諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 28

Sethe nodded and shifted her elbow. "Your ma'am know you on the lookout for velvet?"The girl shook her hair out of her face. "My mama worked for these here people to pay for herpassage. But then she had me and since she died right after, well, they said I had to work for em topay it off. I did, but now I want me some velvet."They did not look directly at each other, not straight into the eyes anyway. Yet they slippedeffortlessly into yard chat about nothing in particular — except one lay on the ground.
"Boston," said Sethe. "Is that far?""Ooooh, yeah. A hundred miles. Maybe more.""Must be velvet closer by." "Not like in Boston. Boston got the best. Be so pretty on me. You evertouch it?" "No, miss. I never touched no velvet." Sethe didn't know if it was the voice, or Boston orvelvet, but while the white girl talked, the baby slept. Not one butt or kick, so she guessed her luckhad turned.
"Ever see any?" she asked Sethe. "I bet you never even seen any." "If I did I didn'tknow it. What's it like, velvet?" Amy dragged her eyes over Sethe's face as though she wouldnever give out so confidential a piece of information as that to a perfect stranger. "What they call you?" she asked.

塞絲點點頭，換了個胳膊肘支撐身體。“你的太太知道你出去找天鵝絨嗎？”那姑娘把頭髮從臉上甩開。“我媽媽早先給這兒的人幹活，好掙足過路費。可是後來她生了我，馬上就死了，於是，他們說我就得給他們幹活還債。我都幹了，可現在我想給自己弄點天鵝絨。”她們誰都沒有正眼看對方，起碼沒有直盯着眼睛。但是她們自然而然地閒聊起來，也沒有個特定的話題———當然，有一個躺在地上。
“波士頓，”塞絲道，“那兒遠嗎？”“噢———遠着呢。一百英里。可能還要多。”“附近應該也有天鵝絨。”“跟波士頓的沒法比。波士頓的最好。我要是穿上該有多美呀。你摸過嗎？”“沒有，小姐。我從來沒摸過天鵝絨。”塞絲不知道是因爲她的聲音，還是因爲波士頓和天鵝絨，反正白人姑娘說話的時候，嬰兒睡着了，一下沒撞，一下沒踢，所以她猜想自己時來運轉了。
“以前見過嗎？”她問塞絲，“我敢說你從來沒見過。”“就算見過我也不認識。什麼樣兒，天鵝絨？”愛彌的目光拖過塞絲的臉，好像她絕不會向一個完全陌生的人透露這麼機密的信息似的。“他們叫你什麼？”她問道。