4.Spring Sowing(2481)

Passage Four

Liam O'Flaherty (1896-1984) was born in Ireland. He wrote in English and Irish. His main works included the novels Thy Neighbour s Wife, The Black Soul, and The Informer which was made into a film of the same name. He also published some short story collections. The present text is taken from The Treasury of English Short Stories edited by Nancy Sullivan and published in New York in 1985.

利亚姆·奥弗莱厄蒂(1896-1984)出生于爱尔兰。他用英语和爱尔兰语写作。他的主要作品包括小说《邻居的妻子》、《黑灵魂》和被拍成同名电影的《告密者》。他还出版了一些短篇小说集。本文摘自《英语短篇故事集》，由南希·沙利文编辑，1985年在纽约出版。

Spring Sowing

Liam O'Flaherty

【1】It was still dark when Martin Delaney and his wife Mary got up. Martin stood in his shirt by the window, rubbing his eyes and yawning, while Mary raked out the live coals that had lain hidden in the ashes on the hearth all night. Outside, cocks were crowing and a white streak was rising from the ground, as it were, and beginning to scatter the darkness. It was a February morning, dry, cold, and starry.

【2】The couple sat down to their breakfast of tea, bread, and butter, in silence. They had only been married the previous autumn, and it was hateful leaving a warm bed at such an early hour.

【3】Martin, with his brown hair and eyes, his freckled face, and his little fair moustache, looked too young to be married, and his wife looked hardly more than a girl, red-cheeked and blue-eyed, her black hair piled at the rear of her head with a large comb gleaming in the middle of the pile, Spanish fashion. They were both dressed in rough homespuns, and both wore the loose white shirt that Inverara peasants use for work in the fields.

【4】They ate in silence, sleepy and bad-humored, and yet on fire with excitement, for it was the first day of their first spring sowing as man and wife. And each felt the glamour of that day on which they were to open up the earth together and plant seeds in it.

【5】But somehow the imminence of an event that had been long expected, loved, feared, and prepared for made them dejected. Mary, with her shrewd woman's mind, thought of as many things as there are in life as a woman would in the first joy and anxiety of her mating. But Martin's mind was fixed on one thought. Would he be able to prove himself a man worthy of being the head of a family by doing his spring sowing well?

【6】In the barn after breakfast, when they were getting the potato seeds and the line for measuring the ground and the spade, Martin fell over a basket in the half-darkness of the barn. He swore and said that a man would be better off dead than... But before he could finish whatever he was going to say, Mary had her arms around his waist and her face to his. "Martin," she said, "let us not begin this day cross with one another."

【7】And there was a tremor in her voice. And somehow, as they embraced, all their irritation and sleepiness left them. And they stood there embracing until at last Martin pushed her from him with pretended roughness and said: "Come, come, girl, it will be sunset before we begin at this rate."

【8】Still, as they walked silently in their rawhide shoes through the little hamlet, there was not a soul about. Lights were glimmering in the windows of a few cabins. The sky had a big grey crack in it in the east, as if it were going to burst in order to give birth to the sun. Birds were singing somewhere at a distance.

【9】Martin and Mary rested their baskets of seeds on a fence outside the village and Martin whispered to Mary proudly: "We are first, Mary." And they both looked back at the little cluster of cabins that was the centre of their world, with throbbing hearts. For the joy of spring had now taken complete hold of them.

【10】They reached the little field where they were to sow. It was a little triangular patch of ground under an ivy-covered limestone hill. The little field had been manured with seaweed some weeks before, and the weeds had rotted and whitened on the grass.

【11】And there was a big red heap of fresh seaweed lying in a corner by the fence to be spread under the seeds as they were laid. Martin, in spite of the cold, threw off everything above his waist except his striped woolen shirt. Then he spat on his hands, seized his spade, and cried: "Now you are going to see what kind of a man you have, Mary."

