-
A Rose for Emily
I
When Miss
Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her
funeral: the men through a sort of
respectful affection for a fallen
monument , the women mostly out of curiosity to
see the inside
of her house, which no
one save an old man-
servant
—
a combined gardener
and cook
—
had
seen
in at least ten years.
爱米丽
·<
/p>
格利尔逊小姐走了，全镇的人都去送葬：男人们是出于敬
慕之情，
因为一座丰碑倒塌了；
女人们大多出于好奇之心，都想到爱米丽屋里看个究竟。除
了一个园丁兼厨师的上了年纪的男仆外，至少已经十年都没有人进去看过了。
< br>
It
was
a
big,
squarish
frame
house
that
had
once
been
white,
decorated
with
cupolas
and
spires and scrolled balconies in the
heavily lightsome style of the seventies, set on
what had
once
been
our
most
select
street
.
But
garages
and
cotton
gins
had
encroached
and
obliterated
even
the
august
names
of
that
neighborhood;
only
Miss
Emily’s
house
was
left,
lifting its stubborn and coquettish
decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline
pumps
—
an
eyesore
among eyesores. And now Miss Emily had gone to
join the representatives of those
august
names
where
they
lay
in
the
cedar-
bemused
cemetery
among
the
ranked
and
anonymous graves of Union and
Confederate soldiers who fell at the battle of
Jefferson .
那是
一幢曾经漆成白色的方形大木屋
，圆圆的顶阁，尖尖的塔顶，
涡形花纹的阳台，尽显出浓浓
的七
十年代轻松愉快的风格。
房屋所在的街道曾经是全镇最为繁华之地。
但这里早已被附近
的汽修厂和扎棉机侵占了，
就连那些庄严
的名字也被吞噬得一干二净；
岿然不动的，
只有爱
米丽小姐的房子，虽有破败之势，却依然显得执拗不训，
风韵犹存，与周围的
四轮棉花车和
汽油泵一样，
太过碍眼了。
如今爱米丽小姐也进入了那些具有代表性的庄严的名字行列之中，
他们长眠在雪松环拥
的墓地里，
那是南北战争时期杰斐逊战役中阵亡的军人之墓，
有
的是南
方军人，有的是北方士兵；有的是高职位，有的是无名氏。
Alive, Miss Emily had
been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a sort of
hereditary obligation upon
the town,
dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel
Sartoris, the mayor
—
he who
fathered the
edict that no Negro woman
should appear on the streets without an
apron
—
remitted her taxes ,
the
dispensation dating from
the death
of her father
on
into perpetuity. Not that Miss
Emily
would have accepted
charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an involved
tale to the effect that Miss
Emily’s
father
had
loaned
money
to
the
town,
which
the
town,
as
a
matter
of
business,
preferred this way
of repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris’
generation and thought could
have
invented it, and only a woman could have believed
it.
生前，
爱
米丽小姐代表着一个
传
统、一种职责；
她既是人们关注的目标，
也是全镇传承下来对她应尽的义务，这种义务是从
一八九四年开始的，
当时的镇长萨特里斯上校
——
还颁布了一道命令：<
/p>
严禁黑人妇女不系围
裙上街
——
豁免了她各种税款；
这种特惠政策从她父亲去世之日开始，
一直到她不在人世之
时为止。
这并不是说爱米丽爱占
人们的便宜，
而是萨特里斯上校编造了一套不清不楚的瞎话，
说
什么爱米丽的父亲曾贷款给镇政府，而镇政府，作为交易，以这种方式偿还。这种瞎话，
只有萨特里斯上校那一代人以及像他那样的脑袋的人才瞎编的出来，
也只有女人们才会相
信
这种瞎话。
When the next generation, with its more
modern ideas, became mayors and aldermen , this
arrangement created some little
dissatisfaction. On the first of the year they
mailed her a tax
notice. February came,
and there was no reply. They wrote her a formal
letter, asking her to
call at the
sheriff’s office at her convenience. A week later
the mayor wrote her himself, offering
to call or to send his car for her, and
received in reply a note on paper of an archaic
shape, in a
thin, flowing calligraphy
in faded ink, to the effect that she no longer
went out at all. The tax
notice was
also enclosed, without comment.
到了第二代人，
他们当上了镇长和议员，思想
更加前卫，
便对这种免税约定产生
了一丝不满。那年元旦，他们寄给她一张纳税通知单，可
是到了二月，依然没有回信。他
们给她发了一封公函，要她方便时到镇治安办公室去一趟。
一周后，镇长亲自书函一封给
她，表示愿意登门拜访，或派车接她；镇长得到的回信却是一
张便条，字是写在一张古香
古色的信笺上，书法流利，字迹纤细，墨迹已干，大意是说，她
根本不再外出。随信附还
的还有纳税通知单，但不见任何评述。
They
called
a
special
meeting
of
the
Board
of
Aldermen.
