About 10 years ago, the playwright¹ John Guare got a call asking if he wanted to meet David Bowie to discuss a theater project.

大约十年前，剧作家约翰·瓜尔(John Guare)接到一个电话，问他是否愿意跟大卫·鲍伊(David Bowie)见面商谈一个剧目。

As Mr. Guare remembered it, Mr. Bowie was “in a very dark place” (it was shortly after he had had a heart attack onstage in Berlin), and a mutual² friend, the English producer Robert Fox, was trying to coax³ him back to a creative life. Mr. Guare immediately said yes.

瓜尔回忆说，当时正值鲍伊生命中的“黑暗时期”（不久前他在柏林演出时在舞台上突发心脏病）。英国制片人罗伯特·福克斯(Robert Fox)是他们两人共同的朋友。他正在设法说服大卫·鲍伊重回一种富有创造力的生活。瓜尔当即答应下来。

He and Mr. Bowie met at each other’s homes in New York to throw around ideas, and sometimes they went out. “We would take walks around the East Village,” Mr. Guare said. “And I was always praying somebody would run into us so I could say, ‘Do you know my friend David Bowie?’”

他和大卫·鲍伊在纽约彼此的家中见面，互相探讨交流，有时他们也会出门。“我们会在东村(East Village)附近散步。”瓜尔谈到，“我经常希望会有人碰到我们，这样我就可以介绍说：‘你认识大卫·鲍伊吗？他是我的朋友。’”

It never happened.

可是，他一直也没有这个机会。

Mr. Guare was at first puzzled and then amazed at how Mr. Bowie — the stage creature, the persona, the guy he saw command an audience at Radio City Music Hall in 1973 with his spiky⁴ orange hair and snow-white tan — could walk the city streets unrecognized.

1973年，瓜尔曾亲眼目睹了鲍伊在广播城音乐厅(Radio City)以橙色蓬起的发型、惨白肤色的形象令无数歌迷倾倒。像他这样一个舞台巨星，怎么可能走在纽约的街道上而不为人知呢？这让瓜尔大惑不解，而又诧异万分。

“He traveled with this cloak of invisibility — nobody saw him,” Mr. Guare said. “He just eradicated⁵ himself.”

“他如同披上了一件隐身衣——让人们对他视而不见。”瓜尔说，“简直就像从世上彻底消失了。”

People often forgot, but up until his death, on Sunday at age 69, Mr. Bowie was a New Yorker. He said so himself, emphatically. “I’m a New Yorker!” he declared to SOMA magazine in 2003, after he’d been here a decade.

人们常常会忘记，其实直到周日他去世的那天为止，69岁的鲍伊一直是个纽约客。他自己也曾经这样强调过。在2003年他曾对SOMA杂志说：“我是一个纽约客！”那时他已经在纽约居住了十年。

He and his Somali-born wife, Iman, who is a model fluent in five languages, spent almost their entire marriage, more than 20 years, as residents of the city. Anyone will tell you they were one of New York’s most glamorous⁶, graceful⁷ couples, made all the more so by the dignified⁸ and private way they lived.

他的妻子伊曼是在索马里出生的名模，精通五门外语。他们夫妻在纽约市度过了20多年的光阴，可以说几乎所有的婚姻时光都花在了这个城市里。任何人都会告诉你，他们是纽约最优雅迷人的夫妻之一，高贵庄重而不事张扬的生活方式使他们更有魅力。

And though Mr. Bowie was enormously wealthy, he wasn’t one of those rich guys who kept an apartment in the city, along with a portfolio⁹ of global real estate¹⁰ holdings, and flew in. Aside from a mountain retreat in Ulster County, N.Y., his Manhattan apartment was his only home.

虽然鲍伊极为富有，但他并不是那种在全球各地都置有产业，偶尔才会飞到城里公寓呆上一天两天的那种富翁。除了在纽约州阿尔斯特县(Ulster)的那套山间别墅以外，位于曼哈顿的公寓就是他唯一的家了。

You may not have considered all this because Mr. Bowie was an apparition¹¹ in the city, rarely glimpsed. You heard it mentioned that he lived here. Somewhere downtown, someone thought. But seeing him out? Good luck.

