纽约时报 曾红极一时的詹姆斯·鲍德温(2)

 

    Baldwin first ascended¹ into the ranks of America's great literary figures鲍德温首先跻身美国伟大文学人物的行列，

    while raising, particularly in his searing essays, unsettling questions about the nation's past and present, all rendered with a cutting, double-edged honesty:

    同时提出了有关美国过去和现在的令人不安的问题，尤其是，他极具批判性的文章将所有这些问题都以一种尖锐且双刃剑式的诚实呈现出来：

    He was unsparing but also generous, lyrical, edifying² as a conscience.

    他不留情面，但同时内容丰富，感情丰满，像良知一样启迪人心。

    More than a decade and a half before Chase arrived for the "20/20" interview,在接受《20/20》节目记者蔡斯采访的15年前，in the early 1960s, Baldwin would appear on the cover of Time magazine ("The Negro's Push for Equality"),也就是上世纪60年代早期，鲍德温曾登上《时代周刊》的封面（当期主题为“黑人争取平等”），travel for television appearances and lectures and, famously, debate the conservative writer William F. Buckley at Cambridge University in 1965.

    并做客多档电视节目并进行演讲，其中最著名的是1965年与保守派作家威廉·巴克利在剑桥大学进行的辩论。

    As the 1970s closed, though, and the gains of the civil rights movement quelled⁴ mainstream⁵ fascination⁶, Baldwin no longer roused attention in quite the same way.

    然而，随着上世纪70年代的结束，民权运动的成就压制了主流魅力，鲍德温不再以同样的方式唤起人们的注意。

    In 1979, something convinced ABC that the "20/20" interview wasn't enough. The segment was scrapped⁷.

    1979年，美国广播公司确信《20/20》节目的采访不太合适。因此这段采访的播出计划被取消。

    According to Lovett, the reaction at the show was, roughly, "Who wants to listen to a Black gay has-been?"据洛维特说，人们对这个节目的反应大致是，“谁会想听过气黑人同性恋的采访？”

    It's not unusual for thinkers' reputations to fade or swell⁸ according to society's use for them.

    思想家的声誉会随着社会对他们的消耗而衰退或膨胀，这种情况并不罕见。

    Our use for Baldwin, who died in 1987, has clearly returned to a great high.

    鲍德温于1987年去世，而我们对他的消耗显然已回到极高的水平。

    Over the last decade, writers including Ta-Nehisi Coates have taken him as an explicit⁹ model in their works;过去十年里，塔内希斯·科茨等作家在他们的作品中将鲍德温作为明确的典范；an Oscar-nominated documentary, "I Am Not Your Negro," was built from an unfinished Baldwin manuscript,获得奥斯卡提名的纪录片《我不是你的黑鬼》根据鲍德温未完成的手稿改编而成，and an Oscar-nominated film from his novel "If Beale Street Could Talk."另一部获得奥斯卡提名的电影则由鲍德温的小说《假若比尔街能够讲话》改编而成。

    Last year, one of The New Yorker's most-read stories was an essay he wrote for the magazine in 1962.

    去年，《纽约客》杂志最受欢迎的故事之一是鲍德温在1962年为该杂志撰写的文章。

    Among earlier critics, though, Baldwin could face a combination of dissent¹⁰ and humiliation¹¹.

    不过，在早期批评者中，鲍德温可能同时面临异议和羞辱。

    By the late 1960s, as Henry Louis Gates Jr. wrote in a 1992 essay, "Baldwin-bashing was almost a rite³ of initiation¹²" for a new generation of Black intellectuals;上世纪60年代末，正如小亨利·路易斯·盖茨在1992年的一篇文章中所写，对新一代黑人知识分子来说，“抨击鲍德温几乎是一种启蒙仪式”；he was dismissed with homophobic epithets¹³, or had his erudition interpreted as a capitulation to white intellectuals.

