名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第86节


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  看见了吧!"奥菲利亚说,"你还敢说没偷丝带?"

   Topsy now confessed to the gloves, but still persisted in denying the ribbon."Now, Topsy," said Miss Ophelia, "if you'll confess all about it, I won't whip you this time." Thus adjured, Topsy confessed to the ribbon and gloves, with woful protestations of penitence.

  托普西当即承认偷了手套,但仍矢口否认偷了丝带。"听着,托普西!"奥菲利亚小姐说,"如果你全部承认,我就不拿鞭子抽你。"在严厉督促之下,托普西不得不全部承认了,她阴着脸,再三表示愿意悔改。

   "Well, now, tell me. I know you must have taken other things since you have been in the house, for I let you run about all day yesterday. Now, tell me if you took anything, and I shan't whip you.""

  好,现在你说说,到这儿以后你还偷过什么东西?昨天我还允许你到处乱跑呢,你肯定还偷过别的什么东西。老实告诉我,到底拿了些什么,说了我就不动鞭子。"

   "Laws, Missis! I took Miss Eva's red thing she wars on her neck.""

  嗯……小姐,我拿了伊娃小姐脖子上那串红色的玩意儿。"

   "You did, you naughty child!--Well, what else?""

  是吗,你这个孩子--说,还有呢?"

  罗莎的耳环,那副红色的。"

   "Go bring them to me this minute, both of 'em.""

  两样都给我拿回来,现在就去。"

   "Laws, Missis! I can't,--they 's burnt up!""

  天哪,小姐,我拿不出来--我把它们烧了。"

   "Burnt up!--what a story! Go get 'em, or I'll whip you.""

  烧了?胡说八道!快去拿,不然我可真要拿鞭子抽你啦。"

   Topsy, with loud protestations, and tears, and groans, declared that she _could_ not. "They 's burnt up,--they was."

  托普西哭起来,一边哭一边申辩着,说她真的拿不出来。

  你为什么要烧掉它们?"

   "Cause I 's wicked,--I is. I 's mighty wicked, any how. I can't help it.""

  因为,因为我顽皮,我真是太坏了,我也不知道怎么搞的。"

   Just at this moment, Eva came innocently into the room, with the identical coral necklace on her neck.

  就在这时,伊娃走了进来,一副天真无邪的样子,脖子上依然挂着那串珊瑚项链。

   "Why, Eva, where did you get your necklace?" said Miss Ophelia."

  咦,伊娃,项链是在哪儿找着的?"

   "Get it? Why, I've had it on all day," said Eva."

  找着的?为什么?我一直戴着它呀。"

  昨天也戴着?"

   "Yes; and what is funny, Aunty, I had it on all night. I forgot to take it off when I went to bed.""

  对。姑姑,昨晚上我忘了取项链,一直戴着睡觉。怎么啦?"

   Miss Ophelia looked perfectly bewildered; the more so, as Rosa, at that instant, came into the room, with a basket of newly-ironed linen poised on her head, and the coral ear-drops shaking in her ears!

  奥菲利亚如堕五里云雾之中,摸不着头脑。这时,罗莎也进来了,头上顶着一篮子刚烫好的衣服,那双珊瑚耳环在她耳朵上荡来荡去,奥菲利亚一见,更加迷惑不知所以了。

   "I'm sure I can't tell anything what to do with such a child!" she said, in despair. "What in the world did you tell me you took those things for, Topsy?""

  我真不知道该拿这孩子怎么办!"她无可奈何地说,"托普西,这两样东西你没拿,为什么要承认?"

   "Why, Missis said I must 'fess; and I couldn't think of nothin' else to 'fess," said Topsy, rubbing her eyes."

  嗯,小姐,你要我招认,我实在想不出什么东西可以招认。"托普西一面说着,一面擦眼泪。

  可是,我并没要你承认你没做过的事呀!"奥菲利亚无奈地摇摇头说,"这也叫做撒谎,和刚才撒谎是一码事。"

   "Laws, now, is it?" said Topsy, with an air of innocent wonder."

  天哪,是吗?"托普西露出惊诧万分、天真无知的样子。

   "La, there an't any such thing as truth in that limb," said Rosa, looking indignantly at Topsy. "If I was Mas'r St. Clare, I'd whip her till the blood run. I would,--I'd let her catch it!""

  哼,这坏家伙嘴里没一句真话!"罗莎愤愤不平地望着托普西说道,"我要是圣克莱尔老爷,就抽她个鼻青脸肿,给她点颜色看看。"

   "No, no Rosa," said Eva, with an air of command, which the child could assume at times; "you mustn't talk so, Rosa. I can't bear to hear it.""

