One day, Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez was walking along the streets of downtown Los Angeles when he heard beautiful music. And the source was a man, an African-American man, charming, rugged, homeless, playing a violin that only had two strings.

有一天， 洛杉磯時報的專欄作家 Steve Lopez走在洛杉磯 大街上 聽到一曲美妙的樂曲 音樂是從一個男人 一個非裔男人 一個頗有魅力， 粗曠的流浪漢 用一把只剩下兩根弦的小提琴在演奏

And I'm telling a story that many of you know, because Steve's columns became the basis for a book, which was turned into a movie, with Robert Downey Jr. acting as Steve Lopez, and Jamie Foxx as Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, the Juilliard-trained double bassist whose promising career was cut short by a tragic affliction with paranoid schizophrenia. Nathaniel dropped out of Juilliard, he suffered a complete breakdown, and 30 years later he was living homeless on the streets of Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles. I encourage all of you to read Steve's book or to watch the movie to understand not only the beautiful bond that formed between these two men, but how music helped shape that bond, and ultimately was instrumental -- if you'll pardon the pun -- in helping Nathaniel get off the streets.

我現在要講的這個故事你們很多人已經知道了 因為Steve的專欄后來成了一本 書的基礎，然后又被拍成電影 其中Robert Downey Jr 扮演Steve Lopez Jamie Foxx扮演了Nathaniel Anthony Ayer 他原本是茱莉亞音樂學院培訓的雙重貝斯手 不料他的職業生涯 卻因為患上偏執型精神分裂癥而不幸中斷 Nathaniel從茱莉亞音樂學院輟學，他完全崩潰了 30年后的他流落在 洛杉磯 Skid Row 大街上無家可歸 我鼓勵大家都去看看Steve的書， 或者看看電影 不光是去理解這兩個男人之間 建立的美好的紐帶 而且也看看音樂是如果幫助建立這種紐帶的 而那是最終改變Nathaniel流浪 生活的最有用的工具

I met Mr. Ayers in 2008, two years ago, at Walt Disney Concert Hall. He had just heard a performance of Beethoven's First and Fourth symphonies, and came backstage and introduced himself. He was speaking in a very jovial and gregarious way about Yo-Yo Ma and Hillary Clinton and how the Dodgers were never going to make the World Series, all because of the treacherous first violin passage work in the last movement of Beethoven's Fourth Symphony. And we got talking about music, and I got an email from Steve a few days later saying that Nathaniel was interested in a violin lesson with me.

我和Ayers 先生在2008年相見 那是兩年前在迪斯尼音樂廳 他才聽了貝多芬第一，第四交響樂 到后天來自我介紹 他說話很愉快，很合群 提到了馬友友和希拉里.克林頓 道奇隊不可能進入世界聯賽 而這都是因為最后一刻貝多芬第四交響樂中 開始的那段變幻莫測的小提琴演奏起的作用 我們談了一會兒音樂。 幾天后我收到Steve的來信 告訴我Nathaniel有興趣跟我說學小提琴

Now, I should mention that Nathaniel refuses treatment because when he was treated it was with shock therapy and Thorazine and handcuffs, and that scar has stayed with him for his entire life. But as a result now, he is prone to these schizophrenic episodes, the worst of which can manifest themselves as him exploding and then disappearing for days, wandering the streets of Skid Row, exposed to its horrors, with the torment of his own mind unleashed upon him.

我應該提一下的是Nathaniel拒絕治療 因為當初他接受的是電擊療法 用的是鎮靜劑和手銬 那些傷疤從此留在了他的生活中 結果呢， 他的 精神分裂癥現在變得更容易發作 最糟糕的表現是 他發作后 會消失幾天 在Skid Row大街上流浪 暴露著內心的恐懼，讓心靈的煎熬 在身上釋放

And Nathaniel was in such a state of agitation when we started our first lesson at Walt Disney Concert Hall -- he had a kind of manic glint in his eyes, he was lost. And he was talking about invisible demons and smoke, and how someone was poisoning him in his sleep.

