诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 29

However far she was from Sweet Home, there was no point in giving out her realname to the first person she saw. "Lu," said Sethe. "They call me Lu." "Well, Lu, velvet is like theworld was just born. Clean and new and so smooth. The velvet I seen was brown, but in Bostonthey got all colors. Carmine. That means red but when you talk about velvet you got to say'carmine.' " She raised her eyes to the sky and then, as though she had wasted enough time awayfrom Boston, she moved off saying, "I gotta go." Picking her way through the brush she holleredback to Sethe, "What you gonna do, just lay there and foal?" "I can't get up from here," said Sethe.
"What?" She stopped and turned to hear.
"I said I can't get up."Amy drew her arm across her nose and came slowly back to where Sethe lay. "It's a house backyonder," she said. "A house?""Mmmmm. I passed it. Ain't no regular house with people in it though. A lean-to, kinda.""How far?""Make a difference, does it? You stay the night here snake get you.""Well he may as well come on. I can't stand up let alone walk and God help me, miss, I can'tcrawl.""Sure you can, Lu. Come on," said Amy and, with a toss of hair enough for five heads, she movedtoward the path.
So she crawled and Amy walked alongside her, and when Sethe needed to rest, Amy stopped tooand talked some more about Boston and velvet and good things to eat. The sound of that voice,like a sixteen-year-old boy's, going on and on and on, kept the little antelope quiet and grazing.
During the whole hateful crawl to the lean to, it never bucked once.
Nothing of Sethe's was intact by the time they reached it except the cloth that covered her hair.

即便离开“甜蜜之家”再远，也没有必要向见到的第一个人说出真名实姓。“露，”塞丝说，“他们叫我露。”“这么说吧，露，天鹅绒就像初生的世界。干净，新鲜，而且光滑极了。我见过的天鹅绒是棕色的，可在波士顿什么颜色的都有。胭脂。就是红的意思，可你在说天鹅绒的时候得说‘胭脂’。”她抬头望望天，然后，好像已经为与波士顿无关的事情浪费太多的时间了，她抬起脚，道：“我得走了。”她在树丛中择径而行，又回头向塞丝喊道：“你想怎么办，就躺在那儿下崽吗？”“我起不来了。”塞丝说。
“什么？”她站住了，转身去听。
“我说我起不来了。”爱弥举起胳膊，横在鼻梁上面，慢慢走回塞丝躺着的地方。“那边有间房子。”她说。“房子？”“呣———我路过的。不是一般的住人的房子。算个披屋吧。”“有多远？”“有区别吗？你若是在这儿过夜，蛇会来咬你的。”它爱来就来吧。我站都站不起来，更别说走路了；上帝可怜我，小姐，我根本爬不动。”“你当然行，露。来吧。”爱弥说道，然后甩了甩够五个脑袋用的头发，朝小道走去。
于是塞丝爬着，爱弥在旁边走；如果她想歇会儿，爱弥也停下来，再说一点波士顿、天鹅绒和好吃的东西。她的声音好像一个十六岁的男孩子，说呀说呀说个不停，那只小羚羊就一直安静地吃草。
在塞丝痛苦地爬向棚屋的整个过程中，它一下都没动。
她们到达的时候，塞丝已经体无完肤，只有包头发的布没被碰坏。