Breathless

时间：2013-11-07 05:29:02

（单词翻译:单击）

Breathless
David Kirby
 
                    Jean-Paul Belmondo, I'm thinking of you tonight 
 because I saw you walking down the Boulevard 
                    St. Germain just this afternoon with a young woman, 
 and not a starlet（小星星）, either, but a nurse, and you were 
                    using a cane1, yet you were as handsome as you were 
 in all those movies you made thirty, forty, fifty 
 
                    years ago, or, if not handsome, beau-laid, 
 as the French say, or handsome-ugly, as we all are 
                    in our way. My students don't know who you are, 
 but then I don't really know who my students are 
                    or they me. Women love you 
 because you neither gaze too long into the mirror of your own 
 
                    excellence2 nor deny your manifest charms, 
 for our self-loathing may be so great as to become 
                    a kind of narcissism3, as I see when I am 
 still in my own land and out shopping one day and pondering（沉思，考虑） 
                    the tall guy in the cargo4 shorts and black knee socks 
 in the food co-op sighing as he shelves bags of Garden of Eatin' 
 
                    Black Bean Tortilla Chips while his shorter 
 and more stylishly5 attired6 friend is saying, "I just 
                    didn't want you to be the laughingstock of Tallahassee," 
 and the cargo shorts guy sighs again and puts out 
                    more bags of tortilla（玉米粉圆饼） chips and says, ''I'm afraid 
 it's too late for that," and I think, now that's giving 
 
                    your unworthy self a certain stature7（身高，身材）, isn't it? 
 To claim to be the biggest jackass in your town, 
                    even if it's a small one like Tallahassee? Hee, haw! 
 Look at me, everybody! A jackass and loving it. 
                    A month earlier, I had given a reading 
 at Ohio University and was walking one evening along 
 
                    the Ridges8, the site of a deserted9 and terrible-looking
 mental hospital, a Gothic nightmare that, though 
                    empty, still breathed exhaustion10 and despair. 
 The buildings looked like the mind itself: well-meaning 
                    but too heavy, and I was tired and had a plane to catch 
 and saw in the distance a couple driving along 
 
                    slowly and possibly thinking, as I was, of the good 
 intentions associated with this place, of the pain, 
                    and I wanted to ask them for a ride downhill, 
 and I think they would have given me one 
                    gladly had they known I was an English professor, 
 but I couldn't see myself just then, and I didn't know 
 
                    how I looked, and I don't think they would have 
 mistaken me for a mental patient—those had all been 
                    gone for years—but they might have taken me 
 for an actor in a horror movie set on the grounds 
                    of a deserted mental hospital, maybe somebody 
 who didn't know when to stop acting11. How do you 
 
                    know when to stop? In the movies, 
 Jean-Paul, you were cool before "cool" 
                    came to mean "whatever," as when one person 
 says, "I can't stand the sight of you anymore," 
                    and the other person says, "That's cool." 
 And you were "awesome12" before that word was used mainly 
 
                    to describe pizza. You taught young men like me 
 not to be cool but to try to be, and if it never worked, 
                    at least our efforts won us the young women 
 who loved us for trying, who forgave us 
                    and let us think that they thought us awesome. 
 Jean-Paul Belmondo, you leave me breathless.

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1 cane RsNzT     
n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的
参考例句：
  • This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
  • English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。
2 excellence ZnhxM     
n.优秀，杰出，(pl.)优点，美德
参考例句：
  • His art has reached a high degree of excellence.他的艺术已达到炉火纯青的地步。
  • My performance is far below excellence.我的表演离优秀还差得远呢。
3 narcissism 9FSxQ     
n.自我陶醉，自恋
参考例句：
  • Those who suffer from narcissism become self-absorbed.自恋的人会变得自私。
  • The collective narcissism of the Kerouac circle is ultimately boring.凯鲁亚克和他周围人物的集体自我陶醉欲最终使人厌烦不已。
4 cargo 6TcyG     
n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物
参考例句：
  • The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
  • A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。
5 stylishly 72e312749d6cde40dfb023485f81b700     
adv.时髦地，新式地
参考例句：
  • Her stylishly short auburn hair was streaked naturally with gray. 她时髦的金棕色短发里自然地夹着几丝灰发。 来自辞典例句
  • She was dressed very stylishly. 她穿着很时髦。 来自互联网
6 attired 1ba349e3c80620d3c58c9cc6c01a7305     
adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句：
  • The bride was attired in white. 新娘穿一身洁白的礼服。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • It is appropriate that everyone be suitably attired. 人人穿戴得体是恰当的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 stature ruLw8     
n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材
参考例句：
  • He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
  • The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。
8 ridges 9198b24606843d31204907681f48436b     
n.脊( ridge的名词复数 )；山脊；脊状突起；大气层的)高压脊
参考例句：
  • The path winds along mountain ridges. 峰回路转。
  • Perhaps that was the deepest truth in Ridges's nature. 在里奇斯的思想上，这大概可以算是天经地义第一条了。
9 deserted GukzoL     
adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的
参考例句：
  • The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
  • The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。
10 exhaustion OPezL     
n.耗尽枯竭，疲惫，筋疲力尽，竭尽，详尽无遗的论述
参考例句：
  • She slept the sleep of exhaustion.她因疲劳而酣睡。
  • His exhaustion was obvious when he fell asleep standing.他站着睡着了，显然是太累了。
11 acting czRzoc     
n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的
参考例句：
  • Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
  • During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。
12 awesome CyCzdV     
adj.令人惊叹的，难得吓人的，很好的
参考例句：
  • The church in Ireland has always exercised an awesome power.爱尔兰的教堂一直掌握着令人敬畏的权力。
  • That new white convertible is totally awesome.那辆新的白色折篷汽车简直棒极了.

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