Jacqueline Woodson: What reading slowly taught me about writing | TED

翻译人员: psjmz mz 校对人员: Jiasi Hao

A long time ago, there lived a Giant,

在很久很久以前，有一个巨人，

a Selfish Giant, whose stunning garden was the most beautiful in all the land.

一个拥有世界上最美花园 的自私巨人。

One evening, this Giant came home

一天晚上， 巨人回到家里发现

and found all these children playing in his garden,

孩子们在他花园里嬉闹玩耍，

and he became enraged.

他很生气。

"My own garden is my own garden!"

“我的花园只属于我！”

the Giant said.

巨人说道。

And he built this high wall around it.

于是他在花园周围立起了高墙。

The author Oscar Wilde wrote the story of "The Selfish Giant" in 1888.

这是奥斯卡·王尔德1888年写的 《自私的巨人》里的内容。

Almost a hundred years later, that Giant moved into my Brooklyn childhood

一百年后，这个“巨人”住进了 我在布鲁克林时的儿童时光后

and never left.

就再没有离开过。

I was raised in a religious family,

我成长于一个宗教家庭，

and I grew up reading both the Bible and the Quran.

同时阅读了《圣经》和《古兰经》。

The hours of reading, both religious and recreational,

我花在阅读以及理解宗教的时间， 出于宗教和娱乐目的，

far outnumbered the hours of television-watching.

比看电视的时间都多。

Now, on any given day, you could find my siblings and I

无论何时，我和我的兄弟姐妹

curled up in some part of our apartment reading,

都蜷在公寓的一个小角落进行阅读，

sometimes unhappily,

有时并不开心，

because on summer days in New York City, the fire hydrant blasted,

因为在夏天，纽约市的消防栓 总会时不时地爆开，

and to our immense jealousy, we could hear our friends down there

朋友们在楼下嬉戏玩耍的声音 沿着打开的窗户

playing in the gushing water,

传到我们这边，

their absolute joy making its way up through our open windows.

他们绝对的快乐 让我们非常地嫉妒。

But I learned that the deeper I went into my books,

但是后来我发现， 当我越来越专注于我手上的书本，

the more time I took with each sentence,

花在每个句子上的时间越来越多时，

the less I heard the noise of the outside world.

外界的声音就会越来越小。

And so, unlike my siblings, who were racing through books,

与其他快速读书的兄弟姐妹不同的是，

I read slowly --

我读得很慢，

very, very slowly.

非常非常慢，

I was that child with her finger running beneath the words,

我都是用手一个字一个字 顺着读下去的，

until I was untaught to do this; told big kids don't use their fingers.

直到我被告知， 大孩子在阅读时是不用手指的。

In third grade, we were made to sit with our hands folded on our desk,

在三年级的时候，我们规定 要把双手叠放在课桌上，

unclasping them only to turn the pages, then returning them to that position.

只有需要翻页时才能解除这个姿势， 然后翻完之后就要立马恢复原状。

Our teacher wasn't being cruel.

我们的老师并不残忍。

It was the 1970s,

那时是20世纪70年代，

and her goal was to get us reading not just on grade level

老师的目标是让我们阅读

but far above it.

超越本年级水平的书籍。

And we were always being pushed to read faster.

于是我们常常被老师要求 加快阅读速度。

But in the quiet of my apartment, outside of my teacher's gaze,

但是在老师触及不到的 我住的公寓里的一个安静角落，

I let my finger run beneath those words.

我还是用手指着 一个字一个字地读书。

And that Selfish Giant again told me his story,

《自私的巨人》对我重述了他的故事，

how he had felt betrayed by the kids sneaking into his garden,

他是如何对这些偷溜进来的孩子 感到不尊重的，

how he had built this high wall,

他是如何建立起高高的围墙

and it did keep the children out,

不让这些小孩子入内的，

but a grey winter fell over his garden

而是同时，他的院子也因此变得荒芜，

and just stayed and stayed.

