美国国家公共电台 NPR A Lost 'Little Boy' Nears 100: Poet And Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti

A Lost 'Little Boy' Nears 100: Poet And Publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Poet and publisher Lawrence Ferlinghetti is enjoying one of the benefits of living to 100. It's almost like you're present to read your own obituary¹. Ferlinghetti is known for his beat poetry, his bookstore and small press, both called City Lights, and his defense² of the First Amendment³. Now celebrations of his life and work are planned at multiple venues⁴ in San Francisco, where he lives - not that he's done working. He's just published a new novel. Tom Vitale has the story.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE⁵: For Lawrence Ferlinghetti, living to be 100 is no fun. Speaking from his home in North Beach recently, Ferlinghetti said he's practically blind now. He can't read, and he's skipping his big birthday bash.

LAWRENCE FERLINGHETTI: At City Lights, they're going to have quite a celebration. But I won't be there. It's no use my appearing in public because I couldn't speak. I mean, I could speak. But on account of my eyesight, it would be - (laughter) I don't know what it would be.

VITALE: Nevertheless, Ferlinghetti has a lot to celebrate. His 1958 book of poetry "A Coney Island Of The Mind" sold more than a million copies. In it, he compares the horrors depicted⁷ in Goya's paintings of the Napoleonic wars to scenes of post-World War II America. Here he is reading in 1994.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FERLINGHETTI: (Reading) They are the same people, only further from home, on freeways 50 lanes wide, on a concrete continent spaced with bland⁸ billboards⁹ illustrating¹⁰ imbecile illusions of happiness.

GERALD NICOSIA: His language and his humor and the things he was saying were things that appeal to, could be understood by, the average man on the street.

VITALE: Gerald Nicosia is a Bay Area critic who has written extensively about the Beat writers. He says Ferlinghetti is notable for writing poetry in everyday language.

NICOSIA: A poet in the American voice - and that was one of the breakthroughs, of course, of the '50s, was taking poetry away from academia, away from this rarefied, aesthetic¹¹ language that nobody could understand, and writing in the voice of ordinary people.

VITALE: Critics, however, didn't consider Ferlinghetti on a par⁶ with the other Beat writers he called his friends - Jack¹² Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Allen Ginsberg. Ferlinghetti doesn't want to talk about his past now. But in 1994, he told me that even though he was raised in New York, he never met those East Coast writers until he moved to San Francisco and opened City Lights.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FERLINGHETTI: Bookstore's a natural place for poets to hang out, and they started showing up there.

VITALE: City Lights became a magnet for West Coast intellectuals, and later, a tourist destination. Ferlinghetti also started a small press called City Lights Books. In the fall of 1956, he published a little 75-cent paperback¹³, the first edition of "Howl" by Allen Ginsberg.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

ALLEN GINSBERG: (Reading) I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving, hysterical¹⁴, naked, dragging themselves through the Negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix.

VITALE: "Howl" was a new type of poetry that became an anthem¹⁵ for the nascent¹⁶ counterculture.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FERLINGHETTI: "Howl" knocked the sides out of things, just the way rock music in the '60s knocked the sides out of the old music world.

VITALE: "Howl" includes passages of homosexual imagery. Ferlinghetti was arrested in 1957 on charges of publishing obscene material. At the end of a long federal trial, he was acquitted¹⁷. Critic Gerald Nicosia says Ferlinghetti's two greatest accomplishments¹⁸ were fighting censorship and inaugurating a small-press revolution.

NICOSIA: Up until that point, getting published was a difficult thing. If you were a radical¹⁹, an innovative²⁰ writer, you would be rebuffed by mainstream²¹ publishers. By creating this press out of nothing - City Lights Press - he said, look. You don't need these big publishers in New York.

VITALE: Lawrence Ferlinghetti has always been an advocate for the underdog, in part because of his own life story. And it's a tale right out of Dickens. His father died shortly before he was born, and his mother was committed to a mental hospital shortly after. He was raised by an aunt, and then, by foster parents. His new autobiographical novel, called "Little Boy," begins like this.

FERLINGHETTI: (Reading) Little Boy was quite lost. He had no idea who he was or where he had come from.

