現(xiàn)代英文選評：The Whistle 寒笛

The Whistle 寒笛

Eudora Welty (1909—2001)

本文是尤多拉·韋爾蒂所著短篇小說首集《綠幕》（A Curtain of Green）里的一篇。韋爾蒂女士是美國南部密西西比州人，著有多種長篇小說，短篇小說已集于Collected Stories（1980）。她的短篇小說剪裁經(jīng)濟，勾畫生動，筆觸輕靈，含意豐富，堪入世界名作之列。

Night fell. The darkness was thin, like some sleazy dress that has been worn and worn for many winters and always lets the cold through to the bones. Then the moon rose. A farm lay quite visible, like a white stone in water, among the stretches of deep woods in their colorless dead leaf. By a closer and more searching eye than the moon's everything belonging to the Mortons' might have been seen—even to the tiny tomato plants in their neat rows closest to the house, gray and featherlike, appalling in their exposed fragility. The moonlight covered everything, and lay upon the darkest shape of all, the farmhouse where the lamp had just been blown out.

● sleazy：稀薄的。黑夜比作一件不能御寒的敝衣。lets的主語是關系代名詞that，the cold是它的賓語。through是副詞，作用和pass through相同，“讓它穿過”，to是介詞。

● visible（清楚可辨）是complement，形容主語farm（田莊）。田莊之在月色之中，猶如水中白石，這樣比說“月色如水”要高明一籌。

● stretch原意是一長條，stretches并不是幾條，而是綿延不斷的一塊或一片：一片深林。leaf在這里是collective noun，即等于leaves。colorless：黑、白、灰，皆為無色。

● the Mortons'在文法上稱為absolute genitive，把后面應該跟的名詞house（莫頓夫婦的家）省掉了。這一句是被動語態(tài)，又是虛擬式。我們不知道有沒有一只眼睛，可以比月亮看得更仔細，更能洞察一切，假如有的話，莫頓家每一樣東西都可“被”（即句首之By）它看見了。這只眼睛應該是小說家的眼睛。

● 但是作者并沒有列舉他們家里的東西，在橫線之后只舉了一件東西：番茄田。替番茄防凍是本篇的主題，別的東西自可以不提，寫短篇小說不得不注意描寫上的經(jīng)濟。

● even to的to=as far as：每樣東西都可以看見，即小至小小的番茄秧，也可以看見。后面跟著幾個形容tomato plants的字。featherlike：像羽毛似的，指番茄的莖葉而言。fragility：脆弱。exposed：暴露（在寒夜中）的，番茄這樣暴露著，使人驚心（appalling）。

● the farmhouse是the shape的同位語。

Inside, Jason and Sara Morton were lying between the quilts of a pallet which had been made up close to the fireplace. A fire still fluttered in the grate, making a drowsy sound now and then, and its exhausted light beat up and down the wall, across the rafters, and over the dark pallet where the old people lay, like a bird trying to find its way out of the room.

● quilt：一床被。pallet：稻草所鋪成的床。鋪（made up）在火爐附近（close）。

● grate：火爐里的鐵格子。drowsy：催眠的。exhausted：無力的。把火爐里的光比作一只尋出路的鳥，可稱妙絕。動詞用beat也妙，譬喻還沒有點明以前，單憑這個動詞，已經(jīng)顯出有一樣東西在東碰西撞了。fluttered：跳動，用于火可以，用于鳥也可以。rafters：屋椽。

The long-spaced, tired breathing of Jason was the only noise besides the flutter of the fire. He lay under the quilt in a long shape like a bean, turned on his side to face the door. His lips opened in the dark, and in and out he breathed, in and out, slowly and with a rise and fall, over and over, like a conversation or a tale—a question and a sigh.

● long-spaced：兩聲鼾聲之間停頓得很長。bean：這里是附有豆莢的豆子。turned on his side：側著身。turned是過去分詞。

● in and out he breathed=he breathed in and out。rise and fall：起伏。最后一句句子的節(jié)奏，也模仿鼾聲的起伏。

Sara lay on her hack with her mouth agape, silent, but not asleep. She was staring at the dark and indistinguishable places among the rafters. Her eyes seemed opened too wide, the lids strained and limp, like openings which have been stretched shapeless and made of no more use. Once a hissing yellow flame stood erect in the old log, and her small face and pale hair, and one hand holding to the edge of the cover, were illuminated for a moment, with shadows bright blue. Then she pulled the quilt clear over her head.

