目 录 上一节 下一节 
这声音如同人间最美妙的音乐一般，渐渐低落，渐渐消逝了。那似梦境般的小姑娘睁着她美丽深邃的大眼睛，依恋地注视着他。那种温情而爽快的感觉从她的眼中传到了他的胸中。最后，她又张开了明亮的翅膀，随着音乐轻盈地飞上了天空，飞得好远好远。一颗颗如同星星一样闪闪发亮的东西从她的身上飘落下来，转眼她就消失不见了。 Tom woke. Was it a dream? Let it pass for one. But who shall say that that sweet young spirit, which in life so yearned to comfort and console the distressed, was forbidden of God to assume this ministry after death? 汤姆从睡梦中惊醒，浑身是汗。这难道是梦吗？就算它是一场美丽的梦幻吧！但那可爱的小精灵曾是那么乐于安慰人间受苦难的人们，给人间留下美丽的东西，谁又敢说她在飞上天后，上帝会对她的这种行为给予禁制呢？ It is a beautiful belief, That ever round our head Are hovering, on angel wings, The spirits of the dead. 这是一种美丽的信仰：仁慈的灵魂，长着天使的翅膀。在我们受苦难的时候,在我们的头顶上,永远地飞翔。 "And behold, the tears of such as were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power, but they had no comforter." --ECCL. 4:1 看哪，受欺压的流泪，谁人安慰，欺压他们的有势力的人，也无人安慰他们。--《传道书》第四章第一节 It took but a short time to familiarize Tom with all that was to be hoped or feared in his new way of life. He was an expert and efficient workman in whatever he undertook; and was, both from habit and principle, prompt and faithful. Quiet and peaceable in his disposition, he hoped, by unremitting diligence, to avert from himself at least a portion of the evils of his condition. He saw enough of abuse and misery to make him sick and weary; but he determined to toil on, with religious patience, committing himself to Him that judgeth righteously, not without hope that some way of escape might yet be opened to him. 汤姆仅花了很短的时间，就对周围的环境非常熟悉了，他知道该依靠什么，得防备什么，只要分给他的活，不管多苦多累，他都干得既利索又漂亮。同时，出于自己的能力，也是出于自己的原则，他总是干得既公正又敏捷。汤姆生性温和恬静，总希望自己在不懈努力和不停地干活中，能稍微改善一下他目前所处的极度恶劣的环境。来到这，他已经见过太多太多欺压、侮辱人的恶性事件，对此他感到特别的厌倦和憎恶。故此他在心里暗暗下了决心，一心一意勤勤恳恳地工作，希望上帝能给自己一个公正合理的安排，从而减轻自己的苦难，但他却从来没有想过要反抗或有逃跑的念头。 
烈格雷先生对汤姆的诸多能干之处早已明察暗访了，他打心眼相信汤姆是个能干、可以大显身手的人。所以汤姆在他眼里是可以造就的优秀奴隶，尽管这样，找不出其它理由，他却憎恨汤姆--也许是出于奴隶主跟奴隶天生的那种敌对关系吧！每次当他在处罚自己的某一黑奴时（这种事情几乎每天都有），他能感觉到汤姆总在旁边默默地注视一切。人类是世界上最优秀的灵感结合体，而人的感觉恰恰是最灵敏最微妙的，即使汤姆不用任何言词表达自己的看法，别人也能感觉得到他在想什么。像汤姆这样一个奴隶的看法，烈格雷先生已经愤怒了。他觉得汤姆时时刻刻在对他的难友们展示出关注和同情，是他不可理喻的。烈格雷先生默默地承受这一切。当初他决定买下汤姆的时候，他决定要把他训练成一名得力的监工--比桑博更听话，更凶残。这样，在他短时间出门时，就可以放心地将庄园里的一些重要事情交给汤姆处理。他在心里这么盘算着，但在他看来，想当一名监工必须具备的条件是心狠、手狠、手比心更狠。由于汤姆对自己同伴的和善态度根本没有达到这一要求，烈格雷先生在心里暗暗计划着如何将汤姆训练成一个凶残的人。因而在汤姆来到庄园生活几个星期后，烈格雷先生就开始了他宏伟的计划。 