诺贝尔文学奖历代作品 诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第8章Part 4

诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第8章Part 4  

It started like the chain-up but the difference was the power of the chain. One by one
from Hi Manback on down the line
they dove. Down through the mud under the bars
blind
groping. Some hadsense enough to wrap their heads in their shirts
cover their faces with rags
put on their shoes.
Others just plunged
simply ducked down and pushed out
fighting up
reaching for air. Some lostdirection and their neighbors
feeling the confused pull of the chain
snatched them around. Forone lost
all lost. The chain that held them would save all or none
and Hi Man was the Delivery.
They talked through that chain like Sam Morse and
Great God
they all came up. Like theunshriven dead
zombies on the loose
holding the chains in their hands
they trusted the rain andthe dark
yes
but mostly Hi Man and each other.
Past the sheds where the dogs lay in deep depression; past the o guard shacks
past the stable ofsleeping horses
past the hens whose bills were bolted into their feathers
they waded. The moondid not help because it wasn't there. The field was a marsh
the track a trough. All Geia seemedto be sliding
melting away. Moss wiped their faces as they fought the live-oak branches thatblocked their way. Geia took up all of Alabama and Mississippi then
so there was no state lio cross and it wouldn't have mattered anyway. If they had known about it
they would haveavoided not only Alfred and the beautiful feldspar
but Savannah too and headed for the SeaIslands on the river that slid down from the Blue Ridge Mountains. But they didn't know.
Daylight came and they huddled in a copse of redbud trees. Night came and they scrambled up tohigher ground
praying the rain would go on shielding them and keeping folks at home. They werehoping for a shack
solitary
some distance from its big house
where a slave might be making ropeor heating potatoes at the grate. What they found was a camp of sick Cherokee for whom a rosewas named. Decimated but stubborn
they were among those who chose a fugitive life rather thanOklahoma. The illness that swept them now was reminiscent of the one that had killed half theirnumber o hundred years earlier. In beeen that calamity and this
they had visited Gee III in London
published a newspaper
made baskets
led Oglethorpe through forests
helped AndrewJackson fight Creek
cooked maize
drawn up a constitution
petitioned the King of Spain
beenexperimented on by Dartmouth
established asylums
wrote their language
resisted settlers
shotbear and translated scripture. All to no avail. The forced move to the Arkansas River
insisted uponby the same president they fought for against the Creek
destroyed another quarter of their alreadyshattered number.