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第三节
She was sick for a long time. When we saw her again, her hair was cut short, making her look like a girl, with a vague resemblance to those angels in colored church windows--sort of tragic and serene.
她病了好长一段时间。再见她时，她已剪短了头发，小姑娘打扮，那样子有点像教堂里彩色玻璃窗上的天使——有些悲伤，有点肃穆。
The town had just let the contracts for paving the sidewalks, and in the summer after her father's death they began the work. The construction company came with riggers and mules and machinery, and a foreman named Homer Barron, a Yankee--a big, dark, ready man, with a big voice and eyes lighter than his face. The little boys would follow in groups to hear him cuss the riggers, and the riggers singing in time to the rise and fall of picks. Pretty soon he knew everybody in town. Whenever you heard a lot of laughing anywhere about the square, Homer Barron would be in the center of the group. Presently we began to see him and Miss Emily on Sunday afternoons driving in the yellow-wheeled buggy and the matched team of bays from the livery stable.
原来镇政府刚刚签订了铺设人行道的合同，而动工时间就在她父亲去世那年夏天，来了一批劳工、骡子和机器，工头是个北方佬，名叫霍默·巴伦，大个子，黑皮肤，大嗓门儿，做事手脚麻利，黯黑的脸色衬出炯炯的眼神。他身后跟着一群群孩子，听他咒驾劳工，而劳工们却随着凿子起落有节奏地哼着劳动号子。不久，全镇的人他都认识了。在广场四周，只要能听到呵呵笑声的地方，霍默·巴伦必定在人群的中心。没过多久，每逢礼拜天下午，都可以见到他和艾米莉小姐一起驾着轻便马车出游，枣红色的马是从出租店租来，与黄色车轮的马车十分匹配。
At first we were glad that Miss Emily would have an interest, because the ladies all said, "Of course a Grierson would not think seriously of a Northerner, a day laborer." But there were still others, older people, who said that even grief could not cause a real lady to forget noblesse oblige--without calling it noblesse oblige. They just said, "Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her." She had some kin in Alabama; but years ago her father had fallen out with them over the estate of old lady Wyatt, the crazy woman, and there was no communication between the two families. They had not even been represented at the funeral.
起初，我们都很高兴，艾米莉小姐总算有了爱好，因为女人们都说“格利尔逊肯定不会看上一个北方佬，一个拿日工资的劳工，”不过也还有一些人，即一些上了年纪的人，说，即使悲伤也不至于叫一个高贵的妇女忘记自己“贵人责重”吧，贵人责重无须叮嘱啊。他们只是说：“可怜的艾米莉，她的亲属应该到这儿来一下。”她有亲戚在亚拉巴马州；但多年前，她父亲为争疯癫婆怀亚特的房产问题而与他们闹翻了，从此以后，两家再也没有往来了。即使是艾米莉父亲的葬礼，他们也没有派代表参加。
And as soon as the old people said "Poor Emily," the whispering began. "Do you suppose it's really so?" they said to one another. "Of course it is. What else could …" This behind their hands; rustling of craned silk and satin behind jalousies closed upon the sun of Sunday afternoon as the thin, swift clop-clop-clop of the matched team passed: "Poor Emily."
一说到“可怜的艾米莉”，老人们就是开始交头接耳了。他们议论道：“你看，当真有那么回事吗？”“当然啦。那还能有什么别的事……？”声音从他们的手指缝传出来；只听见清脆而疾驰的马蹄声声，只见马车百叶窗紧闭以抵御周日午后骄阳，窗后的绸缎发出窸窣声：“可怜的艾米莉。”
