【荆棘鸟】第六章 08

 I'll make you sell yourself like any painted whore. Do you doubt it?"

He leaned back, smiling. "I don't doubt you'll try. But I don't think you know me as well as you think you do."
"Do I not? Time will tell, Ralph, and only time. I'm old; I have nothing but time left to me."
"And what do you think I have?" he asked. "Time, Mary, nothing but time. Time, and dust, and flies."
The clouds heaped themselves in the sky, and Paddy began to hope for rain. "Dry storms," said Mary Carson. "We won't get rain out of this. We won't get any rain for a long time."
If the Clearys thought they had seen the worst that Australia could offer in the way of climatic harshness, it was because they hadn't yet experienced the dry storms of drought-dogged plains. Bereft 1 of soothing 2 dampness, the dryness of the earth and the air rubbed each other raw and crackling, an irritating friction 3 which built up and up and up until it could end only in a gargantuan 4 dissipation of accumulated energy. The sky dropped and darkened so much Fee had to light the lamps indoors; out in the stockyards the horses shivered and jumped at the slightest noise; the hens sought their perches 5 and sank their heads into apprehensive 6 breasts; the dogs fought and snarled 7; the tame pigs which rooted among the rubbish of, the station dump burrowed 8 their snouts into the dust and peered out of it with bright, skittish 9 eyes. Brooding forces pent in the heavens struck fear into the bones of all living things, as the vast deep clouds swallowed the sun whole and prepared to spew solar fire over the earth.Thunder came marching from far away with increasing tread, tiny flickers 10 on the horizon cast soaring billows into sharp relief, crests 11 of startling whiteness foamed 12 and curled over midnight-blue depths. Then, with a roaring wind that sucked up the dust and flung it stinging in eyes and ears and mouths, came the cataclysm 13. No longer did they try to imagine the biblical wrath 14 of God; they lived through it. No man could have kept himself from jumping when the thunder cracked-it exploded with the noise and fury of a disintegrating 15 world-but after a while the assembled household grew so inured 16 to it they crept out onto the veranda 17 and stared across the creek 18 at the far paddocks. Great forks of lightning stood ribbed in veins 19 of fire all around the sky, dozens of bolts each and every moment; 
 

但是，我会让你尝尝自己弱点的苦果，我要让你像任何一个描眉涂唇的妓女一样出卖自己。你对此表示怀疑吗？"
　　他往后一靠，微笑着。"我不怀疑你会一试。不过，我并不认为你象你自己想象的那样了解我。"
　　"我不了解你吗？时间会证明的，拉尔夫，只有时间才能证明。我老了，留给我的除了时间以外就一无所有了。"
　　"那么你认为我有什么呢？"他问道。"时间，玛丽，除了时间我一无所有。只有时间、尘土和苍蝇。"
　　天空中浓云密布，帕迪开始觉得下雨在望了。
　　"这是干风暴。"玛丽·卡森说。"这种天下不了雨，我们会很长时间见不到雨水的。"
　　如果说，克利里家的人认为他们见到的是澳大利亚能够出现的最糟糕的气候的话，那是因为他们未曾经历过干旱的平原上的干风暴。由于失去了令人感到快慰的潮湿，干燥的大地和空气互相摩擦，使土地裸露、龟裂；一种令人恼火的摩擦力愈来愈大。只有到这种巨大的累积能量耗尽，才算完事。云层低压，天昏地暗，菲只得打开了室内的灯；在外面的牲畜围场里，马正在发抖，微微骚动地跳着；母鸡在寻找栖息的地方，忧惧地将头缩在胸前；狗在厮打着、吠叫着；牧场垃圾堆边上的猪把鼻子拱进土里，那闪闪发光的、胆颤心惊的眼睛住外看着。天空中黑云低压的力量使一切活着的东西都惊惶万状，厚密无垠的云层完全遮住了太阳，好像在准备让太阳的光焰突然喷射到大地上似的。
　　愈来愈响的雷声从远方传来，摇曳不定的闪光在地平线上闪动，雷声如涛，清晰地映出了起伏不平的地平线；漆黑、深邃的夜空中，令人惊骇的白色闪光在发怒，在舒卷。这时，怒吼的狂风卷起了尘土，打在人的眼上、耳上、口上，生疼生疼的；天地大变了。人们不再把这想象成《圣经》中上帝的天谴神罚，他们顶住了这场灾难。当惊雷炸裂的时候，没有人能不吓一跳--它轰然炸开，好像要狂怒地把世界炸成碎片--但过了一会儿，住在一起的这一大家子人就习惯了。他们提心吊胆地走到外面的走廊里，眼光越过小河，凝望着远处的牧场；闪电的巨大火舌象脉络似地漫天交叉闪动、天空中一刹那出现十几条闪电：