获得诺贝尔文学 诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第8章Part 3

诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第8章Part 3  

Snakes came down from short-leaf pine and hemlock.
It rained.
Cypress
yellow poplar
ash and palmetto drooped under five days of rain without wind. By theeighth day the doves were nowhere in sight
by the ninth even the salamanders were gone. Dogslaid their ears down and stared over their paws. The men could not work. Chain-up was slow
breakfast abandoned
the o-step became a slow drag over soupy grass and unreliable earth.
It was decided to lock everybody down in the boxes till it either stopped or lightened up so awhiteman could walk
damnit
without flooding his gun and the dogs could quit shivering. Thechain was threaded through forty-six loops of the best hand-fed iron in Geia.
It rained.
In the boxes the men heard the water rise in the trench and looked out for cottonmouths. Theysquatted in muddy water
slept above it
peed in it. Paul D thought he was screaming; his mouthwas open and there was this loud throat-splitting sound — but it may have been somebody he thought he was crying. Something was running down his cheeks. He lifted his hands towipe away the tears and saw dark brown slime. Above him rivulets of mud slid through the boardsof the roof. When it e down
he thought
gonna crush me like a tick bug. It happened so quickhe had no time to ponder. Somebody yanked the chain — once — hard enough to cross his legsand throw him into the mud. He never figured out how he knew — how anybody did — but he didknow — he did — and he took both hands and yanked the length of chain at his left
so the nextman would know too. The water was above his ankles
flowing over the wooden plank he slept then it wasn't water anymore. The ditch was caving in and mud oozed under and through thebars.
They waited — each and every one of the forty-six. Not screaming
although some of themmust have fought like the devil not to. The mud was up to his thighs and he held on to the bars. Then it came — another yank — from the left this time and less forceful than the first because ofthe mud it passed through.