美国国家公共电台 NPR--It's World Poetry Day: NPR's love of poetry goes back to its founding

It's World Poetry Day: NPR's love of poetry goes back to its founding

Transcript¹

On World Poetry Day, we look at how people are sometimes compelled to express their feelings and ideas through poems.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

This Tuesday is World Poetry Day, and we are taking note of this day on NPR. May sound like a cliche² that you turn on the news and your public radio station is talking about poetry, but in this case, the cliche is absolutely true.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

And today we own it. In 1971, the very first year of NPR's All Things Considered, the show featured an anti-war poem. It was by the French poet Jacques Prevert.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Be forewarned, you old guys. Be forewarned, you heads of families.

INSKEEP: I consider myself warned. In more recent times, MORNING EDITION has featured other poets.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

FRANNY CHOI: The world keeps ending, and the world goes on.

INSKEEP: Franny Choi wrote of surviving calamities³, as did Saeed Jones.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

SAEED JONES: But for now, we are alive at the end of the world.

FADEL: Poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht has been thinking of the power of poetry.

JENNIFER MICHAEL HECHT: Sometimes when we go to a culture we don't understand and we see something that looks like poetry, we call it religion or spirituality.

FADEL: Hecht wrote a book about poetry called "The Wonder Paradox⁴."

HECHT: I think of it as gifts from the subconscious⁵. And in some ways, if you want your subconscious to speak to you, you have to give it words that the subconscious can understand.

INSKEEP: Gifts from the subconscious - that sounds like poetry. So why do people feel compelled to write poems?

HECHT: The attempt to express how beauty makes us feel or how sorrow makes us feel is probably real central to our development of language.

FADEL: And Hecht says poetry fits our time.

HECHT: It's because of its brevity and beauty and the fact that it's been built to be read over and over and over.

FADEL: Think of it like an especially compelling tweet, only more thoughtful.

INSKEEP: (Laughter) I like that. I like that.

FADEL: My tweets are poetry, Steve.

INSKEEP: Oh, I know that. I know that. You know, I sometimes say poetry to warm up my voice in the morning. Once upon a midnight dreary⁶, while I pondered weak and weary - it's the rhyme. It's the sound of the words - a lot of things to love about poetry.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 cliche   

n./a.陈词滥调(的)；老生常谈(的)；陈腐的

参考例句：

• You should always try to avoid the use of cliche. 你应该尽量避免使用陈词滥调。
• The old cliche is certainly true:the bigger car do mean bigger profits.有句老话倒的确说得不假:车大利大。

3 calamities   

n.灾祸，灾难( calamity的名词复数 )；不幸之事

参考例句：

• They will only triumph by persevering in their struggle against natural calamities. 他们只有坚持与自然灾害搏斗，才能取得胜利。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• One moment's false security can bring a century of calamities. 图一时之苟安，贻百年之大患。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

5 subconscious   

n./adj.潜意识(的)，下意识(的)

参考例句：

• Nail biting is often a subconscious reaction to tension.咬指甲通常是紧张时的下意识反映。
• My answer seemed to come from the subconscious.我的回答似乎出自下意识。

6 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。