Maya Angelou:What Happens When a Great Soul Dies

By Katy Waldman

《我知道籠中鳥為何歌唱》封面

瑪雅·安杰洛

What hasn’t Maya Angelou done? A poet, memoirist1. memoirist: 傳記作家。, historian, activist,and professor; a three-time Grammy2. Grammy: 格萊美獎，美國四個主要音樂獎項之一，相當于音樂界的奧斯卡獎。winner for her spoken-word recordings; a nightclub dancer; a cabaret and calypso singer;3. cabaret: 餐館（或咖啡館）中助興的歌舞、滑稽短?。籧alypso: 卡呂普索音樂，加勒比地區(qū)一種現(xiàn)代節(jié)奏強的爵士樂。a Broadway4. Broadway: 紐約百老匯劇院，以演出音樂劇聞名，亦有戲劇、歌劇、舞蹈等表演。actress, a film and television director; a performer for Alvin Ailey5. Alvin Ailey: 阿爾文·艾利（1931—1989），著名非裔美國舞蹈家和編舞者，創(chuàng)建了紐約著名的阿爾文·艾利舞蹈劇院。; the second poet, after Robert Frost, to appear at an American presidential inauguration;6. Robert Frost: 羅伯特·弗羅斯特（1874—1963），美國詩人，曾四度獲得普利策獎，被稱為“美國文學中的桂冠詩人”。他在1961年約翰·肯尼迪的總統(tǒng)就職儀式上朗誦了他特地為這一場合寫的詩篇《全才》（The Gift Outright）；American presidential inauguration: 美國總統(tǒng)就職典禮。an ardent tweeter until the very end—86 years seems too short to contain the boil and glow of her life.7. ardent: 熱忱的；tweeter: 發(fā)推特的人；boil: 最興奮，最活躍的狀態(tài)；glow: 滿腔熱情。But Angelou lived to challenge limits.

Growing up amid sexism and violence, she turned her womanhood into a joyful phenomenon.Witness to the Jim Crow South, she plunged into the civil rights movement with a series of plays and essays on the American black experience.8. Jim Crow South: 在吉姆·克勞法控制下的美國南方。吉姆·克勞法泛指1876年至1965年間美國南部各州以及邊境各州對有色人種（主要針對非裔美國人）實行種族隔離制度的法律。這些法律強制公共設施必須依照種族的不同而隔離使用；plunge into: 從事，投身于；civil rights movement: 這里指的是非裔美國人民權運動（1955—1968），是美國民權運動的一部分，是美國黑人為爭取與白人同等的地位而發(fā)起的群眾性斗爭運動。She captured the resilience of the downtrodden with a few immortal lines from her 1978 verse collection: “You may write me down in history/With your bitter, twisted lies/ You may trod me in the very dirt/But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”9

瑪雅·安杰洛是美國最多才多藝的女性之一：她是詩人、自傳作家、暢銷書作家、歷史學家、教授、電影導演、民權活動家、演員、舞蹈家……她如此說道：“我的所有作品，我的全部生活，我做的一切，都是為了生存下來，不僅僅是簡單地、可憐地生存，而是充滿了優(yōu)雅與信仰地生存。雖然每個人都可能會遇到很多失敗，但一個人絕不能被打??！”2011年，美國總統(tǒng)奧巴馬授予她平民最高獎勵“總統(tǒng)自由勛章”，稱贊她是美國文化的象征，不屈服于命運，不屈服于厄運，不屈服于困難；2014年，瑪雅·安杰洛逝世，享年86歲。但短短的86年豈能講述完她跌宕起伏的一生？

Maya Angelou’s power came, in part, from daring to tell her own story. She rose to fame through autobiography—her breakout 1969 work I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings documented her first 17 years—and kept relating that story to ever-larger audiences, until her death in May 28, 2014.10. rise to fame: 成名，名聲大振；autobiography: 自傳文學；breakout: 成功的作品；I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:《我知道籠中鳥為何歌唱》，瑪雅·安杰洛的第一部自傳作品，她在這本書中回憶了20世紀三四十年代她在南方小鎮(zhèn)斯坦普斯以及加利福尼亞州的成長經歷。

Angelou’s legacy is twofold. She leaves behind a body of11. a body of: 許多的，大量的。important artistic work that influenced several generations. But the 86-year-old was praised by those who knew her as a good person, a woman who pushed for justice and education and equality.

In her full life, she wrote staggeringly12. staggeringly: 令人吃驚地，令人感嘆地。beautiful poetry.She also wrote a cookbook and was nominated for a Tony.13. cookbook: 烹飪書，食譜；Tony: 托尼獎，美國劇場界最高榮譽。托尼獎與電影奧斯卡獎、電視艾美獎、音樂格萊美獎并稱為美國藝術四大獎項。In 2011, President Barack Obama named her a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.14. recipient: 接受者，獲得者；Presidential Medal of Freedom:總統(tǒng)自由勛章，由美國總統(tǒng)一年一度頒發(fā)，是美國最高的平民榮譽之一。She was friends with Malcolm X and the Rev.

