諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第4章Part 7

Sethe was looking at one mile of dark water, which would have to be split with one oar in a uselessboat against a current dedicated to the Mississippi hundreds of miles away. It looked like home toher, and the baby (not dead in the least) must have thought so too. As soon as Sethe got close to theriver her own water broke loose to join it. The break, followed by the redundant announcement oflabor, arched her back.
"What you doing that for?" asked Amy. "Ain't you got a brain in your head? Stop that right now. Isaid stop it, Lu. You the dumbest thing on this here earth. Lu! Lu!"
Sethe couldn't think of anywhere to go but in. She waited for the sweet beat that followed the blastof pain. On her knees again, she crawled into the boat. It waddled under her and she had justenough time to brace her leaf-bag feet on the bench when another rip took her breath ing under four summer stars, she threw her legs over the sides, because here come the head, asAmy informed her as though she did not know it — as though the rip was a breakup of walnut logsin the brace, or of lightning's jagged tear through a leather sky.
It was stuck. Face up and drowning in its mother's blood. Amy stopped begging Jesus and began tocurse His daddy.
"Push!" screamed Amy.
"Pull," whispered Sethe.
And the strong hands went to work a fourth time, none too soon, for river water, seeping throughany hole it chose, was spreading over Sethe's hips. She reached one arm back and grabbed the ropewhile Amy fairly clawed at the head. When a foot rose from the river bed and kicked the bottom ofthe boat and Sethe's behind, she knew it was done and permitted herself a short faint. Coming to,she heard no cries, just Amy's encouraging coos. Nothing happened for so long they both believedthey had lost it. Sethe arched suddenly and the afterbirth shot out. Then the baby whimpered andSethe looked. Twenty inches of cord hung from its belly and it trembled in the cooling evening air. Amy wrapped her skirt around it and the wet sticky women clambered ashore to see what, indeed,God had in mind.
Spores of bluefern growing in the hollows along the riverbank float toward the water in silver-bluelines hard to see unless you are in or near them, lying right at the river's edge when the sunshotsare low and drained. Often they are mistook for insects — but they are seeds in which the wholegeneration sleeps confident of a future. And for a moment it is easy to believe each one has one —will become all of what is contained in the spore: will live out its days as planned. This moment ofcertainty lasts no longer than that; longer, perhaps, than the spore itself.

塞絲正望着一段幽暗的河水，那朝着數百英里外的密西西比河奔涌而去的河水，註定要被一條逆流而上的廢棄小船的船槳劃開了。小船在她看來像個家，那嬰兒（根本沒死）也一定這麼想。一走近這條河，塞絲自己的羊水就涌出來與河水匯聚。先是掙裂，然後是多餘的生產的信號，讓她弓起了腰。
“你在那兒幹什麼呢？”愛彌問道，“你還有腦子沒有？趕緊停下來。我說快停下來，露。你是這世界上最蠢的東西。露!露!”
塞絲想不出什麼地方好去，只想上船。她等待着陣痛後甜蜜的悸動。再次用膝蓋爬行，她爬上了小船。船在她身下晃動，她剛把裹着樹葉口袋的腳放到長凳上，就被另一陣撕裂的疼痛逼得喘不過氣來。在夏日的四顆星星下面，她氣喘吁吁地大叉開雙腿，因爲腦袋鑽了出來；愛彌趕緊向她報告，好像她自己不知道似的———好像撕裂就是折斷核桃樹幹，就是閃電將皮革的天空一撕兩半。
嬰兒卡住了。它臉朝上，讓媽媽的血淹沒了。愛彌停止祈求耶穌，開始詛咒耶穌他爹。
“使勁!”愛彌尖叫道。
“拽呀。”塞絲低聲說。
那雙有力的手第四次發揮威力了，但不是立竿見影，因爲河水從所有窟窿裏鑽進來，漫過了塞絲的屁股。塞絲的一隻手伸到背後，一把抓住船纜，同時愛彌輕輕地鉗住了腦袋。當河牀裏露出一隻小腳，踢着船底和塞絲的屁股時，塞絲知道完事了，就允許自己昏迷了一會兒。醒過來後，她沒聽見哭聲，只聽見愛彌在“咕咕”地逗弄那孩子。這麼長時間沒有動靜，她們兩個都覺得，她們已失去了她。塞絲突然弓起身子，胎盤胎膜一齊流出體外。然後嬰兒哭了起來。塞絲望着她。掛在她肚子上的臍帶有二十英寸長；那小傢伙在涼爽的夜風中顫抖着。愛彌用裙子包住她。溼漉漉、黏糊糊的兩個女人艱難地爬上岸，去看看上帝到底是怎麼想的。
藍羊齒的孢子在河岸的凹地裏生長，它們漂向河水的銀藍色行列是很難見到的，除非你就在凹地裏，或是離得很近，當夕陽西下、光線漸疏時恰好躺在河岸的邊緣。它們往往被誤認作小飛蟲———然而它們是正在沉睡的整整一代對未來充滿信心的種子。而片刻之間人們又很容易相信，每粒種子都擁有一個未來———都會成爲孢子中所孕育的一切：像預期的那樣安享天年。這確信的一刻不過持續了片刻；也許，倒比孢子本身更爲長久。