【简介】感谢网友“雕龙文库”参与投稿，这里小编给大家分享一些，方便大家学习。
Elisa is a young married lady working on an isolated farm and proud of her skills in growing flowers. One day, she suddenly feels a desire to communicate with the outside world. What happens to her? Please read the following story.
年轻媳妇伊利莎住在一家偏僻的农场，一手高超的种花技能令她自豪。一天，她突然有了与外界交流的愿望。有什么故事发生呢?请您往下看。
The high grey-flannel fog of winter closed off the Salinas Valley from the sky and from all the rest of the world. On every side it sat like a lid on the mountains and made of the great valley a closed pot. On the broad, level land floor the gang plows bit deep and left the black earth shining like metal where the shares had cut. On the foothill ranches across the Salinas River, the yellow stubble fields seemed to be bathed in pale cold sunshine, but there was no sunshine in the valley now in December. The thick willow scrub along the river flamed with sharp and positive yellow leaves.
飘荡在半空中的冬雾呈现出灰法兰绒色，将萨利纳斯山谷严实地罩了起来;同时也把它与外界分隔开。雾气锁着山头，四面象顶盖子，而山谷则成了一口盖得严严实实的深锅。农民在宽阔平坦的土地上深耕，犁铧过处，黑色的土地闪着金属的光泽。在横卧萨利纳斯河的丘陵地上，农场里的茬地泛着黄色，象是沐浴在冷冷的苍白日光下;不过，现在时至腊月，山谷里没什么阳光。河边上密密麻麻的柳丛上的黄叶颜色鲜浓，象着了火似的。
It was a time of quiet and of waiting. The air was cold and tender. A light wind blew up from the southwest so that the farmers were mildly hopeful of a good rain before long; but fog and rain do not go together.
这是一个安静，叫人等待的季节。空气凉凉的，柔柔的。从西南方向吹来一阵轻风，农民们隐隐地感到不久会有一场及时雨，但雨和雾是不 一起来的。
Across the river, on Henry Allen's foothill ranch there was little work to be done, for the hay was cut and stored and the orchards were plowed up to receive the rain deeply when it should come. The cattle on the higher slopes were becoming shaggy and rough-coated.
河对岸亨利•埃伦家位于丘陵上的农场里已经没什么活计了：干草都收割过并存放了起来，果园业已深翻过，好等到有雨的时候浇个透底墒。高处山坡上的牛变得毛皮杂乱粗糙。
Elisa Allen, working in her flower garden, looked down across the yard and saw Henry, her husband, talking to two men in business suits. The three of them stood by the tractor shed, each man with one foot on the side of the little Fordson. They smoked cigarettes and studied the machine as they talked.
伊利莎•埃伦正在花园里干活儿，穿过院子朝远处望时，她看见丈夫亨利正在与两个身着工作服的人交谈。三个人都站在拖拉机棚边上，一只脚蹬在那辆小型福特牌拖拉机的一侧。说话的时候，他们边抽着烟，边打量拖拉机。
Elisa watched them for a moment and then went back to her work. She was thirty-five. Her face was lean and strong and her eyes were as clear as water. Her figure looked blocked and heavy in her gardening costume, a man's black hat pulled low down over her eyes, clod-hopper shoes, a figured print dress almost completely covered by a big corduroy apron with four big pockets to hold the snips, the trowel and scratcher, the seeds and the knife she worked with. She wore heavy leather gloves to protect her hands while she worked.
伊利莎看了他们一会儿，又继续忙自己的活儿。她今年三十五岁，脸庞瘦俏并透着坚毅，一双眼睛清澈如水。由于穿着园艺工作服，她显得鼓囊囊的、有点儿笨拙。她头上戴着一顶男式的黑帽子，拉得很低，直到她的眼睛。脚上是一双粗笨的鞋子。下面穿的印花裙子几乎全给那个大号的灯心绒围裙遮盖了起来。围裙上有四个大口袋，用来放她干活时用的剪刀、泥铲、刮管器、种子和刀。干活时她戴着厚厚的皮手套，免得弄伤手。
She was cutting down the old year's chrysanthemum stalks with a pair of short and powerful scissors. She looked down toward the men by the tractor shed now and then. Her face was eager and mature and handsome; even her work with the scissors was over-eager, over-powerful. The chrysanthemum stems seemed too small and easy for her energy.
