Erskine Caldwell (1903—1987)
欧司金·考特威尔生于美国乔治亚州。他是美国当代大小说家之一，曾与海明威、福克纳、司坦培克等齐名，描写美国南部（尤其是乔治亚州）贫穷没落的农村生活，最擅胜场。
这里所选的一篇短篇小说，篇幅无多，文字十分简单，几乎无需注解。然而其深刻动人之处，却耐人寻味。其描写结构都值得我国短篇小说作家的参考。
本文采自The Pocket Book of Erskine Caldwell Stories。
They came slowly up the road through the colorless dawn like shadows left behind by the night. There was no motion in their bodies, and yet their feet scuffed up dust that settled behind them as quickly as it was raised. They lifted their eyes with each step they took, peering toward the horizon for the first red rays of the sun.
● 第一段点出小说的时间和地点。时间是黑夜已过，旭日未升，地点是公路上。人物只是模模糊糊的They。有多少人呢？是些什么人呢？这里尚未说明，但标题是“男与女”，我们可以暂且假定是一男一女。他们的身形我们还看不清楚，他们只是像“黑夜所遗留下来的影子”。他们的动作我们也看不见，只是他们的脚步拖起（scuffed up）了灰尘，脚步步步向前，灰尘也在他们身后旋起旋落（settled）。
● scuffed本是不及物动词，解作“拖着脚步走路”，这里是及物动词。peering：眯着眼睛看。
● 描写文最难运用的是形容词，以及由形容词转化出来的副词。本文形容词用得很少，都很简单。这一段里可以说只有两个形容词是用作描写的，一个是colorless (dawn)，一个是red (rays)，都很传神而有力量。描写黎明景色，中英文都有很多滥调，如“天空露出鱼肚白色”，“美丽的朝霞”等，这种美丽的字眼，比之本文的两个简单的形容词，到底哪一种更为妥贴，哪一种更能显出作者炼字的功夫，请读者自己下判断吧。同样的，slowly是个很简单的副词，但这里用这么一个字也够了，作者可说是惜墨如金也。slowly前面的came，是从读者的立场而言：假定读者看他们往前走“来”。用了went，就变成愈走愈远，came则表示愈走愈近。
The woman held her lower lip clamped tightly between her teeth. It hurt her to do that, but it was the only way she could urge herself forward step after step. There was no other way to drag her feet one behind the other, mile after mile. She whimpered occasionally, but she did not cry out.
"It's time to stop and rest again," Ring said.
She did not answer him.
They kept on.
● The woman：我们猜想一男一女在赶路，果然有一个女人，我们大约是猜对了。（下文Ring said，Ring是那男人的名字。）clamp：作名词用，解作“螺钉夹”；作动词用，解作“像螺丝钉那样地夹着”。这里是过去分词，作形容词用。
● It hurt her：她并不觉得好受。可是她已筋疲力尽，非咬紧牙关，无法再继续前进，咬痛嘴唇，在所不惜了。
● one behind the other=one foot behind the other foot。
● mile after mile：天没亮就在赶路，可能是他们刚刚出门，但是由这一段文章看来，他们已经赶了不少路了。
● whimpered：低声呜咽。
At the top of the hill, they came face to face with the sun. It was a quarter of the way up, cut like a knife by the treeless horizon. Down below them was a valley lying under a cover of mist that was rising slowly from the earth. They could see several houses and farms, but most of them were so far away they were almost indistinguishable in the mist. There was smoke rising from the chimney of the first house.
● 第一段第一句里说slowly up the road，看到这里，我们知道他们原来是在登山。
● a quarter of the way up：太阳尚未全部露面，只有四分之一升在地平线上。地平线上没有树，太阳好像被刀切似的。脚下有谷，谷中雾气冉冉上升，把山谷盖了起来。
● so far away：后面照语法规矩应接that一字，但近代作家有把这个that省掉的。indistinguishable：房屋农田在雾中看不清楚。
● smoke：景物朦胧，单提出“炊烟”一事，引起下面文章。the first house：最接近他们的那座房屋。
Ruth looked at the man beside her. The red rays of the sun began to color his pale face like blood. But still his eyes were tired and lifeless. He looked as if he were balancing himself on his two feet with great effort, and as if the next moment he might lose his balance and fall to the ground.
