“活着的传奇”：美国作家贝佛莉·克利林

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

今天是著作等身、享有盛名的美国作家贝佛莉·克利林(Beverly Cleary)的102岁诞辰。

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.

她创作的童书已翻译成多国语言，在全球销售了数千万册。2000年，国会图书馆(Library of Congress)宣布她是一位“活着的传奇”。

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

她的生日在美国被作为了一个节日：全国D.E.A.R.日(英文字母缩写代表着：Drop Everything and Read——放下一切去阅读)。

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.

但根据她的官方传记，她小时候曾有阅读困难。她在俄勒冈州一个小到没有图书馆的小镇长大，当她家搬到大城市波特兰时，她的阅读能力落后于同龄人。

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

波特兰的图书馆让她迅速追上了其他人。事实上，她学校的图书管理员建议她尝试写作。

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.

她喜欢这个建议，但没有找到自己想读的故事类型来作为样本：关于她认识的那类孩子的有趣故事。几年后，在自己担任图书管理员后，她改变了这种情况。

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.

她的第一本书《亨利·哈金斯》(Henry Huggins，1950)创造出了一群属于这个时代的人物，亨利(Henry)、雷蒙娜·奎因(Ramona Quimby)和虚构的Klickitat街的其他居民。她用一种幽默的风格对日常问题加以戏剧化，不带一丝屈尊俯就。

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

她现在居住在北加州，并在她的100岁生日时做了这个精彩的采访。