第一次po文，看到一篇专栏在讲费爸的近况，跟大家分享。 如果有违版规请版主告知。 因为还没看到有类似的文章翻译，所以我就自己简略地翻译， 有不顺的地方请各位指教。＝） Sometime last month, on a losing streak and looking for answers, Roger Federer decided that what he needed was a new tennis racquet. Having won sixteen Grand Slam tennis tournaments in his twenties, more than anyone in history, Federer in his thirties had come up with just a single title, at last year’s Wimbledon. Stiffer competition presented a problem, but time had also taken its toll—at thirty-two, Federer qualifies as young in practically every profession except the one he chose—and balls that he once slapped back with ease were now skipping out of reach. The new racquet, a Wilson prototype painted all black, was bigger, offering an increased margin of error. In tennis circles, the switch seemed to mark an epochal shift: Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player of all time, had just admitted that he needed help. 过去一个月中，在一串接连的不顺以及寻找答案之後，Roger Federer决定他所需要的是 一个新球拍。在二十几岁的时候赢过十六座大满贯，比有史以来任何人都还要多，在三十 几岁只赢得了一座大满贯，就在去年的温布顿。越发激烈困难的比赛是原因之一，但是岁 月也是有代价的。在三十二岁这个年纪，在几乎所有行业中，Federer都算得上是年轻人， 除了在他自己选择的这个职业。那些他曾经轻易拍回去的球，现在都跳出他所及的之处。 新的球拍比较大，Wilson漆成全黑的雏形拍，提供更大的甜区。在网球界，这种转换仿佛 标示着世代性的交替：Roger Federer，有史以来最伟大的选手，承认了他需要援助。 “I feel young,” Federer said last week, as he headed into his fourteenth U.S. Open, a tournament that he won five consecutive times, between 2004 and 2008, but hasn’t since. He was at the Gansevoort Park Hotel, sitting on a couch in an eleventh-floor suite outfitted with a Foosball table, which he hadn’t used. “I’m not very good,” he said. “It’s more the French guys that are good at that.” He’d squeezed in two hours of practice in Arthur Ashe Stadium that morning, before changing into a black suit with peak lapels, and a blue checked shirt unbuttoned to his chest. His hair had recently been trimmed; gone is the youthful ponytail. (For a sobering reminder of the Internet’s permanence, Google “young Roger Federer.”) “By now, I pick my own clothes,” he said, claiming one benefit of getting older. “I had many things wrong in the beginning.” 『我觉得年轻。』Federer上礼拜说，当时他正前往参加他第十四个美国网球公开赛，他在 这个公开赛连续赢得五个冠军，从2004年到2008年，但从此再也没有了。当时他坐在 Gansevoort Park hotel 十一楼套房的沙发上，房里附有足球桌（Foosball??)，但他没使 用它。『我并不是非常在行。』他说，『这比较是法国人在行的东西。』那个早上他挤出 两小时的时间在Arthur Ashe球场练球，之後他换上一套黑色尖领西装，蓝色方格花样的 衬衫，扣子扣到胸前。他的头发最近修剪了，年轻时的马尾已不复见。『现在，我自己选 择自己的服装。』他说，并称这是岁月过去的好处。『我在一开始做了一些错误的事。』 That was true off the court, but on it Federer’s game was so polished that his acolytes often described him as an artist; now they feared this bigger, less precise racquet as an aesthetic threat. (Could Picasso still paint with a wider brush? Could Baryshnikov dance in hiking boots?) Federer acknowledged that his game is visually appealing—he prefers “showman” to “artist” —but insisted that this is incidental. “I don’t purposely try to make it look graceful or classy,” he said. “But because I have that—can you say vintage style? Old-school tennis, with the one-handed backhand. I like to use my slice. The way I move, people really like it. I’m happy that it pleases the people’s eye—let’s put it that way.” 他说的在球场外或许是真的，但是在他的比赛上，他总是如此优雅让他的拥护者常常形容 他是一个艺术家。现在他们担心这个比较大的球拍是美学的威胁。（难道毕卡索可以用 更宽的画笔画画吗？难道Baryshnikov可以穿着登山鞋跳舞？）