【荆棘鸟】第二章 16

and no idea in the world how to make the afflicted¹ limb do what Sister Agatha insisted it could. She became mentally deaf, dumb and blind; that useless appendage² her right hand was no more linked to her thought processes than her toes. She dribbled³ a line clean off the edge of the slate⁴ because she could not make it bend; she dropped her pencil as if paralyzed; nothing Sister Agatha could do would make Meggie's right hand foam⁵ an A. Then surreptitiously Meggie would transfer her pencil to her left hand, and with her arm curled awkwardly around three sides of the slate she would make a row of beautiful copperplate A's.

  Sister Agatha won the battle. On morning line-up she tied Meggie's left arm against her body with rope, and would not undo⁶ it until the dismissal bell rang at three in the afternoon. Even at lunchtime she had to eat, walk around and play games with her left side firmly  immobilized. It took three months, but eventually she learned to write correctly according to the tenets of Sister Agatha, though the formation of her letters was never good. To make sure she would never revert⁷ back to using it, her left arm was kept tied to her body for a further two months; then Sister Agatha made the whole school assemble to say a rosary of thanks to Almighty⁸ God for His wisdom in making Meggie see the error of her ways. God's children were all right-handed; lefthanded children were the spawn⁹ of the Devil, especially when redheaded.

  In that first year of school Meggie lost her baby plumpness and became very thin, though she grew little in height. She began to bite her nails down to the quick, and had to endure Sister Agatha's making her walk around every desk in the school holding her hands out so all the children could see how ugly bitten nails were. And this when nearly half the children between five and fifteen bit their nails as badly as Meggie did. Fee got out the bottle of bitter aloes and painted the tips of Meggie's fingers with the horrible stuff. Everyone in the family was enlisted¹⁰ to make sure she got no opportunity to wash the bitter aloes off, and when the other little girls at school noticed the telltale brown stains she was mortified¹¹. If she put her fingers in her mouth the taste was indescribable, foul¹² and dark like sheep-dip; in desperation she spat¹³ on her handkerchief and rubbed herself raw until she got rid of the worst of it. Paddy took out his switch, a much gentler instrument than Sister Agatha's cane¹⁴, and sent her skipping round the kitchen. He did not believe in beating his children on the hands, face or buttocks, only on the legs. Legs hurt as much as anywhere, he said, and could not be damaged. 

 

梅吉是个令人束手的不可救药的左撇子。当阿加莎嬷嬷用力扳着梅吉右手的手指，使它们正确地握住石笔，移到石板上的时候，梅吉就晕头转向地坐在那儿，一点儿也不知道怎样才能使那受折磨的肢体按照阿加莎嬷嬷所坚持的样子去做。她在智力上变得又聋、又哑、又瞎了；那只毫无用处的右手与她的思维过程的联系还不如她的脚指头呢。

    她在石板上画线出了边，因为她没法让它弯曲过来。她像瘫了似地扔掉了石笔；阿加莎没有一点儿办法能叫梅吉用右手写出一个“A”字来。后来，梅吉偷偷地把笔换到了左手，用胳臂拙笨的从三面护定了石板，准备在上面写出一行漂亮的铜版体的“A”字。

    阿加莎嬷嬷赢得了战斗的胜利。在早晨站队的时候，她用绳子把梅吉的左臂绑在身上，直到下午三点钟的放学钟声敲响时，才许解开。即使在午间，她也得带着被绑得动弹不得的左半身去吃饭。用了三个月的时间，她终于学会了按照阿加莎嬷嬷的信念来正确地书写了，尽管她写的字始终就没有漂亮过。为了确保她不再旧病复发，她的左臂在身上又继续绑了两个月。然后，阿加莎嬷嬷把全校的人都集合在一起，向万能的天主祈祷致谢，感谢他的智慧使梅吉认识到了她的错误。上帝的孩子全都是用右手的人，左撇的孩子是魔鬼的小崽子，尤其是红头发的。

    在学校的头一年中，梅吉虽然长高了一点儿，但是她孩童的丰满不见了，变得十分清瘦。她开始咬指甲盖，都咬得触到指甲下的嫩肉了。阿加莎嬷嬷因此逼她伸着手在全校的每一个课桌前转了一圈，这样好让所有的孩子都能看到被咬过的指甲是多么难看。

