On Nov.18, 1995, Itzhak Perlman, the violinist, came on stage to give a concert. If you have ever been to a Perlman concert, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he walks with the aid of two crutches.
The audience sit quietly while he makes his way across the stage to his chair and begins his play. But this time, something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke. We thought that he would have to stop the concert. But he didn't. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes and then signaled the conductor to begin again.
The orchestra began and he played with such passion and such power and such purity as they had never heard before.
Of course, anyone knows that it is impossible to play a harmonious work with just three strings. I know that, and you know that, but that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that.
When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium.
He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow and then he said—not boastfully, but in a quiet, sacred tone — “You know, sometimes it is the artist's task to find out how much music he can still make with what he has left.”
This powerful line has stayed in my mind ever since I heard it. Perhaps that is the definition of life—not just for artists but for all of us.
He has prepared all his life to make music on a violin of four strings, but all of a sudden, in the middle of a concert, he finds himself with only three strings, so he makes music with three strings, and the music he made that night with just three strings was more beautiful, more sacred, more memorable, than any that he had ever made before, when he had four strings.
So, perhaps our task in this shaky, fast-changing, bewildering world in which we live is to make music, at first with all that we have, and then, when that is no longer possible, to make music with what we have left.
【助读词汇】
-polio n. 脊髓灰质炎，小儿麻痹症
-crutch n. 拐杖
-signal v. 向……发信号
-conductor n.（乐队等的）指挥
-orchestra n. 管弦乐队
-harmonious adj. 和谐的，协调的
【参考译文】
1995年11月18日，小提琴家伊扎克·贝尔曼举办演奏会。如果你去过他的演奏会，你就知道登上台对他有多不容易。他小时候患了小儿麻痹症，所以走路得借助两只拐杖。
观众们都安静地看着他走到自己座位上开始演奏。但是这时出了问题。他刚拉完几个音阶，小提琴的一根弦就断了。我们以为他会停止演奏会。但是他没有。他等了一会，闭上眼睛，示意指挥再来一遍。
乐队开始演奏了，他演奏得激情十足，强劲有力，音色纯正，前所未闻。
当然，每个人都知道三根弦是演奏不出和谐的乐章的。这一点我知道，你知道，但那天晚上贝尔曼拒绝知道。
当他演奏完毕，大厅里一片肃静。接着人们纷纷起身鼓掌致敬。观众席的每个角落都响起了热烈的掌声。
他笑了，擦去额上的汗水后说——没有自吹，而是用一种平和神圣的语气——“你知道，有时候艺术家就得看看仅凭自己所剩下的能演奏出什么。”
从听到这句话起它就刻进了我脑里。说不定这就是人生的定义——不仅对艺术家如此，而且对我们每个人也是如此。
他一生都在练习如何用四根弦演奏，但在演奏会上突然只剩三根弦了，所以他得用这三根弦来演奏。那晚他用仅仅三根弦演奏出来的音乐比他以往任何一次在四根弦上表演得更美丽、更神圣、更令人难忘。
所以，在这瞬息变化、摇摆不定、充满迷惑的世界里，我们的任务也许就是演奏音乐，开始我们演奏的时候什么都齐全，但是后来不再齐全就用剩下的来演奏。
【人生启迪】
生活不可能是完美的。当你想完成某事的时候，不可能万事俱备，这就是为什么成功来得格外辛苦的原因。不能用“只欠东风”做借口不采取行动。你需要做的是充分利用好你现在手上的资源。如果没有本钱去成立公司，就从小做起，积累本钱；如果未能进入自己满意的公司，充分利用业余时间为自己充电，为争取今后更好的就业机会做好准备。