Federer承认他的比赛视觉 上很吸引人，他自己喜欢表演者这个名称更甚於艺术家，但他仍坚持这只是巧合。『我没 有故意让动作变得优雅古典。』他说，『但是或许我是...你可以说复古风格？较古老的 网球，单手反拍。我喜欢使用切球。我移动的方式人们喜欢。我很开心我的风格吸引人们 的目光，就这样说吧！』 With the Open still a week away, and his four-year-old twin daughters with a babysitter, Federer had decided to allow himself a night out. “I can do probably two glasses of champagne,” he said, before heading to a party at Chelsea Piers, thrown by Moët & Chandon, one of several top-shelf brands —Mercedes, Lindt chocolate—that have made him among the world’s best-compensated pitchmen. He found Mirka, his wife, waiting on the curb. She brushed off his shoulders and tugged his collar in preparation for the red carpet. “I should have brought sunglasses,” he said, as he faced a gantlet of photographers. 距离公开赛还有一个礼拜，他的两个四岁的双胞胎女儿交给了保姆，Federer决定让他自 己出去一晚。『我说不定可以来两杯香槟。』他在前往一个举办在Chelsea Piers的派对 时说道。由许多高级品牌举办：宾士、Lindt巧克力，派对让他成为最佳报酬的宣传者。 他找到了他老婆，Mirka在人行道旁等待。她刷一刷他的肩膀，然後拉了几次他的领子， 为了红毯准备。『我应该带太阳眼镜的。』他在面对一群摄影师时说道。 Inside, Federer settled into a corner sofa next to Anna Wintour, his friend and style adviser, who wore a pink, tea-length dress. Marion Bartoli, this year’s Wimbledon champion, who wore a white dress, was dancing giddily to a remixed Red Hot Chili Peppers song. “He has to save himself for the Open,” Bartoli said, explaining why Federer wasn’t dancing along with her. Bartoli no longer had to save herself for anything: four years Federer’s junior, she had retired a week earlier. “When he feels it,” she said, upon being asked what advice she might give Federer on when to hang it up. She then took a sip of champagne and went back to dancing. 里面，Federer 在一个角落的沙发处安顿，坐在他朋友同时也是造型师Anna Wintour旁 边，她穿粉红色。今年的温布顿女单冠军Marion Bartoli穿着白色洋装，眼花缭乱地跳 着舞伴随着混音Red Hot Chili Pepper的歌。『他得保留自己到公开赛。』Bartoli说道 ，解释着为什麽Federer不跟她一起跳舞。Bartoli已经不再需要保留自己什麽，她比 Federer年轻四岁，已经在一个礼拜前退休了。『当他感觉到的时候。』Bartoli当被问到 会给Federer什麽样的退休时刻建议的时候回答道。然後她啜了一口香槟，回去跳舞。 So how’s that new racquet working out? Well, after just five matches, Federer gave it up and went back to his old one. No luck with that, either: he played Rafael Nadal at a tournament in Cincinnati, and lost for the third straight time. Federer enters the Open ranked No. 7 in the world, his lowest position since he was twenty-one years old. New racquets and new strings, he said, had conspired to rob him of his competitive advantage. “I think I have to play differently today because of the game itself, not because of my age,” he had said, at the Gansevoort. “I feel like I’m moving like a youngster. Mentally, I’m young.” And retirement? He’s not yet feeling it. “After all the hard work, after ten years, to just say, ‘All right, see ya later’? ” he said. “That’s not gonna work for me.” ♦ 所以，到底新球拍使用得怎麽样了？嗯，经过仅仅五场比赛，Federer放弃了并回去找旧 的那个。一样没有比较幸运：他在Cincinnati对决Nadal经过三盘落败。Federer以第七 种子的身份参加公开赛，从他二十一岁以来最低的排名。新球拍跟新线，他说并没有导致 他被夺走了竞争优势。『我觉得现今我需要用不同方式比赛，是因为比赛本身，而不是因 为我的年纪。』他在旅馆曾说道。『我觉得我仍位移得像年轻人。心理上，我年轻。』 那麽退休呢？他还没感觉到。『经过一切的辛苦努力、经过了十年，然後直接说「好的， 再见罗！」？这在我身上不管用。』他说道。 BY REEVES WIEDEMAN 专栏出处：The New Yorker http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2013/09/02/130902ta_talk_wiedeman -- 如果你们是有悲有喜有血有肉的生命 我们难道就不是 有歌有泪有渴望也有梦想的灵魂 当你独自前来　我们也许可以成为一生的挚友 为什麽　当你隐入群体　我们却必须世代为敌? --席慕蓉 蒙文课-- --

※ 发信站: 批踢踢实业坊(ptt.cc) ◆ From: 68.181.12.48