A
deputation
waited
upon
her,
knocked
at
the
door
through
which
no
visitor
had
passed
since
she
ceased
giving
china-painting lessons eight or ten
years earlier. They were admitted by the old Negro
into a
dim
hall
from
which
a
stairway
mounted
into
still
more
shadow.
It
smelled
of
dust
and
disuse
—
a close,
dank smell. The Negro led them into the parlor. It
was furnished in heavy,
leather-covered
furniture. When the Negro opened the blinds of one
window, they could see
that the leather
was cracked; and when they sat down, a faint dust
rose sluggishly about their
thighs,
spinning
with
slow
motes
in
the
single
sun-
ray.
On
a
tarnished
gilt
easel
before
the
fireplace stood a crayon portrait of
Miss Emily’s father.
镇政府官员们召开了一个由全镇参议
员参加的特别会议，
派了一个代表团拜访爱米丽。
< br>他们敲了敲门。
这扇门自从八年或十年前
爱米丽停授瓷器
彩绘课以来，
谁都没有从这里进出过。
接待他们的是那个黑人男
仆，
他们来
到阴暗的门厅，
再沿楼梯而
上，
光线变得更加阴暗了。屋子里发出一股尘封的气味，阴冷潮
湿，密不透气，这里长久没有人住了。黑人领着他们来到客厅，客厅里陈设着笨重、包着皮
套的家具。黑人打开一扇百叶窗，只见皮套子已经开裂了；他们坐了下来，大腿两边，顿时
尘粒飞扬，
在百叶窗射进的一缕阳光中，
缓缓旋转着。
壁炉前是一张早已失去了昔日的光泽
的画架
；画架上屹立着爱米丽父亲的炭笔画像。
They rose when she
entered
—
a small, fat woman
in black, with a thin gold chain descending
to her waist and vanishing into her
belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished
gold head.
Her
skeleton
was
small
and
spare
;
perhaps
that
was
why
what
would
have
been
merely
plumpness in another was obesity in
her. She looked bloated, like a body long
submerged in
motionless water, and of
that pallid hue. Her eyes, lost in the fatty
ridges of her face, looked
like two
small pieces of coal pressed into a lump of dough
as they moved from one face to
another
while the visitors stated their errand .
代表团成员站了起来，原来进来一个人
——
一
个身材矮小，但腰圆体胖的女人，她身着黑衫，细长的金链直垂腰部，最后插入腰带里；她
撑在乌木拐杖上，杖头镶金早已失去了昔日的光泽。她骨架又矮又小，
也许
正因如此，
要是
落在别的女人身上，那种胖就是丰满，而落在她
身上，就显得臃肿。她看上去肿胀发白，就
好像长期浸泡在死水中的死尸一般。
当客人说明来意时，
她的那两只眼睛不停地转悠着，
一
会儿瞧瞧这张面孔，
一会儿看看那张脸蛋，那眼睛啊，都
深陷在满脸隆起的赘肉里了，
就像
掐
在
生面团中的两个小煤球。
She
did not ask them to sit. She just stood in the
door and listened quietly until the spokesman
came to a stumbling halt. Then they
could hear the invisible watch ticking at the end
of the gold
chain.
她并没有叫他们坐下
，
而径直站在门口，
一声不吭地听着，
直到发言代表结结巴巴地
说完。
这时，
只听见有滴答滴答的声音，
那是金链另一端隐没在裤袋里的怀表发出来的声音。
Her voice was dry
and cold. “I
have no taxes in
Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me.
Perhaps one of you can gain access to
the city records and satisfy yourselves.”
“But we have. We are the
city authorities, Miss Emily. Didn’t you get a
notice from the sheriff,
signed by
hi
m”
“I received
a paper, yes,” Miss Emily said. “Perhaps he
considers himself the sheriff . . . I have
no taxes in Jefferson.”
“But there is nothing on the books to
show that, you see. We must go by the—”
“See Colonel Sartoris. I
have no taxes in Jefferson.”
“But, Miss Emily—”
“See Colonel Sartoris.” (Colonel
Sartoris had been dead almost ten years.) “I have
no taxes in
Jefferson. Tobe!” The Negro
appeared. “Show these gentlemen out .”
