这篇译文是我早以前追剧的时候发在KW小组里的，现在挪过来。 感谢由美溪客大人率领的翻译小组翻译这部剧，造福广大律政剧fans。 文章的原文于1998年3月的纽约时报上发表，作者是著名影评人Greil Marcus。推荐有能力的童鞋读原文，本人才疏学浅，中文翻译不能尽原文精彩之一二，文下另有注释，供大家参考。 作者介绍：http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greil_Marcus 原文地址：http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D07E4DE1238F930A15750C0A96E958260 ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ ONE STEP BACK: Emotion on the Faces Speaks Louder Than Words 回顾往昔：表情的力量比语言更强大 By Greil Marcus Published: March 23, 1998 ''We didn't need dialogue in those days,'' Gloria Swanson's forgotten silent-movie queen says to William Holden's unemployed screenwriter in ''Sunset Boulevard.''① ''We had faces then!'' “过去我们根本不需要对白”，《日落大道》里葛洛丽亚·斯旺森扮演的被遗忘的默片皇后对威廉·霍尔登扮演的失业编剧说道，“我们是靠脸来表演！”① ''The Practice,'' the noisy, unkempt legal drama that is broadcast on Mondays on ABC, has faces. Actors have to act, and characters must be projected through a whole but unstable physiognomic map upon which events -- crimes, verdicts, sex -- are registered, interpreted and then celebrated or suffered. The action proceeds through close-ups. On this show, if your face can't talk without words, you have nothing to say. 《律师本色》，这部每周一在ABC电视台播出的嘈杂吵闹的律政剧，它的演员们就有这样会说话的脸。演员必须要表演，面对犯罪、宣判、以及性等各类事件，角色的性格特质要通过完整而易变的面部表情来进行表达和解析，以此展示他们的欢喜或悲戚。特写镜头被用来表现人物的行为，在这部剧集中，如果你的表情不会说话，你便会无话可说。 Maybe that's why I've been less gripped by the plots -- Who dismembered the doctor's mistress? Can the gay megalomaniac who murdered two lovers walk? -- than by Lindsay Dole's eyes. She's one of the five lawyers in the Boston law firm Donnell & Associates. It's poverty row, except that, as with all cops and lawyers in television shows, even people who don't make much money can still afford great-looking clothes. 这也许就是为什么相较颇具吸引力的剧情——“是谁把医生的情人分尸；谋杀同性恋人的自大狂会不会被无罪释放”，Lindsay Dole的眼睛更让我沉迷的原因。她是波士顿Donnell & Associates律师事务所的五个律师之一。这是一家很小的事务所，除此之外，和其他电视剧中的警察、律师们一样，他们虽赚不了几个钱，却还是穿得起华贵的衣服。 The office has two rooms. There's an office manager but no secretaries. Led by sallow, brooding, poker-faced Bobby Donnell, played by Dylan McDermott, the lawyers take up noble but dubious personal-injury cases -- four neighbors convinced that power lines gave them cancer -- and they defend scum. And get them off. 这家事务所有两间屋，有办公室总管但没有秘书。Dylan McDermott扮演面色蜡黄、表情僵硬的扑克脸Bobby Donnell，在他的领导下，事务所的律师们会为道义感而接下胜算不大的人身伤害案——四位近邻认定电力线导致他们患上癌症，同时他们也会为那些社会渣滓辩护，帮助他们逃脱罪行。 Lindsay, played by Kelli Williams, is a city lawyer with farm-girl looks: straight light-brown hair, a soft face, innocent eyes. That didn't hurt with the drug cases she handled so well. The dirtier the client, the cleaner she appeared in court. She's the classic still-waters-run-deep type. Coming in late to the office, her colleagues might find her hunched over her computer, or sitting on the floor trying to get drunk. Lindsay，由Kelli Williams扮演，她是大城市里的律师，却长着一张农场女孩的脸：浅栗色的直发，柔和的面孔，和清澈的双眸。不过这副面容可一点不影响她为毒品案件做辩护，案件委托人越是肮脏卑劣，她在法庭上的形象越是显得清丽无暇，她就是那种典型的流静水深、人静心深的类型。傍晚时分，若重返事务所，她的同事们也许会看到她在电脑前埋头工作，又或许看到她正坐在地板上借酒消愁。 ''I'm not capable of good sex,'' Lindsay says to Rebecca Washington, the office manager, played by Lisa Gay Hamilton. Date rape by an old boyfriend has her buried under guilt and shame. She's completely convincing. But not many episodes later, there she is in the office back room unbuttoning her blouse as Bobby Donnell watches. It's an old, secret affair. “我不是什么床上高手”，Lindsay这样对Lisa Gay Hamilton扮演的办公室总管Rebecca Washington说。所有的观众都相信，在约会时被前男友迷奸的事让她陷入了深深的自责与耻辱。