Every piece you read about Ed Sheeran will make sure to hit two key branding points. 1) He is hugely successful. Like, multiplatinum in an era where people don't go multiplatinum any more successful. 2) He is a very nice guy.
你所阅读的关于Ed Sheeran的一切不可能不包含以下两个品牌式论点：1. 他非常成功，比如说，唱片卖到多白金认证，这个时代没人能超过这个成就了；2. 他是个好男孩。

Around the time of the release of his second album, X, Parade ran a profile of the Taylor Swift BFF and recent Best New Artist Grammy nominee in which, by the second paragraph, the affable songwriter takes a selfie with a starstruck teenage fan, and then mentions that he once wrote a hit song about a woman he met at a homeless shelter. What a mensch, right?
大概在他的第二张专辑《X》发行的时候，Parade杂志给这位Taylor Swift闺蜜团成员兼格莱美最佳新人提名者写了份简历。在文章第二段，这位亲民的唱作歌手跟他的狂热青少年粉丝自拍合影留念，然后提到他说曾经为一个在收容所见到的女人写过一首歌。多棒的男孩啊！
The piece goes on to mention his many famous pals (Courtney Cox, Usher) and how unfazed he is by all his success. It does not compare him to Rupert Grint cosplaying Dashboard Confessional, which seems like a lost opportunity.
这篇文章随后提到了他的明星朋友们（Courtney Cox, Usher），还有他如何做到没被成名困扰的。不过这里似乎错过了一个机会，没把他和Dashboard Confessional的扮演者Rupert Grint做对比。
（Parade文章地址：https://parade.com/306802/davidbrowne/ed-sheeran-on-screaming-fans-famous-friends-taylor-swift-courteney-cox-and-the-secret-to-his-success-being-polite/ ）

We get to learn about the time last year when, after a Grammy party, Sheeran and his bros trashed a hotel room. The next morning, "he recalls with a sheepish grin, 'I literally de-trashed my room and put it back to normal.'" Sheeran, the piece goes on to assert, "is all too aware that, if he misbehaves or insults someone, the news could easily make TMZ or Twitter—and result in lost record sales. 'It’s the time of being polite,' he says."
然后我们知道了去年格莱美派对之后，Sheeran和他的小伙伴们住了一晚上宾馆。他带着含羞的笑容回忆道：“第二天早上，我‘de-trash’了我们房间，把它整理得一干二净。”这篇文章接着说，因为他太清楚了，这种时候要是有一点做得不对，就会被TMZ或者Twitter大肆报道，然后他们就得少卖唱片了。“这种时候需要有礼貌。”他说道。

The Ed Sheeran Nice Guy Brand promises the consumer that the lovelorn troubadour is sensitive, nerdy (the above profile took place at a toy store), and won't break your heart like those other boys. But one listen to X reveals that he's not as far away from the macho types that unapologetically trash hotel rooms as he'd like you to think.
Ed Sheeran的好男孩品牌，确保了人们觉得这位相思病吟游诗人是多愁善感、傻里傻气的（摘自一个玩具店的宣传语），不会像别的男孩一样伤你的心。但听完《X》你会觉得，他还是没达到他想要的效果，让自己跟那种不收拾宾馆就走人的抠脚大汉隔开十万八千里的效果。

Take, for example, the very first lines on X, from the lightly plucked acoustic "One":
"Tell me that you'll turn down the man
Who asks for your hand
Cause you're waiting for me
And I know, you're gonna be away a while
But I've got no plans at all to leave
And would you take away my hopes and dreams?
Just stay with me"
比如说，就拿《X》第一首歌，轻盈民谣风格的One里的开头几句来说：
“告诉我你拒绝了那个男人
那个想拉起你的手的人
因为你在等候着我
并且我也知道
你将离开一段时光
但我却没有到任何地方的计划
你是否会就这样带走我的希望和梦想
并且就这样和我共度时光”
（翻译摘自云音乐，贡献者：抹霉SU）

