諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第14章Part1

Six or seven Negroes were walking up the road toward the house: two boys from the slavecatcher's left and some women from his right. He motioned them still with his rifle and they stoodwhere they were. The nephew came back from peeping inside the house, and after touching his lipsfor silence, pointed his thumb to say that what they were looking for was round back. The slavecatcher dismounted then and joined the others. Schoolteacher and the nephew moved to the left ofthe house; himself and the sheriff to the right. A crazy old nigger was standing in the woodpilewith an ax. You could tell he was crazy right off because he was grunting — making low, catnoises like. About twelve yards beyond that nigger was another one — a woman with a flower inher hat. Crazy too, probably, because she too was standing stock-still — but fanning her hands asthough pushing cobwebs out of her way. Both, however, were staring at the same place — a shed.
Nephew walked over to the old nigger boy and took the ax from him. Then all four started towardthe shed. Inside, two boys bled in the sawdust and dirt at the feet of a nigger woman holding ablood-soaked child to her chest with one hand and an infant by the heels in the other. She did notlook at them; she simply swung the baby toward the wall planks, missed and tried to connect asecond time, when out of nowheremin the ticking time the men spent staring at what there was tostare the old nigger boy, still mewing, ran through the door behind them and snatched the babyfrom the arch of its mother's swing.
Right off it was clear, to schoolteacher especially, that therewas nothing there to claim. The three (now four — because she'd had the one coming when shecut) pickaninnies they had hoped were alive and well enough to take back to Kentucky, take backand raise properly to do the work Sweet Home desperately needed, were not. Two were lyingopen-eyed in sawdust; a third pumped blood down the dress of the main one — the womanschoolteacher bragged about, the one he said made fine ink, damn good soup, pressed his collarsthe way he liked besides having at least ten breeding years left. But now she'd gone wild, due tothe mishandling of the nephew who'd overbeat her and made her cut and run. Schoolteacher hadchastised that nephew, telling him to think — just think — what would his own horse do if youbeat it beyond the point of education. Or Chipper, or Samson. Suppose you beat the hounds pastthat point thataway. Never again could you trust them in the woods or anywhere else. You'd befeeding them maybe, holding out apiece of rabbit in your hand, and the animal would revert —bite your hand clean off. So he punished that nephew by not letting him come on the hunt. Madehim stay there, feed stock, feed himself, feed Lillian, tend crops. See how he liked it; see whathappened when you overbear creatures God had given you the responsibility of — the trouble itwas, and the loss. The whole lot was lost now. Five. He could claim the baby struggling in thearms of the mewing old man, but who'd tend her? Because the woman — something was wrongwith her. She was looking at him now, and if his other nephew could see that look he would learnthe lesson for sure: you just can't mishandle creatures and expect success.

六七個黑人從大路上向房子走來：獵奴者的右邊來了兩個男孩，右邊來了幾個女人。他用槍指住他們，於是他們就地站着。那個侄子向房子裏面偷看了一番，回來時手指碰了一下嘴脣示意安靜，然後用拇指告訴他們，要找的人在後面。獵奴者於是下了馬，跟其他人站到一起。"學校老師"和侄子向房子的左邊挪去；他自己和警官去右邊。一個瘋瘋癲癲的老黑鬼拿着把斧子站在木頭堆裏。你一眼就能看出他是個瘋子，因爲他在咕噥着——發出低沉的、貓一樣的呼嚕聲。離他大約十二碼遠處是另一個黑鬼——一個帽子上戴花的女人。可能也是個瘋子，因爲她也一動不動地站着——只有手扇着，彷彿在把蜘蛛網從眼前撥開。然而，兩個人都盯住了同一個地方——一間棚屋。
侄子向那個老黑鬼走去，從他手裏拿下斧子。然後四個人一起向棚屋走去。裏面，兩個男孩在一個女黑鬼腳下的鋸末和塵土裏流血，女黑鬼用一隻手將一個血淋淋的孩子摟在胸前，另一隻手抓着一個嬰兒的腳跟。她根本不看他們，只顧把嬰兒摔向牆板，沒撞着，又在作第二次嘗試。這時，不知從什麼地方——就在這羣人緊盯着面前的一切的當兒——那個仍在低吼的老黑鬼從他們身後的屋門衝進來，將嬰兒從她媽媽掄起的弧線中奪走。
事情馬上一清二楚了，對"學校老師"來說尤其如此，那裏沒什麼可索回的了。那三個（現在是四個——她逃跑途中又生了一個）小黑鬼，他們本來指望他們是活着的，而且完好得可以帶回肯塔基，帶回去正規培養，去幹"甜蜜之家"亟待他們去幹的農活，現在看來不行了。有兩個大張着眼睛躺在鋸末裏；第三個的血正順着那主要人物的裙子汩汩而下——"學校老師"四處誇耀的那個女人，他說她做得一手好墨水，熬得一手好湯，按他喜歡的方式給他熨衣領，而且至少還剩十年能繁殖。可是現在她瘋了，都是因爲侄子的虐待，他打得太狠，逼得她逃跑了。"學校老師"訓斥了那個侄子，讓他想想——好好想想——如果打得超出了教育目的，你自己的馬又會幹出什麼來。契伯和參孫也是一樣。設想你那麼過分地打了這兩條獵狗。你就再也不能在林子裏或者別的地方信任它們了。也許你下回餵它們，用手遞過去一塊兔肉，哪個畜生就會原形畢露——把你的手一口咬掉。所以他沒讓那個侄子來獵奴，以示懲罰。讓他留在家裏，喂牲口，喂自己，喂麗蓮，照管莊稼。給他點顏色看看；看看你把上帝交給你負責的造物打得太狠了的下場——造成的麻煩，以及損失。現在所有這些人都丟了。五個哪。他可以索要那個在喵喵直叫的老頭懷裏掙扎的嬰兒，可是誰來照料她呢？都怪那個女人——她出了毛病。此刻，她正盯着他；要是他的侄子能看見那種眼神，他肯定得到了教訓：你就是不能一邊虐待造物，一邊還指望成功。