9.1978年的詩集中，她那幾句不朽的詩句精準捕捉到了被踐踏者的堅韌：“你可以把我寫進歷史/用你那充滿怨恨和歪曲的謊言/你可以將我踩入塵土/但我仍將如塵埃般飛揚?！眂apture:（用繪畫、照片、詩句等）留存，捕捉；resilience: 堅韌，韌性；downtrodden: 被踐踏的，被踩在腳底下的；immortal: 不朽的；twisted: 扭曲的，歪曲的。Martin Luther King Jr. and inspired young adults and world celebrities.15. Malcolm X: 馬爾科姆·X（1925—1965），美國黑人民權運動領導人物之一。批評人士認為他煽動暴力、仇恨和種族主義，肯定人士則視他為非裔美國人權利提倡者；Martin Luther King: 馬丁·路德·金（1929—1968），美國人權主義者和非裔美國人權運動領袖，1964年諾貝爾和平獎得主，主張以非暴力方式爭取非裔美國人的基本權利。

Her lasting contribution to literature, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, portrayed racism in stark16. stark: 毫不遮掩的。language.Readers learned of the life of Marguerite Ann Johnson(Angelou’s birth name) up to the age of 16: how she was abandoned by her parents and raped by her mother’s boyfriend. She was homeless and became a teen mother. Its publication was both daring and historic, given the era of its debut in 1969.17. 考慮到首次面世時間是在1969年，出版這本書可謂是膽識過人，亦具有重大歷史意義。

“She told a story that wasn’t allowed to be told,” author Tayari Jones18. Tayari Jones: 塔亞麗·瓊斯（1970— ），非裔美國作家，擅長描寫美國南方城市的生活。said. “Now, people tell all sorts of things in memoir, but when she told the truth, she challenged a taboo19. taboo: 忌諱?！猲ot for shock value, but to heal us all.”

Angelou was born April 4, 1928, in St. Louis. She grew up between St. Louis and the then-racially segregated20. segregated: 實行種族隔離的，被隔離的。town of Stamps, Arkansas. The famous poet got into writing after a childhood tragedy that stunned21. stun: 使……震驚，使……不知所措。her into silence for years. When she was 7, her mother’s boyfriend raped her. He was beaten to death by a mob after she testified against him.22. mob: 暴民，暴徒；testify: 作 證，指證。

Angelou spent her early years studying dance and drama in San Francisco, but dropped out of school at age 14. When she was 16, Angelou became San Francisco’s first female streetcar driver. Angelou later returned to high school to get her diploma.She gave birth a few weeks after graduation. While the 17-yearold single mother waited tables to support her son, she developed a passion for music and dance, and toured Europe in the mid-1950s in the opera production Porgy and Bess.23. wait table: 在餐館服務，端盤子； production:作品（電影、戲劇等的）攝制；Porgy and Bess:《波吉與貝絲》，又名《乞丐與蕩婦》，美國歌劇代表作，創(chuàng)始了世界歌劇樂壇的“輕歌劇”。Angelou spoke at least six languages and had worked as a newspaper editor in Egypt and Ghana.

Affectionately referred to as Dr. Angelou, the writer never went to college. But she has more than 30 honorary degrees and taught American studies for years at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem.

Angelou’s list of friends is as impressive as her illustrious24. illustrious: 卓越的，杰出的。career. She counted Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Winfrey and King,with whom she worked during the civil rights movement, among her friends.25. Rosa Parks: 羅莎·帕克斯（1913—2005），美國黑人民權運動主義者，被人尊稱為“現(xiàn)代民權運動之母”；Winfrey:奧普拉·溫弗里（1954— ），美國電視脫口秀主持人、制片人、投資家、慈善家，美國最具影響力的非洲裔名人之一。King was assassinated26. assassinate: 暗殺。on her 40th birthday.

總統(tǒng)自由勛章

瑪雅·安杰洛

In an interview with CNN in January 2009, just days before President Obama was inaugurated for his first term, Angelou gave her thoughts about the United States’ election of its first black president. “It was as if someone in the outer sphere said, ‘What can we do to really show how important Martin Luther King was?’”she said. “In 30 or 40 years, (the election) will not be considered so incredibly important... There will be other people in those next three or four decades who will run for the presidency—some women, some native American, some Spanishspeaking, some Asian. We’re about to grow up in this country.”

Obama remembered Angelou on the day she died, saying she was “one of the brightest lights of our time—a brilliant writer, a fierce friend, and a truly phenomenal woman.” He noted that she expressed her talents in many ways,but “above all, she was a storyteller” and “her greatest stories were true.” The president said his own mother was so inspired by Angelou that she named his sister Maya.

In CNN’s 2009 interview, Angelou spoke in the way that she came to be famous for, each sentence a crescendo27. crescendo: 音量逐漸加強。of emotion, a call to everyone to act and to be better.

“Our country needs us all right now to stand up and be counted28. count: 有價值，起作用。. We need to try to be great citizens. We are necessary in this country, and we need to give something—that is to say, go to a local hospital, go to the children’s ward29. ward: 病房，病室。and offer to the nurse in charge an hour twice a month that you can give them reading children’s stories or poetry,” she said. “And go to an old folks’ home30. old folks’ home: 養(yǎng)老院，敬老院。and read the newspaper to somebody. Go to your church or your synagogue or your mosque, and say, ‘I’d like to be of service. I have one hour twice a month.’ ”31. synagogue: 猶太教堂；mosque:清真寺。

“You’ll be surprised at how much better you will feel,” she said. “And good done anywhere is good done everywhere.”

“She was there for me always, guiding me through some of the most important years of my life. The world knows her as a poet but at the heart of her, she was a teacher. ‘When you learn, teach. When you get, give’ is one of my best lessons from her,” Oprah Winfrey said.

“But what stands out to me most about Maya Angelou is not what she has done or written or spoken, it’s how she lived her life. She moved through the world with unshakeable calm, confidence and a fierce grace. I loved her… I will profoundly miss her. She will always be the rainbow in my clouds.” Maya Angelou was so remembered by those she inspired.