【经济学人精读】美国黑人女作家，诺贝尔奖获得者托尼·莫里森去世，享年88岁

了不起的托尼·莫里森

Toni Morrison, writer, died on August 5th, aged 88

作家托尼·莫里森于8月5日去世，享年88岁。

1. She did not look away. When Toni Morrison's clear imagining gaze met uncomfortable things, she faced them down. A poisoned dog jerking round the yard like a toy. Human placenta in a field. The transparent underskin of a bobcat gutted on a kitchen table. The greyish panties, still round her ankles, of an 11-year-old girl raped by her father as she washed the dishes. Especially she did not look away from the images of slavery she had been slowly, painfully dragged towards by the time she wrote "Beloved", in 1987.

她不会把目光移开。当托尼·莫里森的清澈的充满想象力的目光看到令人不舒服的东西时，她会直面它们。一只中毒的狗，像玩具一样，在院子里转来转去。田野中人的胎盘。放在厨房桌子上被破坏的山猫的透明的皮肤。一名11岁的女孩在洗碗时被父亲强奸，她的灰色内裤还缠绕在她的脚踝。尤其是1987年托尼写《宠儿》的时候，她没有将她的目光从自己被慢慢地、痛苦地拖向的奴隶形象上移开。

2. A man hanged in a sycamore tree, known by his shirt, but with head and feet missing. A red ribbon, fished from the river, with a curl of wet woolly hair attached to it and, to that, its bit of scalp. A fugitiveslavecrunching the breast bone of a dove before its heart had stopped beating. The wildness that shot up in a man's eye when his lips were yanked back to take the bit. Sethe, her heroine in "Beloved", serenely continuing to hold on her baby's face after she had cut its throat to save it from a slave's life.

一名男子被吊死在一棵美国梧桐树上——从他的衬衫看出来的——但是他的头和脚都不见了。一个从河里钓出来的红丝带，上面有一绺湿漉漉的毛茸茸的头发，还有一点头皮。一个逃亡的奴隶在鸽子的心脏停止跳动之前嘎吱嘎吱地啃着它的胸骨。当这个男人的嘴唇被拉回去咬一口时，涌上他的眼睛的野性。《宠儿》中的男主角塞丝，她割断了自己的婴儿的喉咙，把他从奴隶的宿命中救了出来，然后平静地继续捧着孩子的脸。

3. Because these scenes sometimes brushed against beauty—the sycamores tall and soughing, the dove eaten under flowering plum trees—and because her novels won prizes, notably the Nobel in 1993, critics tended to call them lyrical and poetic. Nothing made her madder. Lyricism meant that literary language was getting in the way. It had to bestripped down, freed up, opened up and teased to get the writerly-ness out. First drafts of her word-work, in number-two pencil on yellow legal pads, then went through as many as 13 revisions on the word-processor.

因为这些场景有时会与美擦肩而过-飒飒风吹的高大的梧桐树，在开花的李子树下被吃的鸽子-因为她的小说得了奖，尤其是1993年著名的诺贝尔奖，评论家们倾向于称其作品为抒情的和诗意的描述。没有什么使她更加生气了。抒情风格意味着文学语言的介入。它必须被剥离，被释放，被打开，被戏弄，以获得可写性。她的文字作品的初稿是用二号铅笔写在黄色的便笺簿上，然后在文字处理器上经过了多达13次的修改完成的。

4. Those 18 years as an editor at Random House had not been for nothing. She knew exactly what was needed to lead, sometimes throw, the reader into an alien world. It was not merely words but the silences between them, the unsaid things and the smoke they sent up, that gave her phrases their rhythm and their power. Hers was a work to reclaim lost black voices.

