諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 22

The jealous admiration of the watching men melted with the feast of new corn they allowed themselves that night. Plucked from the broken stalks that Mr. Garner could not doubt was thefault of the raccoon. Paul F wanted his roasted; Paul A wanted his boiled and now Paul D couldn'tremember how finally they'd cooked those ears too young to eat. What he did remember wasparting the hair to get to the tip, the edge of his fingernail just under, so as not to graze a singlekernel.
The pulling down of the tight sheath, the ripping sound always convinced her it hurt.
As soon as one strip of husk was down, the rest obeyed and the ear yielded up to him its shy rows,exposed at last. How loose the silk. How quick the jailed-up flavor ran free.
No matter what all your teeth and wet fingers anticipated, there was no accounting for the way thatsimple joy could shake you. How loose the silk. How fine and loose and free.
DENVER'S SECRETS were sweet. Accompanied every time by wild veronica until shediscovered cologne. The first bottle was a gift, the next she stole from her mother and hid amongboxwood until it froze and cracked. That was the year winter came in a hurry at suppertime andstayed eight months. One of the War years when Miss Bodwin, the whitewoman, broughtChristmas cologne for her mother and herself, oranges for the boys and another good wool shawlfor Baby Suggs. Talking of a war full of dead people, she looked happy — flush-faced, andalthough her voice was heavy as a man's, she smelled like a roomful of flowers — excitement thatDenver could have all for herself in the boxwood. Back beyond 1x4 was a narrow field thatstopped itself at a wood. On the yonder side of these woods, a stream. In these woods, between thefield and the stream, hidden by post oaks, five boxwood bushes, planted in a ring, had startedstretching toward each other four feet off the ground to form a round, empty room seven feet high,its walls fifty inches of murmuring leaves.
Bent low, Denver could crawl into this room, and oncethere she could stand all the way up in emerald light.

這些觀衆的嫉妒和羨慕在當晚他們招待自己的嫩玉米會餐上化爲烏有。玉米都是從折斷的玉米稈上摘下來的，加納先生還想當然地以爲是浣熊弄斷的呢。保羅·F要烤的；保羅·A要煮的；現在保羅·D已經想不起來他們最後是怎麼做的那些還太嫩的玉米。他只記得，要扒開鬚子找到頂尖，得用指甲抵在下面，纔不至於碰破一粒。
扒下緊裹的葉鞘，撕扯的聲音總讓她覺得它很疼。
第一層包皮一扒下來，其餘的就屈服了，玉米穗向他橫陳羞澀的排排苞粒，終於一覽無餘。花絲多麼鬆散。禁錮的香味多麼飛快地四散奔逃。
儘管你用上了所有的牙齒，還有溼乎乎的手指頭，你還是說不清，那點簡單的樂趣如何令你心旌搖盪。花絲多麼鬆散。多麼美妙、鬆散、自由。
丹芙的祕密是香甜的。以前每次都伴隨着野生的婆婆納，直到後來她發現了科隆香水。第一瓶是件禮物，第二瓶是從她媽媽那裏偷的，被她藏在黃楊樹叢裏，結果結凍、脹裂了。那年的冬天在晚飯時匆匆來臨，一待就是八個月。那是戰爭期間的一年，鮑德溫小姐，那個白女人，給她媽媽和她帶來了科隆香水，給兩個男孩帶來了橙子，還送了貝比·薩格斯一條上好的羊毛披肩，作爲聖誕禮物。說起那場屍橫遍野的戰爭，她似乎非常快樂———紅光滿面的；儘管聲音低沉得像個男人，可她聞起來就好像一屋子的鮮花———那種激動，丹芙只有在黃楊叢裏才能獨自享有。124號後面是一片狹窄的田野，到樹林就結束了。樹林的另一邊是一條小溪。在田野和小溪之間的這片樹林裏，被橡樹遮擋着，五叢黃楊灌木栽成一圈，在離開地面四英尺高的地方交錯在一起，形成一個七英尺高的、圓而空的房間，牆壁是五十英寸厚的低語的樹葉。
得哈下腰去，丹芙才能爬進這間屋子，而一鑽進去，她就能完全立起身來，沐浴在祖母綠的光芒中。