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A violinist in the metro
地鐵里的小提琴手
One cold January morning,
一月的一個寒冷的早晨，
a man sat down at a metro station in Washington D.C.and started to play the violin.
一個男人在華盛頓特區的一個地鐵站坐下，開始拉小提琴。
He played six famous pieces for about 45 minutes.
他演奏了六首名曲，大約45分鐘。
It was rush hour
當時是交通高峰期，
and thousands of people went through the station,
成千上萬的人經過車站，
most of them on their way to work.
大多數人在上班的路上。
Three minutes went by before a middle-aged man noticed there was a violinist playing.
三分鐘過去了，一位中年男子注意到小提琴手正在演奏。
He slowed his pace, stopped for a few seconds,
他放慢了腳步，停了幾秒鐘，
and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
然后匆匆趕去趕時間。
A half-minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip—
半分鐘后，小提琴手收到了第一筆小費——
a woman threw the money into his open violin case
一位女士把錢扔進了打開的小提琴盒里，
and without stopping continued to walk.
而且沒有停下腳步。
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen,
幾分鐘后，有人靠在墻上聽，
but then he looked at his watch and walked on again.
但他看了看表，又繼續往前走。
Clearly he was late for work.
很明顯他上班遲到了。
The one who paid the violinist the most attention was a three-year-old boy.
對小提琴手關注最多的是一個三歲的男孩。
His mother hurried him up
母親催他上樓，
but the child stopped to look at the violinist.
但孩子還是停下來，看看小提琴手。
Finally the mother pushed hard and the child continued to walk, turning his head all the time.
最后，母親使勁推，孩子繼續走著，一直轉著頭。
This was repeated by several other children.
其他幾個孩子也這樣做了。
All the parents, without exception, forced their children to move on.
所有的父母，無一例外，都強迫他們的孩子往前走。
During the 45 minutes the violinist played,
在小提琴手演奏的45分鐘里，
only seven people stopped and stayed for a while.
只有7人停下來停留了一會兒。
Twenty-seven gave him money but continued to walk at their normal pace.
27人給了錢，但仍然以正常的速度走著。
In total, he collected $32.17 from his open violin case.
他從打開的小提琴盒里總共收了32.17美元。
When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed.
當他演奏完畢，全場一片寂靜，沒有人注意。
No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
沒有人鼓掌，也沒有人承認。
No one knew that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.
沒有人知道小提琴家是約書亞·貝爾，世界上最好的音樂家之一。
He played some of the most famous pieces ever written on a violin worth about 3.5 million dollars.
他用一把價值350萬美元的小提琴演奏了一些最著名的曲子。
Three days before he played in the metro,
他在地鐵演出的前三天，
tickets for one of his concerts sold out in Boston
他在波士頓的一場演唱會的票已經售罄，
and fairly good seats went for $100.
好座位賣到了100美元。
This is a real story.
這是一個真實的故事。
Though it turned out to be part of a social experiment by The Washington Post about perception, taste, and priorities,
雖然這是《華盛頓郵報》關于感知、品味和優先級的社會實驗的一部分，
it raises such a question:
但它提出了這樣一個問題：
If we do not have a moment to stop and listen to one of the best musicians in the world playing some of the best music ever written,
如果我們沒有時間停下來聽世界上最好的音樂家演奏一些最好的音樂，
how many other beautiful things are we missing?
那么我們還錯過了多少其他美好的東西?
