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Dry September
By William Faulkner (1897-1962)
I
The words in red are the explanations
Through the bloody September twilight,
aftermath
(
the situation
that exists as a
result
of
an
important
(and
usually
unpleasant)event,especially
a
war
,an
accident,etc.
)
of
sixty-two rainless days,
it had gone like a fire
in dry grass---
the rumor,
the story, whatever
it was. Something about Miss Minnie
Cooper and a
Negro.
Attacked,
insulted,
frightened:
none
of
them,
gathered
in
the
barber
shop on that Saturday evening where the ceiling
fan stirred
(a person
who
likes
causing
trouble,especially
between
other
people,by
spreading
secrets),
without
freshening
it,
the
vitiated
(to
spoil
or
reduce
the
effect
of
sth)
air,
sending
back
upon
them,
in
recurrent
(that happens again and
again)
surges of stale
(no longer
fresh;smelling
unpleasant )
pomade
（
< br>发油）
and lotion
(
护肤液
)
, their own stale breath
and odors
(smell)
,
knew exactly what had happened.
a thin, sand-colored man
with a mild face, who was shaving a client.
know
Will
Mayes.
He's
a
good
nigger(
a
very
offensive word
for
a
black
people)
.
And I
know Miss Minnie Cooper,
too.
1
the
barber
said.
about
forty,
I
reckon.
She
aint
married.
That's why I dont
believe--
(very large or
heavy,often in a way that causes you feel nervous)
youth in a sweat-stained silk shirt
said.
word before a nigger's?
town, you damn
niggerlover.
I leave it to
you fellows if them ladies that get old without
getting married
dont have notions that
a man cant-
cloth. The youth
had sprung
(fitted with
springs)
to his feet.
The barber held the
razor
(an instrument that is used for
shaving)
poised
(in a
position
that is completely still but
is ready to move any moment)
above the
half-risen client. He
did not look
around.
2
(damn)
weather,
anything. Even to
her.
Nobody
laughed.
The
barber
said
in
his
mild,
stubborn
tone:
aint
accusing
nobody of
nothing.
I
just
know
and
you
fellows
know
how
a
woman that
never--
(of a man
big and often behaving in an aggressive way)
,
he looked like a desert rat in the moving
pictures.
he said to the youth.
in this town, you can
count
on me, even if I aint only a drummer and a strange
r.
Mayes.
by God!
the
youth shouted.
think
that
a
white
man
in
this
town--
3
The client sat up. He
looked at the speaker.
excuses a nigger
attacking a white woman? Do you mean to tell me
you
are a white man and you'll stand
for it? You better go back North where
you came from. The South dont want your
kind
here.
(showing the
effects
of
worry
or
pressure)
,
baffled
(confused)
gaze,
as
if
he
was
trying
to
remember what it was he wanted to say
or to do. He drew his sleeve
(a part
of clothing that covers all or part of
your arm)
across his sweating face.
going to let a white
woman--
The screen door
crashed open. A man stood in the floor, his feet
apart and
his heavy-set body poised
easily. His white shirt was open at the throat;
he wore a felt hat. His hot, bold
glance swept the group. His name was
McLendon.
He
had
commanded
troops
at
the
front
in
France
and
had
been decorated for
valor
(great courage,especially in
war)
.
he
said,
you
going
to
sit
there
and
let
a
black
son
rape
a
white
woman on the streets of Jefferson?
4
Butch
sprang
up
again.
The
silk
of
his
shirt
clung
flat
to
his
heavy
shoulders. At each
armpit
（腋窝）
was a dark
halfmoon.
telling them! That's what
I--
had,
like
Hawkshaw
says.
Wasn't
there
something
about
a
man
on
the
kitchen roof, watching her undress,
about a year ago?
the
client
said.
that?
The
barber
had
been
slowly
forcing him back into
the chair; he arrested himself
reclining
(to sit or lie in a
relaxed
way,with
your
body
leaning
backwards)
,
his
head
lifted,
the
barber
still
pressing him down.
McLendon
whirled
(confused)
on the
third speaker.
difference
does
it
make?
Are
you
going
to
let
the
black
sons
get
away
with it until one
really does it?
pointless.
