诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》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.

他们知道，她已经准备就绪。然后她喊道：“让孩子们过来!”他们就从树林里跑向她。
“让你们的母亲听你们大笑。”她对他们说道，于是树林鸣响。大人们看着，忍俊不禁。
然后，“让男人们过来。”她喊道。他们从嘹亮的树林里鱼贯而出。
“让你们的妻子和孩子看你们跳舞。”她对他们说，于是大地在他们脚下震颤。
最后她把女人们唤来。“哭，”她向她们吩咐道。“为了活着的和死去的，哭吧。”于是女人们还没捂上眼睛就尽情号哭起来。
刚开始时是这样：大笑的孩子，跳舞的男人，哭泣的女人，然后就混作一团。女人们停止哭泣，跳起舞来；男人们坐下来哭泣；孩子们跳舞，女人们大笑，孩子们哭泣，直到后来，每个人都筋疲力尽，撕心裂肺，沮丧地躺在空地上捯气。在随之而来的寂静中，圣贝比·萨格斯把她那颗伟大的大心奉献给大家。
她没有要求他们去洗刷他们的生命，也没有要求他们不得再有罪过。她没有告诉他们，他们是地球上的有福之人，与生俱来地温顺，或者永世流芳地纯洁。
她告诉他们，他们唯一能得到的恩赐是他们想象得出的恩赐。如果他们看不见，他们就得不到。
“在这里，”她说，“在这个地方，是我们的肉体；哭泣、欢笑的肉体；在草地上赤脚跳舞的肉体。热爱它。强烈地热爱它。在那边，他们不爱你的肉体，他们蔑视它。他们不爱你的眼睛，他们会一下子把它们挖出来。他们也不爱你背上的皮肤，在那边他们会将它剥去。