隱身的紐約客大衛鮑伊 Invisible New Yorker
About 10 years ago, the playwright John Guare got a call asking if he wanted to meet David Bowie to discuss a theater project.
大約十年前，劇作家約翰·瓜爾(John Guare)接到一個電話，問他是否願意跟大衛·鮑伊(David Bowie)見面商談一個劇目。
As Mr. Guare remembered it, Mr. Bowie was “in a very dark place” (it was shortly after he had had a heart attack onstage in Berlin), and a mutual friend, the English producer Robert Fox, was trying to coax him back to a creative life. Mr. Guare immediately said yes.
瓜爾回憶說，當時正值鮑伊生命中的“黑暗時期”（不久前他在柏林演出時在舞臺上突發心臟病）。英國製片人羅伯特·福克斯(Robert Fox)是他們兩人共同的朋友。他正在設法說服大衛·鮑伊重回一種富有創造力的生活。瓜爾當即答應下來。
He and Mr. Bowie met at each other’s homes in New York to throw around ideas, and sometimes they went out. “We would take walks around the East Village,” Mr. Guare said. “And I was always praying somebody would run into us so I could say, ‘Do you know my friend David Bowie?’”
他和大衛·鮑伊在紐約彼此的家中見面，互相探討交流，有時他們也會出門。“我們會在東村(East Village)附近散步。”瓜爾談到，“我經常希望會有人碰到我們，這樣我就可以介紹說：‘你認識大衛·鮑伊嗎？他是我的朋友。’”
It never happened.
可是，他一直也沒有這個機會。
Mr. Guare was at first puzzled and then amazed at how Mr. Bowie — the stage creature, the persona, the guy he saw command an audience at Radio City Music Hall in 1973 with his spiky orange hair and snow-white tan — could walk the city streets unrecognized.
1973年，瓜爾曾親眼目睹了鮑伊在廣播城音樂廳(Radio City)以橙色蓬起的髮型、慘白膚色的形象令無數歌迷傾倒。像他這樣一個舞臺巨星，怎麼可能走在紐約的街道上而不爲人知呢？這讓瓜爾大惑不解，而又詫異萬分。
“He traveled with this cloak of invisibility — nobody saw him,” Mr. Guare said. “He just eradicated himself.”
“他如同披上了一件隱身衣——讓人們對他視而不見。”瓜爾說，“簡直就像從世上徹底消失了。”
People often forgot, but up until his death, on Sunday at age 69, Mr. Bowie was a New Yorker. He said so himself, emphatically. “I’m a New Yorker!” he declared to SOMA magazine in 2003, after he’d been here a decade.
人們常常會忘記，其實直到週日他去世的那天爲止，69歲的鮑伊一直是個紐約客。他自己也曾經這樣強調過。在2003年他曾對SOMA雜誌說：“我是一個紐約客！”那時他已經在紐約居住了十年。
He and his Somali-born wife, Iman, who is a model fluent in five languages, spent almost their entire marriage, more than 20 years, as residents of the city. Anyone will tell you they were one of New York’s most glamorous, graceful couples, made all the more so by the dignified and private way they lived.
他的妻子伊曼是在索馬里出生的名模，精通五門外語。他們夫妻在紐約市度過了20多年的光陰，可以說幾乎所有的婚姻時光都花在了這個城市裏。任何人都會告訴你，他們是紐約最優雅迷人的夫妻之一，高貴莊重而不事張揚的生活方式使他們更有魅力。
And though Mr. Bowie was enormously wealthy, he wasn’t one of those rich guys who kept an apartment in the city, along with a portfolio of global real estate holdings, and flew in. Aside from a mountain retreat in Ulster County, N.Y., his Manhattan apartment was his only home.
雖然鮑伊極爲富有，但他並不是那種在全球各地都置有產業，偶爾纔會飛到城裏公寓呆上一天兩天的那種富翁。除了在紐約州阿爾斯特縣(Ulster)的那套山間別墅以外，位於曼哈頓的公寓就是他唯一的家了。
You may not have considered all this because Mr. Bowie was an apparition in the city, rarely glimpsed. You heard it mentioned that he lived here. Somewhere downtown, someone thought. But seeing him out? Good luck.