【12】"There, now," said Mary, tying a little shawl closer under her chin. "Aren't we boastful this early hour of the morning? Maybe I'll wait till sunset to see what kind of a man I have got." The work began. Martin measured the ground by the southern fence for the first ridge, a strip of ground four feet wide, and he placed the line along the edge and pegged it at each end.

【13】Then he spread fresh seaweed over the strip. Mary filled her apron with seeds and began to lay them in rows. When she was a little distance down the ridge, Martin advanced with his spade to the head, eager to commence. "Now in the name of God," he cried, spitting on his palms, "let us raise the first sod!"

【14】"Oh, Martin, wait till I'm with you!" cried Mary, dropping her seeds on the ridge and running up to him. Her fingers outside her woolen mittens were numb with the cold, and she couldn't wipe them in her apron. Her cheeks seemed to be on fire. She put an arm round Martin's waist and stood looking at the green sod his spade was going to cut, with the excitement of a little child.

【15】"Now for God's sake, girl, keep back!" said Martin gruffly. "Suppose anybody saw us like this in the field of our spring sowing, what would they take us for but a pair of useless, soft, empty-headed people that would be sure to die of hunger? Huh!" He spoke very rapidly, and his eyes were fixed on the ground before him.

【16】His eyes had a wild, eager light in them as if some primeval impulse were burning within his brain and driving out every other desire but that of asserting his manhood and of subjugating the earth. "Oh, what do we care who is looking?" said Mary; but she drew back at the same time and gazed distantly at the ground. Then Martin cut the sod, and pressing the spade deep into the earth with his foot, he turned up the first sod with a crunching sound as the grass roots were dragged out of the earth.

【17】Mary sighed and walked back hurriedly to her seeds with furrowed brows. She picked up her seeds and began to spread them rapidly to drive out the sudden terror that had seized her at that moment when she saw the fierce, hard look in her husband's eyes that were unconscious of her presence. She became suddenly afraid of that pitiless, cruel earth, the peasant's slave master that would keep her chained to hard work and poverty all her life until she would sink again into its bosom. Her short-lived love was gone.

【18】Henceforth she was only her husband's helper to till the earth. And Martin, absolutely without thought, worked furiously, covering the ridge with block earth, his sharp spade gleaming white as he whirled it sideways to beat the sods. Then, as the sun rose, the little valley beneath the ivy-covered hills became dotted with white shirts, and everywhere men worked madly, without speaking, and women spread seeds.

【19】There was no heat in the light of the sun, and there was a sharpness in the still thin air that made the men jump on their spade halts ferociously and beat the sods as if they were living enemies. Birds hopped silently before the spades, with their heads cocked sideways, watching for worms. Made brave by hunger, they often dashed under the spades to secure their food.

【20】Then, when the sun reached a certain point, all the women went back to the village to get dinner for their men, and the men worked on without stopping. Then the women returned, almost running, each carrying a tin can with a flannel tied around it and a little bundle tied with a white cloth. Martin threw down his spade when Mary arrived back in the field. Smiling at one another they sat under the hill for their meal. It was the same as their breakfast, tea and bread and butter.

【21】"Ah," said Martin, when he had taken a long draught of tea from his mug, "is there anything in this world as fine as eating dinner out in the open like this after doing a good morning's work? There, I have done two ridges and a half. That's more than any man in the village could do. Ha!" And he looked at his wife proudly. "Yes, isn't it lovely," said Mary, looking at the black ridges wistfully. She was just munching her bread and butter. The hurried trip to the village and the trouble of getting the tea ready had robbed her of her appetite. She had to keep blowing at the turf fire with the rim of her skirt, and the smoke nearly blinded her.

【22】But now, sitting on that grassy knoll, with the valley all round glistening with fresh seaweed and a light smoke rising from the freshly turned earth, a strange joy swept over her. It overpowered that other feeling of dread that had been with her during the morning. Martin ate heartily, reveling in his great thirst and his great hunger, with every pore of his body open to the pure air. And he looked around at his neighbors' fields boastfully, comparing them with his own. Then he looked at his wife's little round black head and felt very proud of having her as his own.

