I just heard the best joke about Bond Emeruwa. I was having lunch with him just a few minutes ago, and a Nigerian journalist comes -- and this will only make sense if you've ever watched a James Bond movie -- and a Nigerian journalist comes up to him and goes, "Aha, we meet again, Mr. Bond!" (Laughter) It was great.
我刚听到一个关于Bond Emeruwa的最有意思的笑话。 在几分钟前我刚和他共进午餐, 一个尼日利亚记者进来了——当然这只有在 你看过007电影的情况下才能领略其中奥妙—— 尼日利亚记者走到他面前说: “啊,我们又见面了,邦德先生!” (笑声) 啊,这真是太好了。
So, I've got a little sheet of paper here, mostly because I'm Nigerian and if you leave me alone, I'll talk for like two hours.
我拿了一张小纸片在这里, 主要由于我是个尼日利亚人,如果你不限制我, 我会滔滔不绝说上两个钟头。
I just want to say good afternoon, good evening. It's been an incredible few days. It's downhill from now on. I wanted to thank Emeka and Chris. But also, most importantly, all the invisible people behind TED that you just see flitting around the whole place that have made sort of this space for such a diverse and robust conversation. It's really amazing. I've been in the audience. I'm a writer, and I've been watching people with the slide shows and scientists and bankers, and I've been feeling a bit like a gangsta rapper at a bar mitzvah. (Laughter) Like, what have I got to say about all this? And I was watching Jane [Goodall] yesterday, and I thought it was really great, and I was watching those incredible slides of the chimpanzees, and I thought, "Wow. What if a chimpanzee could talk, you know? What would it say?" My first thought was, "Well, you know, there's George Bush." But then I thought, "Why be rude to chimpanzees?" I guess there goes my green card. (Laughter)
但是,我只是想说声下午好,晚上好。 这真是令人难以置信的日子。 从今往后都没有这么好了。我想感谢艾莫克和克里斯。 但是,最重要的是这些幕后的不为人知的人们, 而你仅看到了一些在四处活动的人。 正是这样才使得这个地方有着如此多姿多彩、精力充沛的谈话。 这真是太棒了 我也听过一些讲座。 我是一个作家,我也看过那些带幻灯片来做演讲的人 科学家和银行家,我觉得有点 像一个黑帮说唱歌手在犹太教成人礼现场。 (笑声)♪ 我为什么说这些呢? 昨天我看了简(古道尔)的幻灯片。 我认为非常好,而且我看到 那些关于黑猩猩的非常好的幻灯,我想, “哇,如果一只黑猩猩能说话,它将会说些什么?” 我的第一个想法是:“哦,你知道,那是乔治.布什。” 然而随后我又想到:“为什么要对黑猩猩这么无礼?” 我猜这么说完我的绿卡算是泡汤了。 (笑声)
There's been a lot of talk about narrative in Africa. And what's become increasingly clear to me is that we're talking about news stories about Africa; we're not really talking about African narratives. And it's important to make a distinction, because if the news is anything to go by, 40 percent of Americans can't -- either can't afford health insurance or have the most inadequate health insurance, and have a president who, despite the protest of millions of his citizens -- even his own Congress -- continues to prosecute a senseless war. So if news is anything to go by, the U.S. is right there with Zimbabwe, right? Which it isn't really, is it? And talking about war, my girlfriend has this great t-shirt that says, "Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity." It's amazing, isn't it?
关于非洲的叙事作品有很多。 而对于我来说,越来越清晰地是 我们正在谈论关于非洲的新闻故事, 我们并没有真正谈及非洲的叙事作品。 如果新闻只是随时间流逝的事情的话,那么在这里做一个区分非常重要。 40%的美国人不能负担健康保险 或者只能拥有最不充足的健康保险, 他们有一位总统,这位总统不顾 上百万公民——甚至包括他自己的国会在内——的抗议, 坚持发动一场不义的战争。 因此,如果新闻是顺便采访的一些东西, 那么美国就与津巴布韦没什么区别了,是不是? 它到底是不是这样呢? 谈及战争,我的女朋友有一件很棒的T恤, 上面写道:“以轰炸求和平就如同通过做爱来找处女。” 这话写得很绝,难道不是吗?
