高行健 诺贝尔文学 诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第14章Part7

诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第14章Part7  

So who was this woman with a mouth that was not Sethe's
but whose eyes were almost as calm ashers? Whose head was turned on her neck in the manner he loved so well it watered his eye to seeit. And he said so. "This ain't her mouth. I know her mouth and this ain't it." Before Stamp Paidcould speak he said it and even while he spoke Paul D said it again. Oh
he heard all the old manwas saying
but the more he heard
the stranger the lips in the drawing became.
Stamp started with the party
the one Baby Suggs gave
but stopped and backed up a bit to tellabout the berries — where they were and what was in the earth that made them grow like that.
"They open to the sun
but not the birds
'cause snakes down in there and the birds know it
so theyjust grow — fat and sweet — with nobody to bother em 'cept me because don't nobody go in thatpiece of water but me and ain't too many legs willing to glide down that bank to get them. Meneither. But I was willing that day. Somehow or 'nother I was willing. And they whipped me
I'mtelling you. Tore me up. But I filled o buckets anyhow. And took em over to Baby Suggs' house. It was on from then on. Such a cooking you never see no more. We baked
fried and stewedeverything God put down here. Everybody came. Everybody stuffed. Cooked so much there wasn'ta stick of kirdlin left for the next day. I volunteered to do it. And next morning I e over
like Ipromised
to do it." "But this ain't her mouth
" Paul D said. "This ain't it at all." Stamp Paid lookedat him. He was going to tell him about how restless Baby Suggs was that morning
how she had alistening way about her; how she kept looking down past the cornto the stream so much he lookedtoo. In beeen ax swings
he watched where Baby was watching. Which is why they both missedit: they were looking the wrong way — toward water — and all the while it was ing down theroad. Four. Riding close together
bunched-up like
and righteous. He was going to tell him that
because he thought it was important: why he and Baby Suggs both missed it. And about the partytoo
because that explained why nobody ran on ahead; why nobody sent a fleet-footed son to cut'cross a field soon as they saw the four horses in town hitched for watering while the riders asked questions. Not Ella
not John
not anybody ran down or to Bluestone Road
to say some newwhitefolks with the Look just rode in. The righteous Look every Negro learned to recognize alongwith his ma'am's tit. Like a flag hoisted
this righteousness telegraphed and announced the faggot
the whip
the fist
the lie
long before it went public. Nobody warned them
and he'd alwaysbelieved it wasn't the exhaustion from a longday's ging that dulled them
but some other thing— like
well
like meanness — that let them stand aside
or not pay attention
or tell themselvessomebody else was probably bearing the news already to the house on Bluestone Road where apretty woman had been living for almost a month. Young and deft with four children one of whichshe delivered herself the day before she got there and who now had the full benefit of Baby Suggs' bounty and her big old heart. Maybe they just wanted to know if Baby really was special
blessedin some way they were not. He was going to tell him that
but Paul D was laughing
saying
"Uhuh. No way. A little semblance round the forehead maybe
but this ain't her mouth."