(单词翻译:单击)
Unit 10 The Bluest Eye(Excerpts)
第十单元 最蓝的眼睛(节选)
Toni Morrison
托妮·莫里森
They come from Mobile. Aiken. From Newport News. From Marietta. From Meridian. And the sounds of these places in their mouths make you think of love. When you ask them where they are from, they tilt their heads and say "Mobile" and you think you've been kissed. They say "Aiken" and you see a white butterfly glance off a fence with a torn wing. They say "Nagadoches" and you want to say "Yes, I will." You don't know what these towns are like, but you love what happens to the air when they open their lips and let the names ease out.
她们来自莫比尔,来自艾肯,来自纽波特纽斯,来自马利埃塔,来自默里迪恩。从她们嘴里说出的这些地名让你想起爱情。如果你问她们来自何方,她们就侧着头说“莫比尔”,使你感觉好像被人亲吻了一下。当她们说“艾肯”,你会看见一只断了翅膀的蝴蝶飞过篱笆墙。当她们说“那加多彻”,你就想说“行,我行”。你并不知道那些小镇的生活情景,可你喜欢听从她们张开的嘴里流出的地名。
Meridian. The sound of it opens the windows of a room like the first four notes of a hymn. Few people can say the names of their home towns with such sly affection. Perhaps because they don't have home towns, just places where they were born. But these girls soak up the juice of their home towns, and it never leaves them. They are thin brown girls who have looked long at hollyhocks in the backyards of Meridian, Mobile, Aiken, and Baton Rouge. And like hollyhocks they are narrow, tall, and still. Their roots are deep, their stalks are firm, and only the top blossom nods in the wind. They have the eyes of people who can tell what time it is by the color of the sky. Such girls live in quiet black neighborhoods where everybody is gainfully employed. Where there are porch swings hanging from chains. Where the grass is cut with a scythe, where rooster combs and sunflowers grow in the yards, and pots of bleeding heart, ivy, and mother-in-lawtongue line the steps and windowsills.
默里迪恩,这声音听上去就像圣歌的头四个音符那样让人豁然开朗。很少有人能如此充满深情地说出自己家乡的地名。也许这是因为她们没有自己的家乡,只有出生地。可是这些女孩子吸吮着家乡的乳汁,永远不让它离开她们。她们是些浅棕肤色瘦瘦的女孩儿,曾长期注视着默里迪恩、莫比尔、艾肯、巴吞鲁日等镇子上房屋后院里的蜀葵。和蜀葵一样,她们又细又高,笔直挺立,根基深,茎秆壮,只有顶部的花蕊在风中摇曳。她们的眼睛看着天空的色彩光线就能说出时辰。这些女孩一般住在安静的黑人居民区里,那里人人都有一份有报酬的工作,房前过道里都吊着吊椅。草地用镰刀修剪整齐,院子里养着鸡,种着向日葵,台阶和窗台上摆放着一盆盆荷包牡丹、青藤和虎尾兰。