The truth is, everything we know about America, everything Americans come to know about being American, isn't from the news. I live there. We don't go home at the end of the day and think, "Well, I really know who I am now because the Wall Street Journal says that the Stock Exchange closed at this many points." What we know about how to be who we are comes from stories. It comes from the novels, the movies, the fashion magazines. It comes from popular culture.
事实是,美国人——我们所知道的关于美国的每件事, 美国人所了解的作为美国人的每件事, 并非源于新闻。 它——我们——我曾生活于此。 我们没有在一天结束回家之时想着 “好的,我现在已经知道我是谁了。” “因为华尔街新闻说股票交易” “在多少点上已经收盘了。” 是一些故事让我们知道如何成为我们自己。 它来自小说,电影,时尚杂志。 它来自流行文化。
In other words, it's the agents of our imagination who really shape who we are. And this is important to remember, because in Africa the complicated questions we want to ask about what all of this means has been asked from the rock paintings of the San people, through the Sundiata epics of Mali, to modern contemporary literature. If you want to know about Africa, read our literature -- and not just "Things Fall Apart," because that would be like saying, "I've read 'Gone with the Wind' and so I know everything about America." That's very important. There's a poem by Jack Gilbert called "The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart." He says, "When the Sumerian tablets were first translated, they were thought to be business records. But what if they were poems and psalms? My love is like twelve Ethiopian goats standing still in the morning light. Shiploads of thuja are what my body wants to say to your body. Giraffes are this desire in the dark." This is important.
换句话说,是我们想象力的代言者 将我们塑造成我们自己。必须记住, 因为,如你所知,在非洲, 我们思考过很多复杂的问题, 人生,世界的意义,都被质疑过 从岩画到桑河人类, 穿越马里Sundiata 史诗,直到现代、当代文学。 如果你想了解非洲,请阅读我们的文学作品—— 不仅仅是阅读Things Fall Apart《支离破碎》,因为那相当于是说, “我已经读了《飘》,因此我对美国了如指掌。” 这一点非常重要。 杰克.吉尔伯特写了首诗,题为“被遗忘的心语” 他写道:“当闪族人的书简初次被翻译,” “它被认为是商业记录,” “但是,它们要是诗篇和圣歌呢?” “我的爱如同十二只埃塞俄比亚山羊,” “站立在静寂的晨光中。” “满船的金钟柏是我的身体想要对你的诉说。” “长颈鹿正是这黑暗中的渴望。” 这一点非常重要。
It's important because misreading is really the chance for complication and opportunity. The first Igbo Bible was translated from English in about the 1800s by Bishop Crowther, who was a Yoruba. And it's important to know Igbo is a tonal language, and so they'll say the word "igwe" and "igwe": same spelling, one means "sky" or "heaven," and one means "bicycle" or "iron." So "God is in heaven surrounded by His angels" was translated as -- [Igbo]. And for some reason, in Cameroon, when they tried to translate the Bible into Cameroonian patois, they chose the Igbo version. And I'm not going to give you the patois translation; I'm going to make it standard English. Basically, it ends up as "God is on a bicycle with his angels." This is good, because language complicates things.
