the-chrysanthemums-菊花(中英对照)

The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest

of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed

pot. On the broad, level land floor the gang plows bit deep and left the black earth shining like

metal

where

the

shares

had

cut.

On

the

foothill

ranches

across

the

Salinas

River,

the

yellow

stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley

now in December. The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with sharp and positive yellow

leaves.

飘荡在半 空中的冬雾呈现出灰法兰绒色，

将萨利纳斯山谷严实地罩了起来；

同时也把它与外

界分隔开。

雾气锁着山头，四面象顶盖子，而 山谷则成了一口盖得严严实实的深锅。农民在

宽阔平坦的土地上深耕，

< br>犁铧过处，

黑色的土地闪着金属的光泽。

在横卧萨利纳斯 河的丘陵

地上，农场里的茬地泛着黄色，象是沐浴在冷冷的苍白日光下；不过，现在时至 腊月，山谷

里没什么阳光。河边上密密麻麻的柳丛上的黄叶颜色鲜浓，象着了火似的。< /p>

It was a time of quiet and of waiting. The air was cold and tender. A light wind blew up from the

southwest so that the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good rain before long; but fog and rain do

not go together.

这是一个安静，叫人等待 的季节。空气凉凉的，柔柔的。从西南方向吹来一阵轻风，农民们

隐隐地感到不久会有一 场及时雨，但雨和雾是不

一起来的。

Across the river, on Henry Allen's foothill ranch there was little work to be done, for the hay was

cut and stored and the orchards were plowed up to receive the rain deeply when it should come.

The cattle on the higher slopes were becoming shaggy and rough-coated.

河对岸亨利?埃伦家位于丘陵上的农场里已经没 什么活计了：干草都收割过并存放了起来，

果园业已深翻过，好等到有雨的时候浇个透底 墒。高处山坡上的牛变得毛皮杂乱粗糙。

Elisa

Allen,

working

in

her

flower

garden,

looked

down

across

the

yard

and

saw

Henry,

her

husband, talking to two men in business suits. The three of them stood by the tractor shed, each

man

with

one

foot

on

the

side

of

the

little

Fordson.

They

smoked

cigarettes

and

studied

the

machine as they talked.

伊利莎? 埃伦正在花园里干活儿，穿过院子朝远处望时，她看见丈夫亨利正在与两个身着工

作服的 人交谈。

三个人都站在拖拉机棚边上，

一只脚蹬在那辆小型福特 牌拖拉机的一侧。

说

话的时候，他们边抽着烟，边打量拖拉机。

Elisa watched them for a moment and then went back to her work. She was thirty-five. Her face

was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in

her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a

figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to

hold

the

snips,

the

trowel

and

scratcher,

the

seeds

and

the

knife

she

worked

with.

She

wore

heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked.

伊利莎 看了他们一会儿，

又继续忙自己的活儿。她今年三十五岁，

脸庞 瘦俏并透着坚毅，一

双眼睛清澈如水。由于穿着园艺工作服，

她 显得鼓囊囊的、有点儿笨拙。她头上戴着一顶男

式的黑帽子，拉得很低，

直到她的眼睛。

脚上是一双粗笨的鞋子。

下面穿的印花 裙子几乎全

给那个大号的灯心绒围裙遮盖了起来。

围裙上有四个 大口袋，

用来放她干活时用的剪刀、

泥

铲、刮管器、种子和刀。干活时她戴着厚厚的皮手套，免得弄伤手。

She

was

cutting

down

the

old

year's

chrysanthemum

stalks

with

a

pair

of

short

and

powerful

scissors. She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager

and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The

chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.

她这会儿正用一把锋利的小剪子 把去年的菊花枝剪短，

还不时朝站在拖拉机棚边上的三个男

人望 一望。

她的脸上充满着渴望，

看起来成熟漂亮——甚至连她拿着 剪刀干活的样子都显得

那么有力，饱含期待，以至于那些菊花的枯杆相比之下都显得纤细 柔弱，容易收拾了。

She brushed a cloud of hair out of her eyes with the back of her glove, and left a smudge of earth

on

her

cheek

in

doing

it.

Behind

her

stood

the

neat

white

farm

house

with

red

geraniums

close-banked

around

it

as

high

as

the

windows.