【23】He leaned back on his elbow and took her hand in his. Shyly and in silence, not knowing what to say and ashamed of their gentle feelings, they finished eating and still sat hand in hand looking away into the distance. Everywhere, the sowers were resting on little knolls, men, women, and children sitting in silence. And the great calm of nature in spring filled the atmosphere around them. Everything seemed to sit still and wait until midday had passed. Only the gleaming sun chased westwards at a mighty pace, in and out through white clouds.

【24】Then, in a distant field, an old man got up, took his spade, and began to clean the earth from it with a piece of stone. The rasping noise carried a long way in the silence. That was the signal for a general rising all along the little valley. Young men stretched themselves and yawned. They walked slowly back to their ridges. Martin's back and his wrists were getting sore, and Mary felt that if she stooped again over her seeds her neck would break, but neither said anything, and soon they had forgotten their tiredness in the mechanical movement of their bodies. The strong smell of the upturned earth acted like a drug on their nerves.

【25】In the afternoon, when the sun was strongest, the old men of the village came out to look at their people sowing. Martin’s grandfather, almost bent double over his thick stick, stopped in the land outside the field and groaning loudly, he leaned over the fence. "God bless the work," he called wheezily. 

"And you, grandfather," replied the couple together, but they did not stop working.

"Ha!" muttered the old man to himself, "He sows well, and that woman is good, too. They are beginning well."

【26】It was fifty years since he had begun with his Mary, full of hope and pride, and the merciless soil had hugged them to its bosom ever since, each spring without rest. Today, the old man, with his huge red nose and the spotted handkerchief tied around his skull under his black soft felt hat, watched his grandson work and gave him advice.

【27】"Don't cut your sods so long," he would wheeze, "you are putting too much soil on your ridge."

"Ah, woman! Don't plant a seed so near the edge. The stalk will come out sideways."

And they paid no heed to him.

"Ah," grumbled the old man, "in my young days, when men worked from morning till night without tasting food, better work was done.

【28】But of course, it can't be expected to be the same now. The breed is getting weaker. So it is." Then he began to cough in his chest and hobbled away to another field where his son Michael was working. By sundown, Martin had five ridges finished. He threw down his spade and stretched himself. All his bones ached, and he wanted to lie down and rest. "It's time to be going home, Mary," he said.

【29】Mary straightened herself, but she was too tired to reply. She looked at Martin wearily and it seemed to her that it was a great many years since they had set out that morning. Then she thought of the journey home and the trouble of feeding the pigs, putting the fowls into their coops, and getting the supper ready, and a momentary flash of rebellion against the slavery of being a peasant's wife crossed her mind. It passed in a moment.

【30】Martin was saying, as he dressed himself: "Ha! It has been a good day's work. Five ridges done, and each one of them as straight as a steel rod. By God, Mary, it's no boasting to say that you might well be proud of being the wife of Martin Delaney. And that's not saying the whole of it, my girl. You did your share better than any woman in Inverara could do it this blessed day."

【31】They stood for a few moments in silence, looking at the work they had done. All her dissatisfaction and weariness vanished from Mary's mind with the delicious feeling of comfort that overcame her at having done this work with her husband. They had done it together. They had planted seeds in the earth. The next day and the next and all their lives, when spring came, they would have to bend their backs and do it until their hands and bones got twisted with rheumatism.

【32】But night would always bring sleep and forgetfulness. As they walked home slowly, Martin walked in front with another peasant talking about the sowing, and Mary walked behind, with her eyes on the ground, thinking. Cows were lowing at a distance.