因为误读确实会给 复杂化以可能性和机会。 第一本伊博人的圣经翻译自英文, 于1800年代由克鲁瑟主教所译。 这个主教是约鲁巴人。 要知道伊博语是一种注音语言, 因此他们说一个词"igwe" 和 "igwe" 拼法相同,一个意思是“天空”或“天堂”, 而另一个意思是“自行车”或“铁”。 所以“上帝在天堂里被他的天使围绕” 被翻译成 (伊博语翻译) 由于某种原因,在喀麦隆,当他们试图 把圣经翻译成喀麦隆方言时, 他们选择了伊博语版本。 而我并没有打算给你这种方言译文, 我想让它成为标准的英文。 基本上,结果它就翻成是“上帝和他的天使骑在自行车上”。 这很好,因为语言让事情变复杂了。
You know, we often think that language mirrors the world in which we live, and I find that's not true. The language actually makes the world in which we live. Language is not -- I mean, things don't have any mutable value by themselves; we ascribe them a value. And language can't be understood in its abstraction. It can only be understood in the context of story, and everything, all of this is story. And it's important to remember that, because if we don't, then we become ahistorical. We've had a lot of -- a parade of amazing ideas here. But these are not new to Africa. Nigeria got its independence in 1960. The first time the possibility for independence was discussed was in 1922, following the Aba women's market riots. In 1967, in the middle of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, Dr. Njoku-Obi invented the Cholera vaccine. So, you know, the thing is to remember that because otherwise, 10 years from now, we'll be back here trying to tell this story again.
如你所知,我们常认为语言反映 我们所生活的世界,但是,我发现并非如此。 实际上是语言造就了我们所生活的世界。 语言并非——我是说,事情对于 它们自身并没有易变的价值——具有我们所赋予它们的价值。 而且语言不能在抽象中被理解。 它只能在故事的上下文中被理解。 而且每件事都是故事。 必须记住 因为如果我们不这样,我们就将变成跟历史无关的。 我们已经有很多——一堆令人惊异的观点。 但这些对于非洲并不新鲜。 尼日利亚于1960年独立。 第一次讨论独立的可能性 是在1922年,紧随阿巴妇女市场骚动之后。 在1967年,在比夫拉-尼日利亚内战中, Njoku-Obi医生发明了霍乱疫苗。 因此,这事该被记住, 因为,否则10年后, 我们将回头来继续再说同样的故事。
So, what it says to me then is that it's not really -- the problem isn't really the stories that are being told or which stories are being told, the problem really is the terms of humanity that we're willing to bring to complicate every story, and that's really what it's all about. Let me tell you a Nigerian joke. Well, it's just a joke, anyway. So there's Tom, Dick and Harry and they're working construction. And Tom opens up his lunch box and there's rice in it, and he goes on this rant about, "Twenty years, my wife has been packing rice for lunch. If she does it again tomorrow, I'm going to throw myself off this building and kill myself." And Dick and Harry repeat this. The next day, Tom opens his lunchbox, there's rice, so he throws himself off and kills himself, and Tom, Dick and Harry follow. And now the inquest -- you know, Tom's wife and Dick's wife are distraught. They wished they'd not packed rice. But Harry's wife is confused, because she said, "You know, Harry had been packing his own lunch for 20 years." (Laughter)
因此,对于我来说,它并非真的么? 问题并不在于被讲述的故事 或者是哪些故事正在被讲述; 真正的问题在于关于人性, 我们要带入多少,来复杂化每个故事 这才是问题所在。 我给你们讲个尼日利亚笑话。 不管怎样,这都只是个笑话。 张三、李四和王五,他们都是搞建筑的。 张三打开午餐盒,里面有米饭, 他叫道:“20年了,” “我老婆一直只给我带米饭作午餐。” “如果明天还是这样,我就” “跳楼自杀。” 李四和王五也重复了同样的话。 第二天,张三打开饭盒,还是米饭, 因此他跳楼自杀, 李四和王五也效仿。 警方调查之中,张三的老婆 和李四的老婆悔得肠子都青了 她们希望自己没有装米饭。 但是王五的老婆很迷惑,因为她说,“你知道,” “王五自己装午饭装了20年了。” (笑声)
This seemingly innocent joke, when I heard it as a child in Nigeria, was told about Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa, with the Hausa being Harry. So what seems like an eccentric if tragic joke about Harry becomes a way to spread ethnic hatred. My father was educated in Cork, in the University of Cork, in the '50s. In fact, every time I read in Ireland, people get me all mistaken and they say, "Oh, this is Chris O'Barney from Cork." But he was also in Oxford in the '50s, and yet growing up as a child in Nigeria, my father used to say to me, "You must never eat or drink in a Yoruba person's house because they will poison you." It makes sense now when I think about it, because if you'd known my father, you would've wanted to poison him too. (Laughter)
