The Chrysanthemums 菊花--约翰•斯坦贝克（2）
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。
