Erskine Caldwell (1903—1987)
歐司金·考特威爾生於美國喬治亞州。他是美國當代大小說家之一，曾與海明威、福克納、司坦培克等齊名，描寫美國南部（尤其是喬治亞州）貧窮沒落的農村生活，最擅勝場。
這裡所選的一篇短篇小說，篇幅無多，文字十分簡單，幾乎無需註解。然而其深刻動人之處，卻耐人尋味。其描寫結構都值得我國短篇小說作家的參考。
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.
● 第一段點出小說的時間和地點。時間是黑夜已過，旭日未升，地點是公路上。人物只是模模糊糊的They。有多少人呢？是些什麼人呢？這裡尚未說明，但標題是「男與女」，我們可以暫且假定是一男一女。他們的身形我們還看不清楚，他們只是像「黑夜所遺留下來的影子」。他們的動作我們也看不見，只是他們的腳步拖起（scuffed up）了灰塵，腳步步步向前，灰塵也在他們身後旋起旋落（settled）。
● scuffed本是不及物動詞，解作「拖著腳步走路」，這裡是及物動詞。peering：瞇著眼睛看。
● 描寫文最難運用的是形容詞，以及由形容詞轉化出來的副詞。本文形容詞用得很少，都很簡單。這一段裡可以說只有兩個形容詞是用作描寫的，一個是colorless (dawn)，一個是red (rays)，都很傳神而有力量。描寫黎明景色，中英文都有很多濫調，如「天空露出魚肚白色」，「美麗的朝霞」等，這種美麗的字眼，比之本文的兩個簡單的形容詞，到底哪一種更為妥貼，哪一種更能顯出作者煉字的功夫，請讀者自己下判斷吧。同樣的，slowly是個很簡單的副詞，但這裡用這麼一個字也夠了，作者可說是惜墨如金也。slowly前面的came，是從讀者的立場而言：假定讀者看他們往前走「來」。用了went，就變成愈走愈遠，came則表示愈走愈近。
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：我們猜想一男一女在趕路，果然有一個女人，我們大約是猜對了。（下文Ring said，Ring是那男人的名字。）clamp：作名詞用，解作「螺釘夾」；作動詞用，解作「像螺絲釘那樣地夾著」。這裡是過去分詞，作形容詞用。
● It hurt her：她並不覺得好受。可是她已筋疲力盡，非咬緊牙關，無法再繼續前進，咬痛嘴唇，在所不惜了。
● one behind the other=one foot behind the other foot。
● mile after mile：天沒亮就在趕路，可能是他們剛剛出門，但是由這一段文章看來，他們已經趕了不少路了。
● whimpered：低聲嗚咽。
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.
● 第一段第一句裡說slowly up the road，看到這裡，我們知道他們原來是在登山。
● a quarter of the way up：太陽尚未全部露面，只有四分之一升在地平線上。地平線上沒有樹，太陽好像被刀切似的。腳下有谷，谷中霧氣冉冉上升，把山谷蓋了起來。
● so far away：後面照語法規矩應接that一字，但近代作家有把這個that省掉的。indistinguishable：房屋農田在霧中看不清楚。
● smoke：景物朦朧，單提出「炊煙」一事，引起下面文章。the first house：最接近他們的那座房屋。
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，在這裡點出。
● color是動詞不定式：著色，初升的陽光，把男人蒼白的臉照得血紅。
● balancing himself：費了好大的勁，兩條腿才站得穩。lose his balance：失掉平穩，腳站不住。the next moment：現在雖然勉強站穩，但是似乎一不小心，隨時都可以倒下地去。
"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."
● 上一段已經描寫那男人面色蒼白，雙目無神，步履不穩，這一段裡他連口都不開了。女人提議到前面那家人家去討些東西吃。她等了好久（minute after minute），男人默不作聲。最後還是女人自己替他回答（answering for him）。
● We will：我們「一定」討得到東西的。這個will應該重讀（有些語法家主張這裡應該用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：絲，條。layers：層。wood smoke：柴木的煙。shrank：縮小。太陽升離地平線以後，很快地就顯得縮小了，現在看上去只像是一顆「火一般的小鈕子」。seared：炙傷。until：這一個字表示他們兩人一直在看著太陽，剛才那個男的不理會女人的說話，大約是看太陽看得出神了，但是現在陽光熾烈，他們不能再看了。
"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：不管怎樣。
● Ring不看太陽，望望他身邊的女人。since the sun had set：昨晚日落以後，他還沒有仔細看過那女人的臉。可能他們兩人已經趕了一夜的路——可是為什麼呢？他們要往哪兒去呢？這是個悶葫蘆，作者故弄玄虛，要到最後方始把謎底揭穿。讀者的興趣已被引起，非往下讀不可，這也是小說家的手法。
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.
