US Poet Laureate Captures Struggles of Working Class
美国新桂冠诗人菲利普·列文
America's newest poet laureate is Detroit native Philip Levine, 83, who is known for capturing the poignancy and grit of a now-vanished industrial America, and the overall struggle of the working class.
诗人菲利普·列文8月被美国国会图书馆任命为新的美国桂冠诗人。现年83岁的菲利普·列文是底特律人。他以率直的诗句，颂扬美国工业界的粗狂辛辣，以及劳工阶级的奋斗精神而闻名。
Levine, small and wiry, sits in the living room of the Brooklyn apartment he shares with Frances, his wife of nearly 60 years. He's published 16 collections of poetry and is knowledgeable about poetry concerning a vast array of subjects spanning centuries.
个头瘦小而又结实的菲利普·列文，在纽约布鲁克林区公寓的起居室里坐着。他和妻子弗朗西斯在这里生活了将近60年。列文已经出版了16本诗集。他读遍了几个世纪以来数量繁多、不同主题的诗文。
Yet he creates verse culled largely from what he calls the drudgery of the Detroit factory job he held in the 1940s and 1950s.
可是他的创作精髓，依然以于1940至1950年代，在底特律工厂中辛勤工作的感受为主。
“I remember when I worked at General Motors, sometimes people would come in being led on a tour," Levine says. "They were looking at us like we are in a zoo. I felt demeaned by it. I also felt I am a smart guy. I am not living on my wits. And I've got to figure out a way to live on my wits because my back is getting tired. And I did finally get out of it. I got out of it by publishing poetry, curiously enough.”
他说：“我记得，当我在通用汽车公司工作时，有些人被引导前来参观。他们看到我们，就好像我们是在动物园里供人参观一样。我觉得自己被贬低了。但我觉得我是一个有脑筋的人，我怎么不靠自己的智慧为生？所以，我必须找出一条靠自己聪明才智生活的方式，那时我的背脊已经劳累不堪。令我惊异的是，我终于摆脱了这些，靠的是出版诗集。”
Levine’s subject matter has acquired new relevance in today’s difficult economy. His poem, “What Work Is,” was the title work of a volume which won the National Book Award.
列文的创作主题，在经济困顿的今天，表现了新的认知。在他一部荣获国家书奖的诗集里，其中有一首名为“工作是什么”：
We stand in the rain in a long line
waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.
You know what work is--if you're
old enough to read this you know what
work is, although you may not do it.
Forget you. This is about waiting...
“在雨中，福特高地公园里，我们排着长队，
等候工作。
如果你年岁够大，能看懂这些，
你知道这工作意味着什么，
即使你不会去做。
忘了吧，我们说的是等待。”
Although Levine loves the variety in city life, he and Frances often return to Fresno, California, about 250 kilometers inland, where they keep a home. There, he says, life is “fixed,” and he writes a different sort of poetry. Here is an excerpt from “Our Valley.”
虽然，列文喜爱这样的都市生活，他和妻子弗朗西斯还是经常回到加州的老家弗雷斯诺。那是一个距离海岸250公里的内陆市镇。他们在那里还留着一栋住房。他说，在那里，生活是悠闲的。他在那里写出不同的诗。有一首名为“我们的山谷”：
We don't see the ocean, not ever, but in July and August
when the worst heat seems to rise from the hard clay
of this valley, you could be walking through a fig orchard
when suddenly the wind cools and for a moment
you get a whiff of salt, and in that moment you can almost
believe something is waiting beyond the Pacheco Pass,
something massive, irrational, and so powerful even
the mountains that rise east of here have no word for it…
“我们从来望不见海，
但七、八月炎热暑气自山谷的硬黏土升起，
你步行穿越无花果园时
凉风一阵袭来，依然感到一股咸味
这顷刻间你几已相信
巨大的，无理性的宏伟力量远候在巴切可山隘外
对此东边那拔地而起的群山，也无法形容。”
Levine cherishes silence and celebrates it in “He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do.”
列文珍惜沉默的时刻。他的诗“若一字为多他就一字不说”：
Fact is, silence is the perfect water:
unlike rain it falls from no clouds
to wash our minds, to ease our tired eyes,
to give heart to the thin blades of grass
fighting through the concrete for even air
dirtied by our endless stream of words.
“沉默有如完好之水
不像雨无云不落，
它洗涤我意念，舒缓我疲倦双眼。
让心迎向草叶的刀锋，
奋力穿过具象的压迫，甚至空气也被我们
无尽的词语之河弄脏了。”
The words Levine does use can be earthy. These lines are from “The Simple Truth,” the title poem of the collection that earned him the 1995 Pulitzer Prize.
列文喜欢使用朴实自然的字眼。他的诗“简单的真相”获得普利策奖，诗中写道：
Can you taste
what I'm saying? It is onions or potatoes, a pinch
of simple salt, the wealth of melting butter, it is obvious,
it stays in the back of your throat like a truth
you never uttered because the time was always wrong,
it stays there for the rest of your life, unspoken,
made of that dirt we call earth, the metal we call salt,
in a form we have no words for, and you live on it.
“你能品味，
我说的？
那是洋葱，洋芋，一小撮盐，和厚实融化的奶油。
显然，它像一个真相，留在你喉咙背后。
而你从未说出，因为时机总是不对。”
Levine also believes in the epic courage and tenderness of human beings. He is an admirer of the anarchists who fought alongside the Republicans against Gen. Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War in the 1930s.
列文也相信史诗上的勇气和人性的柔弱面。他仰慕1930年代西班牙内战时期，那些和中间偏左的共和国军并肩作战，反对佛朗哥政权的无政府主义者。
“I was truly inspired by their belief in the boundless nature of the human that, given the opportunity, human beings could work out a way of living that was based on generosity and common ownership and sensitivity to each other and they could treat the world as a place they didn’t have dominion over but had to take care of."
列文说：“我确实受到他们那种人类天性无疆界信念的鼓舞。如果人类有这种机会的话，就能够创造出一项基于慷慨共有和相互理解的生活方式。他们将能以照顾代替支配的态度来对待这个世界。”
As to what he hopes to achieve during his tenure as U.S. poet laureate, Levine says he'll do what he does when he writes a poem. He won't know where it's going; he'll just follow his instincts.
当被问到作为美国的桂冠诗人，他希望与人共享什么样的成就时，列文半带玩笑地回答说，他希望能编选一个最差诗集。他说，这样将激起每一个人的思想和乐趣。他认真的说，他将一如既往的写诗，他不知道会走到哪一条路上。他只是随着他的本性走下去。 |