鲍勃迪伦诺贝尔文学 诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 1

诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 1  

124 WAS SPITEFUL. Full of a baby's venom. The women in the house knew it and so did thechildren. For years each put up with the spite in his own way
but by 1873 Sethe and her daughterDenver were its only victims. The grandmother
Baby Suggs
was dead
and the sons
Howard andBuglar
had run away by the time they were thirteen years old — as soon as merely looking in amirror shattered it (that was the signal for Buglar); as soon as o tiny hand prints appeared in thecake (that was it for Howard). Neither boy waited to see more; another kettleful of chickpeassmoking in a heap on the floor; soda crackers crumbled and strewn in a line next to the door sill.
Nor did they wait for one of the relief periods: the weeks
months even
when nothing was disturbed. No. Each one fled at once — the moment the house mitted what was for him theone insult not to be borne or witnessed a second time. Within o months
in the dead of winter
leaving their grandmother
Baby Suggs; Sethe
their mother; and their little sister
Denver
all bythemselves in the gray and white house on Bluestone Road. It didn't have a number then
becauseCincinnati didn't stretch that far. In fact
Ohio had been calling itself a state only seventy yearswhen first one brother and then the next stuffed quilt packing into his hat
snatched up his shoes
and crept away from the lively spite the house felt for them.
Baby Suggs didn't even raise her head. From her sickbed she heard them go but that wasn't thereason she lay still. It was a wonder to her that her grandsons had taken so long to realize thatevery house wasn't like the one on Bluestone Road. Suspended beeen the nastiness of life andthe meanness of the dead
she couldn't get interested in leaving life or living it
let alone the frightof o creeping-off boys. Her past had been like her present — intolerable — and since she knewdeath was anything but fetfulness
she used the little energy left her for pondering color.
"Bring a little lavender in
if you got any. Pink
if you don't."And Sethe would oblige her with anything from fabric to her own tongue. Winter in Ohio wasespecially rough if you had an appetite for color. Sky provided the only drama
and counting on aCincinnati horizon for life's principal joy was reckless indeed. So Sethe and the girl Denver didwhat they could
and what the house permitted
for her. Together they waged a perfunctory battleagainst the outrageous behavior of that place; against turned-over slop jars
smacks on the behind
and gusts of sour air. For they understood the source of the outrage as well as they knew the sourceof light.
Baby Suggs died shortly after the brothers left
with no interest whatsoever in their leave-taking orhers
and right afterward Sethe and Denver decided to end the persecution by calling forth theghost that tried them so. Perhaps a conversation
they thought
an exchange of views or somethingwould help. So they held hands and said
"Come on. Come on. You may as well just e on."The sideboard took a step forward but nothing else did.
"Grandma Baby must be stopping it
" said Denver. She was ten and still mad at Baby Suggs fordying.
Sethe opened her eyes. "I doubt that
" she said.
他们也没有再等一个间歇期，几个星期、甚至几个月的风平浪静。没有。他们当即逃之夭夭———就在这座凶宅向他们分别施以不能再次忍受和目睹的侮辱的时刻。在两个月之内，在残冬，相继离开他们的祖母贝比·萨格斯，母亲塞丝，还有小妹妹丹芙，把她们留在蓝石路上这所灰白两色的房子里。当时它还没有门牌号，因为辛辛那提还没扩展到那儿呢。事实上，当兄弟俩一个接一个地把被子里的棉絮塞进帽子、抓起鞋子，偷偷逃离这所房子用来试探他们的活生生的恶意时，俄亥俄独立成州也不过七十年光景。
贝比·萨格斯连头都没擡。她是在病榻上听见他们离去的，但这并非她躺着一动不动的缘故。对她来说，孙子们花了这么长时间才认识到蓝石路上这所房子的与众不同，倒真是不可思议。悬在生活的龌龊与死者的刻毒之间，她对生或死都提不起兴致，更不用说两个出逃的孩子的恐惧心理了。她的过去跟她的现在一样———难以忍受。既然她认识到死亡偏偏不是遗忘，她便用残余的一点精力来玩味色彩。
“给我来点儿淡紫，要是你有的话。要是没有，就粉红吧。”塞丝就用一切来满足她，从布料到自己的舌头。如果你对色彩有所奢望，那么俄亥俄的冬天就尤其不堪忍受。只有天空有戏可唱，要把辛辛那提的地平线算作生活的主要乐趣，那简直是乱弹琴。于是，塞丝和女儿丹芙为她做了她们力所能及，而且为房子所允许的一切。她们一起针对那里的暴行进行了一场敷衍塞责的斗争；同倒扣的泔水桶、屁股上挨的巴掌，以及阵阵的酸气作斗争。因为她们就像知道光的来源一样明晓这些暴行的来源。
兄弟俩出走不久，贝比·萨格斯就去世了，无论对他们的还是她自己的离去都兴味索然。随即，塞丝和丹芙决定召唤那个百般折磨她们的鬼魂，以结束这场迫害。也许来一次对话、交换一下看法什么的会管用，她们想。于是她们手拉着手，说道：“来吧。来吧。你干脆出来吧。”碗柜向前进了一步，可是别的东西都没动。
“肯定是贝比奶奶在拦它。”丹芙说。她十岁了，仍然在为贝比·萨格斯的去世而生她的气。
塞丝睁开眼睛。“我不信。”她说。