纽约时报 曾红极一时的詹姆斯·鲍德温(3)

（单词翻译）

    What once felt poetically¹ exaggerated, of course, can now feel prophetic.

    当然，那些人们曾认为被诗意夸大的东西，现在可以被视为预言。

    Baldwin was a disquieting² tremor³ that would agitate⁴ generations — a role he seemed acutely aware of, even at the lowest ebbs⁵ of the public's attention.

    鲍德温的存在就像令人不安的震动，会让几代人激动不已——他似乎敏锐地意识到了这一作用，即使是在公众注意力最低的时候。

    "I was right about what was happening in the country," he said in his final interview, with the poet Quincy Troupe⁶ in 1987.

    他在1987年接受诗人昆西·特鲁普的采访时（这是他最后一次接受采访）表示，“我对这个国家正在发生的事情的看法是正确的。

    "What was about to happen to all of us really, one way or the other."无论以何种方式，我们所有人即将遭遇的事情都会发生。”

    He could be merciless both on and off the page, having decided⁷, at some point, not to rely on the approval of any audience, white or Black.

    无论在台上还是台下，他都可以毫不留情，因为他在某个时刻决定不依赖任何观众的认可，无论是白人还是黑人。

    "Do you think there's still a chance for today's Black writer?"“你认为今天的黑人作家还有机会吗？”

    he is asked by a young boy, in the part of the "20/20" segment when he speaks with children at a police athletic⁸ league in Harlem.

    这是在《20/20》节目中，他在哈莱姆区一个警察体育联盟与孩子们交谈时，一个小男孩问他的问题。

    "There never was a chance for a Black writer," Baldwin replies, taking the boy's chin in his hand.

    鲍德温手捧着男孩的下巴回答说，“黑人作家从来没有机会。

    "A writer, Black or white, doesn't have much of a chance. Nobody wants a writer until he's dead."一名作家，无论是黑人还是白人，都没有太多机会。没有人需要作家，除非他已不在人世。”

    Watching James Baldwin in a 10-minute TV segment from the 1970s isn't necessarily revelatory;看到詹姆斯·鲍德温在20世纪70年代一个10分钟长的电视片段中亮相，并不一定具有启示意义；he is much as we know him today, the same exacting⁹ genius.

    如同我们今天对他的认知一样，他还是那个要求严格的天才。

    But it comes with the reminder¹⁰ that he was reaching for some truths that would outlast¹¹ the country's interest, or lack thereof.

    但这同时提醒人们，他当时在寻求一些真理，这些真理会比国家利益更持久（或缺失）。

    The 7-year-old child Baldwin is addressing, you might notice, is only a year or two older than George Floyd would have been.

    你可能注意到，和鲍德温讲话的这名7岁孩子，当时只比乔治·弗洛伊德大一两岁。

    For many in the America of 1979 — after Jim Crow, after the Voting Rights Act — Baldwin's insistence¹² that "nothing has changed" might have felt tired.

    对于1979年美国的许多人来说，在《吉姆·克劳法》和《选举权法案》出台之后，鲍德温仍坚称“什么都没有改变”可能会让他们感到厌倦。

    But as of last year, the nation seemed open, again, to the idea that history has not stopped compulsively repeating itself.

    但截至去年，美国似乎再次对“历史没有停止强制重演”的想法持开放态度。

    Baldwin, for all the pessimism¹³ he could convey about America, ultimately recognized the nation as part of a seismic¹⁴, global change.

    尽管鲍德温对美国的情况持悲观态度，但他最终还是承认美国是一场翻天覆地的全球变革的一部分。

    "When I was a kid," he said in a 1984 Paris Review interview,他在1984年接受《巴黎评论》的采访时表示，

    "the world was white, for all intents and purposes, and now it is struggling to remain white — a very different thing."“当我还是个孩子的时候，无论出于何种意图和目的，世界是白人的天下，但现在世界正在艰难维持这种白人天下的模式——这是完全不同的情况。”

    He had lived in Europe for years, but understood it to no longer be the frame of reference for civilization or literature.

    他曾在欧洲生活多年，但他明白欧洲不再是文明或文学的参照系。

    "It's a fascinating time to be living," he said. "There's a whole wide world which isn't now as it was when I was younger."他表示，“我们目前所生活的时代令人着迷。如今这个广阔的世界与我年轻时有着天壤之别。”