Why Yo-Yo Ma Would Invite Socrates to Dinner
枕邊書
馬友友的枕邊書：與蘇格拉底共進晚餐？
《紐約時報》2020年5月26日
“就這一次，我想由我來提問，”這位剛推出室內樂專輯《山羊雅集弦樂四重奏》(Not Our First Goat Rodeo)的著名大提琴家說。
你的床頭櫃上放著什麼書？
奈德·蘇伯萊特(Ned Sublette)的《造就新奧爾良的那個世界》(The World That Made New Orleans)。
佐拉·尼爾·赫斯頓(Zora Neale Hurston)的《奴隸收容所：最後一批“黑貨”的故事》(Barracoon: The Story of the Last “Black Cargo”)，已知中央航路最後的非裔倖存者之一的口述史。
大仲馬(Alexandre Dumas)的回憶錄，我正在艱難閱讀法文版第一卷。
《精神的崛起》(Spirit Rising)，由舉世無雙的安吉麗克·基德霍(Angelique Kidjo)所著，正是她推薦了前三本書。她和我正在合作一個新項目，探索我們理解的西方古典音樂與非洲音樂之間的一些不太為人所知的交點。
有沒有什麼經典小說是你最近才第一次讀的？
E·M·福斯特(EM Forster)的《霍華德莊園》(Howards End)。二十三年前，當我第一次想到“絲綢之路合奏團”的時候，我和丹尼爾·巴倫博伊姆(Daniel Barenboim)還有愛德華·薩義德(Edward Said)展開了很多激烈的對談。薩義德當時正在創立“西東合集管弦樂團”，他總是引用福斯特的話：“唯有相連！”但我花了二十年時間才和這本書相連。
說說你理想的閱讀體驗吧（時間、地點、內容、方式）。在旅途中。我總是盡量帶上一本能讓我對目的地產生新看法的書上飛機。二月末，就在大流行真正改變我們生活方式之前，我第一次來到西非，在達喀爾演奏巴赫的大提琴組曲。我帶上了迪翁·瑟西(Dionne Searcey)的《追求不服從的女人》(In Pursuit of Disobedient Women)，這本書講述了她擔任時報西非分社社長的歲月。我帶著她神奇的經歷著陸了。感覺就像作弊！
最近，我和妻子發現可以在車裡聽有聲讀物，最近聽的是羅恩·切爾諾(Ron Chernow)的《華盛頓》(Washington)。
每個人在21歲之前都應該讀什麼書？
《小王子》。用孩子的眼光看世界，充滿驚奇、智慧和純真，這是我們作為成年人絕不希望失去的視角。
作為一名音樂家，有沒有哪本書影響了你的藝術發展？
多到不計其數，但是約瑟夫·霍洛維茨(Joseph Horowitz)寫的托斯卡尼尼，為我童年搬到紐約時與古典音樂世界的相遇提供了社會和歷史背景。這本書讓我看到，二戰後一切都發生了極為深刻的變化，歐洲音樂家到美國的移民參與塑造了半個世紀以來古典音樂的演變，它也幫我找到了自己的音樂根基。你最喜歡的音樂家- 作家是誰？你最喜歡的音樂家回憶錄呢？
巴勃羅·卡薩爾斯(Pablo Casals)的《歡樂與悲傷》(Joys and Sorrows)。卡薩爾斯是上個世紀最偉大的大提琴家之一。他幫助幾代音樂家和聽眾重新發現了巴赫的大提琴組曲，他始終站在自由和反對專制的立場上，他以一種簡單的哲學生活，這種哲學後來也成為了我的哲學：他認為自己首先是一個人，其次是一個音樂家，第三才是一個大提琴手。我在7歲的時候遇到他，向他要簽名，他給了我一些建議：“永遠都要留一些時間給棒球。”幾十年下來我才意識到，他是在告訴我首先要做人。
你讀過的關於音樂的最好的書是什麼?