你可能从未注意到过这些。这是因为鲍伊是个很少在城里现身的幽灵。也许，有人告诉过你他住在这儿，又有人说是在市中心的某个地方。可是，想看他一眼可就没那么容易了。

Michael Musto, the veteran night life columnist¹² (and occasional New York Times contributor), met him at a party in the 1970s but saw him very few times after that, he said. Gerard Malanga, the poet and Warhol associate, who lived three blocks from Mr. Bowie and had friends in common, described himself as “one of the millions who never encountered David on the street or anywhere.”

老牌夜生活专栏作家迈克尔·慕斯拖（Michael Musto，他偶尔也在《纽约时报》发文）曾经在70年代的一个晚会上遇到过他，可是他说，在那之后就很少再有那样的好运了。沃霍尔的助理、诗人杰拉德·马兰(Gerard Malanga)住的地方与鲍伊家只有三个街区之隔，他们也有些共同的朋友。马兰加说，和无数人一样，自己也从未在街头巷角遇到过大卫·鲍伊。

Mr. Bowie wasn’t a Garbo-level recluse¹³. He got around enough to avoid the terrible fate of having his privacy draw more attention to him. But if people did spot him at Lincoln Center or out to dinner with Iman, they usually gave him wide berth¹⁴, out of respect and also a sense of intimidation¹⁵.

鲍伊并不像葛丽泰·嘉宝那样追求与世隔绝的生活。他会不时露面，以防过分追求遁世反而会给他带来更多的公众注意。不过，如果有人发现他在林肯中心出现，或者和伊曼出来就餐，出于尊敬，而且也往往是出于敬畏，一般会给他很大的空间。

“I had always thought he was unapproachable,” Mr. Musto said. “But he was quite lovely and accessible.”

“我一直觉得他不太好接近，”慕斯拖说，“但其实他是个很和蔼可亲的人。”

“The fabulous¹⁶ identities he had,” Mr. Guare said — meaning Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane¹⁷ and the Thin White Duke and even the Bowie of the ’80s, who looked like the world’s most elegantly dressed serial¹⁸ killer — “bore no reflection on the person who was carrying them.”

他评论道：“那些千奇百怪、精彩绝伦的舞台形象，”——包括怪异的Ziggy Stardust（大卫·鲍伊塑造的舞台形象之一，是个太空幻想生物，以火红的头发和光怪陆离的衣服出现——译注）、叛逆的Aladdin Sane（1973年的专辑。在里面大卫·鲍伊给自己的脸上画出闪电状的红色油彩作为标识——译注）和冰冷的Thin White Duke（1976年出版的《Station To Station》里塑造的形象，冰冷的痩白条——译注），甚至80年代看上去像个衣冠楚楚的系列杀手的鲍伊，“所有这些舞台形象与它们背后的艺术家本人毫无共同点。”

“I think he had complete access to David Jones,” Mr. Guare added, referring to Mr. Bowie’s birth name. “And that’s who I knew.”

“我觉得他完全保持了大卫·琼斯(David Jones)的本色，”慕斯拖提到鲍伊的原名。他接着说：“这才是我所真正认识的大卫·鲍伊。”

Mr. Bowie heard New York before he ever saw it. When he was 19 and still living in England, his manager, back from the States, gave him an acetate record of “The Velvet¹⁹ Underground and Nico,” obtained directly from Andy Warhol.

在鲍伊还没有见到纽约之前，他就已经“听”到它的声音了。那年他19岁，还住在英格兰。他的经纪人从美国回来，从安迪·沃霍尔手里拿到了一张《地下丝绒和尼科》(The Velvet Underground and Nico)的唱片给他。

“I was hearing a degree of cool that I had no idea was humanly sustainable,” he later wrote in an essay for New York magazine.