托尼在兰登书屋当编辑的18年可不是白做的。她清楚地知道需要用什么把读者引导至甚至是陷入到一个陌生的世界。不仅仅是文字，还有文字间的沉默，那些没有提及的事情以及它们带来的迷雾让她的语句有了节奏和能量。她的作品是为了找回黑人失去的声音。

5. Slaves in wagons singing under their breath, ghosts and haints staring silently from tree stumps, ancestors whose names were hidden in children's chants. Or simply girls like herself raised to womanhood in the Midwest, beside a steel mill, in a small house obsessively painted and sluiced withFels-Naptha as though at any moment they might be forced to leave. Read as she might, there were no books about this world, in which someone like her took centre-stage. She determined to write one, whether or not it sold; this became "The Bluest Eye".

马车上的奴隶们低声歌唱，鬼和海雀在树桩上默默地凝视，祖先的名字隐藏在孩子们的圣歌中。或者仅仅是像她一样在美国中西部长大成人的女孩们，她们生活在钢厂旁边，在一所小房子里，他们痴迷地涂着颜料，用毡子冲洗着，好像随时都可能被迫离开。尽管她可能会阅读，但这个世界上还没有以她这样的人为中心的书籍。她决定写一本书，不管它能不能卖出去；这本书就是《最蓝的眼睛》。

6. Along with the voices she recovered black experience, but through culture, not the easy, lazy colour-fetish: through the sweet smell of Nu Nile Hair Oil, the sharp tang of mustard greens cooking, theinevitabilityof entering by back doors. The protagonist of "The Bluest Eye" longed to be like Shirley Temple, but in this book and those that followed her creator rejoiced in dark eyes, thick lips, flared noses. Who had instructed blacks in self-loathing? Who told them they were not beautiful? When she cleaned house for a richer woman as a girl, and paid her for cast-off clothes, she still felt proud. When she wrote, she feltmagnificent.

伴随着她的发声，她寻回了黑人的经历，但她是通过文化，而不是简单的、懒惰的对肤色的迷恋：她是通过尼罗河发油的芬芳，芥菜烹调时的辛辣味道，不可避免地从后门走入做到的。《最蓝的眼睛》的主人公渴望像秀兰·邓波儿一样，但在这本书中，以及那些追随她的创作者的人们眼中，却以黑眼睛、厚嘴唇和鼻孔大的鼻子为乐。谁教导黑人自我厌恶？谁说她们不漂亮？她是个小女孩的时候，为一个有钱的女人打扫房子，那人给她买旧衣服，她仍然感到自豪。当她写作时，她觉得自己很了不起。

7. Anger was not useful to dwell on. It was not creative. In interviews she suppressed it with steeliness, just as she guarded her words and herself frommeddlesome intrusion. But she could explode at the craziness of racism, its distorting power, its pernicious notions of "purity", when the screaming red-mouthed baboon whites evoked lived under their own white skin.

老是生气是没有用的。那是没有创作力的。在访谈中她冷酷地克制着自己，就像她保护自己的话语和自己不受干涉一样。但是，当那些尖叫的红嘴狒狒在自己的白皮肤下生活时，她会对种族主义的疯狂、其扭曲的力量和其有害的纯洁概念勃然大怒。

8. Disappointingly she found it even among blacks, with their talk of mocha, hazelnut, onyx, tar- and silt-black. There was such compulsion in human beings to classify by type and clan, to suspect and hate the other, to refuse to vault the mere blue air that separated them. If oppression was no longer by actual ownership or actual violence, then language could be used to do the job with some efficiency. Politicians, misogynists, lawyers all knew how. Who could rescue language, ensure it stayed supple, strong and alive? That it was unarrogant, and would keep reaching towards theineffable? Women could. Black women could.

她失望地发现这甚至也存在于黑人之中，就在他们谈论摩卡，榛子，玛瑙，焦油和粉黑色时。在人类中，有一种通过类型和宗族来给人分类的冲动，来怀疑和憎恨其他种类的人，拒绝让那分隔他们的蔚蓝的空气消失。如果压迫不再是由实际的所有权或实际的暴力造成的，然后，语言可以被用来做一些效率的工作。政治家，厌恶女人的人，律师都知道怎么做。谁能拯救语言，确保它保持灵活、强大和鲜活？使它不是傲慢的，能够持续地达到言语不能描述的境地？女人能。黑人女性可以。

9. In her novels it was inevitably mothers, grandmothers, aunts, sisters who kept families and communities together with that mesh of lovingbossiness: pull up your socks, comb your head, do your chores, hush your mouth. She'd done the same, raising two sons, fitting her writing into chinks in the endless round of work and domestication. In kitchens across the land black women stitched grey cotton, or poured soda into the crease of a palm to make biscuits. They brought order out of chaos, as her writing did.

