Lonesome Dove 孤鸽镇

The Captain, as if distracted, walked a little way toward the lots and then stopped. Dish walked out to greet him, followed by July, and was shocked by the change in the man. The Captain looked like an old man—he had little flesh on his face and his beard and mustache were sprinkled with gray.

“Why, Captain, it’s fine to see you,” Dish said. “How are them northern boys doing?” Call shook Dish’s hand, then July’s. “We wintered without losing a man, or much stock either,” he said, very tired.

Then he saw that Dish was looking beyond him. He turned and saw that the blond woman had come out of the house.

She walked to the buggy and stood by the coffin. Clara’s two daughters followed her out on the back porch, a toddling child between them. The girls didn’t follow Lorena to the buggy. They watched a minute and then guided the child back in the house.

Dish Boggett would have given anything to be able to go to Lorena, but he knew he couldn’t. Instead he led the Captain back down to the lots and tried to interest him in the horses. But the Captain’s mind was elsewhere.

When the plains darkened and they went in to supper, Lorena still stood by the wagon. The meal was eaten in silence, except for little Martin’s fretting. He was used to being the center of gay attention and couldn’t understand why no one laughed when he flung his spoon down, or why no one sang to him, or offered him sweets.

“Oughtn’t we to go get Lorie?” Dish asked, at one point, anguished that she was left to stand alone in the darkness.

Clara didn’t answer. The girls had cooked the meal, and she directed the serving with only a glance now and then.

Watching Woodrow Call awkwardly handling his fork caused her to repent a little of her harshness when he arrived, but she didn’t apologize. She had stopped expecting July to contribute to the conversation, but she resented his silence nevertheless. Once Martin spat out a bite of perfectly good food and Clara looked at him sharply and said “You behave,” in a tone that instantly put a stop to his fretting. Martin opened his mouth to cry but thought better of it and chewedmiserably on his spoon until the meal was finished.

After supper the men went out of the house to smoke, all glad to escape the company of the silent woman. Even Betsey and Sally, accustomed to chattering through supper, competing for the men’s attention, were subdued by their mother’s silence, and merely attended to serving.

After supper Clara went to her bedroom. Gus’s letter lay on her bureau, unread. She lit her lamp and picked it up, scratching at the dried blood that stained one corner of the folded sheet. “I ought not to read this,” she said, aloud. “I don’t like the notion of words from the dead.” “What, Momma?” Betsey asked. She had come upstairs with Martin and had overheard.

“Nothing, Betsey,” Clara said. “Just a crazy woman talking to herself.” “Martin acts like he’s got a stomach-ache,” Betsey complained. “You didn’t have to look so mean at him, Ma.” Clara turned for a moment. “I won’t have him spitting out food,” she said. “The reason men are awful is because some woman has spoiled them. Martin’s going to learn manners if he learns nothing else.” “I don’t think men are awful,” Betsey said. “Dish ain’t.” “Let me be, Betsey,” Clara said. “Put Martin to bed.” She opened the letter—just a few words in a scrawling hand: Dear Clara—I would be obliged if you’d look after Lorie. I fear she’ll take this hard.I’m down to one leg now and this life is fading fast, so I can’t say more. Good luck to you and your gals, I hope you do well with the horses.Gus Clara went out on her porch and sat, twisting her hands, for an hour. She could see that the men were below, still smoking, but they were silent. It’s too much death, she thought. Why does it keep coming to me?

“没什么，贝琪，”克拉拉说。“只是一个疯狂的女人在自言自语。”“马丁表现得好像胃疼，”贝琪抱怨道。“妈妈，你不必对他那么刻薄。”克拉拉转过身来。“我不会让他吐出食物的，”她说。“男人之所以糟糕，是因为有些女人宠坏了他们。如果马丁什么也学不到，他就会学会礼貌。”“我不认为男人糟糕，”贝齐说。“菜不行。”“让我来吧，贝琪，”克拉拉说。“让马丁上床睡觉。”她打开信，用潦草的笔迹写了几句话：亲爱的克拉拉，如果你能照顾洛丽，我将不胜感激。我担心她会很难过的。我现在只剩下一条腿了，生活正在迅速消逝，所以我不能再说了。祝你和你的女儿们好运，我希望你和马相处得很好。格斯·克拉拉走到门廊上，扭着手坐了一个小时。她可以看到下面的男人还在抽烟，但他们沉默不语。这是太多的死亡，她想。为什么它一直朝我走来？

The dark heavens gave no answer, and after a while she got up and went downstairs and out to Lorena, who still stood by the buggy, where she had been from the time Call arrived.

黑暗的天空没有回答，过了一会儿，她站起来，下楼去找洛蕾娜，洛蕾娜仍然站在马车旁，从Call到达时起，她就一直在那里。

“Do you want me to read you this letter?” she said, knowing the girl couldn’t read. “It’s bad handwriting.” Lorena held the letter tightly in her hand. “No, I’ll just keep it,” she said. “He put my name on it. I can read that. I’ll just keep if.” She didn’t want Clara to see the letter. It was hers from Gus. What the words were didn’t matter.

