旁 白： “ Jim and Irene were the kind of people who had satisfactory income and

were respected by all their neighbors. They were the parents of two young children,
they had been married nine years, they loved each other. Different from their
neighbors, they shared in serious music and they spent a good deal of time listening
to music on the radio.Their radio was an old instrument, sensitive, unpredictable,
and beyond repair. Therefore, Jim bought Irene a new radio. The following afternoon,
the radio was delivered at the kitchen.”
Scene 1
Irene 和搬运工（有点吃力）一起走向椅子，搬运工放下收音机

Irene:”Put it here, please.OK,Here is your tip”

搬运工：“You are welcomed”

两人一起走向门口，送走搬运工后 Irene 回到收音机旁，打开收音机，听起了

莫扎特五重奏

Irene:”The new sound is much better”

旁 白 ： “ But as soon as she had made her peace with the radio, the
interference began. A crackling sound like the noise of a burning powder fuse began
to accompany the singing of the strings. ”

噪音出现了，Irene 有点惊讶，手忙脚乱地调试起调试刻度盘和开关，但是无济于事，
失望地坐到了椅子上。这时 Jim 下班回家了。

Jim：“What happened, honey”

Irene:”There's so much noise that I can't listen to the music”

Jim:”OK,Let me see”

Jim 开始调弄收音机，但是也失败了

Jim ： “ The damned radio salesman, I'm going to call him up and give him a
piece of my mind.Don`t worry honey,I'll have it fixed tomorrow”
第一幕完

Scene 2
旁白：“The next afternoon，the radio was fixed.Jim came home from a day
at work with Irene ”

Jim 疲倦地躺在沙发上，而 Irene 兴奋地跑向收音机，听起了肖邦前奏曲，过了一会，

杂音又传来了，这次是一个男声。
 男 一 ： “ For Christ’s sake, Kathy ， do you always have to play the piano when I get
home。”

女一：“It’s the only chance I have,I’m at the office all day.”

男一：“So am I”（愤怒地说到）

Irene asked：“ Did you hear that?”

Jim：”What“

IRENE:”The radio. A man said something while the music was still going oh—something
dirty.”

Jim：It’s probably a play.

Irene:”“I don’t think it is a play,”

他们来到收音机前，Jim 调试起收音机

女 二 ： On the coast of Coromandel where the early pumpkins blow,in the middle of the
woods lived the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò. Two old chairs, and half a candle, one old jug without a
handle …
Jim 关上收音机

Jim：This is strange

Irene：My God!That’s the Sweeneys’ nurse，She must be reading to the little girl. They live
in 17-B. I’ve talked with Miss Armstrong in the Park. I know her voice very well. We must be
getting other people’s apartments.

Jim：That’s impossible

Irene：Well, that was the Sweeneys’ nurse。Well, that was the Sweeneys’ nurse

Jim 大声：Hello，can you hear me？

停顿几秒，没有声音传出来

Irene：I guess she can’t hear us

旁 白 ： Jim overheard that evening a monologue on salmon fishing in Canada, a bridge

game, running comments on home movies of what had apparently been a fortnight at Sea Island,
and a bitter family quarrel about an overdraft at the bank. They turned off their radio at midnight
and went to bed, weak with laughter.
 Scene 3

旁 白 ： The next morning, Irene went to a dance.She looked searchingly at the crowd ， guess
which one of them had been to Sea Island? she wondered. Which one had overdrawn her bank
account? As soon as the dance was over, she went home and couldn't wait to turn on the radio

女三：I found a good-sized diamond on the bathroom floor this morning,It must have fallen out
of that bracelet Mrs. Dunston was wearing last night.

男 三 ： We’ll sell it.Take it down to the jeweler on Madison Avenue and sell it. Mrs. Dunston
won’t know the difference, and we could use a couple of hundred bucks …

这时，Jim 回来了，走向收音机，切换了一下频道

男四（怒吼道）：I'm going to divorce you. I can't stand it any longer

随后传来了尖叫声，玻璃破碎声。。。

Irene(尖叫道)：Go up to 16-C, Jim.Go up to 16-C. Mr. Osborn’s beating his wife. They’ve been
quarreling since four o’clock, and now he’s hitting her. Go up there and stop him.

