pbs高端访谈:诗集《Angles of Ascent》收录非裔美国诗人作品

 　　JEFFREY BROWN:And finally tonight, bringing contemporary African-American poetry into the public eye.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL, Callaloo: I think we're going to have to omit Colson Whitehead.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Meeting to plan the summer issue of the literacy journal Callaloo and editor Charles Henry Rowell finds he has an embarrassment¹ of riches.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:We are going to have so much stuff. And I'm trying to hold back, so that we won't overrun.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Rowell, who was raised on a farm his parents owned in Alabama, started the journal in 1975 as a home for Southern black writers who he says were mostly ignored by journals of the day in both the South and North.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:The purpose was to identify, nurture², and promote and publish new black writers.

　　We will just keep going and keep going and keep going.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:At age 74 and for the last 12 years based at Texas A&M University, Rowell can look back on remarkable³ success. His journal has helped introduce several generations of now high-profile writers, some of whom we have featured on the NewsHour.

　　Former poet laureate Rita Dove:

　　RITA DOVE, Former Poet Laureate: "Singsong."

　　"When I was young, the moon spoke⁴ in riddles⁵ and the stars rhymed. I was a new toy waiting for my owner to pick me up."

　　JEFFREY BROWN:National Book Award Winner Terrance Hayes:

　　TERRANCE HAYES, National Book Award Winner: "Root."

　　"My parents would have had me believe there was no such thing as race there in the wild backyard, our knees black with store-bought grass and dirt."

　　JEFFREY BROWN:And the current laureate, Natasha Trethewey.

　　NATASHA TRETHEWEY,U.S. Poet Laureate: "Elegy⁶ for My Father."

　　"I think by now the river must be thick with salmon⁷. Late August, I imagine it as it was that morning, drizzled⁸, needling the surface, mist at the banks like a net settling around us."

　　JEFFREY BROWN:These and 82 other poets are now part of Charles Rowell's latest ambitious project: "Angles of Ascent⁹," a new "Norton Anthology."

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL: I wanted to demonstrate the infinite variety of voices and content and style and ideas in African—contemporary African-American poetry.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:The anthology begins with poems from two literacy giants, Gwendolyn Brooks¹⁰, Robert Hayden, followed by poets including Amiri Baraka and Nikki Giovanni writing at the height of the black power movement.

　　But the majority of the book focuses on poets writing after the turbulent civil rights era.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL: What fascinated me about the contemporary writer is that turn from the external world into the interior world, not the obsession¹¹ with—quote—"the struggle," not that that is not a valid¹² subject, but that has been written about over and over. And these writers were not committing themselves to the struggle. They were committing their poetry to itself, to its craft, to its beauty.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:That's a good thing, right?

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:Yes. Oh, yes, that's very positive to me, because ...

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Yes. Yes.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:And I think it's terribly revolutionary. These poets use being black to write about larger subjects.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:He says the change has not only broadened the poetry, but the audience as well.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:If I'm able to get you to feel what I'm thinking about in a poem, and you start identifying with it and you proceed to quote my poem, that's revolutionary, you know, because earlier, non-African-Americans didn't go around quoting African-American poets.

　　This is another cover art.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:In addition to discovering new poets, Rowell is also always on the lookout¹³ for new black artists from around the world.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:Collecting art is an addiction¹⁴ for me. And I don't know. And I just feel that I have to have things around me that are beautiful.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Many of the paintings end up on the covers of the Callaloo journals. And this fall, he will publish a special edition devoted¹⁵ just to art.

　　In both art and poetry, he says, the idea is to promote the undiscovered or ignored.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:I'm prepared to do battle. And that has been my whole life, to do battle with whatever I confront that is anti-me or anti-community, not with loud, screaming voices, mind you, or sounding revolutionary, but doing the work that is necessary to do.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Many, many years later, you still—still on the mission.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:I'm still on the battlefield.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Doing the battle.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:That is my nature now. It's in the DNA¹⁶, practically.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:The new anthology is "Angles of Ascent."

　　Charles Henry Rowell, thanks for talking with us.

　　CHARLES HENRY ROWELL:Thank you. Thank you for having me. I enjoyed it.

　　JEFFREY BROWN:Online, you can watch some of the poets included in the new anthology read from their works, including Natasha Trethewey, Elizabeth Alexander, Rita Dove, and Kevin Young. That's on our Art Beat page.

1 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

2 nurture   

n.养育，照顾，教育；滋养，营养品；vt.养育，给与营养物，教养，扶持

参考例句：

• The tree grows well in his nurture.在他的培育下这棵树长得很好。
• The two sisters had received very different nurture.这俩个姊妹接受过极不同的教育。

3 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

4 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。

5 riddles   

n.谜（语）( riddle的名词复数 )；猜不透的难题，难解之谜

参考例句：

• Few riddles collected from oral tradition, however, have all six parts. 但是据收集的情况看，口头流传的谜语很少具有这完整的六部分。 来自英汉非文学 - 民俗
• But first, you'd better see if you can answer riddles. 但是你首先最好想想你会不会猜谜语。 来自辞典例句

6 elegy   

n.哀歌，挽歌

参考例句：

• Good heavens,what would be more tragic than that elegy!天哪，还有什么比那首挽歌更悲伤的呢！
• His book is not intended to be a complete history but a personal elegy.他的书与其说是一部完整的历史，更像是一篇个人挽歌。

7 salmon   

n.鲑，大马哈鱼，橙红色的

参考例句：

• We saw a salmon jumping in the waterfall there.我们看见一条大马哈鱼在那边瀑布中跳跃。
• Do you have any fresh salmon in at the moment?现在有新鲜大马哈鱼卖吗？

8 drizzled   

下蒙蒙细雨，下毛毛雨( drizzle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The dew on the branches drizzled our hair and shoulders. 枝头上的露珠润湿了我们的头发和双肩。
• It drizzled throughout the night. 毛毛雨下了一夜。

9 ascent   

n.(声望或地位)提高；上升，升高；登高

参考例句：

• His rapid ascent in the social scale was surprising.他的社会地位提高之迅速令人吃惊。
• Burke pushed the button and the elevator began its slow ascent.伯克按动电钮，电梯开始缓慢上升。

10 brooks   

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时，狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了，今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 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。

12 valid   

adj.有确实根据的；有效的；正当的，合法的

参考例句：

• His claim to own the house is valid.他主张对此屋的所有权有效。
• Do you have valid reasons for your absence?你的缺席有正当理由吗？

13 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

14 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。

15 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

16 DNA   

(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸

参考例句：

• DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
• Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。