A Rose for Emily 献给爱米丽的玫瑰

[美]威廉·福克纳（William Faulkner）

故事发生在美国的内战时期，战争给南方人造成了致命的打击。小镇居民沉浸在对辉煌过去的回忆之中，他们迫切需要一座代表传统的“偶像”给他们精神上的支撑和慰藉，于是，她永远成为他们的“纪念碑”和梦想中的“南方淑女”。爱米丽的大院就成了“神龛”，爱米丽小姐既是全镇人的偶像，也是全镇人的玩物。因此，她必须是一个无欲的南方贵族，她必须要为保持自己高贵的身份舍弃超越了阶级的爱情。

So the next day we all said,“She will kill herself”；and we said it would be the best thing. When she had first begun to be seen with Homer Barron, we had said,“She will marry him.”Then we said,“She will persuade him yet,”because Homer himself had remarked—he liked men, and it was known that he drank with the younger men in the Elk's Club—that he was not a marrying man.Later we said,“Poor Emily,”behind the jalousies as they passed on Sunday afternoon in the glittering buggy, Miss Emily with her head high and Homer Barron with his hat cocked and a cigar in his teeth, reins and whip in a yellow glove.

Then some of the ladies began to say that it was a disgrace to the town and a bad example to the young people. The men did not want to interfere, but at last the ladies forced the Baptist minister—Miss Emily's people were Episcopal—to call upon her.He would never divulge what happened during that interview, but he refused to go back again.The next Sunday they again drove about the streets, and the following day the minister's wife wrote to Miss Emily's relations in Alabama.

So she had blood-kin under her roof again and we sat back to watch developments. At first nothing happened.Then we were sure that they were to be married.We learned that Miss Emily had been to the jeweler's and ordered a man's toilet set in silver, with the letters H.B.on each piece.Two days later we learned that she had brought a complete outfit of men's clothing, including a nightshirt, and we said,“They are married.”We were really glad.We were glad because the two female cousins were even more Grierson than Miss Emily had ever been.

So we were not surprised when Homer Barron—the streets had been finished some time since—was gone. We were a little disappointed that there was not a public blowing-off, but we believed that he had gone on to prepare for Miss Emily's coming, or to give her a chance to get rid of the cousins.（By that time it was a cabal, and we were all Miss Emily's allies to help circumvent the cousins.）Sure enough, after another week they departed.And, as we had expected all along, within three days Homer Barron was back in town.A neighbor saw the Negro man admit him at the kitchen door at dusk one evening.

And that was the last we saw of Homer Barron. And of Miss Emily for some time.The Negro man went in and out with the market basket, but the front door remained closed.Now and then we would see her at a window for a moment, as the men did that night when they sprinkled the lime, but for almost six months she did not appear on the streets.Then we knew that this was to be expected too;as if that quality of her father which had thwarted her woman's life so many times had been too virulent and too furious to die.

When we next saw Miss Emily, she had grown fat and her hair was turning gray. During the next few years it grew grayer and grayer until it attained an even pepper-and-salt iron-gray, when it ceased turning.Up to the day of her death at seventy-four it was still the vigorous iron-gray, like the hair of an active man.

From that time on her front door remained closed, save for a period of six or seven years, when she was about forty, during which she gave lessons in china-painting. She fitted up a studio in one of the downstairs rooms, where the daughters and grand-daughters of Colonel Sartoris'contemporaries were sent to her with the same regularity and in the same spirit that they were sent on Sundays with a twenty-five cent piece for the collection plate. Meanwhile her taxes had been remitted.

Then the newer generation became the backbone and the spirit of the town, and the painting pupils grew up and fell away and did not send their children to her with boxes of color and tedious brushes and pictures cut from the ladies'magazines. The front door closed upon the last one and remained closed for good.When the town got free postal delivery Miss Emily alone refused to let them fasten the metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox to it.She would not listen to them.

Daily, monthly, yearly we watched the Negro grow grayer and more stooped, going in and out with the market basket. Each December we sent her a tax notice, which would be returned by the post office a week later, unclaimed.Now and then we would see her in one of the downstairs windows—she had evidently shut up the top floor of the house—like the carven torso of an idol in a niche, looking or not looking at us, we could never tell which.Thus she passed from generation to generation—dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse.

And so she died. Fell ill in the house filled with dust and shadows, with only a doddering Negro man to wait on her.We did not even know she was sick;we had long since given up trying to get any information from the Negro.He talked to no one, probably not even to her, for his voice had grown harsh and rusty, as if from disuse.

She died in one of the downstairs rooms, in a heavy walnut bed with a curtain, her gray head propped on a pillow yellow and moldy with age and lack of sunlight.

