諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 30

Below her bloody knees, there was no feeling at All; her chest was two cushions of pins. It was thevoice full of velvet and Boston and good things to eat that urged her along and made her think thatmaybe she wasn't, after all, just a crawling graveyard for a six-month baby's last hours.
The lean-to was full of leaves, which Amy pushed into a pile for Sethe to lie on. Then she gatheredrocks, covered them with more leaves and made Sethe put her feet on them, saying: "I know awoman had her feet cut off they was so swole." And she made sawing gestures with the blade ofher hand across Sethe's ankles.
"Zzz Zzz Zzz Zzz.""I used to be a good size. Nice arms and everything. Wouldn't think it, would you? That wasbefore they put me in the root cellar. I was fishing off the Beaver once. Catfish in Beaver Riversweet as chicken. Well I was just fishing there and a nigger floated right by me. I don't likedrowned people, you? Your feet remind me of him. All swole like."Then she did the magic: lifted Sethe's feet and legs and massaged them until she cried salt tears.
"It's gonna hurt, now," said Amy. "Anything dead coming back to life hurts."A truth for all times, thought Denver. Maybe the white dress holding its arm around her mother'swaist was in pain. If so, it could mean the baby ghost had plans. When she opened the door, Sethewas just leaving the keeping room.
"I saw a white dress holding on to you," Denver said.

她血淋淋的膝蓋以下根本沒有知覺；她的乳房成了兩個插滿縫衣針的軟墊。是那充滿天鵝絨、波士頓和好吃的東西的聲音一直激勵着她，使她覺得，她到底並不僅僅是那個六個月嬰兒彌留之際的爬行的墓地。
披屋裏滿是樹葉，愛彌把它們堆成一堆，讓塞絲躺上去；然後她找來幾塊石頭，又鋪上些樹葉給塞絲墊腳，一邊說道：“我知道有一個女人，讓人把腫得不像樣的兩隻腳給截掉了。”她裝成鋸東西的樣子，用手掌在塞絲的腳踝上比畫：
“吱吱吱，吱吱吱，吱吱吱，吱吱吱。”“我以前身量挺好的。胳膊什麼的，都挺好看。你想不到，是吧？那是他們把我關進地窖之前。那回我在比佛河上釣魚來着。比佛河裏的鮎魚像雞肉一樣好吃。我正在那兒釣魚呢，一個黑鬼從我身邊漂了過去。我不喜歡淹死的人，你呢？你的腳讓我又想起了他。全都腫起來了。”然後她來了個絕活兒：提起塞絲的腿腳按摩，疼得她哭出了鹹澀的眼淚。
“現在該疼了，”愛彌說，“所有死的東西活過來時都會疼的。”永恆的真理，丹芙想道。也許用袖子繞着媽媽腰身的白裙子是痛苦的。倘若如此，這可能意味着那小鬼魂有計劃。她打開門，這時塞絲正要離開起居室。
“我看見一條白裙子摟着你。”丹芙說。