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体育与娱乐

A Great One Goes Out in Style, His Own Style
伟大的人物优雅地引退 以他独特的风格

By Sally Jenkins

Pete Sampras will leave the game as he played it, a modest, easy, all-time great.
You see all kinds of retirements in sports, and most of them are emotionally and difficult to watch. There's the weeping news conference. There's the endless, ceremonial you'll-miss-me tour. There's the stutter-step retirement, in which the athlete retires only to unretire when he craves attention or needs th money. Almost no one retires well.

彼得桑普拉斯将离开他曾奋斗的网坛，以他一贯谦逊，随和，杰出的风格。
在体坛，你会看到各种形式的退役，大多数让人感慨不忍侧目。有让人挥泪的记者招待会，有无穷无尽的纪念性巡游，也有的运动员为了保全位置吸引公众瞩目或是为了那笔钱而含糊其辞地退休。几乎没有人恰如其分地退场。

But Sampras is retiring in graceful self-control. He plans to announce his retirement in a ceremony at the U.S. Open tonight, and a lot of people wonder why Sampras won't make more of the event, allow himself to be more elaborately feted. The simple answer is that Sampras doesn't need it. He doesn't need a last jolt of adrenaline or dose of adulation. He doesn't need a prolonged ego bath. He doesn't need more money, or trophies. He doesn't need any of the things that other athletes find it so hard to walk away from. He's content.

但桑普拉斯在优雅的自制中引退。他计划在今晚的美国公开赛典礼上宣布这一消息，很多人好奇，为什么桑布拉斯不为此造势，以博得更多的名望。答案很简单，桑普拉斯不需要这些。他不需要最后一次的心跳加速，不需要大堆的阿谀奉承，不需要无休止的沐浴在自我膨胀之中，不需要更多的钱或是战利品，更不需要任何让其他运动员难以割舍的东西。他是满足的。

That contentment is a kind of achievement in its own right. Sampras has made himself invisible since his victory in last year's U.S. Open. His 14th major championship now stands as the last match of his career, the perfect finish.

那样的知足本身就是一种成就。桑普拉斯自从上一年的美国公开赛获胜之后就销声匿迹。他的第十四个主要锦标赛成为他事业中的最后的一战，并为之画上完美的句号。

He's never played in another tournament. He's declined all interviews. He's simply stayed at home with his wife and new baby. Typically，he's chosen the anticlimactic first night of this year's tournment, rather than the last. to make his announcement. The session isn't even sold out.

他从未在其他联赛上出场，也谢绝了所有采访，他只是呆在家陪着妻子和新出世的孩子。特别的是，他选择了本年度的巡回赛的少人问津的第一晚宣布这一消息，而不是最后一晚。连赛季套票都还没售完呢。

Some may find this disappointing. but I find it to be utterly true to who Sampras is. He never trusted fame, and always boxed up and guarded his ego.

有些人可能为此觉得失望。但是我觉得这是最符合桑普拉斯性格的方式。他从不沽名钓誉，而是保持距离，忠于自我。

Here are two true stories about Sampras, and how he consistently handled his success from the time he won his first U.S. Open at 19, to his last at 32. In 1996, Sampras was traveling cross-country in first class on a commercial jet, and sat next to Barry Bonds. Bonds didn't recognize him, and Sampras, shyly, didn't introduce himself. Behind Sampras sat a friend of Bonds, who wanted to sit with the ballplayer. Bonds pointed at Sampras. "If this kid gets [up], you can move up here," Bonds said. Sampras shugged and moved, without a word.

这里有两则关于桑普拉斯的逸事，他从19岁第一次赢得美国公开赛到32岁赢得最后一次胜利，期间如何坚持不懈地把握成功。1996年，桑普拉斯搭乘商务航班的头等舱巡游全国，坐在他旁边的是巴瑞邦兹。邦兹没有认出他，而害羞的桑普拉斯也没有自我介绍。在桑普拉斯身后坐着邦兹的朋友，他想坐在邦兹身边。邦兹指着桑普拉斯说，“如果这个小鬼起来，你就能坐我这里。”桑普拉斯耸了耸肩，站了起来，一言不发。

At around the same time, he tried to go to dinner at a Florida steakhouse, only to find that the line for a table went out the door. Sampras, for perhaps the only time in his life, tried to use his influence. He walked up to the hostess and asked for a table. The hostess didn't know who he was. Sampras went to the back of the line, embarrassed, and never did it again.

