美国国家公共电台 NPR 50 Years After The My Lai Massacre, An Opera Confronts The Past

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

One of the most horrifying¹ events in a terrible war, the My Lai Massacre², occurred 50 years ago yesterday in Vietnam. The story never would have gotten out had it not been for a U.S. soldier who stood up against his own troops and reported their actions. He's become the subject of an opera that's being performed all over the country. NPR's Neda Ulaby has more.

NEDA ULABY, BYLINE³: Helicopter pilot Hugh Thompson Jr. vividly⁴ remembered in a 1989 documentary the day he and his crew were out doing reconnaissance and witnessed something awful.

(SOUNDBITE OF UNIDENTIFIED DOCUMENTARY)

HUGH THOMPSON JR.: During flying around, we came across a ditch. It had bodies in it. A lot of women, kids, old men.

ULABY: Soon, Thompson realized American soldiers were on a bloody⁵ rampage, raping⁶ and killing⁷ Vietnamese civilians⁸.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA,"MY LAI")

RINDE ECKERT: (As Hugh Thompson, singing) I'm going to stop this madness.

ULABY: Hugh Thompson is the only character in the chamber⁹ opera, "My Lai." It takes place entirely¹⁰ in his head. Thompson's at the end of his life, remembering how he tried to stop the massacre. He landed his helicopter repeatedly to help civilians. At one point, he flew it down between fleeing villagers and advancing American soldiers. He ordered his crew to shoot the Americans if they kept slaughtering¹¹ innocent people.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "MY LAI")

ECKERT: (As Hugh Thompson, singing) Men, pick up your guns, take aim.

ULABY: Thompson reported the massacre when he got back to base, but the Army tried to cover it up. Thompson's fellow soldiers accused him of being on the wrong side. They shunned¹² him. He received death threats. After Thompson testified about My Lai in 1969, a member of Congress threatened to have him court martialed. But Thompson never doubted his choices, says librettist¹³ Harriet Scott Chessman.

HARRIET SCOTT CHESSMAN: His character just shines. He was extraordinary.

ULABY: But Chessman says it wasn't easy to write a character so single-mindedly determined¹⁴ to intervene.

CHESSMAN: He didn't have to go back down. So I had to try to understand how in God's name he went back down.

ULABY: Taking on an opera about a notorious American war crime and the guy who tried to stop it felt necessary to Kronos Quartet founder¹⁵ David Harrington.

DAVID HARRINGTON: People don't usually take stands. They are concerned about what other people think or the percentages or the polls or something like that. But on that day in My Lai, Hugh Thompson just reacted to injustice¹⁶.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "MY LAI")

ECKERT: (As Hugh Thompson, singing) What do I do? What would you do?

ULABY: Very few people had heard of Hugh Thompson when Americans at home became aware of the massacre through news reports and gruesome photographs, the sort we rarely see from wars today. It was a formative moment for composer Jonathan Berger.

JONATHAN BERGER: I was 13, 14 years old when it happened. Riveting¹⁷ moment for me. It was sort of my political awakening¹⁸.

ULABY: Berger had already explored Thompson's story in a piano concerto¹⁹ when he teamed up with Kronos Quartet and a well-known Vietnamese musician.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "MY LAI")

ULABY: Von Anh Vo (ph) was born the year the Vietnam War ended in 1975.

VON ANH VO: I still see the consequences.

ULABY: Vo is a master of traditional Vietnamese instruments. As a child in Hanoi, she learned about the My Lai massacre in school. This music is a memorial, she says, to the murdered civilians and to Thompson and his crew.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "MY LAI")

ECKERT: (As Hugh Thompson, singing unintelligibly).

ULABY: There's a moment in the opera when Thompson, who suffered after the war from PTSD, can't stop dwelling²⁰ on the ditch where he saw all the bodies. It becomes the duet between singer Rinde Eckert and Vo playing a Vietnamese stringed instrument called a Dan Bau.

VO: So the Dan Bau like another crying voice.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "MY LAI")

ECKERT: As Hugh Thompson, singing) The ditch.

