纽约时报 黑人男孩寻找柏拉图 改变几代人命运(1)

 

    When my father was a small boy in Galveston, Texas, with no siblings¹ to play with or anything like a helicopter parent regimenting his time, he roamed the inscrutable world of adults all around him.

    当我的父亲还是小男孩时，他住在德克萨斯州加尔维斯顿，他没有兄弟姐妹可以一起玩，也没有“直升机父母”管理他的时间，他游荡在周围成年人的神秘世界里。

    On one such sortie, rummaging² behind his neighbor’s property, he found a neglected box of books, the names of which he recalls to this day with awe³ and precision.

    在一次这样的行动中，他在邻居的房屋后面到处翻寻，发现了一个被人遗忘的箱子，里面装着书，他至今仍心怀敬畏且能精准地回忆起来那天的事情。

    The first and most important was Will Durant’s 1926 classic, “The Story of Philosophy.”

    第一部也是最重要的一部是威尔·杜兰特1926年的经典著作《哲学的故事》。

    In its pages, he was immediately drawn⁴ to an image of Socrates, whose features reminded him of his grandmother’s pig.

    他立刻被书中苏格拉底的形象所吸引，他的容貌让他想起了他祖母的猪。

    Far from repulsed⁵, he lingered on the image, longing⁶ to comprehend why this funny-looking man who never wrote a word was revered⁷ throughout the ages.

    他非但没有憎恶，反而留恋在这个形象上，渴望理解为什么这个长相滑稽、一个字也没写过的人会世世代代受到尊敬。

    Galveston is a port town, and even amid the segregation⁸ of the 1940s, the color line fluctuated. There was more cultural and class exchange than contemporary narratives⁹ of racial deprivation¹⁰ tend to allow for.

    加尔维斯顿是一个港口城市，即使在20世纪40年代的种族隔离时期，肤色界限也在变化。比起当代关于种族剥削所允许叙述的， 这里有更多的文化和阶级交流。

    My father’s family was not educated, yet the neighbor in question was the principal of the local Black elementary school. The house previously¹¹ belonged to European immigrants.

    我父亲的家庭没有受过教育，但邻居是当地黑人小学的校长。这栋房子以前属于欧洲移民。

    Ownership of the books was unclear. What my father knew was that he needed whatever was inside them, and so he asked to keep them. His neighbor’s generosity¹² that day sparked a passion for reading and inquiry¹³ that would shape his entire life, alter its trajectory¹⁴.

    这些书的所有权尚不清楚。我父亲知道他需要里面的东西，无论里面有什么内容，所以他要求保存它们。他邻居那天的慷慨激发了他对阅读和探究的热情，这影响了他的一生，改变了他的人生轨迹。

    This story swelled¹⁵ long ago to the dimensions of a foundational myth. My father is our family’s First Man, a figure who created himself from scratch, initiating¹⁶ patterns of behavior and taste that did not exist before him but will outlast¹⁷ him now.

    这个故事在很久以前就膨胀成了一个基本的神话。我的父亲是我们家的第一人，一个从零开始创造自己的人物，开创了在他之前不存在的行为和审美模式，但现在将比他更持久。

    If this were fiction, the symbolism would be heavy-handed: The fatherless Black boy stumbles upon Wisdom itself, is transformed by the Socratic injunction to know thyself and through sheer imagination and willpower weaves together an intellectual and ethical¹⁸ lifeline stretching back to Attica.

    如果这是虚构的，那么其象征意义包含过多: 这个失去父亲的黑人男孩偶然发现了智慧本身，通过苏格拉底的训令，他了解了自己，通过纯粹的想象和意志力，编织了一条可以追溯到阿提卡的智慧和道德生命线。

    Yet this story is essentially¹⁹ true, and it reverberated²⁰ throughout my own childhood, guiding my course of study in college and throughout my adulthood²¹.

    然而这个故事基本上是真实的，它在我的童年时代一直回荡着，指引着我在大学和成年后的学习过程。

    That story was very much on my mind as our delayed Air France flight landed in Athens in July, for the first vacation out of the country that my wife, Valentine, and our two children, Marlow and Saul, 7 and 3, had taken together since the novel coronavirus upended the seasonal²² habits I’d grown so fond of since moving to Paris a decade earlier.

