约翰 斯坦贝克 Chrysanthemums 菊花_译文

Chrysanthemums

Elisa is a young married lady working on an isolated farm and proud of her skills in

growing

flowers.

One

day,

she

suddenly

feels

a

desire

to

communicate

with

the

outside world. What happens to her? Please read the following story.

年轻媳妇伊利莎住在一家偏僻的农场，

一天，

她

突然有了与外界交流的愿望。有什么故事发生呢？请您往下看。

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，

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。

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，

< br>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

< br>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.

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。

back

and

pulled

on

the

gardening

glove

again:

They'll

be

strong

this

coming

year.

things,

were ten inches across. I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples

that big.

I could

do it, too.

I've a 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,

that's

what

I

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, to o.

“

又侍弄你的花儿啦，

”

他说，

“

它们今年长势好啊。

< br>”

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。

“

或

许我也能。

我 的确在种植方面有一手，

我妈妈也是那样。

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。

”

Saturday afternoon, and we might go into Salinas for dinner at a restaurant, and then

to a picture show

－

to celebrate, you see.

be good.

to

the

fight s?

no,

she

said

breathlessly.

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. It's good to eat away from home.

She said,

“

太 好了，

”

她说，

“

真有你的。

”

“

我想，