诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 26

"I was hungry," she told Denver, "just as hungry as I could be for his eyes. I couldn't wait."So she raised up on her elbow and dragged herself, one pull, two, three, four, toward the youngwhite voice talking about "Who that back in there?"" 'Come see,' I was thinking. 'Be the last thing you behold,' and sure enough here come the feet so Ithought well that's where I'll have to start God do what He would, I'm gonna eat his feet off. I'mlaughing now, but it's true. I wasn't just set to do it. I was hungry to do it. Like a snake. All jawsand hungry.
"It wasn't no whiteboy at all. Was a girl. The raggediest-lookingtrash you ever saw saying, 'Look there. A nigger. If that don't beat all.' "And now the part Denver loved the best: Her name was Amy and she needed beef and pot liquorlike nobody in this world. Arms like cane stalks and enough hair for four or five heads. Slow-moving eyes. She didn't look at anything quick. Talked so much it wasn't clear how she couldbreathe at the same time. And those cane-stalk arms, as it turned out, were as strong as iron.
"You 'bout the scariest-looking something I ever seen. What you doing back up in here?"Down in the grass, like the snake she believed she was, Sethe opened her mouth, and instead offangs and a split tongue, out shot the truth.

“我饿坏了，”她告诉丹芙，“想到他的眼睛，我要多饿有多饿。我等不及了。”于是她用胳膊肘支起身子，拖着自己，一下，两下，三下，四下，挪向那个说着“谁在那儿？”的白人小子的声音。“‘来看看吧，’我心想，‘你的末日到了。’果然，那双脚过来了，所以我都想好了，我就从脚开始替天行道，我要把他的脚吃掉。现在说起来好笑，可那是真的。我可不光是准备好了要这样做。我简直是如饥似渴。跟一条蛇似的。咬牙切齿，如饥似渴。
“那根本就不是个白人小子。是个姑娘。是你能见到的最破衣罗娑的穷鬼。她说：‘看哪。一个黑鬼。可了不得了。’”下面就是故事中丹芙最喜爱的部分：她的名字叫爱弥，世界上没有人比她更需要大吃大喝一顿了。胳膊像麻秆儿，头发够四五个脑袋用的。目光迟缓。她看什么都慢吞吞的。话说得太多，真不明白她同时怎么还能喘气。还有那两根麻秆儿胳膊，结果证明，铁打的一般结实。
“你是我见过的模样最吓人的东西。你在那儿干什么哪？”躺在草里，像她刚才自封的那条蛇那样，塞丝张开嘴，可射出的不是毒牙和芯子，而是实话。