2005年NPR美国国家公共电台八月-Treasures, Both Personal and National

Now poet Ruth Forman would like to make some nominations¹ of her own.

Let us name our national treasures, current as today's newspaper. Come, let us name our national treasures: our uncles, our teachers, our lovers of the soul, much as we name our criminals. The ones so sweet generous they urge our own uniqueness to seep² through our pores. Us, little buds at the tips of our parents' fingers, reaching for a future they've never known.
This is the time to sing the name of just one person who makes us wanna see another day, hear her words and know, through the burnings and lynchings and breaking bones of history on some plane carrying us through our days, everything's gonna be all right.
I need my neighbor who I don't know very well to give me a treasure he hold dear to his heart. And if he have more, I will take them like promises. I am serious as tears rocking her baby's broken head on the sidewalks, serious as bullet shells in a blood dusky sky, serious as despair and as much cocaine³ snorted into hell. I am serious, mama, like chains.
I need me these treasures pinned on my walls with stickpins and tacks⁴ and bubble gum. I need their pictures and scribbled⁵ names on any kind of paper. One from each person on my block. One put on channel nine, every night. What she do? Unsung and working overtime⁶. What he do? Why should it be they only celebrated⁷ in heaven? We need to know them here. I need me names and buckets fill my hands with their lives and breathe it in like mint, like sage⁸, like thyme in my hands. Need me the memories of each one in this city.

If you have a national treasure, give it to me. I have a national treasure, Roy Thomas, Sonia Sanches, Anna Stevenson, Peter Jay Harris. A fear, those ones you know like the restless song of a river that keep this world going and the babies alive. I need them in my life, need them all. Send their names to the LA Times, conquer my shaking head and set it straight, make me look for them in the street. That one? Who would write the name of their national treasure on a slip of paper? We need to know them. I only wish that I could say it better.

1 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句

2 seep   

v.渗出，渗漏；n.渗漏，小泉，水（油）坑

参考例句：

• My anger began to seep away.我的怒火开始消下去了。
• If meteoric water does not evaporate or run overland,it may seep directly into the ground.如果雨水不从陆地蒸发和流走的话，就可能直接渗入地下。

3 cocaine   

n.可卡因，古柯碱（用作局部麻醉剂）

参考例句：

• That young man is a cocaine addict.那个年轻人吸食可卡因成瘾。
• Don't have cocaine abusively.不可滥服古柯碱。

4 tacks   

大头钉( tack的名词复数 )； 平头钉； 航向； 方法

参考例句：

• Never mind the side issues, let's get down to brass tacks and thrash out a basic agreement. 别管枝节问题，让我们讨论问题的实质，以求得基本一致。
• Get down to the brass tacks,and quit talking round the subject. 谈实质问题吧，别兜圈子了。

5 scribbled   

v.潦草的书写( scribble的过去式和过去分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• She scribbled his phone number on a scrap of paper. 她把他的电话号码匆匆写在一张小纸片上。
• He scribbled a note to his sister before leaving. 临行前，他给妹妹草草写了一封短信。

6 overtime   

adj.超时的，加班的；adv.加班地

参考例句：

• They are working overtime to finish the work.为了完成任务他们正在加班加点地工作。
• He was paid for the overtime he worked.他领到了加班费。

7 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

8 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。