名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第31节


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  博德夫人连忙把她刚才整理好的东西放到一个小箱子里锁好,并告诉博德先生照看好箱子,然后她就赶去叫那个女人。很快,那个女人已穿戴好博德夫人给的衣帽,手抱孩子站在了门口。博德先生连忙让她上了马车,博德夫人紧跟着马车走了几步。艾莉查把头从车中伸了出来,并伸出了自己的手,博德夫人那双美丽柔嫩的小手也伸了过去。艾莉查盯着博德夫人的脸,眼神中满是诚挚。她看起来想说几句话,她试着动了动嘴唇,但却没有发出声音,然后她把手指向上指着,那情形很难让人忘记。最后她向后倒在座位上,用双手盖在脸上。然后车门被关上了,马车开始出发。

   What a situation, now, for a patriotic senator, that had been all the week before spurring up the legislature of his native state to pass more stringent resolutions against escaping fugitives, their harborers and abettors!

  此时,我们这位爱国的议员是处在一个多么尴尬的境地啊!上周他还在忙着推动立法机关通过一条法律,以更加严厉地惩处那些逃跑的奴隶以及那些窝藏、教唆他们的人。

   Our good senator in his native state had not been exceeded by any of his brethren at Washington, in the sort of eloquence which has won for them immortal renown! How sublimely he had sat with his hands in his pockets, and scouted all sentimental weakness of those who would put the welfare of a few miserable fugitives before great state interests!

  这位优秀的议员的家乡是华盛顿,在那里,他的口才比他所有的同胞都要好,尽管有些人曾因为他们的口才而获得过长时间的名声。当有人把为数不多的逃奴的利益放在具有重大意义的国家利益之上时,他显得是那样地威严,把手伸进口袋里,根本看不起这些人的感情用事。

   He was as bold as a lion about it, and "mightily convinced" not only himself, but everybody that heard him;--but then his idea of a fugitive was only an idea of the letters that spell the word,--or at the most, the image of a little newspaper picture of a man with a stick and bundle with "Ran away from the subscriber" under it. The magic of the real presence of distress,--the imploring human eye, the frail, trembling human hand, the despairing appeal of helpless agony,--these he had never tried. He had never thought that a fugitive might be a hapless mother, a defenceless child,--like that one which was now wearing his lost boy's little well-known cap; and so, as our poor senator was not stone or steel,--as he was a man, and a downright noble-hearted one, too,--he was, as everybody must see, in a sad case for his patriotism. And you need not exult over him, good brother of the Southern States; for we have some inklings that many of you, under similar circumstances, would not do much better. We have reason to know, in Kentucky, as in Mississippi, are noble and generous hearts, to whom never was tale of suffering told in vain. Ah, good brother! is it fair for you to expect of us services which your own brave, honorable heart would not allow you to render, were you in our place?

  以前他曾经坚决地捍卫他的观点,而且他不仅让自己,而且也让当时所有在场的人也相信自己的观点--但是当时他对于逃奴的理解不过是组成这个单词的那几个字母而已,--也可以这样说,顶多也不过是报纸上面刊登的手拄棍杖,背着包袱的小图片,在图片下面写着"我家的逃奴"而已。但说起来那现实生活中实在的苦难--那央求的眼神,纤弱、颤抖的双手,那无助的绝望的哀求--这些都是他以前从来没有感受到的。他从来没有把逃奴想象为一位不幸的母亲,一个心无防范的小孩子--就好像那个戴着他夭折的孩子的小帽子的孩子;而且,我们这位可怜的议员先生并不是硬心肠,他是人,而且是一个道德高尚的人,现在,我们可以看出,爱国主义情感使他陷进了非常悲惨的地步。南方各个州的同胞啊!你们不要幸灾乐祸了,因为我们知道你们之中的绝大多数人遇到这样的情况,也不会做得更好。我们知道,在肯塔基和密西西比,那里有许许多多高尚仁厚的人,他们不会为这些不幸的描述所感动。啊,同胞们!如果你们处在我的地位,你们勇敢、高尚的心灵不允许你们做这种事,而你们却想让我们去做,难道这公平吗?

   Be that as it may, if our good senator was a political sinner, he was in a fair way to expiate it by his night's penance. There had been a long continuous period of rainy weather, and the soft, rich earth of Ohio, as every one knows, is admirably suited to the manufacture of mud--and the road was an Ohio railroad of the good old times.

