美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Start With Truth And End With Art': Poet Ocean Vuong On His Debut Novel

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

"On Earth We're Briefly¹ Gorgeous" is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Mother's come to Hartford, Conn. after living through a hellscape of war in Vietnam. She goes to work at a nail salon², smokes Marlboro Reds and more than once - more than 20 times - beats her son but tells herself I'm not a monster, I'm a mother. "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous" is the highly awaited, debut³ novel from Ocean Vuong - a T.S. Eliot Prize-winning poet and assistant professor in the MFA program for poets and writers at University of Massachusetts Amherst. He joins us from WFCR in Amherst.

Thanks so much for being with us.

OCEAN VUONG: Thank you, Scott. Glad to be here.

SIMON: Your narrator known as Little Dog has more than a few biographical resemblances to you, doesn't he?

VUONG: Yes, absolutely.

SIMON: So where do you leave off and the character pickup⁴ and vice⁵ versa?

VUONG: They're all intermingled. I think what I wanted, what I hoped to do was to speak to a rich American tradition of autobiography⁶ all the way down to Herman Melville in "Moby-Dick." And so, for myself, I always saw the self in the American space as a potent⁷ moment of fiction. And I wanted to start with truth and end with art as a writer. And that was very important to me.

SIMON: So much of the prose in this book is so vivid, affecting and startling, I would like you to read a paragraph that begins with a description of the hands of Little Dog's mother.

VUONG: Absolutely.

(Reading) Because I am your son what I know of work I know equally of loss. And what I know of both I know of your hands. Their once supple⁸ contours I've never felt, the palms already calloused¹⁰ and blistered¹¹ long before I was born, then ruined further from three decades in factories and nail salons¹². Your hands are hideous¹³, and I hate everything that made them that way.

SIMON: Help us understand, I hate everything that made them that way.

VUONG: Yes, the image, the object that is a mother's hands is also a biography of that person. It marks who they are, where they come from and what they've done - including the cost of raising a child as a single mother in the American landscape. And I think when a son looks at a mother's hands that have been that callous⁹, he realized all the things that led to his actual life, that the hands are evidence that nothing has been easy.

SIMON: One of the most affecting scenes for me, too, is when Little Dog is learning how to read..

VUONG: Right.

SIMON: ...And tries to teach his mother how to read.

VUONG: Right.

SIMON: She doesn't like this role reversal, does she?

VUONG: No. No. And that's the intimate moment between mother and son. He's in a position of power because knowledge is power. And he realizes that if my mother's going to succeed, I have to show her this gift - this almost magic of reading. But that also means the son is now in a different hierarchical space. He's now the one teaching his mother the power dynamic shifts. And as important as it is, she couldn't bear it because that's all she has is this fixed¹⁴ power shift that she always maintained as a mother. And if it means not being able to read, so be it. It was more important to her to remain a mother.

SIMON: I find myself thinking, hoping that Lan, Little Dog's elderly grandmother, might wind up being her own novel on day (laughter).

VUONG: Right, perhaps.

SIMON: Can I say bar girl?

VUONG: Yes.

SIMON: In Vietnam deemed a traitor¹⁵ for consorting¹⁶ with the enemy - what a life.

VUONG: And it's a life that is part of American history. And, you know, that's one of the things the book attempts to recast. Often we think of the refugee or the immigrant is - finds her American identity once she steps on American soil. But in fact, this novel argues that American identity for refugees actually begins the moment American bombs starts to fall on Vietnam. Their Americanness begin as soon as war started to spark in that little country no larger than California.

SIMON: Tensions are created - as Little Dog understands, he's growing up to be, will grow up to be very different from his mother...

VUONG: Right.

SIMON: ...And for that matter, his absent father. Does that make him feel like he's part of some kind of betrayal?

VUONG: I think so. I think so. I think one of the most perennial¹⁷ questions for any immigrant but particularly an immigrant like Little Dog who's attempting to write not only about his life but the lives of those he loves is that to write about them is to both betray them and preserve them at once. And it's a paradox¹⁸ that many first and second generation immigrants must confront. And often there are no ways to come to terms with it except to embrace that fact and that project.

SIMON: And help us understand when Little Dog's mother says I'm not a monster, I'm a mother.

