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曾红极一时的詹姆斯·鲍德温(上)

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The video begins with a timer counting down the seconds until James Baldwin appears before us, seated in a living room in the Manhattan apartment building he purchased in 1965. Baldwin is poised, attentive and beguiling as he speaks to Sylvia Chase, a correspondent for the ABC newsmagazine "20/20." Across the segment, we see him grinning as he watches a rehearsal of his play "The Amen Corner"; we see him speaking to a group of children in Harlem; we see B-roll of him outside, catching his scarf before it's swept away by the wind. Toward the end, the writer's mother, siblings, nieces and nephews gather on a sofa and chairs around him. "There's a price this republic exacts from any Black man or woman walking," Baldwin asserts, "and that is a crime." He reaches for the child seated next to him on the sofa. "They will not do to him," he says, "what they failed to do to me." We meet his unblinking gaze as his words resonate. "I was 7 years old 47 years ago," he says, "and nothing has changed since then."

这段视频以计时器倒计时开始,倒计时结束时詹姆斯·鲍德温出现在我们面前,他坐在1965年购买的曼哈顿公寓楼的客厅里。鲍德温在与美国广播公司新闻杂志节目《20/20》的记者西尔维亚·蔡斯交谈时,神情沉稳、专注、充满魅力。在采访中,我们看到他笑着看他的戏剧《阿门角》排练;我们看到他在哈林区和一群孩子说话;我们看到他在外面拍摄辅助镜头,在围巾被风吹走之前抓住它。最后,作家鲍德温的母亲、兄弟姐妹、侄女和侄子都围在沙发和椅子上。鲍德温断言,“这个共和国会让任何走在路上的黑人男女付出代价,那是一种犯罪。”他伸手去指沙发上坐他旁边的孩子。他说,“他们不会对他这样做,他们没能对我这样做。”他的话引起共鸣时,我们与他坚定的目光相遇。他说,“47年前我才7岁,那之后,一切都没有改变。”

詹姆斯·鲍德温.jpg

Today it is that child who might say the same — that he was 7 years old, 40-some years ago. Whatever America has or has not done to him in the meantime has already occurred. This interview was filmed in 1979, before the publication of Baldwin's 19th book, "Just Above My Head." It was never aired; only last month was the finished segment circulated by its producer, Joseph Lovett. Watching it, we are staring into a past that has already lived its course, from a present that has yet to learn from it. Baldwin was born in 1924, and we see him half a century later, in a country on the other side of the civil rights era but, by his measure, fundamentally unchanged. Almost the same window of time has now passed in the child's life. Is the same still true? "What is ghastly and really almost hopeless in our racial situation now is that the crimes we have committed are so great and so unspeakable that the acceptance of this knowledge would lead, literally, to madness," Baldwin wrote in 1964, inspired by the murder of Emmett Till. "The human being, then, in order to protect himself, closes his eyes, compulsively repeats his crimes."

如今,那个孩子可能会说同样的话——那是40年前,当时他7岁。在此期间,无论美国对他做了什么或没有做什么,都已经发生了。这段采访在1979年拍摄,当时鲍德温的第19本书《就在我头上》即将出版。这次采访从未播出。采访制作人约瑟夫·洛维特上个月才公开了这段采访的最终版。观看这场采访,我们就像在凝视已走过历程的过去,而现在我们仍未从过去吸取教训。鲍德温出生于1924年,我们看到,半个世纪之后他投身一个国家民权运动时期的另一面,但他的措施基本上没有改变。在那个孩子的生活中,几乎同样的时间窗口已经过去。情况还是如此吗?“就我们目前的种族状况而言,可怕和几乎没有希望的是,我们所犯下的罪行是如此巨大和难以言喻,以至于接受这种知识会导致疯狂,就是字面意思。”这是鲍德温在1964年所写的文字,灵感来自埃米特·蒂尔谋杀案。“人类为了保护自己,会闭上眼睛,强迫地重复他的罪行。”

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convinced [kən'vinst]

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adj. 信服的

 
protect [prə'tekt]

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vt. 保护,投保

联想记忆
gather ['gæðə]

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v. 聚集,聚拢,集合
n. 集合,聚集

 
measure ['meʒə]

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n. 措施,办法,量度,尺寸
v. 测量,量

联想记忆
interview ['intəvju:]

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n. 接见,会见,面试,面谈
vt. 接见,采

 
poised [pɔizd]

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adj. 泰然自若的,镇定的;摆好姿势不动的,静止的;平

 
rehearsal [ri'hə:sl]

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n. 排练,彩排

联想记忆
control [kən'trəul]

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n. 克制,控制,管制,操作装置
vt. 控制

 
committed [kə'mitid]

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adj. 献身于某种事业的,委托的

联想记忆
acceptance [ək'septəns]

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n. 接受(礼物、邀请、建议等),同意,认可,承兑

 

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