Why Yo-Yo Ma Would Invite Socrates to Dinner
马友友的枕边书：与苏格拉底共进晚餐？

“For once, I’d like to ask the questions,” says the renowned cellist, whose new ensemble album is “Not Our First Goat Rodeo.”

“就这一次，我想由我来提问，”这位刚推出室内乐专辑《山羊雅集弦乐四重奏》(Not Our First Goat Rodeo)的著名大提琴家说。

What books are on your nightstand?

你的床头柜上放着什么书？

“The World That Made New Orleans,” by Ned Sublette.

奈德·苏伯莱特(Ned Sublette)的《造就新奥尔良的那个世界》(The World That Made New Orleans)。
 
“Barracoon: The Story of the Last ‘Black Cargo,’” the oral history of one of the last known African survivors of the Middle Passage, by Zora Neale Hurston.

佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿(Zora Neale Hurston)的《奴隶收容所：最后一批“黑货”的故事》(Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”)，已知中央航路最后的非裔幸存者之一的口述史。

The memoirs of Alexandre Dumas, the first volume of which I am struggling through in French.

大仲马(Alexandre Dumas)的回忆录，我正在艰难阅读法文版第一卷。

“Spirit Rising,” by the unparalleled Angelique Kidjo, who recommended the first three titles. She and I are working on a new project that explores some of the less-known intersections between what we think of as Western classical and African music.

《精神的崛起》(Spirit Rising)，由举世无双的安吉丽克·基德霍(Angelique Kidjo)所著，正是她推荐了前三本书。她和我正在合作一个新项目，探索我们理解的西方古典音乐与非洲音乐之间的一些不太为人所知的交点。

Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?

有没有什么经典小说是你最近才第一次读的？

E .M. Forster’s “Howards End.” Twenty-three years ago, when I was first thinking about the Silkroad Ensemble, I had many intense talks with Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, who were in the process of creating the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Said would always quote Forster: “Only connect!” But it took me two decades to connect with the book.

E·M·福斯特(E.M. Forster)的《霍华德庄园》(Howards End)。二十三年前，当我第一次想到“丝绸之路合奏团”的时候，我和丹尼尔·巴伦博伊姆(Daniel Barenboim)还有爱德华·萨义德(Edward Said)展开了很多激烈的对谈。萨义德当时正在创立“西东合集管弦乐团”，他总是引用福斯特的话：“唯有相连！”但我花了二十年时间才和这本书相连。

Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).

说说你理想的阅读体验吧（时间、地点、内容、方式）。

In transit. I always try to get on a plane with a book that will give me new perspective on the destination. Late in February, just before the pandemic really changed how we live, I visited West Africa for the first time, to play Bach’s cello suites in Dakar. I boarded with Dionne Searcey’s “In Pursuit of Disobedient Women,” which recounts her years as The Times’s West Africa bureau chief. I landed with the magic of her experience. Like cheating!

在旅途中。我总是尽量带上一本能让我对目的地产生新看法的书上飞机。二月末，就在大流行真正改变我们生活方式之前，我第一次来到西非，在达喀尔演奏巴赫的大提琴组曲。我带上了迪翁·瑟西(Dionne Searcey)的《追求不服从的女人》(In Pursuit of Disobedient Women)，这本书讲述了她担任时报西非分社社长的岁月。我带着她神奇的经历着陆了。感觉就像作弊！

Lately, my wife and I have discovered audiobooks in the car, most recently Ron Chernow’s “Washington.”

最近，我和妻子发现可以在车里听有声读物，最近听的是罗恩·切尔诺(Ron Chernow)的《华盛顿》(Washington)。

What book should everybody read before the age of 21?

每个人在21岁之前都应该读什么书？

“The Little Prince.” Looking at the universe through a child’s gaze, full of wonder, wisdom and innocence, is a perspective we never want to lose as adults.

《小王子》。用孩子的眼光看世界，充满惊奇、智慧和纯真，这是我们作为成年人绝不希望失去的视角。

Have any books influenced your artistic development as a musician?

作为一名音乐家，有没有哪本书影响了你的艺术发展？

Too many to count, but Joseph Horowitz on Toscanini helped give a social and historical context to the world of classical music world that I encountered when I moved to New York as a child. The book gave me a way to see how deeply everything changed after World War II, how the immigration of European musicians to the United States helped shape the evolution of classical music for a good half-century and gave me my own musical foundation.

多到不计其数，但是约瑟夫·霍洛维茨(Joseph Horowitz)写的托斯卡尼尼，为我童年搬到纽约时与古典音乐世界的相遇提供了社会和历史背景。这本书让我看到，二战后一切都发生了极为深刻的变化，欧洲音乐家到美国的移民参与塑造了半个世纪以来古典音乐的演变，它也帮我找到了自己的音乐根基。

Who are your favorite musician-writers? Your favorite memoir by a musician?

