評論
打印
Every time I am home I am confronted with the usual sources of irritation for most Nigerians: our failed infrastructure, our failed government,
我每次回家的時候，都會面臨那些令眾多尼日利亞人頭疼的事情：失敗的基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施，失敗的政府。
but also by the incredible resilience of people who thrive despite the government, rather than because of it.
但與此同時，我也看到了人們面對這個政府所展現(xiàn)出的堅韌不拔，而不是被它給擊垮。
I teach writing workshops in Lagos every summer,
每年夏天我都在拉各斯開辦寫作班，
and it is amazing to me how many people apply, how many people are eager to write, to tell stories.
都會被申請的人數(shù)震驚到，有這么多的人想要學(xué)習(xí)寫作，想要講述他們的故事。
My Nigerian publisher and I have just started a non-profit called Farafina Trust,
我的尼日利亞出版商和我剛剛成立了個非營利性的組織，叫做Farafina信托。
and we have big dreams of building libraries and refurbishing libraries that already exist
我們充滿了偉大的夢想：我們想建造圖書館，并且重新裝修已有的圖書館，
and providing books for state schools that don't have anything in their libraries,
對于那些圖書館內(nèi)空空如也的政府學(xué)校，我們會捐贈圖書，
and also of organizing lots and lots of workshops, in reading and writing, for all the people who are eager to tell our many stories.
我們也會組織大量的閱讀班、寫作班，來幫助那些渴望講述我們身上故事的人們。
Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize.
故事很重要。多重性的故事很重要。故事一直被用來剝奪、用來中傷。但故事也可以賦予力量與人性化。
Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.
故事可以擊毀一個民族的尊嚴(yán)，但也可以修補那被擊毀的尊嚴(yán)。
The American writer Alice Walker wrote this about her Southern relatives who had moved to the North.
美國作家Alice Walker曾寫過她那些搬遷至北方的南方親戚們。
She introduced them to a book about the Southern life that they had left behind.
她為他們推薦了一本書，一本關(guān)于他們已揮別的南方生活的書。
"They sat around, reading the book themselves, listening to me read the book, and a kind of paradise was regained."
“他們團(tuán)團(tuán)坐在一起，讀著這本書，或是聽我給他們讀這本書，一種天堂因此而被重拾?！?/div>
I would like to end with this thought: That when we reject the single story,
我想以此來結(jié)束我的演講：當(dāng)我們拒絕單一的故事，
when we realize that there is never a single story about any place, we regain a kind of paradise. Thank you.
當(dāng)我們認(rèn)識到任何地方都沒有單一的故事時，我們將重拾一份天堂。謝謝。