Who's
with
me?
He
poised
on
the
balls
of
his
feet,
roving
(moving)
his
gaze.
5
The barber
held the drummer's face down, the razor poised.
facts first, boys. I know Willy Mayes.
It wasn't him. Let's get the sheriff
and do this thing
right.
McLendon
whirled
upon
him
his
furious
(very
angry)
,
rigid
(stiff
and
difficult
to
move
or bend)
face. The barber did not look
away. They looked like men of
different
races.
The
other
barbers
had
ceased
(to
stop
(sth
from)happening
or
existing)
also
above
their
prone
(likely
to
suffer
from sth)
clients.
mean
to
tell
me,
woman's? Why, you damn
niggerloving--
The third speaker rose
and grasped McLendon's arm; he too had been a
soldier.
now.
Let's
figure
this
thing
out.
Who
knows
anything
about what really
happened?
up
from
there.
The
ones
that
aint--
He
roved
his
gaze,
dragging
his
sleeve across his face.
Three men rose. The drummer in the
chair sat up.
at
the
cloth
about
his
neck;
this
rag
(a
piece
of
old,often
torn,cloth
used
especially for cleaning
things)
off me. I'm with him. I dont
live here, but by God,
if
our
mothers
and
wives
and
sisters--
He
smeared
(to
make
sth
dirty)
the
cloth over his face and flung
(throw)
it to the floor.
McLendon stood in the
floor
and cursed
(to say rude
things to sb or think rude things about
sb/sth)
the others.
6
Another rose and moved
toward him. The remainder sat uncomfortable,
not looking at one another, then one by
one they rose and joined him.
The
barber
picked
the cloth
from
the
floor.
He
began
to
fold
it
neatly.
(to stick out
from a place oe a surface)
the
butt
(the thick end of a weapon or
tool)
of a heavy
automatic
pistol
(a small gun that you can hold
and fire with one hand)
. They went out.
The screen door crashed behind them
reverberant in the dead air.
The barber
wiped the razor carefully and swiftly, and put it
away, and ran
to the rear, and took his
hat from the wall.
he said to the other
barbers.
other
barbers
followed
him
to
the
door
and
caught
it
on
the
re-bound,
leaning out and looking up the street
after him. The air was flat and dead.
It
had
a
metallic
(that
looks
tastes
or
sounds
like
metal)
taste
at
the
base
of
the
tongue.
Jees
Christ
(willingly;happily)
be
Will Mayes
as Hawk, if he gets McLendon
riled
(to annoy or make them angry)
.
7
II
SHE WAS thirty-eight or thirty-nine.
She
lived in a small frame
house
with
her
invalid
(not
legally
or
officially
acceptable)
mother
and
a
thin,
sallow
(having
a
slightly
yellow
colour
that
does
not
look
healthy)
,
un-
flagging
aunt,
where
each
morning
between
ten
and
eleven
she
would
appear
on
the
porch
（门廊）
in a lace-
trimmed
（有花边装饰的）
boudoir
(old fashioned
a
woman
’
s
small
private
room
or
bedroom)
cap,
to
sit
swinging
(lively
and
fashionable)
in
the
porch
swing until noon. After dinner she lay down for a
while, until the
afternoon began to
cool. Then, in one of the three or four new
voile
（巴里
纱）
dresses
which she had each summer, she would go downtown
to spend
the afternoon in the stores
with the other ladies, where they would
hand
le
the
goods
and
haggle
(argue
with sb
in
order
to
reach
an
argument,especially
about
the
price of
sth)
over the prices in cold, immediate
voices, without any intention
of
buying.
She was of comfortable people--
not the best in Jefferson, but good people
enough--and
she
was
still
on
the
slender
(thin
in
an
attractive
way)
side
of
ordinary
looking,
with
a
bright,
faintly
haggard
(looking
very
tired
because
of
illness or lack of sleep)
man-ner and dress. When she was young
she had had a
slender,
nervous
body
and
a
sort
of
hard
vivacity
（活泼）
which
had
8
enabled her for a time to
ride upon the crest of the town's social
life as
exemplified
(typical example
of sth)
by the high school party and
church social
period
of
her
contemporaries
(a
person
who
lives
or
lived
at
the
same
time
as
sb
else,especially
sb
who
is
about
the
same
age)
while
still
children
enough
to
be
unclassconscious.
