1、.The Shadowland of Dreams夢想的陰暗之面Many people cherish the fond dream of becoming a writer but not many are able to see their dream come true. Alex Haley also wanted to be a writer and he succeeded. Read the following for reasons of his success.許多人懷有美好的愿望， 期望能成為作家， 但是能夠夢想成真的人不多。艾力克斯 ? 哈利也想成為作家，可是他成功了。閱

2、讀下面這篇文章，看一看他成功的原因。Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I alwaysencourage such people,but I also explain that there'sa big differencebetween "beinga writer"and writing.In most cases these individualsare dreamingof wealth and fame, notthe long hoursalone at a typewriter.

3、 "You've got to want to write," I say to them, "not want to be a writer."許多青年人對我說，他們想成為作家。我一直鼓勵這樣的人，但是我也向他們解釋“成為作家”和寫作之間存在著巨大的差別。多數情況下這些年輕人夢寐以求的是財富與名譽，從未想到要孤身一人長久地坐在打字機旁。“你們渴望的應該是寫作，”我對他們說， “而不應該是當作家。”The realityis that writing is alonely, private and poor-payingaffair. For e

4、verywriter kissed by fortune therearethousandsmore whose longingisnever requited.Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did.事實上， 寫作是一項孤單寂寞而又收入微薄的工作。有一個被命運之神垂青的作家，就有成千上萬個永遠無法實現夢想的人。即使那些成功人士也經常受到長久的冷落，窮困不堪。 我便是其中之一。When I lefta 20-year-careerintheCoast Guard tobecome

5、a freelancewriter,I hadno prospects at all. What I did have was a friend in New York City, George Sims,with whom I'd grown up in Henning, Tenn. George found me my home, a cleaned-outstorage room in the Greenwich Village apartment building where he worked assuperintendent. It didn't even matt

6、er that it was cold and had no bathroom. Iimmediately bought a used manual typewriter and felt like a genuine writer.我放棄了在海岸警衛隊做了二十年的工作，為的是成為一名自由撰稿人，這時，我根本沒有前途可言。 我所擁有的只是一位住在紐約市的朋友，喬治 ? 西姆斯， 他和我是在田納西州的赫寧一起長大的。 喬治為我找了個家，位于格林威治村公寓大樓中的一間騰空的儲藏室，而他是那幢大樓的管理員。 房子里冷嗖嗖的，沒有衛生間，不過這沒什么。我馬上買了一臺舊的手動打字機，感覺自己頗象一位名符

7、其實的作家。After a year or so,however, I stillhadn'tgotten a break and began to doubt myself.It was so hard to sell a storythatI barelymade enough toeat.ButI knew Iwantedto write.I had dreamed aboutitforyears.I wasn'tgoingto be one of thosepeoplewho die wondering,What if? Iwouldkeep putting my dr

8、eam to the test eventhoughit meant living withuncertaintyand fearof failure.This is theShadowland of hope,and anyone with a dream must learn to live there.然而， 大約一年后， 我的寫作生涯依然沒有任何起色，我開始懷疑自己。賣出一篇小說是如此艱難，以至我幾乎填不飽肚子。但是，我清楚的是我想寫作，我已夢寐以求了許多年。我并不準備成為一名到死時還在想假如的人。 我會堅持把我的夢想付諸實踐 - 即使這夢想意味著不穩定的生活和對失敗的恐懼。 這是希望

9、的陰暗面， 任何心存夢想的人都必須學會在這陰暗面下生存。1 / 4.Then one day I got a call thatchanged my life. It wasn't an agent or editorofferinga big contract. It was the opposite a kind of siren call tempting me to give upmy dream. On the phone was an old acquaintance from the Coast Guard, now stationedin San Francisco.

