姚国志
《榆树下的欲望》张晞
PART II SCENE TWO∙ DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
About eight in the evening. The interior of the two bedrooms on the top floor is shown. Eben is sitting on the side of his bed in the room on the left. On account of the heat he has taken off everything but his undershirt and pants. His feet are bare. He faces front, brooding moodily, his chin propped on his hands, a desperate expression on his face.
In the other room Cabot and Abbie are sitting side by side on the edge of their bed, an old four-poster with feather mattress. He is in his night shirt, she in her nightdress. He is still in the queer, excited mood into which the notion of a son has thrown him. Both rooms are lighted dimly and flickeringly by tallow candles.
三会
CABOT--The farm needs a son.
ABBIE--I need a son.
CABOT--Ay-eh. Sometimes ye air the farm an' sometimes the farm be yew. That's why I clove t' ye in my lonesomeness. (A pause. He pounds his knee with his fist.) Me an' the farm has got t' beget a son!
ABBIE--Ye'd best go t' sleep. Ye're gittin' thin's all mixed.
CABOT--(with an impatient gesture) No, I hain't. My mind's clear's a well. Ye don't know me, that's it. (He stares hopelessly at the floor.)
ABBIE--(indifferently) Mebbe. (In the next room Eben gets up and paces up and down distractedly. Abbie hears him. Her eyes fasten on the intervening wall with concentrated attention. Eben stops and stares. Their hot glances seem to meet through the wall. Unconsciously he stretches out his arms for her and she half rises. Then aware, he mutters a curse at himself and flings himself face downward on the bed, his clenched fists above his head, his face buried in the pillow. Abbie relaxes with a faint sigh but her eyes remain fixed on the wall; she listens with all her attention for some movement from Eben.)
CABOT--(suddenly raises his head and looks at her--scornfully辽宁中医药大学学报
) Will ye ever know me--'r will any man 'r woman? (shaking his head) No. I calc'late 'twa'n't t' be. (He turns away. Abbie look at the wall. Then, evidently unable to keep silent about his thoughts, without looking at his wife, he puts out his hand and clutches her knee. She starts violently, looks at him, sees he is not watching her, concentrates again on the wall and pays no attention to what he says.) Listen, Abbie. When I come here fifty odd year ago--I was jest twenty an' the strongest an' hardest ye ever seen--ten times as strong an' fifty times as hard as Eben. Waal--this place was nothin' but fields o' stones. Folks laughed when I tuk it. They couldn't know what I knowed. When ye kin make corn sprout out o' stones, God's livin' in yew! They wa'n't strong enuf fur that! They reckoned God was easy. They laughed. They don't laugh no more. Some died hereabouts. Some went West an' died. They're all under ground--fur follerin' arter an easy God. God hain't easy. (He shakes his head slowly.) An' I growed hard. Folks kept allus sayin' he's a hard man like 'twas sinful t' be hard, so's at last I said back at 'em: Waal then, by thunder, ye'll git me hard an' see how ye like it! (then suddenly) But I give in t' weakness once. 'Twas arter I'd been here two year. I got w eak--despairful--they was so many stones. They was a party leavin', givin' up, goin' West. I jined 'em. We tracked on 'n' on. We come t' broad medders, plains, whar the soil was black an' rich as gold. Nary a stone. Easy. Ye'd on'y to plow an' sow an' then set an' smoke yer pipe an' watch thin's grow. I could o' been a rich man--but somethin' in me fit me an' fit me--the voice o' God sayin': "This hain't wuth nothin' t' Me. Git ye back t' hum!" I got afeerd o' that voice an' I lit out back t' hum here, leavin' my claim an' crops t' whoever'd a mind t' take em. Ay-eh. I actooly give up what was rightful mine! God's hard, not easy! God's in the stones! Build my church on a rock--out o' stones an' I'll be in them! That's what He meant t' Peter! (He sighs heavily--a pause.) Stones. I picked 'em up an' piled 'em into walls. Ye kin read the years o' my life in them walls, every day a hefted stone, climbin' over the hills up and down, fencin' in the fields that was mine, whar I'd made thin's grow out o' nothin'--like the will o' God, like the servant o' His hand. It wa'n't easy. It was hard an' He made me hard fur it. (He pauses.) All the time I kept gittin' lonesomer. I tuk a wife. She bore Simeon an' Peter. She was a good woman. She wuked hard. We was married twenty year. She never knowed me. She helped but she never kno
