雪中梅
喜歡用文字描述身邊的生活，同時用一詩一圖的形式來描述大自然的美麗。
一月二十號那天觀看了總統Joe Biden的就職宣誓典禮。（The Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden, Jr）。在觀看的過程中，聽到了Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Garth Brooks 演唱的歌曲。之後走上台的是一位非常年輕的女詩人Amanda Gorman。她在大會上朗誦了一首美麗的長詩。她站在講台上，神態鎮靜自若，臉上充滿了朝氣和自信，一雙明亮的眼睛還會不時的環顧一下。在朗誦的時候，她的手勢有時會隨著詩歌的節拍揮動幾下。她朗讀的聲音悅耳動聽，且語氣連貫， 整個一首長詩到了最後一氣嗬成。
看來自己的聽力還是不好，即使看著屏幕上的字幕還是跟不上。。。
後來去網上查詢，才知道這個年輕的詩人出生於1998年，今年22歲，她在哈佛大學學習社會學。是加州洛杉磯的詩人和活動家。她的工作集中在壓迫，女權主義，種族和邊緣化以及非洲僑民的問題上。她在2015年出版了詩集《食物不足的那個人》。在2021年，她在美國總統喬。拜登就職典禮上朗誦了自己寫的這首詩《爬山》
實在慚愧翻譯的技能，所以隻把這首英文詩原樣轉引在這裏。
“The Hill We Climb”
When day comes we ask ourselves
Where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
A sea we must wade.
We braved the belly of the beast;
We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace.
And the norms and notions of what just is
Isn’t always justice.
And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it.
Somehow we do it;
Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed
A nation that isn’t broken but simply unfinished.
We, the successors of a country and a time
Where a skinny black girl descended from slaves
And raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president,
Only to find herself reciting for one.
And yes we are far from polished, far from pristine,
But that doesn’t mean we aren’t striving to form a union that is perfect.
We are striving to forge a union with purpose,
To compose a country committed to all cultures, colors, characters and conditions of man.
And so we lift our gaze not to what stands between us,
But what stands before us.
We close the divide, because we know to put our future first,
We must first put our differences aside.
We lay down our arms
So we can reach out our arms to one another.
We seek harm to none and harmony for all.
Let the globe, if nothing else, say this is true:
That even as we grieved, we grew,
That even as we hurt, we hoped,
That even as we tired, we tried,
That we’ll forever be tied together, victorious—
Not because we will never again know defeat
But because we will never again sow division.
Scripture tells us to envision
That everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree,
And no one shall make them afraid.
If we’re to live up to our own time,
then victory won’t lie in the blade but in all the bridges we’ve made.
That is the promised glade,
The hill we climb if only we dare it.
Because being American is more than a pride we inherit,
It’s the past we step into and how we repair it.
We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,
Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy.
And this effort very nearly succeeded,
But while democracy can be periodically delayed
It can never be permanently defeated.
In this truth, in this faith we trust,
For while we have our eyes on the future, history has its eyes on us.
This is the era of just redemption.
We feared at its inception.
We did not feel prepared to be the heirs of such a terrifying hour,
But within it we found the power
To author a new chapter,
To offer hope and laughter,
To ourselves sow. While once we asked:
How could we possibly prevail over catastrophe?
Now we assert: How could catastrophe possibly prevail over us?
We will not march back to what was,
But move to what shall be,
A country that is bruised but whole,
Benevolent but bold,
Fierce and free.
We will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation
Because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation.
Our blunders become their burdens
But one thing is certain:
If we merge mercy with might and might with right,
Then love becomes our legacy
And change our children’s birthright.
So let us leave behind a country better than the one we were left.
With every breath of my bronze pounded chest,
We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.
We will rise from the golden hills of the West.
We will rise from the windswept Northeast where our forefathers first realized revolution.
We will rise from the lakeland cities of the Midwestern states.
We will rise from the sunbaked South.
We will rebuild, reconcile and recover
In every known nook of our nation,
In every corner called our country,
Our people, diverse and beautiful,
Will emerge battered and beautiful.
When day comes we step out of the shade,
Aflame and unafraid.
The new dawn blooms as we free it.
For there is always light if only we’re brave enough to see it,
If only we’re brave enough to be it.
