‘‘HAMILTON,’’ the new musical biography of Alexander Hamilton created by and starring Lin-Manuel Miranda, kicks off with a doozy of a question. The houselights rise on Aaron Burr, the third vice president of the United States and, infamously, the killer of Hamilton in a duel in 1804. Burr steps to center stage and reels off several lines of verse:

由林-马努艾尔·米兰达(Lin-Manuel Miranda)创作、主演的亚历山大·汉密尔顿(Alexander Hamilton)传记音乐剧《汉密尔顿》(Hamilton)，用了一个别出心裁的问题作为开场白。灯光渐起，出现在舞台上的是合众国第三任副总统，因在1804年的决斗中杀死了汉密尔顿而背上骂名的阿龙·伯尔(Aaron Burr)。伯尔走到舞台中央，朗声唱出一段诗文：

The question is a good one. How exactly did Hamilton rise from the deprivations of his childhood in the island backwater of St. Croix to become a storied founding father: an aide-de-camp of Gen. George Washington, the prime mover in the creation of the United States financial system, the first secretary of the Treasury, the author of nearly half of the Federalist Papers, the subject of America’s first political sex scandal, the bane and bugbear of everyone from Burr to Thomas Jefferson and James Madison? But it is the manner in which ‘‘Hamilton’’ poses this question — in the emphatic cadences of rap, with witty rhymes pouring out over a tolling beat — that has been electrifying audiences since January, when the show debuted off Broadway at New York’s Public Theater.

这是个好问题。的确，在与世隔绝的圣克罗伊岛长大的穷孩子汉密尔顿，究竟为什么会成为名垂青史的建国先贤、乔治·华盛顿将军的副官、合众国金融体系的首要缔造者、首任财政部长、《联邦党人文集》近一半文章的作者、美国第一宗政治性丑闻的当事人、（从伯尔、托马斯·杰弗逊到詹姆斯·麦迪逊）所有人的眼中钉肉中刺？不过，一月在外百老汇公共剧院(Public Theater)首演的《汉密尔顿》(Hamilton)之所以令观众兴奋异常，却是因为提出问题的方式——它用了节奏顿挫的说唱，沉缓有致的节拍上，挥洒着诙谐的韵脚。

‘‘Hamilton’’ arrives on Broadway this month, riding a wave of adulation not seen in American theater in decades. It is a rare thing: not just a theatrical landmark, but a show that jolts our thinking about popular culture and casts new light on some of the most storied events in American history. It is an odd creation: a rigorously factual period drama about the political intrigues of the early Republic, starring a cast of mostly black and Latino actors, with a score steeped in hip-hop. It is also a coronation, confirming the 35-year-old Miranda, the acclaimed composer and star of the Tony- and Grammy-winning 2008 show ‘‘In the Heights,’’ as his generation’s preeminent musical theater auteur. ‘‘Hamilton’’ is the product of an unlikely meeting of two minds, across a gulf of centuries. ‘‘When I encountered Alexander Hamilton I was immediately captivated,’’ Miranda says. ‘‘He’s an inspirational figure to me. And an aspirational one.’’

本月，《汉密尔顿》挟几十年一遇的如潮好评来到百老汇。它是个稀有物种：不但是载入戏剧史册的大作，还会撼动你对流行文化的观念，让你用全新的眼光看待一些美国历史上最为人熟知的事件。它是个怪诞的造物：一部力求如实还原的时代剧，讲述的是共和国初年的政治争斗，演员却以非裔和拉丁裔为主，作曲则带有浓重的嘻哈风格。它还是一场加冕礼，正式确认35岁的米兰达成为他这一代最卓越的音乐剧创作人，此前由他担任作曲和主演的《高地人生》(In the Heights)已然获得2008年的托尼奖和格莱美奖。两个远隔数百年的灵魂，出人意料地在《汉密尔顿》相遇。“亚历山大·汉密尔顿这个人，从一开始就让我很着迷，”米兰达说。“他启发了我。也鼓舞了我。”

The genesis of ‘‘Hamilton’’ has already entered theatrical lore. While on vacation in Mexico in 2008, Miranda cracked Ron Chernow’s doorstop biography, ‘‘Alexander Hamilton,’’ which was nominated in 2004 for the National Book Critics Circle award and won the George Washington Book Prize. A few dozen pages in, Miranda’s new project began leaping to life. In Hamilton, he saw a figure he recognized: a word-drunk firebrand with untrammeled ambition, raw talent, an outsize ego and a lust for combat, verbal and otherwise. Miranda saw a rapper.

