美国国家公共电台 NPR Former Nobel Laureates React To Winning Literature Prize

Former Nobel Laureates React To Winning Literature Prize

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In Stockholm tomorrow, the Swedish Academy will announce the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature. It's later than usual because the judging schedule was different this year. So while waiting to find out who won, NPR's Lynn Neary decided² to take a listen to what some past winners had to say when they received the prize.

LYNN NEARY, BYLINE³: Doris Lessing learned she had won the Literature Prize in 2007 from journalists who accosted⁴ her as she was getting out of a cab in front of her house. Lessing was famously irreverent when reporters pressed for her reaction.

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DORIS LESSING: Well, I'm trying to think of something very suitable to say. What do you think I should say? Look; you tell me what to say, and I'll say it.

NEARY: Fortunately the prizes are not awarded until December, which gives the laureates much needed time to gather their thoughts. The awards dinner is a glittering affair, and in 2010, Mario Vargas Llosa used the occasion to tell a story about a character very much like himself who had spent his life immersed in the world of fiction but had never had any trouble separating fantasy from reality.

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MARIO VARGAS LLOSA: Until one day in the wee hours of the morning, the protagonist⁵ of my story received a mysterious call in which a gentleman with a name that defied all pronunciation announced to him that he had won a prize.

NEARY: Last year the tone was more serious when Svetlana Alexievich of Belarus won the prize. Speaking through a translator, she used her moment in the spotlight⁶ to focus attention on the struggles of her homeland, which is ruled by an authoritarian⁷ regime.

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SVETLANA ALEXIEVICH: (Through interpreter) Freedom is not an instantaneous holiday as we once dreamed. It is a road, a long road. We know this now.

NEARY: In the days leading up to the awards ceremony, the Nobel laureates give a speech about the craft they love. Here's 1949 award winner William Faulkner just a few years after the destruction of World War II.

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WILLIAM FAULKNER: I believe that man will not merely endure. He will prevail. He is immortal⁸ not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion⁹ and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's duty is to write about these things.

NEARY: In 1962, John Steinbeck spoke¹⁰ of writing as a muscular endeavor.

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JOHN STEINBECK: Literature was not promulgated¹¹ by a pale, emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches, nor is it a game for the cloistered¹² elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low-calorie despair. Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.

NEARY: And Toni Morrison in 1993 described both the limits and the possibilities of language.

TONI MORRISON: Language can never pin down slavery, genocide, war, nor should it yearn¹³ for the arrogance¹⁴ to be able to do so. Its force, its felicity is in its reach toward the ineffable¹⁵.

NEARY: Soon a new Nobel winner will be hearing some unexpected news and will begin the process of deciding what to say to a waiting world. Lynn Neary, NPR News, Washington.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

3 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。

4 accosted   

v.走过去跟…讲话( accost的过去式和过去分词 )；跟…搭讪；（乞丐等）上前向…乞讨；（妓女等）勾搭

参考例句：

• She was accosted in the street by a complete stranger. 在街上，一个完全陌生的人贸然走到她跟前搭讪。
• His benevolent nature prevented him from refusing any beggar who accosted him. 他乐善好施的本性使他不会拒绝走上前向他行乞的任何一个乞丐。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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！

6 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

7 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

8 immortal   

adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的

参考例句：

• The wild cocoa tree is effectively immortal.野生可可树实际上是不会死的。
• The heroes of the people are immortal!人民英雄永垂不朽！

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 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。

11 promulgated   

v.宣扬（某事物）( promulgate的过去式和过去分词 )；传播；公布；颁布（法令、新法律等）

参考例句：

• Hence China has promulgated more than 30 relevant laws, statutes and regulations. 中国为此颁布的法律、法规和规章多达３０余项。 来自汉英非文学 - 白皮书
• The shipping industry promulgated a voluntary code. 航运业对自律守则进行了宣传。 来自辞典例句

12 cloistered   

adj.隐居的，躲开尘世纷争的v.隐退，使与世隔绝( cloister的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• the cloistered world of the university 与世隔绝的大学
• She cloistered herself in the office. 她呆在办公室里好像与世隔绝一样。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 yearn   

v.想念；怀念；渴望

参考例句：

• We yearn to surrender our entire being.我们渴望着放纵我们整个的生命。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

14 arrogance   

n.傲慢，自大

参考例句：

• His arrogance comes out in every speech he makes.他每次讲话都表现得骄傲自大。
• Arrogance arrested his progress.骄傲阻碍了他的进步。

15 ineffable   

adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的

参考例句：

• The beauty of a sunset is ineffable.日落的美是难以形容的。
• She sighed a sigh of ineffable satisfaction,as if her cup of happiness were now full.她发出了一声说不出多么满意的叹息，仿佛她的幸福之杯已经斟满了。