評論
打印
Phillis Wheatley was a young African-American slave who belonged to landowner John Wheatley in Colonial America.
菲利斯·惠特莉是美國殖民地時期莊園主約翰·惠特莉家的一個年輕的黑人奴隸。
She was also a poet and the first African-American ever to publish a book.
她也是一個詩人，是第一個出版書籍的美國黑人。
Her Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral was printed in Boston in 1773,
她的《關于不同學科，宗教和道德的詩歌》1773在波士頓出版，
three years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence.
在《獨立宣言》簽署的三年前。
Early slaves were generally denied education.
早期奴隸通常沒有受教育的權利。
But Wheatley was allowed by her owner to study poetry, Latin and the Bible.
但是惠特莉的農場主允許她學習詩歌，拉丁語和《圣經》。
And by the time she reached her late teens, she had written enough poetry to put together a slender book of verse.
到她快20歲的時候，她寫的詩歌足以編成一部小詩集。
Even so, publication was difficult.
即便如此，出版仍然不易。
The publisher, fearful of being cheated,
因為擔心被騙，
forced her to submit to a scholarly examination by a board of educated men, including the colonial governor.
出版商要求她通過一個學術測試。考官是一些受過教育的人，包括殖民地官員。
The board of judges questioned Wheatley extensively and ruled that she was educated enough to have written the book.
考官們廣泛地考問了惠特莉，并且裁定她的教育水平足夠出一本書。
Only then was publication permitted.
到那時她的書才允許出版。
Wheatley may have been the first, but she was not the only slave to write a book during the growing days of the Republic.
惠特莉可能是第一個，但她不是共和國發展時期唯一一個出書的奴隸。
Unfortunately, most of the early popular African-American writers have been all but forgotten in modern times, until now.
不幸的是，大多數早期受歡迎的美國黑人作家幾乎都在近代被遺忘了，直到今天。
A Cornell professor, Henry Louis Gates,
一個康奈爾的教授，亨利·路易斯·蓋特，
recently started a research project looking into 19th century African-American fiction and poetry.
最近開始寫一篇研究報告，調查19世紀美國黑人的小說和詩歌。
In the process, he uncovered numerous lost works, almost half of which were written by African-American women.
在這個過程中，他發現了大量丟失的作品，里面幾乎有一半都是美國黑人女性作家寫的。
In varied literary styles, the newly resurfaced manuscripts offered a rich stock of African-American culture,
在各式各樣的文體里，最新的重新露面的手稿展現了豐富的美國黑人文化，
recreating among other things the early days of slavery and the importance of religion to the slaves.
從其他層面還原了早期的奴隸制度和宗教對于奴隸的重要性。