《汉密尔顿》在肇始之初就是一个充满戏剧性的故事。2008年在墨西哥度假期间，米兰达开始读罗恩·彻尔努(Ron Chernow)的传记巨著《亚历山大·汉密尔顿》，这本书在2004年得到美国国家书评奖提名，并获得乔治·华盛顿图书奖。几十页下来，米兰达的新作计划已经浮现。在汉密尔顿身上，他看到了一个自己激赏的人物：一个陶醉于辞藻的煽动家，有不羁的野心、出色的才华，目空一切，嗜好争斗——无论是言语上还是别的什么形式。米兰达发现了一个说唱乐手。

It is the genius of ‘‘Hamilton’’ to make the link between hip-hop and the world of 18th-century politics seem like the most obvious thing in the world — not a conceit imposed upon the history but the excavation of some essence lurking within it. ‘‘The idea of hip-hop being the music of the Revolution appealed to me immensely,’’ Miranda says. ‘‘It felt right.’’

是《汉密尔顿》的才思，让嘻哈乐与十八世纪政治的关联显得顺理成章，这不是强加于历史的奇思怪想，而是对潜藏于历史之中的某种精髓的发掘。“嘻哈是革命的音乐这种想法，是我非常认同的，”米兰达说。“感觉就是这么回事。”

Miranda’s Hamilton is a ‘‘young, scrappy and hungry’’ upstart, whose bootstrapping rise from the streets of New York resonates with the Horatio Alger trajectories of rappers like Jay Z. Hamilton has a fatalistic streak in the manner of Tupac and the Notorious B.I.G. (It is not a long leap from Biggie’s ‘‘I’m ready to die!’’ to the words that Miranda puts in Hamilton’s mouth: ‘‘I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.’’) Most of all, Hamilton is a wit, a motormouth, a graphomaniac — a man who staked his fate on his way with words. ‘‘Hamilton produced over 27 volumes of written work,’’ Miranda says. ‘‘I think it’s appropriate that we would need a musical style that transmits more words per minute than any other genre.’’

米兰达的汉密尔顿是个“年轻、好斗、饥渴”的新贵，从纽约街头开始打拼，全凭自己的本事，跟Jay-Z的霍雷肖·阿尔杰(Horatio Alger)式成功轨迹颇有些相似。汉密尔顿有种接近Tupac和Notorious B.I.G.的宿命倾向。（后者的“I'm ready to die!”[我已经做好了死亡的准备]，和米兰达写给汉密尔顿的台词：“我对死亡有太多想象，它现在更像是回忆，”似乎相差不远。）最重要的是，汉密尔顿极为聪慧，有一张合不上的嘴，一支放不下的笔——他把自己的命运寄托在自己的言语表达上。“汉密尔顿写下了27卷作品，”米兰达说。“我觉得，我们需要用一种能在单位时间内传递更多词语的音乐剧风格。”

The score of ‘‘Hamilton’’ is a treat for sharp-eared hip-hop fans, packed with references to songs by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Mobb Deep and others. One song, a précis on the rules of 18th-century combat called ‘‘Duel Commandments,’’ is a cheeky rewrite of the Notorious B.I.G.’s ‘‘Ten Crack Commandments.’’ Cabinet meetings are staged as rap battles, with Hamilton and Jefferson trading volleys of rhymes about issues of debt assumption and federalism.

《汉密尔顿》的曲谱对嘻哈乐行家的耳朵会十分受用，许多曲子参考了Grandmaster Flash、Furious Five和Mobb Deep等乐人的作品。其中一首介绍十八世纪对战规则的《决斗戒律》(Duel Commandments)，戏谑地仿制了Notorious B.I.G.的《霹雳十戒》(Ten Crack Commandments)。内阁会议是以说唱对战的形式进行的，汉密尔顿和杰弗逊用洋洋洒洒的押韵说唱词句争论债务承担和联邦制之类的问题。

But to call ‘‘Hamilton’’ a ‘‘rap musical’’ is to mischaracterize it. Miranda’s score includes Destiny’s Child-style R&B, choral ballads in a contemporary Broadway vein and, in the case of ‘‘You’ll Be Back,’’ sung by a haughty King George III, chiming ’60s Britpop. All of the songs perform the magic trick of making drama (or, sometimes, comedy) out of heavy-going political and bureaucratic history.