● 女人的名字叫做Ruth，在这里点出。
● color是动词不定式：着色，初升的阳光，把男人苍白的脸照得血红。
● balancing himself：费了好大的劲，两条腿才站得稳。lose his balance：失掉平稳，脚站不住。the next moment：现在虽然勉强站稳，但是似乎一不小心，随时都可以倒下地去。
"We'll be able to get a little something to eat at that first house," she said, waiting minute after minute for him to reply.
"We'll get something there," she said, answering for him, "We will."
● 上一段已经描写那男人面色苍白，双目无神，步履不稳，这一段里他连口都不开了。女人提议到前面那家人家去讨些东西吃。她等了好久（minute after minute），男人默不作声。最后还是女人自己替他回答（answering for him）。
● We will：我们“一定”讨得到东西的。这个will应该重读（有些语法家主张这里应该用shall的）。
The sun came up above the horizon, fast and red. Streaks of gray clouds, like layers of wood smoke, swam across the face of it. Almost as quickly as it had risen, the sun shrank into a small fiery button that seared the eyes until it was impossible to look at it any longer.
● streaks：丝，条。layers：层。wood smoke：柴木的烟。shrank：缩小。太阳升离地平线以后，很快地就显得缩小了，现在看上去只像是一颗“火一般的小钮子”。seared：炙伤。until：这一个字表示他们两人一直在看着太阳，刚才那个男的不理会女人的说话，大约是看太阳看得出神了，但是现在阳光炽烈，他们不能再看了。
"Let's try, anyway," Ruth said.
Ring looked at her in the clear daylight, seeing her for the first time since the sun had set the night before. Her face was paler, her cheeks more sunken.
● anyway：不管怎样。
● Ring不看太阳，望望他身边的女人。since the sun had set：昨晚日落以后，他还没有仔细看过那女人的脸。可能他们两人已经赶了一夜的路——可是为什么呢？他们要往哪儿去呢？这是个闷葫芦，作者故弄玄虚，要到最后方始把谜底揭穿。读者的兴趣已被引起，非往下读不可，这也是小说家的手法。
Without words, he started forward down the hill. He did not turn his head to see if she was following him, but went down the road drawing one foot from behind and hurling it in front of him with all his might. There was no other way he could move himself over the ground.
● 男人还是不说话，恐怕是疲惫已极。
● 他一直往前走，也不回头看看女的是不是在后面跟着。他走起路来，用全力（with all his might）把后脚拖过来，再用力踏到前面去。hurling原意是“投”或“掷”，他的脚步跨出去要用这么大的劲，其步履之不稳可想而知。
● way：方法。不用这么大的劲，他是没法往前走了。
He had stopped at the front of the house, looking at the smoke that floated overhead, when she caught up with him at last.
"I'll go in and try," she said. "You sit down and rest, Ring."
● 作者对于这一男一女的描写，很是经济，他们的服饰、籍贯、身材、年龄等，一概置之不理，他只是强调他们的疲乏和衰弱，还有一点就是他们的视线。他们看太阳，互相看对方的苍白的脸，看山谷下的田庄民房，现在男的又在看飘在头顶上的炊烟——想必是十分饥饿了吧？
● caught up with：追上。at last：男的走路已如此费力，可是女的走路还要慢，好容易才把他追上。
He opened his mouth to say something, but his throat became choked and no words came. He looked at the house, with its worn doorstep and curtain-filled windows and its smoke-filled chimney, and he did not feel like a stranger in a strange country as long as he kept his eyes upon those things.
● 这一段又是描写那男人的视觉，他的情感也轻轻地提了一笔。
● choked（过去分词）：塞住。
● doorstep：台阶；worn：磨旧了的。curtain-filled：窗帘拉满的。
● 这些东西使他联想起自己的家，他的眼睛老看着这些东西，他就不觉得是“身在异乡为异客”了。
Ruth went through the gate, and around the side of the house, and stopped at the kitchen door. She looked behind her and saw Ring coming across the yard from the road.