她说起话来，声音冷酷无情。
“
杰斐逊时，我无须纳税。萨特里斯上校早已给我交待过了。
兴许你们
可以派个人去查一查镇政府档案，事情就清楚了。
”
“
可我们查过了。爱米丽小姐，我们就是镇政府当局的。难道你没有收到
司法长官亲手签署
的通知吗
”
“
不错，我是收到过一张纸，
”
爱米丽小姐说道，
“
司法长官，也许他真把自己当回
事
……
杰
斐逊时，我无须纳税。
”
“
可是，纳税册
上并没有无须纳税的说明，要知道，我们必须依
……”
“
找萨特里斯上校要去。杰斐逊时，我无须纳税。
”
“
可是，爱米丽小姐
……”
“
找萨特里斯
上校要去，（萨特里斯上校已经死了将近十年了）杰斐逊时，我无须纳税。托
布！
”
黑奴应声而来。
“
把这些绅士们给我带出去。
”
II
So SHE
vanquished them, horse and foot, just as she had
vanquished their fathers thirty years
before about the smell.
(41)That was two years after her
father's death and a short time after her
sweetheart--the one we
believed would
marry her --had deserted her. (42) After her
father's death she went out very little;
after her sweetheart went away, people
hardly saw her at all. (43)A few of the ladies had
the
temerity to call, but were not
received, and the only sign of life about the
place was the Negro
man--a young man
then--going in and out with a market basket.
就这样，
爱米丽把他们一个一个地收拾了，
这种场
面在三十年前也发生过，
他们的父辈因熏
天臭气而闹事，
她照样把他们的父辈给收拾了。
那事发生在她父亲死后两年，
也就是她的心
上人
——
我们一直以为一定会与结婚的那个人
——
抛弃她后不久才发生的
事。
父亲死后，
她
很少出门；
但心上人走了后，
人们几乎再也没有看到她的身影了。
< br>有几个冒失的女人曾去过
她的家，
但却吃了闭门羹。
房屋四周唯一的生命迹象就是那个黑人
——
当时他很年青
——
拎
着菜篮子进进出出
。
“Just
as if a
man--any man--
could keep a kitchen
properly,” the ladies said; so they were not
surprised when the smell developed.
(45)It was another link between the gross, teeming
world and
the high and mighty
Griersons.
A neighbor, a woman,
complained to the mayor, Judge Stevens, eighty
years old.
“But what will you have me
do about it, madam” he said.
“Why, send her word to stop
it,” the woman said. “Isn’t there a law
”
“I’m sure that won’t be
necessary,” Judge Stevens said. (50) “It’s
probably just a snake o
r a rat
that nigger of hers killed in the yard.
I’ll speak to him about it.”
“
好像，要是男人
< br>——
不管什么样的男人
——
都可
以把厨房收拾得井井有条的话，
”
女人们
说道；
那种气味越来越来浓时，
她们也并不感到吃惊。
这种气味毕竟是芸芸众生的平凡世界
与大官贵族的
格利尔逊
家族之间的另外一种联系方式。
邻家一妇人向年已八十的镇长史蒂文斯法官投诉。
“
可是，太太，这件事，你叫我怎么办呢
”
他说道。
“
嗯，那
，通知她把气味去掉呗，
”
女人说，
“
不是有法律吗
”
“
绝对没有必要，
”
史蒂文斯法官
说，
“
也许是她家那个黑鬼在院子里打死了一条蛇或一只老
鼠什么似的。我去跟他说说这事儿。
”
The next day he received two more
complaints,
one from a man who came in
diffident deprecation
.
“We
really must do something about it, Judge. (53) I'd
be
the last one in the
world
to bother Miss
Emily,
but we've got to do something.”(54) That night the
Board of Aldermen met
--three
graybeards and one younger man, a
member of the rising generation.
“It's simple enough,” he said. “Send
her word to have her place cleaned up.
G
ive her a certain
time to
do it in, and if she don't. ..”
“Dammit, sir,” Judge
Stevens said, “will you accuse a lady to her face
of smelling bad”
第二天，镇长又接到两起
投诉，一起是来自一个男的，语气温和。
“
法官，对这气味，我
们
真的该采取措施了。可我又最不想打扰爱米丽小姐，但我们总得想想办法呀。
”
那天晚上，
全体参议员召开了一个会，参加会
议的人有三位老人和一位较年轻的新兴代成员。
“
这事再简单不过了，
”
年轻人说，
“
通知她叫人把屋子打扫干净，限期搞好，否则
……”
“
滚蛋吧，你。先生
……”
萨特里斯法官说，
“
当着一个贵妇的面，你怎么
能说她家里有难闻
的气味呢
”
So the next night, after midnight, four
men crossed Miss Emily’s lawn and slunk about the
house
like burglars, sniffing along the
base of the brickwork and at the cellar openings
while one of them
performed a regular
sowing motion with his hand out of a sack slung
from his shoulder.
(58)They
broke
open
the
cellar
door
and
sprinkled
lime
there,
and
in
all
theoutbuildings
.
(59)
As
they
recrossed the lawn, a window that had
been dark was lighted and Miss Emily sat in it,
the light
behind her, and her upright
torso motionless as that of an
idol.