然而说《汉密尔顿》是“说唱音乐剧”却是不得要领的。米兰达的谱曲包括了Destiny’s Child风格的节奏布鲁斯，当代百老汇合唱叙事曲，趾高气昂的乔治三世演唱的《你们会回来的》(You’ll Be Back)散发着六十年代Brit-pop气息。所有的歌曲都是为了让严肃的政治和官僚历史产生戏剧（有时是喜剧）的魔力。

Perhaps the biggest testament to the force of ‘‘Hamilton’’ is how easily audiences acclimate to its color-blind casting, accepting a Latino Alexander Hamilton, a black George Washington, a Thomas Jefferson who swaggers like the Time’s Morris Day, sings like Cab Calloway and drawls like a Dirty South trap-rapper. The crucible of American popular theater was the minstrel stage, where white actors blacked up to perform racist caricatures of African-Americans. ‘‘Hamilton’’ flips minstrelsy on its head, offering sympathetic and insightful portrayals of the archetypal white Americans, the founding fathers and mothers, by a cast composed almost entirely of people of color. ‘‘The show reflects what America looks like now,’’ Miranda says.

最能说明《汉密尔顿》魔力的一点也许是，观众会迅速适应完全不把肤色当回事的演员阵容，接受了拉丁裔的亚历山大·汉密尔顿，黑人乔治·华盛顿，托马斯·杰弗逊走起路来大摇大摆仿佛The Time乐队的Morris Day，唱歌如Cab Calloway，说话拖着“肮脏南部”说唱乐手的长腔口音。当年的黑脸秀(minstrel show)由白人演员演绎充满种族歧视色彩的黑人滑稽角色，曾是美国民俗戏剧成形的地方。而《汉密尔顿》将黑白颠倒，对美国白人原型和建国先贤们的形象做出了正面而深刻的描绘，所选用的演员却几乎全是有色人种。“这个戏反映的是今日美国的面貌，”米兰达说。

‘‘Hamilton’’ isn’t just a historical drama — it’s a historiographical one. The show ends with another question: the closing number, ‘‘Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story,’’ which reflects on the formation and transmission of historical narratives. The old Broadway adage holds that a musical should send its audience home humming. ‘‘Hamilton’’ does that, but it also sends you out thinking — stewing over questions about the country’s past and future; about the way we sort historical players into winners and losers, heroes and villains, martyrs and murderers; about the gray area where fact grades into myth.

《汉密尔顿》不仅仅是历史剧——它是一部史学剧。结尾提出了另一个问题：也就是闭幕曲《谁生，谁死，谁来讲述你的故事》(Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story)，这是对历史叙事的形成与传递的反思。百老汇流传着一句老话：一部音乐剧应该让观众在回家路上哼唱。这一点《汉密尔顿》做到了，但它还让你在路上思考——有关这个国家的过去与未来的种种问题；我们把历史人物分成赢家与输家、英雄与奸贼、圣徒与凶手的做法；介乎事实和传说之间的灰色地带，这些都让我们纠结不已。

‘‘We could all be dead tomorrow,’’ Miranda says. ‘‘Who tells our story? Will it be told? We have no way of knowing. In essence, that’s what the show is about. We are telling the story of someone who I don’t think would expect it to be told in this way, if he were alive. But he very much wanted his story told. He was outlived by all his enemies. The next four presidents — Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and John Quincy Adams — all hated Hamilton, and did their best, not even to assassinate his character, but to bury him by omission.’’