你可能從未注意到過這些。這是因爲鮑伊是個很少在城裏現身的幽靈。也許，有人告訴過你他住在這兒，又有人說是在市中心的某個地方。可是，想看他一眼可就沒那麼容易了。
Michael Musto, the veteran night life columnist (and occasional New York Times contributor), met him at a party in the 1970s but saw him very few times after that, he said. Gerard Malanga, the poet and Warhol associate, who lived three blocks from Mr. Bowie and had friends in common, described himself as “one of the millions who never encountered David on the street or anywhere.”
老牌夜生活專欄作家邁克爾·慕斯拖（Michael Musto，他偶爾也在《紐約時報》發文）曾經在70年代的一個晚會上遇到過他，可是他說，在那之後就很少再有那樣的好運了。沃霍爾的助理、詩人傑拉德·馬蘭(Gerard Malanga)住的地方與鮑伊家只有三個街區之隔，他們也有些共同的朋友。馬蘭加說，和無數人一樣，自己也從未在街頭巷角遇到過大衛·鮑伊。
Mr. Bowie wasn’t a Garbo-level recluse. He got around enough to avoid the terrible fate of having his privacy draw more attention to him. But if people did spot him at Lincoln Center or out to dinner with Iman, they usually gave him wide berth, out of respect and also a sense of intimidation.
鮑伊並不像葛麗泰·嘉寶那樣追求與世隔絕的生活。他會不時露面，以防過分追求遁世反而會給他帶來更多的公衆注意。不過，如果有人發現他在林肯中心出現，或者和伊曼出來就餐，出於尊敬，而且也往往是出於敬畏，一般會給他很大的空間。
“I had always thought he was unapproachable,” Mr. Musto said. “But he was quite lovely and accessible.”
“我一直覺得他不太好接近，”慕斯拖說，“但其實他是個很和藹可親的人。”
“The fabulous identities he had,” Mr. Guare said — meaning Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane and the Thin White Duke and even the Bowie of the ’80s, who looked like the world’s most elegantly dressed serial killer — “bore no reflection on the person who was carrying them.”
他評論道：“那些千奇百怪、精彩絕倫的舞臺形象，”——包括怪異的Ziggy Stardust（大衛·鮑伊塑造的舞臺形象之一，是個太空幻想生物，以火紅的頭髮和光怪陸離的衣服出現——譯註）、叛逆的Aladdin Sane（1973年的專輯。在裏面大衛·鮑伊給自己的臉上畫出閃電狀的紅色油彩作爲標識——譯註）和冰冷的Thin White Duke（1976年出版的《Station To Station》裏塑造的形象，冰冷的痩白條——譯註），甚至80年代看上去像個衣冠楚楚的系列殺手的鮑伊，“所有這些舞臺形象與它們背後的藝術家本人毫無共同點。”
“I think he had complete access to David Jones,” Mr. Guare added, referring to Mr. Bowie’s birth name. “And that’s who I knew.”
“我覺得他完全保持了大衛·瓊斯(David Jones)的本色，”慕斯拖提到鮑伊的原名。他接着說：“這纔是我所真正認識的大衛·鮑伊。”
Mr. Bowie heard New York before he ever saw it. When he was 19 and still living in England, his manager, back from the States, gave him an acetate record of “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” obtained directly from Andy Warhol.
在鮑伊還沒有見到紐約之前，他就已經“聽”到它的聲音了。那年他19歲，還住在英格蘭。他的經紀人從美國回來，從安迪·沃霍爾手裏拿到了一張《地下絲絨和尼科》(The Velvet Underground and Nico)的唱片給他。
“I was hearing a degree of cool that I had no idea was humanly sustainable,” he later wrote in an essay for New York magazine.