● 男人還是不說話，恐怕是疲憊已極。
● 他一直往前走，也不回頭看看女的是不是在後面跟著。他走起路來，用全力（with all his might）把後腳拖過來，再用力踏到前面去。hurling原意是「投」或「擲」，他的腳步跨出去要用這麼大的勁，其步履之不穩可想而知。
● way：方法。不用這麼大的勁，他是沒法往前走了。
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."
● 作者對於這一男一女的描寫，很是經濟，他們的服飾、籍貫、身材、年齡等，一概置之不理，他只是強調他們的疲乏和衰弱，還有一點就是他們的視線。他們看太陽，互相看對方的蒼白的臉，看山谷下的田莊民房，現在男的又在看飄在頭頂上的炊煙——想必是十分飢餓了吧？
● caught up with：追上。at last：男的走路已如此費力，可是女的走路還要慢，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.
● 這一段又是描寫那男人的視覺，他的情感也輕輕地提了一筆。
● choked（過去分詞）：塞住。
● doorstep：台階；worn：磨舊了的。curtain-filled：窗簾拉滿的。
● 這些東西使他聯想起自己的家，他的眼睛老看著這些東西，他就不覺得是「身在異鄉為異客」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：園門，和屋子不相聯屬的。kitchen door：廚房門，後門。
● Someone：本文的第三個人物，可是此人的態度是猜疑的、不友善的、慢客的，此人只是在窗簾後面窺望。那一男一女看見這種舉動，怎麼會不覺得自己是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：手指骨節。rapped：拍擊。clapboards：木屋牆上的橫條木板。（此字的p不發音，第一音節重讀，第二音節的母音輕音。）hurt：覺得痛。
● She turned around：他們兩人一起趕路，互相關切，女的打門的時候還要轉過頭來看男的，男的頷首贊可。作者對於這種小地方不肯錯過。
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：縫。scar：疤痕。
● Go away：疲乏的旅人受到逐客令。作者盡量避免情感的描寫，可是讀者自然而然地對於小說中一男一女的命運發生關切之感。屋中人的態度想必很不客氣，這裡短短兩個字，不借任何描寫，已使讀者如聞其聲，如見其人了。
"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：麻煩你。
● All we wanted：我們所需要的（不過是）。這句話的動詞都用過去式，表示她拍牆叫門時候所需要的是什麼東西。
● I can't let the man have anything：單身男女清晨在山野間趕路，是惹人疑心的，屋中人不肯施捨給那男的，不是沒有道理。又從I'll feed the girl一句看來，那個女人年齡想必很輕。
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：轉身時腳後跟（heels）在沙土上鑽了一下。
● the word：大約是「no」字。forming on her lips：嘴唇已經圓起來，預備說這個字了。She shook her head：又是簡單的敘述，可是包含很深的情感：何忍自己得食，而見那男人被擯諸門外呢？她預備到別家人家去試試。
● opened the door a foot or more：呼應前面的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：台階。porch：門的入口處，上面通常有屋簷蓋住。
● warmed over：昨夜所煮的馬鈴薯，早晨再熱一次。
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：啜飲。bread：即上文提到的biscuits（軟餅，非英國式的餅乾）。
● watch：監視。by turns：輪流的；一下子看著屋內的女人，一下子看著屋外的男人。
● managed：設法。slip：滑下去；輕輕地放進去，由麵包自動落下。blouse：女裝的上衣，腰間有帶拴住，東西放在裡面，不會掉出來的。skirt：裙子。blouse和skirt是西洋女子普通的服裝。這個女人的服裝本文開始時並未描寫，這裡假如她不演出一幕「陸郎懷桔」的故事，作者恐怕仍舊要略而不提的。
● eyed這個字當動詞用，有「監視」或「冷眼旁觀」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.