“说不定明天我们就全死了，”米兰达说。“谁来讲述我们的故事？有人会讲吗？我们不可能知道。这基本上就是这个戏要说的。我们在讲某个人的故事，这个人如果活到今天，恐怕想不到会是这样一种方式来讲。但他非常希望有人讲述他的故事。所有敌人都比他活得久。接下来四任总统——杰弗逊、麦迪逊、门罗、约翰·昆西·亚当斯——全都讨厌汉密尔顿，为此他们竭尽所能，甚至都不是去诋毁他的名声，而是要把他的存在从历史中隐去。”

‘‘ ‘Who lives? Who dies? Who tells your story?’ It’s a question for the characters on that stage, and it’s also a question for the audience. It leaves you reckoning with: Wait, who does tell my story? What am I doing with my life? I think that’s why, when I get emails about this show from people in the audience, they usually come at three in the morning. They’re dark-night-of-the-soul emails. Because it’s a question we’re all grappling with. It’s a question that we all pose at the end.’’

“谁生，谁死，谁来讲述你的故事？”这是台上人物的问题，也是观众的问题。它促使你去想：不对，那谁来讲述我的故事？我该如何面对我的人生？我想这就是为什么观众来跟我聊这个戏的时候，邮件经常是凌晨三点发来的。那都是来自“心灵的黑夜”（指圣十字若望的名诗《Dark Night of the Soul》。——译注）的邮件。因为这是个我们都避不开的问题。到最后我们都得面对。”

Stephen Sondheim ON THE MUSICAL

史蒂芬·桑德海姆(Stephen Sondheim)谈音乐剧

WHEN I FIRST HEARD Lin-Manuel’s songs, I immediately thought of ‘‘Rock Island,’’ the opening number of ‘‘The Music Man.’’ It’s one of the most brilliant numbers ever written, and the first time anybody had attempted to make music out of speech in the American theater. It doesn’t have the attitude of rap and nobody thinks of it as rap, but the technique is rap.

第一次听到林-马努艾尔的歌，我立刻想到了《音乐人》(The Music Man)开幕曲《石岛》(Rock Island)。那是一首无比杰出的曲子，是美国戏剧史上第一次有人尝试通过言语来做音乐。它没有说唱的姿态，没人会认为它是说唱，但手法是说唱的。

At some point, Lin-Manuel started telling me about ‘‘Hamilton,’’ which, back then, was called ‘‘The Hamilton Mixtape.’’ He sent me lyrics printed out, and recordings of the songs. This raised obvious red flags: I worried that an evening of rap might get monotonous; I thought the rhythm might become relentless.

有一天，林-马努艾尔开始跟我说起《汉密尔顿》，那时候还叫《汉密尔顿拼盘带》(The Hamilton Mixtape)。他把打印出来的歌词发给我，还有歌的录音。这里面的风险是很明显的：我担心一整晚的说唱太单调了；我以为这会是一种让人感觉没完没了的节奏。

But the wonderful thing about Lin-Manuel’s use of rap is that he’s got one foot in the past. He knows theater. He respects and understands the value of good rhyming, without which the lines tend to flatten out. Jokes don’t land the way they should. Even emotional lines don’t land the way they should. Rhyme does something to the listener’s perception that is very important, and Lin-Manuel recognizes that, which gives the ‘‘Hamilton’’ score a great deal more heft than it might otherwise have. Most lyrics are by their very nature banal — it’s the way they’re expressed that makes them soar.

但林-马努艾尔对说唱的运用妙在，他有一只脚是踩在过去的。他懂戏。他尊重和理解押韵的价值，没有这个，台词就会很平板。笑话出不来效果。连感情戏也会走样。押韵会对听众的感知产生重要影响，林-马努艾尔清楚这一点，韵律让《汉密尔顿》的谱曲格外有分量，没了韵律，分量也就不会这么足。多数的歌词本身都是很乏味的，但这种表达的方式大幅提升了它们。

‘‘Hamilton’’ is a breakthrough, but it doesn’t exactly introduce a new era. Nothing introduces an era. What it does is empower people to think differently. There’s always got to be an innovator, somebody who experiments first with new forms. The minute something is a success, everybody imitates it. It’s what happened with ‘‘Oklahoma’’; everybody immediately started to write bad Western musicals. ‘‘Hair’’ also had that effect. But eventually people stop imitating and the form matures. ‘‘Hair’’ allowed young writers to say, ‘‘Hey, let’s use rock as a way of telling a story.’’ Now they’ll say, ‘‘Let’s use rap as a way of telling a story.’’ So we’ll certainly see more rap musicals. The next thing we’ll get is Lincoln set to rap. If you think I’m kidding, talk to me in a year.

