Black history 3 poem explanation

公主号：MT英语（ID:mtkouyu)

专辑：【历史·眼界】黑人历史月

本期主播：【英】Joe

文本编辑&翻译：Leeven & Dawn

文本校对：Belinda & Doris Tang

主播简介

Joe，中文名周培森，精通四门语言（英、中、法、西）的英国才子。毕业于世界百强名校利物浦大学，研读英美文学专业。喜欢旅行、雷鬼音乐和运动。才华与颜值与八块腹肌并存。

电台文本

Hi, welcome back! I’m Joe. This is MT English. Today, I’m gonna continue Black history month. And the small explanation（解释）of the poem that was played in the last episode.

大家好,欢迎来到MT英语!我是周培森。今天，我们将继续讨论黑人历史月的话题，并简单解释上次电台的诗歌。

So, this poem has a narrator who wants to find out about his own history because we only know ourselves through our history. But his problem is the somebody went through a hell of a lot of trouble to make sure we wouldn’t fair too well and that we would come up with unreliable portrait（肖像）of ourselves. What he’s talking about here’s the way in which history is often controlled by white people as they considered the victors（胜利者）, the conquerors（征服者) of the Africa. So, they wrote the history. Therefore, it’s very difficult to find the real history behind what happened. That’s what Black history is all about.

因为我们只有通过历史才能认清自己，所以在这首诗中，有位叙述者想弄清自己的历史。但他遇到的困难是，有人经受了极大的且诸多的磨难来确保我们不会受到有多公平的对待，并且致使我们对自己的认识是不可靠的。由于人们认为白人是胜利者，人们认为白人是非洲的征服者，在这里他想探讨的是白人频繁操控历史的方式。所以，白人编写了历史。因此，人们很难从白人编写的东西里面去寻找隐藏在历史背后的真相。这就是黑人历史。     

What he does find about his history is the white folks（白人） discovered America and they claimed it’s fair and square. Cecil Rhodes couldn’t have been robbing nobody cause he said there was nobody there. Here’s the poem is using some irony（讽刺). Irony means saying something but meaning the opposite thing. So, one he says white folks discovered the Africa. What he actually means here is they didn’t discovered Africa. Africa had always existed and  there were people living there. But they claimed it fair and square（正大光明地） as if Africa could just belong to them because they found it or discovered it. Cecil Rhodes was an English business man who founded the company in South Africa for mining（矿业）. So, he was a big supporter of colonizing Africa. He believed he never did anything wrong because the British were making the African civilized and the land did not belong to them. So, it’s okay just to take it. Nowadays, these opinions are criticized very strongly and most people disagree with Cecil Rhodes and the idea of the colonies in Africa.

他所发现的历史是，白人发现了非洲这个地方并且光明正大地占为己有。Cecil Rhodes说他不可能抢劫任何人，因为那里根本就没有人。这首诗用了一些讽刺。讽刺意思就是说一些具有相反意思的话。所以当他说是白人发现了非洲时，他实际上的意思是并不是他们发现了非洲的。非洲一直都存在着并且有人居住。但是他们光明正大地侵占了，仿佛非洲就只属于他们，因为是他们发现这个地方的。Cecil Rhodes是一名英国商人，他在南非建立了矿业公司。所以，他是进行非洲殖民掠夺的一个很大的赞助商。他坚信自己这么做并没有什么错，因为是英国人为非洲开拓了文明，所以那土地也不应属于非洲人民的。 所以白人使用这块土地也就不可厚非。 如今，这些观点被严厉地抨击，大多数人民都不同意Cecil Rhodes的关于非洲殖民地的观点。

So,Gil Scott-Heron continued this irony by listing（列举）things that made Africans uncivilized. So, they had no writing, they had no clothes, they fought, unlike the civilized people in Europe. So, this is irony what he means really is the, in fact, although the Africans did fight between tribes, Europe had huge wars for hundreds of years. So, when the European thought the Africans were barbarian（野蛮的、未开化的） and uncivilized（不文明的）, maybe they need to look at themselves and see that they also have a lack of civilization. But the poem also lists some of the good things about Africa. Courtesy（礼貌）came from the heart, and yes there was medicine, love and religion into tribal（部落的） communication by drum（鼓）. So, even though the Africa tribes didn’t have all of things that Europeans had. They had very deep, cultural ideas, some of which Europeans did not have. And another example is inter tribal communication by drum. So, what he talking about here is the different tribes could communicate without even talking. They had different codes（代码）, a rhythm（节奏）in the drum drums. They would allow them to communicate with different tribes.

