在这一页里,Scarlett谈论的还是她感兴趣的主题,即使Stuart兄弟东拉西扯的一大堆马这个,马那个。Scarlett简单的问了一句,你妈妈会骑着它去参加烧烤吗?什么是重点?不是马是烧烤,所以用文字塑造人物,这点小技巧你感受到了吗?
"Of course she won't hit Boyd. She never did heat Boyd much because he's the oldest and besides he's the runt of the litter," said Stuart, proud of his six feet two. "That's why we left him at home to explain things to her. God'lmighty, Ma ought to stop licking us! We're nineteen and Tom's twenty one, and she acts like we're six years old."
Stuart对自己的身高非常自信,proud of his six feet two. 儿子自己觉得长大了,但他们的母亲还时不时的lick them,啊,多么不协调!同时,Boyd长的是the runt of the litter. 什么意思呢?the smallest animal born in a litter. 按照一般的想法,你肯定会查一下什么是runt, 什么是litter,其实没有必要。如果你把理解的单位一直停留在单词的层次,学的再多本质上还是单词,所以把the runt of the litter作为一个理解单位吧,runt或litter不理解又怎么啦?上海话“白相相”就是玩玩的意思,你要是非得搞明白1+1+1的1,你以为在学语言,钻牛角而已。the runt of the litter就是猪仔,广东人叫衰仔,翻译上是矮子,理解起来有点“矮冬瓜”的意味。虽然你看到这里,还没有一个确定的称呼,又何妨?你非得要一个,先分享一段英文解释:
The phrase 'runt of the litter' refers to the smallest puppy in a litter of pups. After birth, this pup will have a greater challenge in competing for food among the larger pups. Sometimes the 'runt' is not able to get enough food on it's own and may become weaker. Sometimes the 'runt' has an intense survival instinct and fights hard to compete and succeeds. So the phrase 'runt of the litter' often is used to describe a child who may be smaller in size but who has an intense survival instinct.
结合上下文,可以理解为,“他是老大,妈妈即使不看年龄看他的五短身材也狠不下手”
"Will your mother ride the new horse to the Wilkes barbecue tomorrow?"
"She wants to, but Pa says he's too dangerous. And, anyway, the girls won't let her. They said they were going to have her go to one party at least like lady, riding in the carriage."
"I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow," said Scarlett. "It's rained nearly every day for a week. There's nothing worse than a barbecue turned into an indoor picnic."
为什么在Scarlett看来BBQ要在户外呢?够野性够自由!人物的性格是如何传达的?又学到一招。
"Oh it'll be clear tomorrow and hot as June," said Stuart. "Look at that sunset. I never saw one redder. You can always tell weather by sunsets."
很多人对于怎么描写夕阳无从下笔,但通红彤天的夕阳应该让人印象深刻。在英语中表达红色概念的还有crimson, 这是一个好词,唯有deep purplish red的解释将她和red有个分明的对比,直接在英语中体味很多时候比中文的释义更精准。
They looked out across the endless acres of Gerald O'Hara's newly plowed cotton fields toward the red horizon. Now that the sun was setting in a welter of crimson behind the hills across the Flint River, the warmth of the April day was ebbing into a faint but balmy chill.
a welter of 就是a confused mass. 什么是balmy chill? soft or mild and pleasant, 仅仅一个chill是有点freezing的感觉,但加上balmy,哇哦,有点冷嗖嗖?不,凉丝丝!或者更诗意一点,丝丝凉意。
Spring had come early that year, with warm quick rains and sudden frothing of pink peach blossoms and dogwood dappling with white stars the dark river swamp and far-off hills. Already the plowing was nearly finished, and the bloody glory of the sunset colored the fresh-cut furrows of red Georgia clay to even redder hues. The moist hungry earth, waiting upturned for the cotton seeds, showed pinkish on the sandy tops of furrows, vermilion and scarlet and maroon where shadows lay along the sides of the trenches. The white washed brick plantation house seemed an island set in a wild red sea, a sea of spiraling, curving, crescent billows petrified suddenly at the moment when the pink-tipped waves were breaking into surf. For here were no long, straignt furrows, such as could be seen in the yellow clay fields of the flat middle Georgia country or in the lush black earth of the coastal plantations. The rolling foothill country of north Georgia was plowed in a million curves to keep the rich earth from washing down into the river bottoms.
这一段要好好品品,西方文学里的酸味就在这里, 好似恒顺的香醋一样敦厚,浪漫,劲够。春天伴随着warm quick rain,雨啊下的忙急又有春的温意,在雨水下还有pink peach blossoms, 可比桃花相映红。但这花朵竟然frothing, 此何词也?an aggregation of bubbles, 哦原来是花蕾的一种形态,含苞欲放,在这春日中好称景啊!dogwood是须臾之臾,白色花,所以和white stars相应,给一大片的the dark river swamp点缀,如何点缀?dappling, a spot or mottled marking, especially in clusters. 而点缀的还有far-off hills, 有点印象派的画意。往下对于sunset的用词the bloody glory,似简笔泼墨的色块,勾勒残阳如血粗犷亮红,与red Georgia clay相映,红的color化合成even red hues. 再往下,大地也拟人化了。而那抹红一以贯之,vermilion, a brilliant scarlet 到scarlet,再到maroon, a brownish red. 红的风情万种,汇合成a wild red sea, plantation house就是红浪中的岛屿,此情此景在yellow clay看不到,在black earth看不到,只有在这里,在这rich earth中孕育的物、人、事风景独好。而这边红色大地的精灵Scarlett,也似早春般跃跃然登场,轰轰烈烈演绎......