《汉密尔顿》是一次突破，但它并没有完全带我们走进一个新的时代。那不是一出剧目能做到的事。它要做的是让人能有不一样的想法。总会有一个革新者，一个率先尝试新形式的人。一旦成功了，所有人都会来模仿。《俄克拉荷马》(Oklahoma)就是这样；一夜之间大家都开始写蹩脚的西部音乐剧。《毛发》(Hair)也有这个效果。但最终模仿会停止，这种形式会成熟起来。《毛发》让年轻的剧作者开始想，“对啊，我们可以用摇滚乐讲故事。”现在他们会说，“我们可以用说唱讲故事。”肯定会有更多的说唱音乐剧出现。接下来我们要让林肯说唱起来。信不信由你，咱们明年见。

The Roots ON HIP-HOP

The Roots乐队谈嘻哈

WE WERE INVOLVED WITH ‘‘Fela!’’ and I really didn’t think that another musical could hit me as powerfully as it had. So when people started hyping ‘‘Hamilton,’’ I was like, ‘‘Eh, we’ll see.’’

我们参与过《费拉》(Fela!)的制作，我以为不会再有哪出戏给我那么强烈的感受了。所以听人开始捧《汉密尔顿》的时候，我心想，“哦，是么。”

I’ve been brought into two or three other meetings for potential projects, where everyone’s like, ‘‘Let’s be the first hip-hop musical on Broadway!’’ And it just wasn’t happening. I saw the beating that the Tupac musical, ‘‘Holler If Ya Hear Me,’’ took. So when it came to ‘‘Hamilton,’’ I thought, ‘‘I’m just not into rap and spirit fingers. I’ll see it, but it won’t move me.’’ And, Jesus, was I wrong.

我还参加过几个创作会，就潜在项目展开讨论，每个人都说，“咱们要做百老汇第一个嘻哈音乐剧！”可就是做不出来。我眼看着那个Tupac音乐剧《听见我说你就吼一声》(Holler If Ya Hear Me)被骂成狗。然后《汉密尔顿》就来了，我心想，“我就是不怎么喜欢一边说唱一边两手呼扇呼扇的。我会去看，但不会被有什么感觉。”但这回可真是错的离谱。

Normally, it’s hard for me to enjoy any sort of concert or show because I’m dissecting it. I’m looking at the production, figuring out which microphones they’re using — that sort of stuff. Ten minutes into ‘‘Hamilton,’’ though, I was just so stunned. It was such a sucker punch. With the exception of, like, a Prince concert, I don’t go to anything to just enjoy myself and let it move me. But ‘‘Hamilton’’ swept me up.

通常我在看音乐会或演出的时候是很难投入其中的，因为我会去剖析。我会看这个戏的制作，推断他们在用哪个话筒——诸如此类。但是《汉密尔顿》开场十分钟下来，我已经傻眼了。被杀了个措手不及。我可是从来不会就这么完全投入，任由他们来打动我的，除了看Prince的现场。但《汉密尔顿》把我彻底地拉了进去。

Watching the show I realized, ‘‘O.K., Lin-Manuel knows hip-hop. This guy has totally done his homework.’’ I knew that he came up in the backpack-rap era. Most of his references were between ’94 and 2002 — you know, the Rawkus Records hip-hop era. But I still love the fact that this play works even if you don’t get the Mobb Deep references. It’s multilevel.

我边看边想，“嗯，林-马努艾尔懂嘻哈。这家伙绝对是做过功课的。”我知道他成长于地下说唱时代。他参考的东西大多在94年到2002年之间——就是Rawkus唱片那个嘻哈时代。我非常喜欢这个戏的地方是，就算你不知道他用了Mobb Deep的典故，你还是能看明白。它有很多层次。

I pray Broadway embraces the show. I’ve seen how the politics game can work, the way certain stuff is treated. But with ‘‘Hamilton,’’ you have to see it. It is everything Broadway and New York City in 2015 should be. — AHMIR ‘‘QUESTLOVE’’ THOMPSON

