「Caged Bird」|籠中鳥

  

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou

Hello, this is ACNN Literary and Unliterary Works (English version) section. We will be sharing our favorite works, explaining it, defining it, and analyzing it with you guys. Today’s topic is the poem 『 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings』 by Maya Angelou.  In this article, I will mostly show my understanding on the poem, if there are any suggestions or questions, feel free to comment down bellow. 

您好，這是ACNN文學與非文學作品（英文版）部分。我們將與大家分享我們最喜歡的作品，對其進行解釋，定義和分析。今天的主題是瑪雅·安傑盧（Maya Angelou）的詩《我知道籠中的鳥為何歌唱》。在本文中，我將主要展示我對這首詩的理解，如果有任何建議或問題，請隨時在下面發表評論。

*This kind of music will enhance your memory and focus.

*這種音樂將增強您的記憶力和專注力。

Citation for picture (MLA7)

Shubhani. "Poem Recommendation!" L.E.O. Shubhani, 08 Oct. 2019. Web.

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou

The free bird leaps

on the back of the wind

and floats downstream

till the current ends

and dips his wings

in the orange sun rays

and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks

down his narrow cage

can seldom see through

his bars of rage

his wings are clipped and

his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings

with fearful trill

of the things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill 

for the caged bird

sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze

and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees

and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn

and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams

his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream

his wings are clipped and his feet are tied

so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings

with a fearful trill

of things unknown

but longed for still

and his tune is heard

on the distant hill

for the caged bird

sings of freedom. 

我知道籠中鳥為什麼唱歌

瑪雅·安傑盧（Maya Angelou）

一隻自由的鳥跳躍

跳到風的背上

又向下遊漂浮

直到水流的源頭

橘色的陽光渲染著翅膀

並敢於宣稱天空

另外一隻鳥走進他狹小的籠子

憤怒且看不清鐵欄外面的世界

他的羽翅被剪斷

雙腳被束縛

它只能敞開喉嚨歌唱

籠子裡的小鳥用聳然的顫音

仍然渴望著那未知的世界

歌聲傳到遙遠的山頂

籠裡的小鳥

唱著那自由之歌

自由的小鳥想起另一陣微風

柔軟的風嘆息著穿過的樹叢

肥胖的蟲子守在黎明時明媚的草坪

他用自己的名字命名天空。

但那囚籠裡的鳥站在夢想的墳頭

他的影子發出噩夢樣的尖叫

他的羽翅被剪斷

雙腳被束縛

它只能敞開喉嚨歌唱

籠子裡的小鳥用聳然的顫音

仍然渴望著那未知的世界

歌聲傳到遙遠的山頂

自由的小鳥在遙遠的山上

為那籠裡的鳥

唱著那自由之歌。

This is a poem written by famous African American author, Maya Angelou. Her works are usually about feminism and equity between races, this is one of her most famous works about promoting equity among races. 

There are two main characters in the poem, the caged bird, and the free bird. The caged bird describes people with darker skin color while the free bird describes people with white colored skin. She tells a story evolving around these two kinds of birds, and compares how they are treated. 

During the first verse, she imagines the life of the free bird, and illustrates a beautiful picture of the free bird dipping his wings in the orange sun rays. Then she switches the main character to the caged bird in order to shock the audience using the large contrast between the two birds. She ends the second verse using 「his wings are clipped, and his feet are tied,so he opens his throat to sing.」. This infers that the bird’s mortal body is unable to escape, so he can only sing his soul’s desires. Then leading to the third verse she explains what his desires are, or what he is singing about. After that she creates contrast again by bringing back the free bird in the fourth verse to describe his dreams and daily life. She creates her final contrast in the fifth verse that carries on the idea of the last verse ( she didn’t loose her connection), which is dreams, then does a recap to the end of the second verse, and ends by emphasizing how the bird longs of freedom by repeating the third verse.

 I have chosen this poem because it is a great example for creating comparisons, tension, and illustrating pictures (in the audiences』 heads). It is also a lovely poem to read through on a weekend, I appreciate how she has handled this heavy topic and all of the writing techniques. 

In real life, most of us are like the caged bird. There is always an invisible cage surrounding us, there are different cages like sexuality, racism, and etc. , but one similarity in all of the cages is they all restrain our freedom. How can you achieve freedom? Liberty of mind? Liberty of body? The definition of freedom is up to you. 

這是一首由黑人女性作家瑪雅·安傑盧（Maya Angelou）創作的詩歌。她的作品通常是關於女權主義及種族之間人人平等的關係，這首詩是她最著名的的作品之一。

詩中有兩個主角，籠中鳥和自由鳥。關在籠中的鳥代表了膚色較黑的人，而自由鳥代表了皮膚呈白色的人。她的詩歌通過表達這兩種鳥（人）的處境反映了社會對待不同種族的態度與不公。

在第一段中表現她想像了自由鳥的生活，描繪了自由的鳥將翅膀浸入橙色陽光的景象歡樂景象。之後，她把視角轉向籠中鳥，她通過描述兩隻鳥之間的巨大反差來給觀眾帶來震撼的感官效果。第二段的結尾處的"它的羽翅被剪斷，雙腳被束縛它只能敞開喉嚨歌唱。"這說明籠中鳥的肉體無法逃脫囚籠，因此它只得用歌聲唱出它對的自由的渴望。接著引向第三段，瑪雅·安傑盧解釋了籠中鳥對自由的渴望。之後，她在第四段中再次引入自由鳥，通過描述自由鳥像夢一般的生活與籠中鳥再次形成對比。她在第五段用了對比的寫作技巧，該段與最後一段的想法相呼應（銜接得很好）。最後詩人是再次重複第三段強調主題，首尾呼應。

 我選擇這首詩的原因是因為它的語言技巧的非常巧妙。是一篇閒讀的好詩，我很欣賞詩人處理種族平等這個話題的方式。

在現實生活中，我們大多數人都像籠中的鳥。我們周圍總有一個隱形的籠子，我們同時被困在無數的籠子裡無助的掙扎卻又心懷希望。這個世界上限制我們的籠子很多很多。比如種族主義，性別歧視等。但所有籠子的相似之處是它們限制了我們的自由。但如何突破籠子翱翔於天際實現自由（思想自由？肉體自由？） ，這就要取決於你的選擇以及你對自由的定義。

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Quiz:

Q1:

Maya Angelou usually writes poems about?

feminism and equity between races

feminism and equity between the poor and the rich

feminine clothing and equipment for races

feminine touches to your living room

Q2:

This is for yourself, have you ever felt that you were treated unequally? (Think about it in your head or comment down bellow)

Q3:

(Same requirements as Q2) What would you do under the circumstances of Q2?

Q4:

(Same requirements as Q2) Do you think the way Maya Angelou responded to inequality was right? Why?

測試：

Q1：

瑪雅·安傑盧通常會寫詩是關於什麼？

A.女權主義和種族之間的平等

B.貧富之間的差距和女權主義

C.女性服裝和設備的攀比

D.女性化的客廳裝飾

Q2：

您是否曾經感到過自己受到過不平等的待遇？（認真想一想，可以在評論區留言）

Ｑ2：

（與Ｑ2相同的要求）在和第二個問題相同的情況下，您會怎麼做？

Q4：

（與Ｑ2相同的要求）您認為Maya Angelou對待種族歧視的方式是否正確？為什麼？