Gone with the Wind

瑪格麗特·米切爾（1900—1949年）是一個傳奇。她在因車禍而結束的短暫一生中僅僅出版了一本書——但也就是這部作品，一經面世便引起全民追捧熱潮，上市初期日銷售量超過五萬冊，是美國乃至全球最暢銷的小說之一。根據小說改編而成的同名電影（譯名《亂世佳人》）同樣是好萊塢最經典的愛情電影之一，費雯·麗（Vivien Leigh）倩影如畫，克拉克·蓋博（Clark Gable）風度翩翩，至今仍讓萬千影迷津津樂道。

《飄》是一部關于美國南北戰(zhàn)爭的小說，但米切爾并沒有把筆墨放在直接的戰(zhàn)場描寫上，而是通過主人公郝思嘉（一譯斯嘉麗·奧哈拉）的愛情波折與生活磨難，從南方女性的角度來敘述戰(zhàn)爭對每一個人的深遠影響。在這股社會變更的巨大洪流當中，郝思嘉以自私自利、機敏狡詐，但又直面現實、頑強奮斗的鮮明個性，與“明天又是另外一天”（Tomorrow is another day）的經典臺詞一道，在世界文壇留下永不褪色的華美形象。

本期節(jié)選出自第一部第一章，透過塔爾頓家雙胞胎與郝思嘉的對話交代了大戰(zhàn)在即、風雨欲來的故事背景……

Outside, the late afternoon sun slanted[傾斜]down in the yard, throwing into gleaming[閃閃發(fā)光的]brightness the dogwood[山茱萸]trees that were solid masses of white blossoms against the background of new green. The twins’ horses were hitched[拴住]in the driveway, big animals, red as their masters’hair; and around the horses’ legs quarreled the pack of lean[瘦的], nervous possum hounds[抓負鼠的獵犬]that accompanied Stuart and Brent wherever they went. A little aloof[遠離的], as became an aristocrat[貴族], lay a black-spotted carriage dog, muzzle[動物的鼻口]on paws, patiently waiting for the boys to go home to supper.

Between the hounds and the horses and the twins there was a kinship[親密關系]deeper than that of their constant companionship. They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek[油光發(fā)亮的], graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome[精神抖擻的]as the horses theyrode, mettlesome and dangerous but, withal[此外], sweet-tempered to those who knew how to handle them.

Although born to the ease of plantation[種植園]life, waited on hand and foot since infancy[嬰兒期], the faces of the three on the porch were neither slack[懶散的]nor soft. They had the vigor[活力]and alertness[機敏]of country people who have spent all their lives in the open and troubled their heads very little with dull[無趣的]things in books. Life in the north Georgia county of Clayton was still new and, according to standards of Augusta, Savannah and Charleston, a little crude[粗野的]. The more sedate[莊重的]and older sections of the South looked down their noses at the up-country Georgians, but here in north Georgia, a lack of the niceties[講究]of classical education carried no shame, provided a man was smart in the things that mattered. And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring[隨伺]the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor[酒]like a gentleman were the things that mattered.

In these accomplishments the twins excelled, and they were equally outstanding in their notorious[臭名昭著的]inability to learn anything contained between the covers of books. Their family had more money, more horses, more slaves than any one else in the County, but the boys had less grammar than most of their poor Cracker neighbors.

It was for this precise reason that Stuart and Brent were idling[無所事事]on the porch of Tara this April afternoon. They had just been expelled[開除]from the University of Georgia, the fourth university that hadthrown them out in two years; and their older brothers, Tom and Boyd, had come home with them, because they refused to remain at an institution where the twins were not welcome. Stuart and Brent considered their latest expulsion[驅逐]a fine joke, and Scarlett, who had not willingly opened a book since leaving the Fayetteville Female Academy the year before, thought it just as amusing as they did.

“I know you two don’t care about being expelled, or Tom either,” she said. “But what about Boyd? He’s kind of set on getting an education, and you two have pulled him out of the University of Virginia and Alabama and South Carolina and now Georgia. He’ll never get finished at this rate.”