第四课

春天播种

利亚姆·奥弗莱厄蒂

【1】马丁·德莱尼和他的妻子玛丽起床时天还没亮。马丁穿着衬衫站在窗边，揉着眼睛，打着呵欠，玛丽则把藏在炉灰里一整夜的活煤耙出来。外面，公鸡在啼叫，一道白色的条纹从地面升起，似乎开始驱散黑暗。那是二月的一个早晨，干燥、寒冷，满天星斗。

【2】这对夫妇默默地坐下来吃早餐，有茶、面包和黄油。他们去年秋天才结了婚，这么早就离开温暖的被窝，真让人讨厌。

【3】马丁的头发和眼睛都是棕色的，脸上长着雀斑，留着金黄色的小胡子，看上去太年轻了，不适合结婚，而他的妻子看上去也不过是个姑娘，红脸颊，蓝眼睛，黑头发堆在脑后，梳中间有一把闪闪发光的大梳子，那是西班牙的式样。他们都穿着粗糙的土布衣服，都穿着因弗拉拉农民在地里干活时穿的宽松的白衬衫。

【4】他们默默地吃着，昏昏欲睡，心情不好，但却兴奋不已，因为这是他们结婚后播种的第一天。每个人都感受到了这一天的魅力，在这一天，他们将一起打开土地，在其中播种。

【5】但不知怎的，一件他们期待、热爱、恐惧、准备已久的事情即将到来，却让他们感到沮丧。玛丽有一个精明的女人的头脑，她想到了生活中的许多事情，就像一个女人第一次结婚时的喜悦和焦虑一样。但是马丁的脑子里只有一个念头。他能通过做好春播来证明自己是当之无愧的一家之主吗?

【6】早饭后，在谷仓里，当他们去拿土豆种子、测量土地的绳子和铁锹时，马丁在半明半暗的谷仓里被一个篮子绊倒了。他发誓说，一个人死了还不如……但他还没来得及说完，玛丽就用双臂搂住了他的腰，脸对着他。“马丁，”她说，“今天我们不要互相生气了。”

【7】她的声音有些颤抖。不知怎么的，当他们拥抱的时候，所有的烦躁和困倦都消失了。他们站在那里拥抱着，最后马丁装出一副粗鲁的样子把她推开，说:“来吧，来吧，姑娘，照这样下去，太阳就要落山了。”

【8】然而，当他们穿着生皮鞋静静地穿过小村庄时，周围一个人影也没有。几间小木屋的窗户上闪烁着灯光。东方的天空出现了一条灰色的大裂缝，好像要裂开，太阳就出来了。鸟儿在远处某处歌唱。

【9】马丁和玛丽把他们的种子篮子放在村外的篱笆上，马丁骄傲地小声对玛丽说:“我们是第一名，玛丽。”他们俩都回头望着那一间间小木屋，心里怦怦直跳，那是他们的世界的中心。因为春天的喜悦已经完全占据了他们的心。

【10】他们到达了要播种的那一小块地。那是一块三角形的小块地，在一座爬满常春藤的石灰岩山下。几个星期前，这一小块地已经用海藻施肥了，杂草已经在草地上腐烂变白了。

【11】篱笆旁的一个角落里有一大堆红色的新鲜海藻，当种子被播种时，它们就被铺在种子下面。马丁不顾寒冷，脱掉了腰部以上的所有衣服，只剩下一件条纹羊毛衬衫。然后他往手上吐了口唾沫，抓起铲子，喊道:“现在你将看到你拥有的是一个什么样的男人，玛丽。”

【12】“好了，好了，”玛丽边说边把一条小披肩系在下巴下面。“大清早我们不是在吹牛吗?”也许我该等到日落时分，看看我得到了一个什么样的男人。”工作开始了。马丁沿着南边的篱笆测量了第一个山脊的地面，那是一块四英尺宽的狭长土地，他沿着边缘放了一根绳子，在两端用钉子钉住。

【13】然后他把新鲜的海藻铺在长条上。玛丽在围裙里装满了种子，开始一排排地播种。当她走下山脊不远的时候，马丁拿着铁锹向她的头走去，急于开始。“现在，以上帝的名义，”他喊着，朝掌心吐了口唾沫，“让我们开始播种吧!”