她这会儿正用一把锋利的小剪子把去年的菊花枝剪短，还不时朝站在拖拉机棚边上的三个男人望一望。她的脸上充满着渴望，看起来成熟漂亮——甚至连她拿着剪刀干活的样子都显得那么有力，饱含期待，以至于那些菊花的枯杆相比之下都显得纤细柔弱，容易收拾了。
She brushed a cloud of hair out of her eyes with the back of her glove, and left a smudge of earth on her cheek in doing it. Behind her stood the neat white farm house with red geraniums close-banked around it as high as the windows. It was a hard-swept looking little house with hard-polished windows, and a clean mud-mat on the front steps.
她用手套的背部将眼前的一绺乌发抹开，一点污渍就留在了她的脸颊上。她身后是整洁的白色农舍，红色的天竺葵紧紧地簇拥着，直到窗户附近。看得出这座不大的屋子好好打扫过，窗户也曾细心地擦拭过，就连前面台阶上的擦鞋垫都收拾得干干净净。
Elisa cast another glance toward the tractor shed. The strangers were getting into their Ford coupe. She took off a glove and put her strong fingers down into the forest of new green chrysanthemum sprouts that were growing around the old roots. She spread the leaves and looked down among the close-growing stems. No aphids were there, no sowbugs or snails or cutworms. Her terrier fingers destroyed such pests before they could get started.
伊利莎又朝拖拉机棚的方向看了一眼，那些陌生人正钻进他们的福特牌小客车里。她脱掉一只手套，将自己有力的手指伸到从老的菊花根部新生的一丛幼苗里，然后分开叶子，在长得郁郁葱葱的幼苗里查看。里面蚜虫、潮虫、蜗牛、毛虫什么的都没有。如果真有的话，她那犀利无比的手指也会在这些害虫逃跑之前就将它们消灭。
Elisa started at the sound of her husband's voice. He had come near quietly, and he leaned over the wire fence that protected her flower garden from cattle and dogs and chickens.
听到丈夫的声音，伊利莎吃了一惊。原来他已经悄悄地走到了她的旁边，从铁丝栅栏那边俯过身来。铁丝栅栏把她的花园圈了起来，免得牛呀，狗呀，鸡呀这些家畜糟蹋。
"At it again," he said. "You've got a strong new crop coming." Elisa straightened her back and pulled on the gardening glove again: "Yes. They'll be strong this coming year." In her tone and on her face there was a little smugness. "You've got a gift with things," Henry observed. "Some of those yellow chrysanthemums you had this year were ten inches across. I wish you'd work out in the orchard and raise some apples that big." Her eyes sharpened. "Maybe I could do it, too. I've a gift with things, all right. My mother had it. She could stick anything in the ground and make it grow. She said it was having planters' hands that knew how to do it." "Well, it sure works with flowers," he said. "Henry, who were those men you were talking to?" "Why, sure, that's what I came to tell you. They were from the Western Meat Company. I sold those thirty head of three-year-old steers. Got nearly my own price, too."
“又侍弄你的花儿啦，”他说，“它们今年长势好啊。”听到丈夫搭话，伊利莎直起身，顺手把那只手套又戴上：“对，今年长势会很好。”不管是言语中还是脸上都洋溢着得意。 “你干活儿很有一手，”亨利说，“你今年种的黄菊花中有的有十英寸那么大，真希望你去侍弄果园，也结出那么大的苹果来。”她的眼睛一亮。“或许我也能。我的确在种植方面有一手，我妈妈也是那样。她随便把什么东西往地下一插，就能活。她说是因为有了庄稼人的手才知道怎么去种植。”“嗯，种花也是这样的，”他说。“亨利，刚才同你说话的那些人是谁呀?”“啊，对了，我正要跟你说呢。他们是西部肉制品公司的。我把那三十头三岁的菜牛卖给他们，差不多是我要的价格。”
"Good," she said. "Good for you." "And I thought," he continued, "I thought how it's Saturday afternoon, and we might go into Salinas for dinner at a restaurant, and then to a picture show - to celebrate, you see." "Good," she repeated. "Oh, yes. That will be good." Henry put on his joking tone. "There's fights tonight. How'd you like to go to the fights?" "Oh, no," she said breathlessly. "No, I wouldn't like fights." "Just fooling, Elisa. We'll go to a movie. Let's see. It's two now. I'm going to take Scotty and bring down those steers from the hill. It'll take us maybe two hours. We'll go in town about five and have dinner at the Cominos Hotel. Like that?" "Of course I'll like it. It's good to eat away from home." "All right, then. I'll go get up a couple of horses." She said, "I'll have plenty of time to transplant some of these sets, I guess."