你最喜欢的音乐家-作家是谁？你最喜欢的音乐家回忆录呢？

“Joys and Sorrows,” by Pablo Casals. Casals was one of the greatest cellists of the last century. He rediscovered Bach’s cello suites for generations of musicians and listeners, he stood always for liberty and against despotism, and he lived by a simple philosophy that has become my own: He thought of himself as a human being first, a musician second and, only third, a cellist. I met him when I was 7 and asked him for his autograph, and he gave me some advice: “Always make time for baseball.” It took me decades to realize he was telling me to be a human first.

巴勃罗·卡萨尔斯(Pablo Casals)的《欢乐与悲伤》(Joys and Sorrows)。卡萨尔斯是上个世纪最伟大的大提琴家之一。他帮助几代音乐家和听众重新发现了巴赫的大提琴组曲，他始终站在自由和反对专制的立场上，他以一种简单的哲学生活，这种哲学后来也成为了我的哲学：他认为自己首先是一个人，其次是一个音乐家，第三才是一个大提琴手。我在7岁的时候遇到他，向他要签名，他给了我一些建议：“永远都要留一些时间给棒球。”几十年下来我才意识到，他是在告诉我首先要做人。

What are the best books about music you’ve read?

你读过的关于音乐的最好的书是什么?

The books that set me on new musical journeys. Here’s one. In the ’90s, I discovered the work of an ethnomusicologist named Ted Levin. I think the first of his books that I read was “The Hundred Thousand Fools of God.” This was in the years after the Soviet Union breakup gave birth to more than a dozen countries that we knew as the “‘stans.” Ted’s book introduced me to the people who live there; I could hear them, understand their interpretation of nature and of the universe. A few years later, Ted became one of my partners in creating the Silkroad Ensemble, which changed forever how I think about connection and collaboration, innovation and tradition, foreign and local, and what it means to live in an interconnected world.

有一些书引领我踏上新的音乐之旅。比如90年代，我发现了民族志音乐学家泰德·利文(Ted Levin)的作品。我记得我读的他的第一本书是《上帝的成千上万个傻瓜》(The Hundred Thousand Fools of God)。它写得是苏联解体后的几年里，诞生了十几个我们只知道是“某某斯坦”的国家。泰德的书让我了解了生活在那里的人；我能听到他们的声音，理解他们对自然和宇宙的解释。几年后，泰德成了我的合作伙伴之一，创建了丝路乐团，这本书永远地改变了我对联系与合作、创新与传统、外国与本地，以及生活在一个相互联系的世界中的意义的看法。

What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?

你最近从一本书中得知的最有趣的东西是什么?

The history of Haiti, through the memoirs of Alexandre Dumas, whose father was a French general born in Haiti (then the French colony of Saint-Domingue) to a white French nobleman and a black slave. We hear so much about the modern-day struggles of Haiti, but I had only a vague notion of its history, that Haiti was among the first colonies in the Americas to declare independence and the first nation to abolish slavery for good.

我从大仲马的回忆录里了解到海地的历史。他的父亲是一名法国将军，出生在海地（当时的法国殖民地圣多明克），是法国白人贵族和黑人奴隶的儿子。我们听说过很多关于海地现代社会的斗争，但我对它的历史只有一个模糊的概念，海地是美洲第一批宣布独立的殖民地之一，也是第一个永久废除奴隶制的国家。

How do you organize your books?

你怎样整理你的书？

I don’t. I am so disorganized. Thank goodness my wife has the ability to put them in order, because then I am surprised anew by what wonderful books we have.

我不整理。我太没条理了。谢天谢地，我妻子能把它们整理好，这样一来，我又会惊讶于我们拥有那么多的好书。

Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain?

你最喜欢的虚构人物是谁？你最喜欢的反英雄或者反派呢？

Odysseus. I identify with how much time he spent on the road!

奥德修斯。他有很多的时间是在路上，这点我感同身受！

You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?

假如你来组织一个文学晚宴，你会邀请哪三位作家，无论已故的还是在世的？

Ann Patchett: I’ve read all of her books; her humanistic imagination knows no limits.

安·帕切特(Ann Patchett)，我读过她的所有作品；她的人文主义想象力无边无际。

Freeman Dyson, the theoretical physicist who died earlier this year at age 96. He never stopped learning and in one of his final essays wrote, “Cultural evolution will be the main force driving our future.”

还有理论物理学家弗里曼·戴森(Freeman Dyson)，他于今年早些时候去世，享年96岁。他从未停止学习，在他生前最后的一篇论文中写道：“文化的演变将是驱动我们未来的主要力量。”

Socrates: For once, I’d like to ask the questions.

苏格拉底：就这一次，我想由我来提问。

What do you plan to read next?

你接下来打算看什么书？

When my son was in sixth grade, his teacher gave him an assignment on “Kalila wa Dimna,” fables that originated in India and moved to Persia, shared as a way to educate future rulers. But it turns out that they are beloved stories that children know all over the world, stories that we recognize in the fables of Fontaine and Aesop. I’ve wanted to read them ever since. Imagine, a world of leaders bound together with common values. We could use that today.