因此，赫伦通过列举非洲一系列不文明的东西继续他的讽刺。他们没有语言文字，没有衣服，他们互相残杀，不像那些在欧洲的文明开化了的人类。他这里真正表达的讽刺，实际上是，尽管非洲人民会有部落间的斗争，但是欧洲也有几百年的大规模战争史。所以，当欧洲人认为非洲人是野蛮人且未开化时，也许他们也需要审视一下自己，其实自身也缺失了某种文明。但是这首诗也列出了一些非洲好的方面。他们的礼貌发自内心，当然，那里还有药品，并且爱情和宗教在部落间通过鼓来交流、传播。因此，尽管非洲部落没有欧洲人所拥有的所有的东西，但是他们却有深厚的文化底蕴，这是欧洲人所没有的东西。而另外一个例子则是靠鼓来进行部落间的相互交流。所以，他这里谈的是不同部落间可以实现无对话交流。他们有不同的代码，不同的节奏在鼓上。他们允许不同部落间的联系。

Then we get to the point that Africa has gold and copper（铜）and it was easy for the Europeans to justify（证明....是合法）or here uses the word “sanction”（制裁、批准）. And all agreed the cruelty, the violence against the local people and allowed them to basically steal the things in the country.

接下来，我们说到一个点就是，非洲有黄金和铜。对欧洲人来说，很容易去证明他们是合法开采的，或者用一个词说，“Sanction”。他们都同意用残酷的武力打击当地人，同时允许他们自己把这个国家的资源基本上都掠夺完。

So, finally in the last paragraph, the poem talks about euphemisms（委婉语） or ways of using word games（文字游戏） to change the meaning they thinks. He said semantics（词义学） is always a bitch（困难；麻烦）, places refer to underdeveloped and now called mineral rich（矿产丰富）. So, what he is saying here is the before these places were criticized or looked down on by the Europeans but when they realized there was gold or copper or useful materials. They called mineral rich, which really is a euphemism.

所以，在最后一段，这首诗用了委婉语的手法，或者说用了一些玩文字游戏的方式来改变他们对诗歌本义的看法。他说词义学从来都是个捣蛋鬼。一些原本是指荒凉、贫瘠的地方，现在却被冠以矿产丰富之名。因此，他这里的意思是，在此之前，这些地方（指非洲地区）曾经被欧洲人批判和看不起，但当他们意识到这里有黄金和铜或者一些有用的矿产资源时，他们就说这些地方矿产资源丰富，这的确是委婉语的一种。

Thanks for listening! It’s a long one this one. But I really wanted to make sure people understood the poem and spend some time thinking about what it means. So, if anyone has any questions about the poem, please don’t hesitate（犹豫） to ask in the comment section.

谢谢聆听!今天的节目时间有点长。但我真的想确保大家都理解这首诗，并且希望大家花些时间来思考这首诗歌的意义。所以，如果有谁对这首诗有任何疑问的话，请不要犹豫，在评论区提问吧！

词汇：

1. explanation       [ˌeksplə'neɪʃn]

n.解释；说明

eg.That's not an adequate explanation.这并不足以说明问题。

by way of explanation作为说明        

come to an explanation with与…商谈以消除误会

in explanation of对…进行解释,为…辩解

2. portraits   ['pɔ:trɪts]

n.肖像（portrait的复数）；画像;(原义)雕像；模型 

eg.I would rather work at WalMart than shoot portraits or weddings.