于是，第二天我们大家都说：“她要自杀了。”我们也都说这是再好不过的事了。第一次看到她和荷默·伯隆在一块儿时，我们都说：“她要嫁给他了。”后来又说：“她还得说服他呢。”因为荷默自己说他喜欢和男人来往，大家都知道他和年轻人在麋鹿俱乐部一起喝酒，他本人也说过，他是无意于成家的人。以后每逢礼拜天下午他们乘着漂亮的轻便马车路过时，爱米丽小姐昂着头，荷默歪戴着帽子，嘴里叼着雪茄，戴着黄手套，握着马缰和马鞭。我们在百叶窗后面不禁要说一声：“可怜的爱米丽。”

后来有些妇女开始说，这是这个镇子的耻辱，在年轻人中间造成了很坏的影响。男人们不想干涉，但妇女们终于迫使浸礼会牧师——爱米丽小姐一家人都是属于圣公会的——去拜访她。关于访问经过，他从未透露，但他再也不愿去第二趟了。第二个礼拜天他们又驾着马车出现在了街上，于是牧师夫人在第二天就写信告知爱米丽那在亚拉巴马的亲属。

原来她家里还有近亲，于是我们坐待事态的发展。起先没有动静，随后我们确定，他们即将结婚。我们还听说爱米丽小姐去过首饰店，订购了一套银质男人盥洗用具，每件上面都刻着“荷·伯”。两天之后人家又告诉我们她买了全套男人服装，包括睡衣，因此我们说：“他们已经结婚了。”我们着实高兴。我们高兴的是两位堂姐妹跟爱米丽小姐比起来，更有格里尔生家族的风度。

因此当荷默·伯隆离开本城——街道铺路工程已经竣工好一阵子了——时，我们一点儿也不惊奇。倒是因为缺少一番送行告别的热闹，不无失望之感。不过我们都相信他此去是为了迎娶爱米丽小姐做一番准备，或者是让她有个机会打发走两个堂姐妹（这时已经形成了一个秘密小集团，我们都站在爱米丽小姐一边，帮她踢开这一对堂姐妹）。真是这样的，一星期后她们就走了。而且，正如我们一直所期待的那样，荷默·伯隆又回到镇上来了。一位邻居亲眼看见那个黑人在一个黄昏时分打开厨房门让他进去了。

这是我们最后一次看到荷默·伯隆。至于爱米丽小姐，我们则有一段时间没有见过她。黑人拿着购货篮进进出出，可是前门却总关着。偶尔可以看到她的身影在窗口晃过，就像人们在撒石灰那天夜晚曾经见过的那样，但有整整六个月，她没有出现在大街上。我们明白这也并非出乎意料，她父亲的性格给她那作为女性的一生平添了许多波折，而这种性格仿佛太恶毒，太狂暴，但却消失不了。

等到我们再见到爱米丽小姐时，她已经发胖了，头发也灰白了。以后几年中，头发越来越灰，最后变成了像胡椒盐似的铁灰色。直到她74岁去世时，还保持着那旺盛的铁灰色，像是一个活跃的男子的头发。

打那时起，她的前门就一直关着，除了在她40岁左右的六七年的时间之外。在那段时期，她开授瓷器彩绘课。在楼下的一个房间里，她临时布置了一个画室。沙多里斯上校的那一代人全都把女儿、孙女儿送到她那里学画，那样的守时，那样的认真，简直同礼拜天到教堂去，还给她们二十五美分的硬币准备放在捐献盆子里的情况是一模一样的。这时，她的捐税已经被赦免了。

后来，新的一代成了全镇的骨干，学画的学生们也长大成人，渐次离开了，他们没有让自己的孩子带着颜色盒、令人生厌的画笔和从妇女杂志上剪下来的图片到爱米丽小姐那里去学画。最后一个学生离开后，前门就关上了，而且是永远地关上了。全镇实行免费邮递制度之后，只有爱米丽小姐一人拒绝在她门口钉上金属门牌号，附设一个邮件箱。她对他们不理不睬。

日复一日，月复一月，年复一年，我们眼看着那黑人的头发白了，背也驼了，还照旧提着购货篮进进出出。每年12月我们都寄给她一张纳税通知单，但一星期后又被邮局退了回来，因为无人收信。不时我们在楼下的一个窗口——她显然是把楼上封闭起来了——见到她的身影，像神龛中的一个偶像的雕塑躯干，我们说不上她是不是在看着我们。她就这样度过了一年又一年——高贵，宁静，无法逃避，无法接近，怪僻乖张。

她就这样与世长辞了。在一栋尘埃遍地、鬼影幢幢的屋子里得了病，侍候她的只有一个老态龙钟的黑人。我们甚至连她病了也不知道，也早已不想从黑人那里去打听什么消息了。他跟谁也不说话，恐怕对她也是如此，他的嗓子似乎由于长久不用而变得嘶哑了。

她死在楼下的一间屋子里，笨重的胡桃木床上还挂着床帷。她的枕头由于多年不见阳光，已经黄得发霉了。

实战提升

作者介绍

美国作家威廉·福克纳（1897—1962），出身名门望族，全名威廉·卡斯伯特·福克纳。福克纳其他重要作品还有《喧哗和骚动》《我弥留之际》《圣地》《八月之光》《村舍》《押沙龙，押沙龙！》等。斯诺普斯三部曲（《村子》《小镇》《大宅》）也很重要。1949年，福克纳获得了诺贝尔文学奖。

单词注解

remark[ri5mB:k]n./v.谈论；评论；说

outfit[5autfit]n.全套装备；全套工具

sprinkle[5spriNkl]v.洒，喷，淋；撒；n.洒的动作；少量

refuse[ri5fju:z]v.拒绝；拒受；拒给

moldy[5mEuldi]adj.发霉的；陈腐的；乏味的

名句大搜索

后来有些妇女开始说，这是这个镇子的耻辱，在年轻人中间造成了很坏的影响。

全镇实行免费邮递制度之后，只有爱米丽小姐一人拒绝在她门口钉上金属门牌号，附设一个邮件箱。

她就这样度过了一年又一年——高贵，宁静，无法逃避，无法接近，怪僻乖张。