華沙,聽肖邦輕輕吟唱

It has been said by some experts that to understand Poland you must understand the composer Frederic Chopin.
有好些專家說過，要想了解波蘭，就得了解作曲家弗雷德裏克·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.
這位才華洋溢的天才是19世紀最具獨創性的作曲家之一，其父親是法國人，而母親則是波蘭人，於1810年出生於華沙的近郊；而當時，波蘭，這個國人爲之自豪的國度卻正被俄羅斯，普魯士以及奧地利各方豪強割據而深受分裂之苦。

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，這些割據勢力竟然把“波蘭”這個名字都廢除了。正如浪漫時期的詩人所說的那樣，這片大地仿若被釘上了十字架般受盡磨難，等待着復活的一天，而直到1918年，它才重獲新生。

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，身體羸弱的弗雷德里 克·肖邦還是新生兒的時候就隨家人來到了華沙，直到二十歲那年他才離開了祖國，再也沒回來。儘管他幾乎半生都身處巴黎，然而傳統的波蘭音樂深入到他的作品，而他也一直視華沙爲自己的故里。從華沙歷史悠久的老城區到克拉科夫郊區街，沿着皇家之路到瓦金基公園，你能踏上這些年少的肖邦曾經徜徉徘徊的街道，經過那些他曾經在裏面演奏過的宮殿和教堂。

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.
而這座城市一直也以他爲榮。耗資2.8億美元，開放互動式的弗雷德裏克·肖邦博物館於去年三月開幕，旨在紀念這位音樂家誕辰200週年。原來的博物館位於17世紀的奧斯拙斯基皇宮，有兩個展室和一間陰暗潮溼的地下室。如今，它已經被修整爲一座擁有五層展廳的博物館，還將現代科技很好地結合在一起，把歷史上其中一位最偉大的音樂家的生平展現給衆人。

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.
遊客可以得到一張塑料入場券，只要在門口藍光的讀卡器刷過，就可以憑此在擁有八種語言的觸屏電腦上獲取各類信息。

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.
在一個如山洞似的磚砌拱頂地下室裏，你可以選擇一首練習曲，在一臺十九世紀時屬於弗朗茨·李斯特的鋼琴前，把樂譜放在琴鍵上方的一塊玻璃面板上，然後聆聽，同時，牆上的投影會現出一位鋼琴大師彈奏樂曲的畫面。

"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.
“這裏猶如一座聖殿，”來自日本的遊客近藤景子站在鋼琴旁邊跟我說道。“很多人都認爲肖邦生性浪漫，爲人敏感。我不這樣認爲。我感受到的是一種力量與韌勁，”她說。

In the kid's room, children can sit on bean bags in large colourful portholes to watch a puppet theatre show the 14-year-old Frederic wrote, or try to reconstruct a tune whose notes have fallen off a scale.
在兒童室，孩子們可以坐在豆袋沙發上，透過多彩的觀察孔看肖邦14歲時寫的木偶戲，或是重組一段有部分音符掉下的小曲。

Among the 7,000 items in the museum's collection are a lock of Chopin's hair and a gold pocket watch the Italian soprano Angelica Catalani gave the nine-year-old prodigy after one of his concerts.
在這7000多樣收藏品當中，有一束肖邦的頭髮和一隻金懷錶——那是一名叫安琪利卡·卡塔蘭尼的意大利女高音在這位神童九歲時一場演奏會後贈予他的。

Just up the road from the museum on the Royal Way is an apartment where Frederic, together with his family, lived for the last three years of his life in Warsaw.
順着博物館所在的皇家之路往前走有一間公寓，肖邦在華沙最後三年就是與家人居住在此地。

It is a little difficult to find, located at the end of a corridor on the second floor of the Academy of Fine Arts. There are few signs and I had to be careful not to tread on the works students were making in the corridors outside the lecture rooms.
那套公寓位於美術學院二樓走廊的盡頭，有點難找。由於標識少得可憐，所以我得非常小心，以免踩到學生們在課室外的走廊裏繪製的作品。

The drawing room has been reconstructed from a sketch made in 1832 and is decorated with period furniture. On a Buchholtz piano, similar to one Frederic owned, is a score of his Second Piano Concerto, with corrections in his own hand. It was in this room that Chopin gave the first performances of this concerto.
畫室是根據1832年的一張草圖重新修建而成的，擺放着古典傢俬。在一臺布赫霍爾茨鋼琴（近似於肖邦擁有的一架鋼琴）上，放着他的《第二鋼琴協奏曲》的樂譜，還保留着他自己親手做的修正。就是在這個房間裏，肖邦首次演奏該協奏曲。

The windows look down onto Krakowskie Przedmiescie Street, Warsaw's most elegant, as well as the wrought-iron gate of the city's university where Frederic studied and a church where he played organ during Mass.
從窗口望向克拉科夫郊區街，可以看到華沙最雅緻的風景線，還能看到肖邦曾就讀大學的鐵門和當年他在彌撒時演奏過管風琴的一座教堂。

The Church of the Holy Cross is a few steps down the street. Inside a pillar on the left-hand side of the nave is an urn containing Chopin's heart which, according to his wishe was smuggled home by his elder sister, Ludwika.
沿着這條大街走幾步就可以看到聖十字教堂。在教堂中殿左邊一根柱子裏面有一個甕，裏面存放了肖邦的心臟，那是肖邦的姐姐魯德維卡根據他的心願而私運回故里的。

The young Frederic would often walk down the Royal Way, visiting friends or going to cafés and bookstores. The route is marked by black granite benches which play different Chopin compositions.
年少的弗雷德裏克常常會沿着皇家之路散步，探望一下朋友或是逛逛咖啡店和書店。該路線現在點綴着黑色的花崗岩長椅，而這些椅子還能播放肖邦不同的曲目。

If you follow the Royal Way you will arrive at Lazienki Park. If you visit during summer you can attend the free open air concerts on Sundays given by pianists from all over the world. It is the perfect place to hear Chopin's music, the power and beauty of which was once described by his contemporary composer Robert Schumann as "cannon buried in flowers".
如果你沿着皇家之路走就會到達瓦金基公園。如果你夏天來這裏，就可以參加星期天的免費露天鋼琴演奏會，有來自世界各地的鋼琴家演奏。這是聆聽肖邦音樂的最佳地點，其音樂中蘊含的力量和美感正如與他同時期的作曲家羅伯特·舒曼曾經所描述的那樣，是“掩藏在鮮花中的大炮”。