名人轶事:William Faulkner,Part One

Broadcast: December 5, 2004

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VOICE ONE:

I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Steve Ember with People in America in VOA Special English. Today, we

begin the story of the life of a famous Southern writer, William Faulkner. He

wrote about an imaginary¹ place and described changes in the American South.

((THEME))

VOICE ONE:

William Faulkner was born at the end of the nineteenth century. It was a time

when there were two Souths in the United States. The first was the South

whose beliefs had existed from before the American Civil War which began in

eighteen sixty-one. This South did not question rules, even when those rules

did not satisfy human needs. It was a South filled with injustice² for black

people. It held the seeds of its own destruction³.

The other South was a land without any beliefs. It was a place where success

was measured by self-interest. This was a South where each person had lost

his place in the group. It was a place where people owned things that they

did not know how to use.

Faulkner 

Faulkner saw that the old beliefs were not right or even worth believing. And

he saw that they could not provide justice because they were based on

slavery. Yet he felt that even with their lies and half truths the old

beliefs were better than the moral⁴ emptiness of the modern South.

VOICE TWO:

In Faulkner's story called "The Bear" a group of men are talking after the

day's hunt. One man reads from a poem by the English writer, John Keats:

"'She cannot fade, though thou has not thy bliss⁵, Forever wilt⁶ thou love, and

she be fair. '

"He's talking about a girl," one man says.

The other answers, 'He was talking about truth. Truth is one. It doesn't

change. It covers all things which touch the heart -- honor⁷ and pity and

justice and courage and love. Do you see now. '"

The American writer, Robert Penn Warren says about Faulkner, "The important

thing is the presence⁸ of the idea of truth. It covers all things that involve

the heart and define⁹ the effort of man to rise above the mechanical¹⁰ process

of life. "

VOICE ONE:

Faulkner has been accused of looking back to a time when life was better.

Yet, he believes that truth belongs to all times. But it is found most often

in the people who stand outside what he calls "the loud world. "

One of the people in his story "Delta¹¹ Autumn" says, "There are good men

everywhere, at all times. "

Faulkner's great-grandfather accepted the old beliefs. He was one of the men

who had helped build the South, but his time was gone. Now money had replaced

the old order of honor. What Faulkner saw was that there could be no order at

all, no idea of doing what is right, in a world that measured success in

terms of money.


VOICE TWO:

This is the changing South that Faulkner describes in the area he created. He

named it Yoknapatawpha County¹². He describes it as in the northern part of the

state of Mississippi. It lies between sand hills covered with pine trees and

rich farmland near the Mississippi River. It has fifteen-thousand-six-

hundred-eleven people, living on almost four-thousand square kilometers. Its

central city is Jefferson, where the storekeepers, mechanics¹³, and

professional men live.

The rest of the people of Yoknapatawpha County are farmers or men who cut

trees. Their only crops are wood and cotton. A few live in big farmhouses¹⁴,

left from an earlier time. Most of them do not even own the land they farm.


The critic Malcolm Cowley says, "Others might say that Faulkner was not so

much writing stories for the public as telling them to himself. It is what a

lonely child might do, or a great writer. "

((Music Bridge))

VOICE ONE:

William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in eighteen-ninety-

seven. His father worked for the railroad¹⁵. William's great-grandfather had

built it. His grandfather owned it. When the grandfather decided¹⁶ to sell the

railroad, William's father moved his family thirty-five miles west to the

city of Oxford¹⁷.

Growing up in Oxford, William Faulkner heard stories of the past from his

grandmother and from a black woman who worked for his family. He heard more

stories from old men in front of the courthouse, and from poor farmers

sitting in front of a country store.

1 imaginary   

adj.想象中的，假想的，虚构的，幻想的；虚数的

参考例句：

• All the characters in this book are imaginary.此书中的所有人物都是虚构的。
• The boy's fears were only imaginary.这小孩的恐惧只是一种想象。

2 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

3 destruction   

n.破坏，毁灭，消灭

参考例句：

• The enemy bombs caused widespread destruction.敌人的炸弹造成大面积的破坏。
• Overconfidence was his destruction.自负是他垮台的原因。

4 moral   

adj.道德(上)的，有道德的；n.品行，寓意，道德

参考例句：

• Moral beauty ought to be ranked above all other beauty.品德之美应列于其他美之上。
• He deceived us into believing that he could give us moral support.他骗得我们相信他能给我们道义上的支持。

5 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

6 wilt   

v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱

参考例句：

• Golden roses do not wilt and will never need to be watered.金色的玫瑰不枯萎绝也不需要浇水。
• Several sleepless nights made him wilt.数个不眠之夜使他憔悴。

7 honor   

n.光荣；敬意；荣幸；vt.给…以荣誉；尊敬

参考例句：

• I take your visit as a great honor.您的来访是我莫大的光荣。
• It is a great honor to receive that prize.能拿到那个奖是无上的光荣。

8 presence   

n.出席；到场；存在

参考例句：

• Her presence lent an air of respectability to the occasion.她的到场使那种场合增添了崇高的气氛。
• His presence is indicative of his willingness to help.他的出席表示他愿意帮忙。

9 define   

vt.解释，下定义，阐述，限定，规定

参考例句：

• Please define the words.请解释这些字的意义。
• It's hard to define exactly what has changed.很难解释清楚到底发生了什么变化。

10 mechanical   

adj.机械(学)的；力学的；机械似的；手工操作的

参考例句：

• He borrowed a mechanical book from me.他从我这儿借了一本力学方面的书。
• He looks very mechanical.他看上去非常呆板。

11 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

12 county   

n.县，郡

参考例句：

• When the good news reached there,the whole county rejoiced.喜讯传到那里时，全县的人都欢欣鼓舞起来。
• In that year county after county fell to the enemy.那一年一个又一个的县城沦入敌人手中。

13 mechanics   

n.力学，机械学；结构

参考例句：

• The mechanics of fixing a car are very long.修理一部汽车的过程很长。
• The mechanics of the machine are very old.这台机器的机件非常老。

14 farmhouses   

n.农舍，农场的主要住房( farmhouse的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Then perhaps she is staying at one of cottages or farmhouses? 那么也许她现在住在某个农舍或哪个农场的房子里吧？ 来自辞典例句
• The countryside was sprinkled with farmhouses. 乡间到处可见农家的房舍。 来自辞典例句

15 railroad   

n.铁路；vi.由铁路运输

参考例句：

• The railroad connects two cities,namely,New York and Chicago.这条铁路连接两个城市，即纽约与芝加哥。
• My brother is working on the railroad.我兄弟在铁路系统工作。

16 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

17 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

18 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

19 learned   

adj.有学问的，博学的；learn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He went into a rage when he learned about it.他听到这事后勃然大怒。
• In this little village,he passed for a learned man.在这个小村子里，他被视为有学问的人。

20 inner   

adj.内部的，里面的；内在的，内心的；精神的

参考例句：

• The label is on the inner side of the box.标签贴在盒子内侧。
• Other people seek the mountains for renewal of their inner lives.另一些人到深山中去，寻求新的精神生活。

21 costly   

adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的

参考例句：

• It must be very costly to keep up a house like this.维修这么一幢房子一定很昂贵。
• This dictionary is very useful,only it is a bit costly.这本词典很有用，左不过贵了些。

22 cooperated   

合作，配合，协助( cooperate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The children cooperated with their teachers in keeping the classroom neat. 孩子们和老师一起保持教室整洁。
• Unemployment and lingering disease cooperated to make his family broken. 失业加上长期的疾病，使他倾家荡产。