但是仅仅几集过后，在Bobby办公室里，她在他面前轻解罗衫，一段陈旧而私密的情感关系浮出水面。 But it's Lindsay who has pushed Bobby into an affair with Helen Gamble, a district attorney and Lindsay's best friend. Helen is played by Lara Flynn Boyle, a born vamp who suggests a fighting-weight version of Theda Bara②. When Helen and Bobby lock eyes and rush into a passionate embrace, mountains crumble, the heavens explode, all memories vanish, and pots and pans fall to the floor. But now, in Bobby's office, all of that looks like nothing more than a sweeps-week③ plot kicker that isn't working. Ten of Ms. Boyle's and Mr. Donnell's nude scenes don't equal the look that passes between Lindsay and Bobby as they promise this is just one last time. 可不论怎样，是Lindsay自己把Bobby拱手让给了Helen Gamble，那名检察官，同时也是她的闺中密友。Helen这个角色由Lara Flynn Boyle扮演，她是个可以和蒂达•芭拉②同级较量的天生浪女。当Helen和Bobby深情对视、激情迸发地拥抱时，仿佛天崩地裂、山河变色，所有的往昔记忆都在似火的激情中蒸发，身旁刀叉碗碟跌落满地。但是，此时此刻，在Bobby的办公室里，这些所谓的激情都在对比之下悄然失色，仅仅成了收视率调查前夕试图吸引眼球的无用伎俩③。要知道，哪怕是十场Boyle和Donnell赤裸相见的激情场面，也比不上Lindsay和Bobby约定“下不为例”时，那仅仅一次的四目相望，眼波流转。 There is a shy, almost high school smile on Lindsay's lips that, in an instant, turns into a Mona Lisa smile in her makeup-free eyes. For an instant, a character you've never glimpsed before emerges from behind Ms. Williams's face. She fills the room; with the scene cut, you wonder if she was ever there at all. But if you're a fan of the show, you're wondering where this unseen woman will turn up next. 那是一抹羞涩的、高中女生式的笑容，若隐若现在Lindsay的唇边，却转瞬即逝，代之的是她那无妆的清澈眸子中透出的蒙娜丽莎般的微笑。那一瞬间，仿佛轻鸿一瞥，你从Williams的脸上，看到了这个角色从未显露过的另一面。她使身边的一切都黯然失色。当镜头切换，你不由得感到迷惘，她真的曾在那里吗。如果你是这部剧集的忠实观众，你会开始猜想，下一次这个多面的女人又会变成什么样。 Where she turns up next is nowhere. Bobby and Helen continue falling out of showers and slamming each other onto the floor. But when Lindsay worms her way back into the story line, it's with heavy, unsure liner around her eyes. She can't tell her friend Helen that she was once Bobby's girl, and she can't tell Bobby she's shriveling up because she can't sleep with him. Like a schoolgirl, she paints her face clumsily, almost garishly; she becomes the wallflower hoping the football hero she'd never have the nerve to speak to will somehow notice her. Here and there she looks like a hooker. 而那个别样的她不会再出现了，Bobby和Helen则继续在浴室的地板上干柴烈火。但是，当Lindsay姗姗回归故事主线的时候，她的眼眸边缘勾勒着重而魅惑的眼线。她不能告诉Helen，她曾是Bobby女人；她也不会告诉Bobby，缺少了与他的肌肤相亲，她仿佛无水浇灌的花朵在日渐枯萎。而就像是个校园女生一样，她笨拙地开始浓妆艳抹，脸上带着近乎过分的夺目妆容，像是一朵壁花，静静伫立在那儿，等待着那个自己一直没勇气同他讲话的足球队员注意到她。有些时候，她那样子看上去就像个妓女。 Her face seems to hollow out; her eyes all but struggle to rise out of their little prisons, even as, in plot terms, her character as a lawyer gets tougher with every show. It's the spookiest drama on television. 她的脸上仿佛毫无生气，她的一双眸子挣扎着想要逃出它们小小的牢笼，即便如此，在故事中，作为律师的她在一场场的庭辩中历练得愈加坚韧。这真是电视上最令人感到不寒而栗的剧集。 In the moments that set ''The Practice'' off from other good shows, the other actors, the other characters, match what Ms. Williams does with Lindsay Dole. When, in a huge, awful murder case Helen cannot afford to lose and that has destroyed her relationship with Bobby, Helen desperately offers a deal and Bobby refuses it, her face falls, all the way down. 那些使得《律师本色》从其他剧集、演员，和角色中脱颖而出的片段，和Williams赋予Lindsay新特质的时期全部吻合。当Helen面对一桩毁掉她和Bobby感情的杀人案时，案件的恶劣性质逼得她不能输也输不起，她绝望地向被诉方提供了和解条件，却遭到了Bobby的无情拒绝，她的面容沉了下来，一直到无可挽回的境地。 The image is florid, overdone, straight out of the silents; then, as often happened in silent movies, once melodrama is established, tragedy follows. Ms. Boyle lets her eyes go blank, and then, slowly, her face dies. 影像，从默片时代一路演进而来，华丽而过饰。