關於英國女孩的小說推薦（中英雙語小說連載）
2023-06-10 13:00:48
6
A Boat and a Boy 一艘船和一個男孩
1952
One morning, Pa, shaved fresh and dressed in a wrinkled button-down shirt, came into the kitchen and said he was leaving on the Trailways bus for Asheville to discuss some issues with the army. He figured he had more disability due him and was off to see about it and wouldn't be back for three or four days. He'd never told Kya his business, where he was going, or when he was coming back, so, standing there in her too-short bib overalls, she stared up at him, mute.
某個早晨，爸爸颳了臉，穿上一件皺皺的有領尖扣的襯衫，走進廚房，說要坐大巴去阿什維爾，和軍隊談一些事情。他覺得自己應該拿到更多傷殘津貼，所以去問問看，三四天回不來。爸爸從沒告訴過基婭他的事，去哪裡，什麼時候回來——所以，基婭穿著過短的工裝褲站在那裡，抬頭看向他，沒說話。
「Ah b'leeve ya deaf and dumb as all git-out,」 he said, the porch door slapping behind him.
「你和那些跑了的一樣，又聾又啞。」他說，隨後摔上了門。
Kya watched him gimp along the path, left leg swinging to the side, then forward. Her fingers knotted. Maybe they were all going to leave her, one by one down this lane. When he reached the road and unexpectedly looked back, she threw her hand up and waved hard. A shot to keep him tethered. Pa lifted an arm in a quick, dismissive salutation. But it was something. It was more than Ma had done.
基婭看著他瘸著腿走在小徑上，左腿先擺到邊上，然後向前。她的手指絞在一起。大概所有人都會離開她，沿著小徑，一個接一個。到了大路上，爸爸出人意料地回頭看了看，基婭高高舉起手，用力揮動，試圖挽留他。爸爸舉起胳膊，快速而草率地揮了揮。但他至少道別了。媽媽沒有。
From there, she wandered to the lagoon, where early light caught the glimmer of hundreds of dragonfly wings. Oaks and thick brush encircled the water, darkening it cavelike, and she stopped as she eyed Pa's boat drifting there on the line. If she took it into the marsh and he found out, he'd take his belt to her. Or the paddle he kept by the porch door; the 「welcome bat,」 Jodie had called it.
離開門廊，基婭信步走到潟湖，成百上千的蜻蜓沐浴在晨光中，翅膀閃爍著微光。橡樹和密集的灌木圍繞著湖水，使湖面變得像洞穴一般陰暗。她看到爸爸的船繫著繩漂在那兒。如果她開船進溼地被發現了，他會拿皮帶抽她，或者用放在門廊邊的槳——喬迪之前管它叫「歡迎球拍」。
Perhaps a yearning to reach out yonder pulled her toward the boat—a bent-up, flat-bottomed metal skiff Pa used for fishing. She'd been out in it all her life, usually with Jodie. Sometimes he'd let her steer. She even knew the way through some of the intricate channels and estuaries that wandered through a patchwork of water and land, land and water, finally to the sea. Because even though the ocean was just beyond the trees surrounding the shack, the only way to get there by boat was to go in the opposite direction, inland, and wind through miles of the maze of waterways that eventually hooked back to the sea.