当我孩提时代在尼日利亚听到的时候,我觉得这个表面上很无知的笑话 是用来指伊博人、约鲁巴人和豪萨人的, 而豪萨人就是那个王五。 因此这看来有些古怪,如果关于王五的悲剧性笑话 成为一种宣扬种族仇恨的途径。 我父亲于20世纪50年代在科克(爱尔兰港口)的科克大学上学。 实际上,每次我在爱尔兰阅读时, 人们总是弄错,他们说, “哦,这是来自科克的克里斯.欧巴内” “但是他50年代的时候也在牛津。” “而且他在尼日利亚度过童年时代。” 我的父亲曾对我说:“你必须不吃不喝” “在一个约鲁巴人家里,因为他们会给你下毒。” 当我想起这话时,现在知道是什么意思了。 因为如果你认识我父亲, 你也会想给他下毒。 (笑声)
So I was born in 1966, at the beginning of the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, and the war ended after three years. And I was growing up in school and the federal government didn't want us taught about the history of the war, because they thought it probably would make us generate a new generation of rebels. So I had a very inventive teacher, a Pakistani Muslim, who wanted to teach us about this. So what he did was to teach us Jewish Holocaust history, and so huddled around books with photographs of people in Auschwitz, I learned the melancholic history of my people through the melancholic history of another people. I mean, picture this -- really picture this. A Pakistani Muslim teaching Jewish Holocaust history to young Igbo children.
我生在1966年, 在比夫拉-尼日利亚内战之初,这场战争在三年后结束。 我在学校里成长,联邦政府 不希望我们学习这段战争的历史。 因为他们认为这有可能使我们 成为新的背叛的一代。 因此,我有了一位极富创造性的老师,一个巴基斯坦的穆斯林, 他想教我们这些战争历史。 他所做的是教我们犹太人大屠杀历史, 书中充满了奥斯维辛集中营的照片。 我学到了关于我的人民的悲惨的历史 通过其他民族的悲惨史。 我说,想象这幅画面——真正地想想看 一个巴基斯坦穆斯林教犹太大屠杀历史 给幼小的伊博儿童。
Story is powerful. Story is fluid and it belongs to nobody. And it should come as no surprise that my first novel at 16 was about Neo-Nazis taking over Nigeria to institute the Fourth Reich. It makes perfect sense. And they were to blow up strategic targets and take over the country, and they were foiled by a Nigerian James Bond called Coyote Williams, and a Jewish Nazi hunter. And it happened over four continents. And when the book came out, I was heralded as Africa's answer to Frederick Forsyth, which is a dubious honor at best. But also, the book was launched in time for me to be accused of constructing the blueprint for a foiled coup attempt. So at 18, I was bonded off to prison in Nigeria.
故事充满了力量。 故事是流淌的,它不属于任何人。 它必须波澜不惊地出现。 因此我写于16岁时的第一篇小说是关于新纳粹 第四帝国体制接管尼日利亚。 特别说得通 他们突然打击战略目标 掌握了整个国家,结果被一个人阻止了, 这人是一个尼日利亚的詹姆士.邦德,名叫考尔欧特.威廉姆斯. 和一个犹太人——一个犹太的“纳粹猎人”。 这个故事涉及四个大陆。 当此书一出版,受到广泛欢迎, 我被看作非洲版的弗莱德里克.福塞斯,这最好是个值得怀疑的荣誉。 但是,这本书发行的时候正值我被控 有意谋反。 因此在18岁时,我被关进尼日利亚的监狱。
I grew up very privileged, and it's important to talk about privilege, because we don't talk about it here. A lot of us are very privileged. I grew up -- servants, cars, televisions, all that stuff. My story of Nigeria growing up was very different from the story I encountered in prison, and I had no language for it. I was completely terrified, completely broken, and kept trying to find a new language, a new way to make sense of all of this. Six months after that, with no explanation, they let me go. Now for those of you who have seen me at the buffet tables know that it was because it was costing them too much to feed me. (Laughter) But I mean, I grew up with this incredible privilege, and not just me -- millions of Nigerians grew up with books and libraries. In fact, we were talking last night about how all of the steamy novels of Harold Robbins had done more for sex education of horny teenage boys in Africa than any sex education programs ever had. All of those are gone.
