诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第8章Part 3

Snakes came down from short-leaf pine and hemlock.
It rained.
Cypress, yellow poplar, ash and palmetto drooped under five days of rain without wind. By theeighth day the doves were nowhere in sight, by the ninth even the salamanders were gone. Dogslaid their ears down and stared over their paws. The men could not work. Chain-up was slow,breakfast abandoned, the two-step became a slow drag over soupy grass and unreliable earth.
It was decided to lock everybody down in the boxes till it either stopped or lightened up so awhiteman could walk, damnit, without flooding his gun and the dogs could quit shivering. Thechain was threaded through forty-six loops of the best hand-forged iron in Georgia.
It rained.

In the boxes the men heard the water rise in the trench and looked out for cottonmouths. Theysquatted in muddy water, slept above it, peed in it. Paul D thought he was screaming; his mouthwas open and there was this loud throat-splitting sound — but it may have been somebody he thought he was crying. Something was running down his cheeks. He lifted his hands towipe away the tears and saw dark brown slime. Above him rivulets of mud slid through the boardsof the roof. When it come down, he thought, gonna crush me like a tick bug. It happened so quickhe had no time to ponder. Somebody yanked the chain — once — hard enough to cross his legsand throw him into the mud. He never figured out how he knew — how anybody did — but he didknow — he did — and he took both hands and yanked the length of chain at his left, so the nextman would know too. The water was above his ankles, flowing over the wooden plank he slept then it wasn't water anymore. The ditch was caving in and mud oozed under and through thebars.
They waited — each and every one of the forty-six. Not screaming, although some of themmust have fought like the devil not to. The mud was up to his thighs and he held on to the bars. Then it came — another yank — from the left this time and less forceful than the first because ofthe mud it passed through.

蛇从短针松和铁杉树上爬下来。
下雨了。
柏树、黄杨、白杨和棕榈经历了五天无风的大雨，垂下头来。到了第八天，再也看不见鸽子了；到第九天，就连蝾螈都没了。狗耷拉着耳朵，盯着自己的爪子出神。男人们没法干活了。锁链松了，早饭废除了，两步舞变成了稀乎乎的草地和不坚实的泥浆地上面拖拖拉拉的步伐。
最后的决定是把所有人都锁在地下的匣子里，直到雨停下或者减弱，这样，一个白人单独就可以巡视，同时枪又挨不着雨淋，狗也不必打哆嗦了，他妈的。锁链穿过四十六个佐治亚最好的手工镣铐的铁环。
下雨了。
匣子里的人们一面听着水在壕沟里涨起来，一面当心着棉嘴蛇。他们蹲在泥水里，泥水里睡觉，泥水里撒尿。保罗·D以为自己在喊叫：他的嘴大张着，又能听见劈裂的喊声——不过那也可能是别人在喊。接着，他又以为自己在哭。有什么顺着他的脸颊流下来。他抬起两手去抹眼泪，看到的却是深棕色的泥浆。在他头顶上，小股的泥流穿透屋顶的木板滑下来。屋顶要是塌了，他想，它会像捻死一个臭虫似的把我压瘪。事情发生得这么快，他都来不及多想。有人在猛拽锁链——一下——猛得简直像要拉倒他的腿，让他摔进泥浆里。他始终没想清楚自己是怎么懂的——别人又是怎么懂的——可他的确懂了——他懂了——于是他用两只手狠命地拽左边的一截锁链，下一个也就知道了。水没过了他的脚踝，漫过了他睡觉的木板。然后就不再是水了。壕沟在塌陷，泥浆从栅栏下面和栅栏中间涌进来。
他们等着——所有四十六个都在等着。没有人喊叫，尽管不少人肯定是在拼命忍住。泥浆没到了腿根，他抓住栅栏。这时，又来了——又是一下猛拉——这下是从左边来的，因为要穿过泥浆，比刚才那一下劲头小些。