(60)
They crept quietly
across the
lawn and into the shadow of
the locusts that lined the street. (61)After a
week or two the
smell
went
away.
接着，
第二天
子夜
过后，
有四个男人越过爱米丽小姐家的草坪，
像盗贼一般在屋
子周围潜行，
沿着墙角和在地窖通风处吸气闻嗅
，
其中一人还从
肩上的麻袋
中掏出东西
，
做
着播种的样子。
他们打开地窖门，
在地窖里和所有的裙楼外都撒上了石灰。
当他们再回头穿
过
草坪
时，
原本黑暗
的窗户
亮起了一扇
灯光。
灯光中爱米丽
坐在那儿，
灯在她的身后，
挺立
的身躯
一动不动，活像一座雕像。
他们鬼鬼祟祟地弓着腰
，越过草地，
进入街道两旁的洋槐
树影中。一两周后，气味消失了。
That was when people had begun
to feel really sorry for her. (63)People in our
town, remembering
how old lady Wyatt,
her
great-aunt
, had gone
completely crazy at last, believed that the
Griersons
held themselves a little too
high for what they really were.
(64)None
of the young men were quite
good enough
for Miss Emily and such
. (65)We had
long thought of them as a tableau, Miss Emily
a slender figure in white in the
background, her father
a
spraddle
d silhouette in the
foreground, his
back
to
her
and
clutching
a
horsewhip,
the
two
of
them
framed
by
the
back-flung
front
door.
(66)So when she got to
be thirty and was still single, we were not
pleased exactly, but vindicated;
(67)even with insanity in the family
she wouldn't have turned down all of her chances
if they had
really
materialized.
而这时，人们才开始真正为她感
到难过。我们镇上的人想起了爱米丽小
姐的姑奶奶怀亚特，
这老
太太后来完全变成了一个疯子；
我们都相信格利尔逊一家人都太过
自命清高了。
年轻男人在爱米丽小姐这类的女人看来都不是什么好货色。
长久以往，
我们都
把她们这家人看做是一幅活人画：
爱米丽小姐身材苗条，
立于父亲身后；父亲站在前面，双
脚叉开
，
背对爱米丽，
手里握着马鞭；
二人站
在一扇后开的前门中间。
所以当她接近三十岁，
依然孑然一身，
准确地说，我们并没有欣喜之心，
反而觉得我们先前的看法得到
了证实。即
使她家有疯癫的遗传，要是遇到机会，她也不应断然放弃。
< br>
When her father died, it got about
that the house was all that was left to her; and
in a way, people
were
glad.
(69)At
last
they
could
pity
Miss
Emily.
(70)Being
left
alone,
and
a
pauper,
she
had
become humanized.
(71)Now she too would know the old thrill and the
old despair of a penny
more or less.
父亲死后，传说那幢房子全部留给了她；人们也有点高兴。他们终于可以向她
表达怜悯之情了。孤单清苦，她早该懂人情世故了。如今她也该体会到多一分钱则喜，
< br>少一
分钱则愁的那种人之常情了。
(72)The day after his death all the
ladies prepared to call at the house and offer
condolence and aid,
as is our custom.
(73) Miss Emily met them at the door, dressed as
usual and with no trace of grief
on her
face. (74)She told them that her father was not
dead. (75) She did that for three days, with
the ministers calling on her, and the
doctors, trying to persuade her to let them
dispose of the body.
(76)Just as they
were about to resort to law and force, she broke
down, and they buried her father
quickly.
她父亲死后的第二天，镇上所有的女人都准
备去她家吊唁和提供帮助，这是我们的
习俗。
爱米丽小姐在家门
口接待了她们，
依着和往日一样，脸上也没有丝毫悲伤。
她告诉
来
访者，她父亲没有死。连续三天都这样，无论是来访的牧师们，还是医生们，都劝她让
他们
把尸体处理掉。
正当他们准备诉诸法律和武力时，
爱米丽崩溃了，
这时，他们才赶紧把她父
亲给埋
掉了。
(77)We did not say she
was crazy then. (78)We believed she had to do
that. (79)We remembered
all the
young men her father had driven away,
and (80)we knew that with nothing left, (81)she
would have to cling to that
我
们并不是说她当时就疯了，
反倒认为她的反常是身不由己，
还记
得，
她父亲把所有的青年小伙都驱赶走了，
也知道她如今一无所有了，
她才死死的抓住剥夺
她一切的那
个人，其实，是人都会这样。
which had robbed her, as people
will.
III
(82)SHE WAS
SICK for a long time. (83)When we saw her again,
her hair was cut short, making
her look
like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those
angels in colored church windows--sort of
tragic and serene.
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