Woman is the Nigger of the World

John Lennon and Yoko Ono Lennon

Woman is the nigger of the world
Yes she is...think about it
Woman is the nigger of the world
Think about it...do something about it

We make her paint her face and dance
If she won’t be a slave, we say that she don’t love us
If she’s real, we say she’s trying to be a man
While putting her down we pretend that she is above us

Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don’t believe me take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slave of the slaves
Ah yeah...better scream about it

We make her bear and raise our children
And then we leave her flat for being a fat old mother hen
We tell her home is the only place she should be
Then we complain that she’s too unworldly to be our friend

Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don’t believe me, take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slave to the slaves
Yeh (think about it)

We insult her everyday on TV
And wonder why she has no guts or confidence
When she’s young we kill her will to be free
While telling her not to be so smart we put her down for being so dumb

Woman is the nigger of the world...yes she is
If you don’t believe me, take a look to the one you’re with
Woman is the slaves to the slaves
Yes she is...if you believe me, you better scream about it.

Repeat:

We make her paint her face and dance
We make her paint her face and dance
We make her paint her face and dance


約翰藍濃被暗殺已經二十八年了，他自1970年Beatles披頭四解散之後，和Yoko Ono小野洋子合作出一些驚世駭俗的作品，有一些是經典的反戰鼓吹和平歌曲，像家喻戶曉的Imagine、Power to the People。我一直到去年初才知道這首收錄在1971年發行的"Sometime in New York City"唱片中並被受爭議的Woman Is the Nigger of the World，這樣的歌名實在很難直譯翻得精準，只能牽強地翻成『女人是世上最被奴隸的人種』。如果有更貼切的譯名，請不吝指教！

除了美國黑人自己互相調侃用Nigger(非常不敬的稱呼，比廣東人老是叫人家黑鬼還更輕蔑)以外，其他人種或正式場合已不能用這個字了， 一般都用"n word" 交代過去。Yoko One在60年代寫這首歌詞，John Lennon 發現之後便作成曲子並演唱。不小心聽這歌，真會被N那個字嚇到，當時，一定有很多非州裔美國人無法接受，以常理判斷，比喻女人和黑奴，實在並不洽當，有點語不驚人死不休的矯情，仔細讀過歌詞之後，可以理解John Lennon同情當時女人的社會處境才大膽用Yoko Ono的詞來寫歌，尤其是最後一句重覆的句子"We make her paint her face and dance"一針見血；反觀現在，女人們化妝化到出神入畫、自我陶醉的境地，沒有人會覺得自己是被社會的價值觀和要求鞭策奴隸，這首歌也許只適用在二、三十年前女性還努力尋找自我的年代裏吧，無論如何，也算給已勢微的舊女性主義保留了一個紀念歌曲。