The recipient of many awards, Maxine Hong Kingston was in 2008 recognized
她获得过许多奖,马克辛洪金斯顿于2008年被美国国家图书基金会授予
by the National Book Foundation which gives the National Book award with its Lifetime Achievement award
美国国家图书奖的终身成就奖,
for distinguished contributions to American Letters.
以表彰她对于美国文学做出的杰出贡献。
Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Maxine and Gish.
女士们,先生们,让我们欢迎玛克辛女士和任碧莲女士
So we've decided that Maxine is going to begin the conversation by having reference to her work and putting on the table thoughts that you, Maxine, invite us to take up with you.
我们决定玛克辛女士讲通过提到她的作品并将思想放在桌面上的方式来开始这段谈话,玛克辛邀请我们开始与你们交流。
Maxine: Thank you Jim, especially for reminding us that we are a nation of immigrants.
玛克辛:谢谢你,吉姆,特别提到了我们是一个国家的移民。
Somehow we need to know that again and again and we need to find our stories.
无论如何,我们需要一次又一次得明白我们需要发现自己的故事。
I'm going to start by reading you my personal immigration story.
我要从向你们讲述自己的移民故事开始。
And I know that everybody has an immigration story.
并且我知道在座各位都有属于自己的故事。
And this includes the Native Americans who have gone on so many journeys.
包括去过美国本土很多次的人,
And even mythic journeys that take them all the way from the tip of the America's south,
并且甚至想象出来的旅行,带他们从美国的南端
all the way north and back and forth where they collected waters from both oceans.
到北部再折返,并从两大海洋中收集海水。
I'm going to read to you a very condensed version of me going to Angel Island
我将用我浓缩版的观点带你们去天使岛,
and right last year was 100th anniversary of the immigration station at Angel Island.
去年是该岛庆祝移民100周年纪念日。
And this was some time before that and we wanted to just go to, to go around the island and see how it felt.
而且在此之前,我们一直想去走走转转这个岛,感受一下该岛的氛围。