10、He had once lent me a few bucks and liked to egg me aboutit. "Whenam I going to get that $15, Alex?" he teased.后來有一天， 我接到了一個電話， 由此改變了我的一生。這并不是一位代理人或編輯打來電話，主動要求與我簽大的稿約。恰恰相反 - 是一聲鳴笛，誘使我放棄夢想。打電話來的是海岸警衛隊的老熟人，現在在舊金山。他曾經借給我幾美元，喜歡催我還給他。“我什么時候才能拿到那十五美元，艾力克斯？”他逗我說。"Next time I make a sale.&quo

11、t;“等我下一次賣出作品吧。”"I have a better idea," he said. "We need a new public-information assistant out here, and we're paying $6 000 a year. If you want it, you can have it."“我有個好主意，”他說，“我們這兒需要一位新的公共信息管理員，年薪六千美元。 若想干，那就是你的了。”Six thousand a year! That was real money in 1960. I could

12、get a nice apartment, aused car, pay off debts and maybe save a littlesomething.What's more, Icould writeon the side.年薪六千美元！ 這個數目在 1960年可真是值錢啊。 我可以有一套上好的公寓，一輛二手車，可以還清債務，也許還可有些結余。另外，我還可以業余寫作。As the dollars were dancing inmy head, somethingcleared my senses. From deep insidea bull-headed resolutio

13、n welled up. I had dreamed of being a writer full time.And that's what I was going tobe."Thanks, but no," I heardmyself saying."I'mgoingto stick it out and write."當這些美元在我的腦海里晃動時，某種東西卻使我神志清醒起來。我的內心深處升起一個堅強的信念。 我曾經夢想成為一名作家-一名專業作家。 那才是我的追求。 “謝謝你， 但是我不去，”我聽見自己在說。“我會堅持到底來寫作。”A

14、fterward, as I paced around my littleroom, Istarted tofeellike a fool. Reachinginto my cupboard an orange crate nailed to the wall I pulled out all that wasthere: two cans of sardines. Plunging my hands into my pockets, I came up with 18cents. I took the cans and coins and jammed them into a crumple

15、d paper bag. There,Alex, I said to myself. There's everything you've made of yourself so far. I'm notsure I've ever felt so low.后來， 我在蝸居里踱來踱， 開始覺得自己象個傻瓜。我打開櫥柜 -一只釘在墻上的桔黃色板條箱 - 把里面的東西全部弄了出來：兩罐沙丁魚。我把手伸進口袋，只摸出十八美分。我把罐頭和硬幣一起塞進一個皺巴巴的紙袋中。你看，艾力克斯，我自言自語道， 你迄今為止努力的結果都在這里。我不知道，自己是不是曾經情緒如此低落過。I

16、 wish I could say things startedgetting betterright away. But they didn't.Thankgoodness I had George to help me over the rough spots.我希望自己能說， 情況馬上開始好轉。但是并沒有。 感謝上帝， 幸虧有喬治幫我渡過了難關。Through him I met otherstrugglingartistslikeJoe Delaney,a veteranpainterfromKnoxville,Tenn.Often Joe lackedfood money,

17、so he'dvisita neighborhoodbutcherwho would give him big bones with morsels of meat and a grocer who would hand him2 / 4.some wilted vegetables. That's all Joe needed to make down-home soup.通過喬治， 我結識了另外一些正在艱苦奮斗的藝術家，象喬 ? 德拉尼， 一位來自田納西州科諾科斯威爾市的老畫家。喬經常常沒吃飯的錢，于是就去光顧附近社區的一位屠戶和一個食品商。屠戶會送給他一些帶點肉的大骨頭，

18、從食品商那里他可以弄到一些枯萎的蔬菜。喬做南方燉湯需要的就是這些。AnotherVillageneighborwas a handsome young singerwho ran a strugglingrestaurant.Rumor had itthatifa customerorderedsteakthe singerwould dash to a supermarketacross the street to buy one. His name was Harry Belafonte.村里另一位鄰居是個年少英俊的歌手，他慘淡經營著一家餐館。據說，如果有客人點牛排，這位歌手會火速沖到街對

