美国国家公共电台 NPR 10 Years After Haiti's Earthquake, 'This Music School Will Never Stop'

 

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in foreign language).

MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:

The other day, I went down to the National Mall here in Washington, D.C., and heard the sound of hope in sweet, strong, young voices.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in foreign language).

BLOCK: A youth choir¹ and chamber² ensemble³ from Haiti are on a U.S. tour that's taken them from Maine to Manhattan to Kentucky over the past month. This stop was in a lush garden of the Smithsonian museums. The tour is meant to showcase Haiti's rich musical heritage and also to raise awareness⁴ of rebuilding efforts in Haiti. We're coming up on the 10th anniversary of the disastrous⁵ earthquake that struck there in January 2010. It's estimated that tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of people were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in foreign language).

BLOCK: The earthquake destroyed Holy Trinity Cathedral in the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the renowned⁶ music school there. That's the school where these young people study, many of them from poor backgrounds, some of them too young now to even remember that earthquake a decade ago, like Jeff Donalson Philistin, a 10-year-old soprano. He was just an infant when the earthquake hit. His mother has told him the story of what happened.

JEFF DONALSON PHILISTIN: (Speaking French).

BLOCK: "The house nearly collapsed⁷ on me," he says, "but my mother was brave and came to save me."

This choir has become a kind of salvation⁸ for the young singers, like 12-year-old Marie Danielle Tondreau, whose legs can't keep still when she's singing.

MARIE DANIELLE TONDREAU: (Speaking French).

BLOCK: "When I sing," she says, "I feel like I'm up in the sky."

For Reverend David Cesar, the director of Holy Trinity Music School, the spirit of these young musicians captures the Haiti that he believes in.

DAVID CESAR: Imagine when we talk about Haiti, about bad things, about political issues, economical issues and see those kids bringing hope for their country. Sometime I got some tears.

BLOCK: Two people from the music school, a staff member and a saxophone student, were killed in the earthquake. Along with their destroyed building, the school lost hundreds of instruments. The staff salvaged¹⁰ what they could from the rubble¹¹. And one week after the quake, David Cesar gathered some students and said, let's go. Let's go perform for the survivors¹² living in tent camps.

CESAR: To bring some joy. But it was a bit of sadness and mourning and also to say to our brothers and sisters, stand up. Stand up. And we performed for them. So they were so happy to stand up and dance.

BLOCK: I can think of so many things that people in that dire⁹ circumstance would need - food, water, shelter.

CESAR: Yes (laughter).

BLOCK: Music would not automatically be on my list.

CESAR: (Laughter) Definitely, definitely. And this is why I said music and this music school and this orchestra will never stop, whatever the situation.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in foreign language).

BLOCK: For a while after the earthquake, the music school had to hold classes and rehearse outside. Now they have a temporary structure, but they hope to build a permanent home and concert hall. This tour is, in part, about raising funds to do that.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in foreign language).

BLOCK: There was so much attention on Haiti at the time of the earthquake. Do you think we've forgotten about your country?

CESAR: I think we lost the momentum¹³, but we keep fighting (laughter). As Bob Marley used to say, don't give up the fight. Don't give up the fight (laughter).

BLOCK: You should add some Bob Marley to the program.

(LAUGHTER)

BLOCK: The tour of the youth choir and chamber ensemble from Haiti's Holy Trinity Music School wraps up this week with concerts in Kentucky and Ohio.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Singing in foreign language).

1 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

2 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

3 ensemble   

n.合奏(唱)组；全套服装；整体，总效果

参考例句：

• We should consider the buildings as an ensemble.我们应把那些建筑物视作一个整体。
• It is ensemble music for up to about ten players,with one player to a part.它是最多十人演奏的合奏音乐，每人担任一部分。

4 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

5 disastrous   

adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的

参考例句：

• The heavy rainstorm caused a disastrous flood.暴雨成灾。
• Her investment had disastrous consequences.She lost everything she owned.她的投资结果很惨，血本无归。

6 renowned   

adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的

参考例句：

• He is one of the world's renowned writers.他是世界上知名的作家之一。
• She is renowned for her advocacy of human rights.她以提倡人权而闻名。

7 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

8 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

9 dire   

adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的

参考例句：

• There were dire warnings about the dangers of watching too much TV.曾经有人就看电视太多的危害性提出严重警告。
• We were indeed in dire straits.But we pulled through.那时我们的困难真是大极了，但是我们渡过了困难。

10 salvaged   

（从火灾、海难等中）抢救（某物）( salvage的过去式和过去分词 )； 回收利用（某物）

参考例句：

• The investigators studied flight recorders salvaged from the wreckage. 调查者研究了从飞机残骸中找到的黑匣子。
• The team's first task was to decide what equipment could be salvaged. 该队的首要任务是决定可以抢救哪些设备。

11 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

12 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

13 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。