● lay on her back：仰天而臥。agape：張著（嘴）。indistinguishable：分辨不清楚的。opened是過去分詞，形容主語。the lids strained and limp是nominative absolute phrase。“眼皮繃緊的又是軟軟的（limp）”。她的眼睛就“像兩個眶眶，張大得已經(jīng)不成形狀，而且給弄得不再有什么用處了”。在“which”clause里，有兩個動詞：have been stretched和（have been）made；shapeless和of no more use都形容主語which。

● 第四句又是描寫火光：一下子她的臉、頭發(fā)和捏住被單邊緣的一只手都給照亮了?；鹗撬凰蛔黜懀╤issing）的黃色火焰，筆直地（erect）立在（爐子里的）陳舊的木柴（log）上。

● hold作不及物動詞用，有cling（緊附）的意義，所以holding to比holding（及物動詞）可能捏得更緊。末一句的clear是副詞，解作completely，把被單拉上，把頭全蓋沒了。

Every night they lay trembling with cold, but no more communicative in their misery than a pair of window shutters beaten by a storm. Sometimes many days, weeks went by without words. They were not really old—they were only fifty; still, their lives were filled with tiredness, with a great lack of necessity to speak, with poverty which may have bound them like a disaster too great for discussion but left them still separate and undesirous of sympathy. Perhaps, years ago, the long habit of silence may have been started in anger or passion. Who could tell now?

● communicative：喜與人交談的，形容主語they。受暴風雨打擊的兩扇百葉窗，即使有個別的反應，也不會互相交談，這一對老夫婦雖然生活困苦，也不互相交談，兩個活人的話并不比兩扇窗的話更多一些（no more…than）。went by=passed。

● 他們的生命充滿了三件東西：第一是“疲倦”；第二是“沒有說話的需要”（filled with a lack：充滿了一種缺乏——好像是不通的，這樣把兩個意義相反的字聯(lián)在一起，修辭學上稱為“矛盾修飾法”[oxymoron]，中文也有這種說法，例如“公開的秘密”）；第三是“貧窮”。

● poverty后跟著一個adjective clause。在這個子句里，作者就她寫作的時候（故用現(xiàn)在式的輔助動詞may），去猜想當時的情形（故用完成式不定詞have bound和have left）。貧窮把他們老夫妻倆聯(lián)系（bound是bind的過去分詞）在一起，可能如同一個災禍一樣（同受災者命運相同），災禍太大了，用不著再去討論它。但是貧窮使得他們倆仍舊是彼此分離的，而且是不希望別人來同情的。（separate和undesirous兩個形容詞都是objective complements。）

● 末一句，作者猜想他們什么時候開始互相不交談的。這個沉默的習慣可能很多年（years前面不必加many也可表示很多年）前就開始了。怎樣開始的呢？可能有一次在生氣的時候，兩人不說話，以后就一直不說話了（passion=violent anger）。但是現(xiàn)在誰知道呢？

She was so tired of the cold! That was all it could do any more—make her tired. Year after year, she felt sure that she would die before the cold was over. Now, according to the Almanac, it was spring…. But year after year it was always the same. The plants would be set out in their frames, transplanted always too soon, and there was a freeze…. When was the last time they had grown tall and full, that the cold had held off and there was a crop?

