名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第100节


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  你怎么这么淘气呢,托普西?你难道不想做个人见人爱的乖孩子吗?难道你谁都不爱吗,托普西?"

   "Donno nothing 'bout love; I loves candy and sich, that's all," said Topsy."

  爱是什么?我不懂。我只喜欢糖果这类东西,就这些。"托普西说。

   "But you love your father and mother?""

  那你总该爱你的爸爸妈妈吧?"

   "Never had none, ye know. I telled ye that, Miss Eva.""

  我从来就没有爸爸妈妈,你是知道的。我记得曾经告诉过你,对吧,伊娃小姐?"

   "O, I know," said Eva, sadly; "but hadn't you any brother, or sister, or aunt, or--""

  哦,我想起来了,"伊娃难过地说,"可你总得有兄弟姐妹,或是姨妈什么的……"

  没有,全都没有,什么都没有。"

   "But, Topsy, if you'd only try to be good, you might--""

  可是,托普西,只要你想学好,你肯定会--"

   "Couldn't never be nothin' but a nigger, if I was ever so good," said Topsy. "If I could be skinned, and come white, I'd try then.""

  什么都不想,什么都干不了,我就是个小黑鬼而已,我学得再好也没有用。要是能把我的皮剥了换成白的,我倒愿意试试。"

   "But people can love you, if you are black, Topsy. Miss Ophelia would love you, if you were good.""

  可是,是黑人又怎么样呢?大家也会爱你的。只要你表现得乖乖的,我相信奥菲利亚小姐就会爱你的。"

   Topsy gave the short, blunt laugh that was her common mode of expressing incredulity.

  托普西短促而坦率地一笑,通常这表示她的怀疑。

  你不相信吗?"伊娃说。

   "No; she can't bar me, 'cause I'm a nigger!--she'd 's soon have a toad touch her! There can't nobody love niggers, and niggers can't do nothin'! _I_ don't care," said Topsy, beginning to whistle."

  不相信,奥菲利亚小姐讨厌我这个黑丫头,她甚至都害怕我碰她一根指头。没人会喜欢黑鬼的,这可一点办法都没有。不过,我也不在乎。"说着,托普西就吹起口哨来。

   "O, Topsy, poor child, _I_ love you!" said Eva, with a sudden burst of feeling, and laying her little thin, white hand on Topsy's shoulder; "I love you, because you haven't had any father, or mother, or friends;--because you've been a poor, abused child! I love you, and I want you to be good. I am very unwell, Topsy, and I think I shan't live a great while; and it really grieves me, to have you be so naughty. I wish you would try to be good, for my sake;--it's only a little while I shall be with you.""

  噢,托普西,可怜的孩子!谁说没人爱你呢?我就爱你!"伊娃热切地说。她把白嫩纤瘦的小手搭在托普西肩上,继续动情地说,"托普西,我爱你,因为你无父无母,孤单一人,可怜无依,受尽欺负。托普西,我爱你,真心希望你能做个好孩子。你知道吗?我现在病得很严重,恐怕没有几天好活了,看见你这样顽皮,我真的很难过。托普西,你能为了我的缘故,努力学好吗?我们呆在一起的时间不多了。"

   The round, keen eyes of the black child were overcast with tears;--large, bright drops rolled heavily down, one by one, and fell on the little white hand. Yes, in that moment, a ray of real belief, a ray of heavenly love, had penetrated the darkness of her heathen soul! She laid her head down between her knees, and wept and sobbed,--while the beautiful child, bending over her, looked like the picture of some bright angel stooping to reclaim a sinner.

  那黑姑娘灵动的大眼睛里蒙上了一层泪水,大滴大滴晶莹透亮的泪珠顺着她的脸颊流下来,沾湿了伊娃白皙的小手。谁能想到,就在这一刹那,一道真诚信任的光芒,一道圣洁无私的爱的光芒竟穿透了那孩子蒙昧黑暗的心!她把头埋在臂弯里,抽抽搭搭地哭起来。美丽的伊娃向她俯过身去。这场面真是一幅人间至善至美的图画,一个光明天使正在弯腰感化一个罪人。

   "Poor Topsy!" said Eva, "don't you know that Jesus loves all alike? He is just as willing to love you, as me. He loves you just as I do,--only more, because he is better. He will help you to be good; and you can go to Heaven at last, and be an angel forever, just as much as if you were white. Only think of it, Topsy!--_you_ can be one of those spirits bright, Uncle Tom sings about.""

  可怜的托普西,"伊娃说,"你不知道上帝是爱我们每个人的吗?他爱你,就像我爱你一样,他比我爱得更深呢!因为他比我更好,他会好好帮助你的,最后他也会把你带到天堂去,那时你就成个天使啦,和白人一样。托普西,想想看,你也可以成为汤姆叔叔歌声中光明天使的一员呢!"

  噢,亲爱的伊娃小姐,我一定会努力学好的,一定会的,以前我可从来没想过这个。"那孩子说道。

   St. Clare, at this instant, dropped the curtain. "It puts me in mind of mother," he said to Miss Ophelia. "It is true what she told me; if we want to give sight to the blind, we must be willing to do as Christ did,--call them to us, and _put our hands on them_."

  这时,圣克莱尔放下门帘,对奥菲利亚说:"这让我想起了母亲。她曾经跟我说过,如果我们想让盲人感到光明,就得像基督一样把他们召到身边,亲手触摸他们。"

   "I've always had a prejudice against negroes," said Miss Ophelia, "and it's a fact, I never could bear to have that child touch me; but, I don't think she knew it.""

