【搬运译】叉婊Pitchfork评Mitski 2021年单曲 “Working for the Knife”

搬运自：网易云音乐专栏【Music Online Zine Courier】（在原文基础上添加了英语原文与排版调整）

翻译：豆目豆科

On “Geyser,” the opening track of her brilliant 2018 album Be the Cowboy, Mitski cast music in the role of a temperamental lover. The need for self-expression, she suggested, could be an endless, destructive tango with frustration and epiphany. So, in summer 2019, when Mitski announced she would take an indefinite break from performing, her reasoning followed. “I sense that if I don’t step away soon, my self-worth/identity will start depending too much on staying in the game, in the constant churn,” she wrote on Twitter. “I don’t want to make art like that, especially when you’re offering your valuable time and hearts and money to it.”

在她2018年辉煌的专辑《Be the Cowboy》的开篇之作“Geyser”中，Mitski将音乐演绎作她一个脾气暴躁的情人。在她看来，对自我表达的需求，可能是一场在挫折与顿悟间无休止辗转的自毁性探戈。因此，在2019年夏天，当Mitski宣布她将无限期地停止演出时，她的理由也随之而来：“我感觉到，倘若我不尽快脱身，我的自我价值/身份认同将开始过多地依赖于这场音乐闹剧，持续地动荡变幻，”她在Twitter上写道。“我不想创作这样的艺术，尤其当你因它消磨掉你宝贵的时间、心力和金钱的时候。”

Now, Mitski re-emerges with a song that further contemplates this unpleasant conflict, one surely colored by her own experiences with success. On “Working for the Knife,” her desire to create something pure is overshadowed by the realities of modern life. Atop an eerie, austere synthesizer embellished by twinkling piano notes and a tight little guitar riff, she seemingly acknowledges her time away from the spotlight: “I always knew the world moves on/I just didn’t know it would go without me.” Throughout the song, Mitski contemplates the knife—a metaphor for the systems that ensnare us, the expectations of others, our own standards—as if it were a cold object resting in her hands. Though her knife is capable of cruelty, it can carve out a reason to keep living in moments of deep despair. That doesn’t make its twisting hurt any less, however. “I always thought the choice was mine/And I was right, but I just chose wrong,” she sings before reaching a gut-wrenching realization: “I start the day lying and end with the truth/That I’m dying for the knife.”

现在，Mitski带着一首进一步思索这种令人不快的冲突的歌曲再次出现，这必定是她已寻得成功的经验。在“Working for the Knife”中，她想创造一些纯粹的东西的愿望被现实生活的残酷所掩盖。在一个阴森、简朴的合成器底色上，有着闪烁的钢琴音符和紧凑的吉他riff的点缀，她似乎在讲述着她远离聚光灯时的体验：“I always knew the world moves on/I just didn’t know it would go without me.”在整首歌中，Mitski思考着这把刀——隐喻着困住我们的所谓“系统"、他人的期望、我们给自己框下的标准——仿佛它已然是攥在她手中的一个冰冷凶器。尽管她的刀子并不会“手下留情”，但它也能在深不见底的绝望中硬生生凿出一个继续生活的理由。然而，这也并没有使它造成的伤害减轻。“I always thought the choice was mine/And I was right, but I just chose wrong,”她唱道，随即便痛苦地意识到：“I start the day lying and end with the truth/That I’m dying for the knife.”