爸爸的声音

在这个播客的每一天，我们为您揭示新闻背后的背景。

Each day on this podcast, we bring you the context behind the headlines.

关于特朗普总统、外交政策或美国街头发生的事情的新闻。

Headlines about president Trump or foreign policy or what's playing out on America's streets.

这个故事更小，更个人化。

This story is smaller, more personal.

它讲述了一位男子寻找他以为再也听不到的声音的故事，但这个故事打动了我们，所以我们想与大家分享。

It's about one person's search for a voice he thought he'd never hear again, but it moved us, so we wanted to share it.

广告后我们将为您呈现这个故事。

We'll bring it to you after the break.

来自NPR，我是胡安娜·萨默斯。

From NPR, I'm Juana Summers.

情人节快到了，您身边NPR爱好者的完美礼物就在NPR商店等待着您。

Valentine's Day is coming up, and the perfect gift for the NPR lover in your life is waiting at the NPR shop.

从适合悠闲早晨的毛衣和马克杯，到我们的迷你录音室连帽衫，每位NPR粉丝都能找到心仪之物。

From cozy sweaters and mugs made for slow mornings to our tiny desk hoodie, there's something for every NPR fan.

每笔购买都支持您所热爱的公共媒体和新闻报道。

Each purchase supports public media and the journalism you love.

请前往 shopnpr.org 寻找有意义的礼物。

Find something meaningful at shopnpr.org.

在NPR的《Wildcard》播客中，梅琳达·法国·盖茨谈到了她在最新的爱泼斯坦文件中看到前夫比尔·盖茨的名字。

On NPR's wildcard podcast, Melinda French Gates on seeing her ex husband Bill Gates' name in the latest Epstein files.

每当这些细节被提及时，对我来说都很难受。

For me, it's personally hard whenever those details come up.

对吧？

Right?

因为这让我回想起婚姻中一些非常痛苦的时光。

Because, brings back memories of some very, very painful times in my marriage.

请在NPR应用或YouTube上的NPR Wildcard频道观看或收听这段《Wildcard》对话。

Watch or listen to that wildcard conversation on the NPR app or on YouTube at NPR Wildcard.

这是来自NPR的《Consider This》。

It's Consider This from NPR.

这个故事始于一部电影，我们影评人鲍勃·蒙德尔勒怎么也忘不掉的一部电影。

This story starts with a movie, one that our film critic Bob Mondello just could not get out of his head.

它让他陷入了一段深入的探索，我们请他解释一下。

It sent him down a rabbit hole, and we asked him to explain.

我怀疑是因为我恰在父亲生日附近观看了这部历史剧《声音的历史》，这才注意到电影部分背景设定在1919年，也就是他出生的那一年。

I suspect it's because I saw the period drama, The History of Sound, right around what would have been my dad's birthday that I clocked that it was partly set in 1919, the year of his birth.

这部电影讲述的是两位音乐学生大卫和莱昂内尔的故事，由乔什·奥康纳和保罗·梅斯卡尔饰演。

The movie's about two music students, David and Lionel, played by Josh O'Connor and Paul Meskall

你还想要什么？

What else do you want?

比你想象的要多。

More than you likely.

他们在新英格兰的一家酒吧相遇，争论谁更了解最冷门的民谣。

Who meet in a New England bar arguing over who knows the most obscure folk song.

那《银色匕首》呢？

How about Silver Dagger?

不。

No.

那是一首非常优美的歌。

That was such a pretty song.

哦，得了吧。

Oh, come on.

让我们听听。

Let's hear it.

我通常不会在这么多人说话的时候这样唱歌。

I don't usually sing like this with everyone talking.

哦，不好意思。

Oh, excuse me.

请安静。

Quiet, please.

对不起。

I'm sorry.

我不是那个意思。

I didn't mean that.

现在你得唱了。

Now you have to sing.

所以里昂要唱歌了。

So Lionel sings.

别唱情歌。

Don't sing love songs.

你会吵醒我妈妈的。

You wake my mother.

火花迸发了。

A spark is struck.

她就睡在我身边。

She's sleeping here right by my side.

他们彼此相爱了。

They fall for each other.

经过相当多的情节发展后，他们前往缅因州的偏远地区，使用1919年最先进的录音设备——蜡筒、金属喇叭和钻石针头——录制民歌。

And after quite a bit of plot goes by, they head into the backwoods of Maine to record folk songs on what was state of the art recording equipment in 1919, wax cylinders, a metal cone, and a diamond tipped stylus.

声音通过这个大喇叭传下来，带动针头，在蜡面上刻出一条线。

Sound comes down this big horn here and it shapes this needle, cuts a line in the wax.

