諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第5章Part 2

"Yes, sir."
He looked at her again and nodded toward a rock that stuck out of the ground above him like abottom lip. Sethe walked to it and sat down. The stone had eaten the sun's rays but was nowherenear as hot as she was. Too tired to move, she stayed there, the sun in her eyes making her t poured over her and bathed the baby completely. She must have slept sitting up, becausewhen next she opened her eyes the man was standing in front of her with a smoking-hot piece offried eel in his hands. It was an effort to reach for, more to smell, impossible to eat. She beggedhim for water and he gave her some of the Ohio in a jar. Sethe drank it all and begged more. Theclanging was back in her head but she refused to believe that she had come all that way, enduredall she had, to die on the wrong side of the river.
The man watched her streaming face and called one of the boys over.
"Take off that coat," he told him.
"Sir?"
"You heard me."
The boy slipped out of his jacket, whining, "What you gonna do? What I'm gonna wear?"
The man untied the baby from her chest and wrapped it in the boy's coat, knotting the sleeves infront.
"What I'm gonna wear?"
The old man sighed and, after a pause, said, "You want it back, then go head and take it off thatbaby. Put the baby naked in the grass and put your coat back on. And if you can do it, then go on'way somewhere and don't come back."

“有，先生。”
他又看了她一眼，用下巴指了指他上面一塊像下嘴脣一樣凸起的石頭。塞絲走過去坐下。石頭吸足了陽光，可是再怎麼燙也比不上她。她疲憊不堪，就待在那裏，照進眼睛的陽光讓她頭暈目眩。汗水在她身上嘩嘩流淌，徹底浸溼了嬰兒。她肯定是坐着坐着就睡着了，因爲她再睜開眼的時候，那個男人站在她面前，手裏已經拿了一塊熱騰騰的炸鱔魚。她費了好大力氣才伸手接住，又費了更大力氣才聞出味道，至於吃，那是不可能的。她向他討水喝，他給了她一罐子俄亥俄河水。塞絲一飲而盡，再討。鏗鏘聲就在她的腦後，但她拒絕相信，自己走了那麼遠的路，受了那麼多的罪，只是爲了死在錯誤的那一岸。
男人看着她汗涔涔的臉，把一個男孩叫過來。
“把外套脫下來。”他對他說。
“先生？”
“你聽見了。”
那個男孩脫下外衣，抱怨着：“你想幹什麼呀？我穿什麼呀？”
男人把嬰兒從她胸前解下來，包在男孩的外套裏，用袖子在前面打了個結。
“我穿什麼呀？”
男人嘆了口氣，頓了一下，說：“你想要回來的話，就去把它從娃娃身上扒下來。把那個娃娃光着身子擱在草裏，再穿上你的衣裳。要是你幹得出來，那就走開，別再回來。”