PBS高端访谈:天堂都是再见

JUDY WOODRUFF: Tonight's Brief But Spectacular comes from poet Tongo Eisen-Martin. Born and raised in San Francisco, Eisen-Martin's writing offers a critique of the city's rapid gentrification. The California Book Award winner's latest collection of poems is called Heaven Is All Goodbyes. His story is part of Canvas, our ongoing¹ series on art and culture.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：今晚《简短而精彩》的主人公是诗人马丁。马丁在旧金山出生长大，他的作品探讨了旧金山快速发展的贵族化。马丁曾获得过加州书奖，他最近的一本诗集名为《天堂都是再见》。本期故事是帆布系列艺术与文化报道的部分内容。

TONGO EISEN-MARTIN, Poet: I was born and raised in San Francisco, in an interesting time of transition, a time when the, really the corporatocracy was ascending². In a way, the streets still kind of belonged to us. Institutions still belong to us. It felt like we had the keys to the buildings. Along the way, it all got bought up, and now I'm just in a city that's a strange and permanent occupation, in which even the wealthy seem to be incarcerated³. To walk down the street in the Bay Area is really to walk through a dystopia. In one sense, it feels or it has the facade⁴ of all this kind of aesthetic⁵, even human evolution, but, really, you have people bouncing superfluous⁶ conversation to superfluous conversation, bouncing meal to meal, and the rest of us bouncing tent to tent, a bunch of condos and tent cities. This poem is titled The Course of Meal. Apparently⁷, two months in San Francisco wasn't there in the first place. This dream requires more condemned⁸ Africans or, put another way, state violence rises down, or still life is just getting warmed up, or army life is looking for a new church, and ignored all other suggestions, or folktale writers have not made up their minds as to who is going to be their friends. And this is the worst downtown yet. And I have borrowed a cigarette everywhere.

I have taken many a walk to the back of a bus that led on out the back of a storyteller's prison sentence, then on out the back of slave scars, but this is my comeback face. I left my watch on the public bathroom sink and took the toilet with me, threw it at the first bus I saw eating single mothers half-alive. It flew through the bus line number, then on out the front of the white house, that, hopefully, you find comfort downtown. But, if not, we brought you enough cigarette filters to make a decent winter coat. My role in the Bay Area, besides hanging on for dear life, is to do what I can to transform culture, from one that facilitates domination of oppressed people to one that facilitates resistance. I taught in prisons, youth homeless shelters, youth group homes, even youth psych wards⁹, everywhere our conditions are most wretched. A lot of what I actually pull into my craft, a lot of strategies, I actually pull from other disciplines of art, looking at John Coltrane, looking at a Jimi Hendrix, trying to figure out what made them tick. Playing with ideas, playing with patterns of logic¹⁰ does kind of stand outside of time and doesn't require the same cultural landmarks¹¹ for anybody to engage your ideas and engage your words. So, in that way, a poet's craft lasts a long, long time. My name is Tongo Eisen-Martin, and this is my Brief But Spectacular take on poetry as revolution.

马丁，诗人：我在旧金山出生长大，那是一段有趣的过渡时光，是公司王国崛起的时代。从某种角度来说，街头依然是我们的，一些机构依然是我们的。感觉我们依然有许多建筑的钥匙。在这个过程中，一切都变得商业化，人们处于永恒的占领怪圈中，就连富人也似被困住。在旧金山湾区的街头行走就像走了一遭地狱。从某种程度来说，感觉这里从侧面反映了人们的审美甚至人类的演变。但有的人是在不断地说着废话、不断吃喝，而其余的人只能一直住在帐篷、公寓里。这首诗名为《一顿饭》。显然，在旧金山生活2个月的梦想一开始是没有的。这个梦想需要更多非洲人被谴责，或者说加州的暴力事件要增加，或者所谓生命的说法还在做热身，或者军旅生活在寻找新的教堂，忽视了所有其他建议，民间故事的作家也没想好要把谁当朋友。这里是最差的城市，到处能都借到烟。通过体验公交车后座，我了解了一些人入狱的故事，也了解了奴隶身上伤疤的故事，但这都是我的发现。我把手表落在了公共厕所的洗手池上，去厕所取了回来，扔在了一辆公交车上，因为在那辆车上，我看到了已经半死不活的单身妈妈们。这种现象能透过公交来到白宫面前，然后希望你们能从中寻求一些安慰。但如果不能找到安慰的话，我给你们带来了滤嘴，希望你们能添置一件体面的冬衣。我在湾区的作用除了寻找坚持宝贵的生命外，就是尽我所能转变文化，让文化从压迫人民专为鼓励坚持。在监狱、青少年收容所、青少年组织家庭甚至青少年精神病区乃至所有地方，我们的情况十分可悲。我作品和策略中的很多内容都是从其他艺术领域汲取到的，我会欣赏约翰·柯川、吉米·亨德里克斯的作品，试图找到他们引起共鸣的原因。对想法和逻辑的运用可以超越时间，不需要有同样的文化标签，不需要其他人懂得你的想法和语言。所以，从某种程度来说，诗是可以亘古流传的。我是马丁，这是我本期分享的与诗歌演变有关的《简短而精彩》。

JUDY WOODRUFF: And you can find more Brief But Spectacular pieces on our Web site at PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief.

朱迪·伍德拉夫：其他期节目可戳官网PBS.org/NewsHour/Brief。

1 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

2 ascending   

adj.上升的，向上的

参考例句：

• Now draw or trace ten dinosaurs in ascending order of size.现在按照体型由小到大的顺序画出或是临摹出10只恐龙。

3 incarcerated   

钳闭的

参考例句：

• They were incarcerated for the duration of the war. 战争期间，他们被关在狱中。 来自辞典例句
• I don't want to worry them by being incarcerated. 我不想让他们知道我被拘禁的事情。 来自电影对白

4 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

5 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

6 superfluous   

adj.过多的，过剩的，多余的

参考例句：

• She fined away superfluous matter in the design. 她删去了这图案中多余的东西。
• That request seemed superfluous when I wrote it.我这样写的时候觉得这个请求似乎是多此一举。

7 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

8 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

9 wards   

区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态

参考例句：

• This hospital has 20 medical [surgical] wards. 这所医院有 20 个内科[外科]病房。
• It was a big constituency divided into three wards. 这是一个大选区，下设三个分区。

10 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

11 landmarks   

n.陆标( landmark的名词复数 )；目标；（标志重要阶段的）里程碑 ~ (in sth)；有历史意义的建筑物（或遗址）

参考例句：

• The book stands out as one of the notable landmarks in the progress of modern science. 这部著作是现代科学发展史上著名的里程碑之一。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The baby was one of the big landmarks in our relationship. 孩子的出世是我们俩关系中的一个重要转折点。 来自辞典例句