经济学人下载:西西莉·泰森-佳人绝世而独立(1)

Obituary Cicely Tyso

讣告 西西莉·泰森

Beauty and defiance 

佳人绝世而独立

Cicely Tyson, actress, died on January 28th, aged 96 

女演员西西莉·泰森于1月28日去世，享年96岁

Slowly, with infinite effort, the elderly black woman got out of the car. Helped by a friendly arm, she laboured up the steps to the terrace. But there, squaring her shoulders, lifting her chin, she shrugged her helpers off. She knew how to walk, and she could walk from here. Her aim was to get to the water fountain by the sheriff’s office, the one that said “White Only”. Step by dragging step, leaning on her cane, she pressed on. 

这位年迈的黑人老妇慢悠悠、费劲地下了车。在别人善意的搀扶下，她吃力地走上台阶，来到露台。刚一站定，她就挺直脊背，抬高下巴，谢绝了旁人的搀扶。她知道怎么走路，从这里开始她就能自己走了。她的目的地警长办公室旁边的饮水机，上面写着“仅白人可用”。她拄着拐杖一步一步地向目标靠近。

The white officers by the door let her pass; they could hardly obstruct an old woman. At the fountain she turned on the water, took a smallish sip, let it flow round her mouth to savour it. Then, with a cursory glance at the officers, she went slowly back. 

门口的白人官员让她过去了；他们怎么好拦截这位年迈的妇人。到了饮水机旁，她打开水龙头，抿了一小口，让水缓慢流进嘴里，再细细地品味。然后，她匆匆地瞥了官员一眼，又缓慢地踱回去。

To play this lead role in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”, in 1974, Cicely Tyson spent months preparing. The film required her to age from 19 to 110, when the fountain incident occurred. She herself was somewhere midway, 49, though her elfin body and taut skin might have made her half that. 

为了在《简·皮特曼小姐的自传》影片中饰演好这个主角，1974年，西西莉·泰森花了数月的时间筹备。这部影片要求她演绎主角的生平，从19岁演到饮水事件发生时的110岁。拍摄影片时，49岁的西西莉正好处于中间的年龄段，尽管她身材窈窕轻盈和皮肤紧致，看起来也就二十多岁的模样。

To delve inside the being of this ancient woman, once a slave, she put on blurring contact lenses and studied residents in nursing homes, noticing how their hands shook and their memories came and went. What she did not need to study was Miss Pittman’s defiance. 

为了探究这位曾是奴隶的老妇的内心世界，她特意戴上隐形眼镜，模糊自己的视线，认真观察疗养院里的老人，研究他们的双手如何颤抖，他们的记忆如何时好时坏。唯一不需要探究的就是皮特曼小姐的孤傲。