大概是對遠方的渴望將她推向了船。那是一艘兩頭上翹的平底金屬小艇，爸爸用它來捕魚。這麼多年來她一直坐著它外出，通常是和喬迪一起。有時候他會讓她掌舵。她甚至知道如何通過一些複雜的水道、河口，它們蜿蜒穿過相接的水和陸地，陸地和水，最後到達大海。雖然大海就在環繞棚屋的樹叢後，但坐船去那兒的唯一方法是先往反方向的內陸開，然後穿過數英裡的水網，迂迴抵達。
But, being only seven and a girl, she'd never taken the boat out by herself. It floated there, tied by a single cotton line to a log. Gray grunge, frayed fishing tackle, and half-crushed beer cans covered the boat floor. Stepping in, she said out loud, 「Gotta check the gas like Jodie said, so Pa won't figure I took it.」 She poked a broken reed into the rusted tank. 「'Nough for a short ride, I reckon.」
但基婭只有七歲，還是個小女孩，不曾獨自駕船外出。船就浮在那兒，用一根棉繩系在木頭上。甲板上散布著灰色的汙垢、磨損的漁具和壓扁的啤酒罐。她上了船，大聲說：「得像喬迪說的那樣檢查一下汽油，這樣爸爸就不會發現我開過船。」她拿一根斷了的蘆葦戳進生鏽的油罐裡。「我想夠一次短途了。」
Like any good robber, she looked around, then flicked the cotton line free of the log and poled forward with the lone paddle. The silent cloud of dragonflies parted before her.
像所有優秀的強盜那樣，她看了看四周，然後從木頭上解開棉繩，用單槳撐船。大片安靜的蜻蜓在她面前分開，讓出路來。
Not able to resist, she pulled the starter rope and jerked back when the motor caught the first time, sputtering and burping white smoke. Grabbing the tiller, she turned the throttle too far, and the boat turned sharply, the engine screaming. She released the throttle, threw her hands up, and the boat eased to a drift, purring.
她經不住誘惑，拉了啟動繩，發動機噴著白煙運轉起來，她被震得向後踉蹌了一下。她緊抓舵柄。油門加過頭了，船猛地急轉，發動機咆哮著。基婭鬆開油門，抬起手，船慢下來，漂浮著，發出嗡嗡聲。
When in trouble, just let go. Go back to idle.
有問題的時候就放手。回到空擋。
Accelerating now more gently, she steered around the old fallen cypress, putt, putt, putt beyond the piled sticks of the beaver lodge. Then, holding her breath, she steered toward the lagoon entrance, almost hidden by brambles. Ducking beneath the low-hanging limbs of giant trees, she churned slowly through thicket for more than a hundred yards, as easy turtles slid from water-logs. A floating mat of duckweed colored the water as green as the leafy ceiling, creating an emerald tunnel. Finally, the trees parted, and she glided into a place of wide sky and reaching grasses, and the sounds of cawing birds. The view a chick gets, she reckoned, when it finally breaks its shell.
這次，基婭在加速的時候柔和了許多。她駕船繞過倒下的老柏樹，突突突地經過海狸洞口堆著的木頭。然後，基婭屏住呼吸，開向潟湖的入口，那兒幾乎被荊棘遮住了。她在樹叢中慢慢地開，足足開了一百多碼；碰到大樹低垂的枝丫就低頭，看到意態悠閒的烏龜從積水中滑遊出來。水面上漂著浮萍織就的毯子，水被染成了樹葉頂篷的綠色，形成一條翠綠的隧道。終於，樹叢分開，船駛進了一個天空開闊、草觸手可及、鳥鳴陣陣的地方。她覺得這就是一隻小雞破殼而出時欣賞到的景色。
Kya tooled along, a tiny speck of a girl in a boat, turning this way and that as endless estuaries branched and braided before her. Keep left at all the turns going out, Jodie had said. She barely touched the throttle, easing the boat through the current, keeping the noise low. As she broke around a stand of reeds, a whitetail doe with last spring's fawn stood lapping water. Their heads jerked up, slinging droplets through the air. Kya didn't stop or they would bolt, a lesson she'd learned from watching wild turkeys: if you act like a predator, they act like prey. Just ignore them, keep going slow. She drifted by, and the deer stood as still as a pine until Kya disappeared beyond the salt grass.基婭開著船轉悠——船上，一個小不點女孩，面對數不盡的、縱橫交錯的河口，轉來轉去。出去的路上，碰到所有該轉彎的地方都向左轉，喬迪曾這樣說過。基婭幾乎沒有碰油門，讓船隨波逐流，降低噪聲。穿過一片蘆葦蕩時，她看到一隻白尾鹿正帶著它去年春天生下來的小鹿飲水。它們猛地抬頭，把水珠甩向空中。她沒有停下，不然它們會受驚逃跑，這是觀察野龜時學到的：如果你表現得像一個捕食者，它們就會像獵物。只要忽視它們，慢慢前進就好。船經過時，鹿安靜地站著，如松樹一般，直到她消失在鹽草之外。
She entered a place with dark lagoons in a throat of oaks and remembered a channel on the far side that flowed to an enormous estuary. Several times she came upon dead ends, had to backtrack to take another turn. Keeping all these landmarks straight in her mind so she could get back. Finally the estuary lay ahead, water stretching so far it captured the whole sky and all the clouds within it.