有一些書引領我踏上新的音樂之旅。比如90年代，我發現了民族志音樂學家泰德·利文(Ted Levin)的作品。我記得我讀的他的第一本書是《上帝的成千上萬個傻瓜》(The Hundred Thousand Fools of God)。它寫得是蘇聯解體後的幾年裡，誕生了十幾個我們只知道是“某某斯坦”的國家。泰德的書讓我了解了生活在那裡的人；我能聽到他們的聲音，理解他們對自然和宇宙的解釋。幾年後，泰德成了我的合作夥伴之一，創建了絲路樂團，這本書永遠地改變了我對聯繫與合作、創新與傳統、外國與本地，以及生活在一個相互聯繫的世界中的意義的看法。
你最近從一本書中得知的最有趣的東西是什麼?
我從大仲馬的回憶錄裡了解到海地的歷史。他的父親是一名法國將軍，出生在海地（當時的法國殖民地聖多明克），是法國白人貴族和黑人奴隸的兒子。我們聽說過很多關於海地現代社會的鬥爭，但我對它的歷史只有一個模糊的概念，海地是美洲第一批宣布獨立的殖民地之一，也是第一個永久廢除奴隸制的國家。你怎樣整理你的書？
我不整理。我太沒條理了。謝天謝地，我妻子能把它們整理好，這樣一來，我又會驚訝於我們擁有那麼多的好書。
你最喜歡的虛構人物是誰？你最喜歡的反英雄或者反派呢？
奧德修斯。他有很多的時間是在路上，這點我感同身受！
假如你來組織一個文學晚宴，你會邀請哪三位作家，無論已故的還是在世的？
安·帕切特(Ann Patchett)，我讀過她的所有作品；她的人文主義想像力無邊無際。
還有理論物理學家弗里曼·戴森(Freeman Dyson)，他於今年早些時候去世，享年96歲。他從未停止學習，在他生前最後的一篇論文中寫道：“文化的演變將是驅動我們未來的主要力量。”
蘇格拉底：就這一次，我想由我來提問。
你接下來打算看什麼書？
我兒子六年級的時候，老師給他佈置了閱讀《卡里來和笛木乃》(Kalila wa Dimna)的作業，這是一些源自印度、後來傳到波斯的寓言故事，用來教育未來的統治者。但事實證明，這些故事深受孩子們的喜愛，全世界的孩子都知道這些故事，我們在拉封丹和伊索的寓言中都能讀到。從那以後我就一直想看這本書。想像一下，全世界的領導者擁有共同的價值觀。我們今天就可以用到這本書。
翻譯：Yizi、晉其角
Why Yo-Yo Ma Would Invite Socrates to Dinner
“For once, I’d like to ask the questions,” says the renowned cellist, whose new ensemble album is “Not Our First Goat Rodeo.”
What books are on your nightstand?
“The World That Made New Orleans,” by Ned Sublette.
“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.
The memoirs of Alexandre Dumas, the first volume of which I am struggling through in French.
“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.
Are there any classic novels that you only recently read for the first time?
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.Describe your ideal reading experience (when, where, what, how).
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!
Lately, my wife and I have discovered audiobooks in the car, most recently Ron Chernow’s “Washington.”
What book should everybody read before the age of 21?
“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.
Have any books influenced your artistic development as a musician?
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.
Who are your favorite musician-writers? Your favorite memoir by a musician?
“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.What are the best books about music you’ve read?
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.
What’s the most interesting thing you learned from a book recently?
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.
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How do you organize your books?
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.
Who is your favorite fictional hero or heroine? Your favorite antihero or villain?
Odysseus. I identify with how much time he spent on the road!
You’re organizing a literary dinner party. Which three writers, dead or alive, do you invite?
Ann Patchett: I’ve read all of her books; her humanistic imagination knows no limits.
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.”
Socrates: For once, I’d like to ask the questions.
What do you plan to read next?
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.
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A version of this article appears in print on May 24, 2020, Page 6 of the Sunday Book Review with the headline: Yo-Yo Ma.
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