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A violinist in the metro
地铁里的小提琴手
One cold January morning,
一月的一个寒冷的早晨，
a man sat down at a metro station in Washington D.C.and started to play the violin.
一个男人在华盛顿特区的一个地铁站坐下，开始拉小提琴。
He played six famous pieces for about 45 minutes.
他演奏了六首名曲，大约45分钟。
It was rush hour
当时是交通高峰期，
and thousands of people went through the station,
成千上万的人经过车站，
most of them on their way to work.
大多数人在上班的路上。
Three minutes went by before a middle-aged man noticed there was a violinist playing.
三分钟过去了，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,
他放慢了脚步，停了几秒钟，
and then hurried up to meet his schedule.
然后匆匆赶去赶时间。
A half-minute later, the violinist received his first dollar tip—
半分钟后，小提琴手收到了第一笔小费——
a woman threw the money into his open violin case
一位女士把钱扔进了打开的小提琴盒里，
and without stopping continued to walk.
而且没有停下脚步。
A few minutes later, someone leaned against the wall to listen,
几分钟后，有人靠在墙上听，
but then he looked at his watch and walked on again.
但他看了看表，又继续往前走。
Clearly he was late for work.
很明显他上班迟到了。
The one who paid the violinist the most attention was a three-year-old boy.
对小提琴手关注最多的是一个三岁的男孩。
His mother hurried him up
母亲催他上楼，
but the child stopped to look at the violinist.
但孩子还是停下来，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，母亲使劲推，孩子继续走着，一直转着头。
This was repeated by several other children.
其他几个孩子也这样做了。
All the parents, without exception, forced their children to move on.
所有的父母，无一例外，都强迫他们的孩子往前走。
During the 45 minutes the violinist played,
在小提琴手演奏的45分钟里，
only seven people stopped and stayed for a while.
只有7人停下来停留了一会儿。
Twenty-seven gave him money but continued to walk at their normal pace.
27人给了钱，但仍然以正常的速度走着。
In total, he collected $32.17 from his open violin case.
他从打开的小提琴盒里总共收了32.17美元。
When he finished playing and silence took over, no one noticed.
当他演奏完毕，全场一片寂静，没有人注意。
No one applauded, nor was there any recognition.
没有人鼓掌，也没有人承认。
No one knew that the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world.
没有人知道小提琴家是约书亚·贝尔，世界上最好的音乐家之一。
He played some of the most famous pieces ever written on a violin worth about 3.5 million dollars.
他用一把价值350万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,
他在地铁演出的前三天，
tickets for one of his concerts sold out in Boston
他在波士顿的一场演唱会的票已经售罄，
and fairly good seats went for $100.
好座位卖到了100美元。
This is a real story.
这是一个真实的故事。
Though it turned out to be part of a social experiment by The Washington Post about perception, taste, and priorities,
虽然这是《华盛顿邮报》关于感知、品味和优先级的社会实验的一部分，
it raises such a question:
但它提出了这样一个问题：
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,
如果我们没有时间停下来听世界上最好的音乐家演奏一些最好的音乐，
how many other beautiful things are we missing?
那么我们还错过了多少其他美好的东西?
