美国国家公共电台 NPR 3 Books That Capture America In Poetry

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

Our poetry reviewer, Tess Taylor, is sharing some books that she says capture different voices from American life right now. One's by a poet from West Virginia, another an immigrant and a third an African-American woman. Hi, Tess.

TESS TAYLOR, BYLINE¹: Hi, Ari, how are you?

SHAPIRO: Good. Let me start with a really basic question. Doesn't every American poet in some way capture different voices from American life? What binds² these three particular collections together?

TAYLOR: Well, it is really true. I mean, Walt Whitman in "Leaves Of Grass" said, I hear America singing, the varied³ carols I hear. And I just think, you know, it's very American to capture some segment of your life and amplify⁴ it to become part of a wider American fabric⁵. And that was happening a lot in poetry collections this year. I just picked three that really spoke⁶ to me and felt like they spoke to the wider American moment.

SHAPIRO: And these three are very specific versions of American life. In William Brewer⁷'s collection "I Know Your Kind," it's stories of white Americans dying from opioid overdoses and struggling with addiction⁸. In "Unaccompanied" by Javier Zamora, who is an immigrant from Central America, it's stories of people trying to cross the border, in some cases suffering and dying. And then "Starshine And Clay," which is a collection by Kamilah Aisha Moon, has poems to or about some of the young African-American men who have died at the hands of police. There's a lot of darkness in them.

TAYLOR: There is a lot of darkness in them. But they're also such wonderful personal stories that let us into empathy, I think. So one of the things I think can be amazing about poetry is that when you're reading a poem, you're not only inside somebody's story. You're inside their breath. You know, you're inside the way that they've patterned language with their breath.

And so it's a really amazing way of coming to understand somebody else's life and, actually, the lives of lots of other people. So I thought these collections were particularly brave in that they all were really rooted in the personal, and yet they spoke to and for these wider problems that we as Americans are facing, these wider challenges.

SHAPIRO: Let's get specific. Give us an example from one of these collections.

TAYLOR: Oh, well, you started with William Brewer's book, and I will, too. You know, it's set in West Virginia and from a section of West Virginia that's really leading the nation in opioid addiction right now. And so it seems like the characters in this book are suffering. They're rising and falling. They're trying so hard to get back on their feet. And Brewer writes about them with such, you know, inner knowledge and such compassion⁹. He's got this incredibly sad language - refill, refill, refill until they stopped. Then I fixed¹⁰ on scraping out my veins¹¹, a trembling maze¹², a skein of blue. And, you know, sometimes he's clever. He says, I wear a belt because my pants don't fit. My pants don't fit because I wear a belt.

SHAPIRO: These poems feel so physical. There's so much about the body. I mean, obviously it's poetry. There's conceptual stuff. But a lot of it is, like, hitting somebody's hand with a hammer to go to the emergency room to get painkillers¹³.

TAYLOR: Exactly. And then there's these incredibly dreamy, mythic images of Icarus rising and falling, of geese rising and falling, of people stumbling, of people hoping, of people losing each other. And I love this book because it brought us into such empathy and compassion and tenderness towards this suffering.

SHAPIRO: Let's talk about Javier Zamora's book "Unaccompanied," which is really focused on the border and the experience of trying to cross the border.

TAYLOR: Yes, it is. Javier Zamora was left by his parents when he was young and lived with his grandmother. And he was sent across the border when he was 9. And his sense of longing¹⁴, of being displaced - and this is a collection of poetry that brings this experience that many, many people are going through down to this human scale. You know, the feeling of losing your backyard or your rosebushes or your grandmother and longing for other people, of adjusting to a new country. And so he's doing us this incredible service because this is something that, you know, some people read about as just sort of a news phenomenon. It becomes incredibly personal in his hands.

SHAPIRO: There's one of these poems in the collection that is just so beautifully human. It's called "Let Me Try Again." And it describes people trying to cross the border, meeting a border agent. And it says, (reading) procedure says he should have taken us back to the station, checked our fingerprints¹⁵, et cetera. He must've remembered his family over the border or the border coming over them because he drove us to the border and told us, next time rest at least five days. Don't trust anyone calling themselves coyotes. Bring more tortillas, sardines¹⁶, Alhambra. He knew we would try again and again like everyone does.

TAYLOR: I love those lines. And I love the figure of trying and trying again because this is a book really about longing, you know? And it's a book about trying to belong, trying to arrive, trying to go home, missing where you're from.

