Maya Angelou:What Happens When a Great Soul Dies

By Katy Waldman

《我知道笼中鸟为何歌唱》封面

玛雅·安杰洛

What hasn’t Maya Angelou done? A poet, memoirist1. memoirist: 传记作家。, historian, activist,and professor; a three-time Grammy2. Grammy: 格莱美奖，美国四个主要音乐奖项之一，相当于音乐界的奥斯卡奖。winner for her spoken-word recordings; a nightclub dancer; a cabaret and calypso singer;3. cabaret: 餐馆（或咖啡馆）中助兴的歌舞、滑稽短剧；calypso: 卡吕普索音乐，加勒比地区一种现代节奏强的爵士乐。a Broadway4. Broadway: 纽约百老汇剧院，以演出音乐剧闻名，亦有戏剧、歌剧、舞蹈等表演。actress, a film and television director; a performer for Alvin Ailey5. Alvin Ailey: 阿尔文·艾利（1931—1989），著名非裔美国舞蹈家和编舞者，创建了纽约著名的阿尔文·艾利舞蹈剧院。; the second poet, after Robert Frost, to appear at an American presidential inauguration;6. Robert Frost: 罗伯特·弗罗斯特（1874—1963），美国诗人，曾四度获得普利策奖，被称为“美国文学中的桂冠诗人”。他在1961年约翰·肯尼迪的总统就职仪式上朗诵了他特地为这一场合写的诗篇《全才》（The Gift Outright）；American presidential inauguration: 美国总统就职典礼。an ardent tweeter until the very end—86 years seems too short to contain the boil and glow of her life.7. ardent: 热忱的；tweeter: 发推特的人；boil: 最兴奋，最活跃的状态；glow: 满腔热情。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·克劳法控制下的美国南方。吉姆·克劳法泛指1876年至1965年间美国南部各州以及边境各州对有色人种（主要针对非裔美国人）实行种族隔离制度的法律。这些法律强制公共设施必须依照种族的不同而隔离使用；plunge into: 从事，投身于；civil rights movement: 这里指的是非裔美国人民权运动（1955—1968），是美国民权运动的一部分，是美国黑人为争取与白人同等的地位而发起的群众性斗争运动。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

玛雅·安杰洛是美国最多才多艺的女性之一：她是诗人、自传作家、畅销书作家、历史学家、教授、电影导演、民权活动家、演员、舞蹈家……她如此说道：“我的所有作品，我的全部生活，我做的一切，都是为了生存下来，不仅仅是简单地、可怜地生存，而是充满了优雅与信仰地生存。虽然每个人都可能会遇到很多失败，但一个人绝不能被打败！”2011年，美国总统奥巴马授予她平民最高奖励“总统自由勋章”，称赞她是美国文化的象征，不屈服于命运，不屈服于厄运，不屈服于困难；2014年，玛雅·安杰洛逝世，享年86岁。但短短的86年岂能讲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，名声大振；autobiography: 自传文学；breakout: 成功的作品；I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings:《我知道笼中鸟为何歌唱》，玛雅·安杰洛的第一部自传作品，她在这本书中回忆了20世纪三四十年代她在南方小镇斯坦普斯以及加利福尼亚州的成长经历。

Angelou’s legacy is twofold. She leaves behind a body of11. a body of: 许多的，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: 令人吃惊地，令人感叹地。beautiful poetry.She also wrote a cookbook and was nominated for a Tony.13. cookbook: 烹饪书，食谱；Tony: 托尼奖，美国剧场界最高荣誉。托尼奖与电影奥斯卡奖、电视艾美奖、音乐格莱美奖并称为美国艺术四大奖项。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，获得者；Presidential Medal of Freedom:总统自由勋章，由美国总统一年一度颁发，是美国最高的平民荣誉之一。She was friends with Malcolm X and the Rev.

9.1978年的诗集中，她那几句不朽的诗句精准捕捉到了被践踏者的坚韧：“你可以把我写进历史/用你那充满怨恨和歪曲的谎言/你可以将我踩入尘土/但我仍将如尘埃般飞扬。”capture:（用绘画、照片、诗句等）留存，捕捉；resilience: 坚韧，韧性；downtrodden: 被践踏的，被踩在脚底下的；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: 马尔科姆·X（1925—1965），美国黑人民权运动领导人物之一。批评人士认为他煽动暴力、仇恨和种族主义，肯定人士则视他为非裔美国人权利提倡者；Martin Luther King: 马丁·路德·金（1929—1968），美国人权主义者和非裔美国人权运动领袖，1964年诺贝尔和平奖得主，主张以非暴力方式争取非裔美国人的基本权利。

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. 考虑到首次面世时间是在1969年，出版这本书可谓是胆识过人，亦具有重大历史意义。

“She told a story that wasn’t allowed to be told,” author Tayari Jones18. Tayari Jones: 塔亚丽·琼斯（1970— ），非裔美国作家，擅长描写美国南方城市的生活。said. “Now, people tell all sorts of things in memoir, but when she told the truth, she challenged a taboo19. taboo: 忌讳。—not 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: 实行种族隔离的，被隔离的。town of Stamps, Arkansas. The famous poet got into writing after a childhood tragedy that stunned21. stun: 使……震惊，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 证，指证。

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: 在餐馆服务，端盘子； production:作品（电影、戏剧等的）摄制；Porgy and Bess:《波吉与贝丝》，又名《乞丐与荡妇》，美国歌剧代表作，创始了世界歌剧乐坛的“轻歌剧”。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: 罗莎·帕克斯（1913—2005），美国黑人民权运动主义者，被人尊称为“现代民权运动之母”；Winfrey:奥普拉·温弗里（1954— ），美国电视脱口秀主持人、制片人、投资家、慈善家，美国最具影响力的非洲裔名人之一。King was assassinated26. assassinate: 暗杀。on her 40th birthday.

总统自由勋章

玛雅·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: 音量逐渐加强。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: 有价值，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: 养老院，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: 犹太教堂；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.