  尽管如此,如果我们把这位诚实的议员先生称做政治犯,那么他那晚上所遭受的罪和苦也足以使他抵消他的罪过了。人们知道,刚刚过去的漫长的雨季,使得俄亥俄州松软的泥土极易成为泥浆,他们走的是俄亥俄州那条旧的横木组成的火车轨道。

  老天,这是怎样的一条路啊?"一个来自东部的乘客喊了一声,平日里他见到的火车轨道不是这样子的,他见到的是畅通、方便的大路。

   Know, then, innocent eastern friend, that in benighted regions of the west, where the mud is of unfathomable and sublime depth, roads are made of round rough logs, arranged transversely side by side, and coated over in their pristine freshness with earth, turf, and whatsoever may come to hand, and then the rejoicing native calleth it a road, and straightway essayeth to ride thereupon. In process of time, the rains wash off all the turf and grass aforesaid, move the logs hither and thither, in picturesque positions, up, down and crosswise, with divers chasms and ruts of black mud intervening.

  不熟悉情况的东部同胞啊,你要知道,对于在天黑后仍在赶路的西部人来说,泥浆很多而且很深的地方的道路是由许多很粗糙的圆木并排放在一起而组成的。在圆木的周围堆放着新鲜的泥土、草泥以及一些随手可得到的东西,当地人把这称之为路,然后就马上驾车试探着上路了。经过一段时间,雨水把圆木上的泥土和草泥都冲洗掉了,圆木也被冲得到处都是,它们杂乱无序地排列在那里,中间布满了泥坑和车辙。

   Over such a road as this our senator went stumbling along, making moral reflections as continuously as under the circumstances could be expected,--the carriage proceeding along much as follows,--bump! bump! bump! slush! down in the mud!--the senator, woman and child, reversing their positions so suddenly as to come, without any very accurate adjustment, against the windows of the down-hill side. Carriage sticks fast, while Cudjoe on the outside is heard making a great muster among the horses. After various ineffectual pullings and twitchings, just as the senator is losing all patience, the carriage suddenly rights itself with a bounce,--two front wheels go down into another abyss, and senator, woman, and child, all tumble promiscuously on to the front seat,--senator's hat is jammed over his eyes and nose quite unceremoniously, and he considers himself fairly extinguished;--child cries, and Cudjoe on the outside delivers animated addresses to the horses, who are kicking, and floundering, and straining under repeated cracks of the whip. Carriage springs up, with another bounce,--down go the hind wheels,--senator, woman, and child, fly over on to the back seat, his elbows encountering her bonnet, and both her feet being jammed into his hat, which flies off in the concussion. After a few moments the "slough" is passed, and the horses stop, panting;--the senator finds his hat, the woman straightens her bonnet and hushes her child, and they brace themselves for what is yet to come.

  我们的议员先生就这样缓慢地在这样的道路上走着,正如人们可以想到的,一路上,他都在不断地反复考虑着自己的品德,大部分时间中,马车都是咣噹!咣噹!咣噹地向前行进着,烂泥!车陷进去了,突然之间,议员、女人和孩子互相调换了位置,还没等他们调换坐好,他们又被猛然挤到朝下的车窗户旁边。马车陷在泥里,不能向前移动。车外,车夫在吆喝着那几匹马,这些马又是拉又是拽,但是没什么作用,正当议员失去耐性时,马车又突然向上弹了一下,改变了原来的方位,它的两只前车轮深深地陷进了另一边的泥坑中,议员、女人和孩子又被抛向了前面的位子,议员的帽子遮住了他的面庞,显得很是狼狈,他感到自己都快要支撑不住了,小男孩也在哭着,卡乔在大声地喝叱着那几匹马,并不停地用鞭子抽打着它们,马胡乱地蹬着,使劲地拉着。紧接着马车又弹了起来,颠了一下,这一颠使得后轮飞了,议员、女人和孩子又被重新抛向后座,他的胳膊碰到了女人的帽子,女人的脚踩在了议员那个被震飞的帽子上。女人把帽子弄平整,哄着孩子,他们已重新打起精神来面对即将到来的情形。

   For a while only the continuous bump! bump! intermingled, just by way of variety, with divers side plunges and compound shakes; and they begin to flatter themselves that they are not so badly off, after all. At last, with a square plunge, which puts all on to their feet and then down into their seats with incredible quickness, the carriage stops,--and, after much outside commotion, Cudjoe appears at the door.

