Scarlett had been at Tara two weeks since her return from Atlanta when the largest blister on her foot began to fester, swelling until it was impossible for her to put on her shoe or do more than hobble about on her heel. —-
自从从亚特兰大回到塔拉以来的两个星期，当斯嘉丽的脚上最大的水泡开始化脓，并肿胀到她无法穿鞋或只能踮着脚后跟艰难移动时，她感到绝望。 —-

Desperation plucked at her when she looked at the angry sore on her toe. —-
当她看着脚趾上那个愤怒的疮口时，绝望袭上心头。 —-

Suppose it should gangrene like the soldiers’ wounds and she should die, far away from a doctor? —-
假设这疮口会像士兵的伤口一样感染，那她会死去，远离医生？ —-

Bitter as life was now, she had no desire to leave it. —-
尽管生活已经如此痛苦，她并不希望离开它。 —-

And who would look after Tara if she should die?
如果她死了，谁会照顾塔拉呢？

She had hoped when she first came home that Gerald’s old spirit would revive and he would take command, but in these two weeks that hope had vanished. —-
她一回家就希望杰拉尔德的旧精神能够复苏，他将能够指挥一切，但在这两个星期里，这个希望已经破灭了。 —-

She knew now that, whether she liked it or not, she had the plantation and all its people on her two inexperienced hands, for Gerald still sat quietly, like a man in a dream, so frighteningly absent from Tara, so gentle. —-
她现在明白了，不管她喜欢与否，塔拉庄园和所有的人都在她这两只没有经验的手上，因为杰拉尔德依然像一个梦中人一样静静地坐在塔拉上，如此让人害怕地远离现实，如此温和。 —-

To her pleas for advice he gave as his only answer: —-
对于她的请求寻求建议，他唯一的回答是： —-

“Do what you think best, Daughter.” Or worse still, “Consult with your mother, Puss.”
“做你认为是最好的，女儿。”或者更糟糕的是，“与你妈妈商量一下，亲爱的。”

He never would be any different and now Scarlett realized the truth and accepted it without emotion—that until he died Gerald would always be waiting for Ellen, always listening for her. —-
他永远不会有任何改变，现在斯嘉丽意识到了真相，并没有情绪地接受了这一事实——直到杰拉尔德死去，他都将一直等着艾伦，总是在倾听着她。 —-

He was in some dim borderline country where time was standing still and Ellen was always in the next room. —-
他身处于某个模糊的边境地带，那里时间停滞不前，而艾伦总是在隔壁的房间里。 —-

The mainspring of his existence was taken away when she died and with it had gone his bounding assurance, his impudence and his restless vitality. —-
当她去世时，他存在的主要动力也随之消失，他的依赖心消失了，他的放肆和不安的活力也一片寂静。 —-

Ellen was the audience before which the blustering drama of Gerald O’Hara had been played. —-
艾伦是吉拉德·奥哈拉高谈阔论的观众。 —-

Now the curtain had been rung down forever, the footlights dimmed and the audience suddenly vanished, while the stunned old actor remained on his empty stage, waiting for his cues.
现在幕布已永远降下，舞台灯光黯淡，而观众突然消失了，而这个惊愕的老演员却留在了空荡荡的舞台上，等待着他的提示。

That morning the house was still, for everyone except Scarlett, Wade and the three sick girls was in the swamp hunting the sow. —-
那天早上，除了斯嘉丽、韦德和三个生病的女孩之外，整个家里都安静了，因为其他人都在沼泽地里猎猪。 —-

Even Gerald had aroused a little and stumped off across the furrowed fields, one hand on Pork’s arm and a coil of rope in the other. —-
即便是杰拉尔德也有些激动，他一手抓着波克的胳膊，另一只手拿着一捆绳子，跨过了起伏的田地。 —-

Suellen and Careen had cried themselves to sleep, as they did at least twice a day when they thought of Ellen, tears of grief and weakness oozing down their sunken cheeks. —-
苏伦和凯琳已经哭得昏昏入睡了，每天至少两次，当她们想起艾伦时，悲伤和虚弱的泪水就沿着她们的陷入的脸颊缓缓流淌。 —-

Melanie, who had been propped up on pillows for the first time that day, lay covered with a mended sheet between two babies, the downy flaxen head of one cuddled in her arm, the kinky black head of Dilcey’s child held as gently in the other. —-
梅兰妮在那天被扶着枕起来，躺在一块修补过的床单上，她的脑后是两个婴儿，其中一个金黄色柔软的头发依偎在她的臂弯里，另一个扎着小小的黑色缩发，被温柔地托在另一只手中。 —-

Wade sat at the bottom of the bed, listening to a fairy story.
韦德坐在床边，听着一个童话故事。

To Scarlett, the stillness at Tara was unbearable, for it reminded her too sharply of the deathlike stillness of the desolate country through which she had passed that long day on her way home from Atlanta. —-
对斯嘉丽来说，塔拉的寂静是令人无法忍受的，因为这太过鲜明地让她想起了她从亚特兰大回家的那一天穿越荒凉乡村时的死寂寂静。 —-

The cow and the calf had made no sound for hours. —-
牛和小牛已经好几个小时没有发出任何声音了。 —-

There were no birds twittering outside her window and even the noisy family of mockers who had lived among the harshly rustling leaves of the magnolia for generations had no song that day. —-
那天，她的窗外没有鸟儿婉转地歌唱，即使是曾经住在乔木的尖叶间的那个嘈杂的模仿家族，也没有歌声。 —-

She had drawn a low chair close to the open window of her bedroom, looking out on the front drive, the lawn and the empty green pasture across the road, and she sat with her skirts well above her knees and her chin resting on her arms on the window sill. —-
她将一把低矮的椅子拉近卧室的开放窗户旁，可以看到前院车道、草坪以及马路对面空旷的绿色牧场。她坐着，裙子掀到膝盖上方，下巴枕在双臂上，搭在窗台上。 —-

There was a bucket of well water on the floor beside her and every now and then she lowered her blistered foot into it, screwing up her face at the stinging sensation.
地板旁放着一个水桶，里面盛着井水，她不时将被水泡破的脚放进去，脸上露出刺痛的表情。

Fretting, she dug her chin into her arm. Just when she needed her strength most, this toe had to fester. —-
她焦虑地将下巴埋进手臂里。就在她最需要体力的时候，这个脚趾要受到化脓的困扰。 —-

Those fools would never catch the sow. It had taken them a week to capture the pigs, one by one, and now after two weeks the sow was still at liberty. —-
那些傻瓜永远也捉不到母猪。他们花了一个星期的时间逐个捕捉小猪，而现在两个星期过去了，母猪仍然自由自在。 —-

Scarlett knew that if she were just there in the swamp with them, she could tuck up her dress to her knees and take the rope and lasso the sow before you could say Jack Robinson.
斯嘉丽知道，如果她只是在沼泽里和它们一起，她可以把裙子卷到膝盖上，拿起绳子，比你说“杰克•罗宾逊”还要快将母猪套住。

But even after the sow was caught—if she were caught? —-
但即使母猪被抓住了，如果被抓住的话呢？ —-

What then, after she and her litter were eaten? Life would go on and so would appetites. —-
然后呢，她和她的小猪会被吃掉。生活会继续，胃口也会继续。 —-

Winter was coming and there would be no food, not even the poor remnants of the vegetables from the neighbors’ gardens. —-
冬天就要来了，将没有食物，甚至没有邻居花园里的残余蔬菜。 —-

They must have dried peas and sorghum and meal and rice and—and— oh, so many things. —-
他们必须有干豆、高粱、面粉、大米，还有，还有很多其他东西。 —-

Corn and cotton seed for next spring’s planting, and new clothes too. —-
用于明年春季播种的玉米和棉花种子，还有新衣服。 —-

Where was it all to come from and how would she pay for it?
这些东西都要从哪里来，她又该如何支付呢？

She had privately gone through Gerald’s pockets and his cash box and all she could find was stacks of Confederate bonds and three thousand dollars in Confederate bills. —-
她私下翻遍了杰拉尔德的口袋和他的现金盒，但能找到的只有一叠叠的南方联邦债券和三千美元的南方联邦纸币。 —-

That was about enough to buy one square meal for them all, she thought ironically, now that Confederate money was worth almost less than nothing at all. —-
她讽刺地想道，这些钱差不多足够给他们每个人买一顿正餐了，如今那些南方联邦的货币几乎什么价值都没有。 —-

But if she did have money and could find food, how would she haul it home to Tara? —-
但是如果她有钱并且能找到食物，她要怎么运回家去塔拉呢？ —-

Why had God let the old horse die? Even that sorry animal Rhett had stolen would make all the difference in the world to them. —-
为什么上帝让这匹老马死了呢？即使是那匹可怜的被瑞特偷走的动物对他们来说都会有很大的帮助。 —-

Oh, those fine sleek mules which used to kick up their heels in the pasture across the road, and the handsome carriage horses, her little mare, the girls’ ponies and Gerald’s big stallion racing about and tearing up the turf— Oh, for one of them, even the balkiest mule!
哦，曾经在马路对面的牧场上踢腿欢奔的那些漂亮的精神饱满的骡马和华丽的马车马，她的小母马，女孩们的小马和杰拉德的奔马疯狂地跑来跑去，扒起泥土——她就算得到一头顽固不化的骡子！

But, no matter—when her foot healed she would walk to Jonesboro. —-
但是，没关系——等她的脚好了，她就会步行去琼斯伯勒。 —-

It would be the longest walk she had ever taken in her life, but walk it she would. —-
这将是她一生中走过的最长的一段路，但她一定会走过去。 —-

Even if the Yankees had burned the town completely, she would certainly find someone in the neighborhood who could tell her where to get food. —-
即使北军彻底烧毁了城镇，她也肯定会找到附近有人能告诉她哪里能买到食物。 —-

Wade’s pinched face rose up before her eyes. —-
韦德受皮条压榨的脸在她眼前浮现出来。 —-

He didn’t like yams, he repeated; wanted a drumstick and some rice and gravy.
他一再重复说他不喜欢山药，他想要一个鸡腿和一些饭和肉汁。

The bright sunlight in the front yard suddenly clouded and the trees blurred through tears. —-
前院明亮的阳光突然被烟云覆盖，树木模糊在泪水中。 —-

Scarlett dropped her head on her arms and struggled not to cry. Crying was so useless now. —-
斯嘉丽低下头，努力忍住眼泪。现在哭泣毫无意义。 —-

The only time crying ever did any good was when there was a man around from whom you wished favors. —-
哭泣只有在有一个可以为你效劳的男人在的时候才有用。 —-

As she crouched there, squeezing her eyes tightly to keep back the tears, she was startled by the sound of trotting hooves. —-
她蹲在那里，紧闭双眼不让眼泪流出，突然被奔驰的马蹄声惊吓了一下。 —-

But she did not raise her head. She had imagined that sound too often in the nights and days of these last two weeks, just as she had imagined she heard the rustle of Ellen’s skirts. —-
但她没有抬起头。在这过去的两周的夜晚和白天里，她经常想象听到这种声音，就像她想象听到艾伦的裙摆声一样。 —-

Her heart hammered, as it always did at such moments, before she told herself sternly: “Don’t be a fool.”
她的心嘭嘭地跳动着，每当这种时刻她总是这样，然后她严厉地告诉自己：“别傻了。”

But the hooves slowed down in a startlingly natural way to the rhythm of a walk and there was the measured scrunch-scrunch on the gravel. —-
但马蹄声以令人惊讶的自然方式放慢了节奏，发出沙沙的碎石声。 —-

It was a horse—the Tarletons, the Fontaines! —-
那是一匹马—塔尔顿家的，邦坦家的！ —-

She looked up quickly. It was a Yankee cavalryman.
她迅速抬头看去。那是一个北方骑兵。

Automatically, she dodged behind the curtain and peered fascinated at him through the dim folds of the cloth, so startled that the breath went out of her lungs with a gasp.
本能地，她躲到了帘子后面，透过布料的朦胧缝隙好奇地凝视着他，如此震惊以至于喘不过气来。

