“活著的傳奇”：美國(guó)作家貝佛莉·克利林

Today is the 102nd birthday of Beverly Cleary, the prolific and celebrated American author.

今天是著作等身、享有盛名的美國(guó)作家貝佛莉·克利林(Beverly Cleary)的102歲誕辰。

Her children’s books have been translated into many languages and have sold tens of millions of copies around the world. She was declared a “Living Legend” by the Library of Congress in 2000.

她創(chuàng)作的童書已翻譯成多國(guó)語言，在全球銷售了數(shù)千萬冊(cè)。2000年，國(guó)會(huì)圖書館(Library of Congress)宣布她是一位“活著的傳奇”。

Her birthday is honored in the U.S. as National D.E.A.R. Day (Drop Everything and Read).

她的生日在美國(guó)被作為了一個(gè)節(jié)日：全國(guó)D.E.A.R.日(英文字母縮寫代表著：Drop Everything and Read——放下一切去閱讀)。

But she struggled with reading as a child, according to her official biography. She grew up in an Oregon town so small it lacked a library, and when her family moved to the much larger city of Portland, her reading skills were lagging.

但根據(jù)她的官方傳記，她小時(shí)候曾有閱讀困難。她在俄勒岡州一個(gè)小到?jīng)]有圖書館的小鎮(zhèn)長(zhǎng)大，當(dāng)她家搬到大城市波特蘭時(shí)，她的閱讀能力落后于同齡人。

Portland’s libraries allowed her to quickly catch up. In fact, her school librarian suggested she start writing herself.

波特蘭的圖書館讓她迅速追上了其他人。事實(shí)上，她學(xué)校的圖書管理員建議她嘗試寫作。

She liked the idea, but found no model for the types of stories she wanted to read: funny tales about the sort of children she knew. Years later, after working as a librarian herself, she changed that.

她喜歡這個(gè)建議，但沒有找到自己想讀的故事類型來作為樣本：關(guān)于她認(rèn)識(shí)的那類孩子的有趣故事。幾年后，在自己擔(dān)任圖書管理員后，她改變了這種情況。

Her first book, “Henry Huggins” (1950) introduced contemporary characters like Henry, Ramona Quimby and other residents of the fictional Klickitat Street. She dramatized everyday problems in a humorous style, without condescension.

她的第一本書《亨利·哈金斯》(Henry Huggins，1950)創(chuàng)造出了一群屬于這個(gè)時(shí)代的人物，亨利(Henry)、雷蒙娜·奎因(Ramona Quimby)和虛構(gòu)的Klickitat街的其他居民。她用一種幽默的風(fēng)格對(duì)日常問題加以戲劇化，不帶一絲屈尊俯就。

She lives in Northern California, and gave this zinging interview for her 100th birthday.

她現(xiàn)在居住在北加州，并在她的100歲生日時(shí)做了這個(gè)精彩的采訪。