基婭進入了一片橡樹林，其間分布著一些深色的潟湖。她記起那邊遠處有一條水道連接著一個巨大的河口。有幾次她進了死胡同，不得不返回，換個方向轉彎。她在心裡牢牢記住這些路標，這樣就能原路返回。最終河口出現在眼前，水面如此遼闊，似乎倒映著整片天空和所有雲彩。
The tide was going out, she knew by water lines along the creek shores. When it receded enough, any time from now, some channels would shallow up and she'd run aground, get stranded. She'd have to head back before then.
根據溪岸的水位線，她知道潮水正在退去。從現在開始，當潮水退到一定程度，有些水道隨時可能變得很淺，船會因此觸底擱淺。她必須在那之前掉頭回去。
As she rounded a stand of tall grass, suddenly the ocean's face—gray, stern, and pulsing—frowned at her. Waves slammed one another, awash in their own white saliva, breaking apart on the shore with loud booms—energy searching for a beachhead. Then they flattened into quiet tongues of foam, waiting for the next surge.
當她穿過一片高草地時，突然之間，大海變了臉色，灰色、冷峻、湧動著的大海皺起了眉頭。海浪互相拍打，激起白色的浮沫，伴隨著巨大的轟鳴聲撞碎在岸上——能量尋找著灘頭陣地。碎裂後回歸為一片平靜的泡沫，等待著下一波大浪襲來。
The surf taunted her, daring her to breach the waves and enter the sea, but without Jodie, her courage failed. Time to turn around anyway. Thunderheads grew in the western sky, forming huge gray mushrooms pressing at the seams.
海浪嘲弄她，挑戰她，讓她突破浪頭，衝進大海。但喬迪不在，基婭鼓不起足夠的勇氣。不管怎麼說，該回去了。雷暴雲砧在西邊天空擴張，在海天相接處形成巨大的灰色蘑菇。
There'd been no other people, not even distant boats, so it was a surprise when she entered the large estuary again, and there, close against the marsh grass, was a boy fishing from another battered rig. Her course would take her only twenty feet from him. By now, she looked every bit the swamp child—hair blown into tangles, dusty cheeks streaked with wind-tears.
周圍沒人，甚至遠處也沒有船。基婭回到大河口，看到溼地草地邊有一個男孩正用破舊的漁具捕魚，她感到很意外。這條路會讓她靠近那個男孩，最近的地方只有二十英尺。然而現在，她看上去完全就是一個溼地孩子——頭髮打結，臉頰髒兮兮的，印著淚水風乾後的痕跡。
Neither low gas nor storm threat gave her the same edgy feeling as seeing another person, especially a boy. Ma had told her older sisters to watch out for them; if you look tempting, men turn into predators. Squishing her lips tight, she thought, What am I gonna do? I gotta go right by him.
看到另一個人，還是一個男孩，這讓她焦躁不安。無論是汽油不足還是暴風雨，都不會讓她有這種感覺。媽媽曾告訴過她的幾個姐姐，小心男人。如果你看上去很有吸引力，男人就會成為捕獵者。她抿緊嘴唇，想著，我該怎麼做呢？我必須得從他旁邊經過。
From the corner of her eye, she saw he was thin, his golden curls stuffed under a red baseball cap. Much older than she, eleven, maybe twelve. Her face was grim as she approached, but he smiled at her, warm and open, and touched the brim of his hat like a gentleman greeting a fine lady in a gown and bonnet. She nodded slightly, then looked ahead, increasing the throttle and passing him by.