这种情况也在一直持续下去。

With each rereading, I learned something new

每读一遍这个故事， 我都能发现一些新的东西

about the hard stones of the roads that the kids were forced to play on

比如当孩子们被禁止进入花园时，

when they got expelled from the garden,

他们是如何在碎石路上玩耍的，

about the gentleness of a small boy that appeared one day,

比如当某天那个小男孩出现时 所展示的礼貌，

and even about the Giant himself.

甚至是巨人自己 所展示出的那种温柔。

Maybe his words weren't rageful after all.

也许他的言辞并不是那么愤怒。

Maybe they were a plea for empathy,

也许它们是一种对于同理心

for understanding.

对于被理解的恳求。

"My own garden is my own garden."

“我的花园只属于我。”

Years later, I would learn of a writer named John Gardner

多年之后，我认识一位 名为约翰·加德纳的作者，

who referred to this as the "fictive dream,"

他把这种感觉称为“小说般的梦”，

or the "dream of fiction,"

或者是“关于小说的梦”。

and I would realize that this was where I was inside that book,

这样的形容让我发现 我在书中就在这样的状态，

spending time with the characters and the world that the author had created

受邀与书中的角色一起

生活在作者所创造的世界中。

and invited me into.

As a child, I knew that stories were meant to be savored,

当我还是一个孩子的时候， 我就知道故事是需要品味的，

that stories wanted to be slow,

阅读故事需要慢，

and that some author had spent months, maybe years, writing them.

一些作者花了好几个月 也许好几年才书写完这些故事。

And my job as the reader --

而我作为一名读者——

especially as the reader who wanted to one day become a writer --

尤其是还怀揣着一个作家梦的读者——

was to respect that narrative.

是去尊重那些故事。

Long before there was cable or the internet or even the telephone,

在有线电视、互联网甚至是电话 还没有问世的时代，

there were people sharing ideas and information and memory through story.

人们通过故事分享想法、信息 甚至是记忆。

It's one of our earliest forms of connective technology.

这是我们最早的一种连接方式。

It was the story of something better down the Nile

这是一个因为 对尼罗河下游的美好向往

that sent the Egyptians moving along it,

促使埃及人 沿着尼罗河前进的故事，

the story of a better way to preserve the dead

一个关于如何更好地保存死者

that brought King Tut's remains into the 21st century.

将图坦卡蒙的遗物带入21世纪的故事。

And more than two million years ago,

在两百多万年以前，

when the first humans began making tools from stone,

当第一批人类开始使用石器的时候，

someone must have said, "What if?"

肯定有人说过， “如果…怎么办？”

And someone else remembered the story.

而另外一些人记住了这个故事。

And whether they told it through words or gestures or drawings,

不管他们是通过语言、手势 还是作画等方式进行传播，

it was passed down; remembered:

这个故事得以被传承记录：

hit a hammer and hear its story.

敲着锤子，听听它的故事。

The world is getting noisier.

这个世界正变得越来越嘈杂。

We've gone from boomboxes

我们从大型手提式录音机

to Walkmen to portable CD players

换到随身听、便携式CD播放器

to iPods

再到iPods

to any song we want, whenever we want it.

又到了现在随时随地能够 听到想要听到的歌曲。

We've gone from the four television channels of my childhood

从我小时候只能看4个频道的电视

to the seeming infinity of cable and streaming.

到现在无限的有线电视和流媒体。

As technology moves us faster and faster through time and space,

当科技推动着我们在时间和 空间中越行越快的时候，

it seems to feel like story is getting pushed out of the way,

故事仿佛逐渐被我们所遗忘，

I mean, literally pushed out of the narrative.

我的意思是，从叙述中被挤了出来。

But even as our engagement with stories change,

但即使我们对故事的 互动方式发生了改变，

or the trappings around it morph from book to audio to Instagram to Snapchat,

或者故事的载体从书本

变成了音频、Instagram、Snapchat 诸如此类的社交软件，

we must remember our finger beneath the words.