他后来在一篇为《纽约杂志》(New York magazine)写的文章里说：“我觉得好像听到了天籁之声。”

He traveled to New York in 1971, around the time he released “Hunky Dory,” his fourth album. One of the first New Yorkers he encountered was Moondog, the blind, flowingly bearded street performer who dressed in a homemade robe and a horned Viking helmet and planted himself on West 54th Street. On that trip, Mr. Bowie visited the Factory; touchingly²⁰, he wanted to play his song “Andy Warhol” for the man himself.

1971年，他来到了纽约。他的第四部专辑《Hunky Dory》也就在那时发行。在他第一批遇到的纽约客之中，有一个艺名叫“月亮狗”(Moondog)，留着一副大胡子的盲人艺术家。他身穿自制长袍，头戴尖角的维京海盗头盔，常常在西54街街头表演。在那趟旅途中，鲍伊还参观了沃霍尔的工作室——“工厂”。令人感动的是，他想要亲自为沃霍尔演唱“安迪·沃霍尔”这首歌。

When he came for an extended stay in 1972, he was accompanied by his first wife, Angie, and his new manager, Tony DeFries. Mr. DeFries, a cigar-chomping, Col. Tom Parker-like showbiz slickster, believed in success by way of publicity-generating spectacle. Back then, Mr. Bowie did not pass through the city in a cloak of invisibility. He took limos everywhere and presented himself like an abstract canvas.

1972年，他再次来到纽约并待了较长的一段时间，他的第一任妻子安吉(Angie)和他的新经纪人托尼·德弗莱斯(Tony DeFries)与他同行。德弗莱斯是个叼着雪茄、像汤姆·派克（Tom Parker，荷兰裔美国经纪人，曾是“猫王”的经纪人——译注）一样的娱乐圈老滑头。他坚信公众宣传是获得成功的必要条件。那时候，鲍伊可不是披着隐身衣在城里走动。他无论去哪儿都是乘坐豪华轿车，所有的行动都暴露在公众眼前。

Here’s Bebe Buell, the musician and rock star paramour, recalling Mr. Bowie’s arrival at Max’s Kansas City: “He walked in wearing a powdered-blue suit with orange hair, and just bedazzled us all.”

酷爱与音乐家和摇滚歌星拍拖的贝贝比尔(Bebe Buell)这样描述鲍伊莅临“麦克斯的堪萨斯城”（Max’s Kansas City）夜总会的情景：“他身着粉蓝色西装，搭配着橙色的头发，就这样走了进来，让我们每个人都如醉如痴。”

After he became Ziggy Stardust, and a huge star, Mr. Bowie found refuge at the West 20th Street apartment of his publicist, Cherry Vanilla²¹. In her memoir²², “Lick Me,” she recounts how he would do brain-sizzling amounts of cocaine²³ and drink milk for nourishment²⁴ (no solid food in those years), and they’d rap about “power, symbols, communication, music, the occult, Aleister Crowley and Merlin the Magician.”

鲍伊成为“Ziggy Stardust”并一举成名之后，其公关发言人雪莉·范妮拉(Cherry Vanilla)在西20街上的公寓成了他的避难所。在她的传记《Lick Me》一书中，她谈到，他当时吸食大量的可卡因，靠牛奶维持生命（那些年里他一点固体食物都不吃）。他们一起天南海北地畅谈：“权力、形象、宣传、音乐、宗教狂热、阿莱斯特·克劳利(Aleister Crowley)、魔法师莫林。”

Like a lot of rock stars, Mr. Bowie lived in hotels: first the Gramercy Park Hotel, then the Sherry-Netherland until the room-service bill became obscene. Throughout the 1970s, he was less a citizen of New York than a debauched tourist, directing his limo to Max’s, Paradise Garage and Reno Sweeney. Socially deft²⁵ and curious, he transited²⁶ between Studio 54 and CBGB, and hung out with Mick and Bianca Jagger and Iggy Pop.