“你想让我给你读这封信吗？”她说，知道女孩不会读。“字迹很差。”洛蕾娜把信紧紧地握在手里。“不，我就留着吧，”她说。“他把我的名字写在上面。我能读懂。我会坚持的。”她不想让克拉拉看到那封信。这是格斯送给她的。话是什么并不重要。

Clara stood with her for a bit and went back in.

克拉拉和她站了一会儿，又走了进去。

The moon rose late, and when it did the men walked to the little shack by the lots where they slept. The old Mexican was coughing. Later Lorena heard the Captain get his bedroll and walk away with it. She was glad when the lights went out in the house and the men were all gone. It made it easier to believe Gus knew she was there.

月亮升起得很晚，当月亮升起时，男人们走到他们睡觉的地方旁边的小屋。老墨西哥人在咳嗽。后来，洛蕾娜听到船长拿着他的床单走了。当房子里的灯熄灭，男人们都走了，她很高兴。这让人更容易相信格斯知道她在那里。

They’ll all forget you—they got their doings, she thought. But I won’t, Gus. Whenever it comes morning or night, I’ll think of you. You come and got me away from him. She can forget and they can forget, but I won’t, never, Gus.

他们都会忘记你的——他们有他们的所作所为，她想。但我不会的，格斯。无论何时清晨或夜晚，我都会想起你。你来把我从他身边带走了。她可以忘记，他们也可以忘记，但我不会，永远不会，格斯。

The next morning Lorena still stood by the buggy. The men scarcely knew what to think about it. Call was perplexed. Clara made breakfast as silently as she had presided over supper. They could all look out the window and see the blond girl standing like a statue by the buggy, the letter from Augustus clutched in her hand.

第二天早上，洛蕾娜仍然站在马车旁。男人们几乎不知道该怎么想。电话很困惑。克拉拉像主持晚餐一样安静地做早餐。他们都可以往窗外看，看到那个金发女孩像雕像一样站在马车旁，手里抓着奥古斯都的信。

“For that girl’s sake I wish you’d forget your promise, Mister Call,” Clara said finally.

“看在那个女孩的份上，我希望你忘记你的承诺，通话先生，”克拉拉最后说。

“I can’t forget no promise to a friend,” Call said. “Though I do agree it’s foolish and told him so myself.” “People lose their minds over things like this,” Clara said. “Gus was all to that girl. Who’ll help me, if she loses hers?” Dish wanted to say that he would, but couldn’t get the words out. The sight of Lorie, standing in grief, made him so unhappy that he wished he’d never set foot in the town of Lonesome Dove. Yet he loved her, though he could not approach her.

“我不能忘记对朋友的承诺，”Call说。“虽然我确实同意这很愚蠢，我自己也告诉过他。”“人们对这样的事情会失去理智，”克拉拉说。“格斯就是那个女孩的全部。如果她输了，谁来帮我？”Dish想说他会的，但说不出来。看到洛里悲伤地站着，他非常不高兴，真希望自己从来没有踏足过孤独的鸽子镇。然而，他爱她，虽然他不能接近她。

Clara saw that it was hopeless to hammer at Call. He would go unless she shot him. His face was set, and only the fact that the girl stood by the buggy had kept him from leaving already. It angered her that Gus had been so perverse as to extract such a promise. There was no proportion in it—being drug three thousand miles to be buried at a picnic site.

克拉拉看出，打电话是没有希望的。除非她开枪打死他，否则他会走的。他的脸是固定的，只有女孩站在马车旁的事实让他还没有离开。格斯竟然做出这样的承诺，这让她很生气。这其中没有任何比例——三千英里外的毒品被埋在野餐地点。

Probably he had been delirious and would have withdrawn the request at once if he had been allowed a lucid moment.

也许他当时神志不清，如果让他清醒一下，他会立刻撤回请求。

What angered her most was Gus’s selfishness in regard to Call’s son. He had been a sweet boy with lonesome eyes, polite.

最让她恼火的是格斯对Call儿子的自私。他是个眼神孤独、彬彬有礼的可爱男孩。

He was the kind of boy she would have given anything to raise, and here, for a romantic whim, Gus had seen to it that father and son were separated.

他是那种她愿意付出一切来抚养的男孩，在这里，出于浪漫的突发奇想，格斯已经把父子分开了。

It seemed so wrong to her, and raised such anger in her, that for a moment she was almost tempted to shoot Call, just to thwart Gus. Not kill, but shoot him enough to keep him down until Gus could be buried and the folly checked.Then, between one minute and the next, Lorena crumpled to the ground, unconscious. Clara knew it was only a faint, but the men had to carry her in and upstairs. Clara shooed them out as soon as she could, and put Betsey to watching her. By that time Captain Call had mounted and hitched the brown mule to the buggy and mounted his horse. He was ready to go.

在她看来，这太不对了，在她心中激起了极大的愤怒，有那么一瞬间，她几乎想开枪打电话，只是为了阻止格斯。不是杀他，而是射杀他，直到格斯被埋葬，愚蠢的行为得到制止。然后，在一分钟和下一分钟之间，洛雷纳瘫倒在地，失去了知觉。克拉拉知道这只是一个微弱的信号，但男人们不得不把她抬进楼上。克拉拉尽快把他们赶走，让贝琪看着她。到那时，Call船长已经骑上马车，把棕色的骡子拴在马车上，骑上了马。他准备走了。