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现代英文选评注 Herb Gathering采药
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Truman Capote (1924—1984)
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杜鲁门·卡波特是美国作家，本篇选自其所著长篇小说《草琴》（The Grass Harp，1951）。美国旷野，印第安草（Indian grass）繁生，高可逾顶，一望无际，风吹其间，声如筝簧，故“草琴”者，亦“天籁”之意也。
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小说的主人公是一个孤儿（Collin Fenwick），依两表姑居，两表姑皆老处女，行为怪僻，然各有其可爱处。书中故事简单而含意深远，人物描写非常生动，写景亦多佳句。卡波特之风格，精致细腻，轻描淡写中，颇多晕润含蓄之妙。于现实世界之外，似另暗示一理想世界。其小说虽以美国南部为背景，然读来犹如童话，疑真疑幻，文字之妙用尽矣。
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Once a week, Saturdays mostly, we went to River Woods. For these trips, which lasted the whole day, Catherine fried a chicken and deviled a dozen eggs, and Dolly took along a chocolate layer cake and a supply of divinity fudge. Thus armed, and carrying three empty grain sacks, we walked out the church road past the cemetery and through the field of Indian grass.
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● River Woods是当地一座森林的名称。lasted：（时间之）持续。每星期去一次，一去就一整天。Catherine为一黑人老妪，年约六十。deviled：用醋、辣椒、酱油、色拉油等调味品泡制（蛋先煮熟切开，蛋黄泡制后，再放入蛋白之内）。Dolly为书中主角之大表姑，年六十，天性十分纯朴善良。渠有秘方，依法配制，能治水肿。所谓“采药”，即为配制该单方之用。layer cake：分层之蛋糕。fudge：普通软质美式糖果。divinity fudge是fudge之一种，原料以cream、蔗糖、胡桃仁为主。a supply of=a quantity of，相当多。
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● armed：原意是武装配备，转作一切配备。这里所配备的是供野餐用的食品和糖果。grain sacks：盛谷类的麻袋或布袋。空的，可以装药草。church road：通至教堂的路。cemetery：公墓，在教堂附近。
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Just entering the woods there was a double-trunked China tree, really two trees, but their branches were so embraced that you could step from one into the other; in fact, they were bridged by a tree-house; spacious, sturdy, a model of a tree-house, it was like a raft floating in the sea of leaves. The boys who built it, provided they are still alive, must by now be very old men; certainly the tree-house was fifteen or twenty years old when Dolly first found it and that was a quarter of a century before she showed it to me.
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● 过了草原，便是森林。在森林进口处，是两棵“楝树”。据刘半农编《中小字典》：“楝”音“连”，高丈余，叶繁密如槐，初夏开淡紫色花，结实似枣而小，色黄，俗名“金铃子”，入药。楝树在美国称为China tree（或chinaberry tree）。
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● trunk：树干。double-trunked：两根树干的。本来是两棵树，因为上面的枝叶纠缠难分，好像是一棵树有两根树干似的。embraced：拥抱。step from one into the other：从一棵树跨到另外一棵。树可“走进”，其繁茂可想。bridge：树上架有木屋，犹如两树之间的桥梁。spacious：宽敞的。sturdy：坚固的。a model of a tree-house：树上房屋的模范。同前面的a tree-house在语法上是同位语。raft：木筏。屋居树巅，如筏浮水上。
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● provided=if。造这座木屋的孩子们假如现在还活着的话，也该是很老的老头儿了。Dolly起初发现这座木屋的时候，它已经有十五年到二十年的历史；事到如今，又过了二十五年了。
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To reach it was easy as climbing stairs; there were footholds of gnarled bark and tough vines to grip; even Catherine, who was heavy around the hips and complained of rheumatism, had no trouble. But Catherine felt no love for the tree-house; she did not know, as Dolly knew and made me know, that it was a ship, that to sit up there was to sail along the cloudy coastline of every dream. Mark my word, said Catherine, them boards are too old, them nails are slippery as worms, gonna crack in two, gonna fall and bust our beads don’t I know it.
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● gnarled bark：多结节的树皮，可供踏脚（foothold）。grip：握；硬藤可攀援。rheumatism：风湿病。complained of：自称害（什么病）。
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● to sail along the cloudy coastline of every dream：上文把树巅木屋比作木筏，同时又把树叶比作海，尚不过是就形象而言，这里把木屋比作船，船居然能行，文思至此，乃更进一层。船往那里开呢？“沿着梦境的云雾茫茫的海岸航行。”什么样的梦全有，故云every dream。
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● she did not know之宾语是两个“that”clauses。
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● 末一句照语法惯例，应加引号。Mark my word之my是Catherine自道。them boards…和them nails…之them并非宾格，而等于指示形容词these。boards：木板。年代过久，铁钉已松，触之似能出入自如，犹如小虫，故Catherine担忧木屋将垮。
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● gonna=going to：将要。bust=burst：打破。皆为美国土话。don’t I know it：我岂不知之哉？我知道得很清楚。（don’t之前，标点原文缺。）
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Storing our provisions in the tree-house, we separated into the woods, each carrying a grain sack to be filled with herbs, leaves, strange roots. No one, not even Catherine, knew altogether what went into the medicine, for it was a secret Dolly kept to herself, and we were never allowed to look at the gatherings in her own sack: she held tight to it, as though inside she had captive a blue-haired child, a bewitched prince.
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● provisions：食品，即上文所述之煎鸡等等。separated：分头出发。
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● what went into the medicine：Dolly的药是什么东西配成的。go这一类常见的动词，用法颇多，学者宜随时留意。
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● Doily kept to herself是定语从句，关系代名词which省掉。
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● gatherings：搜集所得。tight（副词）=firmly。captive（形容词）=held as a prisoner，此处作objective complement。
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● blue-haired child：蓝发童，指不常见的怪物。bewitched prince：中了魔法的王子。西洋童话中，常有王子因为魔法作祟变形易体，化作怪物。Dolly的袋里的东西总不让别人看，好像捉住什么怪物似的。
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This was her story: “Once, back yonder when we were children there were gipsies thick as birds in blackberry patch…not like now, maybe you see a few straggling through each year. They came with spring: sudden, like the dogwood pink, there they were—up and down the road and in the woods around. Then one evening, it was April and falling rain, I went out to the cowshed where Fairybell had a new little calf; and there in the cowshed were three gipsy women, two of them old and one of them young, and the young one was lying naked and twisting on the corn-shucks. When they saw that I was not afraid, one of the old women asked would I bring a light. So I went to the house for a candle, and when I came back the woman who had sent me was holding a red hollering baby upside down by its feet, and, the other woman was milking Fairybell. I helped them wash the baby in the warm milk and wrap it in a scarf. Then one of the old women took my hand and said:
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● 本段乃Dolly自叙秘方之由来。
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