我们也应该记得 用我们的手指逐一阅读。

Remember that story, regardless of the format,

记住那个故事，不管它的形式如何，

has always taken us to places we never thought we'd go,

总是会把我们带到我们 从没想过要去的地方，

introduced us to people we never thought we'd meet

让我们认识我们从没 想过要去认识的人，

and shown us worlds that we might have missed.

向我们展示我们可能会错过的世界。

So as technology keeps moving faster and faster,

所以即使技术推着我们 越来越快地向前走，

I am good with something slower.

我也可以和一些慢的 事情相处愉快。

My finger beneath the words has led me to a life of writing books

我的逐字阅读让我进入

为所有年龄层用户写书的生涯，

for people of all ages,

books meant to be read slowly,

写这些需要慢慢读的书，

to be savored.

意味深长的书。

My love for looking deeply and closely at the world,

我喜欢深入和密切地观察这个世界，

for putting my whole self into it, and by doing so,

喜欢全身心地投入其中，凭此，

seeing the many, many possibilities of a narrative,

去看到一个故事中的许多可能性，

turned out to be a gift,

这是一份馈赠，

because taking my sweet time

因为我所花的这些时间

taught me everything I needed to know about writing.

教给了我写作所需要 了解的所有事情。

And writing taught me everything I needed to know about creating worlds

而写作教会了我创造 人们可听见和看到的世界

where people could be seen and heard,

所需要了解的知识，

where their experiences could be legitimized,

在那里他们的经历可以合理化，

and where my story, read or heard by another person,

在那里，我的故事可以 被另一个人阅读和听到，

inspired something in them that became a connection between us,

激发他们身上的东西从而 在我们之间建立连接，

a conversation.

和对话。

And isn't that what this is all about --

这难道不就是它的本意——

finding a way, at the end of the day, to not feel alone in this world,

找到一种方式，在一天结束的时候， 在这个世界不会感到孤单，

and a way to feel like we've changed it before we leave?

一种在我们离开之前 感觉我们已经改变它的方式？

Stone to hammer, man to mummy,

石对锤，人对木乃伊，

idea to story -- and all of it, remembered.

想法到故事——所有这些，被记住。

Sometimes we read to understand the future.

有时候我们通过阅读来理解未来。

Sometimes we read to understand the past.

有时候我们通过阅读来理解过去。

We read to get lost, to forget the hard times we're living in,

我们通过阅读来迷失， 来忘记生活中的艰难，

and we read to remember those who came before us,

我们通过阅读来记住前人，

who lived through something harder.

那些经历更艰难的人。

I write for those same reasons.

我写作也是出于同样的理由。

Before coming to Brooklyn, my family lived in Greenville, South Carolina,

在来到布鲁克林之前，我的家人 住在南卡罗来纳州的格林维尔里

in a segregated neighborhood called Nicholtown.

一个叫尼科尔敦的种族隔离社区。

All of us there were the descendants of a people

我们的祖先

who had not been allowed to learn to read or write.

从来不被允许去学习阅读和写作。

Imagine that:

想象那个时候：

the danger of understanding how letters form words,

了解字母如何构成话语的危险，

the danger of words themselves,

话语本身的危险，

the danger of a literate people and their stories.

文化人和他们故事的危险。

But against this backdrop of being threatened with death

但是在这样因为坚持叙述

for holding onto a narrative,

而受到死亡威胁的背景下，

our stories didn't die,

我们的故事没有消失，

because there is yet another story beneath that one.

因为这个故事下面还有另一个故事。

And this is how it has always worked.

这是它一直以来的运作方式。

For as long as we've been communicating,

只要我们保持沟通，

there's been the layering to the narrative,

故事就会有层次，

the stories beneath the stories and the ones beneath those.

一个故事孕育另一个故事， 一个故事接着一个故事。

This is how story has and will continue to survive.

这是故事过去和未来的生存之道。

As I began to connect the dots that connected the way I learned to write

当我开始连接那些 我习得的写作方式、

and the way I learned to read

和阅读方法的小圆点，

to an almost silenced people,

并将其带给那些沉默寡言的人们时，

I realized that my story was bigger and older and deeper

我意识到我的故事比我

格局更大、更加悠远、更加深入。

than I would ever be.