He sat slouched in the saddle, a thick, rough-looking man with an unkempt black beard straggling over his unbuttoned blue jacket. —-
他懒散地坐在马鞍上，一个长相粗糙的人，蓬松的黑胡子杂乱地长在他敞开的蓝色夹克上。 —-

Little close-set eyes, squinting in the sun glare, calmly surveyed the house from beneath the visor of his tight blue cap. —-
那双肥大且紧绷的蓝色帽檐下，一双眯起来的眼睛透过阳光的强光平静地观察着房子。 —-

As he slowly dismounted and tossed the bridle reins over the hitching post, Scarlett’s breath came back to her as suddenly and painfully as after a blow in the stomach. —-
当他缓缓下马并把缰绳搭在栓马桩上时，斯嘉丽的呼吸如同一记重拳猛烈地击中了她的胃，突然而痛苦地回归。 —-

A Yankee, a Yankee with a long pistol on his hip! —-
一个北方人，一个腰间挂着一把长手枪的北方人！ —-

And she was alone in the house with three sick girls and the babies!
而她与三个病重的女孩和婴儿们独自一人在房子里！

As he lounged up the walk, hand on holster, beady little eyes glancing to right and left, a kaleidoscope of jumbled pictures spun in her mind, stories Aunt Pittypat had whispered of attacks on unprotected women, throat cuttings, houses burned over the heads of dying women, children bayoneted because they cried, all of the unspeakable horrors that lay bound up in the name of “Yankee.”
当他慵懒地走过门前的小路，手握手枪，邪恶的小眼睛左右扫视着时，她脑海中一团杂乱的图像旋转着，爱丽丝·凯利·赫尔姨妈悄悄低语过的故事浮现出来——那些针对无保护的妇女的进攻，割喉，妇女头顶上的屋子烧起来，因为他们哭喊着的孩子被刺刀刺杀，一切难以言喻的恐怖都集结在”北方佬”这个名字中。

Her first terrified impulse was to hide in the closet, crawl under the bed, fly down the back stairs and run screaming to the swamp, anything to escape him. —-
她第一个惊恐的冲动是躲进壁橱里，钻到床底下，飞奔下后楼梯，尖叫着逃到沼泽里，任何事情都逃离他。 —-

Then she heard his cautious feet on the front steps and his stealthy tread as he entered the hall and she knew that escape was cut off. —-
然后她听见他谨慎地踩上前门的台阶，悄悄地踏进大厅，她知道逃走已经被切断。 —-

Too cold with fear to move, she heard his progress from room to room downstairs, his steps growing louder and bolder as he discovered no one. —-
由于恐惧而冷得动弹不得，她听见他从楼下的房间踩过，他的脚步声越来越响，越来越大胆，因为他没有发现任何人。 —-

Now he was in the dining room and in a moment he would walk out into the kitchen.
现在他在餐厅里，一会儿他就会走进厨房。

At the thought of the kitchen, rage suddenly leaped up in Scarlett’s breast, so sharply that it jabbed at her heart like a knife thrust, and fear fell away before her overpowering fury. —-
一想到厨房，愤怒突然在斯嘉丽的胸中腾起，如刀剑一般猛烈地刺向她的心脏，而恐惧在她压倒性的愤怒面前迅速消散。 —-

The kitchen! There, over the open kitchen fire were two pots, one filled with apples stewing and the other with a hodgepodge of vegetables brought painfully from Twelve Oaks and the MacIntosh garden—dinner that must serve for nine hungry people and hardly enough for two. —-
厨房！那里，厨房的火炉上有两锅，一锅里装满了炖熟的苹果，另一锅里装着从田纳西橡树山和麦金托什花园辛苦带来的杂烩蔬菜——这顿饭必须供给九个饥饿的人，却几乎只够两个人吃。 —-

Scarlett had been restraining her appetite for hours, waiting for the return of the others and the thought of the Yankee eating their meager meal made her shake with anger.
斯嘉丽已经抑制着自己的食欲好几个小时了，等待其他人的归来，而想到这个北方佬吃掉了他们微薄的一餐，她都快气疯了。

God damn them all! They descended like locusts and left Tara to starve slowly and now they were back again to steal the poor leavings. —-
该死的！他们像蝗虫一样降临，把塔拉饿得慢慢消瘦，现在他们又回来偷走那些可怜的残羹剩饭。 —-

Her empty stomach writhed within her. By God, this was one Yankee who would do no more stealing!
她的空腹在痛苦地扭动。天哪，这个北方佬再也不会偷盗了！

She slipped off her worn shoe and, barefooted, she pattered swiftly to the bureau, not even feeling her festered toe. —-
她脱下破旧的鞋子，光脚轻快地跑向梳妆台，甚至没有感到自己溃烂的脚趾。 —-

She opened the top drawer soundlessly and caught up the heavy pistol she had brought from Atlanta, the weapon Charles had worn but never fired. —-
她无声地拉开顶层抽屉，拿起了她带自亚特兰大带来的那把沉重的手枪，这把曾被查尔斯佩戴过但从未开火过的武器。 —-

She fumbled in the leather box that hung on the wall below his saber and brought out a cap. —-
她笨拙地摸索着，从挂在墙上的皮盒里拿出了一顶帽子。 —-

She slipped it into place with a hand that did not shake. —-
她用一只手稳稳地将帽子戴在头上，一点都没有打颤。 —-

Quickly and noiselessly, she ran into the upper hall and down the stairs, steadying herself on the banisters with one hand and holding the pistol close to her thigh in the folds of her skirt.
她迅速又无声地跑进了楼上的走廊，沿着扶手靠着一只手，将手枪贴在裙子的褶皱中，靠近大腿。

“Who’s there?” cried a nasal voice and she stopped on the middle of the stairs, the blood thudding in her ears so loudly she could hardly hear him. —-
“谁在那里？” 一个鼻音的声音喊道，她停在楼梯中间，她的耳朵里血液的脉搏声如此之响，几乎听不到他的声音。 —-

“Halt or I’ll shoot!” came the voice.
“停下，否则我会开枪！” 那个声音响了起来。

He stood in the door of the dining room, crouched tensely, his pistol in one hand and, in the other, the small rosewood sewing box fitted with gold thimble, gold-handled scissors and tiny gold- topped acorn of emery. —-
他站在餐厅的门口，屈身紧绷着，一只手持着手枪，另一只手拿着一只装满金带针、金柄剪刀和带金顶端的小玫瑰木缝纫盒。 —-

Scarlett’s legs felt cold to the knees but rage scorched her face. Ellen’s sewing box in his hands. —-
斯嘉丽的双腿感到冷到了膝盖，但愤怒却在她脸上燃烧。艾伦的缝纫盒被他拿在手中。 —-

She wanted to cry: “Put it down! Put it down, you dirty—“ but words would not come. —-
她想大声哭出来：“放下！放下，你这个肮脏的……”但她的嘴里却说不出话来。 —-

She could only stare over the banisters at him and watch his face change from harsh tenseness to a half-contemptuous, half-ingratiating smile.
她只能站在栏杆边凝视着他，看着他的脸从严厉的紧张变成了一种半轻蔑半阿谀的微笑。

“So there is somebody ter home,” he said, slipping his pistol back into its holster and moving into the hall until he stood directly below her. —-
“原来这儿有人呀，”他说着把手枪放回枪套，走进走廊直接站在她的正下方。 —-

“All alone, little lady?”
“孤零零的小姐？”

Like lightning, she shoved her weapon over the banisters and into the startled bearded face. —-
她迅速地将武器顶在了栏杆上，对准了那张吃惊的有胡子的脸。 —-

Before he could even fumble at his belt, she pulled the trigger. —-
还没等他去摸自己的腰带，她就扣动了扳机。 —-

The back kick of the pistol made her reel, as the roar of the explosion filled her ears and the acrid smoke stung her nostrils. —-
武器的反冲让她晃动了一下，爆炸的轰鸣声充满了她的耳朵，刺鼻的烟雾刺激着她的鼻孔。 —-

The man crashed backwards to the floor, sprawling into the dining room with a violence that shook the furniture. —-
那个男人被猛力推到了地板上，躺在餐厅里，强烈的撞击震动了家具。 —-

The box clattered from his hand, the contents spilling about him. —-
盒子从他的手中掉落下来，内容物散落在他周围。 —-

Hardly aware that she was moving, Scarlett ran down the stairs and stood over him, gazing down into what was left of the face above the beard, a bloody pit where the nose had been, glazing eyes burned with powder. —-
几乎没有意识到自己在移动，斯嘉丽跑下楼梯站在他身上，俯视着满是胡须上方那留下的血淋淋的坑，被火药燃烧得炽热发亮的眼睛。 —-

As she looked, two streams of blood crept across the shining floor, one from his face and one from the back of his head.
她看着，两道鲜血从他的脸上和后脑流淌到发亮的地板上。

Yes, he was dead. Undoubtedly. She had killed a man.
是的，他死了。毫无疑问。她杀死了一个人。

The smoke curled slowly to the ceiling and the red streams widened about her feet. —-
烟雾在房间里慢慢升起，红色的血液在她脚下扩散开来。 —-

For a timeless moment she stood there and in the still hot hush of the summer morning every irrelevant sound and scent seemed magnified, the quick thudding of her heart, like a drumbeat, the slight rough rustling of the magnolia leaves, the far-off plaintive sound of a swamp bird and the sweet smell of the flowers outside the window.
在那里，她站立了一个时间无法计量的瞬间，在夏日清晨安静而炎热的寂静中，每一个无关紧要的声音和气味似乎被放大了，她的心跳声如同一个鼓点，轻微粗糙的梧桐树叶瑟瑟作响，远处传来湿地鸟的悲鸣声和窗外花朵的甜香。

She had killed a man, she who took care never to be in at the kill on a hunt, she who could not bear the squealing of a hog at slaughter or the squeak of a rabbit in a snare. —-
她杀死了一个人，她从不参与打猎时的致命一击，她无法忍受杀猪时的尖叫声或兔子在陷阱里发出的尖叫声。 —-

Murder! she thought dully. I’ve done murder. Oh, this can’t be happening to me! —-
“谋杀！”她茫然地想着。“我犯下了谋杀。哦，这不可能发生在我身上！” —-

Her eyes went to the stubby hairy hand on the floor so close to the sewing box and suddenly she was vitally alive again, vitally glad with a cool tigerish joy. —-
她的目光转向地上那只短而多毛的手，离缝纫盒如此之近，突然间她又活了过来，充满了一种冷酷而充满荣耀感的乐趣。 —-

She could have ground her heel into the gaping wound which had been his nose and taken sweet pleasure in the feel of his warm blood on her bare feet. —-
她本可以用脚跟狠狠踩在那血肉模糊的伤口上，享受着他温暖的鲜血沾染着她赤裸的双脚带来的甜蜜快感。 —-

She had struck a blow of revenge for Tara—and for Ellen.
她为塔拉——还有艾伦——报了仇。

There were hurried stumbling steps in the upper hall, a pause and then more steps, weak dragging steps now, punctuated by metallic clankings. —-
上层走廊传来匆忙而踉跄的脚步声，然后停顿了片刻，接着是更加虚弱而拖沓的脚步声，伴以金属碰撞声。 —-

A sense of time and reality coming back to her, Scarlett looked up and saw Melanie at the top of the stairs, clad only in the ragged chemise which served her as a nightgown, her weak arm weighed down with Charles’ saber. —-
一种时间和现实的感觉回到了她身上，斯嘉丽抬头看见梅拉妮站在楼梯顶端，只穿着破旧的化纤长裤充当着睡衣，她瘦弱的手臂上托着查尔斯的军刀。 —-

Melanie’s eyes took in the scene below in its entirety, the sprawling blue-clad body in the red pool, the sewing box beside him, Scarlett, barefooted and gray-faced, clutching the long pistol.
梅兰妮的眼睛全神贯注地看着下面的景象，那个穿着蓝色衣服的躺在红色血泊中的身体，旁边是一个缝纫盒，还有脸色苍白、赤脚持着长枪的斯嘉丽。

