Truman Capote (1924—1984)
杜魯門·卡波特是美國作家，本篇選自其所著長篇小說《草琴》（The Grass Harp，1951）。美國曠野，印第安草（Indian grass）繁生，高可逾頂，一望無際，風吹其間，聲如箏簧，故「草琴」者，亦「天籟」之意也。
小說的主人公是一個孤兒（Collin Fenwick），依兩表姑居，兩表姑皆老處女，行為怪僻，然各有其可愛處。書中故事簡單而含意深遠，人物描寫非常生動，寫景亦多佳句。卡波特之風格，精緻細膩，輕描淡寫中，頗多暈潤含蓄之妙。於現實世界之外，似另暗示一理想世界。其小說雖以美國南部為背景，然讀來猶如童話，疑真疑幻，文字之妙用盡矣。
Once a week, Saturdays mostly, we went to River Woods. For these trips, which lasted the whole day, Catherine fried a chicken and deviled a dozen eggs, and Dolly took along a chocolate layer cake and a supply of pinity fudge. Thus armed, and carrying three empty grain sacks, we walked out the church road past the cemetery and through the field of Indian grass.
● River Woods是當地一座森林的名稱。lasted：（時間之）持續。每星期去一次，一去就一整天。Catherine為一黑人老嫗，年約六十。deviled：用醋、辣椒、醬油、色拉油等調味品泡製（蛋先煮熟切開，蛋黃泡製後，再放入蛋白之內）。Dolly為書中主角之大表姑，年六十，天性十分純樸善良。渠有秘方，依法配製，能治水腫。所謂「採藥」，即為配製該單方之用。layer cake：分層之蛋糕。fudge：普通軟質美式糖果。pinity fudge是fudge之一種，原料以cream、蔗糖、胡桃仁為主。a supply of=a quantity of，相當多。
● armed：原意是武裝配備，轉作一切配備。這裡所配備的是供野餐用的食品和糖果。grain sacks：盛穀類的麻袋或布袋。空的，可以裝藥草。church road：通至教堂的路。cemetery：公墓，在教堂附近。
Just entering the woods there was a double-trunked China tree, really two trees, but their branches were so embraced that you could step from one into the other; in fact, they were bridged by a tree-house; spacious, sturdy, a model of a tree-house, it was like a raft floating in the sea of leaves. The boys who built it, provided they are still alive, must by now be very old men; certainly the tree-house was fifteen or twenty years old when Dolly first found it and that was a quarter of a century before she showed it to me.
● 過了草原，便是森林。在森林進口處，是兩棵「楝樹」。據劉半農編《中小字典》：「楝」音「連」，高丈餘，葉繁密如槐，初夏開淡紫色花，結實似棗而小，色黃，俗名「金鈴子」，入藥。楝樹在美國稱為China tree（或chinaberry tree）。
● trunk：樹幹。double-trunked：兩根樹幹的。本來是兩棵樹，因為上面的枝葉糾纏難分，好像是一棵樹有兩根樹幹似的。embraced：擁抱。step from one into the other：從一棵樹跨到另外一棵。樹可「走進」，其繁茂可想。bridge：樹上架有木屋，猶如兩樹之間的橋樑。spacious：寬敞的。sturdy：堅固的。a model of a tree-house：樹上房屋的模範。同前面的a tree-house在語法上是同位語。raft：木筏。屋居樹巔，如筏浮水上。
● provided=if。造這座木屋的孩子們假如現在還活著的話，也該是很老的老頭兒了。Dolly起初發現這座木屋的時候，它已經有十五年到二十年的歷史；事到如今，又過了二十五年了。
To reach it was easy as climbing stairs; there were footholds of gnarled bark and tough vines to grip; even Catherine, who was heavy around the hips and complained of rheumatism, had no trouble. But Catherine felt no love for the tree-house; she did not know, as Dolly knew and made me know, that it was a ship, that to sit up there was to sail along the cloudy coastline of every dream. Mark my word, said Catherine, them boards are too old, them nails are slippery as worms, gonna crack in two, gonna fall and bust our beads don\'t I know it.
● gnarled bark：多結節的樹皮，可供踏腳（foothold）。grip：握；硬籐可攀援。rheumatism：風濕病。complained of：自稱害（什麼病）。
● to sail along the cloudy coastline of every dream：上文把樹巔木屋比作木筏，同時又把樹葉比作海，尚不過是就形象而言，這裡把木屋比作船，船居然能行，文思至此，乃更進一層。船往那裡開呢？「沿著夢境的雲霧茫茫的海岸航行。」什麼樣的夢全有，故雲every dream。
● she did not know之賓語是兩個「that」clauses。
● 末一句照語法慣例，應加引號。Mark my word之my是Catherine自道。them boards...和them nails...之them並非賓格，而等於指示形容詞these。boards：木板。年代過久，鐵釘已鬆，觸之似能出入自如，猶如小蟲，故Catherine擔憂木屋將垮。
● gonna=going to：將要。bust=burst：打破。皆為美國土話。don\'t I know it：我豈不知之哉？我知道得很清楚。（don\'t之前，標點原文缺。）
Storing our provisions in the tree-house, we separated into the woods, each carrying a grain sack to be filled with herbs, leaves, strange roots. No one, not even Catherine, knew altogether what went into the medicine, for it was a secret Dolly kept to herself, and we were never allowed to look at the gatherings in her own sack: she held tight to it, as though inside she had captive a blue-haired child, a bewitched prince.