VUONG: It's her way of trying to recast herself in the story but also a moment of self-awareness that she knows that she suffers from PTSD, from the war and that led to a lot of abuse and trauma¹⁹ and difficulty. And that - there's a moment where she says I am still your mother. The fact that I gave birth to you that will never change. Actually that moment, to me, feels the most motherly. It's that reminder²⁰ that a woman makes to her child that don't forget you're here because of me, that I'm not a monster regardless of what I've done.

SIMON: I was deeply moved when she tells him - this woman who can't read - you have a belly²¹ full of English you have to use it.

VUONG: Right.

SIMON: May I ask? Can your mother read your books, your poems?

VUONG: She doesn't. She struggles with it, and she's - you know, she spent her whole life working in factories and nail salons. And she told me herself when I started writing she says you go on. You do this work. My time was all for you. And I think I tried to honor that by writing the best sentences that I can.

SIMON: Ocean Vuong, his debut novel published in 15 languages is "On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous," thank you so much for being with us.

VUONG: Thank you so much, Scott.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

2 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

3 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

4 pickup   

n.拾起，获得

参考例句：

• I would love to trade this car for a pickup truck.我愿意用这辆汽车换一辆小型轻便卡车。||The luck guy is a choice pickup for the girls.那位幸运的男孩是女孩子们想勾搭上的人。

5 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

6 autobiography   

n.自传

参考例句：

• He published his autobiography last autumn.他去年秋天出版了自己的自传。
• His life story is recounted in two fascinating volumes of autobiography.这两卷引人入胜的自传小说详述了他的生平。

7 potent   

adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的

参考例句：

• The medicine had a potent effect on your disease.这药物对你的病疗效很大。
• We must account of his potent influence.我们必须考虑他的强有力的影响。

8 supple   

adj.柔软的，易弯的，逢迎的，顺从的，灵活的；vt.使柔软，使柔顺，使顺从；vi.变柔软，变柔顺

参考例句：

• She gets along well with people because of her supple nature.她与大家相处很好，因为她的天性柔和。
• He admired the graceful and supple movements of the dancers.他赞扬了舞蹈演员优雅灵巧的舞姿。

9 callous   

adj.无情的，冷淡的，硬结的，起老茧的

参考例句：

• He is callous about the safety of his workers.他对他工人的安全毫不关心。
• She was selfish,arrogant and often callous.她自私傲慢，而且往往冷酷无情。

10 calloused   

adj.粗糙的，粗硬的，起老茧的v.（使）硬结，（使）起茧( callous的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）冷酷无情

参考例句：

• A most practical and emotionally calloused Youth interrupted. 一个非常讲究实际而心肠很硬的年轻人插了一嘴。 来自辞典例句
• McTeague exhibited his hard, calloused palms. 麦克梯格摊开那双生满老茧坚硬的手掌。 来自辞典例句

11 blistered   

adj.水疮状的，泡状的v.（使）起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 )；（使表皮等）涨破，爆裂

参考例句：

• He had a blistered heel. 他的脚后跟起了泡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Their hands blistered, but no one complained. 他们手起了泡，可是没有一个人有怨言。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 salons   

n.（营业性质的）店( salon的名词复数 )；厅；沙龙（旧时在上流社会女主人家的例行聚会或聚会场所）；（大宅中的）客厅

参考例句：

• He used to attend to his literary salons. 他过去常常去参加他的文学沙龙。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Conspiracy theories about Jewish financiers were the talk of Paris salons. 犹太金融家阴谋论成为巴黎沙龙的话题。 来自互联网

13 hideous   

adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的

参考例句：

• The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
• They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗，是丑陋的畜牲。

14 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

15 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

16 consorting   

v.结伴( consort的现在分词 )；交往；相称；调和

参考例句：

• He' d been consorting with known criminals. 他一直与那些臭名昭着的罪犯有交往。 来自辞典例句
• Mr. Berlusconi's wife publicly accused him of 'consorting with minors' and demanded a divorce. 贝卢斯科尼的妻子公开指责他“与未成年人交往”，并提出离婚。 来自互联网

17 perennial   

adj.终年的；长久的

参考例句：

• I wonder at her perennial youthfulness.我对她青春常驻感到惊讶。
• There's a perennial shortage of teachers with science qualifications.有理科教学资格的老师一直都很短缺。

18 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

19 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

20 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

21 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。