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A mirror that shatters without warning. A trail of cracker crumbs strewn across the floor. Two tiny handprints that appear on a cake.
无任何征兆破裂的镜子。洒满饼干屑的地板。印在蛋糕上的两个小手印。
Everyone at 124 Bluestone Road knows their house is haunted -- but there's no mystery about the spirit tormenting them.
蓝石路124号的每个人都知道他们的房子闹鬼--但折磨他们的幽灵并不神秘。
This ghost is the product of an unspeakable trauma; the legacy of a barbaric history that hangs over much more than this lone homestead.
这个幽灵是一种无法言说的创伤的产物，是一段野蛮历史的遗留物，它所笼罩的不仅仅是这个孤独的家园。
So begins "Beloved," Toni Morrison's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about the suffering wrought by slavery and the wounds that persist in its wake.
托妮·莫里森获得普利策奖的小说《宠儿》就是这样开头的，它讲述了奴隶制度带来的痛苦和持续的创伤。
Published in 1987, "Beloved" tells the story of Sethe, a woman who escaped enslavement.
该书出版于1987年，《宠儿》讲述了一位逃离奴役的女性塞丝的故事。
When the novel opens, Sethe has been living free for over a decade.
小说开始时，塞丝已经自由生活十多年了。
Her family has largely dissolved -- Sethe's mother-in-law died years earlier, and her two sons ran away from fear of the specter.
她的家庭基本解体了--婆婆早在几年前就去世了，她的两个儿子因为害怕这个幽灵而离家出走。
Sethe's daughter Denver remains in the house, but the pair live a half-life.
塞丝的女儿丹芙仍然待在家中，但两个人的生活半死不活。
Shunned by the wider community, the two have only each other and the ghost for company.
被更广泛的社区排斥，她们只有彼此和鬼魂作伴。
Sethe is consumed by thoughts of the spirit, whom she believes to be her eldest daughter.
塞丝被精神上的幽灵折磨着，她认为是她的大女儿。
When a visitor from Sethe's old life returns and threatens the ghost away, it seems like the start of a new beginning for her family.
当一个来自塞丝过往生活之处的访客到来，并威胁赶走鬼魂时，她的家庭看起来有了新的开始。
But what comes in the ghost's place may be even harder to bear.
但是，来自幽灵的地方的东西可能更令人难以忍受。
As with much of Morrison's work, "Beloved" investigates the roles of trauma and love in African-American history.
与莫里森的许多作品一样，《宠儿》讲述了创伤和爱在非裔美国人历史上的角色。
Morrison writes about black identities in a variety of contexts, but her characters are united by their desire to find love and be loved -- even when it's painful.
莫里森在各种背景下写黑人故事，但她的人物都渴望找到爱和被爱--即使爱很痛苦。
Some of her novels explore when love challenges social conventions, like the forbidden affection that grows between the townsfolk of "Paradise" and their fugitive neighbors.
她的一些小说探讨了挑战世俗的爱情，比如“天堂”镇民与逃亡的邻居之间生长的禁忌之爱。
Other works examine how we can be blind to the love we already possess.
其他作品则审视我们对拥有的爱是如何地盲目。
In "Sula," one character realizes that it's not her marriage, but rather, one of her friendships that embodies the great love of her life.
在《秀拉》中，主人公意识到，生命中最伟大的爱情不是婚姻，而是一段友谊。
Perhaps Morrison's most famous exploration of the difficulty of love takes place in "Beloved."
可能莫里森对爱的艰难最著名的探索发生在《宠儿》这本书中。
Here, the author considers how the human spirit is diminished when you know the things and people you love most will be taken away.
在这里，作者思考了当你清楚你最爱的东西和人将被带走时，人类的精神是如何被削弱的。
Morrison shows that slavery is destructive to love in all forms, poisoning both enslaved people and their enslavers.
莫里森展示了奴役对所有的爱都是摧毁的，毒害被奴役和奴役她们的人。
"Beloved" examines the dehumanizing effects of the slave trade in numerous ways.
《宠儿》以多种方式审视奴隶贸易的非人性化影响。
Some are straightforward, such as referring to enslaved people as animals with monetary value. But others are more subtle.
一些很直接，比如把被奴役的人比作有货币价值的动物。但还有一些要更微妙。
Sethe and Paul D. -- the visitor from her old plantation -- are described as trying to "live an unlivable life."
塞丝和来自她原来种植园的保罗·D都被描述为试图过一种“无法生存的生活”。
Their coping mechanisms are different; Sethe remains mired in her past, while Paul D. dissociates himself completely.
他们的应对机制不同；塞丝仍陷在过去的泥潭里，而保罗·D则将自己完全分离。
But in both cases, it's clear each character has been irreparably scarred.
但这两个人，显然两个角色都受到了无法弥补的伤害。
Morrison also blends perspectives and timelines, to convey how the trauma of slavery ripples across various characters and time periods.
莫里森还融合了视角和时间线，表达了奴隶制的创伤如何波及不同的人物和时期。
As she delves into the psyche of townspeople, enslavers, and previously enslaved people, she exposes conflicting viewpoints on reality.
她深入研究了城镇居民、奴役者和之前被奴役的人的心理，她表达了对现实矛盾的观点。
This tension shows the limitations of our own perspectives, and the ways in which some characters are actively avoiding the reality of their actions.
这种紧张反映了我们自身观点以及一些角色积极逃离现实行为方式的局限性。
But in other instances, the characters' shifting memories align perfectly; capturing the collective trauma that haunts the story.
但在其他例子中，角色完美腾挪了记忆；捕捉了故事中挥之不去的集体创伤。
Though "Beloved" touches on dark subjects, the book is also filled with beautiful prose, highlighting its characters' capacity for love and vulnerability.
尽管“宠儿”涉及黑暗题材，这本书也充满了美丽的散文，凸显了书中角色爱和脆弱的能力。
In a stream-of-consciousness sequence written from Sethe's perspective, Morrison unspools memories of subjugation alongside moments of tenderness;
从塞丝的角度的意识流中，莫里森将压制的记忆与温柔的时刻交织在一起，
like a baby reaching for her mother's earrings, spring colors, and freshly painted stairs.
比如婴儿伸手去拿母亲的耳环、春天的色彩和刚刚粉刷过的楼梯。
Sethe's mother-in-law had them painted white, she recalls, "so you could see your way to the top... where lamplight didn't reach."
塞丝的婆婆把楼梯刷成白色，她回想起，“这样你就能看到没有灯光的山顶。”
Throughout the book, Morrison asks us to consider hope in the dark, and to question what freedom really means.
通过该书，莫里森让我们思考黑暗中的希望，并且追问自由的真正意义。
She urges readers to ponder the power we have over each other, and to use that power wisely.
她敦促读者思考我们对彼此拥有的力量，并去明智地使用这种力量。
In this way, "Beloved" remains a testimony to the destructiveness of hate, the redeeming power of love, and the responsibility we bear to heed the voices of the past.
用这种方式，《宠儿》是仇恨的毁灭性的显示，是爱的救赎性力量，是我们倾听过去声音的责任。