余光中，基婭看到他瘦瘦的，金色鬈髮塞進紅色棒球帽裡，年紀比她大不少，十一歲，也可能十二歲。她繃著臉靠近，但男孩朝她笑了，溫暖而包容，還像問候身著禮服、頭戴軟帽的淑女的紳士那般碰了碰帽簷。基婭微微點了點頭，然後向前看，加大油門經過。
All she could think of now was getting back to familiar footing, but somewhere she must have turned wrong, for when she reached the second string of lagoons, she couldn't find the channel that led home. Round and round, near oak knees and myrtle thickets, she searched. A slow panic eased in. Now, the grass banks, sandbars, and bends all looked the same. She cut the engine and stood smack-dab in the middle of the boat, balancing with feet spread wide, trying to see over the reeds, but couldn't. She sat. Lost. Low on gas. Storm coming.
現在，她只想回到熟悉的路標處，但她一定在某個地方轉錯了彎，到了第二串潟湖時，她找不到回家的路了。她循著橡樹根膝和桃金孃叢兜兜轉轉。漸漸地，她有點發慌，所有的草叢、沙洲和彎道看起來都毫無差別。她關掉發動機，站在船中央，雙腳叉開保持平衡，想要看到蘆葦蕩那頭，但看不到。她坐了下來。迷路了。油不夠。暴風雨要來了。
Stealing Pa's words, she cussed her brother for leaving. 「Damn ya, Jodie! Shit fire an' fall in. You just shit fire an' fall in it.」
她學著爸爸的話，咒罵起離開的哥哥。「該死的喬迪！真該死。」
She whimpered once as the boat drifted in soft current. Clouds, gaining ground against the sun, moved weighted but silent overhead, pushing the sky and dragging shadows across the clear water. Could be a gale any minute. Worse, though: if she wandered too long, Pa would know she took the boat. She eased ahead; maybe she could find that boy.
船在輕柔的浪中漂浮，她輕聲啜泣著。雲層在太陽周圍聚集，沉沉地向她頭頂移來，無聲無息，擠壓著天空，在清澈的水面上投下陰影。隨時可能颳起狂風。更糟的是：如果她在外面待太久，爸爸就會知道她動了船。基婭緩緩向前。或許能找到那個男孩。
Another few minutes of creek brought a bend and the large estuary ahead, and on the other side, the boy in his boat. Egrets took flight, a line of white flags against the mounting gray clouds. She anchored him hard with her eyes. Afraid to go near him, afraid not to. Finally, she turned across the estuary.
在小溪中行駛了幾分鐘後，她眼前出現了一個轉彎和那個大河口，男孩的船就在對面。白鷺飛起，在堆積的灰色雲層背景上投下一抹白色。基婭盯著那個男孩，不敢靠近，也不敢不靠近。最終，她穿過河口。
He looked up when she neared.
基婭靠近時，他抬起頭。
「Hey,」 he said.
「你好。」他說。
「Hey.」 She looked beyond his shoulder into the reeds.
「你好。」她的視線越過他的肩膀，看向蘆葦蕩。
「Which way you headed, anyhow?」 he asked. 「Not out, I hope. That storm's comin'.」
「你要去哪兒？」他問，「希望不是出去。暴風雨要來了。」
「No,」 she said, looking down at the water.
「不出去。」她說，低頭看著水面。
「You okay?」
「你還好嗎？」
Her throat tightened against a sob. She nodded but couldn't speak.
她喉嚨發緊，強忍著嗚咽點點頭，無法開口。
「You lost?」
「你迷路了？」
She bobbed her head again. Wasn't going to cry like a girl.
