美国国家公共电台 NPR Nelson Mandela's Prison Letters: 'One Day I Will Be Back At Home'

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Former South African President Nelson Mandela would have been 100 years old tomorrow. He died in 2013, and a new book is marking his centennial. It's called "The Prison Letters Of Nelson Mandela." These deeply personal letters were compiled¹ by Sahm Venter, who talked about them with NPR's Greg Myre. They were colleagues at The Associated Press in South Africa back in 1990 when Mandela was released².

GREG MYRE, BYLINE³: Nelson Mandela never liked to talk about personal things. When you'd ask him about that, he'd always steer⁴ the conversation somewhere else. What did you learn about him with these letters?

SAHM VENTER: There were so many things that happened in prison that were devastating⁵ to him, you know, the separation from his children, the death of his mother, the death of his son. So I don't think he could be guarded.

MYRE: So Mandela had two daughters with Winnie Mandela, and they were just ages 3 and 1 when he went to prison. They weren't even allowed to see him until they were 16 years old. So the only way he could really be a parent was through his letters.

VENTER: Yeah, that's right. He had to try and be a father by remote control. And I guess when they were really small, they had little bits read to them, and then when they were older, they were allowed to write letters and receive them. Zindzi, his youngest daughter, told me the first time she saw him standing⁶ up - she visited him from the age of 16 and later on when they were allowed a contact visit when - she couldn't believe how tall he was because all of the time that she was able to visit him, he was sitting down.

MYRE: Wow. I'd like you to read one of the letters he wrote to his daughters, and this was from 1969, so they were maybe 10, 11 years old.

VENTER: (Reading) Zindzi says her heart is sore because I'm not at home and wants to know when I will come back. I do not know, my darlings, when I will return. Nobody knows when it will be, not even the judge who said I should be kept here. But I am certain that one day I will be back at home to live in happiness with you until the end of my days.

MYRE: Wow. And it would still be another 20 years before he was released from prison. Sahm, you work at the Mandela Foundation⁷, so you have access to his documents, but these very private letters were scattered⁸ all over the place. How did you track them down?

VENTER: Well, there's a large number of letters at the National Archive, which received them after the transition⁹ from apartheid. They kept boxes and boxes of his entire prison record.

MYRE: What was your most surprising find in these letters?

VENTER: There was a letter in one of the prison boxes which was folded up and still in its envelope, and it was a beautiful letter written to his daughters Zindzi, probably it was for her 18th birthday or 19th birthday. And her birthday is in December, and there was - it was clearly never sent. And there was a note with it from prison officials saying the prisoner does not have permission to send a letter with a Christmas card. So they just didn't send it. And I actually contacted Zindzi and told her about it. She had no idea about it. So all these years later, she got - she actually got her letter.

MYRE: Sahm, several years after Mandela got out of prison, he went back to Robben Island where he'd been held for so many years. And you went with him and got to talk to him. What did he tell you on that visit?

VENTER: I was just fascinated¹⁰ by the fact that every afternoon at 3:30, they would lock the doors, the gates, and the prisoners would be in those single cells until about 5:30 the next morning. So I asked him, what did he do when he was locked away like this every day? And he said, I read, and I wrote letters. So he spent a lot of time and effort on those letters. They were beautifully written, full of detail, and essentially¹¹ he poured his heart into them.

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CHANG: That's Sahm Venter in Johannesburg, South Africa, speaking with NPR's Greg Myre. She's the editor of the new book "The Prison Letters Of Nelson Mandela." It's being released to mark the 100th anniversary¹² of Mandela's birth.

1 compiled   

v.收集( compile的过去式和过去分词 )；编辑；编制；编译

参考例句：

• They have compiled a collection of Elementary Readings on the Natural Scieces to help young people in their studies. 为了便于青少年学习，他们编了一套《自然科学小丛书》。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Bibliographies are lists of books and are compiled in many different forms. 书目是以许多不同形式编制的图书目录。 来自辞典例句

2 released   

v.释放( release的过去式和过去分词 )；放开；发布；发行

参考例句：

• He was released on bail pending committal proceedings. 他交保获释正在候审。
• With hindsight it is easy to say they should not have released him. 事后才说他们本不应该释放他，这倒容易。

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 steer   

vt.驾驶，为…操舵；引导；vi.驾驶

参考例句：

• If you push the car, I'll steer it.如果你来推车，我就来驾车。
• It's no use trying to steer the boy into a course of action that suits you.想说服这孩子按你的方式行事是徒劳的。

5 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

6 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

7 foundation   

n.[pl.]地基；基础；基金会；建立，创办

参考例句：

• The foundation of the university took place 600 years ago.这所大学是600年前创办的。
• The Foundation gives money to help artists.那家基金会捐款帮助艺术家。

8 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

9 transition   

n.转变，变迁，过渡

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the period of transition between childhood and adulthood.青春期是童年与成年之间的过渡时期。
• They all support a peaceful transition.他们全部都支持和平过渡。

10 fascinated   

a.被强烈地吸引住，感到着迷的

参考例句：

• China has always fascinated me. 中国一直令我心驰神往。
• The children watched, fascinated, as the picture began to appear. 电影开始以后孩子们入迷地观看着。

11 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

12 anniversary   

n.周年(纪念日)

参考例句：

• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。
• Today is my parents'30th wedding anniversary.今天是我父母结婚30周年纪念日。