● 第二句的it代the cold。make是省去了to的不定式。

● Almanac：歷本。雖然交了春，天還是很冷。交了春，番茄苗要從苗圃里移植到田里去。但是年年總是如此，移植（transplanted）得太早了，一夜春寒，可能把番茄全凍死，輔助動詞用would表示過去屢次發(fā)生的事。set out=planted（此解根據(jù)Thorndike-Barnhart: Comprehensive Desk Dictionary）。frames：番茄太重，番茄樹枝支持不起，需搭架子來扶助。

● 年年種的番茄，都在春天凍死，她已記不起哪一年的番茄是種活的。末一句是Sara自己問自己，上一回是什么時候，番茄苗（they）長得又高，結得又滿；寒冷不來侵犯（hold off=keep at a distance）而有收獲呢？

Like a vain dream, Sara began to have thoughts of the spring and summer. At first she thought only simply, of the colors of green and red, the smell of the sun on the ground, the touch of leaves and of warm ripening tomatoes. Then, all hidden as she was under the quilt, she began to imagine and remember the town of Dexter in the shipping season. There in her mind, dusty little Dexter became a theatre of almost legendary festivity, a place of pleasure. On every road leading in, smiling farmers were bringing in wagonloads of the most beautiful tomatoes. The packing sheds at Dexter Station were all decorated—no, it was simply that the May sun was shining. Mr. Perkins, the tall, gesturing figure, stood in the very centre of everything, buying, directing, waving yellow papers that must be telegrams, shouting with great impatience. And it was he, after all, that owned their farm now. Train after train of empty freight cars stretched away, waiting and then being filled. Was it possible to have saved out of the threat of the cold so many tomatoes in the world?

● 這一段是回憶五月間收購番茄時的盛況（就是番茄有收成的那一年），運用視覺（colors）、嗅覺（smell）、觸覺（touch）的描寫，正同上文凄涼寒夜作一對照。

● all hidden as she was under the quilt=though she was all hidden under the quilt。

● Dexter在密蘇里州。shipping season：裝運的季節(jié)。注意：shipping只是“裝運”，水路旱路均可，這里是指裝火車。

● theatre：場合。legendary festivity：如傳說般的盛大慶祝。

● leading in：通到Dexter城去的。a wagonload是裝滿一馬車那么多，這里用的是復數(shù)。bring in的in是副詞。

● packing：（給番茄）裝箱或裝簍子。sheds：專作此用的帳棚。decorated：裝飾起來，但是作者（或者可以說是Sara）又修正自己的話，并沒有裝飾，只是陽光照耀得燦爛奪目而已。

● 下面接著描寫Mr. Perkins：一個高大而裝腔作勢的人（figure：人的形狀，Sara所記得的是這個人的形狀）；directing：在指揮別人；waving yellow papers that must be telegrams：手里拿著一疊黃紙在舞，這疊黃紙，據(jù)Sara猜想起來，一定是電報。四個現(xiàn)在分詞buying、directing、waving和shouting（叫喊），都是形容主語Mr. Perkins（with great impatience：很不耐煩地）。

● after all=all things considered：總而言之。

● Train：列車。freight cars：貨車。stretched away：長長地延伸出去。

● 末一句Sara還是很奇怪：怎么可能從寒冷的威脅下救出這許多番茄來？saved的賓語是tomatoes。

Sara, weightless under the quilt, could think of the celebrations of Dexter and see the vision of ripe tomatoes only in brief snatches, like the flare-up of the little fire. The rest of the time she thought only of cold, of cold going on before and after. She could not help but feel the chill of the here and now, which was not to think at all but was for her only a trembling in the dark.

● weightless：覺得自己很輕（因此更冷）。vision：景象。

● in brief snatches：短短的片刻之中。flare-up：突然發(fā)光。這一個譬喻把過去同現(xiàn)在，或者說，把回憶同當前的感覺聯(lián)結了起來。又把讀者帶回到她屋子里來了。

● could not help but feel：不能不感覺到。the here and now：此地此時。這種寒戰(zhàn)的感覺不好算是思想（to think），對于她只算是黑暗中的一陣戰(zhàn)栗（trembling）。

She coughed patiently and turned her head to one side. She peered over the quilt just a little and saw that the fire had at last gone out. There was left only a hulk of red log, a still, red, bent shape, like one of Jason's socks thrown down to be darned somehow. With only this to comfort her, Sara closed her eyes and fell asleep.

