美国国家公共电台 NPR Derek Walcott, Who Wrote Of Caribbean Beauty And Bondage, Dies At 87

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

Poet and playwright¹ Derek Walcott has died. Walcott wrote some two dozen books of poetry and an equal number of plays, among them his epic² poem "Omeros" and his Obie-winning drama "Dream On Monkey Mountain." Walcott won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1992 for work that explores the beauty of his Caribbean homeland and its brutal³ colonial history. Derek Walcott died this morning at his home in Cap Estate, St. Lucia. He was 87 years old. Tom Vitale has this appreciation⁴.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE⁵: For most of his life, Derek Walcott taught poetry at universities in the United States, England and Canada. But his work never strayed far from the island where he was born, St. Lucia in the West Indies.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

DEREK WALCOTT: Islands hissing⁶ in the rain. Light rain and governments falling. Follow through cloud again the bittern's lonely calling. Can this be the right place? These islands of the blest, cheap package tours replaced by politics, rain, unrest? The edge-erasing...

VITALE: In 1984, when he was teaching at Boston University, Derek Walcott told me that a book-length poem like "Midsummer" was a natural extension of the language all around him.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

WALCOTT: You would get some fantastic syntactical phenomena⁷. I mean, you would hear people talking in Barbados in the exact melody of a minor⁸ character in Shakespeare because here you had a thing that was not immured⁹ and preserved and mummified, but a voluble language - very active, very swift, very sharp. And that is going on still in all the languages in the Caribbean so that you didn't make yourself a poet. You entered a situation in which there was poetry.

VITALE: Derek Walcott's father was a poet and painter. He died when Derek was an infant. His mother was a school teacher who recited Shakespeare to him. He borrowed $200 to publish his first book of poetry when he was 19, and he sold it on street corners. Then he attended the University of the College of West Indies on a scholarship.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WALCOTT: When I went to college - when I read, you know, Shakespeare or Dickens or Scott, I just felt that as a citizen of England - a British citizen, this was as much my heritage as any schoolboy's. You know, I mean, that was one of the things the empire taught that apart from citizenship¹⁰, the synonymous inheritance of the citizenship was the literature.

DAVID BIESPIEL: He sort of represents an elegant West Indies murmur¹¹ against history's violent colonial narrative¹² of bondage¹³.

VITALE: David Biespiel is a literary critic and author of a book on poetry called "A Long High Whistle."

BIESPIEL: His poems expose the discrepancy¹⁴ between, you know, blooming flowers and sparkling waters with these island economies built on a violent history of sugar plantations¹⁵ and slavery and forced labor¹⁶. It's kind of grandeur¹⁷ mixed in with imprisonment¹⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WALCOTT: The world had no time to change to a doorman's braid from the loincloths of Africa. So when the stores draw their blinds, like an empire's ending, and the banks fade like the peaks of the Hindu Kush, a cloaked wind bent¹⁹ like a scavenger²⁰ rakes the trash in the gutters²¹.

VITALE: In all of his work, Walcott fused his classical education with the language and history of the Caribbean. Critic David Biespiel says the result was poetry of the highest order.

BIESPIEL: I think people will be reading Derek Walcott as long as we've been reading John Milton.

VITALE: The energy to write, said Derek Walcott, came from being part of a generation of Caribbean writers who were the first to describe the world outside their doorsteps.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WALCOTT: I go back to St. Lucia, and the exhilaration I feel is not simply an exhilaration of homecoming and of nostalgia²², it is almost an irritation²³ feeling - well, you never got it right. I mean, now you have another chance. Maybe you can try and look harder.

VITALE: Many would say Derek Walcott did get it right.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WALCOTT: My palms have been sliced by the twine²⁴ of the craft I have pulled out for more than 40 years. My Ionia is the smell of burnt grass, the scorched²⁵ handle of a cistern²⁶ in August squeaking²⁷ to rusty²⁸ islands. The lines I love have all their knots left in.