她又點點頭。決不能像個女孩子似的哭。
「Well, then. I git lost all the time,」 he said, and smiled. 「Hey, I know you. You're Jodie Clark's sister.」
「好吧。我經常迷路，」他微笑著說，「嘿，我認識你。你是喬迪·克拉克的妹妹。」
「I used ta be. He's gone.」
「曾經是。他走了。」
「Well, you're still his . . .」 But he let it drop.
「好吧，那你也仍是他的……」他沒說完。
「How'd you know me?」 She threw a quick, direct look at his eyes.
「你是怎麼認識我的？」基婭迅速和他對視了一眼。
「Oh, I've been fishin' with Jodie some. I saw you a couple a' times. You were just a little kid. You're Kya, right?」
「我之前和喬迪一起捕過幾次魚。有時看見你們在一起。你還是個小孩呢。你是基婭，對吧？」
Someone knew her name. She was taken aback. Felt anchored to something; released from something else.
有人知道她的名字，她被帶回這個世界了。她覺得自己被什麼拴住了，又從其他什麼中解脫了。
「Yeah. You know my place? From here?」
「是的。你知道我家嗎？從這兒怎麼走？」
「Reckon I do. It's 'bout time anyhow.」 He nodded at the clouds. 「Follow me.」 He pulled his line, put tackle in the box, and started his outboard. As he headed across the estuary, he waved, and she followed. Cruising slowly, he went directly to the right channel, looked back to make sure she'd made the turn, and kept going. He did that at every bend to the oak lagoons. As he turned into the dark waterway toward home, she could see where she'd gone wrong, and would never make the mistake again.
「我想我知道。不管怎麼說，差不多是時候走了。」他指指雲，「跟著我。」 他拉起繩子，把漁具放進箱子，然後發動小艇。穿過河口時，他揮揮手，基婭跟了上去。慢慢地，他直接把船開進右邊的水道，回頭確認基婭是不是也跟著轉彎了，然後接著前進。在每個轉彎處他都會這麼做，一直到橡樹潟湖。開上回家的那條昏暗水路時，基婭知道自己之前哪裡出錯了，之後絕不會再犯。
He guided her—even after she waved that she knew her way—across her lagoon, up to the shore where the shack squatted in the woods. She motored up to the old waterlogged pine and tied up. He drifted back from her boat, bobbing in their contrary wakes.
他領著她——即使基婭揮手告訴他接下來的路她都認識——穿過她的潟湖，一直到岸邊，基婭的棚屋就在岸上的樹林裡蹲伏著。她把船開到半浸在水裡的老松樹旁，系起來。他的船往回走，經過她的，在兩道相反方向的水波裡輕輕晃動。
「You okay now?」
「現在沒事了吧？」
「Yeah.」
「是的。」
「Well, storm's comin', I better git.」
「暴風雨要來了，我得走了。」
She nodded, then remembered how Ma taught her. 「Thank ya.」
她點點頭，想起媽媽曾教過她的話。「謝謝你。」
「All right, then. My name's Tate 'case ya see me again.」
「沒事。我叫泰特，說不定下次還能再見面。」
She didn't respond, so he said, 「Bye now.」
基婭沒有回答。他說：「那再見了。」
As he headed out, slow raindrops splattered the lagoon beach, and she said, 「It's gonna rain bullfrogs; that boy'll get soaked through.」
泰特往外開的時候，雨點開始慢慢砸在潟湖的沙灘上。她說：「要下大雨了。那男孩會被淋成落湯雞。」
She stooped to the gas tank and stuck in her reed dipstick, cupping her hands around the rim, so rain wouldn't drop in. Maybe she couldn't count coins, but she knew for sure, you can't let water get in gas.
她彎下腰查看油罐，插進蘆葦稈，手在罐口處圍成杯狀，防止雨滴落入。她不會數硬幣，但她很確信，水不能混進汽油裡。
It's way low. Pa's gonna know. I gotta tote a can to the Sing Oil 'fore Pa gits back.