In silence her eyes met Scarlett’s. There was a glow of grim pride in her usually gentle face, approbation and a fierce joy in her smile that equaled the fiery tumult in Scarlett’s own bosom.
沉默中，她的目光与斯嘉丽的目光相遇。她平时温柔的脸上闪着一丝冷酷的骄傲，她的微笑中蕴含着赞许和激烈的喜悦，与斯嘉丽内心中的热情乱流相等。

“Why—why—she’s like me! She understands how I feel!” —-
“为什么…为什么…她像我一样！她明白我的感受！” —-

thought Scarlett in that long moment. “She’d have done the same thing!”
斯嘉丽在那一刻想着。“她会做同样的事情！”

With a thrill she looked up at the frail swaying girl for whom she had never had any feelings but of dislike and contempt. —-
她兴奋地抬头看着这个脆弱摇晃的女孩，她从来没有对她有过任何喜欢和尊敬的感觉。 —-

Now, struggling against hatred for Ashley’s wife, there surged a feeling of admiration and comradeship. —-
现在，在对阿什利的妻子产生憎恨的同时，她心中涌起一种钦佩和同志之情。 —-

She saw in a flash of clarity untouched by any petty emotion that beneath the gentle voice and the dovelike eyes of Melanie there was a thin flashing blade of unbreakable steel, felt too that there were banners and bugles of courage in Melanie’s quiet blood.
她在清晰的瞬间看到了梅兰妮温和的声音和温柔的眼神背后一抹不可动摇的利剑，也感受到了梅兰妮沉静血液中的勇气旗帜和军号。

“Scarlett! Scarlett!” shrilled the weak frightened voices of Suellen and Carreen, muffled by their closed door, and Wade’s voice screamed “Auntee! —-
“斯嘉丽！斯嘉丽！” 苏伦和卡琳那微弱而害怕的声音通过他们的关闭的门传来，而韦德的声音尖叫着“舅舅！舅舅！” —-

Auntee!” Swiftly Melanie put her finger to her lips and, laying the sword on the top step, she painfully made her way down the upstairs hall and opened the door of the sick room.
迅速地，梅兰妮把手指放在嘴边，把剑放在楼梯顶部，她费力地走过楼梯上的走廊，打开了病房的门。

“Don’t be scared, chickens!” came her voice with teasing gaiety. —-
“别害怕，小鸡们！” 她的声音带着戏谑的快乐。 —-

“Your big sister was trying to clean the rust off Charles’ pistol and it went off and nearly scared her to death!” —-
“你们的姐姐正在试图清理查尔斯的手枪上的锈迹，结果它走火了，把她吓坏了！” —-

…”Now, Wade Hampton, Mama just shot off your dear Papa’s pistol! —-
……“现在，韦德.汉普顿，妈妈刚刚用你亲爱的爸爸的手枪射了一枪！等你长大了，她会让你来射的。” —-

When you are bigger, she will let you shoot it.”
“真是个不怕事的骗子！” 斯嘉丽心生钦佩地想着。

“What a cool liar!” thought Scarlett with admiration. —-
—-

“I couldn’t have thought that quickly. But why lie? —-
“我不可能想得那么快。但为什么要撒谎呢？” —-

They’ve got to know I’ve done it.”
“他们必须知道我做过这件事。”

She looked down at the body again and now revulsion came over her as her rage and fright melted away, and her knees began to quiver with the reaction. —-
她再次俯视着尸体，愤怒和恐惧消退后，厌恶感再次袭上心头，她的双膝开始发抖。 —-

Melanie dragged herself to the top step again and started down, holding onto the banisters, her pale lower lip caught between her teeth.
梅兰妮再次拖着疲惫的身体走上顶层台阶，抓住栏杆，她苍白的下唇被咬在牙齿间。

“Go back to bed, silly, you’ll kill yourself!” —-
“傻瓜，回去睡觉，你会死的！” —-

Scarlett cried, but the half-naked Melanie made her painful way down into the lower hall.
斯嘉丽哭着喊道，但半裸的梅兰妮还是艰难地下到楼下的大厅。

“Scarlett,” she whispered, “we must get him out of here and bury him. —-
“斯嘉丽，”她低声说道，“我们必须把他弄走，埋掉他。 —-

He may not be alone and if they find him here—“ She steadied herself on Scarlett’s arm.
他可能不是一个人，如果他们在这里发现他的话…”她抓住斯嘉丽的胳膊使自己稳住。

“He must be alone,” said Scarlett. “I didn’t see anyone else from the upstairs window. —-
“他肯定一个人，我在楼上的窗户上没看到其他人。 —-

He must be a deserter.”
“他可能是个逃兵。”

“Even if he is alone, no one must know about it. —-
“即使他一个人，也不能让任何人知道。 —-

The negroes might talk and then they’d come and get you. —-
“黑人可能会说出去，那么他们会来找你的。 —-

Scarlett, we must get him hidden before the folks come back from the swamp.”
“斯嘉丽，我们必须在其他人从沼泽回来之前把他藏起来。”

Her mind prodded to action by the feverish urgency of Melanie’s voice, Scarlett thought hard.
在梅拉妮急迫的声音刺激下，斯嘉丽的思绪迅速活跃起来。

“I could bury him in the corner of the garden under the arbor—the ground is soft there where Pork dug up the whisky barrel. —-
“我可以把他埋在花园的拱廊下角落——在那里，土地是松软的，猪肉挖掘过威士忌桶的地方。 —-

But how will I get him there?”
但是我怎么把他带去那里呢？

“We’ll both take a leg and drag him,” said Melanie firmly.
“我们俩抱住一条腿把他拖过去，” 梅拉妮坚定地说道。

Reluctantly, Scarlett’s admiration went still higher.
斯嘉丽不情愿地对梅拉妮更加敬佩了。

“You couldn’t drag a cat. I’ll drag him,” she said roughly. “You go back to bed. —-
“你连一只猫都拖不动。我来拖吧，”她粗鲁地说道。 “你回去睡觉吧。—-

You’ll kill yourself. Don’t dare try to help me either or I’ll carry you upstairs myself.”
你会累死的。不要尝试帮我，要不然我会亲自把你背到楼上去的。”

Melanie’s white face broke into a sweet understanding smile. —-
梅拉妮白着的脸上绽放出了甜蜜的理解的微笑。 —-

“You are very dear, Scarlett,” she said and softly brushed her lips against Scarlett’s cheek. —-
“你真是个心肠好，斯嘉丽，”她说着，轻轻地抚摸着斯嘉丽的脸颊。 —-

Before Scarlett could recover from her surprise, Melanie went on: —-
斯嘉丽还没有从惊讶中恢复过来，梅拉妮就接着说道： —-

“If you can drag him out, I’ll mop up the—the mess before the folks get home, and Scarlett—“
“如果你能把他拖出来，我会在大家回家之前掩盖掉混乱，而且斯嘉丽——“

“Yes?”
“嗯？”

“Do you suppose it would be dishonest to go through his knapsack? He might have something to eat.”
“你觉得看一下他的背包是否不诚实？他可能有些东西吃。”

“I do not,” said Scarlett, annoyed that she had not thought of this herself. —-
“我可不这么认为，”斯嘉丽生气地说，她很生自己当初竟没有想到这一点。 —-

“You take the knapsack and I’ll go through his pockets.”
“你拿走背包，我来搜他的口袋。”

Stooping over the dead man with distaste, she unbuttoned the remaining buttons of his jacket and systematically began rifling his pockets.
她厌恶地弯腰在死者身上，解开他外套上剩下的扣子，一步步开始搜他的口袋。

“Dear God,” she whispered, pulling out a bulging wallet, wrapped about with a rag. —-
“天哪，”她低声说着，拿出一个鼓鼓的钱包，在外面裹着一块布。 —-

“Melanie—Melly, I think it’s full of money!”
“梅拉尼——梅莉，我觉得里面装满了钱！”

Melanie said nothing but abruptly sat down on the floor and leaned back against the wall.
梅拉尼没有说话，突然坐在地板上，背靠在墙上。

“You look,” she said shakily. “I’m feeling a little weak.”
“你来看看，”她颤抖地说道，“我有点虚弱。”

Scarlett tore off the rag and with trembling hands opened the leather folds.
斯嘉丽撕下布，用颤动的手打开皮夹。

“Look, Melly—just look!”
“看，梅莉——快看！”

Melanie looked and her eyes dilated. Jumbled together was a mass of bills, United States greenbacks mingling with Confederate money and, glinting from between them, were one ten-dollar gold piece and two five-dollar gold pieces.
梅莉看了一眼，眼睛睁大了。一堆钞票杂乱无章地堆在一起，美国绿钞和南军钞混合在一起，还隐约透出一枚十美元的金币和两枚五美元的金币。

“Don’t stop to count it now,” said Melanie as Scarlett began fingering the bills. —-
“现在不要停下来数钱，”梅莉说，当斯嘉丽开始摸弄钞票时。 —-

“We haven’t time—“
“我们没时间——”

“Do you realize, Melanie, that this money means that we’ll eat?”
“梅兰妮，你知道吗，这些钱意味着我们有饭吃了吗？”

“Yes, yes, dear. I know but we haven’t time now. —-
“是的，是的，亲爱的。我知道，但现在我们没有时间。” —-

You look in his other pockets and I’ll take the knapsack.”
你看看他的其他口袋，我来拿那个背包。

Scarlett was loath to put down the wallet. —-
斯嘉丽不舍得放下钱包。 —-

Bright vistas opened before her—real money, the Yankee’s horse, food! —-
明亮的景色在她面前展开-真正的钱，那个北方佬的马，还有食物！ —-

There was a God after all, and He did provide, even if He did take very odd ways of providing. —-
毕竟有上帝，他确实供给了，即使他供给的方式非常奇怪。 —-

She sat on her haunches and stared at the wallet smiling. —-
她蹲坐着，笑眯眯地盯着钱包。 —-

Food! Melanie plucked it from her hands—
食物！梅兰妮从她手中夺过钱包-

“Hurry!” she said.
“快点！”她说。

The trouser pockets yielded nothing except a candle end, a jackknife, a plug of tobacco and a bit of twine. —-
裤子口袋里除了一根蜡烛尽头、一把折刀、一块烟草和一截绳子外什么都没有。 —-

Melanie removed from the knapsack a small package of coffee which she sniffed as if it were the sweetest of perfumes, hardtack and, her face changing, a miniature of a little girl in a gold frame set with seed pearls, a garnet brooch, two broad gold bracelets with tiny dangling gold chains, a gold thimble, a small silver baby’s cup, gold embroidery scissors, a diamond solitaire ring and a pair of earrings with pendant pear-shaped diamonds, which even their unpracticed eyes could tell were well over a carat each.
梅兰妮从行囊中取出了一个小包装的咖啡，闻起来像是最甜美的香水。她还有食窖干饼干，脸上的表情变了，又发现了一个镶嵌着珍珠的金框小女孩的微缩画、一颗石榴石胸针、两个宽大的金手镯上挂着微小的金链、一只金缎花针、一个小银制婴儿杯、金刺绣剪刀、一颗钻石单钻戒指，以及一对挂有梨形钻石吊坠的耳环，就连他们这些未经训练的眼睛也能看出，每颗钻石的克拉数远超过一克拉。

“A thief!” whispered Melanie, recoiling from the still body. —-
“小偷！”梅兰妮低声说道，从那静止的身体中退开。 —-

“Scarlett, he must have stolen all of this!”
“斯嘉丽，他一定是偷了这些东西！”

“Of course,” said Scarlett. “And he came here hoping to steal more from us.”
“当然了，”斯嘉丽说，“他来这里希望从我们这里偷走更多。”

“I’m glad you killed him,” said Melanie her gentle eyes hard. —-
“我很高兴你杀了他。”梅兰妮说，温柔的眼神变得坚硬。 —-

“Now hurry, darling, and get him out of here.”
“现在快点，亲爱的，把他从这里搬走。”

Scarlett bent over, caught the dead man by his boots and tugged. —-
斯嘉丽俯身过去，抓住死者的靴子，用力拉扯。 —-

