諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 24

Easily she stepped into the told story that lay before her eyes on the path she followed away fromthe window. There was only one door to the house and to get to it from the back you had to walkall the way around to the front of 124, past the storeroom, past the cold house, the privy, the shed,on around to the porch. And to get to the part of the story she liked best, she had to start way back:
hear the birds in the thick woods, the crunch of leaves underfoot; see her mother making her wayup into the hills where no houses were likely to be. How Sethe was walking on two feet meant forstanding still. How they were so swollen she could not see her arch or feel her ankles. Her leg shaftended in a loaf of flesh scalloped by five toenails. But she could not, would not, stop, for when shedid the little antelope rammed her with horns and pawed the ground of her womb with impatienthooves. While she was walking, it seemed to graze, quietly — so she walked, on two feet meant, inthis sixth month of pregnancy, for standing still. Still, near a kettle; still, at the churn; still, at thetub and ironing board. Milk, sticky and sour on her dress, attracted every small flying thing fromgnats to grasshoppers. By the time she reached the hill skirt she had long ago stopped waving themoff. The clanging in her head, begun as a churchbell heard from a distance, was by then a tight capof pealing bells around her ears. Shesank and had to look down to see whether she was in a holeor kneeling. Nothing was alive but her nipples and the little antelope. Finally, she was horizontal— or must have been because blades of wild onion were scratching her temple and her cheek.
Concerned as she was for the life of her children's mother, Sethe told Denver, she rememberedthinking:
"Well, at least I don't have to take another step." A dying thought if ever there was one,and she waited for the little antelope to protest, and why she thought of an antelope Sethe could notimagine since she had never seen one. She guessed it must have been an invention held on to frombefore Sweet Home, when she was very young. Of that place where she was born (Carolinamaybe? or was it Louisiana?) she remembered only song and dance. Not even her own mother,who was pointed out to her by the eight-year-old child who watched over the young ones —pointed out as the one among many backs turned away from her, stooping in a watery ently Sethe waited for this particular back to gain the row's end and stand. What she saw was acloth hat as opposed to a straw one, singularity enough in that world of cooing women each ofwhom was called Ma'am.

輕而易舉地，就從窗口所見的情景開始，她走進了躺在她眼前小路上的那個講了又講的故事。124號只有一扇門，如果你在後面想進去，就必須一直繞到房子的正面，走過貯藏室，走過冷藏室、廁所、棚屋，一直繞到門廊。同樣地，爲了進入故事中她最喜愛的那部分，她也必須從頭開始：
聽密林裏的鳥鳴，聽腳下草葉樹葉的窸窣；看她媽媽匆匆趕路，直走進不像有人家的丘陵地帶。塞絲是怎樣地用兩隻本該停下的腳走路啊。它們腫得太厲害了，她甚至看不見足弓，也摸不到腳踝。她的腿杆插在一團呈扇形裝飾着五個趾甲的肉裏。但是她不能也不願停下來，因爲她一旦停住，小羚羊就用角撞她，用蹄子不耐煩地踢她的子宮壁。她若是老老實實走路，它就好像在吃草，安安靜靜的———所以她懷着六個月的身孕還在用兩隻本該停下的腳不停地走。早該停下了，停在水壺旁邊；停在攪乳機旁邊；停在澡盆和熨衣板旁邊。她裙子上的奶水又黏又酸，招來了每一樣小飛蟲，從蚊子到螞蚱，什麼都有。等她趕到山腳時，她已經好久沒有揮開它們了。她腦袋裏的鏗鏘聲開始時還好像遠處教堂的鐘鳴，到這時簡直成了一頂箍在耳邊、轟隆作響的帽盔。她陷了下去，只好低頭看看，才能知道是掉在了坑裏，還是自己跪下了。除了她的乳頭和肚子裏的小羚羊，再沒有活的東西了。終於，她平躺下來———想必是平躺着，因爲野蔥葉子刮到了她的太陽穴和麪頰。
塞絲後來告訴丹芙，儘管她對她兒女的母親的性命那樣牽掛，她還是有過這個念頭：
“也好，至少我不用再邁一步了。”即使那個想法出現過，也不過是一閃念，然後她就等着小羚羊來抗議；到底爲什麼想到羚羊，塞絲自己也搞不明白，因爲她可從來沒見過一隻。她猜想，肯定是在來“甜蜜之家”以前，在她還很小的時候就造出的一個說法。關於她出生的地方（也許是卡羅來納？抑或是路易斯安那？）她只記得歌和舞。甚至不記得她自己的媽媽；還是一個看小孩的八歲孩子指給她的呢———從水田裏彎腰幹活的許多條脊背中指出來。塞絲耐心地等着這條特別的脊背到達田壟的盡頭，站起身來。她看到的是一頂不同於其他草帽的布帽子，這在那個女人們都低聲講話、都叫做太太的世界裏已經夠個別的了。