● coughed：咳嗽。patiently：有耐心地。

● peered：窺視。at last：最后總算滅了——Sara一直期待著它會滅的。

● a hulk of red log：木柴燒紅成為炭。log這個字上文已經(jīng)見過, 我們很可以猜想，爐子里就只有這么一塊柴，這塊柴燒完了，火也滅了。（hulk：原意是廢船的空殼子。）

● shape是hulk的同位語。那塊木柴成了一個靜止的、紅色的、彎曲的形體，就像她丈夫的一只襪子（sock），擲給她叫她織補（darn）的。somehow：用某種方式（隨便她怎樣織補）。

● 從火爐里的余燼聯(lián)想到家政。Sara心平氣和，心理描寫至此可以告一段落，Sara也入睡了。

Every hour it was getting colder and colder. The moon, intense and white as the snow that does not fall here, drew higher in the sky, in the long night, and more distant from the earth. The farm looked as tiny and still as a seashell, with the little knob of a house surrounded by its curved furrows of tomato plants. Cold like a white pressing hand reached down and lay over the shell.

● getting（聯(lián)系動詞）=becoming。

● intense：強烈的。“月色皎潔如雪”，但是那個地方是從來不下雪的，全篇敘事均用過去式，此處忽出現(xiàn)現(xiàn)在式does not fall，這是表示常理，并不限于故事發(fā)生的那一段時間里。

● drew（不及物動詞）=moved。后隨higher與distant兩個subjective complements，形容主語moon。

● still（形容詞）：靜止的。seashell：貝殼。請參閱本文第一段把田莊比作水中白石的描寫。the little knob of a house：房子看上去只成圓圓的一小塊。of在這里的用法是很特別的，這種用法很像appositive genitive，但這里of前后兩名詞的關系不是“相等”，而是“相像”。所謂appositive genitive的例子，如the City of Rome (Rome is the city)，the habit of smoking (smoking is the habit)；但是這個phrase的意思是：The house seemed like a little knob。同樣的用法如an angel of a woman（天使般的女人），a mountain of a man（魁偉如山的人）。surrounded是過去分詞。furrow：畦，即犁在田中所挖成之淺溝。

● 末句之cold是名詞，為全句主語。pressing hand：用力按的手。reached：伸。reached down：往下伸。

In Dexter there is a great whistle which is blown when a freeze threatens. It is known everywhere as Mr. Perkins' whistle. Now it sounded out in the clear night, blast after blast. Over the countryside lights appeared in the windows of the farms. Men and women ran out into the fields and covered up their plants with whatever they had, while Mr. Perkins' whistle blew and blew.

● 題意至本段始點明。whistle指工廠、火車、輪船上所用之汽笛，這里的汽笛是作“防凍警報”之用。blown：嗚（笛作響）。threatens：將來襲擊。

● Mr. Perkins上文已介紹，是番茄田的主人。首兩句用現(xiàn)在式，表示這是每年經(jīng)常之事。blast：汽笛一陣地響。

● lights appeared…：聽到汽笛聲，農民紛紛起床為番茄防凍。屋內種種忙亂，小說家讓我們看見的，只是窗上露出光來而已，描寫何等經(jīng)濟。

● whatever they had：有什么（他們就用什么蓋上去）。包括衣服被褥等。

Sara felt herself waking. She knew that Mr. Perkins' whistle was blowing, what it meant—and that it now remained for her to get Jason and go out to the field. A soft laxity, an illusion of warmth, flowed stubbornly down her body, and for a few moments she continued to lie still.

● waking：將醒未醒。她覺得自己在醒回來，是尚未全醒也。神知在寤寐之間，最難描寫，作者本段著墨不多，而慵倦疏懶之狀，已躍然紙上。

● 第二句knew的賓語是that…，what…，that…三個noun clauses。

● A soft laxity（懶洋洋的感覺），an illusion of warmth（鉆在被窩中睡，似乎溫暖，其實并不真溫暖）：這種感覺都是朦朧恍惚，若有若無；動詞flowed（如水之流，貫注全身）：也只顯得不用力量，順應自然?？墒歉痹~stubbornly之意為堅決地，用力地。懶洋洋的感覺雖懶雖軟，卻真有力量叫人起不了床，stubbornly一字安得妙。

Then she was sitting up and seizing her husband by the shoulders, without saying a word, rocking him back and forth. It took all her strength to wake him. He coughed, his roaring was over, and he sat up. He said nothing either, and they both sat with bent heads and listened for the whistle. After a silence it blew again, a long, rising blast.