How heavy he was and how weak she suddenly felt. Suppose she shouldn’t be able to move him? —-
他的身体很沉，她突然感到虚弱。要是她不能移动他呢？ —-

Turning so that she backed the corpse, she caught a heavy boot under each arm and threw her weight forward. —-
转过身背对尸体，她把两只沉重的靴子夹在胳膊下，用力向前甩开身体。 —-

He moved and she jerked again. Her sore foot, forgotten in the excitement, now gave a tremendous throb that made her grit her teeth and shift her weight to the heel. —-
他移动了一下，她再次晃动。她那酸痛的脚在兴奋中被遗忘了，现在猛地一跳，让她咬牙切齿地把重心移到了脚后跟上。 —-

Tugging and straining, perspiration dripping from her forehead, she dragged him down the hall, a red stain following her path.
她使劲拉扯着，汗水从额头上滴下，将他拖过了走廊，一道红色的痕迹随着她的足迹。

“If he bleeds across the yard, we can’t hide it,” she gasped. —-
“如果他流血到院子里，我们就无法隐藏了。”她喘着气说道。 —-

“Give me your shimmy, Melanie, and I’ll wad it around his head.”
“给我你的衬衫，梅拉尼，我会把它包在他头上。”

Melanie’s white face went crimson.
梅拉尼的脸突然涨红。

“Don’t be silly, I won’t look at you,” said Scarlett. —-
“别傻了，我不会看你的。”斯嘉丽说道。 —-

“If I had on a petticoat or pantalets I’d use them.”
“如果我穿着衬裙或裤袜，我会使用它们。”

Crouching back against the wall, Melanie pulled the ragged linen garment over her head and silently tossed it to Scarlett, shielding herself as best she could with her arms.
梅拉尼蹲在墙边，将那件破烂的亚麻衣物从头上拉下，并默默地抛给了斯嘉丽，尽力用双臂保护自己。

“Thank God, I’m not that modest,” thought Scarlett, feeling rather than seeing Melanie’s agony of embarrassment, as she wrapped the ragged cloth about the shattered face.
“谢天谢地，我并不那么谦虚，”斯嘉丽想着，感觉到了梅兰妮的尴尬和痛苦，她将破烂的布围在受伤的脸上。

By a series of limping jerks, she pulled the body down the hall toward the back porch and, pausing to wipe her forehead with the back of her hand, glanced back toward Melanie, sitting against the wall hugging her thin knees to her bare breasts. —-
她腿脚蹒跚，一阵抽搐地将尸体拉到了走廊朝后的门廊处，抬手用背心擦了擦额头，回头看着蹲在墙角的梅兰妮，她抱着瘦小的膝盖，紧贴着光着的胸膛。 —-

How silly of Melanie to be bothering about modesty at a time like this, Scarlett thought irritably. —-
在这样的时刻，梅兰妮还纠结于矜持，真是傻呀，斯嘉丽不耐烦地想。 —-

It was just part of her nicey-nice way of acting which had always made Scarlett despise her. —-
这只是她那虚伪的行为方式的一部分，这总是让斯嘉丽痛恨她。 —-

Then shame rose in her. After all—after all, Melanie had dragged herself from bed so soon after having a baby and had come to her aid with a weapon too heavy even for her to lift. —-
然后，羞愧升起。毕竟——毕竟，梅兰妮从床上爬起来这么快，在连她自己都举不起的重物前来帮助她。 —-

That had taken courage, the kind of courage Scarlett honestly knew she herself did not possess, the thin-steel, spun-silk courage which had characterized Melanie on the terrible night Atlanta fell and on the long trip home. —-
这需要勇气，那种真正的勇气，深深的勇气，是斯佳丽自己都没有的勇气，是那种以柳枝为底，丝线般柔韧的勇气，在亚特兰大陷落的可怕夜晚和漫长的归途中，这种勇气一直伴随着梅兰妮。 —-

It was the same intangible, unspectacular courage that all the Wilkeses possessed, a quality which Scarlett did not understand but to which she gave grudging tribute.
这是威尔克斯家族所拥有的同样无形而不起眼的勇气，这是斯佳丽无法理解但也不得不崇敬的一种品质。

“Go back to bed,” she threw over her shoulder. —-
“回去睡觉，”她对着肩膀后方说道。 —-

“You’ll be dead if you don’t. I’ll clean up the mess after I’ve buried him.”
“如果你不这样做，你会被杀的。我会在他埋葬之后清理这一片混乱。”

“I’ll do it with one of the rag rugs,” whispered Melanie, looking at the pool of blood with a sick face.
“我会用一块旧抹布来做的。”梅兰妮低声说道，她看着血泊，脸色苍白。

“Well, kill yourself then and see if I care! —-
“好吧，那你自己去自杀，看我是否在意！” —-

And if any of the folks come back before I’m finished, keep them in the house and tell them the horse just walked in from nowhere.”
“如果有人在我完成之前回来，就让他们呆在屋子里，告诉他们这匹马不知从哪儿来的。”

Melanie sat shivering in the morning sunlight and covered her ears against the sickening series of thuds as the dead man’s head bumped down the porch steps.
梅兰妮坐在晨光下发抖，捂住耳朵，听着那个死人的头碰撞下门廊台阶时恶心的重击声。

No one questioned whence the horse had come. —-
没有人对这匹马从哪里来的产生质疑。 —-

It was so obvious he was a stray from the recent battle and they were well pleased to have him. —-
很明显，他是最近战斗中的一个流浪者，他们非常高兴能拥有他。 —-

The Yankee lay in the shallow pit Scarlett had scraped out under the scuppernong arbor. —-
这个北方佬躺在斯卡莱特在葡萄酒藤亭下挖的浅坑里。 —-

The uprights which held the thick vines were rotten and that night Scarlett hacked at them with the kitchen knife until they fell and the tangled mass ran wild over the grave. —-
支撑厚藤蔓的立柱已经烂了，那天晚上，斯卡莱特用厨房刀砍倒了它们，使纠结的藤蔓在坟墓上肆意生长。 —-

The replacing of these posts was one bit of repair work Scarlett did not suggest and, if the negroes knew why, they kept their silence.
斯卡莱特并没有建议替换这些支柱，如果黑奴知道原因，他们保持沉默。

No ghost rose from that shallow grave to haunt her in the long nights when she lay awake, too tired to sleep. —-
没有鬼魂从那个浅坟墓里升起来，在她清醒而又疲惫，无法入睡的漫长夜晚里折磨着她。 —-

No feeling of horror or remorse assailed her at the memory. —-
她没有感到恐惧或悔恨的情绪涌上心头。 —-

She wondered why, knowing that even a month before she could never have done the deed. —-
她想知道为什么，明知即使在一个月前她都无法做出这样的事情。 —-

Pretty young Mrs. Hamilton, with her dimple and her jingling earbobs and her helpless little ways, blowing a man’s face to a pulp and then burying him in a hastily scratched-out hole! —-
年轻漂亮的汉密尔顿夫人，她的酒窝，铃铛耳环和无助的小举动，把一个人的脸打得稀烂，然后匆匆地将他埋在一个草草挖出的洞里！ —-

Scarlett grinned a little grimly thinking of the consternation such an idea would bring to those who knew her.
斯嘉丽冷笑了一下，想到这样一个想法会让认识她的人感到惊慌失措。

“I won’t think about it any more,” she decided. —-
“我不会再想了，”她决定。 —-

“It’s over and done with and I’d have been a ninny not to kill him. —-
“这件事已经结束了，如果我不杀了他，我就是个傻瓜。 —-

I reckon—I reckon I must have changed a little since coming home or else I couldn’t have done it.”
我猜——我猜我回到家后可能有点变了，否则我不可能做到这一点。”

She did not think of it consciously but in the back of her mind, whenever she was confronted by an unpleasant and difficult task, the idea lurked giving her strength: —-
她没有有意识地想到它，但在她的大脑后面，每当她面对一个不愉快和困难的任务时，这个想法隐藏在那里，给了她力量： —-

“I’ve done murder and so I can surely do this.”
“我犯了谋杀罪，所以我肯定可以做到这个。”

She had changed more than she knew and the shell of hardness which had begun to form about her heart when she lay in the slave garden at Twelve Oaks was slowly thickening.
她变化得比她知道的更多，她的心从她躺在“十二橡树”奴隶园时开始形成的硬壳慢慢变厚。

Now that she had a horse, Scarlett could find out for herself what had happened to their neighbors. —-
既然她有了一匹马，斯嘉丽可以亲自去找出邻居们发生了什么事。 —-

Since she came home she had wondered despairingly a thousand times: —-
自从她回家以来，她已经绝望地想了一千次：”我们是这个县还剩下的唯一的人吗？其他人都被烧毁了吗？他们都逃往了梅肯吗？”带着对托威尔夫人庄园，麦金托什庄园和斯拉特里小屋的废墟的记忆，她几乎害怕发现真相。 —-

“Are we the only folks left in the County? Has everybody else been burned out? —-
但是知道最坏的情况总比猜测要好。 —-

Have they all refugeed to Macon?” With the memory of the ruins of Twelve Oaks, the MacIntosh place and the Slattery shack fresh in her mind, she almost dreaded to discover the truth. —-
她决定先去访问丰坦庄园，不是因为他们是最近的邻居，而是因为老丰坦医生可能在那里。 —-

But it was better to know the worst than to wonder. —-
梅拉妮需要医生。她的康复不如应有的快，斯嘉丽对她苍白的虚弱感到害怕。 —-

She decided to ride to the Fontaines’ first, not because they were the nearest neighbors but because old Dr. Fontaine might be there. —-
现在她有了马，斯嘉丽可以亲自去找出邻居们发生了什么事。 —-

Melanie needed a doctor. She was not recovering as she should and Scarlett was frightened by her white weakness.
斯嘉丽决定首先去丰塔因家，不是因为他们是最近的邻居，而是因为老丰塔因医生可能在那里。梅拉妮需要医生。她的康复状况不如预期，斯嘉丽对她苍白而脆弱的样子感到害怕。

So on the first day when her foot had healed enough to stand a slipper, she mounted the Yankee’s horse. —-
因此，在第一天，当她的脚已经愈合到足够站立的程度时，她骑上了洋人的马。 —-

One foot in the shortened stirrup and the other leg crooked about the pommel in an approximation of a side saddle, she set out across the fields toward Mimosa, steeling herself to find it burned.
一只脚放在缩短的马镫上，另一条腿扭曲地放在鞍鞯上，她朝着含羞草的方向穿过田地，决心要找到它已经被烧毁了。

To her surprise and pleasure, she saw the faded yellow-stucco house standing amid the mimosa trees, looking as it had always looked. —-
让她惊讶和高兴的是，她看到了那栋黄色的凋谢的灰泥房子，它看起来一如既往。 —-

Warm happiness, happiness that almost brought tears, flooded her when the three Fontaine women came out of the house to welcome her with kisses and cries of joy.
温暖的幸福感涌上心头，几乎让她流泪，当三个方丹女人走出屋子，用亲吻和欢呼迎接她。

But when the first exclamations of affectionate greeting were over and they all had trooped into the dining room to sit down, Scarlett felt a chill. —-
但是当第一轮亲热的问候结束，他们一起走进餐厅坐下时，斯嘉丽感到一阵寒意。 —-

The Yankees had not reached Mimosa because it was far off the main road. —-
洋人还没有到达含羞草，因为它远离主要道路。 —-

And so the Fontaines still had their stock and their provisions, but Mimosa was held by the same strange silence that hung over Tara, over the whole countryside. —-
因此，方丹家仍然有他们的牲畜和粮食，但含羞草被同样奇怪的宁静笼罩，就像塔拉，整个乡间一样。 —-

All the slaves except four women house servants had run away, frightened by the approach of the Yankees. —-
除了四个女仆之外，所有的奴隶都逃走了，因为他们害怕洋基人的靠近。 —-

There was not a man on the place unless Sally’s little boy, Joe, hardly out of diapers, could be counted as a man. —-
除了莎莉的小儿子乔（简直还穿着尿布），场上没有一个男人了。 —-