【14】“哦，马丁，等我和你在一起!”玛丽喊道，把种子撒在山脊上，跑向他。她的手指在羊毛连指手套外面冻得麻木了，她无法在围裙里擦它们。她的两颊好像着火了。她用一只胳膊搂住马丁的腰，站在那里，带着小孩子的兴奋看着他的铁锹将要割的绿草皮。

【15】“看在上帝的份上，姑娘，退后!”马丁粗声粗气地说。“假如有人看见我们这样在地里春播，他们会把我们当成什么呢?不过是一对没用的、软弱的、没有头脑的人，肯定会饿死的。啊!”他说得很快，眼睛盯着面前的地面。

【16】他的眼睛里闪烁着狂野、渴望的光芒，仿佛有一种原始的冲动在他的脑子里燃烧，驱除了他所有的欲望，只留下了维护自己的男子气概和征服地球的欲望。“哦，谁在看我们有什么关系?”玛丽说。但她同时后退了几步，远远地望着地面。接着，马丁把草皮割开，用脚把铁锹深深地压进土里，把第一块草皮铲起，发出一种嘎吱嘎吱的声音，草根被从土里拔了出来。

【17】玛丽叹了口气，皱着眉头匆匆走回她的种子。她捡起种子，开始迅速撒播，以驱走突然袭来的恐惧。当时，她看到丈夫的眼睛里流露出凶狠、严厉的神情，而他却没有意识到她的存在。她突然开始害怕这个无情、残酷的大地，害怕这个农民的奴隶主人，害怕它会把她束缚在艰苦的劳动和贫穷中，直到她再次沉入大地的怀抱。她短暂的爱情消失了。

【18】从此以后，她只是她丈夫耕田的帮手。马丁不假思索地拼命地干着，在垄上盖上了土块，他那把尖利的铁锹一边转动一边铲草，发出白光。然后，当太阳升起的时候，爬满常春藤的小山下面的小山谷里到处都是白衬衫，到处都是男人们在疯狂地工作，不说话，女人们在播种。

【19】阳光下没有热量，空气稀薄而静止，空气中有一种尖锐的感觉，这使人们猛跳上铁锹柄，拍打着草皮，仿佛他们是活生生的敌人。鸟儿在黑桃前静静地跳来跳去，歪着头，观察着有没有虫子。饥饿使他们变得勇敢，他们经常冲到铁锹下面去获取食物。

【20】然后，当太阳到达某一点时，所有的女人都回到村里为她们的男人准备晚餐，而男人则不停地工作。然后，女人们几乎是跑着回来了，每个人都拿着一个锡罐，外面系着法兰绒，还有一个用白布绑着的小包。玛丽回到地里时，马丁扔下了铁锹。他们彼此微笑着坐在山下吃饭。这和他们的早餐一样，茶和黄油面包。

【21】“啊，”马丁从杯子里喝了一大口茶，说道，“在这个世界上，还有什么比在做了一个早上的好工作之后，在户外吃晚饭更美好的事情吗?我已经做了两条半脊。这是村里任何人都做不到的。哈!”他骄傲地看着他的妻子。“是啊，是不是很可爱，”玛丽说，若有所思地看着黑色的山脊。她正在大嚼面包和黄油。匆忙赶往村子，又麻烦地准备好茶，使她失去了胃口。她不得不用裙摆不停地吹着草皮火，烟几乎把她弄瞎了。

【22】但现在，她坐在那长满草的小山上，四周的山谷被新鲜的海藻闪闪发光，一股淡淡的烟雾从刚翻过的土地上升起，一种奇怪的喜悦席卷了她。它压过了整个上午萦绕在她心头的另一种恐惧感。马丁吃得很饱，因为他又渴又饿，身体的每一个毛孔都敞开着，呼吸着清新的空气。他得意地环顾四周，把邻居的田地和自己的作比较。然后，他看着妻子又圆又黑的小脑袋，为拥有她而感到非常自豪。