VITALE: Ferlinghetti enlisted²² in the Navy after Pearl Harbor. He served as an officer at Normandy on D-Day and at Nagasaki after the atomic bomb. That experience turned him into a lifelong pacifist. He began writing poetry at a revolutionary time in arts and music. And in 1994, he still believed art could make a difference.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

FERLINGHETTI: I really believe that art is capable of the total transformation²³ of the world and of life itself, and nothing less is really acceptable. And so if art is going to have any excuse for - beyond being a leisure-class plaything, it has to transform life itself.

VITALE: And that is what Lawrence Ferlinghetti has been doing for most of a century. The secret to his longevity²⁴?

FERLINGHETTI: Have a good laugh, and you'll live longer (laughter).

VITALE: For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

1 obituary   

n.讣告，死亡公告；adj.死亡的

参考例句：

• The obituary records the whole life of the deceased.讣文记述了这位死者的生平。
• Five days after the letter came,he found Andersen s obituary in the morning paper.收到那封信五天后，他在早报上发现了安德森的讣告。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

4 venues   

n.聚集地点( venue的名词复数 )；会场；（尤指）体育比赛场所；犯罪地点

参考例句：

• The band will be playing at 20 different venues on their UK tour. 这个乐队在英国巡回演出期间将在20个不同的地点演出。
• Farmers market corner, 800 meters long, 60 meters wide livestock trading venues. 农牧市场东北角，有长800米，宽60米的牲畜交易场地。 来自互联网

5 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。

6 par   

n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的

参考例句：

• Sales of nylon have been below par in recent years.近年来尼龙织品的销售额一直不及以往。
• I don't think his ability is on a par with yours.我认为他的能力不能与你的能力相媲美。

7 depicted   

描绘，描画( depict的过去式和过去分词 )； 描述

参考例句：

• Other animals were depicted on the periphery of the group. 其他动物在群像的外围加以修饰。
• They depicted the thrilling situation to us in great detail. 他们向我们详细地描述了那激动人心的场面。

8 bland   

adj.淡而无味的，温和的，无刺激性的

参考例句：

• He eats bland food because of his stomach trouble.他因胃病而吃清淡的食物。
• This soup is too bland for me.这汤我喝起来偏淡。

9 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号

10 illustrating   

给…加插图( illustrate的现在分词 )； 说明； 表明； （用示例、图画等）说明

参考例句：

• He upstaged the other speakers by illustrating his talk with slides. 他演讲中配上幻灯片，比其他演讲人更吸引听众。
• Material illustrating detailed structure of graptolites has been etched from limestone by means of hydrofluoric acid. 表明笔石详细构造的物质是利用氢氟酸从石灰岩中侵蚀出来。

11 aesthetic   

adj.美学的，审美的，有美感

参考例句：

• My aesthetic standards are quite different from his.我的审美标准与他的大不相同。
• The professor advanced a new aesthetic theory.那位教授提出了新的美学理论。

12 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

13 paperback   

n.平装本，简装本

参考例句：

• A paperback edition is now available at bookshops.平装本现在在书店可以买到。
• Many books that are out of print are reissued in paperback form.许多绝版的书籍又以平装本形式重新出现。

14 hysterical   

adj.情绪异常激动的，歇斯底里般的

参考例句：

• He is hysterical at the sight of the photo.他一看到那张照片就异常激动。
• His hysterical laughter made everybody stunned.他那歇斯底里的笑声使所有的人不知所措。

15 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

16 nascent   

adj.初生的，发生中的

参考例句：

• That slim book showed the Chinese intelligentsia and the nascent working class.那本小册子讲述了中国的知识界和新兴的工人阶级。
• Despite a nascent democracy movement,there's little traction for direct suffrage.尽管有过一次新生的民主运动，但几乎不会带来直接选举。

17 acquitted   

宣判…无罪( acquit的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（自己）作出某种表现

参考例句：

• The jury acquitted him of murder. 陪审团裁决他谋杀罪不成立。
• Five months ago she was acquitted on a shoplifting charge. 五个月前她被宣判未犯入店行窃罪。

18 accomplishments   

n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就

参考例句：

• It was one of the President's greatest accomplishments. 那是总统最伟大的成就之一。
• Among her accomplishments were sewing,cooking,playing the piano and dancing. 她的才能包括缝纫、烹调、弹钢琴和跳舞。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

19 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

20 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

21 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

22 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

23 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

24 longevity   

n.长命；长寿

参考例句：

• Good habits promote longevity.良好的习惯能增长寿命。
• Human longevity runs in families.人类的长寿具有家族遗传性。