諾貝爾文學經典:《寵兒》第1章Part 18

It made sense for a lot of reasons because in all of Baby's life, as well as Sethe's own, men andwomen were moved around like checkers. Anybody Baby Suggs knew, let alone loved, who hadn'trun off or been hanged, got rented out, loaned out, bought up, brought back, stored up, mortgaged,won, stolen or seized. So Baby's eight children had six fathers. What she called the nastiness of lifewas the shock she received upon learning that nobody stopped playing checkers just because thepieces included her children. Halle she was able to keep the longest. Twenty years. A lifetime.
Given to her, no doubt, to make up for hearing that her two girls, neither of whom had their adultteeth, were sold and gone and she had not been able to wave goodbye. To make up for couplingwith a straw boss for four months in exchange for keeping her third child, a boy, with her — onlyto have him traded for lumber in the spring of the next year and to find herself pregnant by the manwho promised not to and did. That child she could not love and the rest she would not.
"God takewhat He would," she said. And He did, and He did, and He did and then gave her Halle who gaveher freedom when it didn't mean a thing.
Sethe had the amazing luck of six whole years ofmarriage to that "somebody" son who had fathered every one of her children. A blessing she wasreckless enough to take for granted, lean on, as though Sweet Home really was one. As though ahandful of myrtle stuck in the handle of pressing iron propped against the door in awhitewoman's kitchen could make it hers. As tho(a) ugh mint sprig in the mouth changed the breath aswell as its odor. A bigger fool never lived.

這話說得通，有很多理由，因爲在貝比的一生裏，還有在塞絲自己的生活中，男男女女都像棋子一樣任人擺佈。所有貝比·薩格斯認識的人，更不用提愛過的了，只要沒有跑掉或吊死，就得被租用，被出借，被購入，被送還，被儲存，被抵押，被贏被偷被掠奪。所以貝比的八個孩子有六個父親。她驚愕地發現人們並不因爲棋子中包括她的孩子而停止下這盤棋，這便是她所說的生活的齷齪。黑爾是她能留得最久的。二十年。一輩子。
毫無疑問，是給她的補償，因爲當她聽說她的兩個還都未換牙的女兒被賣掉、帶走的時候，她連再見都沒能說上一聲。是補償，因爲她跟一個工頭同居了四個月，作爲交換，她能把第三個孩子，一個兒子，留在身邊———誰想到來年春天他被拿去換了木材，而那個不守信用的傢伙又弄大了她的肚子。那個孩子她不能愛，而其餘的她根本不去愛。
“上帝想帶誰走就帶誰走。”她說。而且他帶走了一個一個又一個，最後給了她黑爾，而黑爾給了她那時已一文不值的自由。
塞絲三生有幸與那個“人物”兒子度過了整整六年的婚姻生活，還跟他生了她的每一個孩子。她滿不在乎地覺得福氣是理所當然而又靠得住的，好像“甜蜜之家”果真是個甜蜜之家似的。好像用把上纏着桃金娘的烙鐵支住白女人廚房的門，廚房就屬於她了。好像嘴裏的薄荷枝改變了呼吸的味道，也就改變了嘴本身的氣味。世上沒有更蠢的傻瓜了。