VITALE: For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF JOSHUA HYSLOP SONG, "INSTRUMENTAL")

1 playwright   

n.剧作家，编写剧本的人

参考例句：

• Gwyn Thomas was a famous playwright.格温·托马斯是著名的剧作家。
• The playwright was slaughtered by the press.这位剧作家受到新闻界的无情批判。

2 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

3 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

4 appreciation   

n.评价；欣赏；感谢；领会，理解；价格上涨

参考例句：

• I would like to express my appreciation and thanks to you all.我想对你们所有人表达我的感激和谢意。
• I'll be sending them a donation in appreciation of their help.我将送给他们一笔捐款以感谢他们的帮助。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 hissing   

n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The steam escaped with a loud hissing noise. 蒸汽大声地嘶嘶冒了出来。
• His ears were still hissing with the rustle of the leaves. 他耳朵里还听得萨萨萨的声音和屑索屑索的怪声。 来自汉英文学 - 春蚕

7 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

8 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

9 immured   

v.禁闭，监禁( immure的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was like a prisoner so long immured that freedom dazes him. 她象一个长年累月被关闭的囚犯，自由使她迷乱茫然。 来自辞典例句
• He immured himself in a small room to work undisturbed. 他自己关在小屋里埋头工作，以免受到骚扰。 来自辞典例句

10 citizenship   

n.市民权，公民权，国民的义务(身份)

参考例句：

• He was born in Sweden,but he doesn't have Swedish citizenship.他在瑞典出生，但没有瑞典公民身分。
• Ten years later,she chose to take Australian citizenship.十年后，她选择了澳大利亚国籍。

11 murmur   

n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言

参考例句：

• They paid the extra taxes without a murmur.他们毫无怨言地交了附加税。
• There was a low murmur of conversation in the hall.大厅里有窃窃私语声。

12 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

13 bondage   

n.奴役，束缚

参考例句：

• Masters sometimes allowed their slaves to buy their way out of bondage.奴隶主们有时允许奴隶为自己赎身。
• They aim to deliver the people who are in bondage to superstitious belief.他们的目的在于解脱那些受迷信束缚的人。

14 discrepancy   

n.不同；不符；差异；矛盾

参考例句：

• The discrepancy in their ages seemed not to matter.他们之间年龄的差异似乎没有多大关系。
• There was a discrepancy in the two reports of the accident.关于那次事故的两则报道有不一致之处。

15 plantations   

n.种植园，大农场( plantation的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Soon great plantations, supported by slave labor, made some families very wealthy. 不久之后出现了依靠奴隶劳动的大庄园，使一些家庭成了富豪。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• Winterborne's contract was completed, and the plantations were deserted. 维恩特波恩的合同完成后，那片林地变得荒废了。 来自辞典例句

16 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

17 grandeur   

n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华

参考例句：

• The grandeur of the Great Wall is unmatched.长城的壮观是独一无二的。
• These ruins sufficiently attest the former grandeur of the place.这些遗迹充分证明此处昔日的宏伟。

18 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

19 bent   

n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的

参考例句：

• He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
• We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。

20 scavenger   

n.以腐尸为食的动物，清扫工

参考例句：

• He's just fit for a job as scavenger.他只配当个清道夫。
• He is not a scavenger nor just a moving appetite as some sharks are.它不是食腐动物，也不像有些鲨鱼那样，只知道游来游去满足食欲。

21 gutters   

（路边）排水沟( gutter的名词复数 )； 阴沟； （屋顶的）天沟； 贫贱的境地

参考例句：

• Gutters lead the water into the ditch. 排水沟把水排到这条水沟里。
• They were born, they grew up in the gutters. 他们生了下来，以后就在街头长大。

22 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

23 irritation   

n.激怒，恼怒，生气

参考例句：

• He could not hide his irritation that he had not been invited.他无法掩饰因未被邀请而生的气恼。
• Barbicane said nothing,but his silence covered serious irritation.巴比康什么也不说，但是他的沉默里潜伏着阴郁的怒火。

24 twine   

v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕

参考例句：

• He tied the parcel with twine.他用细绳捆包裹。
• Their cardboard boxes were wrapped and tied neatly with waxed twine.他们的纸板盒用蜡线扎得整整齐齐。

25 scorched   

烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦

参考例句：

• I scorched my dress when I was ironing it. 我把自己的连衣裙熨焦了。
• The hot iron scorched the tablecloth. 热熨斗把桌布烫焦了。

26 cistern   

n.贮水池

参考例句：

• The cistern is empty but soon fills again.蓄水池里现在没水，但不久就会储满水的。
• The lavatory cistern overflowed.厕所水箱的水溢出来了

27 squeaking   

v.短促地尖叫( squeak的现在分词 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• Squeaking floorboards should be screwed down. 踏上去咯咯作响的地板应用螺钉钉住。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Can you hear the mice squeaking? 你听到老鼠吱吱叫吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

28 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。