他後來在一篇爲《紐約雜誌》(New York magazine)寫的文章裏說：“我覺得好像聽到了天籟之聲。”
He traveled to New York in 1971, around the time he released “Hunky Dory,” his fourth album. One of the first New Yorkers he encountered was Moondog, the blind, flowingly bearded street performer who dressed in a homemade robe and a horned Viking helmet and planted himself on West 54th Street. On that trip, Mr. Bowie visited the Factory; touchingly, he wanted to play his song “Andy Warhol” for the man himself.
1971年，他來到了紐約。他的第四部專輯《Hunky Dory》也就在那時發行。在他第一批遇到的紐約客之中，有一個藝名叫“月亮狗”(Moondog)，留着一副大鬍子的盲人藝術家。他身穿自制長袍，頭戴尖角的維京海盜頭盔，常常在西54街街頭表演。在那趟旅途中，鮑伊還參觀了沃霍爾的工作室——“工廠”。令人感動的是，他想要親自爲沃霍爾演唱“安迪·沃霍爾”這首歌。
When he came for an extended stay in 1972, he was accompanied by his first wife, Angie, and his new manager, Tony DeFries. Mr. DeFries, a cigar-chomping, Col. Tom Parker-like showbiz slickster, believed in success by way of publicity-generating spectacle. Back then, Mr. Bowie did not pass through the city in a cloak of invisibility. He took limos everywhere and presented himself like an abstract canvas.
1972年，他再次來到紐約並待了較長的一段時間，他的第一任妻子安吉(Angie)和他的新經紀人託尼·德弗萊斯(Tony DeFries)與他同行。德弗萊斯是個叼着雪茄、像湯姆·派克（Tom Parker，荷蘭裔美國經紀人，曾是“貓王”的經紀人——譯註）一樣的娛樂圈老滑頭。他堅信公衆宣傳是獲得成功的必要條件。那時候，鮑伊可不是披着隱身衣在城裏走動。他無論去哪兒都是乘坐豪華轎車，所有的行動都暴露在公衆眼前。
Here’s Bebe Buell, the musician and rock star paramour, recalling Mr. Bowie’s arrival at Max’s Kansas City: “He walked in wearing a powdered-blue suit with orange hair, and just bedazzled us all.”
酷愛與音樂家和搖滾歌星拍拖的貝貝比爾(Bebe Buell)這樣描述鮑伊蒞臨“麥克斯的堪薩斯城”（Max’s Kansas City）夜總會的情景：“他身着粉藍色西裝，搭配着橙色的頭髮，就這樣走了進來，讓我們每個人都如醉如癡。”
After he became Ziggy Stardust, and a huge star, Mr. Bowie found refuge at the West 20th Street apartment of his publicist, Cherry Vanilla. In her memoir, “Lick Me,” she recounts how he would do brain-sizzling amounts of cocaine and drink milk for nourishment (no solid food in those years), and they’d rap about “power, symbols, communication, music, the occult, Aleister Crowley and Merlin the Magician.”
鮑伊成爲“Ziggy Stardust”並一舉成名之後，其公關發言人雪莉·範妮拉(Cherry Vanilla)在西20街上的公寓成了他的避難所。在她的傳記《Lick Me》一書中，她談到，他當時吸食大量的可卡因，靠牛奶維持生命（那些年裏他一點固體食物都不吃）。他們一起天南海北地暢談：“權力、形象、宣傳、音樂、宗教狂熱、阿萊斯特·克勞利(Aleister Crowley)、魔法師莫林。”
Like a lot of rock stars, Mr. Bowie lived in hotels: first the Gramercy Park Hotel, then the Sherry-Netherland until the room-service bill became obscene. Throughout the 1970s, he was less a citizen of New York than a debauched tourist, directing his limo to Max’s, Paradise Garage and Reno Sweeney. Socially deft and curious, he transited between Studio 54 and CBGB, and hung out with Mick and Bianca Jagger and Iggy Pop.