我真心希望这戏能在百老汇火起来。我知道政治游戏有多大本事，某种东西会受到某种对待。但你一定要去看《汉密尔顿》。2015年百老汇和纽约市的头等大事。——AHMIR“QUESTLOVE”THOMPSON

WHAT HIT ME INITIALLY was the accessibility. It’s just really easy to follow the dialogue. I imagined that ‘‘Hamilton’’ would be a show where, you know, some dialogue was delivered, and then the performers would break into song. But from the jump, everything was rap, everything was bars. Some of the cast members are rappers, some aren't. But even the ones who aren’t M.C.s rise to the occasion. You can‘t tell, ‘‘Oh, this one feels like an M.C., this one doesn't.‘‘ Everyone's lines are delivered seamlessly. This can be your introduction to hip-hop — on Broadway. And it’s a valid one. It’s a credible one. — TARIQ ‘‘BLACK THOUGHT’’ TROTTER

首先注意到的是它很好懂。这戏的台词非常容易理解。我原以为《汉密尔顿》是那种先来几句对白，然后演员开始唱。可实际上从一开始就是说唱，全是说唱，一切都是分成小节的。有的演员是说唱乐手，有的不是。但即使不是的那些，也完全胜任。你无法分辨出来，“噢，这个感觉是个MC，那个不是。”所有人的台词都完美地连在一起。你可以把它当成百老汇开了一个嘻哈乐入门课。而且可是正经的、靠得住的课程。——TARIQ“BLACK THOUGHT”TROTTER

Ron Chernow ON HISTORY

罗恩·彻尔努(Ron Chernow)谈历史

BACK IN 2009, a mutual friend told me that Lin-Manuel Miranda had read ‘‘Alexander Hamilton’’ and that it had made an impression on him. Lin-Manuel was still starring in ‘‘In the Heights,’’ of which I was vaguely aware. He invited me to a matinee one Sunday and I was captivated by the show. He also asked me to come backstage and I was no less charmed by him personally.

2009年，一个认识林-马努艾尔·米兰达的朋友跟我说，他在读《亚历山大·汉密尔顿》，而且评价很高。林-马努艾尔当时还在演《高地人生》，那戏我只是大概有个了解。有个礼拜天他请我去看了个日场，我非常喜欢。他还让我去了后台，我对他本人很欣赏。

He told me that while he had been reading the book on vacation in Mexico, hip-hop songs started ‘‘rising off the page’’ — not a typical reaction to one of my biographies. He said he was planning to produce a concept album based on Hamilton’s life and, if all went well, it would be his second musical. When I asked whether hip-hop — of which I was abysmally ignorant — could be the vehicle for telling such a rich, complex story, he answered, ‘‘Ron, I’m going to educate you.’’ And, boy, did he ever. He pointed out that with dense, rapid lyrics, you could pack an enormous amount of information into the songs. He also noted the use of rhyme, including internal rhyme, and all of the clever wordplay that was possible.

他跟我说，他是在墨西哥度假的时候看的这本书，看着看着嘻哈乐就开始“从书本里冒出来了”——很少有人看我的传记看出这个效果。他说他打算根据汉密尔顿的生平做一个概念专辑，一切顺利的话，这会是他的第二部音乐剧。对嘻哈乐我是茫茫然一无所知的，我问他，这种形式能不能撑起这么一个丰富、复杂的故事，他说，“罗恩，我要给你上一课。”哈，可真是实打实地受教育了。他告诉我，密集、快速的词汇可以在歌里注入大量的信息。他还说可以用押韵，包括内韵，此外有许许多多聪明的文字游戏可以尝试。

That day on the spot, Lin-Manuel asked me to be his historical consultant. He said, ‘‘I want the historians to take this seriously.’’ Now, usually, historians are considered pests and kept a million miles from productions. It showed great strength and integrity that Lin-Manuel was willing to let me hang around the show and incorporate me into the creative team. I have been continuously involved with ‘‘Hamilton’’ for six years now.

