VOA常速英语2013--德州诗人从警察工作中找到灵感（在线收听）

Texas Poet Finds Inspiration in Police Work 德州诗人从警察工作中找到灵感

HOUSTON — Police are not generally known for their genteel manners and skill at creating metaphors.  But many cops, as  police officers are known, have written books influenced by their law enforcement work.  Still, you don't find many award-winning poets among them and not all that many females.  A woman in Houston, Texas has made her way both as a cop and a lyric poet.

Sarah Cortez draws a crowd to hear poems that touch on everything from sex, love and food to dating fellow police officers.

莎拉·科尔特斯吸引人们聆听涉及两性，爱情，美食到约会警察同僚们的诗歌。

"Your first cop boyfriend, your first handgun.

“你的第一任警察男朋友,你的第一把手枪。

No one else believed in your calling to wear a badge and police the streets," said Sarah Cortez.

没有人相信你会受到召唤戴上警徽维护街头治安。”莎拉·科尔特斯说道。

Sarah Cortez had her law-enforcement calling 20 years ago.

莎拉·科尔特斯20年前曾参与执法工作。

And she still works in uniform as a part-time reserve officer at the Harris County constable's precinct four office.

而且她在哈里斯县治安官第四管区办公室仍然身着制服作为一名兼职预备役警官。

Her experience as a cop is often reflected in her books of poetry and the anthologies she has edited.

她的警察经历常常反映在她自己所编辑的诗集和选集中。 

"I want to reveal the world of policing, the very complex, dangerous and dirty world it is, for my reader," she said.

“我想为我的读者展现警察的世界,非常复杂,极其危险且肮脏不堪的世界,”她说道。

"They knew she must have wanted to miss; ain't that hard to kill someone," she read from one of her books.

“他们知道她一定非常想念,杀死某人并非难事,”她读着自己其中的一本书。

Her gritty reality and sometimes dark humor appeal to readers like Melodie Rodriguez.

她的铁一般的事实及时不时的黑色幽默吸引着像是麦洛迪·罗德里格斯这样的读者。

"The subject that she talks about is very deep and very serious, but she has a spin on it, the humor that she brings to it, so it shows so many different facets," said Rodriguez.

“她谈论的这个话题非常深入,非常细致,但是作者很婉转,由于将幽默元素加入到其中,所以书展示的是许多不同的方面,”罗德里格斯如是评价。

When she teaches creative writing, Cortez stresses the benefits of experiencing something far removed from academic life.

当教授创意写作时,科尔特斯强调经验的好处远远大于学术生活。

"It is absolutely essential to have life experience and work experience and then bring your poetic sensibility or your poet's eye to whatever that is," she said.

“有生活经验和工作经验绝对必要的,然后把你对诗的感性或你诗人的眼睛带入,”她说道。

At home with her husband Gabe, a former firefighter, Sarah Cortez often reflects on experiences that have stayed with her.

和她的消防员丈夫加布在家时,莎拉·科尔特斯常常思考和她在一起的经历。

She wrote one poem about helping to remove the body of an old woman who had died in her home all alone.

她曾经写过一首关于帮助清理一位独自一人死在家中老太太尸体的诗。

"Her cat pacing through rooms, pushing heavy doors open.

“她的猫在屋子里踱步,沉重的大门终被打开。

Mute...The scenes I did not see a week earlier when my own mom died," read Cortez.

沉默…这个场景在一周前我自己的妈妈去世时都不曾看到,“科尔特斯读道。

She says details are important in poems and in police work.

她表示细节对于诗歌和警察工作同样重要。

“One of the most crucial qualities in terms of solving your cases is that you have to pay a lot of attention to detail," she said.

“解决你的案子最关键的就是必须关注大量细节,”她说道。

Police work has provided Sarah Cortez with plenty of details about people who find themselves in a bad situation.

警察的工作为莎拉·科尔特斯提供关于人们发现自己处于一种糟糕局面大量的细节。

"As a poet you are trying to extract the purest essence of what you perceive that situation meant," said Cortez.

“作为一名诗人,你要试图提取自己察觉到情况的最纯净的精髓,”科尔特斯说道。

Because of her writing, Sarah Cortez is in big demand as a public speaker, a teacher and an editor.

因为写作,莎拉·科尔特斯有了公众演说家,教师及编辑的三重工作身份。

But she continues working part time at precinct four, where she finds inspiration as well as personal fulfillment.

但她继续在四区从事兼职工作,在那里她能够发现灵感以及体现个人价值。