我宁愿为沃尔玛拍摄，也不愿拍肖像或婚礼。

3. irony     ['aɪrənɪ]

n.讽刺；反语；具有讽刺意味的事

adj.铁的；似铁的

eg.The good point is that the irony fully reflected.

好的地方是反讽完全出来了。

4. mining      ['maɪnɪŋ]

n.采矿；矿业

eg.This area depends on the mining industry.

这个地区以采矿业为经济基础。

strip mining露天开采                 

placer mining淘金       

drift mining浅矿床开采                 

mining area矿山

5. colonized          ['kɒlənaɪz]

v.开拓殖民地；移居于殖民地

eg.Britain colonized many parts of Africa.

英国在非洲开拓了许多殖民地。

6. courtesy      ['kɜːtəsi]

n.礼貌；好意

eg.They showed us every courtesy.

他们对我们彬彬有礼。

by courtesy of  蒙…的好意,蒙…提供        

drop a courtesy行屈膝礼

7. tribal         ['traɪbl]

adj.部落的

eg.The linguists went to study tribal languages in the field.

语言学家们去实地研究部落语言了。

8. drum         [drʌm]

n.鼓；鼓状物；鼓声

vi.击鼓；连续敲击；引起兴趣

vt.灌输；击鼓；逐出

eg.The beats of the drum were steady and slow.

鼓声平稳而缓慢。

beat the drum for为…竭力鼓吹,为…做宣传

9. codes         [kəʊd]

n.密码；法规；准则

v.制成法典；把...编码

eg.I can break the code of this box.

我能破译这个箱子的密码。

10. rhythm     ['rɪðəm]

n.节奏；节律；（事件或过程）有规律的反复出现

eg.Stress and rhythm are important in speaking English.

说英语时，重音和节奏是很重要的。

steady rhythm平稳的节奏         

without rhythm or reason杂乱无章

11. copper   ['kɒpə]

n.铜；铜币；警察

adj.铜制的

vt.镀铜

eg.Iron casts better than copper.  

铁比铜更易于浇铸。

12. justify      ['dʒʌstɪfaɪ]

vt.替...辩护；证明...正当；调整版面

eg.Don't try to justify your mistakes.

不要为自己的缺点辩护。

justify sth as sth证明…作为某物是合法的    

justify oneself/sth to sb向(某人)证明…是对的,正当的

justify on/upon the ground of sth/that-clause以…为理由，证明…是对的,正当的

13. sanction       ['sæŋkʃn]

n.批准；约束力；处罚

vt.批准；支持

eg.The book was translated without the sanction of the author.

这本书未经作者许可就给翻译了。

apply〔impose, take〕the sanction实行制裁                 

legal sanction法律制裁

get〔obtain, receive, secure〕the sanction得到认可〔批准〕  

with the sanction得到批准

moral〔social〕sanction道德〔社会〕的约束力   

under sb's sanction在某人的认可之下

without sanction未经批准                             

sanction against对…的制裁

14. euphemism    ['juːfəmɪzəm]

n.委婉语(Adj.euphemistic   Adv. euphemistically    N. euphemist )

eg.Euphemism is a very common and complicated linguistic phenomenon.

委婉语是一种十分常见而又非常复杂的语言现象。

15. semantics     [sɪ'mæntɪks]

n.语义学；符号学

Semantics is a subject studying the meaning of language.

语义学是研究语言意义的一门学科。

16. bitch        [bɪtʃ]

n.贱货，很不规矩;难题，棘手的事，难办的事;牢骚，怨言;令人不快的事

v.<俚>埋怨，发牢骚，弄坏,搞砸，破坏，毁灭某事;欺骗

eg.Don't bitch all day long about the heat!

不要整天抱怨天气热

17. hesitate          ['hezɪteɪt]

vi.犹豫；不情愿；口吃

eg.Do not hesitate to tell us if you have a problem .

你有问题就直截了当地告诉我们。

hesitate about V-ing.  对(某事)犹豫不决       

hesitate at sth对(某事)犹豫

hesitate between sth and sth在两者间踌躇      

hesitate over对…犹豫不决