Gone with the Wind

Gone with the Wind

玛格丽特·米切尔（1900—1949年）是一个传奇。她在因车祸而结束的短暂一生中仅仅出版了一本书——但也就是这部作品，一经面世便引起全民追捧热潮，上市初期日销售量超过五万册，是美国乃至全球最畅销的小说之一。根据小说改编而成的同名电影（译名《乱世佳人》）同样是好莱坞最经典的爱情电影之一，费雯·丽（Vivien Leigh）倩影如画，克拉克·盖博（Clark Gable）风度翩翩，至今仍让万千影迷津津乐道。

《飘》是一部关于美国南北战争的小说，但米切尔并没有把笔墨放在直接的战场描写上，而是通过主人公郝思嘉（一译斯嘉丽·奥哈拉）的爱情波折与生活磨难，从南方女性的角度来叙述战争对每一个人的深远影响。在这股社会变更的巨大洪流当中，郝思嘉以自私自利、机敏狡诈，但又直面现实、顽强奋斗的鲜明个性，与“明天又是另外一天”（Tomorrow is another day）的经典台词一道，在世界文坛留下永不褪色的华美形象。

本期节选出自第一部第一章，透过塔尔顿家双胞胎与郝思嘉的对话交代了大战在即、风雨欲来的故事背景……

Outside, the late afternoon sun slanted[倾斜]down in the yard, throwing into gleaming[闪闪发光的]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[抓负鼠的猎犬]that accompanied Stuart and Brent wherever they went. A little aloof[远离的], as became an aristocrat[贵族], lay a black-spotted carriage dog, muzzle[动物的鼻口]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[亲密关系]deeper than that of their constant companionship. They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek[油光发亮的], graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome[精神抖擞的]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[种植园]life, waited on hand and foot since infancy[婴儿期], the faces of the three on the porch were neither slack[懒散的]nor soft. They had the vigor[活力]and alertness[机敏]of country people who have spent all their lives in the open and troubled their heads very little with dull[无趣的]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[庄重的]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[讲究]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[随伺]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[无所事事]on the porch of Tara this April afternoon. They had just been expelled[开除]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[驱逐]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[委员]in Washington would come to—to—an—amicable[友好的]agreement with Mr. Lincoln about the Confederacy[南部联盟]. And anyway, the Yankees[美国北方人]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[愤慨地], as though they had been defrauded[欺骗].

注：前文已经提到塔尔顿双胞胎文化程度很低，因此在语言上不时会有各种不太注重语法的随意表达，此处的don’t应为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.

这个句子看着有点长，其实是一个简单句，用一连串列举的动名词结构作为主语，说明以上这些方面就是the things that mattered。虽说在英语行文中，如果遇到主语结构繁复的情况，我们经常用倒装之类的方式改变句子结构，避免头重脚轻——而米切尔没有这样做，因为这句话的前一句同样是以the things that mattered结尾，从结构上看更有呼应感；而且，将这一连串动作夹在两次the things that mattered之间，从语言上看也更显强调。

地道表达：Cracker

Cracker是个有着丰富含义的单词。我们在日常生活中最常见的cracker是指松脆的饼干，或是各种噼啪作响的东西，例如爆竹。但这个词在美国文学中——尤其是南方文学中，其实还可以表示“赶马车的人”，用来称呼美国南方的贫苦白人，含有明显贬义，而在大写的时候通常特指佐治亚州人或佛罗里达州人。

◆ American Civil War 美国南北战争：美国历史上唯一一次内战（1861—1865年），参战双方为北方的美利坚合众国和南方的美利坚联盟国。美国独立后，南方和北方沿着两条不同的道路发展：北方的资本主义经济迅速发展，各州开始进入工业革命；南方依然是种植园经济与黑人奴隶制度，严重阻碍工商业的发展。南北矛盾自19世纪初日趋激烈。1860年，主张废除奴隶制的共和党人林肯当选总统，南方蓄奴州宣布独立，次年组成联盟，内战爆发。这场延续四年的大战最后以北方军的胜利而告终，奴隶制被废除，北方大资产阶级确立了统治地位，为美国的资本主义发展扫清了道路。