我在有特权的情况下成长, 谈及特权非常重要,因为我们在这里不谈论它。 我们中的很多人享有特权。 我长大的过程中有仆人、汽车、电视,所有这些东西。 我在尼日利亚长大的故事完全不同于 我在监狱里面对的情况。那种情况真是让我无言以对。 我完全受到了惊吓,完全崩溃了, 而且尽力想寻找一种新的语言, 一种新的途径去理解这种状况。 六个月以后,没有任何解释, 他们就把我放了。 现在,你们在餐桌边碰见我,就会知道 那是因为我吃得太多,关着我花了他们太多钱。 (笑声) 但是我的意思是说,我长大的过程中享有了难以置信的特权。 而且并非只有我——上百万尼日利亚人 成长中有书籍和图书馆。 实际上,我们昨晚谈论了 哈罗德.罗宾斯所有的色情小说如何 对非洲处于性冲动时期的青少年进行性教育, 而这些书中的性教育远多于已有的其他形式的性教育。 所有的这些都已经过去了。
We are squandering the most valuable resource we have on this continent: the valuable resource of the imagination. In the film, "Sometimes in April" by Raoul Peck, Idris Elba is poised in a scene with his machete raised, and he's being forced by a crowd to chop up his best friend -- fellow Rwandan Army officer, albeit a Tutsi -- played by Fraser James. And Fraser's on his knees, arms tied behind his back, and he's crying. He's sniveling. It's a pitiful sight. And as we watch it, we are ashamed. And we want to say to Idris, "Chop him up. Shut him up." And as Idris moves, Fraser screams, "Stop! Please stop!" Idris pauses, then he moves again, and Fraser says, "Please! Please stop!" And it's not the look of horror and terror on Fraser's face that stops Idris or us; it's the look in Fraser's eyes. It's one that says, "Don't do this. And I'm not saying this to save myself, although this would be nice. I'm doing it to save you, because if you do this, you will be lost." To be so afraid that you're standing in the face of a death you can't escape and that you're soiling yourself and crying, but to say in that moment, as Fraser says to Idris, "Tell my girlfriend I love her." In that moment, Fraser says, "I am lost already, but not you ... not you." This is a redemption we can all aspire to.
我们正在浪费最有价值的资源。 我们在这块大陆上拥有的最有价值的资源是 想象力。 在鲁尔.派克的电影《四月某时》中, 伊迪里斯.厄尔巴在一幕中泰然自若举起弯刀, 他正被一群人强迫去砍他最好的朋友—— 卢旺达军官,是一个图西人—— 此人由弗莱舍.詹姆斯扮演。 弗莱舍双手被反绑在背后,跪在地上 他在哭泣。 他简直是涕泗横流。 这是个令人同情的场景。 当看到这一幕时,我们感到羞愧难当。 我们想对伊迪里斯说。“砍了他吧。” “让他闭嘴。” 当伊迪里斯上前,弗莱舍尖叫道:“住手!” “请住手!” 伊迪里斯停了一下,复又上前, 弗莱舍说道:“求求你了!” “求求你,住手吧!” 并非弗莱舍脸上恐怖和惧怕的表情让伊迪里斯或者是我们这些观众要住手, 让人住手的是弗莱舍的眼神。 它在说:“不要这样。” “我并不是要说这些来救我自己,” “虽然救我会很好,但是我这样做是为了拯救你。” “因为如果你这样做了,你将会迷失自我。” 那是非常可怕的,如果你直面死亡 无法逃脱,而同时又在羞辱你自己 并且嚎啕大哭,但是此时说出 弗莱舍对伊迪里斯所说的话:“告诉我的女友我爱她。” 在那种时候,弗莱舍说: “我已经迷失自我,但是你,你,不该也这样。” 这是一种我们都可以盼望的救赎。
African narratives in the West, they proliferate. I really don't care anymore. I'm more interested in the stories we tell about ourselves -- how as a writer, I find that African writers have always been the curators of our humanity on this continent. The question is, how do I balance narratives that are wonderful with narratives of wounds and self-loathing? And this is the difficulty that I face. I am trying to move beyond political rhetoric to a place of ethical questioning. I am asking us to balance the idea of our complete vulnerability with the complete notion of transformation of what is possible.