在她的小说中，不可避免地是母亲、祖母、阿姨、姐妹用爱发号施令的网把家庭和社区维系在一起: 加紧努力，梳头，做你的家务，闭上你的嘴。她做了同样的事情，养育两个儿子，在无休止的工作和家庭生活中，她找到空隙来进行自己的写作。在全国各地的厨房里，黑人妇女缝制着灰色的棉花，或者把苏打水倒在掌心的皱褶里做饼干。他们在混乱中带来了秩序，就像她的写作一样。

精读解析

篇章结构

P1：托尼·莫里森的写作直面生活的黑暗面。

P2—P4: 托尼·莫里森作品中描写的情景及其作品主要涉及的主题：为黑人发声。

P5—P6：《最蓝的眼睛》的写作：找回黑人的声音。

P7—P9：黑人在权利话语中处于失声地位，但是莫里森证明，黑人女性可以为黑人找到自己的声音——黑人女性在维系黑人文化中起到重要作用。

重点单词

placenta /plə'sentə/ n. 胎盘,胎座

【例句】

The placenta is what keeps the calf alive during pregnancy.

胎盘在孕期能维持幼崽的生命。

sycamore /'sɪkəmɔː/ n. 美国梧桐；西克莫无花果树；

【例句】

Harry looked around, holding Hermione's wand high, and saw the place: a flattish rock lying in the shadow of a sycamore tree.

哈利高高的举起赫敏的魔杖，向周围环视了一圈，看到一棵无花果树的陰影下有一块平坦的石头。

scalp /skælp/ n. 头皮；战利品v. 剥头皮

【例句】

Once a scalp hunter, always a scalp hunter.

一日为娼 终生为妓。

fugitive /'fjudʒətɪv/ adj. 无常的；逃亡的；易变的n. 逃亡者；难捕捉之物

【例句】

The police are treating him as a fugitive.

警察局现在认定他畏罪潜逃。

crunch /krʌn(t)ʃ/ n. 咬碎，咬碎声；扎扎地踏v. 压碎；嘎扎嘎扎的咬嚼；扎扎地踏过

【短语】

credit crunch

信贷紧缩；信贷危机

crunch time

关键时刻；关键时间

【例句】

The dog was crunching a bone.

狗正嘎吱嘎吱地嚼骨头。

yank /jæŋk/ v. 猛拉n. 突然的猛拉

【例句】

It gets yanked back to this room.

它被猛拽回这个房间。

lyricism /'lɪrɪsɪz(ə)m/ n. 抒情性；抒情诗体；抒情方式抒情

【例句】

He described his fishing trips and his battles with great natural lyricism.

他常用诗一般的句子有声有色他讲述他打鱼和战斗的故事。

strip down 拆开；脱去

【例句】

The roman army was stripped down to an economical hardcore of veterans.

罗马军队被精简为老兵的核心力量。

free up 空出来；开放 (市场、经济或体制)

【例句】

This policy of defense freed up money to be spent on social needs and upon improving the empire's infrastructure.

这种防御政策节减了开支，使得更多钱财可以用于满足社会需求和改善罗马帝国的。

sluice /sluːs/ n. 水闸；蓄水；洗矿槽v. 冲洗；开闸放水

【例句】

Inside his chambers, he stripped off his sweat-stained silks and sluiced cold water over his head from the basin beside the bed.