那天，他当场就问我能不能做历史顾问。他说，“我希望这是一部历史学家会正眼看待的戏。”要知道，历史学家通常是讨人嫌的，排戏的时候滚越远越好。林-马努艾尔却主动要我参与，让我成为主创团队的一员，这说明了他是个大气、端正的人。我一直参与《汉密尔顿》的制作，已经有六年了。

Two or three months after our first meeting, Lin-Manuel asked if he could come over to my house and sing something for me. He sat on my living room couch, began to snap his fingers, then sang the opening song of the show — ‘‘How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore, etc.’’ When he finished, he asked me what I thought. And I said, ‘‘I think that’s the most astonishing thing I’ve ever heard in my life.’’ He had accurately condensed the first 40 pages of my book into a four-minute song. And he had forged a unique idiom that blended formal 18th-century speech with 21st-century slang. Filtered through Lin-Manuel’s extraordinary mind, the lyrics sounded natural and spontaneous and all of a piece. Next thing I knew, he sent me an email and said to go on YouTube, that he had performed that first song at the White House and gotten a standing ovation from the Obamas. I thought to myself, ‘‘Wow, I am strapped to a real rocket with this young guy.’’

在第一次见面两三个月后，林-马努艾尔问我能不能上我家来，要唱一些给我听。他坐在我家客厅沙发上，打着响指开始唱开场那首——“一个孤儿/婊子和苏格兰佬的私生子……”唱完后他问我想法。我说，‘这辈子没听过这么震撼的东西。’他把我的书的前40页，准确地浓缩成了一首四分钟的歌。他还锻造了一种语言风格，融合了十八世纪的庄重言语和二十一世纪俚语。这些词在林-马努艾尔的非凡头脑里过了一遍，变得自然、随性、浑然一体。接下来没多久，他给了我一封电邮，让我上YouTube去看他在白宫演唱第一首歌，得到奥巴马一家的起立鼓掌。我心说，“哇，我跟这家伙在一起，简直就是拴在火箭上了。”

For a period of a year or two, Lin-Manuel sent me one or two songs a month. I would hear him at the keyboard, crooning tunes alone. And I thought they were sensationally good — fresh, witty and always moving. I can remember laughing uproariously when he first sent me King George III’s satirical song to the colonists, ‘‘You’ll Be Back.’’ I was thrilled when he sent me ‘‘The Schuyler Sisters’’ and I realized that the family saga I had explored would be translated intact onto the stage.

有那么一两年的时间，林-马努艾尔每个月会发给我一两首歌。我听到他弹着键盘，一个人哼着歌。在我看来，这些歌都太棒了——新鲜、妙趣横生，并且始终都是动人的。我记得，他第一次给我听那首乔治三世唱给殖民地居民的讽刺曲《你们会回来的》时，我都笑疯了。听到他发来的《舒依勒姐妹》(Schuyler Sisters)，我意识到我在书里探索的家庭故事，将会原封不动地搬到舞台上。

Then he invited me to one of the first rehearsals at a small studio in the Garment District. I remember poking my head into the room and seeing eight actors standing in front of eight music stands, thinking, ‘‘Oh my goodness, they’re all black and Latino! What on earth is Lin-Manuel thinking?’’ I sat down with Thomas Kail, the director, and Jeffrey Seller, the producer, thinking to myself, ‘‘When this is over, I need to sit down and talk to Lin-Manuel alone. We’re talking about the founding fathers of the United States.’’ But after a minute or two I started to listen and forgot the color or ethnicity of these astonishingly talented young performers. Within five minutes, I became a militant on the subject of color-blind casting.

后来他邀请我去看最初的排练，那是在时装区一个小工作室里。我记得当时我往房间里探了一下头，看见八位演员，站在八个乐谱架前，我心想，“天哪，全是黑人和拉丁裔！林-马努艾尔是怎么想的呢？”我跟导演托Thomas Kail、监制Jeffrey Seller坐在一起，心想“等排练结束了我得跟林-马努艾尔单独谈谈。这可是合众国的创始人啊。”然而，几分钟下来，我的心思已经全在那些才华横溢的年轻人的歌声上，忘了他们的肤色或民族。不到五分钟，我就成了一名鼓吹“色盲选角”的激进分子。

The whole concept of ‘‘Hamilton,’’ I realized, was inseparable from casting. The miracle of the play is that it shows us who we were as a nation but also who we are now. This young, multiracial cast has a special feeling for the passion, urgency and idealism of the American Revolution, which maybe shouldn’t surprise us. Our history is the saga of outsiders becoming insiders — of the marginal and dispossessed being welcomed as citizens. Lin-Manuel offers us an Alexander Hamilton who is the quintessential immigrant and outsider who lends his talents and energies to creating the new nation.