而就像在默片中时常发生的一样，当戏剧冲突已经建立，悲剧便将紧随其后，Boyle的一双眼睛褪去了光采，渐渐地，她变得面如死灰。 With faces carrying the show, there is nothing beyond good in the dialogue. The wisecracks will not become catch phrases. But perhaps drawn to the melodrama of silent movies, David E. Kelley, the program's writer and producer, is at his best with speeches. 当表情支撑起这台剧，对白中便没什么更精彩的，那些俏皮话永远不会成为警言妙句。但是，或许他已沉浸在默片的夸张刺激中，David E. Kelley，本剧的编剧兼制片人，正处在自己编写台词的最佳状态。 ''I got this case,'' Bobby says of the murder trial that, he knows, will end his affair with Helen, ''because somebody at a high-priced blue-chip law firm recommended me. As the best. I've been practicin' law in this, this rat hole for 10 years. Lookin' out the windows, seein' those, those lawyers look down on me. And now, one of them came into my office, and said I'm the best.'' “这案子我接下了”，Bobby这样说那桩他明知会断送他和Helen恋爱关系的谋杀案，“因为那些高档律师事务所的律师推荐了我，因为他们认为我是最厉害的。我在这老鼠洞似的小事务所奋斗了近十年，每次我望向窗外看到那些律师们，我知道他们瞧不起我。可现在，他们来到我的办公室，承认我才是最棒的。” Better still was a recent episode in which Lindsay confronts her old law professor. He is played by Edward Herrmann, that paragon of hulking WASP noblesse oblige. Now the professor is a tobacco lawyer whose clothes are all but made of money. He derides her firm as the best place in Boston for rapists, murderers, heroin dealers. ''At the end of the day,'' he says, twice -- draping the pompous Hollywood phrase over his former student as if it were a shroud -- she is going to have to account for herself, for all the slimy things she and the rest of the Donnell crew do. 最近播出的一集则更精彩，Lindsay与她旧时的教授对质。Edward Herrmann出演教授这一角色，他因有高贵的血统故认为自己理应高尚，他是有这种思想的"上等人"中的典型。而现在，这位教授成了烟草公司的律师，身上披着钞票编织的外衣。他取笑她的事务所，说它是波士顿强奸犯、杀人犯和毒贩们的天堂。“在你的弥留之日”，他说道——第二次试图用好莱坞式的夸张辞藻淹覆他曾经的门生，仿佛那些话语是给她定做的寿衣——她将会衡量她的人生，凭借她和Donnell团队所做过的虚伪奸猾的一切，给自己的人生盖棺定论。 I was afraid Mr. Kelley, who is not above ''don't even go there'' or ''he was there for me,'' had succumbed to the same sort of script disease that poisons most television. ''We defend murderers,'' Ms. Williams's Lindsay said to her onetime professor, ''but we don't facilitate murder.'' (Actually, sometimes they do.) ''Let's meet up,'' she said, '' 'at the end of our days' and compare legacies.'' 我一度很担心Kelley先生会从众如流，和大多数的电视剧一样受到剧本弊病的毒害，写些如同“别跟我说这些”或是“他在我在”的台词。“我们确实为杀人犯辩护”，Williams饰演的Lindsay对她的老教授说道，“但我们从不助纣为虐”（事实上他们也偶尔为之）。“让我们做个约定”，她说，“在彼此生命的最后时日相见，再来比一比我们这一世的贡献。” As the episode ended, the professor, defeated, was seen walking back a long way, all the way to 1930, into the nightclub in Josef von Sternberg's ''Blue Angel.''④ Mr. Herrmann turned into the old professor, played by Emil Jannings, who is ruined by his love for Marlene Dietrich's cabaret dancer. If only for a moment, off screen, Ms. Williams's Lindsay had turned into Dietrich: one of those faces from when they had faces. 这一集结束的时候，精神被击垮的教授，缓缓走上一条长长的归路，一路走向了1930年，走进斯坦博格的蓝天使夜总会里去了④。Herrmann 变成了那个埃米尔•强宁斯扮演的教授，他对玛琳•黛德丽扮演的夜总会歌女的爱，强大到足以毁掉了他自己。只要在仅仅片刻之间，画面之外，Williams 扮演的Lindsay成为黛德丽：成为那个让人过目难忘的 “靠脸表演”的女人。 ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ 注释： ①【Sunset Boulevard】《日落大道》，比利•怀尔德的经典作品。资料http://movie.douban.com/subject/1298733/ ②【Theda Bara】蒂达•芭拉，性感演员，美国早期默片红星，因其成功塑造了一个荡妇的角色，所以得了个 “The Vamp”的绰号，她的大部分影片毁于Fox的火灾，仅存3部。 ③【sweeps-week】指收视率调查周，由尼尔森公司在美国全国范围内开展，一年四次，每季度一次，每逢调查周，调查问卷就像纸片一样飞进千家万户，所以叫sweeps-week。 ④【Blue Angel】经典电影，德国导演Josef von Sternberg的作品《蓝天使》，主演是Emil Jannings和Marlene Dietrich。资料http://movie.douban.com/subject/1295427/ ◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆◆ 附言：欢迎有兴趣的同学参与剧集翻译，字幕组QQ群：128462677