Jim 安慰道：You know you don’t have to listen to this sort of thing.It’s indecent,It’s like looking
in windows. You know you don’t have to listen to this sort of thing. You can turn it off.
说完，关掉了收音机

Irene 哭 着 说 ： Oh, it’s so horrible, it’s so dreadful,I’ve been listening all day, and it’s so
depressing.

Jim：Well, if it’s so depressing, why do you listen to it? I bought this damned radio to give you
some pleasure。I paid a great deal of money for it. I thought it might make you happy. I wanted to
make you happy.

Irene：We're not like them, are we？Do you still love me?

Jim(无奈地说道)：Of course I love you.Don't give it a second thought. Go to bed early。

说完，Jim 搀扶这 Irene 走向了卧室

Scene 4
旁 白 :A MAN came in the morning and fixed the radio. Irene turned it on cautiously and was
happy to hear a California-wine commercial and a recording of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,She
kept the radio on all day and nothing untoward came from the speaker.
此时 Jim 回到家

Jim:Is everything all right?It cost four hundred dollars. I hope you’ll get some enjoyment out of it.
Irene:Oh, I’m sure I will,
Jim( 越 说 越 气 愤 ):Four hundred dollars is a good deal more than I can afford,I wanted to get
something that you’d enjoy. It’s the last extravagance we’ll be able to indulge in this year. I see
that you haven’t paid your clothing bills yet. I saw them on your dressing table.Why did you tell
me you’d paid them? Why did you lie to me?

Irene:I just didn’t want you to worry, Jim,(喝了口水)I’ll be able to pay my bills out of this month’s
allowance. There were the slipcovers last month, and that party.

Jim:You’ve got to learn to handle the money I give you a little more intelligently, Irene,You’ve got
to understand that we won’t have as much money this year as we had last. I had a very sobering
talk with Mitchell today. No one is buying anything. We’re spending all our time promoting new
issues, and you know how long that takes. I’m not getting any younger, you know. I’m thirty-
seven. My hair will be gray next year. I haven’t done as well as I’d hoped to do. And I don’t
suppose things will get any better.

Irene:Yes, dear

Jim:We’ve got to start cutting down,We’ve got to think of the children. To be perfectly frank with
you, I worry about money a great deal. I’m not at all sure of the future. No one is. If anything
should happen to me, there’s the insurance, but that wouldn’t go very far today. I’ve worked
awfully hard to give you and the children a comfortable life,I don’t like to see all of my energies,
all of my youth, wasted in fur coats and radios and slipcovers and—(停顿)

Irene:Please, Jim,Please. They’ll hear us

Jim:Who’ll hear us? Emma can’t hear us.

Irene:The radio

Jim( 怒 吼 ):Oh, I’m sick!“I’m sick to death of your apprehensiveness. The radio can’t hear us.
Nobody can hear us. And what if they can hear us? Who cares?

Irene 伤心地走向收音机,背向 Jim,Jim 朝向 Irene

Jim( 大 声 怒 吼 ):Why are you so Christly all of a sudden? What’s turned you overnight into a
convent girl? You stole your mother’s jewelry before they probated her will. You never gave your
sister a cent of that money that was intended for her—not even when she needed it. You made
Grace Howland’s life miserable, and where was all your piety and your virtue when you went to
that abortionist? I’ll never forget how cool you were. You packed your bag and went off to have
that child murdered as if you were going to Nassau. If you’d had any reasons, if you’d had any
good reasons—
Irene 痛苦地望着收音机,而收音机里再也听不到邻居的对话,只有温和的播报声
男 五 :An early-morning railroad disaster in Tokyo,killed twenty-nine people. A fire in a Catholic
hospital near Buffalo for the care of blind children was extinguished early this morning by nuns.
The temperature is forty-seven. The humidity is eighty-nine

END