2019年经济学人 了不起的黑人女作家托尼·莫里森(2)

 

Those 18 years as an editor at Random¹ House had not been for nothing. She knew exactly what was needed to lead, sometimes throw, the reader into an alien world. It was not merely words but the silences between them, the unsaid things and the smoke they sent up, that gave her phrases their rhythm and their power. Hers was a work to reclaim² lost black voices.

托尼在兰登书屋当编辑的18年可不是白做的。她清楚地知道需要用什么把读者引导至一个陌生的世界，有时是让读者突然陷入那个世界。不仅仅是文字，而且是文字间的沉默，那些没有说到的事情和它们带来的迷雾让她的语句有了节奏和能量。她的作品是为了找回失去的黑人声音。

Slaves in wagons³ singing under their breath, ghosts and haints staring silently from tree stumps⁴, ancestors whose names were hidden in children's chants. Or simply girls like herself raised to womanhood in the Midwest, beside a steel mill, in a small house obsessively⁵ painted and sluiced⁶ with Fels-Naptha as though at any moment they might be forced to leave. Read as she might, there were no books about this world, in which someone like her took centre-stage. She determined⁷ to write one, whether or not it sold; this became "The Bluest Eye".

马车上的奴隶们低声歌唱，鬼和海雀在树桩上默默地凝视，祖先的名字隐藏在孩子们的圣歌中。或者仅仅是像她一样在美国中西部长大成人的女孩们，她们生活在钢厂旁边，在一所小房子里，他们痴迷地涂着颜料，用毡子冲洗着，好像随时都可能被迫离开。尽管她可能会阅读，但这个世界上还没有像她这样的人占据中心舞台的书籍。她决定写一本书，不管它能不能卖出去；这本书就是《最蓝的眼睛》。

Along with the voices she recovered black experience, but through culture, not the easy, lazy colour-fetish: through the sweet smell of Nu Nile Hair Oil, the sharp tang of mustard greens cooking, the inevitability⁸ of entering by back doors. The protagonist⁹ of "The Bluest Eye" longed to be like Shirley Temple, but in this book and those that followed her creator rejoiced in dark eyes, thick lips, flared¹⁰ noses. Who had instructed blacks in self-loathing? Who told them they were not beautiful? When she cleaned house for a richer woman as a girl, and paid her for cast-off clothes, she still felt proud. When she wrote, she felt magnificent.

伴随着她的发声，她寻回了黑人的经历，但她是通过文化，而不是简单的、懒惰的对肤色的迷恋：她是通过尼罗河发油的芬芳，芥菜烹调时的辛辣味道，不可避免地走后门做到的。《最蓝的眼睛》的主人公渴望像秀兰·邓波儿一样，但在这本书中，以及那些追随她的创造者的人们，却以黑眼睛、厚嘴唇和鼻孔大的鼻子为乐。谁教导黑人自我厌恶？谁说她们不漂亮？她是个小女孩的时候，为一个有钱的女人打扫房子，那人给她买旧衣服，她仍然感到自豪。当她写作时，她觉得自己很了不起。

1 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

2 reclaim   

v.要求归还，收回；开垦

参考例句：

• I have tried to reclaim my money without success.我没能把钱取回来。
• You must present this ticket when you reclaim your luggage.当你要取回行李时，必须出示这张票子。

3 wagons   

n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车

参考例句：

• The wagons were hauled by horses. 那些货车是马拉的。
• They drew their wagons into a laager and set up camp. 他们把马车围成一圈扎起营地。

4 stumps   

（被砍下的树的）树桩( stump的名词复数 )； 残肢； （板球三柱门的）柱； 残余部分

参考例句：

• Rocks and stumps supplied the place of chairs at the picnic. 野餐时石头和树桩都充当了椅子。
• If you don't stir your stumps, Tom, you'll be late for school again. 汤姆，如果你不快走，上学又要迟到了。

5 obsessively   

ad.着迷般地，过分地

参考例句：

• Peter was obsessively jealous and his behaviour was driving his wife away. 彼得过分嫉妒的举止令他的妻子想离他而去。
• He's rude to his friends and obsessively jealous. 他对他的朋友很无礼而且嫉妒心重。

6 sluiced   

v.冲洗( sluice的过去式和过去分词 )；（指水）喷涌而出；漂净；给…安装水闸

参考例句：

• The sailors sluiced the deck with hoses. 水手们用水龙带冲洗甲板。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He sluiced the bath and filled it with water. 他冲洗了浴缸，然后放满了一缸水。 来自辞典例句

7 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

8 inevitability   

n.必然性

参考例句：

• Evolutionism is normally associated with a belief in the inevitability of progress. 进化主义通常和一种相信进步不可避免的看法相联系。
• It is the tide of the times, an inevitability of history. 这是时代的潮流，历史的必然。

9 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

10 Flared   

adj. 端部张开的, 爆发的, 加宽的, 漏斗式的 动词flare的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The match flared and went out. 火柴闪亮了一下就熄了。
• The fire flared up when we thought it was out. 我们以为火已经熄灭，但它突然又燃烧起来。