● without saying a word：上文已說過，老夫妻倆是很少交談的，此處再提一句。

● rock（動詞）：搖。roaring：鼾聲。listened for…：諦聽，而聲音尚未來。rising：聲音由低升高。

Promptly Sara and Jason got out of bed. They were both fully dressed, because of the cold, and only needed to put on their shoes. Jason lighted the lantern, and Sara gathered the bedclothes over her arm and followed him out.

● They were both fully dressed：這句話的predicate并不表示一個動作，只是一種狀態(tài)：“他們是穿好衣服的”（和衣而臥）。

● over her arm：挽在臂上。bedclothes：被褥，包括枕頭。

Everything was white, and everything looked vast and extensive to them as they walked over to the frozen field. Stooping over the little plants, Jason and Sara touched them and touched the earth. For their own knowledge, by their hands, they found everything to be true—the cold, the rightness of the warning, the need to act. Over the sticks set in among the plants they laid the quilts one by one, spreading them with a slow ingenuity. Jason took off his coat and laid it over the small tender plants by the side of the house. Then he glanced at Sara, and she reached down and pulled her dress off over her head. Her hair fell down out of its pins, and she began at once to tremble violently. The skirt was luckily long and full, and all the rest of the plants were covered by it.

● stooping：俯身。For their own knowledge=for all they knew：據(jù)他們所知。For=regarding，so far as concerns：就……而言（《簡明牛津字典》）。

● 破折號后三個名詞，都是everything的同位語，found的賓語。“他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這些都是真的：冷是真的，發(fā)警報真有理由，他們也真該行動。”警報的“正當性”（rightness）和行動的需要（need）都是真的。抽象名詞在中國語法習慣里用得較少。中文常用形容詞或動詞的地方，英文可以用抽象名詞來表達，這是學英文的人所應該注意的。

● set是過去分詞。over the sticks形容laid。他們把被單一層一層地鋪在插在番茄秧間的小竿上。ingenuity：靈巧。

● Jason把自己的外套（可能是大衣）脫下了，鋪在番茄上，再對Sara一望（glance），這一望使得Sara也非脫不可。她的女式衣服（dress），像運動背心一樣，穿上要從頭上套進去，脫下也得要過頭。脫衣服的時候，把發(fā)針（pins）弄松了，頭發(fā)披了下來。

● 末句luckily一字用得最為沉痛。上面剛說到：衣服脫掉，冷得發(fā)抖；這里接著說：虧得（或幸喜）衣服的下幅（skirt）長而肥大，把沒有蓋到的番茄秧統(tǒng)統(tǒng)蓋上了。真是luckily嗎？這里用這樣一個反語（irony），勝過許多慷慨激昂的牢騷。

Then Sara and Jason stood for a moment and stared almost idly at the field and up at the sky.

There was no wind. There was only the intense whiteness of moonlight. Why did this calm cold sink into them like the teeth of a trap? They bent their shoulders and walked silently back into the house.

● teeth of a trap：捕鼠（獸）機的刀齒。

The room was not much warmer. They had forgotten to shut the door behind them when the whistle was blowing so hard. They sat down to wait for morning.

● had forgotten：剛才他們出去搶救番茄的時候，忘了關門了，寒氣進了屋，屋里一樣的冷。

Then Jason did a rare, strange thing. There long before morning he poured kerosene over some kindling and struck a light to it. Squatting, they got near it, quite gradually they drew together, and sat motionless until it all burned down. Still Sara did not move. Then Jason, in his underwear and long blue trousers, went out and brought in another load, and the big cherry log which of course was meant to be saved for the very last of winter.