Someone was watching them from behind a curtain at the window.
● gate：园门，和屋子不相联属的。kitchen door：厨房门，后门。
● Someone：本文的第三个人物，可是此人的态度是猜疑的、不友善的、慢客的，此人只是在窗帘后面窥望。那一男一女看见这种举动，怎么会不觉得自己是a stranger in a strange country呢？
"Knock," Ring said.
She placed the knuckles of her right hand against the side of the house and rapped on the clapboards until her hand began to hurt.
She turned around and glanced quickly at Ring, and he nodded his head.
● knuckles：手指骨节。rapped：拍击。clapboards：木屋墙上的横条木板。（此字的p不发音，第一音节重读，第二音节的母音轻音。）hurt：觉得痛。
● She turned around：他们两人一起赶路，互相关切，女的打门的时候还要转过头来看男的，男的颔首赞可。作者对于这种小地方不肯错过。
Presently the kitchen door opened a few inches and a woman's head could be seen through the crack. She was middle-aged and brown-faced and had a scar on her forehead.
"Go away," she told them.
● Presently：不久。crack：缝。scar：疤痕。
● Go away：疲乏的旅人受到逐客令。作者尽量避免情感的描写，可是读者自然而然地对于小说中一男一女的命运发生关切之感。屋中人的态度想必很不客气，这里短短两个字，不借任何描写，已使读者如闻其声，如见其人了。
"We won't bother you," Ruth said as quickly as she could. "All we wanted was to ask you if you could give us a little something to eat. Just a potato, if you have any, or bread, or something."
"I don't know what you are doing here," the woman said. "I don't like to have strange people around my house."
She almost closed the door, but in a moment the crack widened, and her face could be seen once more.
"I'll feed the girl," she said finally, "but I can't let the man have anything. I don't have enough for both of you, anyway."
● bother you：麻烦你。
● All we wanted：我们所需要的（不过是）。这句话的动词都用过去式，表示她拍墙叫门时候所需要的是什么东西。
● I can't let the man have anything：单身男女清晨在山野间赶路，是惹人疑心的，屋中人不肯施舍给那男的，不是没有道理。又从I'll feed the girl一句看来，那个女人年龄想必很轻。
Ruth turned quickly around, her heels digging into the sandy earth. She looked at Ring. He nodded his head eagerly.
He could see the word forming on her lips even though he could not hear it. She shook her head.
Ring went several steps toward her.
"We'll try somewhere else," she said.
"No," he said. "You go in and eat what she'll give you. I'll try the next house we come to."
She still did not wish to go into the house without him. The woman opened the door a foot or more, and waited for her to come up the steps.
Ring sat down on a bench under a tree.
"I'm going to sit here and wait until you go in and get something to eat for yourself," he said.
● digging：转身时脚后跟（heels）在沙土上钻了一下。
● the word：大约是“no”字。forming on her lips：嘴唇已经圆起来，预备说这个字了。She shook her head：又是简单的叙述，可是包含很深的情感：何忍自己得食，而见那男人被摈诸门外呢？她预备到别家人家去试试。
● opened the door a foot or more：呼应前面的opened a few inches。
Ruth went up the steps slowly to the porch and entered the door. When she was inside, the woman pointed out a chair by a table, and Ruth sat down.
There were potatoes, warmed over from the night before, and cold biscuits. These were put on the table in front of her, and then the woman poured a cup of hot coffee and set it beside the plate.
● steps：台阶。porch：门的入口处，上面通常有屋檐盖住。
● warmed over：昨夜所煮的马铃薯，早晨再热一次。
Ruth began to eat as quickly as she could, sipping the hot black coffee and chewing the potatoes and bread while the brown-faced woman stood behind her at the door, where she could watch Ring and her by turns.
Twice Ruth managed to slip pieces of bread into her blouse, and finally she got half a potato into the pocket of her skirt. The woman eyed her suspiciously when she was not watching Ring in the yard outside.
