| 目 录 上一节 下一节 
在我跟他合作的那段时间里，我坚持要他让黑人得到一点教养。后来，他果真请来了一个牧师，让黑奴们在礼拜天跟着牧师学教义。我知道他内心肯定认为这样做毫无价值和意义，牧师好像是来教育他的动物一样；而实际上，黑人从小受到各种不良影响，思想已经麻木了，只剩下动物的本能了。一个星期中有六天都要进行艰苦的体力劳动，仅靠礼拜天短短几个小时对黑奴进行教育是不可能有多大成效的。英国工业区居民和我们农村黑奴的主日学教师们大概能够证明两国的成效基本相同。不过，我们的确有不少令人惊讶的例外，这主要是由于黑人比白人更容易接受宗教信仰。" "Well," said Miss Ophelia, "how came you to give up your plantation life?"" 你后来为什么会放弃庄园生活呢？"奥菲利亚小姐问道。 "Well, we jogged on together some time, till Alfred saw plainly that I was no planter. He thought it absurd, after he had reformed, and altered, and improved everywhere, to suit my notions, that I still remained unsatisfied. The fact was, it was, after all, the THING that I hated--the using these men and women, the perpetuation of all this ignorance, brutality and vice,--just to make money for me!" 情况是这样子的。我们兄弟俩勉强合作了一段时间后，艾尔弗雷德认识到我根本不是做庄园主的料。尽管他为了迎合我，在各个方面都作了不少变革和改良，但这些还是不能令我满意，他觉得这太荒唐了。事实上，我憎恨整个奴隶制度--剥削黑奴，永不停息、毫无止境地进行残暴、罪恶的行径的唯一目的就是为了让我发财。" "Besides, I was always interfering in the details. Being myself one of the laziest of mortals, I had altogether too much fellow-feeling for the lazy; and when poor, shiftless dogs put stones at the bottom of their cotton-baskets to make them weigh heavier, or filled their sacks with dirt, with cotton at the top, it seemed so exactly like what I should do if I were they, I couldn't and wouldn't have them flogged for it. Well, of course, there was an end of plantation discipline; and Alf and I came to about the same point that I and my respected father did, years before. So he told me that I was a womanish sentimentalist, and would never do for business life; and advised me to take the bank-stock and the New Orleans family mansion, and go to writing poetry, and let him manage the plantation. So we parted, and I came here."" 不仅如此，我会做些对黑奴有利，却对艾尔弗雷德不利的事情。由于我自己是个非常懒散的人，所以我很同情那些懒散的黑奴。为了使棉花篮称起来重一点，那些不能干的可怜虫不惜把石头偷偷藏在篮子底，或者把土块放在麻袋里，然后用棉花盖住。如果我处在他们的地位，相信我自己也会那么做的，因此，我不愿为此而鞭打他们。这样一来，庄园里的纪律就没什么作用了。于是，艾尔弗雷德和我的关系闹得非常不愉快，有点像当年我和严父之间的关系。他说我太过于感情用事，根本不适合经营产业。他劝我拿着银行股票搬到新奥尔良的家宅里去做做诗，让他一个人来经营庄园。就这样，我们分开了，接着我便住到现在的这个家来。" "But why didn't you free your slaves?"" 可你为什么不解放你的奴隶呢？" 
我不想让他们走。我不愿意把他们当作我发财的工具，但我很愿意让他们帮我花钱。他们中有的人是家里多年的老仆人，我真舍不得让他们走，而年轻的又是老一辈的子女，大家都很乐意继续留在这儿。"圣克莱尔停了停，在屋子里来回地踱着步子。"在我一生中曾有过一段时间不愿意浑浑度日，虚度时光，颇有想在社会上干一番事业的志向。我渴望成为一个解放者--替我的国家洗清这个污点。我想绝大多数青年人都曾有过这种狂热吧。可是，--" "Why didn't you?" said Miss Ophelia;--"you ought not to put your hand to the plough, and look back."" 那你为什么不那样去做呢？你不应该犹豫不前啊。"奥菲利亚小姐说。 "O, well, things didn't go with me as I expected, and I got the despair of living that Solomon did. I suppose it was a necessary incident to wisdom in us both; but, some how or other, instead of being actor and regenerator in society, I became a piece of driftwood, and have been floating and eddying about, ever since. Alfred scolds me, every time we meet; and he has the better of me, I grant,--for he really does something; his life is a logical result of his opinions and mine is a contemptible _non sequitur_."" 因为我后来的遭遇实在太不如人意，于是就像所罗门一样，失去了对人生的希望。总之，我没能成为一个实践家或者改革家，而是变成了一个随波逐流的人。从此以后，我就成天鬼混度日。艾尔弗雷德每次见到我，都会责备我。我承认他比我能干，因为他的确是干了不少事。他的一生是其观点的合理结果，而我呢，却是自相矛盾，令人鄙视。" "My dear cousin, can you be satisfied with such a way of spending your probation?"" 亲爱的弟弟，你以这种态度来接受考验，你的心能安吗？" "Satisfied! Was I not just telling you I despised it? But, then, to come back to this point,--we were on this liberation business. I don't think my feelings about slavery are peculiar. I find many men who, in their hearts, think of it just as I do. The land groans under it; and, bad as it is for the slave, it is worse, if anything, for the master. It takes no spectacles to see that a great class of vicious, improvident, degraded people, among us, are an evil to us, as well as to themselves. The capitalist and aristocrat of England cannot feel that as we do, because they do not mingle with the class they degrade as we do. They are in our homes; they are the associates of our children, and they form their minds faster