和许多摇滚歌星一样，鲍伊一直在酒店里长住：先是格莱美西公园酒店(Gramercy Park Hotel)，后来是荷兰雪梨酒店(Sherry-Netherland)，直到积累了天文数字的客服费用。在70年代，与其说他是个纽约市居民，不如说他是个放浪形骸的游客，乘坐豪华轿车穿梭于“麦克斯的堪萨斯城”、天堂车库(Paradise Garage)和里诺斯威尼(Rino Sweeney)几个夜总会之间。他善于交往，充满好奇心，在54号工作室和CBGB（纽约的一个酒吧，被公认为是朋克音乐的诞生地——译注）之间往来，与摇滚明星米克·贾格尔(Mick Jagger)及妻子夜店女王碧安卡(Bianca)，还有朋克摇滚音乐家伊基·波普(Iggy Pop)混在一起。

In the New York magazine essay, Mr. Bowie wrote of that period, “I rarely got up before noon and hit the sack again around four or five in the morning.” He saw the city with “multicolored glasses.”

在为《纽约杂志》撰写的那篇文章中，鲍伊说道：在那段日子里“我很少在中午之前起床，到凌晨四五点才会睡觉”.他如同戴着“五彩眼镜”，看到的是一个光怪陆离的城市。

As had been widely chronicled, Mr. Bowie left America for Berlin, partly to flee his druggie lifestyle.

之后，正如媒体的广泛记载，为了从那种瘾君子的生活中逃离，鲍伊离开了美国，前往柏林。

In 1980, after recording²⁷ the albums “Low,” “Heroes” and “Lodger²⁸” — which became known as his Berlin trilogy — he was back in New York, this time as the Elephant Man at the Booth Theater on Broadway. (“He is splendid” The Times wrote.) In 1982, with Nile Rodgers producing, he recorded the album “Let’s Dance” at the Power Station on West 53rd Street, a sonic and commercial triumph. But for all his victories and nocturnal good times in the city, Mr. Bowie seemed unable to commit to it.

1980年，录制完《Low》、《Heroes》及《Lodger》——它们被称为他的“柏林三部曲”，他回到了纽约，在百老汇展位剧院(Booth Theater)主演《象人》(Elephant Man)（《泰晤士报》对他表演的评论是：“棒极了”）。1982年，由尼尔·罗杰斯(Nile Rodgers)担任制作，他在西53街的Power Station录音工作室录制了新的专辑《Let’s Dance》。无论从声乐还是商业上，这张专辑都取得了巨大的成功。但是，所有这些成功和夜生活的美妙都没能让鲍伊下决心在纽约定居下来。

When Iman met Mr. Bowie at a dinner party in 1990, he was living in Switzerland as a tax exile, a citizen of the world. She wasn’t having it, she once told The Guardian²⁹: “I’m a New Yorker. I was like, ‘Let’s go home.’”

1990年，在一个晚餐聚会上，伊曼遇见了鲍伊。当时他作为一个逃税者、一个世界公民住在瑞士。这可不行，她后来对英国《卫报》说：“我是个纽约客。我对他说：‘咱们回家吧。’”

The couple married in 1992 and moved into a conventional prewar apartment on Central Park South. They had a daughter, Lexi. In 1999, they paid $4 million for two penthouses (an upstairs-downstairs) on Lafayette Street in SoHo, where they remained. That’s also where fans gathered in the numbing³⁰ cold after he died to lay flowers, many unaware³¹, until that day, that he’d been a fellow New Yorker.

他和伊曼于1992年结为连理，并且搬进了中央公园南边的一个传统的战前公寓。他们育有一女，名叫莱西(Lexi)。1999年，他们用400万美元，在苏豪区拉法叶特街(Lafayetter)买下了一套上下两层的顶层公寓，一直在那里住到现在。在他去世以后，他的歌迷们顶着刺骨的寒风来到这里向他献上鲜花。直到那天，许多他的歌迷还并不知道，他一直和他们一样，是个纽约客。

Over time, Mr. Bowie did become a real New Yorker. He absorbed the city’s attitude and cultural quirks³², and had trouble catching³³ a cab. He wrote a song (“Slip Away”) about Uncle Floyd, the host of a weird³⁴, low-budget, quasi-children’s TV show that aired locally back in the UHF days.