Nathaniel當初就是處在這樣的一種狀態下 我們在迪斯尼音樂廳開始了第一課的時候 他的目光中夾雜著狂躁 他是一個迷失了方向的人 他提到了 無形的惡魔和煙霧 有人怎樣在他睡覺時給他下毒

And I was afraid, not for myself, but I was afraid that I was going to lose him, that he was going to sink into one of his states, and that I would ruin his relationship with the violin if I started talking about scales and arpeggios and other exciting forms of didactic violin pedagogy. (Laughter) So, I just started playing. And I played the first movement of the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

我感到很害怕 不是為我自己的安全擔心， 而是害怕 我會失去他 他又會沉浸到他的某一種他的狀態中 而我會毀了他和小提琴建立起來的關系 如果我開始講音階 和琶音和其他形式的精彩 的說教式的小提琴教學法 (笑聲) 于是， 我開始拉琴 我演奏了貝多芬小提琴協奏曲的第一樂章

And as I played, I understood that there was a profound change occurring in Nathaniel's eyes. It was as if he was in the grip of some invisible pharmaceutical, a chemical reaction, for which my playing the music was its catalyst. And Nathaniel's manic rage was transformed into understanding, a quiet curiosity and grace. And in a miracle, he lifted his own violin and he started playing, by ear, certain snippets of violin concertos which he then asked me to complete -- Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius. And we started talking about music, from Bach to Beethoven and Brahms, Bruckner, all the B's, from Bartók, all the way up to Esa-Pekka Salonen.

當我演奏的時候 我知道Nathaniel的眼睛里有一種 奧妙的變化 好象他抓住了什么隱形的藥 象是經歷了化學反應，而我的演奏 就是催化劑 他的狂躁憤怒 也轉化成理解 安靜的好奇， 和優雅 神奇的是，他拿起了他的小提琴 他也跟著開始演奏 小提琴協奏曲的某些片斷 然后他又要我來完成，門德爾松 柴可夫斯基，西貝柳斯 于是我們開始談論音樂：從巴赫 到貝多芬，布拉姆斯 布魯克納， 所有名字以B打頭的人 從巴托克一直到艾沙·佩卡·薩洛寧

And I understood that he not only had an encyclopedic knowledge of music, but he related to this music at a personal level. He spoke about it with the kind of passion and understanding that I share with my colleagues in the Los Angeles Philharmonic. And through playing music and talking about music, this man had transformed from the paranoid, disturbed man that had just come from walking the streets of downtown Los Angeles to the charming, erudite, brilliant, Juilliard-trained musician.

我了解到他不但 是一本音樂大百科全書 而且他能將這些音樂跟他個人的感受聯系起來 他講到那些東西時充滿了激情和對音樂 深刻的理解，仿佛是我跟我在洛杉磯 交響樂團的同事們之間交流時一樣 通過演奏音樂， 談論音樂 這個人從一個 偏執，不安的 剛才還在洛杉磯 大街上晃悠的流浪漢 變成了一個迷人，博學 優秀的受過朱麗亞音樂學院教育的音樂家

Music is medicine. Music changes us. And for Nathaniel, music is sanity. Because music allows him to take his thoughts and delusions and shape them through his imagination and his creativity, into reality. And that is an escape from his tormented state. And I understood that this was the very essence of art. This was the very reason why we made music, that we take something that exists within all of us at our very fundamental core, our emotions, and through our artistic lens, through our creativity, we're able to shape those emotions into reality. And the reality of that expression reaches all of us and moves us, inspires and unites us.

音樂是良藥。音樂改變著我們 對nathaniel來說， 音樂是幫助他開啟心智 因為音樂可以幫他將他的思維 妄想，轉換成形 通過他的想象力和創造力 變成現實 而正是這個幫助他從煎熬 中解脫出來 而我知道這就是藝術的真髓 這正是我們創造音樂的原因 我們用我們每個人都擁有的一種內在 我們的最根本的核心 我們的感情 通過我們的藝術的鏡頭 通過我們的創造力，將我們的情感塑造成現實 而這種現實的表達 傳遞給我們所有的人 感動我們， 啟迪我們，團結我們

And for Nathaniel, music brought him back into a fold of friends. The redemptive power of music brought him back into a family of musicians that understood him, that recognized his talents and respected him. And I will always make music with Nathaniel, whether we're at Walt Disney Concert Hall or on Skid Row, because he reminds me why I became a musician. Thank you. (Applause)

而對Nathaniel 音樂把他帶回到一群朋友中 音樂的挽救力將他 帶回到音樂的大家庭 這里人們理解他 承認他的天賦 尊重他 而我會永遠為他創造音樂 無論是在迪斯尼的音樂廳 或者Skid Row的大街上， 因為他提示著我 為什么我要做音樂家 謝謝 (鼓掌)

Bruno Giussani: Thank you. Thanks. Robert Gupta. (Applause)

Bruno Giussani:謝謝，謝謝 Robert Gupta. (鼓掌 )

Robert Gupta: I'm going to play something that I shamelessly stole from cellists. So, please forgive me.

Robert Gupta：現在我給大家演奏一段我厚顏從大提琴手那里竊來的曲子 所以請原諒我

(Laughter) (Music) (Applause)

(笑聲) (音樂) (鼓掌)

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