這太淺了，爸爸會發現的。我得在爸爸回來前去一趟汽油店。
She knew the owner, Mr. Johnny Lane, always referred to her family as swamp trash, but dealing with him, the storms, and tides would be worth it, because all she could think of now was getting back into that space of grass and sky and water. Alone, she'd been scared, but that was already humming as excitement. There was something else, too. The calmness of the boy. She'd never known anybody to speak or move so steady. So sure and easy. Just being near him, and not even that close, had eased her tightness. For the first time since Ma and Jodie left, she breathed without pain; felt something other than the hurt. She needed this boat and that boy.
她認識汽油店老闆強尼·萊恩先生，他總叫她和她的家人溼地垃圾。但和他打交道，經歷過的風暴，還有海浪，這些都是值得的，因為現在她只想回到草、天空、水的空間。孤身一人，她也曾感到害怕，但現在卻變成了興奮和期待。還有別的原因。那個男孩的鎮靜自若。她從沒見過談吐和動作如此穩重的人。如此篤定、從容。只是靠近他，甚至不需要很近，就已經讓她感到放鬆。自媽媽和喬迪離開後，她第一次呼吸時不再感到痛苦，還感受到了傷痛之外的東西。她需要這艘船和那個男孩。
THAT SAME AFTERNOON, holding his bike by the handlebars, Tate Walker strolled through town, nodding at Miss Pansy in the Five and Dime, and past the Western Auto to the tip of the town wharf. He scanned the sea for his dad's shrimp boat, The Cherry Pie, and spotted its bright red paint far out, the wide net-wings rocking with the swells. As it neared, escorted by its own cloud of gulls, he waved, and his father, a large man with mountain shoulders and thick red hair and a beard, threw his hand in the air. Scupper, as everyone in the village called him, tossed the line to Tate, who tied up, then jumped on board to help the crew unload the catch.當天下午，泰特·沃克扶著自行車車把，漫步走過鎮子，途經五分一角店時向潘茜小姐點頭致意，然後經過西部車行走到鎮子的碼頭邊。他掃視海面，尋找爸爸的捕蝦船「櫻桃派」，遠遠地看見了船身明紅色的漆，寬闊的網翼隨著網裡隆起的獵物左右搖晃。成群的海鷗繞船飛舞，在它們的護衛下，船靠近了。泰特揮著手，他的爸爸，一個肩如山嶽、紅髮濃密、蓄著鬍子的高大男人，把手高舉到空中。老排，鎮上的人都這麼叫他，把繩子扔給泰特，泰特把繩子繫上，跳到甲板上幫船員們卸貨。
Scupper tousled Tate's hair. 「How's it, son? Thanks for coming by.」
老排揉了揉泰特的頭髮。「兒子，最近怎麼樣？謝謝你過來接我。」
Tate smiled, nodded. 「Sure.」 They and the crew busied about, loading shrimp into crates, toting them to the wharf, calling out to one another about grabbing beers at the Dog-Gone, asking Tate about school. Taller by a hand than the other men, Scupper scooped up three wire crates at a time, carrying them across the plank, going back for more. His fists were bear-sized, knuckles chapped and split. In less than forty minutes the deck was hosed, nets tied, lines secured.
泰特微笑著點點頭。「沒事。」他們和船員一起忙碌起來，把蝦裝箱，搬到碼頭。船員們聊著待會兒去狗日啤酒屋喝酒，還問了泰特學校的事。老排比其他男人高出一掌，一次能搬三箱，搬到鋪板另一頭，再回去繼續搬。他的拳頭有熊掌大小，指關節處皮膚皸裂。四十分鐘不到就收工了。把甲板用軟管澆溼，清洗乾淨，收起漁網，系好繩子。
He told the crew he'd join them another day for beer; he had to do some tuning up before going home. In the wheelhouse, Scupper put a 78 record of Miliza Korjus on the player strapped to the counter and turned the volume up. He and Tate went below and squeezed into the engine hold, where Tate handed tools to his dad as he greased parts and tightened bolts by a dim lightbulb. All the while the soaring, sweet opera lifted higher into the sky.