● sipping：啜饮。bread：即上文提到的biscuits（软饼，非英国式的饼干）。
● watch：监视。by turns：轮流的；一下子看着屋内的女人，一下子看着屋外的男人。
● managed：设法。slip：滑下去；轻轻地放进去，由面包自动落下。blouse：女装的上衣，腰间有带拴住，东西放在里面，不会掉出来的。skirt：裙子。blouse和skirt是西洋女子普通的服装。这个女人的服装本文开始时并未描写，这里假如她不演出一幕“陆郎怀桔”的故事，作者恐怕仍旧要略而不提的。
● eyed这个字当动词用，有“监视”或“冷眼旁观”的意思。suspiciously：猜疑地，用猜疑的眼光。
"Going far?" the woman asked.
"Yes," Ruth answered.
"Come far?" the woman asked.
"Yes," Ruth said.
"Who is that man with you?"
"He's my husband," Ruth told her.
The woman looked out into the yard again, then back at Ruth. She did not say anything more for a while.
● 很简洁的一段对白。可是屋主人的猜疑，乞食女人的无意对答，已活跃纸上。如多用文字描写，恐怕反而要减少这场面的紧张和尴尬了。
● 本文一开始就描写那一男一女的视线，现在这几段所着力描写的也是那屋主人的眼光；她来回地看那一男一女。
Ruth tried to put another piece of potato into her skirt pocket, but by then the women was watching her more closely than ever.
"I don't believe he is your husband," the woman said.
"Well," Ruth answered, "he is."
"I wouldn't call him much of a husband to let you walk through the country begging food like you did just a little while ago."
"He's been sick," Ruth said quickly, turning in the chair to face the woman. "He was sick in bed for five weeks before we started out."
"Why didn't you stay where you were, instead of making tramps out of yourselves? Can't he hold a job, or don't he want to work?"
● by then的by=at or before (a specified limit)。by now与by then的用法很常见，now或then在这里是名词，作宾语用。单用then，只表示“那时”，by then有双重意思：“在那个时候”，或者“甚至在那个时候以前”。Ruth又要伸手偷马铃薯，可是“到了那个时候”，屋主人监视得更严了。
● I wouldn't call比I will not call客气，用了would（虚拟式），态度比较多保留、少武断。much of a husband：够得上做丈夫。to let作形容词用，大约是形容him。做丈夫的让妻子在山野间走路，登门乞食，还算得上是丈夫吗？
● like应作as。英美人教育程度不够的，说起话来，常用like代替as。did即walked through the country begging food。
● turning in the chair to face the woman：那个女人本来又饥又倦，又要想法偷藏食物，无意多说话。可是现在那男的受到诬蔑，她不得不严辞辩驳，因此她的话说得快了，身子也转过来了，脸也冲着那个多疑的主人了。虽然没有用indignantly这类的字，其神情已可想而见。
● stay where you were：相当于“留住在家乡”，但是“以前所住的地方”不一定就是“家乡”——你们为什么不留住在你们的老地方呢？
● tramps：流浪人。making tramps out of yourselves：把自己化为流浪人。instead of普通英汉字典解作“代替”，但是这一个“介词短语”的意义很多，在这里的意思，约相当于你们为什么“反而要”出来流浪呢？
● hold a job：守住一项职业，保持饭碗。don't：按照语法规矩，应该说doesn't的。
Ruth got up, dropping the bread in her hand.
"Thank you for the breakfast," she said. "I am going now."
"If you take my advice," the woman said, "you'll leave that man the first chance you get. If he won't take a job, you'll be a fool…."
"He had a job, but he got sick with a kind of fever."
"I don't believe you. I'd put you down for lying about him."
● dropping the bread in her hand：Ruth想必是不愿再听那人唠唠叨叨的话，站了起来，拿在手里的面包也掉了下来，（本来也许还想多吃一点呢）。
● you'll leave that man the first chance you get：一有机会，就同那个男人分手。the first chance是副词短语，you get是定语从句，形容chance。
● If he won't take a job：屋主人一口咬定那个男人是游手好闲之徒。
● fever：发烧。那个男人的脸容苍白，步履维艰，前文已一再言之，其故为何，现在要逐步地揭穿了。
● I'd=I would; put down=reckon（认为）。我可要认为你是在替他撒谎。
Ruth went to the door, opened it herself, and went outside. She turned around on the porch and looked at the woman who had given her something to eat.