和許多搖滾歌星一樣，鮑伊一直在酒店裏長住：先是格萊美西公園酒店(Gramercy Park Hotel)，後來是荷蘭雪梨酒店(Sherry-Netherland)，直到積累了天文數字的客服費用。在70年代，與其說他是個紐約市居民，不如說他是個放浪形骸的遊客，乘坐豪華轎車穿梭於“麥克斯的堪薩斯城”、天堂車庫(Paradise Garage)和裏諾斯威尼(Rino Sweeney)幾個夜總會之間。他善於交往，充滿好奇心，在54號工作室和CBGB（紐約的一個酒吧，被公認爲是朋克音樂的誕生地——譯註）之間往來，與搖滾明星米克·賈格爾(Mick Jagger)及妻子夜店女王碧安卡(Bianca)，還有朋克搖滾音樂家伊基·波普(Iggy Pop)混在一起。
In the New York magazine essay, Mr. Bowie wrote of that period, “I rarely got up before noon and hit the sack again around four or five in the morning.” He saw the city with “multicolored glasses.”
在爲《紐約雜誌》撰寫的那篇文章中，鮑伊說道：在那段日子裏“我很少在中午之前起牀，到凌晨四五點纔會睡覺”.他如同戴着“五彩眼鏡”，看到的是一個光怪陸離的城市。
As had been widely chronicled, Mr. Bowie left America for Berlin, partly to flee his druggie lifestyle.
之後，正如媒體的廣泛記載，爲了從那種癮君子的生活中逃離，鮑伊離開了美國，前往柏林。
In 1980, after recording the albums “Low,” “Heroes” and “Lodger” — which became known as his Berlin trilogy — he was back in New York, this time as the Elephant Man at the Booth Theater on Broadway. (“He is splendid” The Times wrote.) In 1982, with Nile Rodgers producing, he recorded the album “Let’s Dance” at the Power Station on West 53rd Street, a sonic and commercial triumph. But for all his victories and nocturnal good times in the city, Mr. Bowie seemed unable to commit to it.
1980年，錄製完《Low》、《Heroes》及《Lodger》——它們被稱爲他的“柏林三部曲”，他回到了紐約，在百老匯展位劇院(Booth Theater)主演《象人》(Elephant Man)（《泰晤士報》對他表演的評論是：“棒極了”）。1982年，由尼爾·羅傑斯(Nile Rodgers)擔任製作，他在西53街的Power Station錄音工作室錄製了新的專輯《Let’s Dance》。無論從聲樂還是商業上，這張專輯都取得了巨大的成功。但是，所有這些成功和夜生活的美妙都沒能讓鮑伊下決心在紐約定居下來。
When Iman met Mr. Bowie at a dinner party in 1990, he was living in Switzerland as a tax exile, a citizen of the world. She wasn’t having it, she once told The Guardian: “I’m a New Yorker. I was like, ‘Let’s go home.’”
1990年，在一個晚餐聚會上，伊曼遇見了鮑伊。當時他作爲一個逃稅者、一個世界公民住在瑞士。這可不行，她後來對英國《衛報》說：“我是個紐約客。我對他說：‘咱們回家吧。’”
The couple married in 1992 and moved into a conventional prewar apartment on Central Park South. They had a daughter, Lexi. In 1999, they paid $4 million for two penthouses (an upstairs-downstairs) on Lafayette Street in SoHo, where they remained. That’s also where fans gathered in the numbing cold after he died to lay flowers, many unaware, until that day, that he’d been a fellow New Yorker.
他和伊曼於1992年結爲連理，並且搬進了中央公園南邊的一個傳統的戰前公寓。他們育有一女，名叫萊西(Lexi)。1999年，他們用400萬美元，在蘇豪區拉法葉特街(Lafayetter)買下了一套上下兩層的頂層公寓，一直在那裏住到現在。在他去世以後，他的歌迷們頂着刺骨的寒風來到這裏向他獻上鮮花。直到那天，許多他的歌迷還並不知道，他一直和他們一樣，是個紐約客。
Over time, Mr. Bowie did become a real New Yorker. He absorbed the city’s attitude and cultural quirks, and had trouble catching a cab. He wrote a song (“Slip Away”) about Uncle Floyd, the host of a weird, low-budget, quasi-children’s TV show that aired locally back in the UHF days.