我意识到，《汉密尔顿》的整体概念跟选角是不能分开来看的。这部戏的奇迹在于，它让我们看到我们作为一个国家的过去，也看到我们的现在。这个年轻的、多种族的演员阵容，对美国革命的激情、迫切和理想主义有一种特殊的感受，而这可能并不出人意料。我们的历史是局外人变成局内人的故事——被驱赶的边缘人被接纳为公民。林-马努艾尔带给我们的亚历山大·汉密尔顿，是一个移民和局外人的典范，他用自己的才华和活力去开创一个全新的国家。

Seeing the story transformed into such vivid, three-dimensional life onstage, I had the strange sensation of eavesdropping on the private meditations of my own characters — the things left unsaid in the historical record. Eliza Hamilton refused to comment publicly on her husband’s notorious sexual escapade with Maria Reynolds, but Lin-Manuel has created magnificent, mournful music for her as she pours out her emotions after the scandal breaks. I was infinitely touched that he closed the show the way I had the book — with a golden, elegiac scene of Eliza as a widow, remembering her husband. Much better than ending with the duel.

看到这个故事变成如此生动、立体的现场舞台表演，我有了一种奇怪的感觉，我好像在偷窥我自己书里的人物，看看他们私下里在想些什么——那些史料里没有的东西。对丈夫和玛莉亚·雷诺兹(Maria Reynolds)那场臭名昭著的婚外情，艾丽萨·汉密尔顿(Eliza Hamilton)在公开场合绝口不提，但在戏中，林-马努艾尔为她写了华美、悲恸的音乐，让她尽情吐露丈夫丑闻败露后的心境。他在最后一场戏用了我在书里的结局，这让我无比感动——那是一个金黄色的、哀婉的场景，已成寡妇的艾丽萨回忆着她的丈夫。这比用一场决斗作结尾好太多。

I recognize the real Alexander Hamilton in ‘‘Hamilton.’’ Sometimes Lin-Manuel shades the character differently than I do in the book, but that’s only natural. I think he has plucked out the dramatic essence of the character — his vaulting ambition, his obsession with his legacy, his driven nature, his roving eye, his brilliant mind, his faulty judgment. He gives us a very interior look at Hamilton with many well-educated guesses at what he was thinking and feeling.

我能在《汉密尔顿》里看到一个真实的亚历山大·汉密尔顿。有时候林-马努艾尔处理人物的办法跟我的书不太一样，但那很正常。我认为他把人物的戏剧精髓抽取了出来——他有气吞山河的野心，渴望千古留名，他强横的天性，游移的眼神，敏慧的才思，糟糕的判断力。他向我们展示了一个内在的汉密尔顿，并凭借丰富的知识，对这个人的所思所感做出了不少猜想。

Both Lin-Manuel and I were motivated by a sense that Hamilton was the most overlooked and misunderstood founding father. He had an uncanny knack for making powerful enemies — including Presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe — who, in many ways, came to define his legacy. Now Hamilton threatens to become the chic and glamorous founder. From beyond the grave, Hamilton can no longer complain of neglect. He is right up there on the marquee at the Richard Rodgers Theatre. Hamilton, never bashful, would have been happy to take a bow.

林-马努艾尔和我都认为，汉密尔顿是最被忽视和误解的一位国父，这种看法驱使着我们。他有个奇怪的毛病，总是跟一些有权有势的人成为敌人——这里面有约翰·昆西·亚当斯、托马斯·杰弗逊、詹姆斯·麦迪逊、詹姆斯·门罗——这在某种程度上概括了他的传奇。现在汉密尔顿恐怕要成为最帅气、最耀眼的国父了。假使地下有知，他不能再抱怨自己被人遗忘。此时此刻，汉密尔顿正站在理查德·罗杰斯剧院(Richard Rodgers Theatre)大门正上方。这个从不害怕出风头的人，大概会很乐意向大家鞠躬致意的。