wed what she was helpin'. I was allus lonesome. She died. After that it wa'n't so lonesome fur a spell. (a pause) I lost count o' the years. I had no time t' fool away countin' 'em. Sim an' Peter helped. The farm growed. It was all mine! When I thought o' that I didn't feel lonesome. (a pause) But ye can't hitch yer mind t' one thin' day an' night. I tuk another wife--Eben's Maw. Her folks was contestin' me at law over my deeds t' the farm--my farm! That's why Eben keeps a-talkin' his fool talk o' this bein' his Maw's farm. She bore Eben. She was purty--but soft. She tried t' be hard. She couldn't. She never knowed me nor nothin'. It was lonesomer 'n hell with her. After a matter o' sixteen odd years, she died. (a pause) I lived with the boys. They hated me 'cause I was hard. I hated them 'cause they was soft. They coveted the farm without knowin' what it meant. It made me bitter 'n wormwood. It aged me--them coveting what I'd made fur mine. Then this spring the call come--the voice o' God cryin' in my wilderness, in my lonesomeness--t' go out an' seek an' find! (turning to her with strange passion中国
工业经济) I sought ye an' I found ye! Yew air my Rose o' Sharon! Yer eyes air like. . . . (She has turned a blank face, resentful eyes to his. He stares at her for a moment--then harshly) Air ye any the wiser fur all I've told ye?
ABBIE--(confusedly) Mebbe.
CABOT--(pushing her away from him--angrily) Ye don't know nothin'--nor never will. If ye don't hev a son t' redeem ye . . . ! (This in a tone of cold threat.)
ABBIE--(resentfully) I prayed, hain't I?
CABOT--(bitterly) Pray agen--fur understanding!
ABBIE--(a veiled threat in her tone) Ye'll have a son out o' me, I promise ye.
CABOT--How kin ye promise?
杨白冰模式ABBIE--I got second-sight, mebbe. I kin foretell. (She gives a queer smile.)
CABOT--I believe ye have. Ye give me the chills sometimes. (He shivers.) It's cold in this house. It's oneasy. They's thin's pokin' about in the dark--in the corners. (He pulls on his trousers, tucking in his night shirt, and pulls on his boots.)
ABBIE--(surprised) Whar air ye goin'?
CABOT--(queerly) Down whar it's restful--whar it's warm--down t' the barn. (bitterly) I kin talk t' the cows. They know. They know the farm an' me. They'll give me peace. (He turns to go out the door.)
ABBIE--(a bit frightenedly) Air ye ailin' tonight, Ephraim?
CABOT--Growin'. Growin' ripe on the bough. (He turns and goes, his boots clumping down the stairs. Eben sits up with a start, listening. Abbie is conscious of his movement and stares at the wall. Cabot comes out of the house around the corner and stands by the gate, blinking at the sky. He stretches up his hands in a tortured gesture.) God A'mighty, call from the dark! (He listens as if expecting an answer. Then his arms drop, he shakes his head and plods off toward the barn. Eben and Abbie stare at each other through the wall. Eben sighs heavily and Abbie echoes it. Both become terribly nervous, uneasy. Finally Abbie gets up and listens, her ear to the wall. He acts as if he saw every move she was making, he becomes resolutely still. She seems driven into a decision--goes out the door in rear determinedly. His eyes follow her. Then as the door of his room i
s opened softly, he turns away, waits in an attitude of strained fixity. Abbie stands for a second staring at him, her eyes burning with desire. Then with a little cry she runs over and throws her arms about his neck, she pulls his head back and covers his mouth with kisses. At first, he submits dumbly; then he puts his arms about her neck and returns her kisses, but finally, suddenly aware of his hatred, he hurls her away from him, springing to his feet. They stand speechless and breathless, panting like two animals.)
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