(单词翻译:单击)
He had a boyish smile, a rebellious hairstyle, and a lilting Liverpudlian accent. His genius extended beyond music, to wordplay and visual arts. While he excited and inspired teens, he frightened parents and pastors, and was a target of the Nixon-era FBI. Who was this British phenom? Well, that would be the inimitable John Lennon.
他有着大男孩的微笑和叛逆的发型，操着一口轻快的利物浦口音。他不仅在音乐上，还在文字游戏和视觉艺术上颇有天赋。他激励了许多青少年，让他们热血沸腾，但他令父母和牧师感到害怕，还成了尼克松时代联邦调查局的调查对象。这位英国明星是谁？他就是独一无二的约翰·列侬。
Early Life
早年生活
With bombs falling around the hospital, John Lennon was born on October 9th, 1940, in the midst of World War II. His mother Julia gave him the middle name 'Winston' in honor of Britain's leader at the time. His father, Alfred, was a merchant marine and was absent at John's birth, as he would be for much of John's childhood. Lennon's childhood was unsettled, with an absent father and a mother who simply couldn't handle motherhood... After the age of four, Lennon didn't even live with his mother, instead living with his childless Uncle George and Aunt Mimi. The two were a stern, but loving influence on Lennon throughout his childhood, though Mimi did what she could to discourage Lennon's love of music. It was she who famously told him "The guitar's all very well, John, but you'll never make a living out of it."
二战期间的1940年10月9日，当炸弹落在医院周围时，约翰·列侬出生了。他的母亲朱丽娅给他起的中间名是“温斯顿”，向时任英国首相致敬。他的父亲阿尔弗雷德是个商船船员，约翰出生时他并不在场，而且约翰大部分的童年时期也未见他的身影。列侬的童年非常动荡，父亲不在身边，母亲也照顾不好他……列侬4岁时就不和母亲一起住了，而是和他的无子的叔叔乔治、伯母咪咪一起居住。二人非常严厉，但在列侬的童年时期，他们非常喜欢感化他，咪咪总是打击列侬对音乐的热爱。她对他说过一句有名的话：“吉他很不错，约翰，但你不能用它谋生。”
Lennon's mother was more supportive of his musical interest, in fact, it was Julia who bought the guitar for him. Though Lennon didn't live with his mother, he remained close to her, regularly visiting her house where the two would listen to Elvis records and pluck chords on the banjo, ukelele, and guitar. Julia was also a frequent visitor at her sister's house, where she spent mornings drinking tea with Mimi and chatting with her son. After one of these tranquil visits, tragedy struck. As Julia crossed the street to head home one day, she was struck and killed by a passing car. John was sixteen years old when his mother died, and he carried the weight of the tragedy with him for the rest of his life...
实际上，列侬的母亲更加支持他对音乐的兴趣，正是她为儿子买了吉他。虽然列侬不和母亲一起住，但他依然和她关系亲密，他经常去母亲的家里，两人一起听猫王的唱片，还会弹班卓琴、尤克里里和吉他。朱丽娅还经常去咪咪家，她们早上喝茶，还会聊她儿子的事。像往常一样，朱丽娅又去了咪咪家，之后，悲剧发生了。朱丽娅过马路要回家时撞上了一辆车，不幸去世。那时，约翰才16岁，余生都背负着这份沉重感……
At the time Julia died, Lennon was already having trouble in school. He was smart, no doubt about that, but his wit and attitude got him into trouble with teachers. He created comics of teachers and fellow students in a work he titled "The Daily Howl," and detention sheets from Quarry Bank High School show that Lennon once received three detentions in one day, with offenses over the years ranging from fighting in class, to sabotage, to "just no interest whatsoever."