老排告訴其他船員改天再一起喝酒，回家前還有一些維護工作要做。駕駛室的臺子上綁著一臺唱片機，老排放了一張米莉莎·科耶斯的七十八轉唱片，調大音量。他和泰特走下船艙，鑽進引擎室。泰特給爸爸打下手、遞工具，老排則在昏暗的燈光下給零件上油，擰緊螺栓。高亢甜美的歌聲在空中越飄越高。
Scupper's great-great-grandfather, emigrating from Scotland, had shipwrecked off the coast of North Carolina in the 1760s and was the only survivor. He swam to shore, landing on the Outer Banks, found a wife, and fathered thirteen children. Many could trace their roots back to that one Mr. Walker, but Scupper and Tate stayed mostly to themselves. Didn't join the Sunday picnic spreads of chicken salad and deviled eggs with their relatives often, not like they had when his mother and sister were still there.
老排的曾曾祖父十八世紀六十年代從蘇格蘭移民，在北卡羅來納的海岸遭遇了海難，是唯一的倖存者。他遊向海岸，在外灘群島登陸，娶妻生子，成了十三個孩子的父親。鎮上很多人的祖先都可以追溯到這位沃克先生，但老排和泰特大部分時候都獨來獨往。他們不常參加親戚們周日舉辦的雞肉沙拉和芥末雞蛋野餐，不像之前泰特的媽媽和妹妹還在時那麼頻繁。
Finally, in the graying dusk, Scupper slapped Tate on the shoulders. 「All done. Let's get home, get supper on.」
終於，在泛灰的薄暮裡，老排拍了拍泰特的肩頭。「都做完了。回家吧，弄點晚飯吃。」
They walked up the wharf, down Main, and out a winding road to their house, a two-story with weathered cedar-shake siding, built in the 1800s. The white window trim had been painted fresh, and the lawn running almost to the sea was cut neat. But the azaleas and rosebushes next to the house sulked in weeds.
他們走上碼頭，走到主街，然後拐進一條通向家的曲折小路。他們的房子建於十九世紀，兩層高，貼著已風化的雪松護牆板。白色的窗框才刷過不久，草坪幾乎伸到海邊，修剪得整整齊齊，但屋旁的杜鵑花和薔薇花叢在野草中間鬱鬱寡歡。
Pulling off yellow boots in the mudroom, Scupper asked, 「You tired of burgers?」
老排在儲藏室裡脫下黃色的靴子，問：「吃膩漢堡了嗎？」
「Never tired of burgers.」
「永遠吃不膩。」
Tate stood at the kitchen counter, picking up globs of hamburger meat, forming patties, and placing them on a plate. His mother and sister, Carianne, both wearing baseball caps, grinned at him from a picture hanging next to the window. Carianne loved that Atlanta Crackers cap, had worn it everywhere.
泰特站在廚房灶臺前，拿起一團漢堡肉，壓成餅狀，放到盤子上。他的媽媽和妹妹卡麗安，兩人都戴著棒球帽，在窗子旁的照片裡朝他微笑。卡麗安喜歡那頂亞特蘭大帽子，以前走到哪兒都戴著。
He looked away from them, started slicing tomatoes, stirring baked beans. If not for him, they'd be here. His mother basting a chicken, Carianne cutting biscuits.
他轉開視線，開始切西紅柿，攪拌烤豆子。如果不是因為他，她們還會在這裡。媽媽給雞肉塗醬料，卡麗安切餅乾。
As usual Scupper got the burgers a bit black, but they were juicy inside and thick as a small city phone book. Both hungry, they ate in silence for a while, and then Scupper asked Tate about school.