One morning, when the hands were mustered for the field, Tom noticed, with surprise, a new comer among them, whose appearance excited his attention. It was a woman, tall and slenderly formed, with remarkably delicate hands and feet, and dressed in neat and respectable garments. By the appearance of her face, she might have been between thirty-five and forty; and it was a face that, once seen, could never be forgotten,--one of those that, at a glance, seem to convey to us an idea of a wild, painful, and romantic history. Her forehead was high, and her eyebrows marked with beautiful clearness. Her straight, well-formed nose, her finely-cut mouth, and the graceful contour of her head and neck, showed that she must once have been beautiful; but her face was deeply wrinkled with lines of pain, and of proud and bitter endurance. Her complexion was sallow and unhealthy, her cheeks thin, her features sharp, and her whole form emaciated. But her eye was the most remarkable feature,--so large, so heavily black, overshadowed by long lashes of equal darkness, and so wildly, mournfully despairing. There was a fierce pride and defiance in every line of her face, in every curve of the flexible lip, in every motion of her body; but in her eye was a deep, settled night of anguish,--an expression so hopeless and unchanging as to contrast fearfully with the scorn and pride expressed by her whole demeanor. 几天后的一个早晨，天刚朦朦亮，催命的哨声中黑奴们正手慌脚乱地集合准备去地里干活。无意间汤姆惊讶地看见他们中间多了一个女人，她娇好的面宠强烈地吸引住他。目光久久地盯在她的脸上身上打量着，这是一位身材高挑的女人，鲜艳整洁的衣服更托出她身体的匀称与丰韵。从表面上看，她最多不过三十几岁。这正是一位成熟妩媚女人的年龄，只需你稍稍瞥上一眼，你就能认定这个女人的背后一定隐藏着一段沧桑浪漫不平凡的故事。她的额头很高，眼睛大而清彻，小巧的鼻子挺拔匀称，嘴唇鲜艳圆润，头部到颈部的线条更是优柔典雅，端庄动人。不难看出，她以前准是人们公认的大美人。可现在岁月在她脸上无情地刻下了皱纹。饱经风霜的她面色灰白，两颊深陷，身体单薄清瘦，形色憔悴。唯一引人注目的是她那双又黑又大的眼睛，浓密曲卷的睫毛突闪突闪。她的眼神美丽而凄惶，狂野而绝望，在她身上的每一个动作，脸上的每一个表情甚至岁月留下的皱纹里，都表明她狂妄自大、目空一切。只有她的眼睛里流露出深深的创伤和凝滞的痛苦，与她的神色相比这无疑是一种鲜明的对比。 Where she came from, or who she was, Tom did not know. The first he did know, she was walking by his side, erect and proud, in the dim gray of the dawn. To the gang, however, she was known; for there was much looking and turning of heads, and a smothered yet apparent exultation among the miserable, ragged, half-starved creatures by whom she was surrounded. 汤姆对她的身世毫无知晓，她究竟从何而来，在这扮演过什么样的角色，他不太清楚。对她而言，汤姆只知道在黎明的曙光中，她看起来是那么地傲慢，不可一世的样子。走在其它那些衣衫破烂的人当中，别人好像都不认识她。那些衣角破烂的人们带着掩饰不住的兴奋，都纷纷调过头去看她。 "Got to come to it, at last,--grad of it!" said one." 我真高兴，终于看见她落到了这一步！"一个黑奴兴奋地说。 "He! he! he!" said another; "you'll know how good it is, Misse!"" 嘿！嘿嘿！嘿嘿嘿！"嘻笑着，另外一个黑奴不怀好意地叫道："高贵的夫人，您哪能承受这般苦难呀！" 