Alone in the big house were Grandma Fontaine, in her seventies, her daughter-in-law who would always be known as Young Miss, though she was in her fifties, and Sally, who had barely turned twenty. —-
大屋里只有七十多岁的芬坦奶奶，她的儿媳妇，永远被称为“小姐”，虽然她已经五十多岁了，还有刚刚二十岁的莎莉。 —-

They were far away from neighbors and unprotected, but if they were afraid it did not show on their faces. —-
虽然她们远离邻居，没有保护，但如果她们害怕的话，她们的脸上并没有显示出来。 —-

Probably, thought Scarlett, because Sally and Young Miss were too afraid of the porcelain-frail but indomitable old Grandma to dare voice any qualms. —-
可能是因为莎莉和小姐都太怕脆弱得像瓷器一样却又坚定不屈的老奶奶，不敢表达任何的顾虑。 —-

Scarlett herself was afraid of the old lady, for she had sharp eyes and a sharper tongue and Scarlett had felt them both in the past.
斯嘉丽自己也害怕老太太，因为她的眼睛尖利，嘴巴更尖锐，斯嘉丽以前感受到过。

Though unrelated by blood and far apart in age, there was a kinship of spirit and experience binding these women together. —-
尽管血缘无关，年龄相差悬殊，但这些女人之间有一种精神和经验的联系。 —-

All three wore home-dyed mourning, all were worn, sad, worried, all bitter with a bitterness that did not sulk or complain but, nevertheless, peered out from behind their smiles and their words of welcome. —-
三个人都穿着自家染制的丧服，他们都戴着愁容，担心不已，都带着一种苦涩，但他们的苦涩既没有抱怨也没有闷在心里，而是透过他们的微笑和欢迎的话语流露出来。 —-

For their slaves were gone, their money was worthless, Sally’s husband, Joe, had died at Gettysburg and Young Miss was also a widow, for young Dr. Fontaine had died of dysentery at Vicksburg. —-
因为他们的奴隶已经走了，他们的钱变得一文不值，萨利的丈夫乔在葛底斯堡战死，年轻的小姐也成了寡妇，因为年轻的方丹医生死于维克斯堡的痢疾。 —-

The other two boys, Alex and Tony, were somewhere in Virginia and nobody knew whether they were alive or dead; —-
另外两个孩子，亚历克斯和托尼，正在弗吉尼亚的某个地方，没人知道他们是死是活； —-

and old Dr. Fontaine was off somewhere with Wheeler’s cavalry.
而老方丹医生则和惠勒骑兵在某个地方。

“And the old fool is seventy-three years old though he tries to act younger and he’s as full of rheumatism as a hog is of fleas,” said Grandma, proud of her husband, the light in her eyes belying her sharp words.
“老傻瓜已经七十三岁了，虽然他想表现得年轻，但他满身风湿病，就像猪身上跳蚤一样，”奶奶生气地说，一边对自己的丈夫感到自豪，眼中的光芒与她尖锐的话语形成了对比。

“Have you all had any news of what’s been happening in Atlanta?” —-
“你们听说过亚特兰大发生了什么事吗？”斯嘉丽安顿下来后问道。 —-

asked Scarlett when they were comfortably settled. —-
“我们在塔拉完全与世隔绝。 —-

“We’re completely buried at Tara.”
“你们有没有得到亚特兰大的消息？”客人们舒服地坐下后，斯嘉丽问道。

“Law, child,” said Old Miss, taking charge of the conversation, as was her habit, “we’re in the same fix as you are. —-
“孩子，”老小姐插嘴说道，像往常一样带着话语的主导权，“我们和你的处境一样糟糕。 —-

We don’t know a thing except that Sherman finally got the town.”
我们一无所知，只知道谢尔曼最终攻下了城镇。”

“So he did get it. What’s he doing now? Where’s the fighting now?”
“他果然攻下了吗？他现在在做什么？战斗现在在哪里？”

“And how would three lone women out here in the country know about the war when we haven’t seen a letter or a newspaper in weeks?” —-
“我们这些孤苦伶仃的乡下妇女怎么可能知道战争的情况呢？我们已经好几周没收到信件或看报纸了。” —-

said the old lady tartly. “One of our darkies talked to a darky who’d seen a darky who’d been to Jonesboro, and except for that we haven’t heard anything. —-
“一个我们的黑奴和一个黑奴交谈过，他又见过一个黑奴，这个黑奴去过琼斯伯勒。除此之外我们一无所知。”老太太尖刻地说道。 —-

What they said was that the Yankees were just squatting in Atlanta resting up their men and their horses, but whether it’s true or not you’re as good a judge as I am. —-
“他们说的是，北方人只是占领亚特兰大，休整士兵和马匹。但是这是否属实，你和我一样有眼光。” —-

Not that they wouldn’t need a rest, after the fight we gave them.”
“不过他们在我们的抵抗之后肯定需要休整。”

“To think you’ve been at Tara all this time and we didn’t know!” Young Miss broke in. —-
“想想你在塔拉庄园呆了这么长时间我们都不知道！”小小姐打破了沉默。 —-

“Oh, how I blame myself for not riding over to see! —-
“哦，我多么责备自己没有骑马过去看看！” —-

But there’s been so much to do here with most all the darkies gone that I just couldn’t get away. —-
但这里有太多要做的事情，这里几乎没有黑人了，所以我无法离开。 —-

But I should have made time to go. It wasn’t neighborly of me. —-
但我应该抽出时间去。我有些不够友好。 —-

But, of course, we thought the Yankees had burned Tara like they did Twelve Oaks and the MacIntosh house and that your folks had gone to Macon. And we never dreamed you were home, Scarlett.”
当然，我们以为亚特兰大的人都像他们对待托儿麦庄园和麦金托什家那样对待塔拉，以为你的家人已经去了梅肯。我们从没想到你还在家，斯嘉丽。

“Well, how were we to know different when Mr. O’Hara’s darkies came through here so scared they were popeyed and told us the Yankees were going to burn Tara?” —-
“那我们怎么知道什么不同呢，当奥哈拉先生的黑人吓得眼珠都快掉出来，告诉我们北军打算烧毁塔拉？” —-

Grandma interrupted.
祖母打断了。

“And we could see—“ Sally began.
“我们当时还看见了…”萨莉开始说。

“I’m telling this, please,” said Old Miss shortly. —-
“请听我说话，”老奶奶断然说道。 —-

“And they said the Yankees were camped all over Tara and your folks were fixing to go to Macon. And then that night we saw the glare of fire over toward Tara and it lasted for hours and it scared our fool darkies so bad they all ran off. What burned?”
“他们说北军扎营在塔拉，你的家人正在准备去梅肯。然后那天晚上，我们看见了塔拉那边火光冲天，持续了几个小时，吓坏了我们可傻的黑人，全都逃走了。烧掉了什么？”

“All our cotton—a hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth,” said Scarlett bitterly.
“我们所有的棉花，价值十五万美元，”斯嘉丽痛苦地说道。

“Be thankful it wasn’t your house,” said Grandma, leaning her chin on her cane. —-
“感恩吧，至少不是你们家的房子，”奶奶说着，下巴搁在拐杖上。 —-

“You can always grow more cotton and you can’t grow a house. —-
“你可以重新种植棉花，但房子却是无法生长的。” —-

By the bye, had you all started picking your cotton?”
顺便问一下，你们开始采摘棉花了吗？

“No,” said Scarlett, “and now most of it is ruined. —-
“没有，”斯嘉丽说，“现在大部分棉花都毁了。” —-

I don’t imagine there’s more than three bales left standing, in the far field in the creek bottom, and what earthly good will it do? —-
“我想远地里溪底还剩下不超过三捆，那还有什么好处呢？” —-

All our field hands are gone and there’s nobody to pick it.”
“我们的田地工人都走了，没有人去采摘。”

“Mercy me, all our field hands are gone and there’s nobody to pick it!” —-
“天啊，所有的田地工人都走了，没有人去采摘！” —-

mimicked Grandma and bent a satiric glance on Scarlett. —-
奶奶模仿着说道，并且用讽刺的目光看着斯嘉丽。 —-

“What’s wrong with your own pretty paws, Miss, and those of your sisters?”
“你自己漂亮的手，还有你姐妹们的手，怎么了？”

“Me? Pick cotton?” cried Scarlett aghast, as if Grandma had been suggesting some repulsive crime. —-
“我？采摘棉花？”斯嘉丽惊恐地喊道，仿佛奶奶刚才提出了某种令人讨厌的罪行。 —-

“Like a field hand? Like white trash? Like the Slattery women?”
“像田地工人一样？像白垃圾一样？像斯拉特里家的女人一样？”

“White trash, indeed! Well, isn’t this generation soft and ladylike! —-
“白垃圾，真是的！现在这一代人太软弱，太淑女了！” —-

Let me tell you, Miss, when I was a girl my father lost all his money and I wasn’t above doing honest work with my hands and in the fields too, till Pa got enough money to buy some more darkies. —-
让我告诉你，小姐，当我还是个女孩的时候，我父亲失去了所有的钱，我并不介意用手和在田地里干诚实的工作，直到爸爸有足够的钱再买一些黑奴。 —-

I’ve hoed my row and I’ve picked my cotton and I can do it again if I have to. And it looks like I’ll have to. —-
我已经开垦过土地，摘过棉花，如果需要的话，我还可以再做一次。而且看起来我可能不得不这么做。 —-

White trash, indeed!”
白垃圾，真是的！

“Oh, but Mama Fontaine,” cried her daughter-in-law, casting imploring glances at the two girls, urging them to help her smooth the old lady’s feathers. —-
“哦，但是 Fontaine 妈妈，”她儿媳妇哭了起来，向两个女孩投来恳求的目光，希望她们帮助她平息老太太的怒火。 —-

“That was so long ago, a different day entirely, and times have changed.”
“那是很久之前的事情了，完全是不同的时代，而且现在的时代已经改变了。”

“Times never change when there’s a need for honest work to be done,” stated the sharp-eyed old lady, refusing to be soothed. —-
“当需要做诚实的工作时，时光永远不会改变，”这位眼光犀利的老太太断然地说道，拒绝被安抚。 —-

“And I’m ashamed for your mother, Scarlett, to hear you stand there and talk as though honest work made white trash out of nice people. —-
“而且我为你妈妈感到惭愧，斯嘉丽，听你站在那里说得好像诚实的工作就会把好人变成白垃圾一样。” —-

‘When Adam delved and Eve span’—“
“当亚当耕作，夏娃纺线”——”

To change the subject, Scarlett hastily questioned: —-
为了转移话题，斯嘉丽急忙问道： —-

“What about the Tarletons and the Calverts? —-
“塔尔顿家族和卡尔弗特家族怎么样了？ —-

Were they burned out? Have they refugeed to Macon?”
他们是不是被烧光了？他们逃到了梅肯吗？

“The Yankees never got to the Tarletons. They’re off the main road, like we are, but they did get to the Calverts and they stole all their stock and poultry and got all the darkies to run off with them—“ Sally began.
亚炎基斯人从未来到塔勒顿家。他们离开了主路，就像我们一样，但他们到了卡尔维特家，偷走了所有的牲畜和家禽，也让所有的黑奴跟着他们一起逃走了。——萨莉开始说。

Grandma interrupted.
奶奶打断了她的话。

“Hah! They promised all the black wenches silk dresses and gold earbobs—that’s what they did. —-
哈！他们承诺给所有的黑奴女人丝绸礼服和金耳环——就是这样。 —-

And Cathleen Calvert said some of the troopers went off with the black fools behind them on their saddles. —-
凯瑟琳·卡尔维特说有些骑兵们带着黑傻瓜们在他们的鞍座后面离开了。 —-

Well, all they’ll get will be yellow babies and I can’t say that Yankee blood will improve the stock.”
好吧，他们最后只会生出黄皮肤的孩子，我不能说亚炎基斯人的血液会提高他们的家族。

“Oh, Mama Fontaine!”
哦，芒泰妈妈！

“Don’t pull such a shocked face, Jane. We’re all married, aren’t we? —-
别摆出这么震惊的表情，简。我们都结婚了，不是吗？ —-

