美国国家公共电台 NPR For Egyptian Collector, No Object's Too Dusty Or Trivial For 'Mosaic Of Our History'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

To Cairo now for a story about another collector and collection. Amgad Naguib gathers ephemera - incidents of daily life like ticket stubs or photographs, letters, even disposable toothbrushes. He says these items tell the real history of Egypt. NPR's Jane Arraf visited his overflowing¹ warehouses² and sent us this report.

JANE ARRAF, BYLINE³: I walk into one of Amgad Naguib's storage rooms, and an orange and white cat jumps off the glass shelf crowded with old alarm clocks. The clocks all show different times. For Naguib, the point isn't whether they work. He just loves collecting things. He doesn't even know what some of the stuff is. He chooses a bag at random⁴, pulls out a pile of old blueprints⁵.

AMGAD NAGUIB: I love architecture drawings. And some buildings - I have the drawings of the building, which the building has already disappeared, so I have the last trace.

ARRAF: Long ago, his family had beautiful villas⁶ filled with beautiful things. They gave him a lot of it.

NAGUIB: But the stuff they gave me didn't really interest me. It was like silver plates - boring things. I used to go sell them.

ARRAF: His collection is so extraordinary, a Cairo art gallery has put part of it on display. Townhouse Gallery founder⁷ William Wells.

WILLIAM WELLS: So one does actually get a sense of the chaotic⁸ nature of the collection. One can also immediately begin to understand, which is what I wanted, the obsession⁹ of the collector, how the collector ends up collecting collections.

ARRAF: Naguib is as eclectic as his collection. He abandoned a career in finance and opened and closed a restaurant in the Sinai. He was working as a park ranger¹⁰, diving coral reefs when he met the American woman he would marry years later.

To get by, he occasionally reluctantly sells a few things, and he works as a film art director and rents props¹¹ for movies. It's the ephemeral - the fragile, the fleeting¹² and the unloved that Naguib loves.

NAGUIB: You know, I learned the word ephemera from eBay (laughter). And it's our history - you know, mosaic¹³ of our history.

ARRAF: He's passionate¹⁴ about his collection of paper and plastic bags showing the names of items and shops popular in downtown Cairo decades ago. As we walk past a rubber rope made from the coiled tubing of World War II gas masks, it's clear he's passionate about pretty much everything.

NAGUIB: As you see, I like locks and keys and clothes and hats and glasses and lighters¹⁵ and cigarettes and bottles. I like everything. I like tiles. I like architecture pieces. You know, everything is wonderful.

ARRAF: So is there anything you don't collect?

NAGUIB: I don't really care about stamps.

ARRAF: What Naguib loves most is sifting¹⁶ through artifacts to piece together people's lives. He'll sometimes buy the entire contents of an apartment, including the lifetimes of letters and photographs even the clothes and furniture. His collection includes 300 post cards and letters sent to one Egyptian man from 1889 to 1934.

NAGUIB: So I sat - we - me and my wife - you know, reading letters, you know, like, trying to figure out puzzles, you know? Ten years later, someone calls me and said come, I have some of the junk you like.

ARRAF: Naguib went and the first thing he saw in the pile was the business card of the same man whose postcards he and his wife had been poring over. He found photographs of the people they had been reading about in the letters - a woman who eventually became the man's wife and a teacher who had written to him since he was a boy, writing to him for the last time from his deathbed.

At times, he cares more about people's things than their own families do like the formal framed portrait of a German Shepherd. Below it is a chain with 13 tin dog licenses¹⁷, one for every year of the dog's life. The dog's owner had been moved from her elegant apartment to a senior citizens home when her relatives sold her things to Naguib.

NAGUIB: I never met her, but I fell in love with her through like the stuff I got from her. I told them, please, I want to take this German Shepherd. And I go to her room, and I hang it in her room. And the other people didn't really care. Then a few days later, she told me she died. And I attacked them, you know? I told them you killed her. I told them you sold her stuff when she was alive. Why couldn't you wait?

ARRAF: Naguib is a guardian¹⁸ of people's memories.

NAGUIB: Sometimes I sit with some people's collection - photographs or whatever - and I feel their presence. I feel it, you know? And I feel - I talk to them. I tell them don't worry, you know, stuff is sitting here. I saved it, and it's staying. You know, it's not going anywhere.

ARRAF: This is the real unvarnished history of Egypt and its people, Naguib says. In the fading letters and old photos and even plastic bags if you know how to read them. Jane Arraf, NPR News, Cairo.

1 overflowing   

n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The stands were overflowing with farm and sideline products. 集市上农副产品非常丰富。
• The milk is overflowing. 牛奶溢出来了。

2 warehouses   

仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The whisky was taken to bonded warehouses at Port Dundee. 威士忌酒已送到邓迪港的保稅仓库。
• Row upon row of newly built warehouses line the waterfront. 江岸新建的仓库鳞次栉比。

3 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。

4 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

5 blueprints   

n.蓝图，设计图( blueprint的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Have the blueprints been worked out? 蓝图搞好了吗？ 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• BluePrints description of a distributed component of the system design and best practice guidelines. BluePrints描述了一个分布式组件体系的最佳练习和设计指导方针。 来自互联网

6 villas   

别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅

参考例句：

• Magnificent villas are found throughout Italy. 在意大利到处可看到豪华的别墅。
• Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build sea-side villas. 有钱人从富有的罗马来到这儿建造海滨别墅。

7 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

8 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

9 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

10 ranger   

n.国家公园管理员，护林员；骑兵巡逻队员

参考例句：

• He was the head ranger of the national park.他曾是国家公园的首席看守员。
• He loved working as a ranger.他喜欢做护林人。

11 props   

小道具； 支柱( prop的名词复数 )； 支持者； 道具； （橄榄球中的）支柱前锋

参考例句：

• Rescuers used props to stop the roof of the tunnel collapsing. 救援人员用支柱防止隧道顶塌陷。
• The government props up the prices of farm products to support farmers' incomes. 政府保持农产品价格不变以保障农民们的收入。

12 fleeting   

adj.短暂的，飞逝的

参考例句：

• The girls caught only a fleeting glimpse of the driver.女孩们只匆匆瞥了一眼司机。
• Knowing the life fleeting,she set herself to enjoy if as best as she could.她知道这种日子转瞬即逝，于是让自已尽情地享受。

13 mosaic   

n./adj.镶嵌细工的，镶嵌工艺品的，嵌花式的

参考例句：

• The sky this morning is a mosaic of blue and white.今天早上的天空是幅蓝白相间的画面。
• The image mosaic is a troublesome work.图象镶嵌是个麻烦的工作。

14 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

15 lighters   

n.打火机，点火器( lighter的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The cargo is being discharged into lighters. 正在往驳船里卸货。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Babies'bootees and cheap cigarette lighters were displayed in unlikely juxtaposition. 儿童的短靴和廉价的打火机很不相称地陈列在一起。 来自辞典例句

16 sifting   

n.筛，过滤v.筛( sift的现在分词 )；筛滤；细查；详审

参考例句：

• He lay on the beach, sifting the sand through his fingers. 他躺在沙滩上用手筛砂子玩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I was sifting the cinders when she came in. 她进来时，我正在筛煤渣。 来自辞典例句

17 licenses   

n.执照( license的名词复数 )v.批准，许可，颁发执照( license的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Drivers have ten days' grace to renew their licenses. 驾驶员更换执照有10天的宽限期。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Jewish firms couldn't get import or export licenses or raw materials. 犹太人的企业得不到进出口许可证或原料。 来自辞典例句

18 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。