David Bowie, the infinitely changeable, fiercely forward-looking songwriter who taught generations of musicians about the power of drama, images and personae, died on Sunday, two days after his 69th birthday.

变化多端、极具前瞻性的唱作人大卫·鲍伊(David Bowie) 身上戏剧性、形象与人格的力量令一代代音乐人从中受益。据其发言人消息，他于周日去世，距离他69岁的生日刚刚过去两天。

Mr. Bowie’s death was confirmed by his publicist, Steve Martin, on Monday morning.

周一上午，鲍伊先生的死讯在Facebook和Twitter上传播开来，后由其发言人史蒂芬·马丁(Steve Martin)予以证实。

He died after an 18-month battle with cancer, according to a statement on Mr. Bowie’s social-media accounts.

在和癌症斗争18个月后鲍伊离世，鲍伊的社交媒体账号的一份声明称。

“David Bowie died peacefully today surrounded by his family,” a post on his Facebook page read.

“大卫·鲍伊今日在家人的陪伴下平静离世，”鲍伊Facebook页面的一则帖子写道。

His last album, “Blackstar,” a collaboration with a jazz quintet that was typically enigmatic and exploratory, was released on Friday — on his birthday. He was to be honored with a concert at Carnegie Hall on March 31 featuring the Roots, Cyndi Lauper and the Mountain Goats.

他在上周五（亦是他的生日）发行了最后一张专辑《黑星》(Blackstar)，专辑同一支爵士五重奏乐队合作，是典型的鲍伊风格，神秘而充满探索色彩。卡耐基音乐厅原定3月31日举办一场演出，向他致敬，参演者包括根基乐队(the Roots)、辛迪·劳帕(Cyndi Lauper)和山羊乐队(the Mountain Goats)。

He had also collaborated on an Off Broadway musical, “Lazarus,” that was a surreal sequel to his definitive 1976 film role, “The Man Who Fell to Earth.”

鲍伊亦参与创作了一部外百老汇音乐剧《拉撒路》(Lazarus)，这是他1976年主演的影片《出卖地球的男人》(The Man Who Fell to Earth)的续集，颇具超现实色彩。

Mr. Bowie wrote songs, above all, about being an outsider: an alien, a misfit, a sexual adventurer, a faraway astronaut. His music was always a mutable blend: rock, cabaret, jazz and what he called “plastic soul,” but it was suffused with genuine soul. He also captured the drama and longing of everyday life, enough to give him No.1 pop hits like “Let’s Dance.”

鲍伊创作的歌曲总体来说都是关于身为局外人的感受：外星人、不适应环境的人、性冒险者、远离地球的太空人。他的音乐总是各种风格的多变混合：摇滚、卡巴莱特和爵士，以及他所谓的“塑料灵魂乐”，但其中灌注了真正的灵魂。他可以从日常生活中捕捉到戏剧性和深切的渴望，这一切令他的不少歌曲成为排行榜头名金曲，包括《让我们跳舞吧》(Let’s Dance)。

If he had an anthem, it was “Changes,” from his 1971 album “Hunky Dory,” which proclaimed:

如果他有一首主题歌，那么无疑是1971年专辑《一切没问题》(Hunky Dory)中的《改变》(Changes)，其中唱道：

“Turn and face the strange / Ch-ch-changes / Oh look out now you rock and rollers / Pretty soon now you’re gonna get older.”

“转身面对奇怪的事/改变/你们这些搞摇滚的要当心/你们很快就要老了。”

Born David Robert Jones on Jan. 8, 1947, Mr. Bowie constantly reinvented himself. He emerged in the late 1960s with the voice of a rock belter but with the sensibility of a cabaret singer, steeped in the dynamics of stage musicals. He was Major Tom, the lost astronaut in his career-making 1969 hit “Space Oddity.”

大卫·鲍伊原名大卫·琼斯(David Jones)，于1947年1月8日生于南伦敦，1969年以一曲《太空怪人》(Space Oddity)一举成名，后来又以穿着连体衣的人格“齐基·星尘”(Ziggy Stardust)和另一个人格“瘦白公爵”(Thin White Duke)而匿名。他于1996年进入摇滚名人堂。

Mr. Bowie was his generation’s standard-bearer for rock as theater: something constructed and inflated yet sincere in its artifice, saying more than naturalism could. With a voice that dipped down to baritone and leaped into falsetto, he was complexly androgynous, an explorer of human impulses that could not be quantified.

鲍伊是他那一代的领军人物，令摇滚成为戏剧，它精心建构，充满夸张，然而其技巧中孕育了真诚，能说出远较自然主义为多的东西。他的声音可以从男中音跃为高音假声，因此带有男女同体的特质，他一直致力于探索无法量化的人性冲动。

He also pushed the limits of “Fashion” and “Fame,” writing songs with those titles and also thinking deeply about the possibilities and strictures of pop renown.

他同样推动了“时尚”与“名声”的边界，并分别以这两个词为题创作歌曲，深刻地思省大众名望的可能性与局限性。

Mr. Bowie was married for more than 20 years to the international model Iman, with whom he had a daughter, Alexandria Jones.

鲍伊的妻子是国际名模伊曼(Iman)，两人生有一女亚历山德利亚·琼斯(Alexandria Jones)。

In a post on Twitter, the musician’s son from an earlier marriage, Duncan Jones, said, “Very sorry and sad to say it’s true. I’ll be offline for a while. Love to all.”

他与前妻所生的儿子邓肯·琼斯(Duncan Jones)在推特上发表了一则消息： “很遗憾也很令人难过，这个消息是真的。我会离线一段时间。爱所有人。”

Mr. Bowie largely left the spotlight after a heart attack in 2004 brought to an abrupt end a tour supporting his album “Reality.” The singer experienced pain during a performance at a German festival and sought treatment for what he believed was a shoulder injury; doctors then discovered a blocked artery.

2004年，鲍伊因心脏病发作，被迫中断专辑《真实》(Reality)的宣传巡演，其后在很大程度上远离了公众视野。当时在德国的一场音乐节演出上，他感觉疼痛，认为是肩膀受伤，接受治疗时医生诊出动脉栓塞。

The following year, he performed with Arcade Fire, a band he had championed. In 2006, he performed three songs in public for what would be the final time, at the charity Keep a Child Alive’s Black Ball fund-raiser at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York.

翌年，他与自己曾经盛赞的乐队“拱廊之火”(Arcade Fire)一起表演。2006年，他在纽约汉默斯坦俱乐部举办的Keep a Child Alive’s Black Ball慈善募捐演出上演出了三首歌，这成了他最后一次公开演出。