William Styron - The Confessions of Nat Turner (Excerpt) 汉译

I seemed to be walking alone at the edge of a swamp at nightfall, the light around me glimmering, crepuscular, touched with the greenish hue presaging the onslaught of a summer storm. The air was windless, still, but high in the heavens beyond the swamp thunder grumbled and heaved, and heat lightning at somber intervals blossomed against the sky. Filled with panic, I seemed to be searching for my Bible, which strangely, unaccountably I had left there, somewhere in the depths and murk of the swamp; in fear and despair I pressed my search into the oncoming night, pushing now deeper and deeper into the gloomy marshland, haunted by the ominous, stormy light and by a far-off pandemonium of thunder. Try desperately as I might, I could not find my Bible. Suddenly another sound came to my ears, this time the frightened outcry of voices. They were the voices of boys, hoarse and half grown and seized with terror, and now instantly I saw them: half a dozen black boys trapped neck-deep in a bog of quicksand, crying aloud for rescue as their arms waved frantically in the dim light and as they sank deeper and deeper into the mire. I seemed to stand helpless at the edge of the bog, unable to move or to speak, and while I stood there a voice echoed out of the sky, itself partaking of that remote sound of thunder.

我好像是在暮色中独自一个人在沼泽岸边走着似的。那包围着我的薄暮的微光，染得有带青的颜色，预示着一个夏天的暴风雨就要袭来。微风不动，静寂寂的，但在沼泽那边高高的天上，却雷声隆隆，由小而大，而闪电时时在阴沉的天上开出花来。我充满着恐怖，好像是在寻找我的圣经似的，很奇怪而无法说明的地，我把圣经放在沼泽的黑暗深渊中的什么地方忘记了。在恐惧和绝望中，我加快在即将来临的夜色中寻找，受着那恶兆的暴风雨的电光，和辽远的吵闹的雷声所困扰，我现在向着阴郁的沼泽地愈来愈深入地推进了。尽管我拼命地寻找，但怎也找不到我的《圣经》。突然间另外一个声音来到我的耳中，这次却是人们恐慌的叫喊声。那原是一群男孩子的声音，嘶嘎而未成年的声音，为恐怖所袭时的声音。现在一瞬间，我看明白他们了：那原是五六个黑孩子陷在沼泽的流沙中，深及颈部，当初他们愈来愈深地沉下到那泥淖中去时，他们在幽暗的夜色中，疯狂地舞动手臂，高声呼喊救命。我好像是站在那沼地的岸边一点办法也没有的样子，既不能移动，也不能说话，而当我站在那里的时候，突然天上传来一个声音，听去却和远处的雷声混在一起了。