2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-An Athlete of God

（单词翻译）

Steve Inskeep: This I Believe. Critics have called Martha Graham the undisputed star of our modern dance world. Surprisingly enough, this pioneer in the dance did not begin her training until she was sixteen. Born in Pittsburgh, the daughter of a physician, she grew up in California. She made her New York debut¹ in 1926, then won a Guggenheim Fellowship, the first ever given to a dancer. She made and continues to make dance history. Egnis Delmel wrote, "Dancers for untold² generations will dance differently because of her labours." Here now is Martha Graham.

Martha Graham: I believe that we learn by practice. Whether it means to learn to dance by practicing dancing or to learn to live by practicing living, the principles are the same. In each, it is the performance of a dedicated³ precise set of acts, physical or intellectual, from which comes shape of achievement, a sense of one's being, a satisfaction of spirit. One becomes, in some area, an athlete of God.

Practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles, some act of vision, of faith, of desire. Practice is a means of inviting⁴ the perfection desired.

I think the reason dance has held such an ageless magic for the world is that it has been the symbol of the performance of living. Many times I hear the phrase "the dance of life." It is close to me for a very simple and understandable reason. The instrument through which the dance speaks is also the instrument through which life is lived: the human body. It is the instrument by which all the primaries of experience are made manifest. It holds in its memory all matters of life and death and love.

Dancing appears glamorous⁵, easy, delightful⁶. But the path to the paradise of that achievement is not easier than any other. There is fatigue⁷ so great that the body cries, even in its sleep. There are times of complete frustration⁸; there are daily small deaths. Then I need all the comfort that practice has stored in my memory and a tenacity⁹ of faith. But it must be the kind of faith that Abraham had, wherein he "staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief."

It takes about 10 years to make a mature dancer. The training is twofold. There is the study and practice of the craft in order to strengthen the muscular structure of the body. The body is shaped, disciplined, honored and in time, trusted. The movement becomes clean, precise, eloquent¹⁰, truthful¹¹. Movement never lies. It is a barometer¹² telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it. This might be called the law of the dancer's life -- the law which governs its outer aspects.

Then there is the cultivation¹³ of the being. It is through this that the legends of the soul's journey are re-told with all their gaiety and their tragedy and the bitterness and sweetness of living. It is at this point that the sweep of life catches up the mere¹⁴ personality of the performer and while the individual (the undivided one), becomes greater, the personal becomes less personal. And there is grace. I mean the grace resulting from faith: faith in life, in love, in people and in the act of dancing. All this is necessary to any performance in life which is magnetic, powerful, rich in meaning.

In a dancer, there is a reverence¹⁵ for such forgotten things as the miracle of the small beautiful bones and their delicate strength. In a thinker there is a reverence for the beauty of the alert and directed and lucid¹⁶ mind. In all of us who perform there is an awareness¹⁷ of the smile which is part of the equipment, or gift, of the acrobat¹⁸. We have all walked the high wire of circumstance at times. We recognize the gravity pull of the earth as he does. The smile is there because he is practicing living at that instant of danger. He does not choose to fall.

Steve Inskeep: That was Martha Graham, a dancer, whose originality¹⁹ and creativity have lifted her to a place high among the arts. Her studio is in New York...

Note------------
Guggenheim Fellowship: Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded "to men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts."
gaiety: when someone or something is cheerful and fun