和往常一樣，老排把漢堡烤得略焦，但裡面鮮嫩多汁，足有一本城市黃頁那麼厚。兩人都餓了，埋頭安靜地吃了一會兒，然後老排問起學校的情況。
「Biology's good; I like it, but we're doing poetry in English class. Can't say I like it much. We each gotta read one out loud. You used to recite some, but I don't remember them.」
「生物很好，我很喜歡。不過語文課學詩歌，我不太喜歡。每個人都得大聲朗讀一首。你以前給我們背過幾首，我沒記下來。」
「I got the poem for you, son,」 Scupper said. 「My favorite—『The Cremation of Sam McGee' by Robert Service. Used to read it out to y'all. Was your mama's favorite. She laughed every time I read it, never got tired of it.」
「我這兒有首詩，孩子，」老排說，「我的最愛——羅伯特·瑟維斯的《薩姆·馬吉的火葬》，過去讀給你們聽過。這也是你媽媽最喜歡的詩。每次我讀她都笑，從來沒厭煩過。」
Tate looked down at the mention of his mother, pushed his beans around.
提到媽媽，泰特低下頭，把烤豆子推到一邊。
Scupper went on. 「Don't go thinking poetry's just for sissies. There's mushy love poems, for sure, but there's also funny ones, lots about nature, war even. Whole point of it—they make ya feel something.」 His dad had told him many times that the definition of a real man is one who cries without shame, reads poetry with his heart, feels opera in his soul, and does what's necessary to defend a woman. Scupper walked to the sitting room, calling back, 「I used to know most of it by heart, but not anymore. But here it is, I'll read it to ya.」 He sat back down at the table and began reading. When he got to this segment:
老排接著說：「不要覺得詩歌是女人的東西。當然有很多愛情詩，但也有很多有趣的詩，很多關於自然甚至戰爭的詩。詩歌的全部意義在於，它們能讓你感受到一些東西。」爸爸無數次告訴他，一個真正的男人會毫不羞恥地流淚，會用心去讀詩，會用靈魂感受歌劇，會盡全力保護他的女人。老排走進客廳，說：「我以前能背下來大部分，現在全忘了。啊，找到了，我讀給你聽。」他坐回餐桌前，開始朗讀。當他讀到：
「And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said, 『Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm—
Since I left Plumtree down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm.」
薩姆坐在那裡，冰冷而鎮靜，在熔爐火力的中心。
他臉上的微笑一英裡外就能看到，他說：
「請關上門。
這裡很好，但我擔心你會放進來冷氣
和暴風雨——
自從離開普拉姆特裡，來到田納西，這是我第一次
感到暖和。」
Scupper and Tate chuckled.
父子倆笑了起來。
「Your mom always laughed at that.」
「你媽媽總在這段笑。」
They smiled, remembering. Just sat there a minute. Then Scupper said he'd wash up while Tate did his homework. In his room, scanning through the poetry book for one to read in class, Tate found a poem by Thomas Moore:
他們微笑著回憶，靜靜地坐了一分鐘。老排說他來收拾，泰特去寫作業。在房間裡，泰特翻看詩集，想找一首到課堂上讀。他看到了一首託馬斯·摩爾的詩：
. . . she’s gone to the Lake of the Dismal Swamp,
Where, all night long, by a fire-fly lamp,
She paddles her white canoe.
And her fire-fly lamp I soon shall see,
And her paddle I soon shall hear; Long and loving our life shall be,
And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree,
When the footstep of death is near.
……她去了陰沉沉的沼澤湖，
在那裡，整夜就著螢火蟲燈，
劃著她白色的輕舟。
很快我就會看到她的螢火蟲燈，
很快我就會聽到她的划水聲；
我們的一生將悠長而充滿愛意，
我會把她藏入柏樹，
當死亡的腳步臨近。
The words made him think of Kya, Jodie's little sister. She'd seemed so small and alone in the marsh's big sweep. He imagined his own sister lost out there. His dad was right—poems made you feel something.
這些文字讓他想起了基婭，喬迪的小妹妹。在溼地的浩大之中，她是如此渺小而孤獨。他想像自己的妹妹迷失在那兒。爸爸說對了，詩歌能讓你感受到一些東西。
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