"If he was sick in bed, like you said," the woman asked, following her past the door, "why did he get up and start tramping like this with nothing for you and him to eat?"
● opened it herself：来不及等人家来替她开门了。
● turned around…and looked at her：既然她想赶快夺门而出，不愿再多停留，为什么又要转过身来，岂是言有未尽吗？
● like you said应作as you said。屋主人还要追出来，问这么一句话。这个闷葫芦非打破不可，套一句金圣叹批《水浒》的笔法：“我亦欲问”。
Ruth saw Ring sitting on the bench under the tree, and she was not going to answer the woman, but she could not keep from saying something.
"The reason we started out walking like this was because my sister wrote and told me that our baby had died. When my husband first got sick, I sent the baby to my sister's. Now we're going to see the grave where she's buried."
● not going to answer the woman：那个男的想必是不堪饥饿了，何况他们赶路要紧，那种唠唠叨叨的话何必置答，但是话到嘴边，不说又不能（could not keep from…）。
● we started out walking like this为名词性从句，前面省掉一个连接词why。
● to my sister's=to my sister's house。这种用法很常见，如“在王先生家里”，英文单说“at Mr. Wang's”即可。
● 这一男一女有这么一段悲惨的经历，可是作者描写时仍旧不带半点情感，文字简单之至，“赤裸裸”的事实就有感动人的力量，何必多说伤感的话呢？
● where she's buried：照一般习惯，baby的代名词可用it，但是那是不知婴孩是男是女时才用。身为父母者，一定知道自己的孩子是男是女的，所以这里仍用she。
She ran down the steps and walked across the yard as rapidly as she could. When she reached the corner of the house, Ring got up and followed her to the road. Neither of them said anything, but she could not keep from looking back at the house, where the woman was watching them through the crack in the door.
After they had gone a hundred feet or more, Ruth unfastened her blouse and pulled out the pieces of bread she had carried there. Ring took them from her without a word. When he had eaten all there was, she gave him the potato. He ate it hungrily, talking to her with his eyes while he chewed and swallowed.
● through the crack in the door：从门板的裂缝里（张望）。
● unfastened：解开，打开。走了一百多尺之后，屋中人应该看不见他们的行动了，她才把“私货”拿出来。
● all there was的there was是定语从句，关系代名词that省掉：所有的东西，私藏面包的全部。potato：那是藏在裙子口袋里的。
● talking to her with his eyes：用眼睛说话，嘴是忙不过来了。hungrily：很传神的副词，可解作“狼吞虎咽状地”。
They had walked for nearly half an hour before either of them spoke again.
"She was a mean old woman," Ruth said. "If it hadn't been for that food, I'd have got up and left before I ate what she gave me."
Ring did not say anything for a long time.
Ruth choked back a sob.
"How much farther is it, Ring?"
"About thirty or forty miles."
"Will we get there tomorrow?"
He shook his head.
"The day after?"
"I don't know."
● mean原意为“卑鄙，小气”，这里可解作“可恶”。
● I'd=I would。
● choked back a sob：想哭出来，可是用力忍住了。
"Maybe if we get a ride, we might get there tonight?" she asked, unable to hold back any longer the sobs that choked her throat and breast.
"Yes," he said. "If we could get a ride, we would get there a lot sooner."
He turned his head and glanced down the road behind them, but there was nothing in sight. Then he looked down at the ground he was walking on, counting the steps he took with his right foot, and then his left.
● get a ride：有车子坐。
● choked：此字与上段的choked意义略有不同。这里解作“塞住”。
● glanced down the road behind them：看看后面有没有车子来，可以顺便搭乘的。
● he was walking on：定语从句。counting the steps：二人重上征程。长途漫漫，这样一步一步地数着走，哪一天才走得到呢？