朱丽娅去世时，列侬已经在学校惹事了。毫无疑问，他十分聪明，但他的聪明和他的态度惹到了老师。他给老师和同学画了漫画，发布在自创的《每日笑料》中，纺纱厂中学的留堂单显示，列侬曾经在一天中被留堂三次，那几年，他犯过的错有：课堂上打架、找事、“对什么都没有兴趣”。
While he was goofing off in school, Lennon was paying close attention to his music. He was playing in a band called the Quarry Men - it was one of this band's gigs that would ultimately lead to the formation of The Beatles... On July 6th, 1957, the Quarry Men played the Woolton village fete and one of Lennon's bandmates decided Lennon should be introduced to a friend of his. And who was that friend? Well, you might have heard of him - that would be Paul McCartney. That day, McCartney, who was two years John's junior, taught Lennon how to tune a guitar and impressed him with a rendition of the song Twenty Flight Rock. The atmosphere of the day stuck with Paul, even if the exact year didn't: "At Woolton village fete I met him. I was a fat schoolboy and, as he leaned an arm on my shoulder, I realised he was drunk. We were twelve then, but, in spite of his sideboards [sideburns], we went on to become teenage pals." It was only two weeks before Paul was asked to join the Quarry men, and he agreed. Shortly thereafter, Paul introduced John and the other band members to his friend George Harrison. It was 1958, and three of the four Beatles had found each other. But music couldn't be John's only focus.
列侬在学校混日子的时候，他把注意力集中在了音乐上。他是采石工人乐队的一员——该乐队的一次演出最终引领他组建披头士乐队……1957年7月6日，采石工人乐队在伍尔顿狂欢节上进行了演出，列侬的一个队友决定把他推荐给自己的一个朋友。那个朋友是谁呢？嗯，你们可能听说过他——他就是保罗·麦卡特尼。那天，比约翰低两级的麦卡特尼教了列侬怎么给吉他调音，并用《二十次飞行摇滚》的表演给他留下了深刻印象。当天的氛围令保罗难忘，尽管他并不记得具体的年份：“在伍尔顿狂欢节上，我遇见了他。我当时是个胖男孩，他把胳膊搭在我肩膀上，我意识到他喝醉了。我们当时都是12岁左右，虽然他留着络腮胡，我们还是成了朋友。”两周后，保罗被邀请加入采石工人乐队，他同意了。此后不久，保罗把约翰和乐队其他成员介绍给了他的朋友乔治·哈里森。1958年，披头士乐队四名成员中的三名相见了。但音乐并不是约翰的唯一。
Though he had failed his exams upon leaving high school, Lennon's aunt and former headmaster pulled strings and persuaded the Liverpool College of Art to accept the rambunctious teen who did show incredible promise in the arts. Lennon started attending the Liverpool College of Art in the fall of 1957. He didn't fare much better at the art school than he had in a traditional school, though he did meet his first wife Cynthia Powell. Lennon never had the right equipment for his classes, and was always borrowing Powell's tools. It was also up to Powell to help Lennon on his exams, though he ultimately failed them anyway... For all the help she gave him, Lennon was not a kind and loving boyfriend to Powell. In fact, he could be downright abusive, even acknowledging as much by later, saying: "I was in sort of a blind rage for two years. I was either drunk or fighting. It had been the same with other girlfriends I'd had. There was something the matter with me."
虽然他快毕业了还有多场考试未通过，但列侬的伯母和前校长托关系让利物浦艺术学院接收了这个捣蛋鬼，列侬对艺术表现出十足的渴望。1957年秋，列侬来到利物浦艺术学院就读。他在艺术学院的经历并未比在传统学校要好，虽然他遇到了第一任妻子辛西娅·鲍威尔。列侬从没带过课上要求的正确设备，他总是借鲍威尔的。鲍威尔还总是帮助列侬准备考试，尽管他最终还是没有通过……虽然鲍威尔给了列侬许多帮助，但他对她来说并不是一个好男友。事实上，他是个彻头彻尾的暴力狂，尽管后来他承认了，说：“我有两年总是莫名其妙地发火。我要么是喝醉了，要么就打架了。我和其他女朋友在一起时也是如此。我出问题了。”
The relationship lasted, though, and in 1962 Powell discovered she was pregnant with Lennon's child. In keeping with the expectations of the time, the two were married in a simple civil ceremony in Liverpool. Lennon's music career had already taken priority over all else, and they skipped a honeymoon so he could play a gig the night of their wedding. Cynthia gave birth to Julian Lennon in 1963, and with the Beatles' star on the rise in Liverpool, John didn't pay much attention to his son.