VO: Each time when I play that I still feel the pain. And then when the quartet came in, it's just like we are three intertwined with each other. And then it's like we all cry at that moment.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "MY LAI")

CHESSMAN: I can't say that this country as a country really learned very much from all of this.

ULABY: Librettist Harriet Scott Chessman says it's hard not to consider the relevance²¹ of Hugh Thompson's story when the United States is still at war and when the abuse of people perceived as enemies is back in the headlines. Thirty years after My Lai, Hugh Thompson was given a medal by the military for his bravery there. And he told NPR how it felt to have waited so long to be recognized.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

THOMPSON JR.: I'm not bitter. I'm confused. I did a damn good job in the service.

ULABY: Before he died, Thompson counseled veterans and gave numerous speeches, including at West Point, about the ethics²² of combat. Harriet Scott Chessman says when you think about Thompson landing his helicopter again and again to protect people who could not protect themselves, it raises a question for all of us.

CHESSMAN: Do we hover²³, or do we dive down?

ULABY: A moral metaphor²⁴ for 1968 and 2018. Neda Ulaby, NPR News.

1 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

2 massacre   

n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀

参考例句：

• There was a terrible massacre of villagers here during the war.在战争中，这里的村民惨遭屠杀。
• If we forget the massacre,the massacre will happen again!忘记了大屠杀，大屠杀就有可能再次发生！

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 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

5 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

6 raping   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的现在分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• In response, Charles VI sent a punitive expedition to Brittany, raping and killing the populace. 作为报复，查理六世派军讨伐布列塔尼，奸淫杀戮平民。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The conquerors marched on, burning, killing, raping and plundering as they went. 征服者所到之处烧杀奸掠，无所不做。 来自互联网

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

9 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

10 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

11 slaughtering   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• The Revolutionary Tribunal went to work, and a steady slaughtering began. 革命法庭投入工作，持续不断的大屠杀开始了。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• \"Isn't it terrific slaughtering pigs? “宰猪的！ 来自汉英文学 - 中国现代小说

12 shunned   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She was shunned by her family when she remarried. 她再婚后家里人都躲着她。
• He was a shy man who shunned all publicity. 他是个怕羞的人，总是避开一切引人注目的活动。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 librettist   

n.(歌剧、音乐剧等的)歌词作者

参考例句：

• The musician and the librettist were collaborators. 音乐家与剧作者通力合作。
• Italian-born American composer and librettist whose operas include The Medium(1946) and The Consul(1950). 梅诺蒂，吉安卡洛生于1911意大利裔美国作曲家和歌剧词作者，其歌剧作品包括女巫（1946年）及领事（1950年）

14 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

15 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

16 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

17 riveting   

adj.动听的，令人着迷的，完全吸引某人注意力的；n.铆接（法）

参考例句：

• I find snooker riveting though I don't play myself.虽然我自己不打斯诺克，但是我觉得它挺令人着迷。
• To my amazement,I found it riveting.但令我惊讶的是，我发现它的吸引人处。

18 awakening   

n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的

参考例句：

• the awakening of interest in the environment 对环境产生的兴趣
• People are gradually awakening to their rights. 人们正逐渐意识到自己的权利。

19 concerto   

n.协奏曲

参考例句：

• The piano concerto was well rendered.钢琴协奏曲演奏得很好。
• The concert ended with a Mozart violin concerto.音乐会在莫扎特的小提琴协奏曲中结束。

20 dwelling   

n.住宅，住所，寓所

参考例句：

• Those two men are dwelling with us.那两个人跟我们住在一起。
• He occupies a three-story dwelling place on the Park Street.他在派克街上有一幢3层楼的寓所。

21 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

22 ethics   

n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准

参考例句：

• The ethics of his profession don't permit him to do that.他的职业道德不允许他那样做。
• Personal ethics and professional ethics sometimes conflict.个人道德和职业道德有时会相互抵触。

23 hover   

vi.翱翔，盘旋；徘徊；彷徨，犹豫

参考例句：

• You don't hover round the table.你不要围着桌子走来走去。
• A plane is hover on our house.有一架飞机在我们的房子上盘旋。

24 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。