19、面的超市買一個。他的名字是哈利? 百拉芬特。People likeDelaney and Belafontebecame rolemodels forme. I learnedthatyou hadto make sacrifices and live creatively to keep working at your dream. That's whatliving in the Shadowland is all about.德拉尼和百拉芬特這樣的人都成了我筆下角色的原型。我懂得了，若要一直奮斗實現夢想，就得作出犧牲，創造性地生活。那就是生活在陰影里面的含義所在。As I abs

20、orbed the lesson, I gradually began to sell my articles. I was writing about what many people were talking about then: civil rights, black Americans and Africa.Soon, like birds flying south, my thoughts were drawn back to my childhood. In the silence of my room, I heard the voices of Grandma, Cousin

21、 Georgia, Aunt Plus, Aunt Liz and Aunt Till as they told stories about our family and slavery.在認識到這一點的同時，我逐漸開始賣出我的文章。我寫的都是當時人們經常談論的話題：人權、 美國黑人和非洲。 不久， 我的思緒象鳥兒南飛一樣回到了我的童年時光。在靜寂的房間里，我仿佛聽見了祖母、喬治亞堂兄、普魯斯姑媽、利茲姑媽和提爾姑媽的聲音，聽見他們在娓娓而談我們的家族和奴隸制的故事。These were storiesthat blackAmericans had tended to avoid before

22、, and so I mostlykept them to myself. But one day at lunch with editors of Reader's Digest I toldthese stories of my grandmotherand auntsand cousins; and I saidthat I had a dreamto trace my family'shistoryto the firstAfrican brought to theseshores in chains.I left that lunch with a contract

23、that would help support my research and writingfor nine years.這些故事是美國黑人以前盡量回避的，因此多數時候我并不對外人說。 但是有一天， 在與讀者文摘的編輯們共進午餐時，我講起了我的祖母、姑媽與堂兄們的那些故事，我還告訴他們，我夢想追溯我的家族史，一直追溯到第一批戴著手鐐腳銬被運到美國海岸的非洲黑人。午餐結束離開時，我手中多了一張足以供我從事研究和寫作長達九年的合同。It was a long, slow climb out of the shadows. Yet in 1976, 17 years after I leftthe

24、 Coast Guard, Roots was published. Instantly I had the kind of fame and success that few writers ever experience. The shadows had turned into dazzling limelight.那是為擺脫陰影進行的一次漫長而緩慢的攀登。然而， 1976 年，也就是我離開海岸警衛隊十七年后， 根出版了。立刻我擁有了那種唯有少數作家有幸體驗的名望與成功。陰影此時已變成了令人眼花燎亂的聚光燈。For the first time I had money and open d

25、oors everywhere. The phone rang all the time with new friends and new deals. I packed up and moved to Los Angeles, where I could help in the making of the Roots TV mini-series. It was a confusing, exhilarating time, and in a sense I was blinded by the light of my success.3 / 4.有生以來第一次我是如此富有，第一次享受到處處

26、受歡迎的禮遇。電話鈴響個不停，帶來了新朋新友，新交易。我收拾行裝，搬到了洛杉磯。在那兒我可以協助制作根的電視 短篇系列片。 那是一段令人困惑， 又令人欣喜若狂的時期； 從某種意義上說， 我被成功的光芒照花了眼。Then one day, while unpacking, I came across a box filled with things I had ownedyears before in the Village. Inside was a brown paper bag.后來有一天， 在打開包著的東西時，我偶然發現了一個盒子，里面裝著我數年前在格林威治村的全部家當，其中有一個棕色紙袋。I opened it, and there were two corroded sardine cans, a nickel, a dime and threepennies. Suddenly the past camefloodingin like a riptide. Icould picture myselfonce again huddledover the typewriterin thatcold,bleak,one-room apartment.AndI said to my self, The things