杰奎琳·伍德森想讓孩子們知道足球的美麗和危險

杰奎琳·伍德森想讓孩子們知道足球的美麗和危險

Many of Jacqueline Woodson's books tackle serious issues in a way that's accessible for kids: Foster care, classism, intolerance.

杰奎琳·伍德森的許多書都以孩子們也能理解的方式來處理一些嚴肅的問題:寄養(yǎng)、階級主義、偏狹。

Her latest book does that, too. It's called Before the Ever After and it's written in the voice of a 12-year-old boy whose father is a professional football player, a big star both on TV and to the neighborhood kids. But his father is also suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, the degenerative brain disease that's been diagnosed in many collision-sport athletes.

她最近的一本書也是如此。這本書的名字叫《從此以后》，作者是一個12歲的男孩，他的父親是一名職業(yè)足球運動員，是電視明星，也是社區(qū)里孩子們的偶像。但他的父親也患有慢性創(chuàng)傷性腦病(CTE)，這種退行性腦疾病在許多碰撞運動運動員身上都被診斷出來。

First we get to know his dad. How he loves playing football. How he loves his family. And how when his son and a group of his young friends pile laughingly on his back, he shakes them off "like feathers."

首先我們了解他的爸爸。他多么喜歡踢足球。他多么愛他的家人。當他的兒子和一群年輕的朋友在他背上笑得團團轉(zhuǎn)時，他又如何“像羽毛一樣”把他們甩掉。

That's Jacqueline Woodson's lovely writing. I asked how that description came to her.

這是杰奎琳·伍德森優(yōu)美的筆法。我問她是怎么想到這些的。

"A lot of times it's really visual for me as I'm writing it," she says. "What would it look like to have these little boys climbing on this dad and they think they're, tackling him and he just rises up and shakes them off, you know? Does he shake them off like marbles? Does he shake them off like stones? It's like no, he shakes them off like feathers cause they're really not tackling him at all.

“很多時候，當我在寫的時候，它真的是我的視覺，”她說。“如果這些小男孩爬到這位父親身上，他們以為自己是在對付他，他就會站起來甩掉他們，你知道嗎?”他會像彈珠一樣抖落他們嗎?他會像石頭一樣抖落他們嗎?不，他會像抖羽毛一樣抖掉他們，因為他們根本就沒有對付他。

And it is about, for me, just rewriting and rereading and listening to how it sounds out loud to get to the images that are in my head. And it's almost like I'm trying to draw the picture with the words — the pictures that I see in my head, I can't draw, but I can do it with words."

對我來說，就是一遍一遍寫，一遍一遍讀，聽它的聲音，來得到我腦海里的圖像。這就像是我試著用文字來畫一幅畫，我在腦海中看到的圖畫，我畫不出來，但我可以用文字來畫。”

On playing with words

關(guān)于玩文字游戲

I think, you know, trying to get to the essence of what I'm trying to say without overwriting — it's so easy to add a bunch of adjectives, or say it: he's 223 pounds, he's this tall, you know, he has these broad shoulders. And for me, that doesn't paint an image that's going to eventually lead to having deep empathy for this person.

我想，你知道的，我想在不加贅述的情況下理解我要說的話的本質(zhì)——添加一堆形容詞很容易，或者說：他223磅，他這么高，你知道，他有這么寬的肩膀。對我來說，這并沒有描繪出一個最終會讓我對這個人產(chǎn)生深切共鳴的形象。

On choosing this topic for a kids' book

關(guān)于為一本兒童讀物選擇這個主題

I think one of the things I'm always concerned with as a writer is telling the truth. And I think a lot of times people don't tell the truth about about the trauma that contact sports can play on the body. We see the glory, but we don't see the damage that families sometimes experience, the damage that, you know, sons of dads experience, and dads themselves.

我認為作為一名作家，我一直關(guān)心的一件事就是講真話。我認為很多時候人們并沒有說出關(guān)于接觸性運動對身體造成創(chuàng)傷的事實。我們看見了榮耀，但我們沒有看到家庭有時經(jīng)歷的傷害，你知道的，父親之子經(jīng)歷的傷害，以及父親自己(經(jīng)歷的傷害)。

On whether the book is advising kids to stay away from football

關(guān)于這本書是否建議孩子們遠離足球

It's a fine line when you're a writer, right? Of course, people who write young people's literature are subversive in some way. We are writing the narrative. And at the same time a book can't be didactic. Because you lose the reader right away.

當你是一個作家的時候，這是一個微妙的界限，對嗎?當然，寫年輕人文學的人在某種程度上是具有顛覆性的。我們在寫故事。同時，一本書也不能是說教的。因為你馬上就失去了讀者。

So I never say I write to teach or to give advice, but I think in Before the Ever After, I want young people to have the whole story, you know, I want them to know the beauty of the sport. It is a beautiful sport. I want them to know the history of the sport, that it actually started with a pigskin bladder. And I want them to know the damaging impact of the sport. So it isn't me just trying to say this one-sided thing, don't play football. I want to say, know what this means.

所以我從來沒有說過我寫信是為了教書或是給別人建議，但我想在《從此以后》這本書里，我想讓年輕人了解整個故事，你知道，我希望他們知道這項運動的美妙之處。這是一項美麗的運動。我想讓他們知道這項運動的歷史，它實際上是從豬皮膀胱開始的。我想讓他們知道這項運動的破壞性影響。所以這不是我想說的單方面的事情，不要踢足球。我想說，要知道(踢足球)這意味著什么。