随着时间的推移，鲍伊慢慢成为了一个真正的纽约客。他吸收了纽约人的处世态度和文化习惯，变成了一个连出租车都打不到的普通人。他曾经写过一支歌《溜走》(Slip Away)，写的是弗洛伊德大叔，他是过去在UHF频道播出的当地一个怪异、低成本的准儿童节目的主持人。

After the Sept. 11 attacks, he performed movingly at the Concert for New York City at Madison Square Garden. He covered Simon and Garfunkel’s “America” and announced from the stage, before singing “Heroes”: “I’d particularly like to say hello to the folks from my local ladder. You know where you are.”

9·11事件发生之后，他曾在麦迪逊广场花园纽约音乐会上举办了动人心弦的演出。他演唱了西蒙和加芬克尔的歌曲“美国”(America)，并且演唱了“英雄”(Heroes)。在唱这支歌之前，他在舞台上宣布说：“我想要特别地对我家乡的消防员们问声好。你们知道你们身处何方。”

In photographs, you can see how subdued³⁵ and grown-up Mr. Bowie’s second go-round in the city was. “He did the ballet, all the fun cultural stuff,” said Patrick McMullan, who photographed him over the years, though much less after Mr. Bowie’s heart attack in Berlin.

通过照片，我们可以看出鲍伊的第二次纽约之旅有多么低调和成熟。“他会去看芭蕾，参加所有那些有意思的文化活动。”帕特里克·迈克马伦(Patrick McMullan)说。他这些年来一直用照相机跟踪鲍伊的踪迹，但是鲍伊在柏林心脏病发作之后，就不太有机会了。

He was always in a sharp suit or tux. Regularly at the Met Gala or the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards to support his wife. Never caught stumbling out of the hot club at 4 a.m. He’d already been to a lifetime’s worth of parties.

为了支持妻子的事业，他总是身穿精致的西装或礼服，定期参加大都市博物馆的年度募捐晚宴(Met Gala)和美国时装设计师理事会颁奖典礼(the Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards)。你再也不会看到他在凌晨4点从一个夜总会里跌跌撞撞地出来。过去参加过的派对已经够他用一辈子了。

Iman once described Mr. Bowie as a “homebody”; The Onion imagined him as a “pansexual alien” staying in to “do lasagna for dinner.” He led a pretty normal-seeming life. He shopped for groceries once a week at Dean & DeLuca. He loved the chicken sandwich with watercress and tomatoes at Olive’s on Prince Street. He liked to rise at 6 a.m. and get his “buzz” by walking the still-empty streets of Chinatown.

伊曼曾经把鲍伊描述为“居家好男人”。《洋葱报》(The Onion)将他想象为一个喜爱留在家里吃意式千层面晚餐的“泛性外星人”。他的生活相当平凡。每周他会去Dean & DeLuca食品商场购物。他喜欢王子街(Prince Street)奥利弗餐馆(Olive’s)的番茄豆瓣菜鸡肉三明治。他喜欢早上6点起床后，在唐人街空旷的街道上漫步的感觉。

He read a lot. He collected art. He painted. He and Iman socialized with the parents of their daughter’s friends at school. He spent his remaining time meaningfully and productively, and largely here.

他酷爱读书、收集艺术品、画油画。他和伊曼会和女儿同学的父母交往。他的余生充实不凡，几乎全部在纽约度过。

Mr. Bowie stopped touring in 2004. He left New York only when work demanded, and during his stunning³⁶ end-of-life creative burst, he found a way to never leave his neighborhood.