  马车仍在"咣噹"、"咣噹"、"咣噹"地向前行着,不时地会有一些左右颠簸和很大的震荡,他们暗自庆幸情况还不算太坏。最后,马车猛然颤动着停了下来。坐车的人下意识地站起来又坐下,动作异常迅速。外面一阵混乱,然后卡乔出现在了车门口。

   "Please, sir, it's powerful bad spot, this' yer. I don't know how we's to get clar out. I'm a thinkin' we'll have to be a gettin' rails.""

  老爷,今年这里太不幸了,真不知我们怎样才能走出去。我想我们该去坐火车了。"

  议员非常气愤,他走下车小心谨慎地向前试探着走去,他的一只脚陷进了深深的污泥中,他试着拔出脚,却一时失去了平衡而跌倒在泥浆中,卡乔把他拉了起来,他看上去狼狈极了。

   But we forbear, out of sympathy to our readers' bones. Western travellers, who have beguiled the midnight hour in the interesting process of pulling down rail fences, to pry their carriages out of mud holes, will have a respectful and mournful sympathy with our unfortunate hero. We beg them to drop a silent tear, and pass on.

  出于对读者的无限同情,我们仍在忍耐着。那些西部乘客用从铁道边拔下的栅栏来撬深陷在污泥中的马车,他们兴趣盎然地做着这些事,以此来打发午夜的时光。对于我们不幸的主人公,他们既佩服又怜悯。让我们请他们黯然掉几滴眼泪,然后再驾车离去吧。

   It was full late in the night when the carriage emerged, dripping and bespattered, out of the creek, and stood at the door of a large farmhouse.

  沾满了泥浆的马车终于脱离了这难堪的境地,来到了一座大的农舍前,此时夜已经很深了。

   It took no inconsiderable perseverance to arouse the inmates; but at last the respectable proprietor appeared, and undid the door. He was a great, tall, bristling Orson of a fellow, full six feet and some inches in his stockings, and arrayed in a red flannel hunting-shirt. A very heavy mat of sandy hair, in a decidedly tousled condition, and a beard of some days' growth, gave the worthy man an appearance, to say the least, not particularly prepossessing. He stood for a few minutes holding the candle aloft, and blinking on our travellers with a dismal and mystified expression that was truly ludicrous. It cost some effort of our senator to induce him to comprehend the case fully; and while he is doing his best at that, we shall give him a little introduction to our readers.

  他们花费了很大的气力才叫醒了屋里的人。那位值得我们尊重的主人终于打开门,出现在大家面前。他身材魁梧,是位性情暴烈的奥森式人物。他足穿六英尺八英寸高的长统袜,身穿红色法兰绒猎衫,一头乱蓬蓬的土色头发,下巴上的胡须看来有几天没有刮了。因此,这位有钱人看起来最起码不招人喜欢。他站了几分钟,举着蜡烛眼望着这群不速之客,他的神情看起来不太高兴,又有几分困惑,很是好笑。我们的议员先生费了好大的劲儿才让他搞清楚发生了什么事。趁他还在思考的时候,我们先给读者介绍一下他。

   Honest old John Van Trompe was once quite a considerable land-owner and slave-owner in the State of Kentucky. Having "nothing of the bear about him but the skin," and being gifted by nature with a great, honest, just heart, quite equal to his gigantic frame, he had been for some years witnessing with repressed uneasiness the workings of a system equally bad for oppressor and oppressed. At last, one day, John's great heart had swelled altogether too big to wear his bonds any longer; so he just took his pocket-book out of his desk, and went over into Ohio, and bought a quarter of a township of good, rich land, made out free papers for all his people,--men, women, and children,--packed them up in wagons, and sent them off to settle down; and then honest John turned his face up the creek, and sat quietly down on a snug, retired farm, to enjoy his conscience and his reflections.

  老约翰·梵·特鲁普很诚实,他曾经在肯塔基州拥有很多土地和许多奴隶。他心地善良,"皮肤像是熊,其余的还好",他那仁慈、宽厚、公正的好心肠是与生俱来的,这倒是符合他魁梧的身材。多年以来,他目睹了那种对剥削阶级和被剥削阶级都没有好处的制度的后果,心中一直很郁闷。终于有一天,他那仁慈的胸怀再也不能忍受这压抑了太久的愤怒了,于是他拿出钱包,在俄亥俄州买了一个小镇子四分之一的肥沃土地,并使得他所有的奴隶--男人、女人和孩子都变成了自由人,并用马车把他们送到别的地方去定居。诚实的约翰紧接着在小溪上游找了个舒服恬静的农场住了下来,惬意于他那清清白白的心灵,并一直沉溺于各种沉思和想象之中。

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名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第31节