在西方,有关非洲的叙事作品快速增多。 我确实已不再关心。 我更关注那些讲述我们自己的故事—— 如何当一个作家,我发现非洲作家 一直在充当这块大陆上我们人性的监护者。 问题是,我如何去平衡那些令人愉快的作品 和那些创伤文学,自揭其丑的作品呢? 这是我所面临的困难。 我正试图超越政治上的花言巧语, 去触及民族问题。 我请我们大家去平衡这些 有关我们所有的弱点的看法。 用观念上的完全变革或任何可能的办法去达到这种平衡。
As a young middle-class Nigerian activist, I launched myself along with a whole generation of us into the campaign to stop the government. And I asked millions of people, without questioning my right to do so, to go up against the government. And I watched them being locked up in prison and tear gassed. I justified it, and I said, "This is the cost of revolution. Have I not myself been imprisoned? Have I not myself been beaten?" It wasn't until later, when I was imprisoned again, that I understood the real meaning of torture, and how easy your humanity can be taken from you, for the time I was engaged in war, righteous, righteous war. Excuse me.
作为一个年轻的尼日利亚中产阶级活动家, 我与所有同辈人一起投入 阻止政府的运动。 我请求上百万同胞, 我丝毫不怀疑自己有权这样去做, 去揭竿而起反对政府。 我看到他们被关进监狱,被催泪弹袭击。 我认为这是正当的,我说:“这是革命的代价。” 我是不是没蹲过监狱? 我是不是没被打过? 没多久,我又被关进监狱, 我知道了严刑拷打到底是什么, 你的人格尊严轻易就被剥夺了, 此时我卷入了战争, 正义的战争。 对不起。
Sometimes I can stand before the world -- and when I say this, transformation is a difficult and slow process -- sometimes I can stand before the world and say, "My name is Chris Abani. I have been human six days, but only sometimes." But this is a good thing. It's never going to be easy. There are no answers. As I was telling Rachel from Google Earth, that I had challenged my students in America -- I said, "You don't know anything about Africa, you're all idiots." And so they said, "Tell me about Africa, Professor Abani." So I went to Google Earth and learned about Africa. And the truth be told, this is it, isn't it? There are no essential Africans, and most of us are as completely ignorant as everyone else about the continent we come from, and yet we want to make profound statements about it. And I think if we can just admit that we're all trying to approximate the truth of our own communities, it will make for a much more nuanced and a much more interesting conversation. I want to believe that we can be agnostic about this, that we can rise above all of this.