The feminist action website Shakesville defines "Nice Guy™", please note the quote marks and TradeMark symbol, as "a guy who tells you, in a bitter, resentful tone, that women don't date 'nice guys' they only date 'bad boys,' and because he's 'too nice,' women only view him as a friend."
女权运动网站Shakesville对“好男孩™”的定义（请注意TM标志）：用一种挖苦的语调告诉你“女人都不爱好男孩，她们只爱坏男孩”的男生。并且因为他“太好”了，女生只得认他为朋友。
The archetypical Nice Guy Song tends to go something like this: I am a wonderful, sensitive snowflake, noble and pure, but you do not see this, as you have been tricked by this shallow, shallow world and by what's his name with the pecs. I am nice and special, and I deserve to have you, and by have you I mean have glorious, glorious sex with you, because, again, I am nice and special, and one day you will see what a dumb bitch you are being, and until then I'll be waiting right here. Patiently. Oh, so patiently.
这首典型的好男孩之歌告诉你的就是这个意思：“我是那雪花飞舞翩翩，纯净无瑕你却看不见，世俗把你的视线遮掩，还有他的名字和脸蛋。我像溪流穿过这世间，值得你品味的清甜甘泉，若你愿与我共享此夜，那将使我荣耀无边。噢，我是清流穿过这世间，你的傻自己却看不见，但我还是会耐心等待，为你而等待，直到永远。”

Or, as Mr. Sheeran raps on his song "The Man", and yes I said raps:
"Now I don't wanna hate you
Just wish you'd never gone for the man
And waited two weeks at least
Before you let him take you
I stayed true, I kind of knew
You liked the dude from private school."
或者，感受一下Sheeran先生在The Man里的饶舌功底：
“我不想恨你
只是希望你永远不会跟那个人走
至少等过两周再说
在你让他牵你手之前
我一直真心对你，虽然我知道
你喜欢这个上私立学校的花花公子”
Then he goes on to say:
"But fuck it
I won't be changing the subject; I love it
I'll make your little secret public
It's nothing, I'm just disgusted with the skeletons
You sleep with in your closet."
他接着说：
“但是，我也不会为你改变我爱的一切
或者我会公开你的小秘密，这没什么
我只是讨厌你床边的那个骷髅装饰”

I know, but let's move on to the end and not focus on that tortured metaphor. He then goes on to namedrop a Bon Iver song, promises that he's more celibate than a monastery for her (though it's unclear if this was ever requested), and boasts:
"Cause I still love you and I need you by my side
The irony is if my career and music didn't exist
In six years, yeah, you'd probably be my wife with a kid."
Someone got told.
唉我懂，但咱们跳过这段痛苦的比喻继续往下看吧。他之后提到了一首Bon Iver的歌，然后保证自己会比僧人还清规戒律（尽管不知道他会不会被如此要求），然后吹嘘道：
“因为我还爱着你，我需要你在我身边
讽刺的是如果我放弃事业和音乐
在这六年里你说不定已经是我的妻子，甚至还有小孩”
懂了吧。
（以上三段翻译摘自云音乐，贡献者：Lolivia_Lo）

Of course, nice guys can only deal with so much rejection before they start acting like a regular old guy, and then we end up with something like Ed's worldwide smash single "Don't", the chorus of which is "Don't fuck with my love/ That heart is so cold." I could quote the song further, but would you really want me to?
当然，好男孩在蜕变为正常老男人的过程中，会遭到很多次拒绝，其结果就是Ed全球热单Don't里唱的那样：“别糟蹋我的爱/那颗心太凉”。再往下，往下我还能接着引用这段歌词，但你想看？
While the agitated crusaders for ethical reform in video game journalism dominated most of this year's discussion, re: unfettered male privilege run amok, the Nice Guys™ made a nice showing for themselves this past year, but then again, they always do.
当那些像电子游戏里说的“正义之师”、暴力满天飞的直男癌占据了去年讨论区的主版面的时候，好男孩™在过去的一年表现相当好。话说回来，他们每年表现都很好。

It was there in Nico & Vinz' international hit "Am I Wrong" (Sample lyric: "So am I wrong/ For thinking that we could be something for real?/ Now am I wrong/ For trying to reach the things that I can't see?"), it was there in Sam Smith's "Like I Can" ("Why are you looking down all the wrong roads?/ When mine is the heart and the salt of the soul") and it was there in "W.D.Y.W.F.M" ("What Do You Want From Me") by the Neighbourhood, aka proof that every generation gets the Third Eye Blind that it deserves. I'd go into the lyrics, but you saw the title. I'm sure you get it.
Nico & Vinz的全球热单Am I Wrong，Sam Smith的Like I Can，还有Neighbourhood的W.D.Y.W.F.M，共同证明了每个年代都有属于他们的Third Eye Blind。我会去探究歌词，但你看一眼标题就能明白些什么了。
If we'd done this a few years ago, I think I'd have even more popular examples to work with, but recently it seems that the pop audience has begun to lose patience with male performers. No fucking wonder.
如果放到几年前，我相信我还能举出更流行的例子，但近几年流行听众似乎已经对男歌手失去耐心了。真他妈一点不奇怪。