    他被贬斥为仇视同性恋者，或被解读为向白人知识分子低头的人。

    ("Soul on Ice," Eldridge Cleaver's memoir¹⁴, was laced with homophobic rebukes¹⁵ of Baldwin（埃尔德里奇·克里弗的回忆录《冰上灵魂》中夹杂了对鲍德温的恐同指责，and described "Negro homosexuals" as "frustrated¹⁶ because in their sickness they are unable to have a baby by a white man";并称“黑人同性恋者”“非常受挫，因为他们生病时不能由白人男子生孩子”；Amiri Baraka criticized Baldwin for "playing the distressed¹⁷ aesthete¹⁸ in Europe.")阿米里·巴拉卡指责鲍德温“在欧洲扮演痛苦的唯美主义者。”）Martin Luther King Jr., in a private conversation recorded and summarized by the F.B.I., claimed to be put off by Baldwin's "poetic¹⁹ exaggeration."马丁·路德·金在被联邦调查局录音整理的私人谈话中声称，鲍德温的“诗意夸张”让他感到不快。

    Even that Time magazine profile noted²⁰ that Baldwin was "not, by any stretch of the imagination, a Negro leader,"就连《时代》周刊的简介也指出，鲍德温“在任何想象中都不是黑人领袖”，described him as "nervous, slight, almost fragile" and "effeminate in manner," and said he "often loses his audience with overblown arguments."称他“容易紧张、瘦弱、几乎可以说是虚弱”而且“举止娘娘腔”，并说他“经常因言过其实的言论而失去听众”。

1 ascended   

v.上升，攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He has ascended into heaven. 他已经升入了天堂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The climbers slowly ascended the mountain. 爬山运动员慢慢地登上了这座山。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 edifying   

adj.有教训意味的，教训性的，有益的v.开导，启发( edify的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Young students are advised to read edifying books to improve their mind. 建议青年学生们读一些陶冶性情的书籍，以提高自己的心智。 来自辞典例句
• This edifying spectacle was the final event of the Governor's ball. 这个有启发性的表演便是省长的舞会的最后一个节目了。 来自辞典例句

3 rite   

n.典礼，惯例，习俗

参考例句：

• This festival descends from a religious rite.这个节日起源于宗教仪式。
• Most traditional societies have transition rites at puberty.大多数传统社会都为青春期的孩子举行成人礼。

4 quelled   

v.（用武力）制止，结束，镇压( quell的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Thanks to Kao Sung-nien's skill, the turmoil had been quelled. 亏高松年有本领，弹压下去。 来自汉英文学 - 围城
• Mr. Atkinson was duly quelled. 阿特金森先生被及时地将了一军。 来自辞典例句

5 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

6 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

7 scrapped   

废弃(scrap的过去式与过去分词)； 打架

参考例句：

• This machine is so old that it will soon have to be scrapped. 这架机器太旧，快报废了。
• It had been thought that passport controls would be scrapped. 人们曾认为会放开护照管制。

8 swell   

vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强

参考例句：

• The waves had taken on a deep swell.海浪汹涌。
• His injured wrist began to swell.他那受伤的手腕开始肿了。

9 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

10 dissent   

n./v.不同意，持异议

参考例句：

• It is too late now to make any dissent.现在提出异议太晚了。
• He felt her shoulders gave a wriggle of dissent.他感到她的肩膀因为不同意而动了一下。

11 humiliation   

n.羞辱

参考例句：

• He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
• He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。

12 initiation   

n.开始

参考例句：

• her initiation into the world of marketing 她的初次涉足营销界
• It was my initiation into the world of high fashion. 这是我初次涉足高级时装界。

13 epithets   

n.（表示性质、特征等的）词语( epithet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He insulted me, using rude epithets. 他用粗话诅咒我。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He cursed me, using a lot of rude epithets. 他用上许多粗鲁的修饰词来诅咒我。 来自辞典例句

14 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

15 rebukes   

责难或指责( rebuke的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• His industry rebukes me. 他的勤劳使我感到惭傀。
• The manager's rebukes in loud voice and stern expression have made the clerks gathered in the out office start with alarm. 老板声色俱厉的责备把聚集在办公室外的职员们吓坏了。

16 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 distressed   

痛苦的

参考例句：

• He was too distressed and confused to answer their questions. 他非常苦恼而困惑，无法回答他们的问题。
• The news of his death distressed us greatly. 他逝世的消息使我们极为悲痛。

18 aesthete   

n.审美家

参考例句：

• Nobody will deny that Wilde is an outstanding aesthete.毫无疑问，王尔德是一位杰出的唯美主义者。
• It argues that the Humanity SpirIt'should involve Truth,Goodness,Aesthete and Freedom.人文精神具体应该包括真、善、美、自由四个向度。

19 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。

20 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。