諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 17
They ate no potatoes that day, sweet or white. Sprawled near Brother, his flame-red tongue hiddenfrom them, his indigo face closed, Sixo slept through dinnerlike a corpse. Now there was a man, and that was a tree. Himself lying in the bed and the "tree"lying next to him didn't compare.
Paul D looked through the window above his feet and folded hishands behind his head. An elbow grazed Sethe's shoulder. The touch of cloth on her skin startledher. She had forgotten he had not taken off his shirt. Dog, she thought, and then remembered thatshe had not allowed him the time for taking it off. Nor herself time to take off her petticoat, andconsidering she had begun undressing before she saw him on the porch, that her shoes andstockings were already in her hand and she had never put them back on; that he had looked at herwet bare feet and asked to join her; that when she rose to cook he had undressed her further;considering how quickly they had started getting naked, you'd think by now they would be. Butmaybe a man was nothing but a man, which is what Baby Suggs always said. They encouragedyou to put some of your weight in their hands and soon as you felt how light and lovely that was,they studied your scars and tribulations, after which they did what he had done: ran her childrenout and tore up the house.
She needed to get up from there, go downstairs and piece it all back together. This house he toldher to leave as though a house was a little thing — a shirtwaist or a sewing basket you could walkoff from or give away any old time. She who had never had one but this one; she who left a dirtfloor to come to this one; she who had to bring a fistful of salsify into Mrs. Garner's kitchen everyday just to be able to work in it, feel like some part of it was hers, because she wanted to love thework she did, to take the ugly out of it, and the only way she could feel at home on Sweet Homewas if she picked some pretty growing thing and took it with her. The day she forgot was the daybutter wouldn't come or the brine in the barrel blistered her arms.
At least it seemed so. A few yellow flowers on the table, some myrtle tied around the handle of theflatiron holding the door open for a breeze calmed her, and when Mrs. Garner and she sat down tosort bristle, or make ink, she felt fine. Fine. Not scared of the men beyond. The five who slept inquarters near her, but never came in the night. Just touched their raggedy hats when they saw herand stared.
And if she brought food to them in the fields, bacon and bread wrapped in a piece of clean sheeting, they never took it from her hands. They stood back and waited for her to put it onthe ground (at the foot of a tree) and leave. Either they did not want to take anything from her, ordid not want her to see them eat. Twice or three times she lingered. Hidden behind honeysuckleshe watched them. How different they were without her, how they laughed and played and urinatedand sang. All but Sixo, who laughed once — at the very end. Halle, of course, was the nicest. BabySuggs' eighth and last child, who rented himself out all over the county to buy her away fromthere. But he too, as it turned out, was nothing but a man.
"A man ain't nothing but a man," said Baby Suggs. "But a son? Well now, that's somebody."
那天他們沒吃成土豆，也沒吃成甘薯。開飯的時候，西克索懶在“兄弟”旁邊，藏起火紅的舌頭，靛青的臉上毫無表情，一直睡得像具死屍。瞧，那纔是個男人，那纔是棵樹吶。躺在牀上的他自己，還有身邊的那棵“樹”，算個啥。
保羅·D透過腳上方的天窗望着外邊，又疊起雙手，枕到腦後。胳膊肘掠過塞絲的肩膀，布料擦着她的皮膚，把她嚇了一跳。她都忘了，他還沒脫下襯衫呢。狗，她心道，然後纔想起是自己沒給他脫襯衫的時間，也沒給自己脫襯裙的時間。不過，要知道，在門廊上遇見他之前她可就開始寬衣解帶了，鞋襪在手裏拎着，而且一直就沒再穿上；然後他盯着她溼漉漉的光腳看，還請求和她做伴；她起身做飯時，他又進一步地給她脫衣服；考慮到他們見面不久就這麼快地開始脫，你會認爲，到現在他們總該脫光了吧。但是也許一個男人不過是個男人，貝比·薩格斯就總這樣說。他們鼓勵你把你的一部分重量放到他們手中，正當你感到那有多麼輕鬆、可愛的時候，他們便來研究你的傷疤和苦難，而在此之前，他們已經像他剛纔那樣幹了：趕走她的孩子，砸爛整座房子。
她得從牀上起來了，好下樓去把所有東西都拼攏到一起。他讓她離開這所房子，就好像一所房子是小事一樁———一件罩衫，或者一個針線笸籮，你什麼時候都可以丟開或是送人。可她呢，她除了這個還從未擁有過一所房子；她離開土地面，就是爲了住進這樣的家；她每天都得往加納太太的廚房裏帶一把婆羅門參，才能開始在裏面幹活，才能感覺到它有一部分是屬於自己的，因爲她想熱愛自己的工作；爲把醜惡剔除，唯有這樣摘一些美麗的花草隨身帶着，她才能覺得“甜蜜之家”是個家。如果哪天她忘了，那麼不是黃油沒送到，就是桶裏的滷水把她的胳膊燙出了泡。
至少看起來如此。桌上有幾朵黃花，把兒上纏着桃金娘的烙鐵支開屋門，讓輕風撫慰着她，這樣，當加納太太和她坐下來拔豬毛或者制墨水時，她會感覺良好。良好。不害怕遠處的男人們。那五個人都睡在她附近的地方，但晚上從不進來。他們遇見她時只是捏一下他們的破帽子，盯着她。
如果她到田裏給他們送飯，送去用乾淨的布包着的火腿和麪包，他們也從不打她手裏接過去。他們站遠一點，等着她將包袱放到地上（樹底下）然後離開。他們要麼是不想從她手裏接東西，要麼就是不想讓她看見自己的吃相。有兩三回她磨蹭了一會兒，藏在忍冬樹後面偷看他們。沒有她他們是多麼不同啊，他們怎樣地大笑、打鬧、撒尿和唱歌呀。所有人都是，只有西克索除外，他平生只大笑過一次———在生命的最後一刻。當然，黑爾是最好的。貝比·薩格斯的第八個，也是最後一個孩子，他在縣裏四處攬活兒幹，就是爲了把她從那裏贖出來。可是他也一樣，說到底，不過是個男人而已。
“一個男人不過是個男人，”貝比·薩格斯說道，“可是一個兒子？嗯，那纔是個人物。”