隨着時間的推移，鮑伊慢慢成爲了一個真正的紐約客。他吸收了紐約人的處世態度和文化習慣，變成了一個連出租車都打不到的普通人。他曾經寫過一支歌《溜走》(Slip Away)，寫的是弗洛伊德大叔，他是過去在UHF頻道播出的當地一個怪異、低成本的準兒童節目的主持人。
After the Sept. 11 attacks, he performed movingly at the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. He covered Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” and announced from the stage, before singing “Heroes”: “I’d particularly like to say hello to the folks from my local ladder. You know where you are.”
9·11事件發生之後，他曾在麥迪遜廣場花園紐約音樂會上舉辦了動人心絃的演出。他演唱了西蒙和加芬克爾的歌曲“美國”(America)，並且演唱了“英雄”(Heroes)。在唱這支歌之前，他在舞臺上宣佈說：“我想要特別地對我家鄉的消防員們問聲好。你們知道你們身處何方。”
In photographs, you can see how subdued and grown-up Mr. Bowie’s second go-round in the city was. “He did the ballet, all the fun cultural stuff,” said Patrick McMullan, who photographed him over the years, though much less after Mr. Bowie’s heart attack in Berlin.
通過照片，我們可以看出鮑伊的第二次紐約之旅有多麼低調和成熟。“他會去看芭蕾，參加所有那些有意思的文化活動。”帕特里克·邁克馬倫(Patrick McMullan)說。他這些年來一直用照相機跟蹤鮑伊的蹤跡，但是鮑伊在柏林心臟病發作之後，就不太有機會了。
He was always in a sharp suit or tux. Regularly at the Met Gala or the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards to support his wife. Never caught stumbling out of the hot club at 4 a.m. He’d already been to a lifetime’s worth of parties.
爲了支持妻子的事業，他總是身穿精緻的西裝或禮服，定期參加大都市博物館的年度募捐晚宴(Met Gala)和美國時裝設計師理事會頒獎典禮(the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards)。你再也不會看到他在凌晨4點從一個夜總會裏跌跌撞撞地出來。過去參加過的派對已經夠他用一輩子了。
Iman once described Mr. Bowie as a “homebody”; The Onion imagined him as a “pansexual alien” staying in to “do lasagna for dinner.” He led a pretty normal-seeming life. He shopped for groceries once a week at Dean & DeLuca. He loved the chicken sandwich with watercress and tomatoes at Olive’s on Prince Street. He liked to rise at 6 a.m. and get his “buzz” by walking the still-empty streets of Chinatown.
伊曼曾經把鮑伊描述爲“居家好男人”。《洋蔥報》(The Onion)將他想象爲一個喜愛留在家裏吃意式千層麪晚餐的“泛性外星人”。他的生活相當平凡。每週他會去Dean & DeLuca食品商場購物。他喜歡王子街(Prince Street)奧利弗餐館(Olive’s)的番茄豆瓣菜雞肉三明治。他喜歡早上6點起牀後，在唐人街空曠的街道上漫步的感覺。
He read a lot. He collected art. He painted. He and Iman socialized with the parents of their daughter’s friends at school. He spent his remaining time meaningfully and productively, and largely here.
他酷愛讀書、收集藝術品、畫油畫。他和伊曼會和女兒同學的父母交往。他的餘生充實不凡，幾乎全部在紐約度過。
Mr. Bowie stopped touring in 2004. He left New York only when work demanded, and during his stunning end-of-life creative burst, he found a way to never leave his neighborhood.
