历年诺贝尔文学奖书名 诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 23

诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 23  

It began as a little girl's houseplay
but as her desires changed
so did the play. Quiet
primate andpletely secret except for the noisome cologne signal that thrilled the rabbits before it confusedthem. First a playroom (where the silence was softer)
then a refuge (from her brothers' fright)
soon the place became the point. In that bower
closed off from the hurt of the hurt world
Denver'simagination produced its own hunger and its own food
which she badly needed because lonelinesswore her out. Wore her out. Veiled and protected by the live green walls
she felt ripe and clear
and salvation was as easy as a wish.
Once when she was in the boxwood
an autumn long before Paul D moved into the house with hermother
she was made suddenly cold by a bination of wind and the perfume on her skin. Shedressed herself
bent down to leave and stood up in snowfall: a thin and whipping snow very likethe picture her mother had painted as she described the circumstances of Denver's birth in a canoestraddled by a whitegirl for whom she was named.
Shivering
Denver approached the house
regarding it
as she always did
as a person rather than astructure. A person that wept
sighed
trembled and fell into fits. Her steps and her gaze were the cautious ones of a child approaching a nervous
idle relative (someone dependent but proud). Abreastplate of darkness hid all the windows except one. Its dim glow came from Baby Suggs'room. When Denver looked in
she saw her mother on her knees in prayer
which was not was unusual (even for a girl who had lived all her life in a house peopled by the livingactivity of the dead) was that a white dress knelt down next to her mother and had its sleeve aroundher mother's waist. And it was the tender embrace of the dress sleeve that made Denver rememberthe details of her birth — that and the thin
whipping snow she was standing in
like the fruit ofmon flowers. The dress and her mother together looked like o friendly grown-up women —one (the dress) helping out the other. And the magic of her birth
is miracle in fact
testified to that friendliness as did her own name.