愿“缪斯女神”一路走好

导读：玛丽安•伊伦是一代音乐传奇莱昂纳德•科恩的缪斯女神，激发了这位音乐人无限的创作热情。而近期玛丽安的逝世，也为他们的爱情故事画上了句号。但她所留下的灵感，将会继续启迪世人，永垂不朽。

In an Oslo hospital, at age 81, Marianne Ihlen slipped out of existence. Her fight with *leukemia had ended. Her friends were assembled around her, there to bid her farewell as she passed on. One of them took her hand and hummed a little tune: Bird on the Wire.

在奥斯陆的一家医院里，81岁的玛丽安•伊伦安详地离开了人世。她和白血病的搏斗结束了。朋友们都围绕在她的身边，和她做最后的道别。有人牵起她的手，轻哼起《立在电线上的鸟》的调子。

It was one of the songs Ihlen herself had inspired. The Norwegian woman had led an *eclectic life – as an oil industry worker, a production assistant on a film and an artist’s model – but no job ever surpassed the role she played in the history of song and prose. Ihlen is best remembered as the *muse who stoked the passions of, not one, but two internationally renowned writers.

那是众多受她启发的歌曲中的一首。这位挪威女性有着多面性的人生——曾做过石油工人，电影制片助理以及艺术家的模特——但没有哪份工作可以和她在歌词和散文历史中所扮演的角色相提并论。伊伦最为世人所铭记的，是成为激起国际知名作家创作热情的缪斯女神，而且不止一位，而是两位。

It was the Greeks who first invented the idea of muses: mythic goddesses, beautiful and *serene, who could fill artists with divine inspiration. Relatively little is known about each one – scholars aren’t even sure exactly how many muses there were – but many of the men who invoked them have become famous. Among them are classic writers like Homer and Virgil, and later masters like Dante and Shakespeare.

“缪斯女神”这一理念源于希腊：她是神话里的女神，美丽而又平和，给予艺术家们天赐的灵感。人们对每位缪斯女神知之甚少——学者们甚至也不确定究竟有多少位缪斯女神——但许多受她们启发的男性却名留青史。其中包括了古典作家荷马和维吉尔，以及后来的大师但丁和莎士比亚。

Like the muses of old, Ihlen too was *outshined by the men in her life. She was in her early 20s when she married a struggling Norwegian writer named Axel Jensen. It wasn’t long before Jensen had published a hit novel, Line, and Ihlen bore their son. But with the joys came eventual heartbreak: Jensen had found a new lover and left Ihlen, alone with an infant at age 25.

就像古老的缪斯女神一般，伊伦也令她生命中的男人大放光彩。20岁出头的时候，她嫁给了一位苦苦奋斗的挪威作家阿克塞尔•延森。不久后，延森便出版了热门小说《Line》，而伊伦也生下了他们的儿子。然而伴随着这些喜悦而来的是最终的心碎：在伊伦25岁那年，延森另结新欢，并且抛弃了她和尚在襁褓之中的儿子。

That, according to *biographer Kari Hesthamar, opened the door for Ihlen to fall for Canadian poet and folk singer Leonard Cohen. He rivaled American singer Bob Dylan in popularity, and his lyrics were infused with the political *angst and sexual liberation that gripped the West in the 1960s.

传记作家Kari Hesthamar认为，那段经历也为伊伦后来爱上加拿大诗人、民谣歌手莱昂纳德•科恩提供了契机。科恩和美国歌手鲍勃•迪伦一样受欢迎，他的歌词中充溢着政治忧虑以及上世纪60年代中席卷西方的性解放浪潮。

Their romance started on the Greek island of Hydra, where Cohen found her after her breakup. She became the *namesake for the song So Long, Marianne, and her *prodding led Cohen to write Bird on the Wire. When Cohen released his second album, he put Ihlen’s photo right on the back cover.

他们的浪漫爱情始于希腊的伊兹拉岛，在那里科恩结识了分手后的伊伦。后来，有了这首和她同名的歌曲《再见，玛丽安》；在她的影响下，科恩还创作了《立在电线上的鸟》。当科恩发行他的第二张专辑时，他将伊伦的照片放在了专辑封底上。

US musician Paul Simon had Kathleen Chitty, Bob Dylan had Suze Rotolo and Cohen had Ihlen. These women were *immortalized as the muses of great singer-songwriters, becoming romantic icons for a generation of music fans. Yet, they’re also enduring symbols of a gender divide in music.

美国音乐家保罗•西蒙有凯思琳•奇蒂，鲍勃•迪伦有苏西•罗托洛，而科恩则有伊伦。作为这些伟大的创作歌手的缪斯女神，这些女性永垂不朽，成为了一代乐迷心中的浪漫爱情的代表性人物。而且，她们也是乐坛中性别划分的永久象征。

The best-known female muses are *elevated to impossible standards by the men who adore them. But female musicians today are best known for the intense *ire they bear toward some of their muses. From Carly Simon and her 1972 hit You’re So Vain, to Taylor Swift and the songs she uses to *skewer her exes, music has been a way for women to express anger and frustration at the men.

那些最著名的缪斯女神们被崇拜她们的男性升华为不可触及的标准。但是今天的女性音乐家却因她们对自己创作源泉的强烈愤怒而广为人知。从卡莉•西蒙以及她1972年的热门歌曲《你是如此爱慕虚荣》到泰勒•斯威夫特以及她用来抨击前任的歌曲，音乐已经成了女性表达对男性的愤怒和失望的途径。

Ihlen’s passing on July 29 marked the end of one musical love story, but muses will continue to materialize well into the future, each one reflecting the ideals and tensions of their generation.

7月29日伊伦的逝世标志着一个音乐爱情故事的落幕，但是缪斯们带来的灵感将会在将来继续成为现实，反映他们代人的理想和冲突。