诺贝尔文学经典:《宠儿》第1章Part 18

It made sense for a lot of reasons because in all of Baby's life, as well as Sethe's own, men andwomen were moved around like checkers. Anybody Baby Suggs knew, let alone loved, who hadn'trun off or been hanged, got rented out, loaned out, bought up, brought back, stored up, mortgaged,won, stolen or seized. So Baby's eight children had six fathers. What she called the nastiness of lifewas the shock she received upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because thepieces included her children. Halle she was able to keep the longest. Twenty years. A lifetime.
Given to her, no doubt, to make up for hearing that her two girls, neither of whom had their adultteeth, were sold and gone and she had not been able to wave goodbye. To make up for couplingwith a straw boss for four months in exchange for keeping her third child, a boy, with her — onlyto have him traded for lumber in the spring of the next year and to find herself pregnant by the manwho promised not to and did. That child she could not love and the rest she would not.
"God takewhat He would," she said. And He did, and He did, and He did and then gave her Halle who gaveher freedom when it didn't mean a thing.
Sethe had the amazing luck of six whole years ofmarriage to that "somebody" son who had fathered every one of her children. A blessing she wasreckless enough to take for granted, lean on, as though Sweet Home really was one. As though ahandful of myrtle stuck in the handle of pressing iron propped against the door in awhitewoman's kitchen could make it hers. As tho(a) ugh mint sprig in the mouth changed the breath aswell as its odor. A bigger fool never lived.

这话说得通，有很多理由，因为在贝比的一生里，还有在塞丝自己的生活中，男男女女都像棋子一样任人摆布。所有贝比·萨格斯认识的人，更不用提爱过的了，只要没有跑掉或吊死，就得被租用，被出借，被购入，被送还，被储存，被抵押，被赢被偷被掠夺。所以贝比的八个孩子有六个父亲。她惊愕地发现人们并不因为棋子中包括她的孩子而停止下这盘棋，这便是她所说的生活的龌龊。黑尔是她能留得最久的。二十年。一辈子。
毫无疑问，是给她的补偿，因为当她听说她的两个还都未换牙的女儿被卖掉、带走的时候，她连再见都没能说上一声。是补偿，因为她跟一个工头同居了四个月，作为交换，她能把第三个孩子，一个儿子，留在身边———谁想到来年春天他被拿去换了木材，而那个不守信用的家伙又弄大了她的肚子。那个孩子她不能爱，而其余的她根本不去爱。
“上帝想带谁走就带谁走。”她说。而且他带走了一个一个又一个，最后给了她黑尔，而黑尔给了她那时已一文不值的自由。
塞丝三生有幸与那个“人物”儿子度过了整整六年的婚姻生活，还跟他生了她的每一个孩子。她满不在乎地觉得福气是理所当然而又靠得住的，好像“甜蜜之家”果真是个甜蜜之家似的。好像用把上缠着桃金娘的烙铁支住白女人厨房的门，厨房就属于她了。好像嘴里的薄荷枝改变了呼吸的味道，也就改变了嘴本身的气味。世上没有更蠢的傻瓜了。