● 很簡潔的一段對白。可是屋主人的猜疑，乞食女人的無意對答，已活躍紙上。如多用文字描寫，恐怕反而要減少這場面的緊張和尷尬了。
● 本文一開始就描寫那一男一女的視線，現在這幾段所著力描寫的也是那屋主人的眼光；她來回地看那一男一女。
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與by then的用法很常見，now或then在這裡是名詞，作賓語用。單用then，只表示「那時」，by then有雙重意思：「在那個時候」，或者「甚至在那個時候以前」。Ruth又要伸手偷馬鈴薯，可是「到了那個時候」，屋主人監視得更嚴了。
● I wouldn't call比I will not call客氣，用了would（虛擬式），態度比較多保留、少武斷。much of a husband：夠得上做丈夫。to let作形容詞用，大約是形容him。做丈夫的讓妻子在山野間走路，登門乞食，還算得上是丈夫嗎？
● like應作as。英美人教育程度不夠的，說起話來，常用like代替as。did即walked through the country begging food。
● turning in the chair to face the woman：那個女人本來又饑又倦，又要想法偷藏食物，無意多說話。可是現在那男的受到誣蔑，她不得不嚴辭辯駁，因此她的話說得快了，身子也轉過來了，臉也衝著那個多疑的主人了。雖然沒有用indignantly這類的字，其神情已可想而見。
● stay where you were：相當於「留住在家鄉」，但是「以前所住的地方」不一定就是「家鄉」——你們為什麼不留住在你們的老地方呢？
● tramps：流浪人。making tramps out of yourselves：把自己化為流浪人。instead of普通英漢字典解作「代替」，但是這一個「介詞短語」的意義很多，在這裡的意思，約相當於你們為什麼「反而要」出來流浪呢？
● hold a job：守住一項職業，保持飯碗。don't：按照語法規矩，應該說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想必是不願再聽那人嘮嘮叨叨的話，站了起來，拿在手裡的麵包也掉了下來，（本來也許還想多吃一點呢）。
● you'll leave that man the first chance you get：一有機會，就同那個男人分手。the first chance是副詞短語，you get是定語從句，形容chance。
● If he won't take a job：屋主人一口咬定那個男人是游手好閒之徒。
● fever：發燒。那個男人的臉容蒼白，步履維艱，前文已一再言之，其故為何，現在要逐步地揭穿了。
● I'd=I would; put down=reckon（認為）。我可要認為你是在替他撒謊。
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：來不及等人家來替她開門了。
● turned around…and looked at her：既然她想趕快奪門而出，不願再多停留，為什麼又要轉過身來，豈是言有未盡嗎？
● like you said應作as you said。屋主人還要追出來，問這麼一句話。這個悶葫蘆非打破不可，套一句金聖歎批《水滸》的筆法：「我亦欲問」。
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：那個男的想必是不堪飢餓了，何況他們趕路要緊，那種嘮嘮叨叨的話何必置答，但是話到嘴邊，不說又不能（could not keep from…）。
● we started out walking like this為名詞性從句，前面省掉一個連接詞why。
● to my sister's=to my sister's house。這種用法很常見，如「在王先生家裡」，英文單說「at Mr. Wang's」即可。
● 這一男一女有這麼一段悲慘的經歷，可是作者描寫時仍舊不帶半點情感，文字簡單之至，「赤裸裸」的事實就有感動人的力量，何必多說傷感的話呢？
● where she's buried：照一般習慣，baby的代名詞可用it，但是那是不知嬰孩是男是女時才用。身為父母者，一定知道自己的孩子是男是女的，所以這裡仍用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：從門板的裂縫裡（張望）。
● unfastened：解開，打開。走了一百多尺之後，屋中人應該看不見他們的行動了，她才把「私貨」拿出來。
● all there was的there was是定語從句，關係代名詞that省掉：所有的東西，私藏麵包的全部。potato：那是藏在裙子口袋裡的。
● talking to her with his eyes：用眼睛說話，嘴是忙不過來了。hungrily：很傳神的副詞，可解作「狼吞虎嚥狀地」。
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原意為「卑鄙，小氣」，這裡可解作「可惡」。
● I'd=I would。
● choked back a sob：想哭出來，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：有車子坐。
● choked：此字與上段的choked意義略有不同。這裡解作「塞住」。
● glanced down the road behind them：看看後面有沒有車子來，可以順便搭乘的。
● he was walking on：定語從句。counting the steps：二人重上征程。長途漫漫，這樣一步一步地數著走，哪一天才走得到呢？