SHAPIRO: Let's talk about the third collection you've brought here. It's called "Starshine And Clay" by Kamilah Aisha Moon.

TAYLOR: You know, it was funny. I was thinking of these three books together, and I realized that the Moon book was incredibly moving to me because it's sort of Whitman even deeper. It's Whitman singing the body electric. These other poems that are sort of American carols about American bodies tell these stories of American life.

And Kamilah Aisha Moon does that as well. You know, she's talking about what it's like to be in a black body, in a woman's body, in a sick body, in a body that needs surgery. She's talking about all these things at different times and all at once. And they are poems that are so rich with empathy and compassion, you know, for other people, for herself, for the kind of sufferings of the body. And I just found that they were just wonderful. I almost couldn't put this collection down. I read it all through.

SHAPIRO: One of my favorite poems in this collection was towards the end. And I think it speaks to an experience many of us have had. The title is "To A Dear Friend Mothering Misery¹⁷." And it says, (reading) every time your grief cries, you pick it up, cradle it like a newborn. But your pain isn't precious, not your lifelong responsibility. For each doting¹⁸ moment, your soul refuses to sing for days. And the world needs your music too much.

It goes on from there, but to me, that sentiment is just so universal.

TAYLOR: And I think it speaks to poets. The world needs your music. One of my favorite lines in this book of poems is also the first where - it's the - literally¹⁹ the first line in the book says, haunted by wholeness. And I really think haunted by wholeness - that's what I loved about these collections, is that they each held a fragment of American experience, and yet they spoke in a way that made us all feel more whole, as if we're leaning towards something bigger through them. And so, you know, as we're all gathering²⁰ for the holidays and gathering with each other, with our families, it was really great to celebrate this kind of wider American experience captured in poetry in these three books.

SHAPIRO: Those books once again are "Starshine And Clay" by Kamilah Aisha Moon, "Unaccompanied" by Javier Zamora and "I Know Your Kind" by William Brewer. Tess Taylor. Her latest collection is "Work And Days." Tess, it's been great talking with you. Thanks so much.

TAYLOR: Thank you so much, Ari, a pleasure.

(SOUNDBITE OF DJ CAM QUARTET'S "REBIRTH OF COOL")

1 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。

2 binds   

v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 )；装订；捆绑；（用长布条）缠绕

参考例句：

• Frost binds the soil. 霜使土壤凝结。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Stones and cement binds strongly. 石头和水泥凝固得很牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 varied   

adj.多样的，多变化的

参考例句：

• The forms of art are many and varied.艺术的形式是多种多样的。
• The hotel has a varied programme of nightly entertainment.宾馆有各种晚间娱乐活动。

4 amplify   

vt.放大，增强；详述，详加解说

参考例句：

• The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
• Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。

5 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

8 addiction   

n.上瘾入迷，嗜好

参考例句：

• He stole money from his parents to feed his addiction.他从父母那儿偷钱以满足自己的嗜好。
• Areas of drug dealing are hellholes of addiction,poverty and murder.贩卖毒品的地区往往是吸毒上瘾、贫困和发生谋杀的地方。

9 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

10 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

11 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 maze   

n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑

参考例句：

• He found his way through the complex maze of corridors.他穿过了迷宮一样的走廊。
• She was lost in the maze for several hours.一连几小时，她的头脑处于一片糊涂状态。

13 painkillers   

n.止痛药( painkiller的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some painkillers to ease the pain. 医生给了他一些止疼片以减缓疼痛。 来自辞典例句
• The primary painkillers - opiates, like OxyContin - are widely feared, misunderstood and underused. 人们对主要的镇痛药——如鸦片剂奥施康定——存在广泛的恐惧、误解，因此没有充分利用。 来自时文部分

14 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

15 fingerprints   

n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
• They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 sardines   

n. 沙丁鱼

参考例句：

• The young of some kinds of herring are canned as sardines. 有些种类的鲱鱼幼鱼可制成罐头。
• Sardines can be eaten fresh but are often preserved in tins. 沙丁鱼可以吃新鲜的，但常常是装听的。

17 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

18 doting   

adj.溺爱的，宠爱的

参考例句：

• His doting parents bought him his first racing bike at 13.宠爱他的父母在他13岁时就给他买了第一辆竞速自行车。
• The doting husband catered to his wife's every wish.这位宠爱妻子的丈夫总是高度满足太太的各项要求。

19 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

20 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。