“太好了，”她说，“真有你的。” “我想，”他接着说，“现在是周六下午，我们可以去萨利纳斯的一家饭店吃顿饭，再去看场电影，庆祝一下，你看怎么样。”“太好了，”她重复道。“真是好极了。”亨利接着开玩笑说，“今天晚上有拳击赛，你愿意看吗?”“不，”她紧张地说，“我可不喜欢拳击赛。”“骗你哪，伊利莎。我们去看电影。让我想一下，现在是下午两点，我去叫斯哥迪，把牛赶下山。这大概要两个钟头。我们会在五点钟到城里，去克民诺斯酒店吃晚饭。你觉得怎么样?”“当然可以，在外面吃饭好。”“那好，我去准备几匹马。”“我想我会有充裕的时间把这些苗儿种上的。”伊利莎说。
She heard her husband calling Scotty down by the barn. And a little later she saw the two men ride up the pale yellow hillside in search of the steers. There was a little square sandy bed kept for rooting the chrysanthemums. With her trowel she turned the soil over and over, and smoothed it and patted it firm. Then she dug ten parallel trenches to receive the sets. Back at the chrysanthemum bed she pulled out the little crisp shoots, trimmed off the leaves of each one with her scissors and laid it on a small orderly pile.
继而，她听到丈夫在谷仓那儿叫斯哥迪。又过了一会儿，她看见他们两个骑着马，走上灰黄的山坡找菜牛。花园里有一块四四方方的沙地，是用来种菊花幼苗的。她用泥铲把土翻了又翻，又弄平，再拍结实。然后又挖了十道平行的小沟，好栽种菊苗。她从菊花园里拔了些脆嫩的幼苗，用剪刀剪掉叶子，然后整齐地放在一起。
A squeak of wheels and plod of hoofs came from the road. Elisa looked up. The country road ran along the dense bank of willows and cottonwoods that bordered the river, and up this road came a curious vehicle, curiously drawn. It was an old spring-wagon, with a round canvas top on it like the cover of a prairie schooner. It was drawn by an old bay horse and a little grey-and-white burro. A big stubble-bearded man sat between the cover flaps and drove the crawling team. Underneath the wagon, between the hind wheels, a lean and rangy mongrel dog walked sedately. Words were painted on the canvas, in clumsy, crooked letters. "Pots, pans, knives, scissors, lawn mowers. Fixed." Two rows of articles, and the triumphantly definitive "Fixed" below. The black paint had run down in little sharp points beneath each letter.
路边这时传来了车轮的吱嘎声和马蹄的声响。伊利莎抬起了头。河边上密密麻麻的柳树和杨树旁是条乡间小路，沿着这条路来了一辆奇怪的车，走的样子很怪。那是一辆老式的带弹簧的四轮马车，上面的帆布圆顶子象是拓荒者用的大篷车的顶篷。拉着它的是匹栗色的马和一头灰白的小毛驴。在车顶盖的下面坐着个胡子拉碴的人，赶着这辆车往前爬行。在马车后轮之间，一条瘦骨嶙峋的长腿杂种狗不声不响地跟着。车蓬的上面歪歪扭扭地写着“修理锅、罐、刀、剪子、割草机”。修理的器皿写了两行，“修理”两个字在下面，显得很自信。写字用的黑色颜料在每个字母下面都流成了一个 个小尖头。
Elisa, squatting on the ground, watched to see the crazy, loose-jointed wagon pass by. But it didn't pass. It turned into the farm road in front of her house, crooked old wheels skirling and squeaking. The rangy dog darted from between the wheels and ran ahead. Instantly the two ranch shepherds flew out at him. Then all three stopped, and with stiff and quivering tails, with taut straight legs, with ambassadorial dignity, they slowly circled, sniffing daintily. The caravan pulled up to Elisa's wire fence and stopped. Now the newcomer dog, feeling out-numbered, lowered his tail and retired under the wagon with raised hackles and bared teeth.
