表演里那股说不清的黑色电流——技巧管不着它，它从脚底往上爬，来了满场都知道。 The dark current in a performance that technique cannot supply — it climbs from the soles of the feet, and the whole room knows when it arrives.
The dark current in a performance that technique cannot supply — it climbs from the soles of the feet, and the whole room knows when it arrives. 表演里那股说不清的黑色电流——技巧管不着它，它从脚底往上爬，来了满场都知道。
词源etymology
西班牙语 duende，本义是家宅里的精怪、小魔灵（一说缩自 dueño de casa，「屋子的主人」）。 先是民间的捣蛋鬼，后来被安达卢西亚的弗拉门戈艺人借去，指那股附体般的现场魔力。
Spanish duende, originally a household imp or goblin (often derived from dueño de casa, “master of the house”). A folk mischief-maker first; Andalusian flamenco borrowed it for the possession-like electricity of a live performance.
背景the story
1933 年，洛尔迦在布宜诺斯艾利斯的讲演《魔灵的玩法与理论》里为它立了论， 把它从弗拉门戈的行话抬成一切艺术的黑色引擎：「魔灵是一种力，不是一种作品。」 它与缪斯相对——缪斯从外面来、从上面来，魔灵从里面来、从下面来， 带着泥土和死亡的气息；没有真正的危险，就没有魔灵。
那句最著名的定义（见下方引文）洛尔迦自己也是转述——来自一位老吉他匠人。 行话、诗学、批评术语，它至今在英语乐评里通行无阻。
In 1933, in the Buenos Aires lecture Juego y teoría del duende, Lorca gave it its theory, promoting it from flamenco shop-talk to the dark engine of all art: “The duende is a power, not a work.” It stands opposite the muse — the muse arrives from outside and above; the duende climbs from inside and below, smelling of earth and death; no real danger, no duende.
Even the most famous definition (quoted below) Lorca himself was passing along — from an old guitar master. Shop-talk, poetics, critical term: it still circulates untranslated through English music writing.
中文里的邻居neighbors in chinese
中文的舞台行话里有「炸场」，品评里有「神来之笔」「入魔」。 「神来之笔」的方向反了——那是神从上头递来的，正是洛尔迦说的缪斯那一路； 「入魔」倒是从下面来的，可惜在中文里是贬义，练功走火才入魔。 duende 的位置恰好在两者之间：一种被尊敬的入魔。
Chinese stage-talk has 炸场 (“detonating the room”); connoisseurship has 神来之笔 (“a stroke arrived from the gods”) and 入魔 (“possessed”). 神来之笔 points the wrong way — that is delivery from above, Lorca’s muse. 入魔 does come from below, but in Chinese it is a condemnation, the fate of practice gone wrong. duende sits exactly between: a possession that is honored.
The duende is not in the throat: the duende surges up, inside, from the soles of the feet.魔灵不在喉咙里；魔灵是从脚底板，从身体里面，一路涌上来的。（中译） 一位老吉他匠人，经洛尔迦转述 an old guitar master, as quoted by Lorca · 《魔灵的玩法与理论》（布宜诺斯艾利斯讲演） Juego y teoría del duende (Buenos Aires lecture) · 1933
Her technique was flawless for years; the night her voice finally cracked on the high note was the night the duende showed up. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation You can book the best players in the world and still not book duende. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation 西语真词（RAE 在录：精怪义），艺术义是洛尔迦的遗产。 英文写作斜体 duende，通常不译；乐评、剧评里是行话，用对场合它自己会发光。
A real Spanish word (in the RAE, as the imp); the art sense is Lorca’s bequest. In English, italicize duende and leave it untranslated; in music and theater criticism it is the trade’s own word, and in the right room it glows unaided.