屋外，午后的阳光斜照在院子里，把山茱萸的树影投射到忽隐忽现的亮光中。虽然大自然刚泛出一片新绿，这些山茱萸却已结满了一团团、一簇簇洁白的花蕾。兄弟俩的马拴在车道边。马儿高大剽悍，毛色和它们主人的头发一样发红。马的脚边围着一群身子瘦长、颇不安分的猎鼠犬。它们吵吵闹闹，狂吠不已。不管斯图尔特和布伦特兄弟俩走到哪里，这群猎犬总是伴随其左右。较远处还躺着一条有着黑色斑点的随车狗。它俨然已是贵族做派，鼻子凑在前爪上，耐心地等着兄弟俩回家吃饭。

在猎犬、马儿和哥儿俩之间，除了他们一贯的交情外，似乎还有更深一层的亲密关系。猎犬和马儿同样都是身体健壮、没有思想的年轻动物。它们毛发光滑、壮健漂亮、勇猛活跃。而哥儿俩跟他们的坐骑一样骁勇而顽皮，顽皮得甚至有点危险。但是，谁要是摸清了他们的脾气，知道如何驾驭他们，他们的性情却又会好得出奇。

尽管一生下来就在种植园里过着安逸的生活，从娘胎里一落地便由别人从头到脚地伺候着，可是游廊上三个人的面孔也没显得无精打采，或是娇生惯养；相反，倒是更像那些长年累月在室外劳作、很少费神去思考书中那些无聊之事的乡下农人，既精力充沛，又警觉活跃。在佐治亚北部的克莱顿县，生活才刚起步。若用奥古斯塔、萨凡纳和查尔斯顿的标准来衡量的话，甚至多少有点原始。在南部开发较早的地方，那些老成持重的人对身居内陆的佐治亚人老大瞧不起。但在佐治亚北部，只要一个人在重要的事情上精明能干，就算他没有受过一流的教育，也不是什么丢脸的事。而这些重要的事无非就是：棉花种得好，骑马骑得棒；枪法准确，舞步轻盈；对女士们表现得举止优雅、态度殷勤，还有，喝起酒来像个男人。

在这些事情上，兄弟俩自然是出类拔萃的，可他们在学习书本知识方面表现出来的无能同样远近闻名。在县里，他们家比任何人都要有钱，拥有的马匹和黑奴也更多。可要说到肚里的墨水，在他们那些穷苦的白人邻居当中，大多数人都比这哥儿俩要强得多。

这个四月的下午，斯图尔特和布伦特兄弟俩之所以能够悠闲地躺在塔拉种植园的游廊上，原因正出于此。他们刚刚被佐治亚大学开除出门。这已经是两年中第四所把他们逐出校门的大学了。他们的两个哥哥——汤姆和博伊德也跟他们一块儿打道回府了。这所学校既然不欢迎他们的两个孪生弟弟，哥哥们也就不愿意再留在那儿了。斯图尔特和布伦特把这次被校方开除当作绝佳的笑话，而思嘉小姐也跟他们一样觉得有趣极了。自从一年前离开了费耶特维尔女子学院，她就再也没有心甘情愿地打开过一本书。

“我知道你们俩根本不会把被开除当回事，汤姆当然也不在乎，”她说，“可是博伊德呢？他一心想接受教育，可你们俩却一而再、再而三地把他也从大学里拖了出来，先是弗吉尼亚大学，接着是阿拉巴马大学，再是南卡罗来纳大学，现在又是佐治亚大学。他这个愿望是再也实现不了啦。”

“噢，他可以到费耶特维尔的帕马利法官那里去学法律，”布伦特漫不经心地回答说，“再说，这也没多大关系。不管怎么样，我们都得在学期结束之前回家。”

“为什么？”

“因为战争呀，傻瓜！战争随时都可能爆发，你总不至于认为烽火四起的时候我们还会待在学校里吧？”

“你们知道的，哪会有什么战争呀，”思嘉说着，感到有点心烦。“都只是说说罢了。上星期卫希礼和他父亲还跟我爸爸说，我们在华盛顿的委员们就南部邦联事宜和林肯先生达成了——哦——令人欣慰的一致意见。无论怎么说，北方佬也害怕我们会跟他们打起来。不会有什么战争的，我可不想再听到这些言论了，烦死人了。”

“不会有什么战争！”兄弟俩愤愤不平地叫了起来，就好像被别人骗了一样。

（选自译林出版社版本，有改动）