And, God knows, we’ve seen mulatto babies before this.”
天哪，我们之前还见过混血儿呢。

“Why didn’t they burn the Calverts’ house?”
为什么他们没有烧掉卡尔维特家？

“The house was saved by the combined accents of the second Mrs. Calvert and that Yankee overseer of hers, Hilton,” said Old Miss, who always referred to the ex-governess as the “second Mrs. Calvert,” although the first Mrs. Calvert had been dead twenty years.
“这所房子被第二任卡尔弗特夫人和她的那个美国佣人希尔顿的合力所搭救，”老小姐说道，尽管第一任卡尔弗特夫人已经去世二十年了，她总是称呼这位前家庭教师为“第二任卡尔弗特夫人”。

“‘We are staunch Union sympathizers,’” mimicked the old lady, twanging the words through her long thin nose. —-
“‘我们是坚定的联邦同情者，’”老太太模仿地用她那长长的鼻子拉长了音调。 —-

“Cathleen said the two of them swore up hill and down dale that the whole passel of Calverts were Yankees. —-
“凯西说他们俩山誓海盟，称所有的卡尔弗特都是美国佬。” —-

And Mr. Calvert dead in the Wilderness! And Raiford at Gettysburg and Cade in Virginia with the army! —-
而卡尔弗特先生就死在荒野之地！雷福德在葛底斯堡，凯德在弗吉尼亚与军队同在！ —-

Cathleen was so mortified she said she’d rather the house had been burned. —-
凯西觉得太丢脸了，她说她宁愿房子被烧毁了。 —-

She said Cade would bust when he came home and heard about it. —-
她说凯德回来听到这件事时一定会气炸的。 —-

But then, that’s what a man gets for marrying a Yankee woman— no pride, no decency, always thinking about their own skins. —-
但那就是一个男人娶了一个美国女人的下场—没有自尊，没有体面，总是只想着自己的皮囊。 —-

..How come they didn’t burn Tara, Scarlett?”
怎么他们没有烧掉塔拉，斯嘉丽？

For a moment Scarlett paused before answering. She knew the very next question would be: —-
斯嘉丽稍作停顿，然后回答。她知道接下来的问题会是： —-

“And how are all your folks? And how is your dear mother?” —-
“你们家人好吗？你亲爱的母亲好吗？” —-

She knew she could not tell them Ellen was dead. —-
她明白不能告诉他们埃伦已经去世了。 —-

She knew that if she spoke those words or even let herself think of them in the presence of these sympathetic women, she would burst into a storm of tears and cry until she was sick. —-
她知道如果说出这些话，甚至在这些同情的女人们面前想起这些话，她会爆发出一阵泪雨，哭到生病。 —-

And she could not let herself cry. She had not really cried since she came home and she knew that if she once let down the floodgates, her closely husbanded courage would all be gone. —-
她不能让自己哭泣。自从回家以来，她没有真正哭泣过，她知道一旦她打开闸门，她紧密篱笆般保存的勇气就会全部消失。 —-

But she knew, too, looking with confusion at the friendly faces about her, that if she withheld the news of Ellen’s death, the Fontaines would never forgive her. —-
但她也知道，在这些友善的面孔前困惑地看着，如果她不告诉埃伦去世的消息，方坦一家将永远都不会原谅她。 —-

Grandma in particular was devoted to Ellen and there were very few people in the County for whom the old lady gave a snap of her skinny fingers.
奶奶特别钟爱埃伦，郡里很少有人能引起她那古怪老太婆的兴趣。

“Well, speak up,” said Grandma, looking sharply at her. “Don’t you know, Miss?”
“好，说吧，”奶奶说着，严厉地逼视着她。“你不知道，小姐吗？”

“Well, you see, I didn’t get home till the day after the battle,” she answered hastily. —-
“嗯，你看，我直到战斗的第二天才回家，”她急忙回答道。 —-

“The Yankees were all gone then. Pa—Pa told me that—that he got them not to burn the house because Suellen and Carreen were so ill with typhoid they couldn’t be moved.”
“那时候，洋鬼子都走了。爸爸-爸爸告诉我，他说服了他们不要烧毁房子，因为苏伦和卡琳患了伤寒，不能动。”

“That’s the first time I ever heard of a Yankee doing a decent thing,” said Grandma, as if she regretted hearing anything good about the invaders. —-
“我还从来没听说过洋鬼子会做出好事呢，”奶奶说道，仿佛她对入侵者有什么好感似的。 —-

“And how are the girls now?”
“那女孩们现在怎么样了？”

“Oh, they are better, much better, almost well but quite weak,” answered Scarlett. —-
“喔，她们好多了，要好得多了，几乎康复了，但是还是比较虚弱，”斯嘉丽回答道。 —-

Then, seeing the question she feared hovering on the old lady’s lips, she cast hastily about for some other topic of conversation.
然后，看到自己担心的问题在老太太的嘴唇上徘徊，她急忙寻找其他话题来转移注意力。

“I—I wonder if you could lend us something to eat? —-
“我-我想知道您是否可以借给我们一些吃的？” —-

The Yankees cleaned us out like a swarm of locusts. —-
“洋鬼子像蝗虫一样把我们抢劫了一空。” —-

But, if you are on short rations, just tell me so plainly and—“
“但是，如果您的供应紧张，直接告诉我就好，”不要拐弯抹角的说。”

“Send over Pork with a wagon and you shall have half of what we’ve got, rice, meal, ham, some chickens,” said Old Miss, giving Scarlett a sudden keen look.
“把猪肉用马车送过来，你们就可以得到我们这里一半的东西，大米、面粉、火腿，还有一些鸡肉，”老太太说着，突然锐利地看了一眼斯嘉丽。

“Oh, that’s too much! Really, I—“
“哦，太多了！真的，我——”

“Not a word! I won’t hear it. What are neighbors for?”
“别说话！我不想听。邻居就是干什么的？”

“You are so kind that I can’t— But I have to be going now. —-
“你实在太好了，我……但是我得走了。 —-

The folks at home will be worrying about me.”
家里的人会担心我。”

Grandma rose abruptly and took Scarlett by the arm.
奶奶突然站起身来，拉着斯嘉丽的胳膊。

“You two stay here,” she commanded, pushing Scarlett toward the back porch. —-
“你们俩留在这里，”她命令道，把斯嘉丽推向后阳台。 —-

“I have a private word for this child. Help me down the steps, Scarlett.”
“我有一句私语要和这孩子说。帮我下台阶，斯嘉丽。”

Young Miss and Sally said good-by and promised to come calling soon. —-
小姐和莎莉道别，并承诺很快会来拜访。 —-

They were devoured by curiosity as to what Grandma had to say to Scarlett but unless she chose to tell them, they would never know. —-
她们对奶奶要跟斯嘉丽说什么感到好奇，但除非她选择告诉她们，她们永远不会知道。 —-

Old ladies were so difficult, Young Miss whispered to Sally as they went back to their sewing.
老太太们就是这么难相处，小姐低声对莎莉说道，她们回到做针线的地方。

Scarlett stood with her hand on the horse’s bridle, a dull feeling at her heart.
斯嘉丽把手放在马的缰绳上，心中涌上一种沉闷的感觉。

“Now,” said Grandma, peering into her face, “what’s wrong at Tara? What are you keeping back?”
“现在，”奶奶朝她的脸凑近，“塔拉上出了什么事？你隐瞒了什么？”

Scarlett looked up into the keen old eyes and knew she could tell the truth, without tears. —-
斯嘉丽抬起头，看着这双敏锐的老眼睛，知道自己可以毫无哭泣地讲出真相。 —-

No one could cry in the presence of Grandma Fontaine without her express permission.
没有人能在方丹奶奶面前哭泣，除非她特别允许。

“Mother is dead,” she said flatly.
“娘亲过世了，”她沉声说道。

The hand on her arm tightened until it pinched and the wrinkled lids over the yellow eyes blinked.
那只握着她胳膊的手紧了紧，直到有点痛了，那双覆盖着黄色瞳孔的皱纹眼睑眨了眨。

“Did the Yankees kill her?”
“是北方佬杀了她吗？”

“She died of typhoid. Died—the day before I came home.”
“她死于伤寒。在我回家的前一天去世了。”

“Don’t think about it,” said Grandma sternly and Scarlett saw her swallow. “And your Pa?”
“别想那些事，”方丹奶奶严厉地说，并且斯嘉丽看到她吞了口口水。“那你爸爸呢？”

“Pa is—Pa is not himself.”
“爸爸…爸爸不是他自己了。”

“What do you mean? Speak up. Is he ill?”
“你是什么意思？讲清楚点。他生病了吗？”

“The shock—he is so strange—he is not—“
“那个打击…他变得好奇怪…他不是…不是…”

“Don’t tell me he’s not himself. Do you mean his mind is unhinged?”
“别告诉我他不是他自己了。你是指他精神错乱了吗？”

It was a relief to hear the truth put so baldly. —-
能听到如此直接地表达真相让她感到宽慰。 —-

How good the old lady was to offer no sympathy that would make her cry.
这位老太太真好，她没有表达任何会让她哭泣的同情。

“Yes,” she said dully, “he’s lost his mind. —-
“是的，”她无精打采地说，“他失去了理智。” —-

He acts dazed and sometimes he can’t seem to remember that Mother is dead. —-
他行动迟缓，有时似乎忘记了母亲已经去世了。 —-

Oh, Old Miss, it’s more than I can stand to see him sit by the hour, waiting for her and so patiently too, and he used to have no more patience than a child. —-
哦，老小姐，看到他坐了好几个小时，等待她，还如此有耐心，我实在不能忍受，他以前可没有这么有耐心，简直像个孩子。 —-

But it’s worse when he does remember that she’s gone. —-
但是当他记起她已经走了的时候，情况变得更糟。 —-

Every now and then, after he’s sat still with his ear cocked listening for her, he jumps up suddenly and stumps out of the house and down to the burying ground. —-
偶尔，他静静地耳朵竖起来听她的动静，突然跳起来，一瘸一拐地走出房子，朝着墓地走去。 —-

And then he comes dragging back with the tears all over his face and he says over and over till I could scream: —-
然后他带着泪水满脸地回来，一遍又一遍地说着，我简直要尖叫了：“凯蒂·斯嘉丽，奥哈拉夫人去世了。你妈妈去世了。”就像是我第一次听到那样。 —-

‘Katie Scarlett, Mrs. O’Hara is dead. Your mother is dead,’ and it’s just like I was hearing it again for the first time. —-
有时候，深夜里，我听到他在叫她，我就从床上下来，告诉他她去住在低层的黑奴那里。 —-

And sometimes, late at night, I hear him calling her and I get out of bed and go to him and tell him she’s down at the quarters with a sick darky. —-
他因为她总是不辞辛劳地照顾病人而生气。 —-

And he fusses because she’s always tiring herself out nursing people. —-
他呢喃着，只因为她总是照顾别人而把自己累坏了。 —-

And it’s so hard to get him back to bed. He’s like a child. Oh, I wish Dr. Fontaine was here! —-
“而且要让他回到床上实在太难了。他就像一个孩子。哦，我多希望芬丹医生在这里！” —-

I know he could do something for Pa! And Melanie needs a doctor too. —-
“我知道他能为爸爸做点什么！而且梅兰妮也需要看医生。” —-

She isn’t getting over her baby like she should—“
“她没有像应该的那样走出她的孩子的阴影——”

“Melly—a baby? And she’s with you?”
“梅莉——有个孩子？而且她跟你在一起？”

“Yes.”
“是的。”

“What’s Melly doing with you? Why isn’t she in Macon with her aunt and her kinfolks? —-
“梅莉跟你在一起？她为什么不和她姨妈和亲戚们待在梅肯呢？” —-

I never thought you liked her any too well, Miss, for all she was Charles’ sister. —-
“我从来不觉得您对她有多好，小姐，尽管她是查尔斯的姐姐。” —-

Now, tell me all about it.”
“现在，告诉我详情。”

