諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第4章Part 10
They knew she was ready when she put her stick down. Then she shouted, "Let the children come!" andthey ran from the trees toward her.
"Let your mothers hear you laugh," she told them, and the woods rang. The adults looked on andcould not help smiling.
Then "Let the grown men come," she shouted. They stepped out one by one from among theringing trees.
"Let your wives and your children see you dance," she told them, and groundlife shuddered undertheir feet.
Finally she called the women to her. "Cry," she told them. "For the living and the dead. Just cry."And without covering their eyes the women let loose.
It started that way: laughing children, dancing men, crying women and then it got mixed up. Women stopped crying and danced; men sat down and cried; children danced, women laughed,children cried until, exhausted and riven, all and each lay about the Clearing damp and gasping forbreath. In the silence that followed, Baby Suggs, holy, offered up to them her great big heart.
She did not tell them to clean up their lives or to go and sin no more. She did not tell them theywere the blessed of the earth, its inheriting meek or its glorybound pure.
She told them that the only grace they could have was the grace they could imagine. That if theycould not see it, they would not have it.
"Here," she said, "in this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs; flesh that dances on barefeet in grass. Love it. Love it hard. Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it. They don'tlove your eyes; they'd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skin on your back. Yonder they flay it.
他們知道，她已經準備就緒。然後她喊道：“讓孩子們過來!”他們就從樹林裏跑向她。
“讓你們的母親聽你們大笑。”她對他們說道，於是樹林鳴響。大人們看着，忍俊不禁。
然後，“讓男人們過來。”她喊道。他們從嘹亮的樹林裏魚貫而出。
“讓你們的妻子和孩子看你們跳舞。”她對他們說，於是大地在他們腳下震顫。
最後她把女人們喚來。“哭，”她向她們吩咐道。“爲了活着的和死去的，哭吧。”於是女人們還沒捂上眼睛就盡情號哭起來。
剛開始時是這樣：大笑的孩子，跳舞的男人，哭泣的女人，然後就混作一團。女人們停止哭泣，跳起舞來；男人們坐下來哭泣；孩子們跳舞，女人們大笑，孩子們哭泣，直到後來，每個人都筋疲力盡，撕心裂肺，沮喪地躺在空地上捯氣。在隨之而來的寂靜中，聖貝比·薩格斯把她那顆偉大的大心奉獻給大家。
她沒有要求他們去洗刷他們的生命，也沒有要求他們不得再有罪過。她沒有告訴他們，他們是地球上的有福之人，與生俱來地溫順，或者永世流芳地純潔。
她告訴他們，他們唯一能得到的恩賜是他們想象得出的恩賜。如果他們看不見，他們就得不到。
“在這裏，”她說，“在這個地方，是我們的肉體；哭泣、歡笑的肉體；在草地上赤腳跳舞的肉體。熱愛它。強烈地熱愛它。在那邊，他們不愛你的肉體，他們蔑視它。他們不愛你的眼睛，他們會一下子把它們挖出來。他們也不愛你背上的皮膚，在那邊他們會將它剝去。
