan, the rebel, had won her rebellion and lost all that was worth the fight. She felt she would never dance again. But she did dance. In her tragedy she had become a giantess, and life does not or cannot stand still. She faced new tragedy in 1914 when, under the shadow of the dawn of the first World War, another baby was born—dead. Still she danced, and still she continued to teach her girls. She danced her Ninth Symphony to an audience that sat as though in the presence of a creature divine. Her greatest creative dream had become a reality。
Isadora Duncan died in 1927. A veil caught in the wheel of her automobile. There was the grinding of brakes—and then darkness. She died tragically, horribly, and the world was upset for a few hours and then went about its business. But those who had loved her and who knew her dream of beauty mourned her passing of a human creature who had been an honest builder of dreams. She had done more for the art of the dance than any other man or woman in history。
悲劇連連舞不停
在巴黎的一天晚上，伊莎多拉·鄧肯踏著肖邦的《葬禮進(jìn)行曲》那縈繞的旋律翩翩起舞，此時一幅悲劇的幻象映入了她的眼簾。她閉目而舞，卻分明看見了自己的兩個孩子面臨著不幸的威脅。幾天后，兒子的父親站在了她面前，嘴唇干枯，兩眼憔悴。他告訴了她兩個孩子的死訊。
生命死了；夢想死了；世界空了。叛逆的伊莎多拉·鄧肯贏得了叛逆，卻失去了值得為之奮斗的一切。她感到自己再也不能跳舞了。可她還是跳了。在自己的悲劇中，她變成了一個女巨人，而生活沒有也不可能止步不前。1914年，她面臨了新的悲劇，在第一次世界大戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)前的陰霾籠罩下，又一個孩子降生了 ——又夭折了。她依然跳舞，依然繼續(xù)教她身邊的那些小姑娘。她在觀眾面前演繹了自己的《第九交響曲》，觀眾坐在那里，神情就像面對神靈。她最偉大的創(chuàng)作夢想已經(jīng)變成了現(xiàn)實(shí)。
伊莎多拉·鄧肯卒于1927年。她圍在脖子上的長紗卷進(jìn)了她的車輪。剎車發(fā)出了刺耳的聲音，接著便是一團(tuán)漆黑。她死了，死得如此悲慘、如此可怕，世人為此不安了幾個小時，之后便又各忙各的事去了。但那些曾經(jīng)愛過她了解她美麗夢想的人都在為她哀悼，哀悼一個坦誠的筑夢人的離去。她為舞蹈這門藝術(shù)所做出的貢獻(xiàn)，超越了歷的任何一個人。