● provisions：食品，即上文所述之煎雞等等。separated：分頭出發。
● what went into the medicine：Dolly的藥是什麼東西配成的。go這一類常見的動詞，用法頗多，學者宜隨時留意。
● Doily kept to herself是定語從句，關係代名詞which省掉。
● gatherings：搜集所得。tight（副詞）=firmly。captive（形容詞）=held as a prisoner，此處作objective complement。
● blue-haired child：藍發童，指不常見的怪物。bewitched prince：中了魔法的王子。西洋童話中，常有王子因為魔法作祟變形易體，化作怪物。Dolly的袋裡的東西總不讓別人看，好像捉住什麼怪物似的。
This was her story: \"Once, back yonder when we were children there were gipsies thick as birds in blackberry patch…not like now, maybe you see a few straggling through each year. They came with spring: sudden, like the dogwood pink, there they were—up and down the road and in the woods around. Then one evening, it was April and falling rain, I went out to the cowshed where Fairybell had a new little calf; and there in the cowshed were three gipsy women, two of them old and one of them young, and the young one was lying naked and twisting on the corn-shucks. When they saw that I was not afraid, one of the old women asked would I bring a light. So I went to the house for a candle, and when I came back the woman who had sent me was holding a red hollering baby upside down by its feet, and, the other woman was milking Fairybell. I helped them wash the baby in the warm milk and wrap it in a scarf. Then one of the old women took my hand and said:
● 本段乃Dolly自敘秘方之由來。
● back yonder：很多年前。yonder本代表空間之「遠」，此處代表時間之「遠」。thick：因人數多，密集而成「厚」。patch：一塊地。種黑莓之地上，鳥雀常群集，當年吉卜賽人（gipsies）人數眾多，亦復類彼。straggling：三三兩兩地走過。maybe是副詞，may與be之間不分。
● pink：石竹（花名）。dogwood pink恐為pink之一種，入春怒放；而吉卜賽人於春季亦突然大群出現，如石竹花焉。
● it was April and falling rain：此從句插入以說明時間，與全句結構無關。cowshed：牛棚。Fairybell：母牛名。had a new little calf：新添一犢。corn-shucks：玉蜀黍外面的包殼，是牛的飼料。twisting：輾轉反側，臨盆前陣痛之象。
● would I bring a light：照語法書上規定，應作whether I would bring a light。
● who had sent me：定語從句，剛才差我走的（那個女人）。hollering：大聲叫喊的。red：初生嬰兒的顏色。holding upside down by its feet：握著腳，倒提著。milking：擠奶。
● wash和wrap都是infinitives，前面的to省略。在help之後，infinitive的to常常省略。warm milk：才擠出來的奶，故溫暖。scarf：圍巾。
\"Now I am going to give you a gift by teaching you a rhyme. It was a rhyme about evergreen bark, dragonfly fern—and all the other things we come here in the woods to find: Boil till dark and pure if you want a dropsy cure. In the morning they were gone; I looked for them in the fields and on the road; there was nothing left of them but the rhyme in my head.\"
● rhyme：韻文，口訣。吉卜賽老嫗為謝其照料之恩，乃授以藥方口訣。第一句是吉卜賽人語，用現在式，第二句又是Dolly本人的口氣了，用過去式。
● fern：羊齒植物。dragonfly fern為羊齒植物之一種。we come here…to find：定語從句。草藥的其他成分，Dolly秘而不宣，即以all the other things概括。
● 斜體字為口訣之一部分，注意pure與cure押韻。採得各種藥草之後，加水煮沸，煎到色呈烏黑，雜質去盡為止。dropsy：水腫病。cure：特效藥。
Calling to each other, hooting like owls loose in the daytime, we worked all morning in opposite parts of the woods. Towards afternoon, our sack fat with skinned bark, tender, torn roots, we climbed back into the green web of the China tree and spread the food. There was good creek water in a mason jar, or if the weather was cold a thermos of hot coffee, and we wadded leaves to wipe our chicken-stained, fudge-sticky fingers. Afterwards, telling fortunes with flowers, speaking of sleepy things, it was as though we floated through the afternoon on the raft in the tree; we belonged there, as the sunsilvered leaves belonged, the dwelling whippoorwills.
● owls：貓頭鷹。它們的叫鳴英文稱為hoot。loose（形容詞）：飛出來了。
● skin（動詞）：剝皮。skinned bark：剝下的樹皮。tender（鮮嫩的）和torn（撕斷的）都是形容roots。green web：楝樹枝葉繁茂，如綠色之網。
● jar：缸。mason jar是玻璃所制，本為貯藏蔬菜鮮果之用，這裡盛水（mason是紀念發明人的名字）。creek：溪澗。thermos：暖瓶，即俗稱熱水瓶。a thermos跟句首there was而來。if the weather was cold是狀語從句。wadded：捏成小塊。sticky：粘性的。wipe：抹拭。
● telling fortunes with flowers：用花算命（通常是數花的花瓣，是種消遣）。speaking of sleepy things：講些叫人打瞌睡的事情。可能話沒有說完，就會睡著了的。
● floated through the afternoon：一下午就這麼飄蕩過去了。假如就時間言，through不過是「整個下午這麼過去」的意思。但是細看文意，作者似乎要把時間化成空間，afternoon是一個海，他們是在乘桴浮海，through簡直就是「渡過」的意思。
● sunsilvered：因陽光照耀色如鍍銀。as the sunsilvered leaves belonged=as the sunsilvered leaves belonged there：樹葉和樹不可分，彼此是一家；他們三人同樹葉一樣，也是屬於這棵樹的。dwelling：住在那邊的。whippoorwills：怪鴟，和主語we同位。他們三人，高踞樹巔，食於斯，寢於斯，就像三隻怪鳥。