自2004年起，鮑伊停止了巡演。只有當工作需要時他纔會離開紐約。在最後的幾個月裏，他迸發了令人驚異的旺盛創造力，同時，他找到了辦法始終不用離開自己生活的街區。
“Lazarus,” the show for which Mr. Bowie composed songs and resurrected the displaced alien he played in the 1976 film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” was staged at New York Theater Workshop, on East Fourth Street, less than 10 blocks from his house.
不久之前，鮑伊創作詞曲的《拉薩路》(Lazarus)在東4大道的紐約劇院工作室(New York Theater Workshop)上演，距離他家只有十個街區。在這部音樂劇裏，鮑伊在1976年電影《天外來客》(The Man Who Fell to Earth)中扮演的外星人得以重生。
Both his 2013 album, “The Next Day,” and the demos for his final record, “Blackstar” — which was released, incidentally, on his birthday and just two days before he died — were recorded at the Magic Shop recording studio on Crosby Street — 283 steps from his front door.
在他去世之前兩天，也就是他生日之際，他發佈了2013專輯《The Next Day》和最後錄製的小樣《黑星》(Blackstar)樣本。它們都是在克洛斯比街(Crosby)The Magic Shop錄音工作室錄製的，據他家大門僅有283步之遙。
Mr. Bowie would have ridden the elevator down from his penthouse, exited his building, crossed Lafayette Street, slipped through the little alley called Jersey Street and walked on cobblestones until he came to the studio’s unmarked metal doors.
鮑伊會乘電梯從他的頂層公寓下來，離開大樓，橫穿拉法葉特街，再穿過一條叫做澤西街(Jersey)的小衚衕，順着鵝卵石鋪就的街道，一直走到工作室那沒有標記的金屬門前。
Brian Thorn, a recording engineer for the “Next Day” sessions, said Mr. Bowie worked “very humane hours,” as rock stars go. “We’d start by 10,” Mr. Thorn said. “He would get there with or before the musicians. The studio would have his coffee order ready,” a double macchiato from La Colombe.
《The Next Day》的錄音工程師布萊恩·索恩(Brian Thorn)說，鮑伊的工作時間就搖滾明星而言，“非常人性化”。“我們會從10點開始，”他說。“他會比樂師們先到，或者和他們一起到來。工作室會把他的咖啡事先準備好。”他喝的是La Colombe咖啡店的雙倍瑪奇朵咖啡。
Mr. Thorn remembered overhearing Mr. Bowie and his guitarist talking one day. The guitarist was going on about an art exhibit, and how much Mr. Bowie would love it. Then he caught himself, realizing whom he was talking to, and said, “Oh, you can never go there; there’s too many people.”
索恩記得有一天聽到鮑伊和吉他手的對話。那個吉他手在大談一個藝術展，說鮑伊一定會特別喜歡。然後，他忽然想起他的談話對象是誰，連忙打住話頭，說：“噢，你不能去那地方，人太多了。”
Mr. Bowie answered, slyly, “You’d be surprised the places I’m able to go.”
鮑伊帶着一絲狡黠回答說：“我去過的地方你猜也猜不到。”
Have you seen the photo that’s been circulating on Twitter of Mr. Bowie out in the city in cargo shorts and sneakers and carrying Uncut magazine? He’s very normcore. You can see why nobody recognized him, why an international superstar was able to move through the city unseen.
你有沒有見過Twitter上盛傳的那張照片？在照片裏鮑伊身着工裝短褲、運動鞋，手持一本Uncut雜誌，在市裏漫步，看上去十分普通。你現在應該明白了，爲什麼沒有人能認出他來，爲什麼一個大牌明星能夠大搖大擺地穿行入市而依然避人眼目。
He understood that in our minds we all held a picture of David Bowie, or Ziggy, or the Thin White Duke. It allowed him to walk among us disguised as himself, David Jones.
因爲他知道，在我們所有人心目中，都有一個大衛·鮑伊，或者Ziggy, 或者the Thin White Duke的形象。這就使得他得以做回自我，以大衛·瓊斯的樣子，在我們身邊自由出入。