“It’s a long story, Old Miss. Don’t you want to go back in the house and sit down?”
“这是一个长故事，老夫人。您愿不愿意回屋子里坐下呢？”

“I can stand,” said Grandma shortly. “And if you told your story in front of the others, they’d be bawling and making you feel sorry for yourself. —-
“我能站着。”老夫人断然说道。“并且如果你在其他人面前讲你的故事，他们会哭哭啼啼的，使你为自己感到难过。 —-

Now, let’s have it.”
现在，说吧。”

Scarlett began haltingly with the siege and Melanie’s condition, but as her story progressed beneath the sharp old eyes which never faltered in their gaze, she found words, words of power and horror. —-
斯嘉丽开始结结巴巴地讲述围城的情况和梅兰妮的状况，但是随着她的故事在那双锐利的老眼睛注视下继续展开，她找到了有力和可怕的词句。 —-

It all came back to her, the sickeningly hot day of the baby’s birth, the agony of fear, the flight and Rhett’s desertion. —-
一切都涌上她心头，那个炎热难当的日子，孩子出生时的痛苦与恐惧，逃亡与雷特的背叛。 —-

She spoke of the wild darkness of the night, the blazing camp fires which might be friends or foes, the gaunt chimneys which met her gaze in the morning sun, the dead men and horses along the road, the hunger, the desolation, the fear that Tara had been burned.
她讲述了黑夜的野性黑暗，可能是朋友也可能是敌人的熊熊篝火，清晨望着她的破败烟囱，路旁的尸体和马匹，饥饿、荒凉，以及对塔拉是否已经被烧毁的恐惧。

“I thought if I could just get home to Mother, she could manage everything and I could lay down the weary load. —-
“我想只要能回到母亲身边，她就可以处理一切，我就能放下疲惫的负担。 —-

On the way home I thought the worst had already happened to me, but when I knew she was dead I knew what the worst really was.”
在回家的路上，我以为最糟糕的已经发生在我身上，但当我知道她已经去世，我才知道什么才是真正的最糟糕。”

She dropped her eyes to the ground and waited for Grandma to speak. —-
她垂下眼睛，等待着奶奶开口。 —-

The silence was so prolonged she wondered if Grandma could have failed to comprehend her desperate plight. —-
沉默如此之久，让她怀疑奶奶是否没有理解她绝望的困境。 —-

Finally the old voice spoke and her tones were kind, kinder than Scarlett had ever heard her use in addressing anyone.
最后，老人的声音响起，声音里带着慈祥，比斯嘉莉以往听到她对任何人说话时都要温和。

“Child, it’s a very bad thing for a woman to face the worst that can happen to her, because after she’s faced the worst she can’t ever really fear anything again. —-
“孩子，一个女人面对她可能遭遇的最糟糕的事情是很糟糕的，因为在她面对过最糟糕的事情之后，她就再也不能真正害怕任何事情了。 —-

And it’s very bad for a woman not to be afraid of something. —-
一个女人不害怕任何事情也是很糟糕的。 —-

You think I don’t understand what you’ve told me—what you’ve been through? —-
你以为我不了解你告诉我的事情，你经历了什么？ —-

Well, I understand very well. When I was about your age I was in the Creek uprising, right after the Fort Mims massacre—yes,” she said in a far-away voice, “just about your age for that was fifty-odd years ago. —-
哦，我非常了解。当我大约和你一样大的时候，我参加了克里克起义，就在福特·明姆斯大屠杀之后，是的，”她用遥远的声音说着，“那是大约五十多年前。 —-

And I managed to get into the bushes and hide and I lay there and saw our house burn and I saw the Indians scalp my brothers and sisters. —-
当时我设法溜进灌木丛里躲藏，我躺在那里看着我们的房子被烧毁，看着印第安人割掉我兄弟姐妹的头皮。 —-

And I could only lie there and pray that the light of the flames wouldn’t show up my hiding place. —-
我只能躺在那里祈祷，希望火光不会显露出我的躲藏地点。 —-

And they dragged Mother out and killed her about twenty feet from where I was lying. —-
他们把母亲拖了出来，在离我躺着的地方大约二十英尺处杀了她。 —-

And scalped her too. And ever so often one Indian would go back to her and sink his tommyhawk into her skull again. —-
还割了她的头皮。而且不时有一个印第安人会回头去将他的战斧砍进她的头骨里。 —-

I—I was my mother’s pet and I lay there and saw it all. —-
我——我像是我母亲的宠物，躺在那儿看着发生的一切。 —-

And in the morning I set out for the nearest settlement and it was thirty miles away. —-
第二天早上，我出发去最近的定居点，那里有三十英里远。 —-

It took me three days to get there, through the swamps and the Indians, and afterward they thought I’d lose my mind. —-
我用了三天时间穿越沼泽和印第安人到达那里，之后他们以为我会发疯。 —-

..That’s where I met Dr. Fontaine. He looked after me. —-
..那时我遇到了Fontaine医生。他照顾着我。 —-

..Ah, well, that’s been fifty years ago, as I said, and since that time I’ve never been afraid of anything or anybody because I’d known the worst that could happen to me. —-
..啊，也好，我前面说过了，这是五十年前的事情了，自那时起我再也不怕任何事物或任何人了，因为我经历了生活中最糟糕的事情。 —-

And that lack of fear has gotten me into a lot of trouble and cost me a lot of happiness. —-
而这种无所畏惧导致我遇到了很多麻烦，也失去了很多快乐。 —-

God intended women to be timid frightened creatures and there’s something unnatural about a woman who isn’t afraid. —-
上帝本就意欲女性是胆小害怕的人，一个不害怕的女人是不正常的。 —-

..Scarlett, always save something to fear—even as you save something to love….”
..斯嘉丽，要时刻保持一些恐惧—就像你保留一些爱一样….”

Her voice trailed off and she stood silent with eyes looking back over half a century to the day when she had been afraid. —-
她的声音渐渐消失，她默默地站着，眼神回望着半个世纪前她曾感到害怕的那一天。 —-

Scarlett moved impatiently. She had thought Grandma was going to understand and perhaps show her some way to solve her problems. —-
斯嘉丽无耐烦地移动着。她本以为奶奶会理解她，并且或许能给她一些解决问题的办法。 —-

But like all old people she’d gotten to talking about things that happened before anyone was born, things no one was interested in. —-
但像所有老人一样，她开始讲过去生活中发生的事情，这些对任何人都没有兴趣的事情。 —-

Scarlett wished she had not confided in her.
斯嘉丽希望她没有向奶奶倾诉。

“Well, go home, child, or they’ll be worrying about you,” she said suddenly. —-
“好了，孩子，回家吧，不然他们会担心你的。”她突然说道。 —-

“Send Pork with the wagon this afternoon. —-
“下午让波克开车把货送回家。” —-

..And don’t think you can lay down the load, ever. —-
“而且不要以为你可以放下负担，永远也不能。我知道。” —-

Because you can’t. I know.”
那年的十一月，暖意盈余，温暖的日子让塔拉庄园的人们感到愉悦。最糟糕的时期已经过去了。

Indian summer lingered into November that year and the warm days were bright days for those at Tara. The worst was over. —-
现在他们有了一匹马，不再需要步行，而是可以骑行了。 —-

They had a horse now and they could ride instead of walk. —-
为了增加红薯、花生和干苹果的单调，早餐是煎蛋，晚餐则是煎火腿。而在一个节日的场合，他们甚至吃到了烤鸡。 —-

They had fried eggs for breakfast and fried ham for supper to vary the monotony of the yams, peanuts and dried apples, and on one festal occasion they even had roast chicken. —-
请下午派波克驾车过来。 —-

The old sow had finally been captured and she and her brood rooted and grunted happily under the house where they were penned. —-
老母猪终于被捕捉到了，她和她的小猪们在被圈养的房子下面懒洋洋地挖土和咕噜叫着。 —-

Sometimes they squealed so loudly no one in the house could talk but it was a pleasant sound. —-
有时候它们叫得那么大声，屋子里的人都无法交谈，但这是一种愉悦的声音。 —-

It meant fresh pork for the white folks and chitterlings for the negroes when cold weather and hog-killing time should arrive, and it meant food for the winter for all.
这意味着给白人提供新鲜的猪肉，给黑人带来猪肥肠当寒冷的天气和屠猪季节来临时，同时也意味着为所有人提供冬季的食物。

Scarlett’s visit to the Fontaines had heartened her more than she realized. —-
斯嘉丽拜访方丹家让她感到比她自己意识到的还要振奋。 —-

Just the knowledge that she had neighbors, that some of the family friends and old homes had survived, drove out the terrible loss and alone feeling which had oppressed her in her first weeks at Tara. And the Fontaines and Tarletons, whose plantations had not been in the path of the army, were most generous in sharing what little they had. —-
仅仅知道她有邻居，知道一些家族的朋友和古老的房屋幸存下来，驱散了在泰拉庄园刚开始的时候压抑着她的失落感和孤独感。而方丹家族和塔尔顿家族的庄园没有被军队占领，慷慨地与她们所剩不多的东西分享。 —-

It was the tradition of the County that neighbor helped neighbor and they refused to accept a penny from Scarlett, telling her that she would do the same for them and she could pay them back, in kind, next year when Tara was again producing.
该县的传统是邻里互助，他们拒绝接受斯嘉丽的一毛钱，告诉她他们同样会帮助她，而她可以在下一年Tara再次产出时用同样的方式回报他们。

Scarlett now had food for her household, she had a horse, she had the money and jewelry taken from the Yankee straggler, and the greatest need was new clothing. —-
现在，斯嘉丽家里有食物了，她有一匹马，她有从北方来的散兵身上拿到的钱和珠宝，最大的需求是新衣服。 —-

She knew it would be risky business sending Pork south to buy clothes, when the horse might be captured by either Yankees or Confederates. —-
她知道让波克往南购买衣服是很冒险的，因为马可能会被北方人或南方人抓走。 —-

But, at least, she had the money with which to buy the clothes, a horse and wagon for the trip, and perhaps Pork could make the trip without getting caught. —-
但是，至少她有钱来买衣服，有一辆马车可以用来旅行，也许波克可以在不被抓住的情况下完成这次旅行。 —-

Yes, the worst was over.
是的，最糟糕的已经过去了。

Every morning when Scarlett arose she thanked God for the pale-blue sky and the warm sun, for each day of good weather put off the inevitable time when warm clothing would be needed. —-
每天早上斯嘉丽醒来时，她都会为苍白的蓝天和温暖的阳光感谢上帝，因为每一天的好天气都会推迟需要温暖衣物的时间。 —-

And each warm day saw more and more cotton piling up in the empty slave quarters, the only storage place left on the plantation. —-
每个温暖的日子都会看到更多的棉花堆积在空荡荡的奴隶住宅里，这成了种植园上仅存的储存地点。 —-

There was more cotton in the fields than she or Pork had estimated, probably four bales, and soon the cabins would be full.
田地里的棉花比她和波克估计的要多，可能有四捆，很快就会把小屋填满。

Scarlett had not intended to do any cotton picking herself, even after Grandma Fontaine’s tart remark. —-
斯嘉丽本来没有打算亲自摘棉花，即使她奶奶方丁倩的尖刻言辞之后。 —-

It was unthinkable that she, an O’Hara lady, now the mistress of Tara, should work in the fields. —-
她作为奥哈拉家族的女士，塔拉的女主人，不应该在田地里工作，这是不可想象的。 —-

It put her on the same level with the snarly haired Mrs. Slattery and Emmie. She had intended that the negroes should do the field work, while she and the convalescent girls attended to the house, but here she was confronted with a caste feeling even stronger than her own. —-
那样就让她与乱发的斯拉特里夫人和爱米处于同一水平了。她想让黑人做农田工作，而她和那些正在康复的女孩照顾家务，但她此时面临的等级感远强于她自己的。 —-

Pork, Mammy and Prissy set up outcries at the idea of working in the fields. —-
波克、麦米和普里西高声疾呼，不愿意在田间工作。 —-

They reiterated that they were house niggers, not field hands. —-
他们一再重申自己是管家身份，而不是田间劳工。 —-