这怎么捕捉到声音的呢？

How does that catch the sound?

把手放在你的喉咙上。

Put your hand on your throat.

现在，

Now,

让我稍微岔开一下历史话题，因为如今我们对录音习以为常，但电影中的角色却对保存声音这一想法感到震惊——声音原本只会消散在空气中，这确实是个了不起的突破。

me take a quick history detour here because while we now take recordings for granted, the film's characters are astonished at the idea of preserving sound, which had only ever evaporated into the ether, and it's worth noting what a big deal it was.

我以为是托马斯·爱迪生提出了基本原理，但实际上是一位法国人在19世纪50年代首次将声波记录为刻在涂满烟灰纸张上的线条。

I thought Thomas Edison came up with the basics, but it was a Frenchman who first captured sound waves in the eighteen fifties as lines scratched onto sheets of soot covered paper.

他研究声音的方式，就像科学家通过地震仪记录地震震动一样。

He was studying sound the way scientists study earthquakes when they record vibrations on a seismograph.

你不会用地震仪来播放地震，所以他也没有这么做。

You don't use a seismograph to play the earthquake back, so he didn't either.

我们现在可以用数字技术做到这一点。

We can do it now with digital technology.

结果发现，在1860年，他录下了一段人演唱《Eau Claire de la Luna》的歌声，这是一首十八世纪的法国民谣。

Turns out in 1860, he'd recorded someone singing Eau Claire de la Luna, an eighteenth century French folk tune.

几乎过了二十年，爱迪生才弄清楚如何把声音录在锡箔纸上并播放出来，这一发现让口音、语调以及让每个人声音独特的细微特征获得了永恒的生命。

Took almost two decades before Edison figured out how to record his voice on a strip of tinfoil so it could be played back, a discovery that would give eternal life to accents, inflections, the tiny specifics that make each voice unique.

那是1877年。

That was 1877.

尽管第一次录音在播放时被毁掉了，但就在同一年稍后，爱迪生重新录制了他所说的话。

And while that first recording was destroyed when it was played, later that same year, Edison rerecorded what he'd said.

我在原始留声机上说的第一句话，一段小小的实用诗篇。

The first words I spoke in the original phonograph, a little piece of practical poetry.

玛丽有一只小羊。

Mary had a little lamb.

它说话时洁白如雪。

It spleech with white as snow.

作为始终富有远见的人，爱迪生预测他的新发明终将用于重现音乐、保存家庭记忆，或许还能与当时另一项新发明——电话——结合使用。

Ever the visionary, Edison predicted his new invention would someday be used to reproduce music, preserve family memories, and maybe combine with another then new invention, the telephone.

到1919年，他的公司已从使用锡箔录音升级为使用蜡筒录音。

By 1919, his company had graduated from recording on tinfoil to recording on wax cylinders.

那一年，虚构的电影角色莱昂内尔和大卫前往缅因州进行录音保存之旅，而我的父亲也出生了。

That was the year fictional movie characters Lionel and David took their song preserving trip to Maine, and my dad was born.

至于音频录音，我以为父亲的故事到此就结束了。

And as far as audio recordings, I thought that was where dad's story ended.

因为尽管我整个成年生涯都在录制自己和他人，却从未录制过他。

Because although I have spent my entire adult life recording myself and other people, I never recorded him.

现在回想起来，我觉得自己很愚蠢，但在智能手机出现之前，人们并不常这么做。

I feel stupid about that now, but it wasn't really something people did before smartphones.

而当父亲在2007年去世时，iPhone才刚刚问世。

And the iPhone had only just been introduced when dad died in 2007.

所以我拥有的关于他的唯一音频，是他留在我工作电话里的留言。

So the only audio I had of him was a message he'd left on my work phone.

结果证明，爱迪生在这方面是对的。

Turns out Edison was right about that.

那是他87岁高龄的声音，被帕金森病削弱了，沙哑、几乎听不见，只有五个字：鲍比，这是你父亲，我还没来得及接起，系统就停止了录音。

It was dad's 87 year old voice diminished by Parkinson's, cracked, barely audible, just five words, Bobby, this is your father, before I picked up and the system stopped recording.

他去世后，我常常回放这段录音，只为再听一听他的声音。

I used to play it back after he died so I could hear his voice again.

后来NPR搬到了新大楼，更换了电话系统，这段录音就永远消失了。

Then NPR moved to a new building and changed phone systems, and it was gone forever.

所以，声音历史中的这一幕让我深受触动。

So a scene in the history of sound caught me up short.

你好，利昂内尔。

Hello, Lionel.

请原谅我，为了完整解释为什么我必须谈到电影的结尾。

And forgive me to fully explain why I have to talk about the end of the film.