It

was

a

hard-swept

looking

little

house

with

hard-polished windows, and a clean mud- mat on the front steps.

她用手套的背部将眼前的一绺乌发 抹开，

一点污渍就留在了她的脸颊上。

她身后是整洁的白

色农舍，红色的天竺葵紧紧地簇拥着，直到窗户附近。看得出这座不大的屋子好好打扫过，

窗户也曾细心地擦拭过，就连前面台阶上的擦鞋垫都收拾得干干净净。

Elisa

cast

another

glance

toward

the

tractor

shed.

The

strangers

were

getting

into

their

Ford

coupe.

She

took

off

a

glove

and

put

her

strong

fingers

down

into

the

forest

of

new

green

chrysanthemum

sprouts

that

were

growing

around

the

old

roots.

She

spread

the

leaves

and

looked

down

among

the

close-growing

stems.

No

aphids

were

there,

no

sowbugs

or

snails

or

cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started.

伊利莎又朝拖拉机棚的方向看了一眼，

那些 陌生人正钻进他们的福特牌小客车里。

她脱掉一

只手套，

将自己有力的手指伸到从老的菊花根部新生的一丛幼苗里，

然后分开叶 子，

在长得

郁郁葱葱的幼苗里查看。里面蚜虫、潮虫、蜗牛、毛 虫什么的都没有。如果真有的话，她那

犀利无比的手指也会在这些害虫逃跑之前就将它们 消灭。

Elisa started at the sound of her husband's voice. He had come near quietly, and he leaned over

the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens. < /p>

听到丈夫的声音，

伊利莎吃了一惊。

原来 他已经悄悄地走到了她的旁边，

从铁丝栅栏那边俯

过身来。铁丝 栅栏把她的花园圈了起来，免得牛呀，狗呀，鸡呀这些家畜糟蹋。

it

again,

he

said.

got

a

strong

new

crop

coming.

Elisa

straightened

her

back

and

pulled on the gardening glove again:

her face there was a little smugness.

those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. I wish you'd work out in

the orchard and raise some apples that big.

gift with things, all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it

grow. She said it was having planters' hands that knew how to do it.

flowers,

came

to

tell

you.

They

were

from

the

Western

Meat

Company.

I

sold

those

thirty

head

of

three-year-old steers. Got nearly my own price, too.

“又侍弄你的花儿啦，

”他说，

“它们今年长势好啊。

”听到 丈夫搭话，伊利莎直起身，顺手

把那只手套又戴上：

“对，

今年长势会很好。

”

不管是言语中还是脸上 都洋溢着得意。

“你

干活儿很有一手，

”

亨利 说，

“你今年种的黄菊花中有的有十英寸那么大，

真希望你去侍 弄果

园，也结出那么大的苹果来。

”她的眼睛一亮。

妈妈也是那样。

她随便把什么东西往地下一插，

就能活。

她说是因为 有了庄稼人的手才知道

怎么去种植。

”

“嗯，

种花也是这样的，

”

他说。

“亨利，

刚才同你说话的那些人是谁呀？”

“啊，

对了，

我正要跟你说呢。

他们是 西部肉制品公司的。我把那三十头三岁的菜牛卖给他们，差

不多是我要的价格。

”

she

said.

for

you.

I

thought,

he

continued,

thought

how

it's

Saturday

afternoon, and we might go into Salinas for dinner at a restaurant, and then to a picture show

－

to celebrate, you see.

tone.

I

wouldn't

like fights.

fooling,

Elisa.

We'll

go

to

a

movie.

Let's

see.

It's

two

now.

I'm

going

to

take

Scotty

and

bring

down

those

steers

from

the

hill.

It'll

take

us

maybe

two

hours.

We'll go in town about five and have dinner at the Cominos Hotel. Like that?

It's good to eat away from home.

have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets, I guess.