大约同一时期，他想在佛罗里达的一家牛排店用晚餐，结果发现队伍排到了门口。桑普拉斯想用他的影响，也许也是他生平唯一的一次。于是他走到服务员跟前，要求一个桌位。女服务生并不认识他。桑普拉斯走到队伍后面，非常尴尬，以后再也没这么做过，

Sampras has been the same reserved and methodical player throught his career, no matter how many tournaments he won or records he set. Which achievement will stand longest? His record 14 Grand Slam titles? His seven Wimbledon titles? His six straight years as the year-end No. 1 player in th world? It's the latter that Sampras might be proudest of, because it bespeaks an entire philosophy of the game, tennis as ethic. He wasn't just great, he was dependably great. He never tanked, never ducked a commitment and struck every ball with serious intent. His work habits were equal to his talent.

整个运动生涯中，无论他赢得了多少巡回赛冠军，创造了多少记录，桑普拉斯一直是同样的低调而有条不紊。他的哪项记录能保持最久？14次大满贯称号？7次温布尔顿头衔？连续6年的世界第一排名？让桑普拉斯引以为傲的也许是后者，因为它体现了桑普拉斯对于这项运动的整个哲学观，网球就是他的信仰。他并不只是一般的出色，他的杰出令人信服，他从不居功自傲，也不会信誓旦旦，而是认真地的对待每一球。他优秀的工作习惯不亚于他的天赋。

For this he was labeled boring, but the label did a disservice to a player who made professionalism into artistry, and vice versa. He played complete and deeply realized tennis, but the lulling beauty of his game was so hypnotic that audiences couldn't imagine it came from sweat and work. In fact, it was the product of grim focus, self-deprivation and discipline. He burned to win so much that he got ulcers. He spent hours sweating with weights in a Florida garage with no air-conditioning---"They don't air-condition the court at the Open", he said.

因此他被人定义为无趣，但这样的称呼对一个把职业精神演绎得出神入化的运动员来说是一种伤害，反之亦然。他比赛时完全地投入，深深地体会着网球。他的表演所呈现的诱人魅力如此精彩，以至于观众无法想象，这一切都来自于汗水和苦练。事实上，它是高度精神集中，忘我和训练的产物。为了获得这么多的胜利，他甚至灼伤了自己，得了溃疡。他花了大量时间在一个弗罗里达闷热的车库里挥汗训练 - 他说，在公开赛时没有空调。

He traveled without seeing countries, rarely leaving his hotel expect to practice, and he ate the same monastic training diet for years, sauceless pasta and chicken. "Every meal, whether I liked it or not," he said. "Choking it down." A rare splurge was to go to Vegas to play blackjack for a weekend, or to Peter Luger's steakhouse in New York, which more often than not left him queasy because he wasn't used to such rich food. It was a source of frustration to him that the audience didn't grasp how much offort was behind the ease. "People watch him win, and think that doesn't look too hard," his coach, Paul Annacone, said. "But he'd like people to understand just how difficult it is."

他周游世界却无暇观光，除了训练之外很少离开旅馆，他成年吃着同样单调的训练食谱，无酱的意大利面加鸡肉。“每一餐，无论我喜欢或者不喜欢都得吞下去”，他说道。少有的挥霍是周末去拉斯维加斯玩21点，或者是去纽约彼得鲁格的牛排店，不过后者并不会让他安心，因为他已经不习惯如此丰盛的食物。对他来说，观众不明白轻松背后所隐藏的努力是他挫折感的根源。“人们看他得胜，就认为那看起来不太难。”他的教练保罗阿那克说，“但他希望别人理解其中的艰难。”

The problem was that Sampras wasn't willing to abandon his reserve in exchange for understanding. If that was the price, he preferred to be misunderstood. He suffered a rare public breakdown at the Australian Open, after learning that his coach and friend, Tim Gullikson, had terminal brain cancer, and wept on the court in the midst of match against Jim Courier. But later, he was bothered by his new popularity as a result of the episode. "It galled me that it took something like that for people to say, "He's human," he said.

问题在于，桑普拉斯不愿意放弃他的低调来寻求理解。如果哪是代价的话，他宁愿被误解。在澳大利亚公开赛上，听闻他的教练兼好友，迪姆古利克森患了晚期脑癌的消息，他罕有地在公众场合崩溃了-- 同基姆克利亚比赛的中途在球场上抽泣。但是后来，他因为这段插曲带来的名声而困扰不已。他说，“需要那样的事情人们才会说，他很有人性，这对我来说是种侮辱。”

He preferred to stay sheltered in the hills above Los Angeles in a home that was comfortabe, not palatial, and hidden behind towering old trees. " No one can see in and I can't see out, and I like it that way," he said. "I'm Howard Hughes." He kept his trophies on a shelf in the TV room, and enjoyed showing them, but with typical self-deprecation. "They aren't as heavy as you think," he said.