伊利莎蹲在地上，看着这辆怪模怪样、松松垮垮的马车驶过去。但它并没有从她的眼前过去，而是弯上了经过她家门前的农场小路，破旧的车轮吱嘎吱嘎尖厉地响着。车下面轮子间的那条瘦骨嶙峋的长腿狗冲到了马车的前面，马上，两条牧羊犬朝着它冲了上去。于是，三条狗都站住了，尾巴直竖着、颤抖着，绷紧了腿，带着外交官般的庄重神情。它们互相围着打转，挑剔地嗅着对方。大篷车在伊利莎家的铁丝栅栏边上停了下来。那条初来乍到的狗这时感觉到数量上的众寡悬殊，垂下尾巴，退回到车下，脖子上的毛竖着，牙齿露在外面。
The man on the wagon seat called out, "That's a bad dog in a fight when he gets started." Elisa laughed. "I see he is. How soon does he generally get started?" The man caught up her laughter and echoed it heartily. "Sometimes not for weeks and weeks,” he said. He climbed stiffly down, over the wheel. The horse and the donkey drooped like unwatered flowers. Elisa saw that he was a very big man. Although his hair and beard were greying, he did not look old. His worn black suit was wrinkled and spotted with grease. The laughter had disappeared from his face and eyes the moment his laughing voice ceased. His eyes were dark, and they were full of the brooding that gets in the eyes of teamsters and of sailors. The calloused hands he rested on the wire fence were cracked, and every crack was a black line. He took off his battered hat.
坐在车上的男人喊道，“这条狗打架受惊时不是条好狗。”伊利莎笑道，“我看是的，它一般要多久就会受惊?”那人被伊利莎的笑声感染，也大声地笑了起来。“ 有时好几周也不会，”他说。说着，他生硬地从车轮上爬下车。那匹马和那头毛驴耷拉着脑袋，象缺了水的花。伊利莎看得出他是个大块头，虽然头发胡子都白了，却并不显老。褴褛的黑色西装皱皱巴巴的，还有星星点点的油渍。笑声一停，他眼角眉梢的笑容也顿时没了。他双眼乌黑，充满忧郁，这种眼神通常只出现在卡车司机或水手的眼里。他放在铁丝栅栏上的手打满了老茧，裂着一条条黑乎乎的口子。他脱下了那顶破烂的帽子。
"I'm off my general road, ma'am," he said. "Does this dirt road cut over across the river to the Los Angeles highway?" Elisa stood up and shoved the thick scissors in her apron pocket. "Well, yes, it does, but it winds around and then fords the river. I don't think your team could pull through the sand." He replied with some asperity, "It might surprise you what them beasts can pull through." "When they get started?" she asked. He smiled for a second. "Yes. When they get started." "Well," said Elisa, "I think you'll save time if you go back to the Salinas road and pick up the highway there." He drew a big finger down the chicken wire and made it sing. "I ain't in any hurry, ma'am. I go from Seattle to San Diego and back every year. Takes all my time. About six months each way. I aim to follow nice weather."
“夫人，我走岔路了，”他说，“沿这条土路过河上得了去洛山矶的公路吗?”伊利莎站了起来，把那把大剪子放到围裙口袋里。“啊，上得了。不过，这条路要绕很远，然后还要从水中蹚过河，我想你很难走过那片沙滩。”他粗暴地回答，“要是你知道这些家伙都走过什么样的地方，或许会吃惊的。”“一旦它们受惊吗?” 她问。他笑了一笑。“是的，一旦它们受惊。”“嗯，”伊利莎说，“我想，要是你拐回去到萨利纳斯的路，再从那儿上公路，会省些时间。”他用一个大手指弹了一下栅栏，它响了起来。“我一点儿都不着急，夫人。我每年从西雅图走到圣地亚哥，再回来，总是不慌不忙。一趟大概半年光景，哪儿的天气好我就往哪儿走。”
Elisa took off her gloves and stuffed them in the apron pocket with the scissors. She touched the under edge of her man's hat, searching for fugitive hairs. "That sounds like a nice kind of a way to live," she said. He leaned confidentially over the fence. "Maybe you noticed the writing on my wagon. I mend pots and sharpen knives and scissors. You got any of them things to do?" "Oh, no," she said quickly. "Nothing like that." Her eyes hardened with resistance. "Scissors is the worst thing," he explained. "Most people just ruin scissors trying to sharpen ‘em, but I know how. I got a special tool. It's a little bobbit kind of thing, and patented. But it sure does the trick." "No. My scissors are all sharp." "All right, then. Take a pot," he continued earnestly, "a bent pot, or a pot with a hole. I can make it like new so you don't have to buy no new ones. That's a saving for you." "No," she said shortly. "I tell you I have nothing like that for you to do."