And because of that, it will continue.

而正因为如此，故事得以延续。

Among these almost-silenced people

在这些沉默寡言的人里，

there were the ones who never learned to read.

有一些从来没有学习过阅读的人。

Their descendants, now generations out of enslavement,

他们的后代，如今几代人不再受奴役，

if well-off enough,

如果足够富裕的话，

had gone on to college, grad school, beyond.

能上大学，研究生，甚至更远。

Some, like my grandmother and my siblings, seemed to be born reading,

有些人，比如我的祖母和兄弟姐妹， 似乎生来就喜欢读书，

as though history stepped out of their way.

仿佛历史已经为他们开辟了道路。

Some, like my mother, hitched onto the Great Migration wagon --

有些人，像我母亲，搭上了 大迁徙的马车——

which was not actually a wagon --

实际上不是真的马车——

and kissed the South goodbye.

与南方吻别。

But here is the story within that story:

但是在故事里面还有故事：

those who left and those who stayed

那些离开的人，和那些留下的人

carried with them the history of a narrative,

带着一段叙述的历史，

knew deeply that writing it down wasn't the only way they could hold on to it,

深深地知道把它写下来并不是 坚持下去的唯一方法，

knew they could sit on their porches or their stoops at the end of a long day

知道他们可以在漫长的一天结束后 坐在门廊或门廊上

and spin a slow tale for their children.

为孩子们编一个漫长的故事。

They knew they could sing their stories through the thick heat of picking cotton

他们知道他们可以在摘棉花 和收割烟草的酷热中

and harvesting tobacco,

歌唱他们的故事，

knew they could preach their stories and sew them into quilts,

知道他们可以讲述他们的故事， 并将其缝进被子里，

turn the most painful ones into something laughable,

把最痛苦的事情变成可笑的事情，

and through that laughter, exhale the history a country

通过那个笑声，面对国家

that tried again and again and again

一次、一次又一次

to steal their bodies,

试图偷走他们的身体、

their spirit

他们的精神及故事时

and their story.

呼出历史。

So as a child, I learned to imagine an invisible finger

当我还是一个孩子的时候， 我学会了想像一个无形的指头

taking me from word to word,

带着我一个一个单词地读下去，

from sentence to sentence,

一个一个句子的读下去，

from ignorance to understanding.

从无知到理解。

So as technology continues to speed ahead,

所以当科技持续在快速发展的时候，

I continue to read slowly,

我的阅读速度也依旧很慢，

knowing that I am respecting the author's work

因为我知道我是在尊重 这位作者的作品

and the story's lasting power.

以及故事所具有的持续性的力量。

And I read slowly to drown out the noise

我慢慢读以压过噪声

and remember those who came before me,

并记住那些早于我的人，

who were probably the first people who finally learned to control fire

他们可能是最早学会控制火，

and circled their new power

环绕着他们的火焰、

of flame and light and heat.

光和热的新力量的人。

And I read slowly to remember the Selfish Giant,

我慢读记住《自私的巨人》这个故事，

how he finally tore that wall down

他是如何把这座墙拆掉，

and let the children run free through his garden.

让孩子在他的花园里自由奔跑的。

And I read slowly to pay homage to my ancestors,

我读得很慢，用以致敬我的祖先，

who were not allowed to read at all.

那些被禁止阅读的祖先。

They, too, must have circled fires,

他们肯定也绕着火堆绕了一圈，

speaking softly of their dreams,

轻声诉说他们的梦想，

their hopes, their futures.

他们的希望，他们的未来。

Each time we read, write or tell a story,

每当我们阅读、书写 或者诉说一个故事的时候，

we step inside their circle,

我们走进了他们的圈子里，

and it remains unbroken.

而它们也没有被破坏。

And the power of story lives on.

故事的力量也得以保存。

Thank you.

谢谢。

(Applause)

（掌声）