他更喜欢躲在洛杉矶山区那掩映在树从中，舒适但不奢华的房子里。“没有人能看进来，我也望不出去，我喜欢这样。”他说，“我象是霍华德修斯。” 他把他的战利品放在电视间的架子上，乐意展示给我们看，带着典型的自嘲，他说，“他们并不想你所想象的那么沉重。”

The press always found Sampras diffucult to render precisely because he was so moderate and well-regulated. His genius came without the McEnroe-esque emotional torture, and therefore was un-dramatic. He was neither heroic nor villainous, he was simply excellent. Greatness was his only real excess. A villain or tortured genious would have been easier to describe. He was not a good conductor for audience emotions, either, because the whole point of him was that he was great every day, and the last thing audiences want at a sports event is the everyday.

媒体总是觉得桑普拉斯很难精确地描绘，因为他如此谦逊并善于自我调节。他的天赋不象McEnroe-esque来自于情感上的痛苦，因而不是那么戏剧化。他既不是英雄也不是坏蛋，他就是这样的优秀。伟大是他唯一的过人之处，一个恶棍或者痛苦的天才更容易被描写。他也不善于操控观众的情绪，因为关于他的一切就是他每天都很优秀，而体育赛事中观众最不想看到的就是一如寻常。

But I''ll miss him, both personally and professionally. I'll miss his hugely aspiring game. cloaked in that lazybones demeanor. I'll miss the prodigious sleeper, the slouchy, gangly, drowsy kid who napped in the player lounge and shuffled around in flip-flops for the past 15 years. I'll miss the determined, glowering athlete who internalized pain but couldn't keep it from coming out sideways. I'll miss the dedicated player who made a champion out of himself by deciding that his work should be equal to his talent. I'll miss his gorgeous classicism, his buried humor, his essential decency and his shy friendliness.

但是我会怀念他，无论是从个人角度还是专业角度。我怀念在他慵懒的外表之下，引人入胜的比赛。我怀念大睡虫，这个15年来在选手休息室拖着鞋子晃来晃去，懒散，瘦长总是昏昏欲睡的孩子。我怀念这位决绝，面带怒容的运动员，他内化了所有的痛楚，但是无法抑制的其无心的流露。我怀念这位专注的运动员，他本身就是一位冠军，他的勤奋和天赋一样的重要。我怀念他的典雅的古典主义，他深藏不露的幽默，他本质的庄重和羞涩的友善。

I suspect I won't see Sampras coming out of retirement to struggle to one more quarterfinal, just so he can hear applause again. I won't see a seedier, paunchy version of him on the senior tennis circuit a few years from now. The only place any of us is liable to see him is courtside at a Lakers game, or walking his baby in the park, contentedly. But then, Sampras has never wanted to be seen. He only wanted to be great.

我猜想不会看到桑普拉斯重新复出，努力挤进另一个季度决赛来谋求掌声了；若干年后，也不会看到不堪甚至有些臃肿的他出现在老年网球巡回赛中。我们唯一有可能看到他的地方也许是湖畔的球场边，或许是满足地和孩子漫步在公园里。但那个时候，桑普拉斯是绝对不愿意被看到的，他只想做最优秀的。

Questions to the text:

1. Why do many players make the announcement of retirement a sentimental public event?
2. How is Sampras different from other sports stars when he announced his retirement?
3. Why doesn't Sampras need the publicity and excitement?
4.Why did Sampras choose the anticlimactic first night of this year's tournament, rather than the last, to make his announcement?
5.What does this author mean when he says "Some may find disappointing, but I find it to be utterly true to who Sampras is"?
6.What do the two true stories tell us about Sampras?
7.Why does the author say Sampras has always been the same reserved and methodical player?
8.What does the statement"His work habits were equal to his talent." mean?
9.Why was Sampras labeled boring by many?
10.Why did Sampras feel galled when thought it should take something like that for people to say, "He's human"?
11.Why did the press find it hard to render Sampras?
12. Why were the audience bored by Sampras's stories?
13. What does the author think of Sampras? Is he appreciative?
14. Will Sampras come out of his retirement and play again? Why?
15. What does the author mean by saying "I won't see a seedier, paunchy version of him on the senior tennis circuit a few years from now."?

to be continued ...

posted on 2005-03-06 20:50 Celinar 阅读(2976) 评论(24)  编辑  收藏 所属分类: Translation Practice 网摘收藏