有时,我能站在全世界面前—— 此时,变革 正经历一个困难而缓慢的过程。 有时,我能站在全世界面前说, “我叫克里斯.阿巴尼,” “我做了六天人,而这其中仅仅只是有时是人。” 但是这是一件好事。 它从未变得简单。 那些问题没有答案。 我对来自谷歌地球的蕾切尔说, 我在美国曾挑战过我的学生。 我说:“你们完全不了解非洲,你们是白痴。” 他们说:“跟我们说说非洲吧,阿巴尼教授。” 因此我上谷歌网,去了解非洲。 那上面说了真实情况,就是这样,不是吗? 那里没有本质上的非洲人, 我们大部分都像其他所有人一样 对于我们的大陆是完全无知的, 然而我们还想对它进行深入地阐述。 我想如果我们能够承认我们都试图 去接近我们自己所处社会的真实情况, 这将有助于形成一个更有区别 也更加有趣的谈话。 我愿意相信我们在这个问题上能够成为不可知论者, 以便我们能够凌驾于这一切。
When I was 10, I read James Baldwin's "Another Country," and that book broke me. Not because I was encountering homosexual sex and love for the first time, but because the way James wrote about it made it impossible for me to attach otherness to it. "Here," Jimmy said. "Here is love, all of it." The fact that it happens in "Another Country" takes you quite by surprise. My friend Ronald Gottesman says there are three kinds of people in the world: those who can count, and those who can't. (Laughter) He also says that the cause of all our trouble is the belief in an essential, pure identity: religious, ethnic, historical, ideological.
当我10岁的时候,我看了詹姆士.鲍尔温的《另一个国家》, 此书让我崩溃。 这不是因为我第一次面对同性性行为和爱情, 而是因为詹姆士写作这本书的方式 使得我无法对它产生疏离感。 “这里,”吉米说。 “这里有爱,全部的爱。” 发生在《另一个国家》里的事情 使你因为惊奇而变得平静。 我的朋友罗纳德.高茨曼说世上有三种人。 会算计的人,不会算计的人。 (笑声) 他还说导致所有麻烦的原因 是对本质的纯粹的一致性的信仰: 宗教的,种族的,历史的,意识形态的。
I want to leave you with a poem by Yusef Komunyakaa that speaks to transformation. It's called "Ode to the Drum," and I'll try and read it the way Yusef would be proud to hear it read. "Gazelle, I killed you for your skin's exquisite touch, for how easy it is to be nailed to a board weathered raw as white butcher paper. Last night I heard my daughter praying for the meat here at my feet. You know it wasn't anger that made me stop my heart till the hammer fell. Weeks ago, you broke me as a woman once shattered me into a song beneath her weight, before you slouched into that grassy hush. And now I'm tightening lashes, shaped in hide as if around a ribcage, shaped like five bowstrings. Ghosts cannot slip back inside the body's drum. You've been seasoned by wind, dusk and sunlight. Pressure can make everything whole again. Brass nails tacked into the ebony wood, your face has been carved five times. I have to drive trouble in the hills. Trouble in the valley, and trouble by the river too. There is no palm wine, fish, salt, or calabash. Kadoom. Kadoom. Kadoom. Ka-doooom. Now I have beaten a song back into you. Rise and walk away like a panther." Thank you. (Applause)
我想给你们留下一首尤瑟夫.考门亚卡写的诗 这首诗是写变革的。 名叫“鼓颂”,我试着用一种 尤瑟夫会觉得自豪的方式来读它。 “瞪羚,我为了你皮毛细腻的触感而杀了你,” “还为了你的皮毛能轻易地被钉在木板上” “如同屠宰用的白纸一样被风化” “昨晚我听到我女儿为了我脚边的肉祷告。” “你知道不是愤怒使我的心在锤落时停跳。” “数周前,你粉碎我好像一个女人 在她的身下,将我碎成一首歌 “在你慵懒沉入绿色的静谧之前” “现在,我系紧鞭子,修整兽皮围住胸腔,” “形如五股弓弦。” “鬼魂无法溜回身体之鼓” “你已经风雨、薄暮与阳光的历练。” “压力使得万物再次变得完整,” “黄铜指甲嵌入黑檀木之中” “你的面孔经过五次雕琢。” “我不得不将烦恼赶入山林。” “赶入深谷。” “跟随河流走远。” “没有棕榈酒,鱼,盐和葫芦。” 鬼魂毁灭。鬼魂毁灭。鬼魂毁灭。 “鬼魂毁灭。” “现在我敲击出了一首歌给你,” “起身像黑豹一样走远。” 谢谢。 (掌声)