“太好了，

”她说，

“真有你的。

”

“我想，

”他接着说，

“现在是周六下 午，我们可以去萨利

纳斯的一家饭店吃顿饭，再去看场电影，庆祝一下，你看怎么样。< /p>

”

“太好了，

”她重复道。

“真是好极了。

”亨利接着开玩笑说，

“今天晚上有 拳击赛，你愿意看吗？”

“不，

”她紧张地

说，

“我可不喜欢拳击赛。

”

“骗 你哪，伊利莎。我们去看电影。让我想一下，现在是下午两

点，我去叫斯哥迪，把牛赶下 山。这大概要两个钟头。我们会在五点钟到城里，去克民诺斯

酒店吃晚饭。

你觉得怎么样？”

“当然可以，

在外面吃饭好。

”

“那好，

我去准备几匹马。

”

“我

想我会有充裕的时间把这些苗儿种上的。

”伊利莎说。

She heard her husband calling Scotty down by the barn. And a little later she saw the two men

ride up the pale yellow hillside in search of the steers. There was a little square sandy bed kept

for

rooting

the

chrysanthemums.

With

her

trowel

she

turned

the

soil

over

and

over,

and

smoothed it and patted it firm. Then she dug ten parallel trenches to receive the sets. Back at the

chrysanthemum bed she pulled out the little crisp shoots, trimmed off the leaves of each one

with her scissors and laid it on a small orderly pile.

继而，

她听到丈夫在谷仓那儿叫斯哥迪。

又过了一会儿，

她看见他们两 个骑着马，

走上灰黄

的山坡找菜牛。

花 园里有一块四四方方的沙地，

是用来种菊花幼苗的。

她用泥铲把 土翻了又

翻，又弄平，再拍结实。然后又挖了十道平行的小沟，好栽种菊苗。她从菊花园 里拔了些脆

嫩的幼苗，用剪刀剪掉叶子，然后整齐地放在一起。

A squeak of wheels and plod of hoofs came from the road. Elisa looked up. The country road ran

along the dense bank of willows and cottonwoods that bordered the river, and up this road came

a curious vehicle, curiously drawn. It was an old spring- wagon, with a round canvas top on it like

the cover of a prairie schooner. It was drawn by an old bay horse and a little grey-and- white burro.

A

big

stubble-bearded

man

sat

between

the

cover

flaps

and

drove

the

crawling

team.

Underneath the wagon, between the hind wheels, a lean and rangy mongrel dog walked sedately.

Words were painted on the canvas, in clumsy, crooked letters.

mowers. Fixed.

paint had run down in little sharp points beneath each letter. < /p>

路边这时传来了车轮的吱嘎声和马蹄的声响。

伊利莎抬起了头。< /p>

河边上密密麻麻的柳树和杨

树旁是条乡间小路，

< br>沿着这条路来了一辆奇怪的车，

走的样子很怪。

那是一辆 老式的带弹簧

的四轮马车，

上面的帆布圆顶子象是拓荒者用的大 篷车的顶篷。

拉着它的是匹栗色的马和一

头灰白的小毛驴。

在车顶盖的下面坐着个胡子拉碴的人，

赶着这辆车往前爬行。

在马车后轮

之间，一条瘦骨嶙峋的长腿杂种狗不声不响地跟着。车蓬的 上面歪歪扭扭地写着“修理锅、

罐、刀、剪子、割草机”

。修理 的器皿写了两行，

“修理”两个字在下面，显得很自信。写字

用 的黑色颜料在每个字母下面都流成了一个

个小尖头。

Elisa,

squatting

on

the

ground,

watched

to

see

the

crazy,

loose- jointed

wagon

pass

by.

But

it

didn't pass. It turned into the farm road in front of her house, crooked old wheels skirling and

squeaking.

The

rangy

dog

darted

from

between

the

wheels

and

ran

ahead.

Instantly

the

two

ranch shepherds flew out at him. Then all three stopped, and with stiff and quivering tails, with

taut

straight

legs,

with

ambassadorial

dignity,

they

slowly

circled,

sniffing

daintily.

The

caravan

pulled

up

to

Elisa's

wire

fence

and

stopped.

Now

the

newcomer

dog,

feeling

out-numbered,

lowered his tail and retired under the wagon with raised hackles and bared teeth.

伊利莎蹲在地上，

看着这辆怪模怪样、

松松垮垮的马车 驶过去。

但它并没有从她的眼前过去，

而是弯上了经过她家门前 的农场小路，

破旧的车轮吱嘎吱嘎尖厉地响着。

车下面轮子间的 那

条瘦骨嶙峋的长腿狗冲到了马车的前面，

马上，两条牧羊犬朝 着它冲了上去。于是，三条狗

都站住了，

尾巴直竖着、