  不,不,罗莎,"伊娃开口说道,表情严厉,居然是一副大人的派头,"不许你这么说,罗莎,我可听不得这种话。"

   "La sakes! Miss Eva, you 's so good, you don't know nothing how to get along with niggers. There's no way but to cut 'em well up, I tell ye.""

  天哪,伊娃小姐,你心地太善良了,你不懂怎样对付黑鬼。告诉你吧,对待他们这群人就得狠狠揍,没比这更管用的了。"

  住嘴,罗莎,"伊娃喝道,"不准你再说一句这样的话。"这孩子目光炯炯,满面通红。

   Rosa was cowed in a moment.

  一时间,罗莎给震住了。

   "Miss Eva has got the St. Clare blood in her, that's plain. She can speak, for all the world, just like her papa," she said, as she passed out of the room."

  谁都看得出来,这孩子完全具备了圣克莱尔家族的血统,说话激动起来,活像她爸爸。"罗莎一边往门外走,一边自言自语。

   Eva stood looking at Topsy.There stood the two children representatives of the two extremes of society. The fair, high-bred child, with her golden head, her deep eyes, her spiritual, noble brow, and prince-like movements; and her black, keen, subtle, cringing, yet acute neighbor. They stood the representatives of their races. The Saxon, born of ages of cultivation, command, education, physical and moral eminence; the Afric, born of ages of oppression, submission, ignorance, toil and vice!

  伊娃站在那里望着托普西。这两个孩子分别代表了不同社会的两个极端:一个出身高贵,肤白如雪,金黄头发,眼睛深嵌,额头饱满而富于灵气,举止文雅;一个肤黑如炭,狡黠机敏,畏畏缩缩却也不乏聪慧。他们又分别是两个种族的代表:一个是撒克逊人,生长在世世代代享有高度文明、统治、教育,优越的物质生活和精神生活的环境里;一个是非洲黑种人,生长在世世代代遭受压迫、奴役、蒙昧,劳苦万端和罪恶无边的环境里。

   Something, perhaps, of such thoughts struggled through Eva's mind. But a child's thoughts are rather dim, undefined instincts; and in Eva's noble nature many such were yearning and working, for which she had no power of utterance. When Miss Ophelia expatiated on Topsy's naughty, wicked conduct, the child looked perplexed and sorrowful, but said, sweetly.

  这种思想朦朦胧胧地萌芽在伊娃脑中,只是对于一个孩子来说,这种思想是相当模糊不确定的,更多地带有天性的色彩。伊娃纯洁的心里,有许多这类思想在酝酿活动,只是她无法明确表达。当奥菲利亚小姐一一数落托普西的顽劣行径时,伊娃脸上显出迷惘而忧郁的神色,她天真地说:

  可怜的托普西,你为什么要偷东西呢!现在有人好好管着你,我也愿意把自己的东西拿出来与你分享,希望你以后不要再偷东西了。"

   It was the first word of kindness the child had ever heard in her life; and the sweet tone and manner struck strangely on the wild, rude heart, and a sparkle of something like a tear shone in the keen, round, glittering eye; but it was followed by the short laugh and habitual grin. No! the ear that has never heard anything but abuse is strangely incredulous of anything so heavenly as kindness; and Topsy only thought Eva's speech something funny and inexplicable,--she did not believe it.

  这是托普西生平第一次听见真挚的话。伊娃话语中甜甜的腔调,她说话时的亲切感,一下子奇妙地感动着托普西那粗野的心。小女孩那亮闪闪的、灵动的眼眸里隐约有泪花闪动,可随即又轻轻笑了一声,像往常一样咧开了嘴--不,一个生平听惯了辱骂言语的人,陡然听见这么一句温暖人心的话,简直像做梦一样难以置信。

   But what was to be done with Topsy? Miss Ophelia found the case a puzzler; her rules for bringing up didn't seem to apply. She thought she would take time to think of it; and, by the way of gaining time, and in hopes of some indefinite moral virtues supposed to be inherent in dark closets, Miss Ophelia shut Topsy up in one till she had arranged her ideas further on the subject.

  到底怎么管教好托普西呢?这确实给奥菲利亚小姐出了个大难题。她的那套显然行不通,她得慎重思索一番,制定可行的教育方案。奥菲利亚把托普西关进了黑屋子,这一方面是作为缓兵之策,另一方面则是由于她认为黑屋子可以培养人的德性的奇怪思想在作怪。

   "I don't see," said Miss Ophelia to St. Clare, "how I'm going to manage that child, without whipping her.""

  我看这个小家伙是不打不成器。"奥菲利亚对圣克莱尔说。

   "Well, whip her, then, to your heart's content; I'll give you full power to do what you like.""

  噢,这个随你的便,你尽可以按照你的意图来管教她,反正我已把她全权委托给你了。"

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名著·汤姆叔叔的小屋 - 第86节