美国国家公共电台 NPR The Poet Of Minnesota, Vietnam And Mythical Men

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Nature, mysticism and political protest - those are the themes that have dominated the work of poet Robert Bly for more than 60 years. His two dozen collections have garnered¹ many prizes, including a National Book Award. Now, all of Bly's poems have been reissued in a single volume. Reporter Tom Vitale has the story.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE²: Robert Bly lived in rural Minnesota much of his life. And many of his collected poems focus on the nature in that region.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

ROBERT BLY: (Reading) The sage³ root and the river lives and breathes. And blackbirds join in flock. Their duty's through. And now at last, a tumbling freedom comes. And some grow to acorns⁴ dropped. Sun pushed his plums - to half-wild hogs⁵ in Carolina trees.

VITALE: As a young poet, Bly wrote rhyme verse like this in iambic pentameter - five beats to the line, in the centuries-old tradition of the English poets. Bly will turn 92 next week, and he doesn't do interviews anymore. But in 1986, he told me he came to feel that the melodic⁶ style of his early work was fine for a Shakespeare or Milton but wrong for the world we live in.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BLY: Now, Robert Frost was able to do it, but he was born in 1875. And so it just isn't clear if these wonderful melodies of iambic can be adapted to American material. I don't know. I'm interested in form now. But I'm not so interested in repeating English form.

VITALE: In the 1960s, Bly changed the form of his poetry. He began to write unrhymed free verse. He also changed his subject - writing about the grief of the nation at a time of tumultuous antiwar and civil rights protests. His 1967 collection "The Light Around The Body" won the National Book Award. Critic James Longenbach calls it Bly's most important book.

JAMES LONGENBACH: You feel him trying to use those words in a way that evokes⁷ something much larger and more mysterious or mythic than their literal meanings suggest.

VITALE: Longenbach is the author of "How Poems Get Made." He says Bly will forever be associated with organizing the music of the English language in a way called deep image.

LONGENBACH: What that phrase refers to was a way of writing poems that came in the early '60s, late '50s, out of Bly and a few other people, that tried to reduce poetry to images that were deeply redolent of deep psychic⁸ or cultural power.

VITALE: Robert Bly's most emotionally charged work was written in response to the Vietnam War.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BLY: (Reading) Artillery⁹ shells explode. Napalm canisters roll, end over end. Eight-hundred steel pellets fly through the vegetable walls. The 6-hour-old infant puts his fist instinctively¹⁰ to his eyes to keep out the light.

VITALE: After the war ended, Bly's poetry shifted inward from the political to the personal.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BLY: I became in touch with my own anger, in a way, through doing the Vietnam poems, which I never expressed my anger privately¹¹. And it really wasn't done in my family.

VITALE: Robert Bly grew up in western Minnesota in a family descended¹² from stoic¹³ Norwegian immigrant farmers. Bly says he experienced a recovery of feeling.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BLY: Certain emotions are coming forward that maybe I have kept in - my father being an alcoholic¹⁴. From an alcoholic family, we tend to repress a lot. I see this stuff coming out, and it helps me tremendously.

VITALE: That introspection led to Bly's most famous book - a nonfiction work called "Iron John," a book about men. Published in 1990, it became an international bestseller and sparked what became known as the men's movement, based on the idea that men need to be more sensitive.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BLY: I mean, when I saw the Republican senators up there attacking Anita Hill in that insane, bitter, heartless way, I said, man, that's the greatest argument for the men's movement I've ever seen.

VITALE: But James Longenbach says Bly's role as a founder¹⁵ of the men's movement hurt his reputation as a poet.

LONGENBACH: Because it allowed people who found that distasteful to dismiss him rather easily.

VITALE: But Bly continued to write. Sensitivity is a big factor in his later work - poems that feature a zen-like focus on an object in nature, with what Bly calls the intensity¹⁶ of being right there.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

BLY: I'm doing one for example on opening an orange - what's it like when the ten fingers meet and decide to open an orange. And the two thumbs go in first and start to break it. Then the other fingers hover¹⁷ around and wonder if they can help with this. And pretty soon, the whole orange is lying there naked and scarred - naked. And then it's a little embarrassing. So therefore, they think the best thing to do for the modesty¹⁸ of the orange really is to eat it.

VITALE: Robert Bly says it's a disaster in our culture that poetry is taught on the page when it needs to be spoken aloud to, in his words, run through the brain and down into the heart. For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

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1 garnered   

v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Mr. Smith gradually garnered a national reputation as a financial expert. 史密斯先生逐渐赢得全国金融专家的声誉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals. 他的提议得到了广泛的支持。 来自辞典例句

2 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。

3 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

4 acorns   

n.橡子，栎实( acorn的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Great oaks from little acorns grow. 万丈高楼平地起。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Welcome to my new website!It may not look much at the moment, but great oaks from little acorns grow! 欢迎来到我的新网站。它现在可能微不足道，不过万丈高楼平地起嘛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 hogs   

n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人

参考例句：

• 'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。 来自辞典例句

6 melodic   

adj.有旋律的，调子美妙的

参考例句：

• His voice had a rich melodic quality.他的音色浑厚而优美。
• He spoke with a soft husky voice in a melodic accent.他微微沙哑的声音带着一种悠扬的口音。

7 evokes   

产生，引起，唤起( evoke的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The film evokes chilling reminders of the war. 这部电影使人们回忆起战争的可怕场景。
• Each type evokes antibodies which protect against the homologous. 每一种类型都能产生抗同种病毒的抗体。

8 psychic   

n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的

参考例句：

• Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
• She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能，能预知未来。

9 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

10 instinctively   

adv.本能地

参考例句：

• As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近，她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 privately   

adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地

参考例句：

• Some ministers admit privately that unemployment could continue to rise.一些部长私下承认失业率可能继续升高。
• The man privately admits that his motive is profits.那人私下承认他的动机是为了牟利。

12 descended   

a.为...后裔的，出身于...的

参考例句：

• A mood of melancholy descended on us. 一种悲伤的情绪袭上我们的心头。
• The path descended the hill in a series of zigzags. 小路呈连续的之字形顺着山坡蜿蜒而下。

13 stoic   

n.坚忍克己之人，禁欲主义者

参考例句：

• A stoic person responds to hardship with imperturbation.坚忍克己之人经受苦难仍能泰然自若。
• On Rajiv's death a stoic journey began for Mrs Gandhi,supported by her husband's friends.拉吉夫死后，索尼亚在丈夫友人的支持下开始了一段坚忍的历程。

14 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

15 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

16 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

17 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

18 modesty   

n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素

参考例句：

• Industry and modesty are the chief factors of his success.勤奋和谦虚是他成功的主要因素。
• As conceit makes one lag behind,so modesty helps one make progress.骄傲使人落后，谦虚使人进步。