自2004年起，鲍伊停止了巡演。只有当工作需要时他才会离开纽约。在最后的几个月里，他迸发了令人惊异的旺盛创造力，同时，他找到了办法始终不用离开自己生活的街区。

“Lazarus,” the show for which Mr. Bowie composed songs and resurrected the displaced alien he played in the 1976 film “The Man Who Fell to Earth,” was staged at New York Theater Workshop, on East Fourth Street, less than 10 blocks from his house.

不久之前，鲍伊创作词曲的《拉萨路》(Lazarus)在东4大道的纽约剧院工作室(New York Theater Workshop)上演，距离他家只有十个街区。在这部音乐剧里，鲍伊在1976年电影《天外来客》(The Man Who Fell to Earth)中扮演的外星人得以重生。

Both his 2013 album, “The Next Day,” and the demos for his final record, “Blackstar” — which was released, incidentally, on his birthday and just two days before he died — were recorded at the Magic Shop recording studio on Crosby Street — 283 steps from his front door.

在他去世之前两天，也就是他生日之际，他发布了2013专辑《The Next Day》和最后录制的小样《黑星》(Blackstar)样本。它们都是在克洛斯比街(Crosby)The Magic Shop录音工作室录制的，据他家大门仅有283步之遥。

Mr. Bowie would have ridden the elevator down from his penthouse, exited his building, crossed Lafayette Street, slipped through the little alley³⁷ called Jersey³⁸ Street and walked on cobblestones until he came to the studio’s unmarked metal doors.

鲍伊会乘电梯从他的顶层公寓下来，离开大楼，横穿拉法叶特街，再穿过一条叫做泽西街(Jersey)的小胡同，顺着鹅卵石铺就的街道，一直走到工作室那没有标记的金属门前。

Brian Thorn, a recording engineer for the “Next Day” sessions, said Mr. Bowie worked “very humane³⁹ hours,” as rock stars go. “We’d start by 10,” Mr. Thorn said. “He would get there with or before the musicians. The studio would have his coffee order ready,” a double macchiato from La Colombe.

The Next Day》的录音工程师布莱恩·索恩(Brian Thorn)说，鲍伊的工作时间就摇滚明星而言，“非常人性化”。“我们会从10点开始，”他说。“他会比乐师们先到，或者和他们一起到来。工作室会把他的咖啡事先准备好。”他喝的是La Colombe咖啡店的双倍玛奇朵咖啡。

Mr. Thorn remembered overhearing Mr. Bowie and his guitarist talking one day. The guitarist was going on about an art exhibit, and how much Mr. Bowie would love it. Then he caught himself, realizing whom he was talking to, and said, “Oh, you can never go there; there’s too many people.”

索恩记得有一天听到鲍伊和吉他手的对话。那个吉他手在大谈一个艺术展，说鲍伊一定会特别喜欢。然后，他忽然想起他的谈话对象是谁，连忙打住话头，说：“噢，你不能去那地方，人太多了。”

Mr. Bowie answered, slyly, “You’d be surprised the places I’m able to go.”

鲍伊带着一丝狡黠回答说：“我去过的地方你猜也猜不到。”

Have you seen the photo that’s been circulating on Twitter of Mr. Bowie out in the city in cargo⁴⁰ shorts and sneakers and carrying Uncut magazine? He’s very normcore. You can see why nobody recognized him, why an international superstar was able to move through the city unseen.

你有没有见过Twitter上盛传的那张照片？在照片里鲍伊身着工装短裤、运动鞋，手持一本Uncut杂志，在市里漫步，看上去十分普通。你现在应该明白了，为什么没有人能认出他来，为什么一个大牌明星能够大摇大摆地穿行入市而依然避人眼目。

He understood that in our minds we all held a picture of David Bowie, or Ziggy, or the Thin White Duke. It allowed him to walk among us disguised as himself, David Jones.

因为他知道，在我们所有人心目中，都有一个大卫·鲍伊，或者Ziggy, 或者the Thin White Duke的形象。这就使得他得以做回自我，以大卫·琼斯的样子，在我们身边自由出入。