“Oh, he can read law in Judge Parmalee’s office over in Fayetteville,” answered Brent carelessly. “Besides, it don’t matter much.注We’d have had to come home before the term was out anyway.”

“Why?”

“The war, goose[傻瓜]! The war’s going to start any day, and you don’t suppose any of us would stay in college with a war going on, do you?”

“You know there isn’t going to be any war,” said Scarlett, bored. “It’s all just talk. Why, Ashley Wilkes and his father told Pa just last week that our commissioners[委員]in Washington would come to—to—an—amicable[友好的]agreement with Mr. Lincoln about the Confederacy[南部聯盟]. And anyway, the Yankees[美國北方人]are too scared of us to fight. There won’t be any war, and I’m tired of hearing about it.”

“Not going to be any war!” cried the twins indignantly[憤慨地], as though they had been defrauded[欺騙].

注：前文已經提到塔爾頓雙胞胎文化程度很低，因此在語言上不時會有各種不太注重語法的隨意表達，此處的don’t應為doesn’t。

And raising good cotton, riding well, shooting straight, dancing lightly, squiring the ladies with elegance and carrying one’s liquor like a gentleman were the things that mattered.

這個句子看著有點長，其實是一個簡單句，用一連串列舉的動名詞結構作為主語，說明以上這些方面就是the things that mattered。雖說在英語行文中，如果遇到主語結構繁復的情況，我們經常用倒裝之類的方式改變句子結構，避免頭重腳輕——而米切爾沒有這樣做，因為這句話的前一句同樣是以the things that mattered結尾，從結構上看更有呼應感；而且，將這一連串動作夾在兩次the things that mattered之間，從語言上看也更顯強調。

地道表達：Cracker

Cracker是個有著豐富含義的單詞。我們在日常生活中最常見的cracker是指松脆的餅干，或是各種噼啪作響的東西，例如爆竹。但這個詞在美國文學中——尤其是南方文學中，其實還可以表示“趕馬車的人”，用來稱呼美國南方的貧苦白人，含有明顯貶義，而在大寫的時候通常特指佐治亞州人或佛羅里達州人。

◆ American Civil War 美國南北戰(zhàn)爭：美國歷史上唯一一次內戰(zhàn)（1861—1865年），參戰(zhàn)雙方為北方的美利堅合眾國和南方的美利堅聯盟國。美國獨立后，南方和北方沿著兩條不同的道路發(fā)展：北方的資本主義經濟迅速發(fā)展，各州開始進入工業(yè)革命；南方依然是種植園經濟與黑人奴隸制度，嚴重阻礙工商業(yè)的發(fā)展。南北矛盾自19世紀初日趨激烈。1860年，主張廢除奴隸制的共和黨人林肯當選總統，南方蓄奴州宣布獨立，次年組成聯盟，內戰(zhàn)爆發(fā)。這場延續(xù)四年的大戰(zhàn)最后以北方軍的勝利而告終，奴隸制被廢除，北方大資產階級確立了統治地位，為美國的資本主義發(fā)展掃清了道路。

屋外，午后的陽光斜照在院子里，把山茱萸的樹影投射到忽隱忽現的亮光中。雖然大自然剛泛出一片新綠，這些山茱萸卻已結滿了一團團、一簇簇潔白的花蕾。兄弟倆的馬拴在車道邊。馬兒高大剽悍，毛色和它們主人的頭發(fā)一樣發(fā)紅。馬的腳邊圍著一群身子瘦長、頗不安分的獵鼠犬。它們吵吵鬧鬧，狂吠不已。不管斯圖爾特和布倫特兄弟倆走到哪里，這群獵犬總是伴隨其左右。較遠處還躺著一條有著黑色斑點的隨車狗。它儼然已是貴族做派，鼻子湊在前爪上，耐心地等著兄弟倆回家吃飯。

