Barack Obama, while a student of Harvard Law School |
Ex-girlfriends of President Barack Obama have spoken for the first time of his "sexual warmth" and disclosed the contents of love letters that he sent during his 20s, in a new biography. Genevieve Cook and Alex McNear, who had relationships with Mr Obama in New York in the early 1980s, gave previously unseen material on Mr Obama to David Maraniss, a Pulitzer prize-winning author. Letters Mr Obama sent to Ms McNear and journal entries by Ms Cook depict a serious and earnest young man struggling to come to terms with his racial identity and place in modern American society. In one diary entry from February 1984, Ms Cook – a girlfriend for more than a year – noted that in their relationship "the sexual warmth is definitely there – but the rest of it has sharp edges". She recalled "feeling anger" at Mr Obama, whose "warmth can be deceptive". Foreshadowing a criticism often levelled at him today, she said: "Though he speaks sweet words there is also that coolness". Ms Cook remembered meeting "Barry" at a Christmas party in 1983. After drinking Bailey's Irish Cream from the bottle, she chatted with him on an orange beanbag, before exchanging telephone numbers. Her journal recalls a 22-year-old man in "a comfy T-shirt depicting buxom women", marked by the smells of "running sweat, Brut spray deodorant, smoking, eating raisins, sleeping, breathing". Ms Cook “engaged [Mr Obama] in the deepest romantic relationship of his young life,” Maraniss writes, but they separated in 1985. Reflecting on the “emotional scarring” that made him hard to get close to, she wrote at the time: “I guess I hoped time would change things, and he’d let go and 'fall in love’ with me”. Her journal entries described a long effort to understand Mr Obama that eventually failed when they broke up. “How is he so old already, at the age of 22?” she wrote. “I have to recognise (despite play of wry and mocking smile on lips) that I find his thereness very threatening.” In another entry, she wrote: “Barack — still intrigues me, but so much going on beneath the surface, out of reach. Guarded, controlled.” She said she thought he was “balancing the tendency to be always the observer” with “how to effect change.” The two broke up in 1985. (Read by Nelly Min. Nelly Min is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
奧巴馬總統(tǒng)的前女友們首次談及奧巴馬的“性愛熱度”,并在一本新傳記中透露了奧巴馬二十幾歲時(shí)寫的情書的內(nèi)容。 吉納維芙?庫克和艾利克斯?麥克尼爾曾于20世紀(jì)80年代早期在紐約與奧巴馬有過戀情,她們將此前未公開的關(guān)于奧巴馬的資料交給了普利策獎(jiǎng)獲得者戴維?馬蘭尼斯。 奧巴馬寫給麥克尼爾的情書和庫克寫的日記描述了一個(gè)認(rèn)真誠摯的年輕人,努力適應(yīng)自己的種族身份和在現(xiàn)代美國社會(huì)中的位置。 在一篇1984年2月的日記中,庫克——她和奧巴馬交往了一年多——寫道,他們的交往中“確定無疑地有性愛熱情,然而除此之外則處處是棱角”。 她回憶說,對奧巴馬“感到憤怒”,覺得他的“熱情可能是裝出來的”。 她寫道:“盡管他會(huì)講甜言蜜語,但依然可以感覺到他的冷漠?!边@段帶有預(yù)兆性的評論也是奧巴馬現(xiàn)在經(jīng)常受到的批評之一。 庫克回憶道,她是1983年在一個(gè)圣誕節(jié)聚會(huì)上遇到“巴里”(奧巴馬昵稱)的。在喝下瓶中的百利愛爾蘭奶油酒后,她坐在一個(gè)桔紅色的豆袋椅上和他聊天,之后就互相交換了電話號碼。 她的日志中寫道,當(dāng)時(shí)這位22歲的年輕人“穿著一件舒適的T恤,就像個(gè)體態(tài)豐滿的婦女”,身上散發(fā)出“汗液、Brut牌除臭噴霧、抽煙、吃葡萄干、睡覺、呼吸”的味道。 馬蘭尼斯寫道,庫克女士“曾讓奧巴馬陷入青年時(shí)期最深刻的戀情中”,但他倆于1985年分手。當(dāng)時(shí)在反思讓她難以親近奧巴馬的“感情致命傷”時(shí),她寫道:“我想我那時(shí)是希望時(shí)間會(huì)改變一些事情,他會(huì)放開心結(jié),與我‘墜入愛河’?!?/p> 她的日記描述自己花了很長時(shí)間努力去理解奧巴馬,但最終兩人還是分手了,她所做的努力也歸于失敗。 她寫道:“他才22歲,怎么就已然如此老成呢?我看見他的嘴角時(shí)不時(shí)會(huì)浮現(xiàn)出一絲嘲弄的苦笑,這讓我發(fā)覺他的心總是在別處,這個(gè)問題很嚴(yán)重?!?/p> 在另一篇日記中,她寫道:“貝拉克依然讓我著迷,但他的表面下隱藏著太多無法觸及的東西。極其謹(jǐn)慎和克制?!彼谌沼浿姓f,她以為他是在平衡“觀察者的傾向”和“如何做出改變” 之間的關(guān)系。兩人于1985年分手。 相關(guān)閱讀 奧巴馬抱怨當(dāng)總統(tǒng)沒隱私 懷念平民生活 (中國日報(bào)網(wǎng)英語點(diǎn)津 陳丹妮 編輯:Julie) |
Vocabulary: come to terms with: 甘心忍受(不愉快的處境);妥協(xié),習(xí)慣于 foreshadow: 預(yù)示;成為……的前兆 buxom: 體態(tài)豐滿的 thereness: 旁在性 |