【23】他靠在胳膊肘上，握住她的手。他们腼腆地沉默着，不知道该说些什么，也为自己的温柔感到羞愧。他们吃完饭，仍然手拉着手坐在那里，望着远方。到处都是撒种的人在小丘上休息，男人、女人和孩子们静静地坐着。春天大自然的宁静弥漫在他们周围的气氛中。一切似乎都静止不动，等待着中午过去。只有闪闪发光的太阳，在白色的云层中，以巨大的步伐向西追逐。

【24】这时，在远处的田野里，一位老人站起来，拿起他的铁锹，开始用一块石头把泥土铲干净。刺耳的声音在寂静中传得很远。那是将军沿着小山谷升起的信号。年轻人伸懒腰打呵欠。他们慢慢地走回他们的山脊。马丁的背和手腕开始酸了，玛丽觉得如果她再弯下腰去割种子，脖子就要断了。但两人都没说什么，很快他们就忘记了身体机械运动带来的疲劳。翻倒的泥土发出的强烈气味就像一种麻醉剂一样刺激着他们的神经。

【25】下午，太阳最强烈的时候，村里的老人出来看他们的人播种。马丁的祖父几乎弯着腰，拿着那根粗棍子，停在田地外的地上，从篱笆上探过身子，大声呻吟着。“上帝保佑这项工作，”他气喘吁吁地说。

“还有你，爷爷，”这对夫妇一起回答，但他们并没有停止工作。

“哈!”老人自言自语道，“他种得很好，那个女人也很好。他们开始得很好。”

【26】自从他带着他那充满希望和骄傲的玛丽出发以来，已经有五十年了，从那以后，无情的土壤把他们紧紧地搂在怀里，每年春天都没有休息。今天，老人长着硕大的红鼻子，戴着黑色软毡帽，头上系着一块有斑点的手帕，看着孙子干活，给他出主意。

【27】“别把草割得太长了，”他气喘吁吁地说，“你在垄上撒了太多土。”

“啊,女人!不要把种子种在离边缘这么近的地方。茎秆会侧着伸出来。”

他们不理会他。

“啊，”老人抱怨道，“在我年轻的时候，人们从早干到晚，不吃东西，干得比这好。

【28】当然，现在不能指望和以前一样了。这个品种越来越弱了。就是这样。”然后他开始胸口咳嗽，一瘸一拐地走到另一块他儿子迈克尔正在干活的地里。到日落时分，马丁完成了五座山脊。他扔下铁锹，伸了个懒腰。他所有的骨头都痛，他想躺下来休息。“玛丽，该回家了，”他说。

【29】玛丽直了直身子，但她太累了，无法回答。她疲惫地望着马丁，觉得自从那天早晨他们出发以来，已经过了许多年了。接着，她想到了回家的路上，想到了喂猪、把鸡关进鸡笼、准备晚饭的种种麻烦事，她脑海里闪过一丝反抗农妇奴役生活的念头。一会儿工夫就过去了。

【30】马丁一边穿衣服一边说:“哈!今天的工作真不错。做了五个山脊，每一个都像一根钢棒一样直。上帝作证，玛丽，你可以毫不夸张地说你是马丁·德莱尼的妻子。这还不是全部，我的姑娘。在这个幸运的日子里，你比因弗拉拉的任何一个女人都做得好。”

【31】他们默默地站了一会儿，看着他们完成的工作。所有的不满和疲惫都从玛丽的脑海中消失了，她和丈夫一起完成了这项工作，感到非常舒适。他们是一起干的。他们在地里种下了种子。第二天、第三天以及他们一生中，每当春天来的时候，他们都得弯着腰干活，直到他们的手和骨头被风湿病弄得扭曲。

【32】但夜晚总是带来睡眠和遗忘。他们慢慢地走回家，马丁走在前面，和另一个农民在谈论播种，玛丽走在后面，眼睛盯着地面，沉思着。奶牛在远处哞哞叫着。