然而，这段关系还是维持下去了，1962年，鲍威尔发现她怀了列侬的孩子。为了符合当时人们的期望，他们俩在利物浦举行了简单的婚礼。列侬对音乐事业的关注已经超过了其他事情，他们没有度蜜月，这样他就可以在婚礼当晚进行演出。1963年，辛西娅生下朱利安·列侬，此时，披头士乐队的这位主角正处于事业上升期，约翰没怎么关注过自己的儿子。
In fact, his relationship with his son was no better than it was with his wife, something Julian publicly and angrily spoke about as an adult. "Dad could talk about peace and love out loud to the world but he could never show it to the people who supposedly meant the most to him: his wife and son. How can you talk about peace and love and have a family in bits and pieces—no communication, adultery, divorce?" John was the only married Beatle, and the only one with a child, and the group's manager tried to keep this information about Lennon under wraps as he marketed the group. Girls wanted their pop stars to be single and cute - not married.
事实上，他和儿子的关系比他和妻子的关系好不了多少，成年的朱利安公开并愤怒地如此说道。“爸爸可以大声对全世界说着和平与爱，但他从未对本应是最重要的人——他的妻子和儿子——表现出来。你怎么能在谈论着和平与爱的同时，拥有一个支零破碎的家庭——无交流、婚外恋、离婚？”当时，约翰是披头士乐队里唯一已婚的成员，也是唯一有孩子的成员，乐队经理试图在宣传乐队时对这一信息进行保密。女孩们希望他们的偶像是可爱的单身。
Beatles Years
披头士岁月
The Beatles' rise to fame began at the Cavern Club, but it was interspersed with performances in Germany. Along with Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison, bandmates Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best made up the band's lineup for their infamous stays in Hamburg, Germany at the Kaiserkellar club. The boys, no more than 22, and George only 17, lived in horrid conditions and survived on pills and alcohol during their stay. But the audiences loved them, especially Lennon's onstage antics. One night he was supposed to be onstage, but instead was fooling around with a woman and the two only broke up when the club's bouncer dumped cold water on them. Instead of getting dressed to go onstage, Lennon grabbed his guitar and joined his bandmates only wearing underwear and a toilet seat around his neck.
披头士乐队是在洞穴俱乐部走红的，但他们还在德国偶有演出。和列侬、麦卡特尼、哈里森一起，斯图·萨特克利夫和彼德·贝斯特组成了乐队阵容，他们在德国汉堡的凯撒地窖俱乐部待了一段时间，声名狼藉。这些男孩都不到22岁，而乔治才17岁，他们居住的环境很糟糕，在那里，他们天天嗑药酗酒。但观众爱他们，尤其是列侬在台上的滑稽举动。一天晚上，他本应登台，但他和一名女士亲热起来，酒吧保安向他们泼冷水后，二人就分手了。列侬并没有换衣服上台，而是拿起吉他，加入到其他乐队成员中，他只穿了内裤，脖子上还套着马桶座圈。
When the Beatles returned to Liverpool and resumed playing at the Cavern Club, they caught the attention of a young record store owner in the area. Familiar with the group from their visits to his store, Brian Epstein went to one of their performances, saw their potential, and signed on as their manager. He got them a record contract and was by their side until his death in 1967. Epstein was gay, and homosexuality was still illegal in England during the 1960s. Over the years, rumors have persisted that Lennon and Epstein had an affair, largely stemming from a vacation the two took together to Spain in 1963 - mere weeks after his son was born. Lennon denied the rumors, saying: "I was on holiday with Brian Epstein in Spain, where the rumours went around that he and I were having a love affair. Well, it was almost a love affair, but not quite. It was never consummated. But it was a pretty intense relationship."