She was
the last to realize that she was losing ground;
that those among
whom
she
had
been
a
little
brighter
and
louder
flame
(a
very
strong
feeling)
than any other were
beginning to learn the pleasure of
snobbery
(the
attitude and
behaviour of people who are
snobs
势利小人
)
-male--
and retaliation
(action that
a person takes against sb who has
harmed them in some way)
--female.
That
was
when
her
face
began
to
wear
that
bright,
haggard
look. She still
carried
it
to
parties on
shadowy porticoes
（柱廊，
柱厅）
and summer
lawns
(an area of ground
covered in short grass in a garden/yard
or park or used for playing on)
, like a
mask or a fl
ag,
with that
bafflement of furious repudiation
(refuse)
of truth in her
eyes. One
evening at a party she heard
a boy and two girls, all schoolmates, talking.
She never accepted another invitation.
She watched the girls with whom she had
grown up as they married and
got homes
and children, but no man ever called on her
steadily until the
children of the
other girls had been calling her
the
while
their
mothers
told
them
in
bright
voices
about
how
popular
Aunt Minnie had been as a girl. Then
the town began to see her driving
9
on Sunday afternoons with
the cashier
(a person whose job is to
receive and pay out
money in a
bank,shop/stor,hotel,etc.)
in the bank.
He was a widower
(a man whose wife
has
died
and
who
has
not
married
again)
of
about
forty--a
high-colored
man,
smelling
always faintly of
the barber shop or of whisky. He owned the
first
automobile
in
town,
a
red
runabout
(a
small
car,especially
one
used
for short
journeys)
; Minnie
had the
first motoring
bonnet
(the metal part over the front
of a
vehicle,usually
covering
the
engine)
and
veil
（面纱）
the
town
ever
saw.
Then
the
town
began to say:
herself,
that
their children call her
It was twelve
years now since she had been
relegated
(to give sb a lower or less
important
position,
before)
into
adultery
(sex
between
a
married
person
and sb
who
is
not
their
wife
or
husband)
by
public
opinion,
and
eight
years
since
the
cashier
had
gone
to
a
Memphis
bank,
returning
for
one
day
each
Christmas, which he spent at an annual
bachelors' party at a hunting club
on
the river. From behind their curtains the
neighbors would see the party
pass, and
during the over-the-way Christmas day visiting
they would tell
her about him, about
how well he looked, and how they heard that he was
prospering
in
the
city,
watching
with
bright,
secret
eyes
her
haggard,
bright face.
Usually by that hour there would be the scent of
whisky on
her breath. It was supplied
her by a youth, a clerk at the soda fountain:
10
Her mother kept to her room altogether
now; the gaunt aunt ran the house.
Against that background Minnie's bright
dresses, her idle and empty days,
had a
quality of furious unreality. She went out in the
evenings only with
women
now,
neighbors,
to
the
moving
pictures.
Each
afternoon
she
dressed in one of the new dresses and
went downtown alone, where her
young
(to walk somewhere in a slow relaxed
way)
in
the
late
afternoons
with
their
delicate,
silken
heads
and
thin,
awkward
arms
and
conscious
hips,
clinging
to
one
another
or
shrieking
and
giggling
（咯咯地笑）
with paired boys in the soda fountain
（人工喷泉）
when
she
passed and went on along the serried
(standing or arranged closely together in
rows or lines)
store fronts,
in the doors of which the sitting and
lounging
(to
stand or lie in
a lazy way)
men did not even follow her
with their eyes any more.
III
THE BARBER
WENT SWIFTLY
(happening or done quickly
and immediately;do sth
quickly)
up
the
street
where
the
sparse
(only present in
small amount or numbers and
often
spread
over
a
large
area)
lights,
insect-swirled,
glared
in
rigid
and
violent
suspension in the
lifeless air. The day had died in a pall of dust;
above the
darkened square, shrouded by
the spent dust, the sky was as clear as the
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