美国国家公共电台 NPR--Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider in 'Singing with Elephants'

Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider in 'Singing with Elephants'

Transcript¹

The Cuban American author Margarita Engle explores what it's like to be an outsider in her new middle-grade novel Singing with Elephants.

the cover of 'Singing with Elephants'

Viking Books for Young Readers

Oriol, her 11-year-old Cuban-born protagonist², leaves the island nation as her family makes the move to Santa Barbara, Calif. She's learning English. Her playmates are the animals at her parents' veterinary clinic. When she befriends the diplomat³ Gabriela Mistral, who also happens to be the real-life winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, her world opens up even more.

Engle tells Morning Edition she wanted to imagine how it would feel for a child to live near an accomplished⁴ poet and to wonder if she could write poetry too. Singing with Elephants is told in verse.

Interview highlights

On interspersing⁵ English and Spanish throughout the story:

I've done that all along, with all of my verse novels. Ten years ago, publishers put the Spanish in italics so people didn't really think of it as bilingual in the same way, because the Spanish was kind of separated by the italics. But that's no longer the publishing tradition. Now they're just used as equal languages, the way they are in our minds — If we know them both and we think in them both, we don't stop to replace an English word with a Spanish word. They just run together freely but it's the way bilingual people think.

I don't want anybody to feel left out. Someone who doesn't read Spanish, I would hope that it's clear enough in the context where I wouldn't lose the ability to communicate with children who only read English.

On how difficult it can be to fit in when English isn't your first language:

This book is set in 1947. My mother came to the United States as an immigrant to marry my father in 1948 and she didn't know English. My father only knew English. My mother only knew Spanish. They had met in Cuba but they were artists so they passed pictures back and forth⁶ to get to know each other. It was love at first sight. They communicated without knowing the same language but as my mother learned English, she had a very heavy accent and still does to this day at the age of 91. People made fun of her accent, so I kind of put some of that into this story.

On how poetry can bridge divides:

There are children in every classroom learning a language — whether it's English or not. Everywhere in the world with refugees dispersed⁷, people are learning new languages and adapting to new homes. I grew up with both languages in the home. But for me, poetry is also a way around that, because poetry is musical and music is a universal language. And I think that we can enjoy that music even when we don't understand every word.

On how transformative writing can be when exploring identity:

As we mature and then go to school and encounter people from all different backgrounds, it's kind of a shock for anybody in any language to seek a sense of belonging with people who aren't from your family, people you don't know. And yet there are these universal languages, like poetry, which is musical and is rooted in emotions. And I feel like that's a refuge.

For me, when I think of where have I ever had a sense of belonging, I have a sense of belonging on the page. That might sound strange, but my favorite line of poetry is by a Cuban poet — Dulce María Loynaz, "In my verse I am free" and that's how I feel. In my verse, I am free. And that is where I find a sense of refuge. And I hope that young readers — not just the young children who would read Singing With Elephants that's written for middle grade — but also teenagers, they would find a sense of refuge in poetry and be able to write their own as well as have a safe place for those emotions.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

3 diplomat   

n.外交官，外交家；能交际的人，圆滑的人

参考例句：

• The diplomat threw in a joke, and the tension was instantly relieved.那位外交官插进一个笑话，紧张的气氛顿时缓和下来。
• He served as a diplomat in Russia before the war.战前他在俄罗斯当外交官。

4 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

5 interspersing   

v.散布，散置( intersperse的现在分词 )；点缀

参考例句：

6 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

7 dispersed   

adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的

参考例句：

• The clouds dispersed themselves. 云散了。
• After school the children dispersed to their homes. 放学后，孩子们四散回家了。