诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 28

Sethe nodded and shifted her elbow. "Your ma'am know you on the lookout for velvet?"The girl shook her hair out of her face. "My mama worked for these here people to pay for herpassage. But then she had me and since she died right after, well, they said I had to work for em topay it off. I did, but now I want me some velvet."They did not look directly at each other, not straight into the eyes anyway. Yet they slippedeffortlessly into yard chat about nothing in particular — except one lay on the ground.
"Boston," said Sethe. "Is that far?""Ooooh, yeah. A hundred miles. Maybe more.""Must be velvet closer by." "Not like in Boston. Boston got the best. Be so pretty on me. You evertouch it?" "No, miss. I never touched no velvet." Sethe didn't know if it was the voice, or Boston orvelvet, but while the white girl talked, the baby slept. Not one butt or kick, so she guessed her luckhad turned.
"Ever see any?" she asked Sethe. "I bet you never even seen any." "If I did I didn'tknow it. What's it like, velvet?" Amy dragged her eyes over Sethe's face as though she wouldnever give out so confidential a piece of information as that to a perfect stranger. "What they call you?" she asked.

塞丝点点头，换了个胳膊肘支撑身体。“你的太太知道你出去找天鹅绒吗？”那姑娘把头发从脸上甩开。“我妈妈早先给这儿的人干活，好挣足过路费。可是后来她生了我，马上就死了，于是，他们说我就得给他们干活还债。我都干了，可现在我想给自己弄点天鹅绒。”她们谁都没有正眼看对方，起码没有直盯着眼睛。但是她们自然而然地闲聊起来，也没有个特定的话题———当然，有一个躺在地上。
“波士顿，”塞丝道，“那儿远吗？”“噢———远着呢。一百英里。可能还要多。”“附近应该也有天鹅绒。”“跟波士顿的没法比。波士顿的最好。我要是穿上该有多美呀。你摸过吗？”“没有，小姐。我从来没摸过天鹅绒。”塞丝不知道是因为她的声音，还是因为波士顿和天鹅绒，反正白人姑娘说话的时候，婴儿睡着了，一下没撞，一下没踢，所以她猜想自己时来运转了。
“以前见过吗？”她问塞丝，“我敢说你从来没见过。”“就算见过我也不认识。什么样儿，天鹅绒？”爱弥的目光拖过塞丝的脸，好像她绝不会向一个完全陌生的人透露这么机密的信息似的。“他们叫你什么？”她问道。