    当降落在雅典的法国航空公司的航班延误时,我的脑海中填满了这个故事。此时是7月的第一个假期, 我的妻子瓦伦丁和我们的两个孩子——7岁的马洛和3岁的索尔——由于新型冠状病毒，一起颠覆了我十年前搬到巴黎后养成的季节性习惯。

1 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

2 rummaging   

翻找，搜寻( rummage的现在分词 )； 海关检查

参考例句：

• She was rummaging around in her bag for her keys. 她在自己的包里翻来翻去找钥匙。
• Who's been rummaging through my papers? 谁乱翻我的文件来着？

3 awe   

n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧

参考例句：

• The sight filled us with awe.这景色使我们大为惊叹。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

4 drawn   

v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的

参考例句：

• All the characters in the story are drawn from life.故事中的所有人物都取材于生活。
• Her gaze was drawn irresistibly to the scene outside.她的目光禁不住被外面的风景所吸引。

5 repulsed   

v.击退( repulse的过去式和过去分词 )；驳斥；拒绝

参考例句：

• I was repulsed by the horrible smell. 这种可怕的气味让我恶心。
• At the first brush,the enemy was repulsed. 敌人在第一次交火时就被击退了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 longing   

n.（for）渴望

参考例句：

• Hearing the tune again sent waves of longing through her.再次听到那首曲子使她胸中充满了渴望。
• His heart burned with longing for revenge.他心中燃烧着急欲复仇的怒火。

7 revered   

v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• A number of institutions revered and respected in earlier times have become Aunt Sally for the present generation. 一些早年受到尊崇的惯例，现在已经成了这代人嘲弄的对象了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven. 中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。 来自辞典例句

8 segregation   

n.隔离，种族隔离

参考例句：

• Many school boards found segregation a hot potato in the early 1960s.在60年代初，许多学校部门都觉得按水平分班是一个棘手的问题。
• They were tired to death of segregation and of being kicked around.他们十分厌恶种族隔离和总是被人踢来踢去。

9 narratives   

记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分

参考例句：

• Marriage, which has been the bourne of so many narratives, is still a great beginning. 结婚一向是许多小说的终点，然而也是一个伟大的开始。
• This is one of the narratives that children are fond of. 这是孩子们喜欢的故事之一。

10 deprivation   

n.匮乏；丧失；夺去，贫困

参考例句：

• Many studies make it clear that sleep deprivation is dangerous.多实验都证实了睡眠被剥夺是危险的。
• Missing the holiday was a great deprivation.错过假日是极大的损失。

11 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

12 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

13 inquiry   

n.打听，询问，调查，查问

参考例句：

• Many parents have been pressing for an inquiry into the problem.许多家长迫切要求调查这个问题。
• The field of inquiry has narrowed down to five persons.调查的范围已经缩小到只剩5个人了。

14 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

15 swelled   

增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情）

参考例句：

• The infection swelled his hand. 由于感染，他的手肿了起来。
• After the heavy rain the river swelled. 大雨过后，河水猛涨。

16 initiating   

v.开始( initiate的现在分词 )；传授；发起；接纳新成员

参考例句：

• He is good at initiating projects but rarely follows through with anything. 他善于创建项目，但难得坚持完成。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Only the perchlorate shows marked sensitiveness and possibly initiating properties. 只有高氯酸盐表现有显著的感度和可能具有起爆性能。 来自辞典例句

17 outlast   

v.较…耐久

参考例句：

• The great use of life is to spend it doing something that will outlast it.人生的充分利用就是为争取比人生更长久的东西而度过一生。
• These naturally dried flowers will outlast a bouquet of fresh blooms.这些自然风干的花会比一束鲜花更加持久。

18 ethical   

adj.伦理的，道德的，合乎道德的

参考例句：

• It is necessary to get the youth to have a high ethical concept.必须使青年具有高度的道德观念。
• It was a debate which aroused fervent ethical arguments.那是一场引发强烈的伦理道德争论的辩论。

19 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。

20 reverberated   

回响，回荡( reverberate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使反响，使回荡，使反射

参考例句：

• Her voice reverberated around the hall. 她的声音在大厅里回荡。
• The roar of guns reverberated in the valley. 炮声响彻山谷。

21 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

22 seasonal   

adj.季节的，季节性的

参考例句：

• The town relies on the seasonal tourist industry for jobs.这个城镇依靠季节性旅游业提供就业机会。
• The hors d'oeuvre is seasonal vegetables.餐前小吃是应时蔬菜。