披头士乐队回到利物浦，继续在洞穴俱乐部演出，该地区一个年轻的音像店老板注意到了他们。他们经常去布莱恩·爱泼斯坦的店里，于是他就对他们很眼熟，之后他就去看了他们的一场表演，看到了他们的潜力，然后成为了他们的经理人。他和他们一直签着合约，陪伴着他们，直到1967年去世。爱泼斯坦是同性恋，但在60年代，同性恋在英国还未合法化。这些年来，列侬和爱泼斯坦的绯闻仍在流传，这源自二人在1963年一起去西班牙度假的经历——他的儿子那时刚刚出生几周。列侬否认了谣言：“我和布莱恩·爱泼斯坦去西班牙度假，于是关于我们俩的绯闻就传开了。嗯，它几乎是恋情，但不完全是。它并不完美。但这确实是一段亲密关系。”
By early 1964, the Beatles were hitting the airwaves in America. Then, on February 7, 1964, their plane touched down at the newly renamed Kennedy Airport in New York City. Crowds of teenagers greeted them, hanging over railings, screaming, and waving signs. When they made their way through the crowds to speak to the press, Lennon treated the American media to a dose of his classic wit. When a reporter asked why people loved the Beatles so much, Lennon replied, "If we knew, we'd form another group and be managers." Two days later（讲者口误）, the lads from Liverpool made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show. As the studio audience screamed and 73 million Americans watched from home, the Beatles performed five songs. During the show, each Beatles name appeared on the screen. Lennon's name had an addendum, though - it read "Sorry girls, he's married." Keeping Cynthia and Julian's existence quiet was not possible for a man about to become one of the most recognizable in the world.
1964年初，披头士乐队的歌曲在美国的广播中播放。之后的1964年2月7日，他们乘坐的飞机在纽约新改名的肯尼迪机场着陆。许多青少年欢迎了乐队成员，他们扒在栏杆上，尖叫着，挥舞着牌子。他们穿过人群，接受媒体采访时，列侬给美国媒体上演了自己经典的智慧。一名记者问，为什么人们这么喜欢披头士乐队，列侬回答：“如果我们知道的话，我们就组成另一个组合，成为经理了。”两天后，这几个利物浦的小伙子在埃德·沙利文秀首次亮相。摄影棚里的观众高声尖叫，7300万美国人在家里观看了节目，披头士乐队演唱了5首歌曲。在节目中，披头士乐队每名成员的姓名都出现在了屏幕上。列侬的名字附上了一句话：“抱歉，女孩们，他结婚了。”对于一个即将成为全世界最有名的明星而言，不让公众知道辛西娅和朱利安的存在是不可能的。
1964 saw the release of both the movie and album, A Hard Day's Night, marking all four Beatles' foray into the film industry. Lennon would later appear in a satirical film called "How I Won The War." Not to be constrained by only two artistic mediums, Lennon also published a book in 1964 entitled "In His Own Write," which he later followed up with a volume entitled "A Spaniard In The Works." As the sixties continued on, the Beatles stayed at the top of the pop culture world, and that high profile meant Lennon's mouth could get him and the band into trouble very easily. In 1966, he famously told a reporter that the "Beatles were more popular than Jesus." When the remark was published, it caused an uproar.
1964年，同名电影和专辑《一夜狂欢》和大家见面，这标志着披头士乐队四名成员打入电影界。后来，列侬还出演了讽刺电影《我如何赢得战争》。列侬并未受限于两种艺术媒介中，他还在1964年出版了《他的亲笔》一书，之后他又出了作品集《工作中的西班牙人》。在60年代，披头士乐队一直处于全球流行文化的顶峰，这种备受瞩目的身份意味着列侬的嘴巴会轻易地让他和他的乐队惹上麻烦。1966年，他对记者说过一句非常有名的话：“披头士乐队比耶稣还受欢迎。”言论一出便引起争议。
