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现代英文选评注 The Jersey Heifer杰西牛
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Peggy Harding Love (1920— )
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本文选自1951年的《奥·亨利奖金得奖小说集》。该集共收短篇小说二十四篇，颇多名家作品，福克纳、韦尔蒂为其尤著者。（据该书编者Herschel Brickell于序文中云：“It seems to the editor that Miss Welty and Mr. Faulkner are incomparably the present American masters of the short story.”这两位“大师”已经介绍。）本文作者潘琪·洛芙为一女作家，作品不多。本文借一小牛的故事，道出人生真谛，文笔清新，含意深远，的是佳作，入选并非偶然。
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In October the cows went apple-crazy. The sweet, sun-warmed apple smell drifted from the orchard, tempting them unbearably; and by afternoon one or the other—the heifer usually, she was the mischief-maker—would have nudged down a rail from the old fence around the pasture. Once, only once, young Phoebe Matthews looked out the kitchen window and caught them in the act, but the picture stayed forever in her mind, an image of transcendent innocence and freedom. Leaping negligently, her hoofs tucked up delicately, the Jersey heifer went over the lower rails like a deer, and close behind, clumsy but with drooling haste, Daisy, the three-year-old Guernsey stepped clumsily out.
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● apple-crazy：此字乃作者杜撰，意为“苹果狂”，想苹果想痴了。went= became。
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● sweet和sun-warmed 两字均形容smell。drifted：飘（来）。orchard：果园。tempting：引诱。unbearably：（引诱力极大）无法忍受。
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● one or the other：不是这头，就是那头。这就表示只有两头牛。两头牛中，一头是杰西（Jersey）种的小牛（heifer：尚未生育之小母牛，本文中之heifer，跳踉活泼，顽皮好弄，尚不失幼犊本色），一头是根西（Guernsey）种的母牛，名叫“雏菊”（Daisy）。杰西、根西均为英伦海峡中英属岛屿，两地所产牛，以乳汁丰富著称于世。
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● She was the mischief-maker：祸都是她惹的；捣蛋鬼是她。
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● nudged：拱（以鼻部轻推）。rail：杠（栏干上的横条）。fence：栅栏。pasture：牧场放牛之地。本句之would表示“习惯”；have nudged表示“已经”：到了下午，她们常常已经推倒了栅栏上的一根横条（逃了出去）。
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● caught them in the act：当场查获。不是真的去把它们捉住，只是“发现”而已。act指它们逃出这件事。
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● picture和image指的是一件事：即书中主角Phoebe在厨房窗口所看见的景象。transcendent：超越一切的。innocence：天真。苹果甘香诱人，两牛越藩篱，弃牧场，奔走前往，她们这一个举动，有一次给女主人看见了。这是一幅图画，一幅洒落超脱、天真自由的图画。看见一次之后，Phoebe再也不会忘了。
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● 末句就是这幅“图画”具体的描写。小牛把蹄（hoofs）缩起（tucked up），姿态轻盈（delicately），随随便便（negligently），一跃而过，犹如小鹿一般。栅栏上每段本有横木数条，今某一段顶上一条已被推落，高度已减，小牛自可跃过。大牛行动颟顸（clumsy），紧随小牛之后，举步跨出，然而迫不及待，唾液满口（drooling）矣。
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They trotted eagerly along the quiet dirt lane, turning their heads from side to side; and later, near milking time, Phoebe and Joe, her husband, had come upon them drunk with bliss in the long grass of the orchard. Each time they were discovered there, the cows stood perfectly still, their red and tawny coats bright against the blue sky, their soft, wide eyes looking out innocently among the apple branches. Long threads of saliva trailed from their velvety muzzles and glistened in the late sunlight, and under their hoofs the crushed and rotting apples gave off a heady fragrance.
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● trotted：急走。lane：乡间小路。dirt：灰土，路面未经铺修者。milking：挤牛奶。
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● come upon：发现，撞上。drunk：陶醉。bliss=great happiness。
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● tawny：褐黄色。their…coats (being) bright against the blue sky和their…eyes looking…都是nominative absolute phrases。
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● saliva：唾液。threads：细线。muzzles：（兽之）口鼻突出部分。velvety：色泽光洁如丝绒者。heady：醉人的。树上苹果，甘香四播，苹果成熟而落地者，香更浓郁，中人欲醉。双牛呆立林际，蹄践芳香，口水直流，如醉如痴。
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● crushed：踏碎的。rotting：溃烂的。
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Always at the sight of them there Phoebe’s heart leaped in delight. But Joe would drive them back to the pasture with a slow-moving, gentle stubbornness that matched their own. “Apples cut down Daisy’s milk,” he told Phoebe firmly. “I’ve got to wire that fence.”
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● 双牛陶醉于苹果香味之中，女主人见了，如有同感，心里也喜欢得跳起来了。
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● 第二句之would强调“意志”，有“坚欲”之意。stubbornness：倔强精神。双牛坚不肯走，是为倔强；男主人非驱其归不可，亦是倔强。可是倔强而不暴烈，双方的倔强，都是和（gentle）缓（slow-moving）的一种。男主人这种“牛劲”，可与双牛的相比（matched）。
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● cut down：减少（产量）。wire当名词是“铁丝”（或别种金属线），此处是动词，解作“张以铁丝”。
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● I’ve got to=I have to：我非这么做不可。
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“Let them go,” Phoebe pleaded, begging as earnestly as for herself, “let them have a little freedom.”
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“Well,” Joe said, musing, “well,” and looked off over the fields that were so newly theirs. “The apples will be picked pretty soon now anyway,” he said.
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