我倒想看看，看她干活的样子。" "Wonder if she'll get a cutting up, at night, like the rest of us!"" 恐怕她会跟我们一样倒霉，晚上还要被狠狠地揍上一顿？" "I'd be glad to see her down for a flogging, I'll bound!" said another." 说不准还能看见她趴在地上挨打呢！"又有一个人说："哪才叫快活。" The woman took no notice of these taunts, but walked on, with the same expression of angry scorn, as if she heard nothing. Tom had always lived among refined, and cultivated people, and he felt intuitively, from her air and bearing, that she belonged to that class; but how or why she could be fallen to those degrading circumstances, he could not tell. The women neither looked at him nor spoke to him, though, all the way to the field, she kept close at his side. 七嘴八舌，众议纷纷，那女人好像听不见他们的说话，脸上仍是一副清高、孤傲的表情，根本不理会这些热嘲冷讽，她依旧向前走着。汤姆从她的神态和气质中本能地意识到她应属于那一类人，以前自己也习惯和一些举止文雅、言谈有理的人打交道。为什么她会沦落到如此卑微的地步？他不明白。大伙儿嚷嚷闹闹地往目的地走，这段时间尽管他没跟那女人说上一句话，也没回头看她，但他能感觉到她一直走在他的侧后面。 Tom was soon busy at his work; but, as the woman was at no great distance from him, he often glanced an eye to her, at her work. He saw, at a glance, that a native adroitness and handiness made the task to her an easier one than it proved to many. She picked very fast and very clean, and with an air of scorn, as if she despised both the work and the disgrace and humiliation of the circumstances in which she was placed. 不久便到了目的地，汤姆开始忙着干活，但眼睛却在四处搜寻，那女人离他不远，汤姆不时地望她一眼。从她摘棉花的灵活的动作，他就敢认定这女人天生能干。尽管很多人却觉得这种活繁琐单调让人疲劳，但她干起来却似乎在做一个轻松愉快的事情，棉花在她的麻袋里慢慢地鼓了起来，从她脸上不变的神色看来，这种活似乎难不倒她，她似乎也不在乎自己所处的这种卑贱的境地。 
这天有好一会，汤姆跟那位同他一起买来的混血女人在一起干活。每当她虚弱站立不稳快要栽倒的时候，汤姆就能听到她的祈祷声音，容易看出，她一定正在经历着非同一般的痛苦折磨。在他走近她时，便很快地从自己的麻袋里抓几把棉花塞进了她的麻袋里。 "O, don't, don't!" said the woman, looking surprised; "it'll get you into trouble."" 别这样，我不能要！"女人慌乱地叫道，"你会给自己惹麻烦的。" Just then Sambo came up. He seemed to have a special spite against this woman; and, flourishing his whip, said, in brutal, guttural tones, "What dis yer, Luce,--foolin' a'" and, with the word, kicking the woman with his heavy cowhide shoe, he struck Tom across the face with his whip. 没等她说完，桑博拿着条鞭子走了过来。看得出他对这个女人特别憎恨，举起鞭子威胁道："干什么？想骗人吗？露西，还给他。"愤怒中抬起了穿着沉重牛皮靴的脚狠狠地向她踢去，还不忘举起了鞭子向汤姆一扬，顿时汤姆的脸上出现了红红的一条印记。 Tom silently resumed his task; but the woman, before at the last point of exhaustion, fainted. 汤姆没有反抗继续默默地干活，那女人却受不了这一折腾，身子一晃栽倒在地上。 "I'll bring her to!" said the driver, with a brutal grin. "I'll give her something better than camphire!" and, taking a pin from his coat-sleeve, he buried it to the head in her flesh. The woman groaned, and half rose. "Get up, you beast, and work, will yer, or I'll show yer a trick more!"" 装死，我有办法让她醒来！"监工走了过来。"我要让她服一种药，这种药比世界上任何治脑子的药都管用多了！"他狰狞地笑道，边说着边从自己的袖口上取下了一枚很粗的别针，瞧着混血女人的头用力地扎了下去。"哎哟！"只听见女人呻吟，她摇摇晃晃地挣扎着爬起来。"畜生，死人，你装什么蒜！快起来干活，听见没有？给老子起来干活！要不然的话，我非要你的命！" 
挣扎着爬了起来，那女人似乎害怕了，硬撑着干起活来。
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