The Chrysanthemums 菊花--約翰?斯坦貝克（2）
她這會(huì)兒正用一把鋒利的小剪子把去年的菊花枝剪短，還不時(shí)朝站在拖拉機(jī)棚邊上的三個(gè)男人望一望。她的臉上充滿著渴望，看起來成熟漂亮——甚至連她拿著剪刀干活的樣子都顯得那么有力，飽含期待，以至于那些菊花的枯桿相比之下都顯得纖細(xì)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.
她用手套的背部將眼前的一綹烏發(fā)抹開，一點(diǎn)污漬就留在了她的臉頰上。她身后是整潔的白色農(nóng)舍，紅色的天竺葵緊緊地簇?fù)碇?，直到窗戶附近?？吹贸鲞@座不大的屋子好好打掃過，窗戶也曾細(xì)心地擦拭過，就連前面臺(tái)階上的擦鞋墊都收拾得干干凈凈。
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.
伊利莎又朝拖拉機(jī)棚的方向看了一眼，那些陌生人正鉆進(jìn)他們的福特牌小客車?yán)铩Ｋ摰粢恢皇痔?，將自己有力的手指伸到從老的菊花根部新生的一叢幼苗里，然后分開葉子，在長(zhǎng)得郁郁蔥蔥的幼苗里查看。里面蚜蟲、潮蟲、蝸牛、毛蟲什么的都沒有。如果真有的話，她那犀利無比的手指也會(huì)在這些害蟲逃跑之前就將它們消滅。
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.
聽到丈夫的聲音，伊利莎吃了一驚。原來他已經(jīng)悄悄地走到了她的旁邊，從鐵絲柵欄那邊俯過身來。鐵絲柵欄把她的花園圈了起來，免得牛呀，狗呀，雞呀這些家畜糟蹋。
"At it again," he said. "You've got a strong new crop coming." Elisa straightened her back and pulled on the gardening glove again: "Yes. They'll be strong this coming year." In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness. "You've got a gift with things," Henry observed. "Some of 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." Her eyes sharpened. "Maybe 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." "Well, it sure works with flowers," he said. "Henry, who were those men you were talking to?" "Why, sure, 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, too."
“又侍弄你的花兒啦，”他說，“它們今年長(zhǎng)勢(shì)好啊。”聽到丈夫搭話，伊利莎直起身，順手把那只手套又戴上：“對(duì)，今年長(zhǎng)勢(shì)會(huì)很好。”不管是言語中還是臉上都洋溢著得意。 “你干活兒很有一手，”亨利說，“你今年種的黃菊花中有的有十英寸那么大，真希望你去侍弄果園，也結(jié)出那么大的蘋果來。”她的眼睛一亮。“或許我也能。我的確在種植方面有一手，我媽媽也是那樣。她隨便把什么東西往地下一插，就能活。她說是因?yàn)橛辛饲f稼人的手才知道怎么去種植。”“嗯，種花也是這樣的，”他說。“亨利，剛才同你說話的那些人是誰呀?”“啊，對(duì)了，我正要跟你說呢。他們是西部肉制品公司的。我把那三十頭三歲的菜牛賣給他們，差不多是我要的價(jià)格。”
"Good," she said. "Good for you." "And I thought," he continued, "I 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." "Good," she repeated. "Oh, yes. That will be good." Henry put on his joking tone. "There's fights tonight. How'd you like to go to the fights?" "Oh, no," she said breathlessly. "No, I wouldn't like fights." "Just 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?" "Of course I'll like it. It's good to eat away from home." "All right, then. I'll go get up a couple of horses." She said, "I'll have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets, I guess."
“太好了，”她說，“真有你的。” “我想，”他接著說，“現(xiàn)在是周六下午，我們可以去薩利納斯的一家飯店吃頓飯，再去看場(chǎng)電影，慶祝一下，你看怎么樣。”“太好了，”她重復(fù)道。“真是好極了。”亨利接著開玩笑說，“今天晚上有拳擊賽，你愿意看嗎?”“不，”她緊張地說，“我可不喜歡拳擊賽。”“騙你哪，伊利莎。我們?nèi)タ措娪啊Ｗ屛蚁胍幌?，現(xiàn)在是下午兩點(diǎn)，我去叫斯哥迪，把牛趕下山。這大概要兩個(gè)鐘頭。我們會(huì)在五點(diǎn)鐘到城里，去克民諾斯酒店吃晚飯。你覺得怎么樣?”“當(dāng)然可以，在外面吃飯好。”“那好，我去準(zhǔn)備幾匹馬。”“我想我會(huì)有充裕的時(shí)間把這些苗兒種上的。”伊利莎說。
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.
繼而，她聽到丈夫在谷倉那兒叫斯哥迪。又過了一會(huì)兒，她看見他們兩個(gè)騎著馬，走上灰黃的山坡找菜牛?；▓@里有一塊四四方方的沙地，是用來種菊花幼苗的。她用泥鏟把土翻了又翻，又弄平，再拍結(jié)實(shí)。然后又挖了十道平行的小溝，好栽種菊苗。她從菊花園里拔了些脆嫩的幼苗，用剪刀剪掉葉子，然后整齊地放在一起。
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. "Pots, pans, knives, scissors, lawn mowers. Fixed." Two rows of articles, and the triumphantly definitive "Fixed" below. The black paint had run down in little sharp points beneath each letter.
路邊這時(shí)傳來了車輪的吱嘎聲和馬蹄的聲響。伊利莎抬起了頭。河邊上密密麻麻的柳樹和楊樹旁是條鄉(xiāng)間小路，沿著這條路來了一輛奇怪的車，走的樣子很怪。那是一輛老式的帶彈簧的四輪馬車，上面的帆布圓頂子象是拓荒者用的大篷車的頂篷。拉著它的是匹栗色的馬和一頭灰白的小毛驢。在車頂蓋的下面坐著個(gè)胡子拉碴的人，趕著這輛車往前爬行。在馬車后輪之間，一條瘦骨嶙峋的長(zhǎng)腿雜種狗不聲不響地跟著。車蓬的上面歪歪扭扭地寫著“修理鍋、罐、刀、剪子、割草機(jī)”。修理的器皿寫了兩行，“修理”兩個(gè)字在下面，顯得很自信。寫字用的黑色顏料在每個(gè)字母下面都流成了一個(gè) 個(gè)小尖頭。
