She has been watched by more than 20.2 million people (and counting) on YouTube, Twittered about by Demi and Ashton, admired by the bloggerati, snapped by the paparazzi, swarmed by camera crews, interrogated by reporters and restyled, sort of, for American television.
YouTube上有2020萬人看她，黛咪摩爾和艾希頓庫奇上推特去碎碎唸，布落客文人也不乏仰慕她的粉絲，大批狗仔不停偷拍，攝影師也一群群蜂擁而上，記者問東問西，她還為了上美國電視節目多少重新做了點造型。
But now Susan Boyle, the middle-aged church volunteer whose soaring performance of “I Dreamed a Dream” on a British talent show turned her into the world’s newest instant celebrity, is trying to catch her breath.
但現在蘇珊‧波伊兒這位已邁入不惑之年、原在教會當義工的中年大嬸，因為在英國電視選秀節目上演唱〈我曾有夢〉而驚艷全場，使她瞬間成為全世界最新最紅火的人，她希望能喘口氣。
“All the attention has been quite an upheaval, and she is quite tired,”Susan Boyle’s brother, John, told reporters recently outside her tiny pebbledash cottage in previously unexciting Blackburn, Scotland.“I have taken her away to let her have some peace and quiet before the next round.”
「這一切注意力是她這一生相當大的劇變，她很累，」蘇珊大嬸的兄弟約翰最近在她位於蘇格蘭原本鳥不生蛋的布萊克本一幢鵝卵石砌的小屋外告訴記者。「我帶她去避避風頭，以便在下回合開始前能找回一些平靜。」
“The next round” refers, of course, to “Britain’s Got Talent,” in which the unglamorous, unfashionable Boyle, 47, confounded a multitude of stereotypes by unveiling her gorgeous singing voice. Part of the joy of watching her performance was seeing the obnoxious, smarmy grimaces disappear from the faces of Simon Cowell and Piers Morgan, two of the show’s judges, and seeing the audience shift, in an instant, from tittering condescension to open-mouthed admiration.
「下回合」當然是指《英國版星光大道》，在這個選秀節目上，47歲貌不驚人、趕不上流行的蘇珊大嬸，唱出天籟般的美聲而顛覆傳統的刻板印象。看她表演，部分快樂來自眼看著節目兩位評審考威爾和摩根原本可憎虛假的嘴臉消失，同時看到現場觀眾的態度剎那間從輕蔑竊笑變成瞠目結舌、充滿崇拜。
Susan Boyle is unmarried (and unkissed, she told the program), has no job, lives with her cat, Pebbles and has until now sung mostly in her local church. But she has become a heroine not only to people dreaming of being catapulted from obscurity to fame but also to those who cheer her triumph over looks-ism and ageism in a world that so values youth and beauty.
蘇珊大嬸未婚（照她上節目所說，甚至沒接吻過），沒有工作，跟她的貓咪鵝卵石同住，在此之前大半在當地教會唱聖歌。但她不只成為那些夢想一夕成名的芸芸眾生心目中的偶像，那些為她戰勝這個以貌取人和歧視老年人、只注重年輕美貌的世界，也為她喝采。
Her life has changed irrevocably. The show has provided her with a publicist, whose job is to run interference and field basic questions, like, Is Boyle available for an interview (No is the answer.) But though the storms are gathering, they will have to gather in a contained manner for Boyle’s next chance of appearing “Britain’s Got Talent” does not come until May 23, the semifinal round. Nor, according to the contract that all contestants sign, may Boyle speak to potential managers or begin negotiating a recording deal until the show is finished.
她的生活已經改變，無可挽回。這個選秀節目為她請了一位公關，她的工作是保護她以免遭到干擾及回答問題，例如，波伊兒有空接受訪問嗎？（答案是沒空。）但雖然山雨欲來，風暴只能緩緩醞釀，因為蘇珊大嬸要到5月23日才會再上《英國版星光大道》，參加準決賽。而根據和所有參賽者簽的約，選秀節目結束前，蘇珊大嬸不能和未來可能的經紀人洽談或開始談唱片約。
Boyle’s revelatory performance brings to mind one from the series’s first season, in 2007. That time, Paul Potts, a tubby, dentally challenged, cripplingly shy Welsh cellphone salesman walked onstage and, looking as if he were about to cry, announced that he wanted to “sing opera.” He went on to win the competition, sell two million copies of his first album, embark on a worldwide tour and inspire Prime Minister Gordon Brown to declare that he proved that “Britain really does have huge amounts of talent.”
蘇珊大嬸真情流露的演唱，讓人想起這個選秀節目2007年第一季播出時，身材矮胖、牙齒長得很抱歉、極度害羞的威爾斯手機推銷員波茲。他當時上場後，一副好像快哭出來的樣子，宣布他「想唱歌劇」。最後他贏得比賽，第一張專輯就熱賣兩百萬張，並展開全球巡迴演唱，當時英國首相布朗還出面宣布，他已經證明「英國真的人才濟濟」。
Susan Boyle’s performance has been significant in that it has unexpectedly provoked a debate about prejudice against the not so young and not so beautiful. The contradictions in the situation seem encapsulated by the fact that the third “Britain’s Got Talent” judge, Amanda Holden — who is lovely, 38, artfully put together and seemingly unable to move her face to register surprise — said that Boyle should resist submitting to a Hollywood-style makeover. “The minute we turn her into a glamourpuss is when it’s spoilt,” she said.
蘇珊大嬸的演唱最有意義的，莫過於它無意間引發一場對不太年輕又不太美的參賽者的偏見的論辯。這種情況矛盾之處似乎具體而微的蘊含在第三屆《英國版星光大道》評審阿嫚妲‧何登身上。她今年38歲，整張臉幾乎都是整容拼湊出來的，好像連要擠出意外的表情都很困難，但她表示，蘇珊大嬸不應走好萊塢路線改變造型。她說：「一旦她變成煙視媚行、容貌動人的女人，就玩完了。」
Recently, Boyle’s hair newly curled and her brows newly plucked, she appeared stunned, wooden, nearly monosyllabic and barely able to open her eyes when she was a guest on “The Early Show”on CBS. It was only when she began to sing “I Dreamed a Dream,”a capella, that she looked at the camera, and her personality seemed to flood into her.
蘇珊大嬸最近上CBS《晨間節目》當特別來賓時，她的頭髮重新燙得卷卷的，眉毛也重新修拔過，她看來好像不知所措、呆若木雞，只能三言兩語回答問題，眼睛幾乎張不開，直到她清唱〈我曾有夢〉，她才看著鏡頭，整個人也好像活過來了。
The feminist writer Letty Cottin Pogrebin said that she had e-mailed copies of the original YouTube clip, with the subject line“Ageism Be Damned,”to the people on her “Women’s Issues”e-mail list. Many of the women who saw it, she said, wept as they watched. The audience and judges“were initially blinded by entrenched stereotypes of age, class, gender and Western beauty standards,”she added,“until her book was opened, and everybody saw what was inside.”
女性主義作家萊緹‧柯亭‧波葛利本表示，她曾email好幾份原始的YouTube影帶給她「女性問題」的email讀者，題為「老年歧視去死吧」。她說，很多女人看了之後都哭了。觀眾和評審「原本被年紀、階級、性別和西方美女標準等根深柢固的刻板印象所矇蔽，直到打開她這本書才驚覺內容有多豐富。」
Photo shows Susan Boyle appearing on the British talent show before undergoing a makeover on April 24, 2009.
圖為蘇珊‧波伊兒（路透）4月29日改變造型前參加英國選秀節目的檔案照。