美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Like A Jazz Musician': Past Poet Laureate Philip Levine's Posthumous LP

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Since the age of Homer, poetry has been performed with music. Jazz and poetry have been paired up frequently ever since the beat poets and the beboppers got together in the 1950s. A new addition to that canon features Pulitzer Prize-winning poet laureate Philip Levine. The album was recorded shortly before his death three years ago. It was released last week. Tom Vitale has the story.

TOM VITALE, BYLINE¹: In 2004, Philip Levine told me he discovered jazz on the radio when he was a teenager.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

PHILIP LEVINE: Like any young person, I wanted to find an art form that the older people in my family would reject, naturally. I had found T.S. Eliot in poetry. God, what kind of garbage is this, you know? And I heard jazz - rhythmic², driving. And it was very exciting.

(SOUNDBITE OF BENJAMIN BOONE AND PHILIP LEVINE SONG, "GIN")

VITALE: Levine remained a fan the rest of his life. In 2012, when he was teaching at California State University, Fresno, Levine read his poetry accompanied by a band led by a fellow faculty³ member, saxophonist Benjamin Boone.

BENJAMIN BOONE: And it was absolute magic. It was like he was a member of the band. It was like he knew exactly what to do like a jazz musician.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GIN")

LEVINE: (Reading) Gin.

VITALE: On and off over the next three years, Levine and Boone went into a studio to record.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GIN")

LEVINE: (Reading) The first time I drank gin, I thought it must be hair tonic⁴. My brother swiped the bottle from a guy whose father owned a drug store that sold booze in those ancient honorable days when we acknowledged that stuff was a drug.

VITALE: The sessions have finally been released as "The Poetry Of Jazz." The first track is a poem about adolescence⁵ called "Gin." Boone just composed the head or opening melody and let the band freely improvise⁶ the rest as the poet read along with them in the studio.

BOONE: What I love about "Gin" is that in those free areas you'll hear the musicians commenting on the lines of Philip's poetry. And it gets at the inner core of what he's trying to express about awkwardness but with compassion⁷ and humor.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "GIN")

LEVINE: (Reading) Maybe the bliss⁸ that came with drinking came only after a certain period of apprenticeship⁹. Eddie likened it to the holy man's self-flagellation to experience the fullness of faith. He was very well-read for a kid of 14 in the public schools.

VITALE: Boone created unique settings for each of the 14 poems on the album. The 54-year-old composer is a Fulbright scholar now teaching at the University of Ghana. He grew up in small-town North Carolina. Poet Philip Levine came from industrial Detroit, whose culture and airwaves provided the rhythms for his poetry.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING¹⁰)

LEVINE: And mainly I got them from preaching. Detroit at the time was probably half Southern. And every Sunday morning, you could turn on these guys, both white and black, and they would belt out language like I never heard. I loved it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THEY FEED THEY LION")

LEVINE: (Reading) Earth is eating trees, fence posts, gutted¹¹ cars. Earth is calling in her little ones. Come home. Come home. From pig balls, from the ferocity of pig driven to holiness, from the furred ear and the full jowl come the repose¹² of the hung belly¹³. From the purpose they lion grow.

VITALE: One of Levine's best-known poems, "They Feed They Lion," was written in the aftermath of the Detroit riots of 1967. Benjamin Boone says Levine told him to compose the music as a call and response between the poet and the band.

BOONE: And it took me a while to digest all of the rage. The seething¹⁴ rage is trapped, and then it finally erupts at the end. And it's about race relations. And what can be more timely? He said he wanted to be more like a preacher when he did it. He wanted it to be angry.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THEY FEED THEY LION")

LEVINE: (Reading) From my five arms and all my hands, from all my white sins forgiven, they feed. From my car passing under the stars, they lion. From my children inherit, from the oak turned to a wall, they lion. From they sack and they belly opened and all that was hidden burning on the oil-stained earth, they feed they lion. And he comes.

VITALE: Philip Levine was 84 years old when he started collaborating¹⁵ with Benjamin Boone. Boone says the sessions could be taxing.

BOONE: He would say, you know, the last session really wore me out. I'm sorry I was so tired. But man, you could not see it in the studio. When he got in the studio, it was almost like a kid in a candy shop. He was so energetic. And he loved every minute of it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "A DOZEN DAWN SONGS, PLUS ONE")

LEVINE: (Reading) 8 a.m. and we punch out and leave the place to our betters, the day shift jokers who think they're in for fun. It's still Monday 2,000 miles and 50 years later. And at my back, I always hear Chevy gear and axle grinding the night shift workers into antiquity¹⁶.

VITALE: In 2004, Philip Levine said what makes a poem a good poem is fresh language and authentic¹⁷ imagery along with something else.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

LEVINE: If it has those two things and then musically it's interesting as a piece of rhythmic language, I'm going. I'm hooked. And I'm off to the races.

VITALE: Philip Levine finished recording "The Poetry Of Jazz" with Benjamin Boone one year before the poet died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 87. For NPR News, I'm Tom Vitale in New York.

(SOUNDBITE OF BENJAMIN BOONE SONG, "A DOZEN DAWN SONGS, PLUS ONE")

1 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。

2 rhythmic   

adj.有节奏的，有韵律的

参考例句：

• Her breathing became more rhythmic.她的呼吸变得更有规律了。
• Good breathing is slow,rhythmic and deep.健康的呼吸方式缓慢深沉而有节奏。

3 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

4 tonic   

n./adj.滋补品，补药，强身的，健体的

参考例句：

• It will be marketed as a tonic for the elderly.这将作为老年人滋补品在市场上销售。
• Sea air is Nature's best tonic for mind and body.海上的空气是大自然赋予的对人们身心的最佳补品。

5 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

6 improvise   

v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words，he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词，那就只好即兴现编。
• As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料，只好临时凑合了。

7 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

8 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

9 apprenticeship   

n.学徒身份；学徒期

参考例句：

• She was in the second year of her apprenticeship as a carpenter. 她当木工学徒已是第二年了。
• He served his apprenticeship with Bob. 他跟鲍勃当学徒。

10 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

11 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 repose   

v.(使)休息；n.安息

参考例句：

• Don't disturb her repose.不要打扰她休息。
• Her mouth seemed always to be smiling,even in repose.她的嘴角似乎总是挂着微笑，即使在睡眠时也是这样。

13 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

14 seething   

沸腾的，火热的

参考例句：

• The stadium was a seething cauldron of emotion. 体育场内群情沸腾。
• The meeting hall was seething at once. 会场上顿时沸腾起来了。

15 collaborating   

合作( collaborate的现在分词 )； 勾结叛国

参考例句：

• Joe is collaborating on the work with a friend. 乔正与一位朋友合作做那件工作。
• He was not only learning from but also collaborating with Joseph Thomson. 他不仅是在跟约瑟福？汤姆逊学习，而且也是在和他合作。

16 antiquity   

n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹

参考例句：

• The museum contains the remains of Chinese antiquity.博物馆藏有中国古代的遗物。
• There are many legends about the heroes of antiquity.有许多关于古代英雄的传说。

17 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。