所以如果你讨厌剧透，不妨自己安静一分钟左右。

So if you hate spoilers, maybe to yourself for the next minute or so.

这部电影中，学生研究人员在缅因州的夏天结束时不欢而散，后来利昂内尔得知大卫去世了。

The movie's student researchers part unhappily at the end of their summer in Maine, and Lionel later learns that David has died.

在失去挚爱的悲痛中，他试图寻找他们录制的蜡筒，但几十年来都未能找到。

In his grief at losing the love of his life, he tries to locate the wax cylinders they recorded, but he can't for decades.

直到他八十多岁时，一生都在追寻他人声音的音乐学家，那些蜡筒终于出现了，他发现其中一卷上，23岁的大卫录下了自己的声音。

And then when he's in his eighties, having spent his whole life as a musicologist chasing other people's voices, the wax cylinders turn up, and he discovers that on one of them, 23 year old David recorded his own voice.

希望这能传到你手中。

Hope this finds its way to you.

这似乎是一份礼物。

It seems a gift.

你对我一直很好，利昂内尔。

You've been very good to me, Lionel.

谢谢你来到北方。

Thank you for coming north.

对不起。

Sorry.

我不知道该说什么了。

I don't know what to say anymore.

所以大卫为利昂内尔唱起了利昂内尔最初唱给他的那首歌。

So David sings to Lionel, the song Lionel first sang to him.

别唱了。

Don't sing

情歌。

love songs.

你会吵醒我妈妈的。

You'll wake my mother.

当我情绪激动时，我不禁希望我父亲的故事也能有一个这样的尾声。

As I was choking up, I couldn't help wishing that my dad's story had had a CODA like that.

我父亲职业生涯的大部分时间都是一名顶尖的政府律师。

Dad was a top government lawyer for much of his career.

所以多年来，我一直在新闻档案和图书馆里寻找，总觉得他一定有录音留存，但始终没有找到。

So for years, I'd searched news archives, libraries, thinking there must be tape of him somewhere, but never found any.

最近，我向一位朋友提起我的寻找，她父亲也是一名律师，她问我：你没告诉我他曾在美国最高法院出庭过吗？

Recently, I mentioned my search to a friend whose dad was also a lawyer, and she said, didn't you tell me he once presented a case at the Supreme Court?

从二十世纪五十年代起，他们就开始录制口头辩论了。

They started recording oral arguments back in the nineteen fifties.

几个小时后，她找到了那段录音，开头是首席大法官厄尔·沃伦的声音。

A couple of hours later, she'd found the recording, beginning with the voice of chief justice Earl Warren.

案件编号65，威亚哈user航运公司上诉人诉美国。

Number 65, Weyerhaeuser Steamship Company petitioner versus United States.

录音日期是1963年2月18日，距离我十四岁生日只有几周。

It was dated 02/18/1963, a few weeks before my fourteenth birthday.

突然间，那天早上关于父亲准备出庭的回忆如潮水般涌上心头。

And suddenly, memories from that morning came flooding back of dad getting dressed for court.

他租了一套他称之为‘猴子服’的西装，通常那是指燕尾服，但这是政府律师在最高法院出庭时必须穿着的正式丧服：黑色开衩外套，长而圆润的后摆，深灰色条纹长裤，灰色背心，以及高领硬衬衬衫。

He'd rented what he called a monkey suit, which usually means a tux, but this was formal mourning dress required of government lawyers in the supreme court, black cutaway coat with long rounded tail, dark gray striped trousers, gray vest, shirt with a high starched collar.

我记得当时觉得他看起来像是要去《窈窕淑女》里的阿斯科特赛马会一样。

I remember thinking he looked like he was going to the Ascot races in my fair lady.

不管怎样，我现在脑海里有了他的形象，但已经十多年没听过他的声音了，而那还是他87岁时的声音。

Anyway, now I had a picture in my head, but I hadn't heard his voice in more than a decade, and that had been his 87 year old voice.

这次听到的将是他43岁时的声音，当年就是用这声音帮我熬过代数作业，为我在游泳比赛中加油鼓劲。

This would be his 43 year old voice, the one he'd used to help me struggle through algebra homework and cheer me on at swim meets.

我已经整整五十年没听过这个声音了。

I hadn't heard that in a full half century.

原告律师首先陈述了蒸汽船碰撞后索赔的案情，五十四分钟后，首席大法官沃伦说道

The plaintiff's lawyer spoke first laying out the case for damages after a steamship collision, and then fifty four minutes in, chief justice Warren said

蒙德洛先生。

Mister Mondello.

