諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第3章Part 7

As small girl Sethe, she was unimpressed. As grownup woman Sethe she was angry, but not certainat what. A mighty wish for Baby Suggs broke over her like surf. In the quiet following its splash,Sethe looked at the two girls sitting by the stove: her sickly, shallowminded boarder, her irritable,lonely daughter. They seemed little and far away.
"Paul D be here in a minute," she said.
Denver sighed with relief. For a minute there, while her mother stood folding the wash lost inthought, she clamped her teeth and prayed it would stop. Denver hated the stories her mother toldthat did not concern herself, which is why Amy was all she ever asked about. The rest was agleaming, powerful world made more so by Denver's absence from it. Not being in it, she hated itand wanted Beloved to hate it too, although there was no chance of that at all. Beloved took everyopportunity to ask some funny question and get Sethe going. Denver noticed how greedy she wasto hear Sethe talk. Now she noticed something more. The questions Beloved asked: "Where yourdiamonds?" "Your woman she never fix up your hair?" And most perplexing: Tell me yourearrings.
How did she know?
WAS shining and Paul D didn't like it. Women did what strawberry plants did before they shot outtheir thin vines: the quality of the green changed. Then the vine threads came, then the buds. Bythe time the white petals died and the mintcolored berry poked out, the leaf shine was gilded fightand waxy. That's how Beloved looked — gilded and shining. Paul D took to having Sethe onwaking, so that later, when he went down the white stairs where she made bread under Beloved'sgaze, his head was clear.

作爲小姑娘塞絲，她並沒有什麼感覺。作爲成年女子塞絲，她感到憤怒，卻說不清楚爲了什麼。貝比·薩格斯的強烈願望彷彿海浪衝擊着她。浪過之後的寂靜中，塞絲看着坐在爐邊的兩個姑娘：她的有病的、思想膚淺的寄宿者，她的煩躁、孤獨的女兒。她們看起來又小又遠。
“保羅·D一會兒就回來了。”她說。
丹芙長長地舒了一口氣。剛纔，她媽媽站在那裏出神地疊牀單的時候，她咬緊牙關，祈盼着故事早點結束。丹芙討厭她媽媽老講那些與她無關的故事，因此她只問起愛彌。除此以外的世界是輝煌而強大的，沒有了丹芙倒更是如此。她因自己不在其中而討厭它，也想讓寵兒討厭它，儘管沒有絲毫的可能。寵兒尋找一切可乘之機來問可笑的問題，讓塞絲開講。丹芙注意到了她是多麼貪婪地想聽塞絲說話。現在她又注意到了新的情況。是寵兒的問題：“你的鑽石在哪兒？”“你的女人她從來不給你梳頭嗎？”而最令人困惑的是：給我講講你的耳環。
她是怎麼知道的？
寵兒光彩照人，可保羅·D並不喜歡。女人開始成長時，活像抽芽前的草莓類植物：先是綠色的質地漸漸地發生變化，然後藤蘿的細絲長出，再往後是花骨朵。等到白色的花瓣凋零，薄荷色的莓子鑽出，葉片的光輝就有了鍍金的緻密和蠟制的潤澤。那就是寵兒的模樣———周身鑲金，光彩照人。保羅·D開始在醒來後與塞絲做愛，這樣，過一會兒，當他走下白樓梯，看見她在寵兒的凝視下做麪包時，他的頭腦會是清晰的。