than we can; for they are a race that children always will cling to and assimilate with. If Eva, now, was not more angel than ordinary, she would be ruined. We might as well allow the small-pox to run among them, and think our children would not take it, as to let them be uninstructed and vicious, and think our children will not be affected by that. Yet our laws positively and utterly forbid any efficient general educational system, and they do it wisely, too; for, just begin and thoroughly educate one generation, and the whole thing would be blown sky high. If we did not give them liberty, they would take it."" 心安？我不是已经说过我鄙视它吗？还是让我们言归正传吧--解放黑奴的问题。我相信我对奴隶制度的看法没有什么标新立异的，很多人的想法都和我一样，全国人民都对奴隶制度感到不满。奴隶制度不仅对奴隶不利，对奴隶主也没什么好处。要知道，如此众多胸怀愤怒，受尽欺压，邪恶，下贱的黑奴和我们朝夕相处，不论对于我们还是对于他们，都是一种灾难。英国的资本家和贵族不会有我们这样的感受，因为他们不和自己蔑视的下层阶级生活在一起。而黑奴就生活在我们的家中，和我们的儿女一块游玩，更容易影响我们孩子的思想，因为孩子们喜欢这些黑人，易于和他们打成一片。如果伊娃不是个超凡脱俗的孩子，大概早就堕落了。我们不让黑人受教育，听任其道德败坏，还误以为我们的孩子不会受其影响，这简直就像听任天花在黑人中流行，而我们却相信我们的孩子不会被传染上。然而，我们的法律制度却禁止施行任何有效的教育制度。这样做也算聪明吧，因为只要让一代黑人开始接受完善的教育，那整个奴隶制度就会完蛋。到那个时候，即使我们不给黑人自由，他们也会自己去夺取自由的。" 
你认为结局会如何呢？如果照这样发展下去。"奥菲利亚小姐问道。 "I don't know. One thing is certain,--that there is a mustering among the masses, the world over; and there is a _dies irae_ coming on, sooner or later. The same thing is working in Europe, in England, and in this country. My mother used to tell me of a millennium that was coming, when Christ should reign, and all men should be free and happy. And she taught me, when I was a boy, to pray, `thy kingdom come.' Sometimes I think all this sighing, and groaning, and stirring among the dry bones foretells what she used to tell me was coming. But who may abide the day of His appearing?"" 我不知道。但我有一点能够肯定--全世界人民都在积聚力量，等待最后审判的来临。这种情形在我们国家，在英国，在欧洲都在酝酿当中。母亲过去常和我讲一个即将到来的千年盛世，到那时候，耶稣将成为万民之王，人民则共享幸福与自由。在我小时候，母亲教我祷告说，'愿你的国降临'。我时常在想，穷苦人民的叹息声、呻吟声和骚乱也许正预示着母亲讲的天国就要来临。可是，有谁能等到它降临的那一天呢？" "Augustine, sometimes I think you are not far from the kingdom," said Miss Ophelia, laying down her knitting, and looking anxiously at her cousin." 奥古斯丁，我有时候觉得你离天国不远了。"奥菲利亚小姐放下手中的针线活，认真地望着圣克莱尔。 "Thank you for your good opinion, but it's up and down with me,--up to heaven's gate in theory, down in earth's dust in practice. But there's the teabell,--do let's go,--and don't say, now, I haven't had one downright serious talk, for once in my life."" 谢谢你的夸奖。不过，我内心十分矛盾，我觉得自己既崇高又卑贱--我的理想已越过天国之门，可我却生活在罪恶的尘世之中。哦，午茶铃响了，我们走吧。现在你不会再说我从来没说过什么正经的话吧。" At table, Marie alluded to the incident of Prue. "I suppose you'll think, cousin," she said, "that we are all barbarians." 在茶桌上，玛丽又谈起了普吕的事情，说："姐姐，你一定认为我们南方人很野蛮吧。" 
我觉得普吕这件事的确很野蛮，但我并不认为你们都是野蛮人。" "Well, now," said Marie, "I know it's impossible to get along with some of these creatures. They are so bad they ought not to live. I don't feel a particle of sympathy for such cases. If they'd only behave themselves, it would not happen."" 的确，"玛丽说，"有些黑人坏极了，很难对付，根本就不配活着。我对这种事情一点儿也不同情。假如他们循规蹈矩，我想这种事情是绝不会发生的。" "But, mamma," said Eva, "the poor creature was unhappy; that's what made her drink."" 可是，妈妈，"伊娃说："那个苦命的老太婆是因为心情不好才喝酒的呀。" "O, fiddlestick! as if that were any excuse! I'm unhappy, very often. I presume," she said, pensively, "that I've had greater trials than ever she had. It's just because they are so bad. There's some of them that you cannot break in by any kind of severity. I remember father had a man that was so lazy he would run away just to get rid of work, and lie round in the swamps, stealing and doing all sorts of horrid things. That man was caught and whipped, time and again, and it never did him any good; and the last time he crawled off, though he couldn't but just go, and died in the swamp. There was no sort of reason for it, for father's hands were always treated kindly."" 胡说，这怎么能算作理由！我也经常心里不好过，"她沉思地说，"我的烦恼比她多得多。她会有如此下场的唯一理由，就是她太坏了。有些人不论怎么管教也教育不好。我父亲曾经有个懒得出奇的男仆人，经常为了不干活而逃跑，躲在沼泽地里，偷东西或是干各种可怕的事情。他三番两次逃跑后，都会被抓起来鞭打一顿，可这对他一点作用也没有。最后他还是偷偷地溜走了，结果他死在了那片沼泽地里。其实他这样做完全没有必要，因为父亲对奴隶们一向都很好。"
| |
