1 The Country Boy

CHAPTER 1 The Country Boy By the time Robert Nesta Marley was born in 1945, the island country of Jamaica had been ruled by Great Britain for nearly three hundred years. Bob's father, Norval Marley, was a white man who was employed by the British government. Norval's job was to manage

到1945年罗伯特·内斯塔·马利出生的时候，牙买加这个岛国已经被英国统治了将近三百年。 鲍勃的父亲诺瓦尔·马利是一名受雇于英国政府的白人。 诺瓦尔的工作是管理

government-owned property in the village of Nine Mile in the district of Saint Ann Parish, Jamaica. A parish is another name for a county. Jamaica has fourteen parishes. Norval was a little over sixty years old when he moved to a small shack in Nine Mile. He soon fell in love with Cedella Malcolm, a beautiful black Jamaican girl much younger than he was. Cedella's grandmother owned the shack where Norval lived. By the time Cedella was eighteen, she was married to Norval and expecting her first child. Neighbors did not approve of Cedella marrying a white man so much older than she was. Cedella wanted to build a better life for herself and hoped Norval would help her see the world beyond the Jamaican countryside. But soon after the marriage, Norval had to leave Nine Mile. He said that working in the hills was not good for

位于牙买加圣安教区九里村的政府所有财产。 教区是县的另一个名称。 牙买加有14个教区。 诺瓦尔刚过六十岁就搬到了九英里的一个小棚屋里。 他很快就爱上了塞黛拉·马尔科姆，一个比他年轻得多的美丽的牙买加黑人女孩。 塞黛拉的祖母是诺瓦尔住的小屋的主人。 塞黛拉18岁的时候，她嫁给了诺瓦尔，并期待着她的第一个孩子。 邻居们不赞成塞黛拉嫁给一个比她大这么多的白人。 塞德拉想为自己创造更好的生活，并希望诺瓦尔能帮助她看到牙买加乡村以外的世界。 但婚后不久，诺瓦尔不得不离开九英里。 他说在山里工作对身体不好

his health. He needed to find an easier job in Kingston. Norval promised Cedella he would return. Years later, he did, but only for a short time. They never lived together again. Their baby, Robert Nesta Marley, was born in Nine Mile on February 6, 1945. From the start, Bob was a good boy. With his father gone, his grandfather taught him many things. He explained Bible stories to Bob and taught him how to farm potatoes and yams. Bob's grandparents were always proud of how hard he worked—even when he was very young. Bob was a quick learner at everything he did. His teachers at school said he was ahead of the other kids in his class.

他的健康。他需要在金斯敦找一份更轻松的工作。 诺瓦尔答应塞黛拉他会回来的。 多年后，他做到了，但只是很短的一段时间。 他们再也没有住在一起。 他们的孩子罗伯特·内斯塔·马利于1945年2月6日出生在九英里。 从一开始，鲍勃就是个好孩子。 父亲去世后，祖父教了他很多东西。 他给鲍勃讲圣经故事，教他如何种植土豆和山药。 鲍勃的祖父母总是为他的努力工作感到骄傲——甚至在他很小的时候。 鲍勃做任何事都学得很快。 学校里的老师说他比班上其他孩子都优秀。

Sometime before he turned ten, Bob stepped on a piece of glass while playing soccer barefoot. The cut on his toe became infected. Bob limped for a long time. Finally, Bob's cousin brought him some natural medicine that he had made from herbs. His foot healed, but it was never quite the same. While he rested, Bob picked at a guitar that the same cousin had made for him out of bamboo and goatskin. He spent hours and hours with the guitar while his foot healed. Folk Instruments of Jamaica For much of the twentieth century, people in the Jamaican countryside made their musical instruments by hand. One of the most popular was the rumba box. A

在他十岁之前的某个时候，鲍勃赤脚踢足球时踩到了一块玻璃。 他脚趾上的伤口感染了。 鲍勃一瘸一拐地走了很长时间。 最后，鲍勃的堂兄给他带来了一些他用草药制成的天然药物。 他的脚痊愈了，但再也不一样了。 休息时，鲍勃拨弄了一把吉他，那是他的表弟用竹子和山羊皮为他做的。 他花了好几个小时弹吉他，直到他的脚痊愈。 牙买加的民间乐器在20世纪的大部分时间里，牙买加农村的人们都用手工制作乐器。 其中最受欢迎的是伦巴舞。 一个

rumba box is usually made of wood, and it has a hole cut in the front like a guitar. But unlike a guitar, a rumba box has small metal strips screwed in a straight line at the bottom of the hole. The metal strips are like keys on a piano. The rumba-box player sits on top of the box and reaches down to play the keys. Other handmade instruments were the shake-shake (an instrument similar to maracas) and simple wood blocks knocked together to keep rhythm. Drums, banjos, and guitars were made out of buckets, bamboo, sardine cans, and cowhide or goatskin.

伦巴琴通常是木制的，像吉他一样在琴的前面开了一个洞。 但与吉他不同的是，伦巴琴在孔的底部有一些小的金属条拧成一条直线。 金属条就像钢琴上的键。 伦巴盒演奏者坐在盒子的顶部，向下弹奏琴键。 其他手工制作的乐器是shake-shake（一种类似沙球的乐器）和简单的木块敲打在一起以保持节奏。 鼓、班卓琴和吉他是用桶、竹子、沙丁鱼罐头和牛皮或山羊皮制成的。

When Bob was still a young boy, Cedella opened her own grocery store. Thaddius "Toddy" Livingston owned a grocery in Nine Mile, too. Cedella and Toddy began spending a lot of time together, even though Toddy was married. Toddy also had a son Bob's age named Neville. His nickname was "Bunny." Bunny and Bob went to the same school and worked at their families' grocery stores in the afternoons. They had something else in common: They both loved music! Bob and Bunny became close friends. They played their homemade guitars together at the end of the day when all their homework and chores were done.

当鲍勃还是个小男孩的时候，塞黛拉开了自己的杂货店。 塔迪斯·“托迪”·利文斯顿也在九英里开了一家杂货店。 塞黛拉和托德开始经常在一起，尽管托德已经结婚了。 托德还有一个和鲍勃一样大的儿子，名叫内维尔。 他的昵称是“兔子”。邦尼和鲍勃上同一所学校，下午在他们家的杂货店工作。 他们还有一个共同点：他们都喜欢音乐！鲍勃和兔子成了亲密的朋友。 在一天结束的时候，当他们做完所有的作业和家务后，他们会一起弹自制的吉他。