华沙,听肖邦轻轻吟唱

It has been said by some experts that to understand Poland you must understand the composer Frederic Chopin.
有好些专家说过，要想了解波兰，就得了解作曲家弗雷德里克·肖邦。

The creative geniu one of the most original of the 19th century, was born outside Warsaw in 1810 to a French father and Polish mother and in a proud nation suffering under partition and divided among occupying Russian Prussians and Austrians.
这位才华洋溢的天才是19世纪最具独创性的作曲家之一，其父亲是法国人，而母亲则是波兰人，于1810年出生于华沙的近郊；而当时，波兰，这个国人为之自豪的国度却正被俄罗斯，普鲁士以及奥地利各方豪强割据而深受分裂之苦。

Thirteen years before Chopin was born, the occupying powers even abolished the very name "Poland". The country had been crucified, as the poets of the Romantic era put it, awaiting a resurrection which did not occur until 1918.
在肖邦出生的十三年前，这些割据势力竟然把“波兰”这个名字都废除了。正如浪漫时期的诗人所说的那样，这片大地仿若被钉上了十字架般受尽磨难，等待着复活的一天，而直到1918年，它才重获新生。

The always short and physically frail Frederic Chopin moved with his family to Warsaw as a newborn and lived there until he was 20 when he left his homeland for good. Yet although he spent almost half of his life in Pari traditional Polish music permeates his compositions and he always considered Warsaw his hometown. From Warsaw's historic Old Town down Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street, along the Royal Way to Lazienki Park, you can walk down the same streets young Frederic strolled, past palaces and churches in which he gave performances.
身材矮小，身体羸弱的弗雷德里 克·肖邦还是新生儿的时候就随家人来到了华沙，直到二十岁那年他才离开了祖国，再也没回来。尽管他几乎半生都身处巴黎，然而传统的波兰音乐深入到他的作品，而他也一直视华沙为自己的故里。从华沙历史悠久的老城区到克拉科夫郊区街，沿着皇家之路到瓦金基公园，你能踏上这些年少的肖邦曾经徜徉徘徊的街道，经过那些他曾经在里面演奏过的宫殿和教堂。

And the city never ceased being proud of him either. The $28 million, interactive Fryderyk Chopin Museum opened last March to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the composer's birth. Originally a two-roomed museum with dank gloomy basements in the city's 17th Century Ostrogski Castle, it has been transformed into a five-storey exhibition which makes good use of modern technology to tell the story of one of the greatest pianists in history.
而这座城市一直也以他为荣。耗资2.8亿美元，开放互动式的弗雷德里克·肖邦博物馆于去年三月开幕，旨在纪念这位音乐家诞辰200周年。原来的博物馆位于17世纪的奥斯拙斯基皇宫，有两个展室和一间阴暗潮湿的地下室。如今，它已经被修整为一座拥有五层展厅的博物馆，还将现代科技很好地结合在一起，把历史上其中一位最伟大的音乐家的生平展现给众人。

Visitors are given a plastic ticket which, once swiped past the blue light readers at the entrance, can be used to access information on touch screens in eight languages.
游客可以得到一张塑料入场券，只要在门口蓝光的读卡器刷过，就可以凭此在拥有八种语言的触屏电脑上获取各类信息。

In the cavernous brick vaults of the basement you can select an etude (a musical composition), place the score on a glass panel above the keys of a 19th-century piano that belonged to Franz Liszt and listen as a pianist's hands play the piece on a wall projection.
在一个如山洞似的砖砌拱顶地下室里，你可以选择一首练习曲，在一台十九世纪时属于弗朗茨·李斯特的钢琴前，把乐谱放在琴键上方的一块玻璃面板上，然后聆听，同时，墙上的投影会现出一位钢琴大师弹奏乐曲的画面。

"It's kind of a holy place," Keiko Kondo, a visitor from Japan told me beside the piano. "Lots of people say Chopin is very romantic and delicate. I don't think so. I feel a power and a strength," she said.
“这里犹如一座圣殿，”来自日本的游客近藤景子站在钢琴旁边跟我说道。“很多人都认为肖邦生性浪漫，为人敏感。我不这样认为。我感受到的是一种力量与韧劲，”她说。