Mammy, in particular, declared vehemently that she had never even been a yard nigger. —-
麦米尤其激烈地宣称自己从来没有过在院子里当佣人的经历。 —-

She had been born in the Robillard great house, not in the quarters, and had been raised in Ole Miss’ bedroom, sleeping on a pallet at the foot of the bed. —-
她出生在罗比拉德大宅中，而不是在住处，她在奥尔密斯的卧室里长大，在床脚处睡在一张垫子上。 —-

Dilcey alone said nothing and she fixed her Prissy with an unwinking eye that made her squirm.
狄尔西完全没说话，她用一双不眨眼的眼睛盯着普里西，让她感到不安。

Scarlett refused to listen to the protests and drove them all into the cotton rows. —-
斯嘉丽拒绝听取抗议，把他们都赶到了棉花地里。 —-

But Mammy and Pork worked so slowly and with so many lamentations that Scarlett sent Mammy back to the kitchen to cook and Pork to the woods and the river with snares for rabbits and possums and lines for fish. —-
但是玛米和波克行动非常慢，还嘴里唧唧歪歪，所以斯嘉丽叫玛米回厨房去做饭，波克去树林和河边设置兔子和负鼠的陷阱，以及打鱼用的钓线。 —-

Cotton picking was beneath Pork’s dignity but hunting and fishing were not.
采棉花对波克来说是有失尊严的，但是打猎和钓鱼不是。

Scarlett next had tried her sisters and Melanie in the fields, but that had worked no better. —-
接下来，斯嘉丽试着让她的姐妹和梅兰妮去地里，但效果也不好。 —-

Melanie had picked neatly, quickly and willingly for an hour in the hot sun and then fainted quietly and had to stay in bed for a week. —-
梅兰妮在烈日下干净、迅速、愿意地采摘了一个小时，然后悄悄晕倒了，必须卧床休息一个星期。 —-

Suellen, sullen and tearful, pretended to faint too, but came back to consciousness spitting like an angry cat when Scarlett poured a gourdful of water in her face. —-
Suellen，愤怒而泪眼汪汪，也假装晕过去，但是当斯佳丽向她脸上泼了一瓢水时，她立刻清醒过来像一只愤怒的猫一样吐着口水。 —-

Finally she refused point-blank.
最后，她断然拒绝了。

“I won’t work in the fields like a darky! You can’t make me. —-
“我不会像黑奴一样在田地里工作！你没办法逼我。” —-

What if any of our friends ever heard of it? —-
如果我们的任何朋友听到了怎么办？ —-

What if—if Mr. Kennedy ever knew? Oh, if Mother knew about this—“
如果……肯尼迪先生知道了呢？哦，如果妈妈知道这件事……”

“You just mention Mother’s name once more, Suellen O’Hara, and I’ll slap you flat,” cried Scarlett. —-
“苏伦·奥哈拉，你再提一次妈妈的名字，我就扇你一巴掌。”斯佳丽喊道。 —-

“Mother worked harder than any darky on this place and you know it, Miss Fine Airs!”
“她没有！至少不是在田地里。你没办法。”

“She did not! At least, not in the fields. And you can’t make me. —-
“她又何曾！至少不是在田地里。你没办法。” —-

I’ll tell Papa on you and he won’t make me work!”
“我会告诉爸爸的，他不会让我干活！”

“Don’t you dare go bothering Pa with any of our troubles!” —-
“你敢去烦爸爸解决我们的问题！” —-

cried Scarlett, distracted between indignation at her sister and fear for Gerald.
斯佳丽心烦意乱地既气愤于妹妹，又对杰拉德感到担忧。

“I’ll help you, Sissy,” interposed Carreen docilely. —-
“我会帮你的，西西。”顺从地插言道。 —-

“I’ll work for Sue and me too. She isn’t well yet and she shouldn’t be out in the sun.”
“我会为苏和我一起工作的。她还没有完全康复，不应该在太阳下。”

Scarlett said gratefully: “Thank you, Sugarbaby,” but looked worriedly at her younger sister. —-
斯嘉丽感激地说：“谢谢你，小甜心”，但她担心地看着她年幼的妹妹。 —-

Carreen, who had always been as delicately pink and white as the orchard blossoms that are scattered by the spring wind, was no longer pink but still conveyed in her sweet thoughtful face a blossomlike quality. —-
卡琳一直如同那被春风拂散的果园花朵一样娇嫩的粉嫩与白皙，如今虽然不再粉嫩，但她的甜美而用心的面容仍然流露出花朵般的特质。 —-

She had been silent, a little dazed since she came back to consciousness and found Ellen gone, Scarlett a termagant, the world changed and unceasing labor the order of the new day. —-
自从她苏醒过来后，发现爱伦不在了，斯嘉丽变得暴躁，世界也变了，不间断的辛勤劳作成为新日常，她一直沉默着，有些迷茫。 —-

It was not in Carreen’s delicate nature to adjust herself to change. —-
卡琳的柔弱天性并不适应变化。 —-

She simply could not comprehend what had happened and she went about Tara like a sleepwalker, doing exactly what she was told. —-
她根本无法理解发生了什么事，如同在梦游一样在塔拉上下活动，只做她被吩咐的事。 —-

She looked, and was, frail but she was willing, obedient and obliging. —-
她看上去虽然体弱，但她甘愿、顺从而乐于助人。 —-

When she was not doing Scarlett’s bidding, her rosary beads were always in her hands and her lips moving in prayers for her mother and for Brent Tarleton. —-
当她不为斯嘉丽效劳时，她总是手中捧着玫瑰经，嘴唇念念有词地为她的母亲和布伦特·塔尔顿祈祷。 —-

It did not occur to Scarlett that Carreen had taken Brent’s death so seriously and that her grief was unhealed. —-
斯嘉丽没有意识到卡琳对布伦特的死如此认真，她的悲伤是没有痊愈的。 —-

To Scarlet, Carreen was still “baby sister,” far too young to have had a really serious love affair.
对斯嘉丽来说，卡琳仍然是“妹妹”，太年轻了，不可能有一段真正严肃的恋情。

Scarlett, standing in the sun in the cotton rows, her back breaking from the eternal bending and her hands roughened by the dry bolls, wished she had a sister who combined Suellen’s energy and strength with Carreen’s sweet disposition. —-
斯嘉丽站在棉花地里的阳光下，背已经弯曲得要断裂，手粗糙得像砂掌一样，她希望有一个姐妹既有舒伦的精力和力量，又有卡琳那甜美的性格。 —-

For Carreen picked diligently and earnestly. —-
卡琳认真而勤奋地挑选着棉花。 —-

But, after she had labored for an hour it was obvious that she, and not Suellen, was the one not yet well enough for such work. —-
但是，她努力了一个小时后，显然不是苏伦而是她自己还没好到能做这样的工作。 —-

So Scarlett sent Carreen back to the house too.
所以斯嘉丽也让卡琳回到了屋子里。

There remained with her now in the long rows only Dilcey and Prissy. —-
现在，在漫长的田地里，只剩下迪尔西和普里希和她在一起。 —-

Prissy picked lazily, spasmodically, complaining of her feet, her back, her internal miseries, her complete weariness, until her mother took a cotton stalk to her and whipped her until she screamed. —-
普里希懒散、断断续续地摘，抱怨她的脚、背、内心的痛苦，她的疲惫无力，直到她的母亲拿起一根棉花茎苇抽打她，她才尖叫起来。 —-

After that she worked a little better, taking care to stay far from her mother’s reach.
此后她工作得更好，小心翼翼地保持在她母亲触及不到的距离。

Dilcey worked tirelessly, silently, like a machine, and Scarlett, with her back aching and her shoulder raw from the tugging weight of the cotton bag she carried, thought that Dilcey was worth her weight in gold.
迪尔西无声地像机器一样不知疲倦地工作着，而斯嘉丽的背部酸痛，肩膀承受着棉袋的沉重，心想迪尔西的价值更胜黄金。

“Dilcey,” she said, “when good times come back, I’m not going to forget how you’ve acted. —-
“迪尔西，”她说道，”等好日子到来后，我不会忘记你的行为。” —-

You’ve been mighty good.”
“你一直非常好。”

The bronze giantess did not grin pleasedly or squirm under praise like the other negroes. —-
这位青铜巨人没有愉快地笑，也没有像其他黑人一样因为赞扬而感到尴尬。 —-

She turned an immobile face to Scarlett and said with dignity: —-
她面无表情地转向斯嘉丽，庄重地说道： —-

“Thankee, Ma’m. But Mist’ Gerald and Miss Ellen been good to me. —-
“谢谢您，夫人。但杰拉德先生和埃伦小姐一直对我很好。” —-

Mist’ Gerald buy my Prissy so I wouldn’ grieve and I doan forgit it. —-
杂货店先生买了我的Prissy，这样我就不会伤心了，我也不会忘记它。 —-

I is part Indian and Indians doan forgit them as is good to them. I sorry ‘bout my Prissy. —-
我是印第安人的一部分，印第安人不会忘记对他们好的人。我为我的Prissy感到难过。 —-

She mighty wuthless. Look lak she all nigger lak her pa. —-
她一文不值。就像她父亲一样像个黑人。 —-

Her pa was mighty flighty.”
她父亲脾气很古怪。

In spite of Scarlett’s problem of getting help from the others in the picking and in spite of the weariness of doing the labor herself, her spirits lifted as the cotton slowly made its way from the fields to the cabins. —-
尽管斯嘉丽在采摘时遇到了向其他人寻求帮助的问题，还要自己劳累，但当棉花从田地慢慢运到小屋时，她的精神振奋起来。 —-

There was something about cotton that was reassuring, steadying. —-
棉花有一种令人安心、稳定的东西。 —-

Tara had risen to riches on cotton, even as the whole South had risen, and Scarlett was Southerner enough to believe that both Tara and the South would rise again out of the red fields.
塔拉因为种植棉花而发家致富，就像整个南方一样，而斯嘉丽足够南方人，相信塔拉和南方会再次从那片红土地中崛起。

Of course, this little cotton she had gathered was not much but it was something. —-
当然，她收集的这点棉花不多，但总算有了些收入。 —-

It would bring a little in Confederate money and that little would help her to save the hoarded greenbacks and gold in the Yankee’s wallet until they had to be spent. —-
它能换一点南方联邦的钱，这点钱会帮助她继续保存在那个北方佬钱包里的美元和黄金，直到必须花完为止。 —-

Next spring she would try to make the Confederate government send back Big Sam and the other field hands they had commandeered, and if the government wouldn’t release them, she’d use the Yankee’s money to hire field hands from the neighbors. —-
明年春天，她会试图让南北战争时期的政府将大山和其他被抓去的田地工人送回来，如果政府不同意释放他们，她会用南方人的金钱从邻居那里雇来田地工人。 —-

Next spring, she would plant and plant…She straightened her tired back and, looking over the browning autumn fields, she saw next year’s crop standing sturdy and green, acre upon acre.
明年春天，她会不停地播种……她挺直疲惫的腰背，望着渐变黄的秋田，她看到了明年茁壮而翠绿的庄稼，一片又一片。

Next spring! Perhaps by next spring the war would be over and good times would be back. —-
明年春天！也许到那时战争会结束，好时光会回来。 —-

And whether the Confederacy won or lost, times would be better. —-
无论南方联盟输还是赢，时光都会变得更好。 —-

Anything was better than the constant danger of raids from both armies. —-
任何事情都比不断遭受两军袭击的危险好。 —-

When the war was over, a plantation could earn an honest living. —-
战争结束后，庄园可以靠正当方式谋生。 —-

Oh, if the war were only over! Then people could plant crops with some certainty of reaping them!
哦，如果战争早点结束！那时人们可以种植庄稼，有一定的收成把握！

There was hope now. The war couldn’t last forever. —-
现在有希望了。战争不可能永远持续。 —-

She had her little cotton, she had food, she had a horse, she had her small but treasured hoard of money. —-
她拥有自己的少量棉花，有食物，有一匹马，有自己小而珍贵的金钱储备。 —-

Yes, the worst was over!
是的，最糟糕的时期已经过去了！