经济学人下载:讣告:著名评书艺术家单田芳逝世 享年84岁(1)

Obituary: Shan Tianfang
讣告：单田芳

Tradition's voice
传统之声

Shan Tianfang, China's favourite storyteller died on September 11th, aged 84
中国著名评书艺术家单田芳，逝于9月11日，享年84岁

What struck Shan Tianfang most, as he walked into the studio for his first radio broadcast at the end of the 1970s, was the lack of things.
20世纪70年代末，单田芳走进广播录音棚，开始他的第一次广播，他最震惊的是，缺乏道具。

No brightly painted screen to set the scene for his pingshu, or storytelling.
没有色彩鲜艳的屏风作为评书现场的背景；

No block of wood on the table, to make the audience pay attention or to scare them stiff.
桌子上没有用来吸引观众注意或营造惊吓氛围的醒木；

No folded fan to snap open for a surprise, simper behind, or whip through the air as a sword.
也没有作鼓角铮鸣或刀光剑影的折扇。

A traditional storyteller needed only those three props.
一个传统的说书人仅需的三样道具都没有。

Still, he could manage.
尽管这样，单田芳依然可以讲好评书。

With the side of his left hand, he could bang emphatically.
他用左手重击以示强调；

And with his voice alone he could evoke the creaking wingbeats of a flying bird, the pealing, descending glugs of a man taking poison
仅凭声音变化就能模仿飞鸟的扑棱声、铃声、喝毒药时渐弱的咕噜声。

or the power of an adversary, "the corners of his eyes and brows showing a thousand streams of killing aura".
为了凸显对手之强，“他的眼角和眉毛会充满万钧杀气！”

The thing he missed most was an audience.
但他最想念的还是观众。

He was used to the teeming tea houses of north-east China, packed with old folk smoking in bamboo chairs and children running round.
习惯了中国东北热闹的茶馆，里面挤满了在竹椅上抽烟的老人，还有跑来跑去的孩童。

Here there were only two sound guys in headphones.
而在这录音棚里，只有两个戴着耳机的调音师。

He remembered, though, that for his first official performance in an Anshan tea house, in 1956 when he was 23 and faint with nerves, he had tried his routine on a few colleagues first.
不过他记得，1 956年，时值23岁的他在鞍山茶馆首次正式演出，紧张得差点晕厥过去，表演前他特意在同事面前排练过。

A few were as good as a crowd.
有几个人就像有一群人一样。

So he told "The Three Heroes and Five Gallants" to the sound guys, improvising and with lots of slang as usual, watching closely to see where they laughed, and where they dozed off.
所以他给录音棚里的两个调音师说了评书《三侠五义》，即兴创作，用了很多俚语，并仔细观察，看他们在什么地方笑，在什么地方打瞌睡。

That broadcast, he later found out, was heard by 100m people.
后来他发现，这个广播有1亿人收听。

It brought him such fame that by the end of a 60-year career he had performed more than 12,000 episodes of more than 100 stories on 500 TV and radio stations.
单田芳从艺60多年来，共表演录制了广播和电视评书100余部，共计超12000余集，在500多家电台、电视台播出。

He had filled stadiums.
体育场的演出场场爆满。

His hoarse, smoky voice, "cloud covering the moon" as the saying went, was listened to everywhere, by farmers in fields, workers commuting and, especially, by taxi drivers, to while the traffic away.
“在一个月黑风高的夜晚”，当单田芳那沙哑浑厚的声音响起，无论身在何处，田地里劳作的农夫，上下班的工人，尤其是那些路上的出租车司机们，都会静下来收听他的节目。

"Wherever a well has water", people tuned in to him.
“凡有井水处，皆听单田芳”。