  我承认我对黑人一直有偏见,"奥菲利亚小姐说,"而且,我确实不能想象被那黑孩子碰一下是什么滋味,想不到这孩子居然知道。"

   "Trust any child to find that out," said St. Clare; "there's no keeping it from them. But I believe that all the trying in the world to benefit a child, and all the substantial favors you can do them, will never excite one emotion of gratitude, while that feeling of repugnance remains in the heart;--it's a queer kind of a fact,--but so it is.""

  当然啦,孩子们总是很敏感的,别想瞒住他们什么。只要心中稍微有点嫌恶他们的想法,就算你想尽办法用物质笼络他们都没用,他们是一点都不买帐的。这些事看来很奇怪,但就是这个样子。"

   "I don't know how I can help it," said Miss Ophelia; "they _are_ disagreeable to me,--this child in particular,--how can I help feeling so?""

  我真不知道该怎么办,"奥菲利亚小姐说,"我心里就是厌恶他们,尤其是这个小黑鬼。我怎么可能装出若无其事的样子呢?"

  伊娃似乎就可以。"圣克莱尔说。

   "Well, she's so loving! After all, though, she's no more than Christ-like," said Miss Ophelia; "I wish I were like her. She might teach me a lesson.""

  噢,她真是富于爱心。不过,归根结底,这是基督精神的体现,但愿我也能像她一样。也许,我能从她身上学到些东西。"

   "It wouldn't be the first time a little child had been used to instruct an old disciple, if it _were_ so," said St. Clare."

  如果是那样的话,那可不是第一次老门徒受教于一个小孩子了。"圣克莱尔说。

   CHAPTER XXVI

  第二十六章 

   Death

  归天

  生命之花初绽,死神已然来临;世上幸存之人,切勿悲伤哭泣。

   Eva's bed-room was a spacious apartment, which, like all the other robins in the house, opened on to the broad verandah. The room communicated, on one side, with her father and mother's apartment; on the other, with that appropriated to Miss Ophelia. St. Clare had gratified his own eye and taste, in furnishing this room in a style that had a peculiar keeping with the character of her for whom it was intended. The windows were hung with curtains of rose-colored and white muslin, the floor was spread with a matting which had been ordered in Paris, to a pattern of his own device, having round it a border of rose-buds and leaves, and a centre-piece with full-flown roses. The bedstead, chairs, and lounges, were of bamboo, wrought in peculiarly graceful and fanciful patterns. Over the head of the bed was an alabaster bracket, on which a beautiful sculptured angel stood, with drooping wings, holding out a crown of myrtle-leaves. From this depended, over the bed, light curtains of rose-colored gauze, striped with silver, supplying that protection from mosquitos which is an indispensable addition to all sleeping accommodation in that climate. The graceful bamboo lounges were amply supplied with cushions of rose-colored damask, while over them, depending from the hands of sculptured figures, were gauze curtains similar to those of the bed. A light, fanciful bamboo table stood in the middle of the room, where a Parian vase, wrought in the shape of a white lily, with its buds, stood, ever filled with flowers. On this table lay Eva's books and little trinkets, with an elegantly wrought alabaster writing-stand, which her father had supplied to her when he saw her trying to improve herself in writing. There was a fireplace in the room, and on the marble mantle above stood a beautifully wrought statuette of Jesus receiving little children, and on either side marble vases, for which it was Tom's pride and delight to offer bouquets every morning. Two or three exquisite paintings of children, in various attitudes, embellished the wall. In short, the eye could turn nowhere without meeting images of childhood, of beauty, and of peace. Those little eyes never opened, in the morning light, without falling on something which suggested to the heart soothing and beautiful thoughts.

  伊娃的房间面朝着宽阔的走廊,和其他房间一样。屋子在圣克莱尔夫妇和奥菲利亚小姐的房间之问。这间房完全是圣克莱尔根据自己的眼光和喜好布置的,风格与小主人的性格正相宜。窗户上挂的窗帘是玫瑰色和白色细纹棉布的,地毯是从巴黎定做回来的,上面的图案是圣克莱尔自己设计的,图案中间是一丛欲放的玫瑰,四周是一圈含苞怒放的蓓蕾和繁茂的绿叶。竹制的床、椅子和卧榻式样别致,床顶的造型格外新颖,是一个雪花石膏托架上站着一位美丽的天使,天使的两只翅膀倒垂着,手中托着一个山桃叶的花冠。托架上挂着一顶银色条纹的玫瑰色罗纱帐,用来抵挡蚊子的侵扰,这是炎热气候中所不可或缺的,好几张竹榻上都挂着同样的玫瑰色蚊帐。房间中央那新颖雅致的竹桌上放着一只帕罗斯花瓶,插着待放的白色百合--花瓶里的鲜花从来没有断过。桌上还放着伊娃的书本和玩意儿及一件精美的雪花石膏文具架--这是圣克莱尔专为女儿读书写字用的。房间里有一个大壁炉,大理石的壁炉架上供着一尊耶稣接待儿童的小型雕像,两旁是一对大理石花瓶,花瓶里的鲜花是汤姆每天清晨采集的,这可是他尽心完成的一项工作。房间的墙壁上挂着两三幅精美的油画,画着神态各异的孩子。伊娃的房间,一眼望去就让人感到金色童年的美好,还有一种特有的宁馨。每天早上伊娃睁开眼,看到周围的一切如此美妙,总止不住悠然而升起许多遐想。

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名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第100节