双语译文 | 音乐是没有国界的语言

Back in the days of Yugoslavia, they used to call music “the seventh republic” – a great unifier in a region prone to division.

在从前的南斯拉夫，人们将音乐称作“第七共和国”——在几近陷于的地区里，它是极好的黏合剂。

Today, in a small schoolroom in Mostar, it is still bringing people together. Here, the curriculum is rock’n’roll, the pupils are from both sides of a still-divided city, and the professors are stars.

现在，在莫斯塔尔一间小教室里，音乐仍将人们聚合在一起。在这里，所有的课程就是摇滚乐，城市依然成两方，但不同阵营的学生们聚在此地，老师们则是明星。

“Music can be used as a tool to connect people, to strengthen the trust between them,” said Orhan Maslo, the 39-year-old director of the Mostar Rock school.

“音乐可以用来连接人们，加强彼此间的信任。”莫斯塔尔摇滚学校的校长，39岁的奥尔罕·马斯洛说道。

“You cannot come into a war zone with a guitar and stop the war,” Maslo added. “But after the war, if there are groups that hate each other ... music can do a lot to reconstruct.”

“你无法背着一把吉他就跑进战区阻止战争，”马斯洛补充说：“但停战以后，要是还有不同的团体相互仇恨……音乐就能对重建信任大有裨益。

Mostar, once a paragon of ethnic tolerance, suffered brutally during the 1992-95 Bosnian war and has become a place of uncomfortable coexistence. The west bank of the Neretva river is home to the Bosnian Croat population while the east is dominated by Bosnian Muslims, or Bosniaks.

莫斯塔尔曾是种族包容的典范，却在1992-1995的波斯战争中饱受摧残，成为了令人难受的对峙之地。尼雷特瓦河的西岸是波斯尼亚克族的据地，东岸则被波斯尼亚，也被叫做波斯尼亚人占据。

Maslo founded Mostar Rock school (MRS) in 2008 in collaboration with Dutch NGO Musicians Without Borders. There were 16 students in the first class. This year, there are 128 enrolled and 80 more on the waiting list. Students take lessons in guitar, drums, bass, keyboard or vocals and play together in bands.

和荷兰非政府组织“音乐人无国界”一起，马斯洛在2008年创办了莫斯塔尔摇滚学校。第一个班级有16名学生。今年，学校招收了128名新生，还有80人在排队等候中。学生们上课会学吉他、架子鼓、贝斯、键盘或者声乐课，还会一起组成乐队。

“We pick students of similar ability from the east and west [sides of the river] and form bands,” Maslo said. They have 40 days to rehearse before MRS hosts a concert showcasing the bands to the public and providing a space for the student’s families to mingle.

“我们从（河的）东西两岸挑选能力相似的学生，把他们组成乐队，”马斯洛说。学校会主办音乐会，向公众展示这些乐队并给学生们的家庭提供重聚的场所。在此之前，乐队们有40天的时间进行排练。

The concerts draw a diverse crowd. “You have someone in the audience holding a three-year-old child in their arms, but also a grandpa with an old camera recording their grandchild [on stage],” Maslo said.

音乐会吸引了许多不同的人群。“观众里有人抱着三岁孩子，也有爷爷拿着老式相机给（在台上表演的）孙辈录像。”马斯洛说。

“It’s not just about learning the music,” said Semin Merzic, 24, rock school graduate, guitar instructor and guitarist for Floridus, the first band formed at MRS. “It’s a place where everyone can come and they are welcome …believe me, there are not very many places like this in the Balkans.”

“这不仅仅是学音乐，”24岁的肖明·莫希奇说。他已经从摇滚学校毕业了，现在是乐队Floridus的吉他教练和吉他手，这是莫斯塔尔摇滚学校组建的第一支乐队。“这是一个每个人都能来，来了都欢迎的地方……相信我，在巴尔干半岛，这种地方并不多。”

The contemporary music scene in Bosnia is dominated by turbo-folk, a blend of regional folk music and electronic pop that originated in Serbiain the 1990s. It often features sexual, misogynistic and nationalistic lyrics.

波斯尼亚当代音乐圈主要流行的是turbo民谣，这是一种地区民谣和电子舞曲结合起来的音乐形式，起源于上世纪90年代的塞尔维亚地区。它的歌词通常涉及到性、女性歧视和主义。

MRS is a refreshing antidote, part of a counterculture movement led by Bosnian musical artists protesting against the divisive atmosphere created by ruling ethnic nationalist elites.

莫斯塔尔学校是一股清流，波斯尼亚音乐人为了抵抗主义统治者们创造的氛围，发起了反传统文化运动，马莫斯塔尔学校就是运动的一份子。

Many young MRS students are tired of being defined by their ancestry and events before they were born.

许多年轻的莫斯塔尔学生还未出生时，就已经有人试图定义他们种族血脉和人生轨迹了。

“We don’t think about [ethnic] backgrounds. We all hang out, play music and drink beer,” said Josip Palameta, 21-year-old vocalist in jazz band Smooth Groove. “The war was 25 years ago.”

“我们从不去想（种族）背景。我们一起出去，玩音乐喝啤酒，”21岁的约瑟普·帕拉梅塔是爵士乐队“丝滑节奏”的主唱，他说：“战争已经过去25年了。”

Music has always played a big role in Bosnia - then and now.

音乐始终在波斯尼亚占据着重要地位——过去是这样，现在依然如此。

Three weeks before war broke out in Bosnia in 1992, a Serbian rock supergroup called Rimtutituki released an anti-war song in Belgrade, Serbia’s capital city. The song reached Bosnia months later. “For them, it said that not all the people in Serbia went mad,” said Yugoslav rock critic and journalist Petar Janjatović.

1992年波斯尼亚战争爆发的三周前，一支著名的塞尔维亚摇滚乐队Rimtutituki在贝尔格莱德发布了一首反战歌曲。数月后，歌曲流传进了波斯尼亚。“对他们而言，这首歌表达的了不是所有塞尔维亚人都陷入了疯狂。”南斯拉夫摇滚评论家、记者佩塔尔·亚尼亚托维奇这样说道。

During the 44-month siege of Bosnia’s capital city, Sarajevo, music helped keep spirits up.

在波斯尼亚首都萨拉热窝被围攻的44个月里，音乐鼓舞了士气。

“We didn’t have electricity, food or anything and the snipers were shooting all the time,” said Samir Hodovic, Sarajevo native and vocalist of the band Velahavle. “The bands at that time put everything into the concert. You didn’t have tickets because there was no money. People who could come came if they could run through the streets,” he said.

“我们断了电、断了粮，断了一切供应，而机枪一直在扫射，”萨拉热窝原住民、Velahavle乐队主唱萨米尔·霍多维奇说道：“那时候乐队把所有东西都搬上了音乐会。没有票，因为没人有钱。只要能活着穿过街道，人们就能来听音乐会。”

Musicians were among the first to cross the new borders between the former Yugoslav states and re-establish the lines of cultural communication after the war.

战后，音乐家们是头一批穿过原南斯拉夫国新边界的人，也是第一批重建文化交流渠道的人。

“It helps when people are chanting songs they like from other regions,” said Jovan Matić of Del Arno Band, a Serbian reggae group. “The elite aren’t doing much for reconciliation, the international community is not doing much … it’s up to us small people to try and reconcile,” he said.

“在人们唱着自己喜欢的其它地区歌时，这是很有帮助的。”约万·马蒂奇是塞尔维亚瑞吉团队Del Arno乐队成员，他说道：“上层人士在和谈上毫无作为，国际组织也无甚进展……只能靠我们这种小人物了。”