进到房间，他脱下汗水浸湿的丝质上衣，从床边的水盆里掬起冷水当头淋下。

obsessive /əb'sesɪv/ adj. 萦绕于心的;有执著想法的

【例句】

The citizen must be emancipated from the obsessive secrecy of government.

公民对政府必须享有知情权。

tang /tæŋ/ n. 强烈的味道或气味

【例句】

The wine has a lemony tang on the finish.

这种酒回味有浓郁的柠檬味。

inevitability /ˌɪnɛvətə'bɪləti/ n. 必然性

【例句】

Its face reminds everyone of the inevitability of death.

它的脸总让人想起那难以抗拒的死亡。

protagonist /prə'tæg(ə)nɪst/ n. (戏剧的)主角；(故事的)主人公;现实事件(尤指冲突和争端的)主要参与者, 主要人物

【例句】

The negative protagonists in the play inspire hate in me.

该剧中的反面角色激起我心中的仇恨。

rejoice /rɪ'dʒɒɪs/ v. 使高兴

【短语】

rejoice at因…感到喜悦, 高兴

rejoice in

因…感到欣喜；享有

【例句】

We are victorious, wherefore let us rejoice.

我们胜利了，因此我们尽情欢乐。

magnificent /mæg'nɪfɪs(ə)nt/ adj. 壮丽的, 伟大的, 华丽的, 高贵的

【例句】

Inside it was a magnificent snowy owl.

鸟笼里关着一只气派非凡的雪白色猫头鹰。

suppress /sə'pres/ vt. 压制; 镇压；禁止发表, 查禁; 隐瞒

【例句】

The demonstration was suppressed by the police.

游行示威遭到警方镇压。

meddlesome /'med(ə)ls(ə)m/ adj. 好干预的;爱管闲事的

【例句】

The name Malfoy still commands a certain respect, yet the Ministry grows ever more meddlesome.

马尔福的名字还有一点威望，可是部里越来越好管闲事了。

intrusion /ɪn'truːʒ(ə)n/ n. 闯入;打扰；(对某事的)干扰, 干涉

【例句】

I find that kind of intrusion unreasonable.

我裁定此种侵害不合理。

pernicious /pə'nɪʃəs/ adj. 很有害的;恶性的

【例句】

Our services can be misused. State-sponsored attackers are particularly pernicious.

我们的服务可能被滥用。一些背后有国家在撑腰的攻击者是非常有害的。

compulsion /kəm'pʌlʃ(ə)n/ n. 强迫,被迫；欲望,冲动,要求

【短语】

by compulsionadv. 强迫地

【例句】

Obsessive compulsives ease the anxiety by performing the compulsion.

通过实行强迫行为来缓解强迫症。

misogynist /miˈsɔdʒinist/ n. 厌恶女人的人

【例句】

You've given the reader the distinct impression that I'm a misogynist.

你给读者鲜明的感觉就是我厌恶女人。

unarrogant 不傲慢的

ineffable /ɪn'efəb(ə)l/ adj. 不可言喻的；不应说出的；难以形容的

【例句】

He was like the mystic seeking to describe the ineffable.

他像是一个神秘主义者费力地宣讲一个无法言传的道理。

domestication /dəu,mestikeiʃən/ n. 驯养；教化

【例句】

That is, 5,000 years after the initial domestication of chicken.

也就是在鸡类最初被驯化的5000年以后。

bossiness /'bɔsinis/ n. 跋扈 作威作福

【例句】

This Utopian impulse inevitably went hand-in-hand with benevolent bossiness.  

这种乌托邦倾向必然与仁慈的专横携手并存。

mesh /meʃ/ n. 网孔, 筛孔

【例句】

The mesh network helps us keep narratives from colliding.

网状网络可以避免故事线冲突。

It was not merely words but the silences between them, the unsaid things and the smoke they sent up, that gave her phrases their rhythm and their power.

这个句子，是一个强调句，句子的主干是：It was not merely words but the silences between them that gave her phrases their rhythm and their power.中间的the unsaid things and the smoke they sent up是the silences between them的同位语，补充说明the silences between them都是什么。