I don't like any of the songs I mentioned above. And sure, it's fair play to say "well, yeah, of course you don't, you have strong opinions on what should have been on Pitchfork's Year End List," but pop music is supposed to reroute your brain and make you like it even when you don't want to like it. This is a feat that Sheeran's songwriting, which sounds like an unholy alliance between Simply Red and G. Love and Special Sauce (but, like, really white) was unable to achieve.
我不喜欢上面提到的任何一首歌，当然，你也可以说“那是啊，你对Pitchfork年榜上的东西才有兴趣”。但流行音乐应该是，它能给你的大脑带来全新感受，即使你以为你不会喜欢它，一旦听上还是会喜欢。这就是作为弱化版Simply Red加（非常白的白人版）G. Love and Special Sauce的Ed Sheeran完成不了的事情。

But this begs the question, could I possibly like music told from the morally toxic nice guy viewpoint if the songs were better? Jesus, of course I could. And I bet you could as well.
但我们假设，还是由这些白莲好男孩来写歌，但写得比这好，你会喜欢吗？天啊，那简直太能了。我保证你也能。
It's worth pointing out, first and foremost, that only really pious assholes and aging Bob Dylan fans listen to music purely for moral gratification and to have their world view ratified. It's an uncomfortable but inarguable fact that the listening public is willing to embrace some deeply dubious attitudes when they're delivered with enough panache, and from Axl Rose to Mick Jagger to Future, we love ourselves some magnificent bastards, even if, in the art anyway, they make it clear that they're also just bastards-bastards. How else can you explain that, 18 years after their last great album, many people you know were willing to give that new Weezer album a shot?
首先要指出的是，只有那些虔诚的道德信徒和Bob Dylan的老年粉丝才是纯粹为了追求世界观去听歌。有点难以接受但必须承认的事实是，听众是喜欢听一些道德沦丧但花枝招展的歌的。从Axl Rose到Mick Jagger到Future，我们爱这样的一些堕落分子，即使他们声称他们只是为了艺术而“堕落”而已。要么你怎么解释，Weezer发行上一张好专辑已经是18年前的事了，但人们还是愿意听他们的新专？
*18年前指1996年的Pinkerton；新专指Everything Will Be Alright in the End。

But there's more to it than the old "it just sounds good, man, don't overthink it" bon mot that we repeated in the '90s every time Death Row released another album. There is value to lyric writing that reveals some ugly shit, and not just because it provides a handy "do not date a person that does this" guide. Just because you're writing about nice guys doesn't always mean you like nice guys, and just because you're writing about yourself doesn't mean you like yourself.
90年代每次Death Row唱片发行一张专辑，“好听就行，别管太多”这句至理名言就被拿出来用，但现在不是这种情况了。当歌词的价值被评估，有一些丑陋的东西会被揭露出来。不是因为他告诉你别跟哪种哪种人约会，而是因为你写好男孩不代表你喜欢好男孩，你写你自己不代表你喜欢你自己。

Sometimes being a nice guy is a phase you have to go through before you see how much of a shithead you're being. Though he didn't write the song, Lou Barlow grabbed the Nice Guy™ crown for the rest of eternity when he took a then rare vocal turn on another song called "Don't", the last song on Dinosaur Jr.'s seminal album Bug. The lyrics to this song are, famously, "why don't you like me," repeated ad nauseam, and they probably aren't even about a lady (that band had issues back then), but artists only have a certain amount of say about how their work gets to be interpreted.
有时候，做一个好男孩是通往“你意识到你现在是何等白痴”的必经之路。Dinosaur Jr.乐队的Lou Barlow凭借在他们分水岭专辑Bug里，抓住少有的开口机会，唱了一首刚好也叫Don't的歌，戴上了“好男孩之王”的皇冠，尽管这首歌不是他写的。这首歌的歌词很有名，“你为什么不喜欢我”重复N遍直到呕吐。他们指的可能甚至不是一位女士（当时他们遇到了一些官司），但艺人们本意想说的内容肯定没有很多。（这里有点翻译困难）