访谈录 Interview 2007-09-09&09-10, 克林顿：权利依旧（上）

Matt?

Alright, Andrea Mitchell in Washington for us this morning, thanks very much. President Clinton's new book is "Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World". President Clinton, good to have you back in our studio. Good morning!

Thanks, Matt.

I want to go through a political potpourri¹ in a second, but let's start with your book. And I think that when people see the title, they are going to say "Well, Giving.” I mean, we can all write a check, we can change the world. But I am struck by how much of this book you spend talking not about giving financially, but giving of your time or your talents.

Yep, I, what I tried to do in this book was to say whatever your age, whatever your income group, and whatever your time availability, or whatever you know, whatever talents you have, everybody can do something, and there is an explosion of giving around the world that has the capacity really to change things in a way that private citizens have never done before.

And on a one-on-one basis, there is a section in the book and there are some examples of this, when you talk about giving the gift of reconciliation² and new beginnings, in other word to mend the fence. You know, settle a dispute with someone you've been fighting with, do you have personal experience with that? What inspired you to write that aspect of the book?

Well, I think my long friendship with Nelson Mandela, started me thinking about what a unique gift it is. I mean that he gave a gift to a country, he showed the country how he could get over 27 years in prison, invite not only his jailers to his inauguration³, but his persecutors into his government, and basically, that's what we're all gonna have to do to get through this new and unprecedented⁴ time, so politically, it's a good thing. But I was also profoundly moved, because of my continuing involvement with Rwanda, with the things I've seen there. I will never get over meeting a woman who lost her husband and six children. They were literally⁵ killed right in front of her. They, the people who attacked them thought she was dead. She woke up and instead of living a life in vengeance⁶; she started adopting orphans⁷ without regard to whether they have been part of the tribe that she was a member of or part of the group that killed them. And I see things like that in Rwanda all the time where people are reaching across the divides. I saw two neighbors holding hands: two women, one of them lost her husband and brother in the genocide; the other's husband was in jail awaiting war crimes trial, war crimes trial for doing it, you just see this over and over again.

1 potpourri   

n.混合之事物；百花香

参考例句：

• As tobacco cigarette burns,a potpourri of 4000 chemicals is released,including carbon monoxide and hydrocyanic acid.当烟被点燃时，融合了四千种化学品的气体被释放出来，其中包括一氧化碳和氢氰酸。
• Even so,there is a slight odour of potpourri emanating from Longfellow.纵然如此，也还是可以闻到来自朗费罗的一种轻微的杂烩的味道。

2 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

3 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

4 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

6 vengeance   

n.报复，报仇，复仇

参考例句：

• He swore vengeance against the men who murdered his father.他发誓要向那些杀害他父亲的人报仇。
• For years he brooded vengeance.多年来他一直在盘算报仇。

7 orphans   

孤儿( orphan的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The poor orphans were kept on short commons. 贫苦的孤儿们吃不饱饭。
• Their uncle was declared guardian to the orphans. 这些孤儿的叔父成为他们的监护人。