    要知道，在学校里5到15岁的孩子中间有差不多半数的孩子的指甲咬得和梅吉的一样惨。

    菲拿出了一瓶苦芦荟，将这可怕的东西涂在梅吉的指甲上。家里的每一个人都被调动起来注意她，保证她没有机会把苦芦荟洗掉。当学校里别的女孩子们注意到这一无法遮掩的棕色痕迹时，她心里感到了屈辱。如果她把手指放进嘴里，那味道是难以形容的，不但令人作呕，而且黑的像洗羊用的消毒水；她拚命往手绢里吐着唾沫，狠命地擦着，拣到皮肉破裂，直到把那苦玩艺儿擦得差不多尽净方才罢休。帕迪拿出了他的鞭子，这像伙比阿加莎嬷嬷的藤条要讲情面得多，他用鞭子抽梅吉，打的在厨房里到处乱蹦。他打孩子不打手、脸或屁股，只打腿。他说，打腿和打别处一样疼，但不会打伤。

1 afflicted   

使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• About 40% of the country's population is afflicted with the disease. 全国40%左右的人口患有这种疾病。
• A terrible restlessness that was like to hunger afflicted Martin Eden. 一阵可怕的、跟饥饿差不多的不安情绪折磨着马丁·伊登。

2 appendage   

n.附加物

参考例句：

• After their work,the calculus was no longer an appendage and extension of Greek geometry.经过他们的工作，微积分不再是古希腊几何的附庸和延展。
• Macmillan must have loathed being judged as a mere appendage to domestic politics.麦克米伦肯定极不喜欢只被当成国内政治的附属品。

3 dribbled   

v.流口水( dribble的过去式和过去分词 )；（使液体）滴下或作细流；运球，带球

参考例句：

• Melted wax dribbled down the side of the candle. 熔化了的蜡一滴滴从蜡烛边上流下。
• He dribbled past the fullback and scored a goal. 他越过对方后卫，趁势把球踢入球门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 slate   

n.板岩，石板，石片，石板色，候选人名单；adj.暗蓝灰色的，含板岩的；vt.用石板覆盖，痛打，提名，预订

参考例句：

• The nominating committee laid its slate before the board.提名委员会把候选人名单提交全体委员会讨论。
• What kind of job uses stained wood and slate? 什么工作会接触木头污浊和石板呢？

5 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

6 undo   

vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销

参考例句：

• His pride will undo him some day.他的傲慢总有一天会毁了他。
• I managed secretly to undo a corner of the parcel.我悄悄地设法解开了包裹的一角。

7 revert   

v.恢复，复归，回到

参考例句：

• Let us revert to the earlier part of the chapter.让我们回到本章的前面部分。
• Shall we revert to the matter we talked about yesterday?我们接着昨天谈过的问题谈，好吗？

8 almighty   

adj.全能的，万能的；很大的，很强的

参考例句：

• Those rebels did not really challenge Gods almighty power.这些叛徒没有对上帝的全能力量表示怀疑。
• It's almighty cold outside.外面冷得要命。

9 spawn   

n.卵，产物，后代，结果；vt.产卵，种菌丝于，产生，造成；vi.产卵，大量生产

参考例句：

• The fish were madly pushing their way upstream to spawn.鱼群为产卵而疯狂地向上游挤进。
• These fish will lay spawn in about one month from now.这些鱼大约一个月内会产卵。

10 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 mortified   

v.使受辱( mortify的过去式和过去分词 )；伤害（人的感情）；克制；抑制（肉体、情感等）

参考例句：

• She was mortified to realize he had heard every word she said. 她意识到自己的每句话都被他听到了，直羞得无地自容。
• The knowledge of future evils mortified the present felicities. 对未来苦难的了解压抑了目前的喜悦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 foul   

adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规

参考例句：

• Take off those foul clothes and let me wash them.脱下那些脏衣服让我洗一洗。
• What a foul day it is!多么恶劣的天气！

13 spat   

n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声

参考例句：

• Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
• There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。

14 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。