諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 29
However far she was from Sweet Home, there was no point in giving out her realname to the first person she saw. "Lu," said Sethe. "They call me Lu." "Well, Lu, velvet is like theworld was just born. Clean and new and so smooth. The velvet I seen was brown, but in Bostonthey got all colors. Carmine. That means red but when you talk about velvet you got to say'carmine.' " She raised her eyes to the sky and then, as though she had wasted enough time awayfrom Boston, she moved off saying, "I gotta go." Picking her way through the brush she holleredback to Sethe, "What you gonna do, just lay there and foal?" "I can't get up from here," said Sethe.
"What?" She stopped and turned to hear.
"I said I can't get up."Amy drew her arm across her nose and came slowly back to where Sethe lay. "It's a house backyonder," she said. "A house?""Mmmmm. I passed it. Ain't no regular house with people in it though. A lean-to, kinda.""How far?""Make a difference, does it? You stay the night here snake get you.""Well he may as well come on. I can't stand up let alone walk and God help me, miss, I can'tcrawl.""Sure you can, Lu. Come on," said Amy and, with a toss of hair enough for five heads, she movedtoward the path.
So she crawled and Amy walked alongside her, and when Sethe needed to rest, Amy stopped tooand talked some more about Boston and velvet and good things to eat. The sound of that voice,like a sixteen-year-old boy's, going on and on and on, kept the little antelope quiet and grazing.
During the whole hateful crawl to the lean to, it never bucked once.
Nothing of Sethe's was intact by the time they reached it except the cloth that covered her hair.
即便離開“甜蜜之家”再遠，也沒有必要向見到的第一個人說出真名實姓。“露，”塞絲說，“他們叫我露。”“這麼說吧，露，天鵝絨就像初生的世界。乾淨，新鮮，而且光滑極了。我見過的天鵝絨是棕色的，可在波士頓什麼顏色的都有。胭脂。就是紅的意思，可你在說天鵝絨的時候得說‘胭脂’。”她擡頭望望天，然後，好像已經爲與波士頓無關的事情浪費太多的時間了，她擡起腳，道：“我得走了。”她在樹叢中擇徑而行，又回頭向塞絲喊道：“你想怎麼辦，就躺在那兒下崽嗎？”“我起不來了。”塞絲說。
“什麼？”她站住了，轉身去聽。
“我說我起不來了。”愛彌舉起胳膊，橫在鼻樑上面，慢慢走回塞絲躺着的地方。“那邊有間房子。”她說。“房子？”“呣———我路過的。不是一般的住人的房子。算個披屋吧。”“有多遠？”“有區別嗎？你若是在這兒過夜，蛇會來咬你的。”它愛來就來吧。我站都站不起來，更別說走路了；上帝可憐我，小姐，我根本爬不動。”“你當然行，露。來吧。”愛彌說道，然後甩了甩夠五個腦袋用的頭髮，朝小道走去。
於是塞絲爬着，愛彌在旁邊走；如果她想歇會兒，愛彌也停下來，再說一點波士頓、天鵝絨和好吃的東西。她的聲音好像一個十六歲的男孩子，說呀說呀說個不停，那隻小羚羊就一直安靜地吃草。
在塞絲痛苦地爬向棚屋的整個過程中，它一下都沒動。
她們到達的時候，塞絲已經體無完膚，只有包頭髮的布沒被碰壞。