在獵犬、馬兒和哥兒倆之間，除了他們一貫的交情外，似乎還有更深一層的親密關系。獵犬和馬兒同樣都是身體健壯、沒有思想的年輕動物。它們毛發(fā)光滑、壯健漂亮、勇猛活躍。而哥兒倆跟他們的坐騎一樣驍勇而頑皮，頑皮得甚至有點危險。但是，誰要是摸清了他們的脾氣，知道如何駕馭他們，他們的性情卻又會好得出奇。

盡管一生下來就在種植園里過著安逸的生活，從娘胎里一落地便由別人從頭到腳地伺候著，可是游廊上三個人的面孔也沒顯得無精打采，或是嬌生慣養(yǎng)；相反，倒是更像那些長年累月在室外勞作、很少費神去思考書中那些無聊之事的鄉(xiāng)下農人，既精力充沛，又警覺活躍。在佐治亞北部的克萊頓縣，生活才剛起步。若用奧古斯塔、薩凡納和查爾斯頓的標準來衡量的話，甚至多少有點原始。在南部開發(fā)較早的地方，那些老成持重的人對身居內陸的佐治亞人老大瞧不起。但在佐治亞北部，只要一個人在重要的事情上精明能干，就算他沒有受過一流的教育，也不是什么丟臉的事。而這些重要的事無非就是：棉花種得好，騎馬騎得棒；槍法準確，舞步輕盈；對女士們表現得舉止優(yōu)雅、態(tài)度殷勤，還有，喝起酒來像個男人。

在這些事情上，兄弟倆自然是出類拔萃的，可他們在學習書本知識方面表現出來的無能同樣遠近聞名。在縣里，他們家比任何人都要有錢，擁有的馬匹和黑奴也更多。可要說到肚里的墨水，在他們那些窮苦的白人鄰居當中，大多數人都比這哥兒倆要強得多。

這個四月的下午，斯圖爾特和布倫特兄弟倆之所以能夠悠閑地躺在塔拉種植園的游廊上，原因正出于此。他們剛剛被佐治亞大學開除出門。這已經是兩年中第四所把他們逐出校門的大學了。他們的兩個哥哥——湯姆和博伊德也跟他們一塊兒打道回府了。這所學校既然不歡迎他們的兩個孿生弟弟，哥哥們也就不愿意再留在那兒了。斯圖爾特和布倫特把這次被校方開除當作絕佳的笑話，而思嘉小姐也跟他們一樣覺得有趣極了。自從一年前離開了費耶特維爾女子學院，她就再也沒有心甘情愿地打開過一本書。

“我知道你們倆根本不會把被開除當回事，湯姆當然也不在乎，”她說，“可是博伊德呢？他一心想接受教育，可你們倆卻一而再、再而三地把他也從大學里拖了出來，先是弗吉尼亞大學，接著是阿拉巴馬大學，再是南卡羅來納大學，現在又是佐治亞大學。他這個愿望是再也實現不了啦。”

“噢，他可以到費耶特維爾的帕馬利法官那里去學法律，”布倫特漫不經心地回答說，“再說，這也沒多大關系。不管怎么樣，我們都得在學期結束之前回家?！?/p>

“為什么？”

“因為戰(zhàn)爭呀，傻瓜！戰(zhàn)爭隨時都可能爆發(fā)，你總不至于認為烽火四起的時候我們還會待在學校里吧？”

“你們知道的，哪會有什么戰(zhàn)爭呀，”思嘉說著，感到有點心煩。“都只是說說罷了。上星期衛(wèi)希禮和他父親還跟我爸爸說，我們在華盛頓的委員們就南部邦聯事宜和林肯先生達成了——哦——令人欣慰的一致意見。無論怎么說，北方佬也害怕我們會跟他們打起來。不會有什么戰(zhàn)爭的，我可不想再聽到這些言論了，煩死人了?！?/p>

“不會有什么戰(zhàn)爭！”兄弟倆憤憤不平地叫了起來，就好像被別人騙了一樣。

（選自譯林出版社版本，有改動）