首席大法官，法院允许我发言吗？

Chief justice, may it please the court?

那是我父亲。

There was my dad.

本案的问题在于，根据《联邦雇员赔偿法》，美国政府是否应承担责任

The issue in this case is whether the liability of The United States on the Federal Employees Compensation Act

他听起来并不虚弱或迟疑。

He didn't sound fragile or halting.

他听起来年轻而自信，带着一丝我后来已不记得的布朗克斯口音。

He sounded young and assured with a touch of the Bronx I didn't remember from later.

他一定很紧张，而且明显在念稿，但他几乎不间断地讲了四十九分钟。

He has to have been nervous, and he was clearly reading from notes, but he talked for forty nine minutes almost nonstop.

然后，布莱克大法官对他表示了赞许。

And then justice Hugo Black paid him a compliment.

蒙德洛，我想补充一点，我认为你的论点很有说服力。

Mondello, I wanna add to note that I think you made a good argument.

尽管我一直在想，你的观点似乎与许多不同的亲属观点有关。

Although I've been trying to think that you have a number of different cousins to your way.

这确实是个棘手的案子，法官大人。

It's a it's a difficult case, your honor.

这只是一个安慰奖。

This was a consolation prize.

爸爸在为一个注定失败的案子辩护。

Dad was promoting a losing case.

两个月后，一致裁决结果反对政府，但我不记得在家听过这件事。

Two months later, the unanimous decision would go against the government, though I don't recall hearing about that at home.

如果他当时知道自己会输，我从他的声音里听不出来。

And if he knew he was losing at the time, I don't hear it in his voice.

从未设计用来干涉第三方的权利。

Never designed to interfere with the rights of third parties.

你 literally 就是这么说的。

You have literally said that

公平地说，这是他还能满足我13岁时好奇心时所用的声音，至少对于他被问到的任何问题都是如此。

In fairness, this was the voice he used when he could still answer to my 13 year old satisfaction, at least, any question put to him.

为什么天空是蓝色的？

Why is the sky blue?

多少天使能站在针尖上？

How many angels fit on the head of a pin?

我比自己意识到的更想念那个声音。

I had missed that voice more than I knew.

能够再次听到他年轻时的声音，这要感谢爱迪生、那位法国人以及之后所有完善录音技术的人，正是他们的努力让我现在能和你们对话。

Being able to hear him again, young him, a gift from Edison and that French guy and all the folks after them who perfected the recording process that's allowing me to talk to you right now.

这是NPR电影评论员鲍勃·蒙德尔洛。

That was NPR film critic Bob Mondello.

本集由乔莉·韦纳和康纳·多诺万制作，音频工程由达米安·哈林负责。

This episode was produced by Chloe Weiner and Connor Donovan with audio engineering by Damian Haring.

本集由克莱尔·隆巴尔多和考特尼·多宁编辑。

It was edited by Claire Lombardo and Courtney Dorning.

我们的执行制片人是萨米·严根。

Our executive producer is Sammy Yenigan.

感谢我们的Consider This Plus听众，你们支持NPR记者的工作，帮助维持公共广播的活力。

Thanks to our Consider This Plus listeners who support the work of NPR journalists and help keep public radio strong.

支持者还可以在没有广告的情况下收听每一集，并解锁《考虑此》的额外剧集。

Supporters also hear every episode without messages from sponsors and unlock bonus episodes of Consider This.

了解更多，请访问 +.npr.org。

Learn more at +.npr.org.

这是来自NPR的《考虑此》。

It's consider this from NPR.

我是胡安娜·萨默斯。

I'm Juana Summers.

2026年将是我们现在庆祝的黑人历史月的第一百周年。

2026 marks the one hundredth anniversary of what we now celebrate as Black History Month.

因此，在《Code Switch》节目中，我们正在回顾这段历程。

So on Code Switch, we're reflecting on that journey.

黑人历史月是人们观察黑人历史作为一场运动和一种遗产的时刻，这场运动旨在纠正历史记录。

Black history month is a time for people to observe black history as a movement and and a legacy that was about correcting the historical record.

请在NPR应用程序或您收听播客的任何平台收听NPR的《Code Switch》播客。

Listen to NPR's Code Switch podcast on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

想听没有广告插播的这个播客吗？

Wanna hear this podcast without sponsor breaks?

亚马逊Prime会员可以通过亚马逊音乐免费收听《Consider This》，或者您也可以支持NPR的重要新闻报道，通过+.npr.org获取《Consider This Plus》。

Amazon Prime members can listen to consider this sponsor free through Amazon Music, or you can also support NPR's vital journalism and get consider this plus at +.npr.org.

网址是+.npr.org。

That's +.npr.org.