诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第3章Part 13
"He saw them boys do that to me and let them keep on breathing air? He saw? He saw? He saw?"
"Hey! Hey! Listen up. Let me tell you something. A man ain't a goddamn ax. Chopping, hacking,busting every goddamn minute of the day. Things get to him. Things he can't chop down becausethey're inside."
Sethe was pacing up and down, up and down in the lamplight. "The underground agent said, BySunday. They took my milk and he saw it and didn't come down? Sunday came and he didn't. Monday came and no Halle. I thought he was dead, that's why; then I thought they caught him,that's why. Then I thought, No, he's not dead because if he was I'd know it, and then you comehere after all this time and you didn't say he was dead, because you didn't know either, so Ithought, Well, he just found him another better way to live. Because if he was anywhere near here,he'd come to Baby Suggs, if not to me. But I never knew he saw."
"What does that matter now?"
"If he is alive, and saw that, he won't step foot in my door. Not Halle."
"It broke him, Sethe." Paul D looked up at her and sighed. "You may as well know it all. Last timeI saw him he was sitting by the chum. He had butter all over his face."
Nothing happened, and she was grateful for that. Usually she could see the picture right away ofwhat she heard. But she could not picture what Paul D said. Nothing came to mind. Carefully,carefully, she passed on to a reasonable question.
"What did he say?"
"Nothing."
"Not a word?"
"Not a word."
“他看见了那些家伙对我干的事，还让他们接着喘气？他看见了？他看见了？他看见了？”
“嘿!嘿!听着。你听我说。一个男人不是一把该死的斧头，去他妈的砍掉、劈掉、剁掉日子里的每一分钟。是倒霉事找的他。他砍不倒这些事，因为它们属于内心。”
塞丝踱来踱去，在灯光里踱来踱去。“地下联络员说：最迟星期天。他们抢走了我的奶水，可他看见了却没下来？星期天到了，可他没到。星期一到了，可还是没见黑尔。我以为他是死了，才没来；然后我以为是他们抓住了他，才没来。后来我想，不对，他没死，因为他要是死了，我该知道；再后来，你过了这么多年找到这儿来，也没说他死了，因为你也不知道，所以我想，好吧，他不过是给自己找到了更好的生路。因为要是他在附近的什么地方，就算不来找我，他也肯定会来找贝比·萨格斯的。可我根本没料到他看见了。”
“事到如今，又有什么关系呢？”
“假如他活着，而且看见了，他就永远不会迈进我的门。黑尔不会。”
“他崩溃了，塞丝。”保罗·D抬眼看着她，叹了口气，“你全知道也好。我最后一次看见他的时候，他正坐在搅乳机旁。他涂了自己一脸的牛油。”
什么事都没有发生，她因此而心怀感激。一般来说，她能马上看到她耳闻的画面。可是她没看到保罗·D讲的事情。脑子里什么都没出现。小心翼翼、小心翼翼地，她跳向一个适当的问题。
“他说了什么吗？”
“没有。”
“一个字没说？”
“一个字没说。”