● 這時候這對老夫妻的情形是：火爐里的火滅了（見前文），被褥衣服都給番茄秧蓋上了，自己身上反而沒有蓋的了，天還不亮，屋子里同外面一樣冷，該怎么辦呢？

● kerosene：火油。kindling：引火柴。squatting：蹲著。

● underwear：內衣。another load：又是一堆（小木片，引火柴）。cherry log：櫻桃樹木柴。saved：節(jié)??；“這是預備省下來，度過這個冬天的”。last=end。

The extravagant warmth of the room had sent some kind of agitation over Sara, like her memories of Dexter in the shipping season. She sat huddled in a long brown cotton petticoat, holding onto the string which went around the waist. Her mouse-colored hair, paler at the temples, was hanging loose down to her shoulders, like a child's unbound for a party. She held her knees against her numb, pendulant breasts and stared into the fire, her eyes widening.

● 把最后一塊大木柴燒掉了，該怎么辦呢？作者所描寫的這對老夫婦，差不多是沒有思考作用的，他們像動物一樣，只有感覺和簡單的反應。對于這種可憐的人，冷應該更加可怕。

● agitation：（心理上的）激動。注意：這里的sent的意義和平常不同。her memories…：請參閱上文。

● huddled：蜷縮，過去分詞，形容主語。petticoat：襯裙，不連上身的。

● holding，現(xiàn)在分詞，仍是形容主語。onto=on to，手捏牢這根繞腰而過的帶子（string）。

● temples：太陽穴。a child's=a child's hair。party：宴會。?。ㄅ┖⒆訁⒓友鐣r，有時把頭發(fā)解松了，披在肩上，算是一種打扮。

● numb：麻木的。pendulant：下垂的。

At last every bit of the wood was gone. Now the cherry log was burned to ashes.

And all of a sudden Jason was on his feet again. Of all things, he was bringing the split-bottomed chair over to the hearth. He knocked it to pieces…. It burned well and brightly. Sara never said a word. She did not move….

Then the kitchen table. To think that a solid, steady four-legged table like that, that had stood thirty years in one place, should be consumed in such a little while! Sara stared almost greedily at the waving flames.

● on his feet：站起來。of all things：有“什么都不搬，偏把椅子搬來”之意。bottom：椅子之座位部。split：裂開的。over（副詞）：解作“從那邊搬來”之意。

● To think=it is hard to think。下面的noun clause的動詞should be consumed是虛擬式：“竟然會這樣快就燒掉！”

● a table like that之that是指示代名詞，“像那一張一樣的桌子”。第二個that是關系代名詞，引起一個adjective clause，也是形容table。

● greedily：貪婪地，想占有這個火。用中文說是“想把這個火吃下去”。

Then when that was over, Jason and Sara sat in darkness where their bed had been, and it was colder than ever. The fire the kitchen table had made seemed wonderful to them…. But Sara trembled, again pressing her hard knees against her breast. All at once, without turning her head, she spoke.

● that was over：那張廚房桌子也燒完了。

● where their bed had been：一度是他們鋪床的地方。他們的床是鋪在火爐旁的地上的，現(xiàn)在被褥已經(jīng)都搬了出去蓋番茄秧了，床已不再存在。

● the kitchen table had made：adjective clause形容fire，關系代名詞省略。had made的時態(tài)，也是表示“不再存在”。

Jason…

A silence. But only for a moment.

Listen, said her husband's uncertain voice.

They held very still, as before, with bent heads.

Outside, as though it would exact something further from their lives, the whistle continued to blow.

● 老夫妻倆從來沒有開過口，現(xiàn)在忽然交談起來了。是什么東西打破他們沉默的習慣的呢？Sara在一陣寒戰(zhàn)之后，有什么話非說不可的呢？

● They held very still之held是linking verb，相當于continued。still（安靜）是predicate adjective。exact：問（他們）要。汽笛聲已經(jīng)把他們的衣服家具都要了去，現(xiàn)在又在吹了，好像再要向他們要什么似的。汽笛在吹，天氣還要冷下去。番茄秧或者可以救活了，但是人呢？寒夜笛聲，境界至為明凈，然人世痛苦，似亦盡在幾聲長鳴之中。小說家之剪裁，至此已告結束。然文雖終局，意似尚有未盡焉。