|
人鼠之间（Of Mice And Men），美国小说，1937年出版，是美国作家 约翰·斯坦贝克的作品。
故事情节简单，涵盖的时间不超过三天，地点是一个美国加州的一个牧场。描写两个相互扶持的好朋友（George曾骗老板他们是表兄弟）——一位是精明的乔治（George），一位是轻度智障儿雷尼（Lennie）。雷尼因为社会适应较差，老是犯错，搞的两人无奈地到处换工作。在富人奥谢（Tyler Ranch）的牧场里，他们努力工作编织梦想，乔治答应雷尼如果他听话不要闯祸，将来就可以为自己照顾一窝的兔子，眼看着梦想就要成真。有一次雷尼失手勒死了奥谢儿子柯利的太太梅，铸成大错，为了躲避的农场伙计们的追打，雷尼逃跑了。当伙计们争先恐后地追杀雷尼时，乔治为了不让雷尼被农场伙计们杀死并受到侮辱，抢先找到雷尼。他举起枪来，把枪口挨近雷尼的后脑杓，将他射杀。 这部小说用来讽刺社会对弱者的歧视，反而不如雷尼对老鼠的疼惜，《人鼠之间》曾因“语言亵渎，带攻击性，并有种族主义倾向”被视为禁书。1962年史坦贝克因这部小说获得诺贝尔文学奖。  Of Mice and Men 人鼠之间
few miles south of Soledad, the Salinas River drops in close to the hillside bank and runs deep and green. The water is warm too, for it has slipped twinkling over the yellow sands in the sunlight before reaching the narrow pool. On one side of the river the golden foothill slopes curve up to the strong and rocky Gabilan Mountains, but on the valley side the water is lined with trees—willows fresh and green with every spring, carrying in their lower leaf junctures the debris of the winter’s flooding; and sycamores with mottled, white, recumbent limbs and branches that arch over the pool. On the sandy bank under the trees the leaves lie deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening, and the damp flats are covered with the night tracks of 'coons, and with the spreadpads of dogs from the ranches, and with the split-wedge tracks of deer that come to drink in the dark. he bunk house was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed and the floor unpainted. In three walls there were small, square windows, and in the fourth, a solid door with a wooden latch. Against the walls were eight bunks, five of them made up with blankets and the other three showing their burlap ticking. Over each bunk there was nailed an apple box with the opening forward so that it made two shelves for the personal belongings of the occupant of the bunk. And these shelves were loaded with little articles, soap and talcum powder, razors and those Western magazines ranch men love to read and scoff at and secretly believe. And there were medicines on the shelves, and little vials, combs; and from nails on the box sides, a few neckties. Near one wall there was a black cast-iron stove, its stovepipe going straight up through the ceiling. In the middle of the room stood a big square table littered with playing cards, and around it were grouped boxes for the players to sit on. lthough there was evening brightness showing through the windows of the bunk house, inside it was dusk. Through the open door came the thuds and occasional clangs of a horseshoe game, and now and then the sound of voices raised in approval or derision. rooks, the Negro stable buck, had his bunk in the harness room; a little shed that leaned off the wall of the barn. On one side of the little room there was a square four-paned window, and on the other, a narrow plank door leading into the barn. Crooks’ bunk was a long box filled with straw, on which his blankets were flung. On the wall by the window there were pegs on which hung broken harness in process of being mended; strips of new leather; and under the window itself a little bench for leather-working tools, curved knives and needles and balls of linen thread, and a small hand riveter. On pegs were also pieces of harness, a split collar with the horsehair stuffing sticking out, a broken hame, and a trace chain with its leather covering split. Crooks had his apple box over his bunk, and in it a range of medicine bottles, both for himself and for the horses. There were cans of saddle soap and a drippy can of tar with its paint brush sticking over the edge. And scattered about the floor were a number of personal possessions; for, being alone, Crooks could leave his things about, and being a stable buck and a cripple, he was more permanent than the other men, and he had accumulated more possessions than he could carry on his back. ne end of the great barn was piled high with new hay and over the pile hung the four-taloned Jackson fork suspended from its pulley. The hay came down like a mountain slope to the other end of the barn, and there was a level place as yet unfilled with the new crop. At the sides the feeding racks were visible, and between the slats the heads of horses could be seen. he deep green pool of the Salinas River was still in the late afternoon. Already the sun had left the valley to go climbing up the slopes of the Gabilan Mountains, and the hilltops were rosy in the sun. But by the pool among the mottled sycamores, a pleasant shade had fallen.
A water snake glided smoothly up the pool, twisting its periscope head from side to side; and it swam the length of the pool and came to the legs of a motionless heron that stood in the shallows. A silent head and beak lanced down and plucked it out by the head, and the beak swallowed the little snake while its tail waved frantically. 在傍晚时夏连那斯河深绿的水潭是寂静的。太阳已经从洼谷离开，爬上加比兰群山的斜坡去了，夕阳给大大小小的峰峦染上了玫瑰般的色彩。但在那些靠近潭边的斑驳的槭树中间，一片怡人的暮色已经降临了下来。 一条水蛇平滑地从潭面溜过，不住地将它那潜望镜般的头左右扭摆着；它游过了潭的纵长，来到一只一动不动的在浅滩上站着的鹭的脚边。突然鹭的一截不声不响的头嘴戳下来，朝着蛇头一嘴攫去，接着那嘴甲就开始吞噬起那小蛇，而蛇尾巴这时还在发狂地摆动着。 欢迎访问英文小说网http://novel.tingroom.com |
|
|
