美国国家公共电台 NPR Tracy Chevalier Says 'A Single Thread' Can Make All The Difference

 

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

Violet Speedwell is a surplus woman. She lost her brother and her fiance to World War I, and she's accepted that she's not going to have a husband or a family. Violet is the protagonist¹ of Tracy Chevalier's new novel "A Single Thread." We meet her in 1932, wanting a life of her own. So she leaves her family home and moves to nearby Winchester and joins a group of women who make embroidered² kneeling cushions for a cathedral there.

NPR's Petra Mayer met up with Chevalier at Winchester Cathedral to talk about Violet and the life she stitches together.

PETRA MAYER, BYLINE³: Tracy Chevalier and I are standing⁴ in the choir⁵ of Winchester Cathedral, surrounded by lacy, carved wood and marble, long rows of benches made a little less hard by the addition of bright needlepoint cushions designed to protect aching backs and knees from all that wood and stone.

TRACY CHEVALIER: Look at the stitching. It is just extremely intricate.

MAYER: The choir stalls, the vaulted⁶ ceilings, even the ancient graffiti scratched into the walls - almost all of it was made by men.

CHEVALIER: The one thing in the cathedral that was made by women that we know was made by women were these kneelers and cushions. And I was immediately interested in them. Afterwards, it became obvious to me - ah, yes, of course. Tracy, you've chosen the story of the women.

MAYER: Those women were the Winchester Cathedral Broderers, a group of volunteers who took on the years-long project of making all the kneelers and cushions that are still in use here today. In the book, Violet stumbles into a service at the cathedral where the broderers are presenting their work to be blessed. She looks closer at one of the kneelers. And when she turns it over, she sees initials and a date. Someone has left her mark. And Violet thinks...

CHEVALIER: I want to make my mark by making a cushion or a kneeler that's going to last for hundreds of years here. Shall I show you her kneeler?

MAYER: Oh, yes, please.

CHEVALIER: OK. Here we go.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)

CHEVALIER: Violet wants to make a kneeler, and she gets to choose which design she wants to make. So she chooses this one that we're looking at, which is - I call it the acorn⁷ cushion.

MAYER: Chevalier chose this cushion as Violet's inspiration. It has a central motif⁸ of cheerful, checkered⁹ acorn caps set on a delicately textured¹⁰ blue background. It's worked with simple stitches that were designed so that almost anyone could learn them. In fact, Chevalier did learn them during her research. And yes, whoever made it has included her initials on the back - P.O.K. - and a date - 1932. That's a date that will become important in the book as Violet and her friends keep an uneasy eye on the rise of Adolf Hitler.

Just above us on the wall, another person has made his mark.

COLIN COOK: There's this amazing graffiti on the wall, which was put there, as we can now see, in the year of our Lord God 1545.

MAYER: That's Colin Cook, one of the bell ringers at the cathedral.

COOK: And the man who did it - he's put his name down there - Harey Coppar. And it says he was sworn bell ringer in that year.

MAYER: Winchester Cathedral's bell tower also becomes a refuge for Violet almost as much as the embroidery¹¹ workroom. Cook is here to show us around the tower, which involves a hair-raisingly (ph) steep spiral staircase.

(SOUNDBITE OF FOOTSTEPS)

MAYER: We emerge at the top, huffing and puffing¹², into a large room with loops of thick rope - the bell pulls - arranged in a kind of chandelier on the ceiling. Cook lowers the ropes and gives us a demonstration¹³ of what Violet would have seen here, hauling on the heavy bell pull with all his might.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHURCH BELL)

COOK: Harder and harder, further and further, the bell is swinging.

CHEVALIER: When Violet's working on the kneelers and the cushions, she's right there in the middle of the cathedral where all of the services are taking place, whereas the bell chamber¹⁴ has its own world above the cathedral, its own rules and regulations. Back at that time, there were very few women - would have come up here. So it's very special that she does.

MAYER: Violet loses herself and her troubles in the complexity¹⁵ and precision of the bells and finds herself through an unconventional relationship with one of the bell ringers and her work with the embroiderers. Chevalier says it only takes a single thread to make a difference in a cushion or a life. And while Violet is single...

CHEVALIER: That wasn't a bad thing. That can actually be a positive thing.

MAYER: And at the end, she - not - I'm not spoiling anything. But she is the thread that stitches together a new kind of family.

CHEVALIER: Exactly. I couldn't have put it better myself.

MAYER: Petra Mayer, NPR News, Winchester.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

2 embroidered   

adj．绣花的

参考例句：

• She embroidered flowers on the cushion covers. 她在这些靠垫套上绣了花。
• She embroidered flowers on the front of the dress. 她在连衣裙的正面绣花。

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 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

5 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。

6 vaulted   

adj.拱状的

参考例句：

• She vaulted over the gate and ran up the path. 她用手一撑跃过栅栏门沿着小路跑去。
• The formal living room has a fireplace and vaulted ceilings. 正式的客厅有一个壁炉和拱形天花板。

7 acorn   

n.橡实，橡子

参考例句：

• The oak is implicit in the acorn.橡树孕育于橡子之中。
• The tree grew from a small acorn.橡树从一粒小橡子生长而来。

8 motif   

n.(图案的)基本花纹，(衣服的)花边；主题

参考例句：

• Alienation is a central motif in her novels.疏离感是她小说的一个重要的主题。
• The jacket has a rose motif on the collar.这件夹克衫领子上有一朵玫瑰花的图案。

9 checkered   

adj.有方格图案的

参考例句：

• The ground under the trees was checkered with sunlight and shade.林地光影交错。
• He’d had a checkered past in the government.他过去在政界浮沉。

10 textured   

adj.手摸时有感觉的, 有织纹的

参考例句：

• The shoe's sole had a slightly textured surface. 鞋底表面稍感粗糙。
• Shallow burial seems to preserve chalky textured porosity. 浅埋藏似能保留具白垩状结构的孔隙。

11 embroidery   

n.绣花，刺绣；绣制品

参考例句：

• This exquisite embroidery won people's great admiration.这件精美的绣品，使人惊叹不已。
• This is Jane's first attempt at embroidery.这是简第一次试着绣花。

12 puffing   

v.使喷出( puff的现在分词 )；喷着汽（或烟）移动；吹嘘；吹捧

参考例句：

• He was puffing hard when he jumped on to the bus. 他跳上公共汽车时喘息不已。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe. 父亲坐着心满意足地抽着烟斗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。

14 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。

15 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。