【荆棘鸟】第六章 05

 尽管来人中大多数都是游民，但也不尽然，譬如，其中就有一个驾着老式的T型福特汽车而来的沃特金斯人。他什么都贩运。从马的涂抹剂到香皂；这种香皂和菲在洗衣的铜盆里用脂肪和苛性碱做成的那种硬如顽石的货色不可同日而语：他带来了薰衣草水和科隆香水，防止阳光灼伤脸部皮肤的香粉和雪花膏、有些你作梦也想不到能从任何人手中买到的东西，那沃特斯金人却有；比如他的药膏，比任何药房里的药膏或传统的药膏要好得多，这药对牧羊狗肋部的伤口到人皮肤上的溃疡，都有愈合的功效。无论他来到哪个厨房，女人们都会蜂拥而集、急不可耐地等他将他那百货箱"砰"地一声打开。

　　这里还有其他的买卖人，但是，他们都不如沃特金斯人那样定期地到这块边远地区来，但他们同样受欢迎，他们什么都兜售，从机制的烟卷到整匹的布料。有时，还有俗艳而又诱人的内衣和紧身胸衣。内地的妇女们极渴望他们的到来，因为她们很少出门，一年中兴许只到最近的币镇去一两次；她们离悉尼那些琳琅满目的商店太远，离时髦货和花哨的女用装饰品太远了。

　　生活中似乎总是离不开苍蝇和尘土。很长时间滴雨未下，哪怕来一场稀疏小雨都能使尘土落下，淹死苍蝇。由于缺少雨水、所以苍蝇愈多、尘土也就愈多。每个房间的天花板上都松松垮垮地低垂着长长的、带粘性的、螺旋状的毒蝇纸，黑乎乎地粘着苍蝇的尸体；这是一天之中粘上去的。所有的东西都得时时遮盖，否则不是成了苍蝇狂欢之处便是成了苍蝇的葬身坟场。苍蝇留下的小黑点肮里肮脏地附在家具上，墙壁上和基兰搏百货店的日历上。

　　噢，还有尘土！简直没法把尘土弄干净，那颗粒细小的棕色粉尘甚至能渗进紧紧盖着的容器里，把刚刚洗过的头发弄得毫无光泽，使皮肤粗糙，落满衣服和窗帘的褶缝，在刚刚掸过尘土的光滑的桌面上落上薄薄的一层。地板上满是厚厚的尘土，这都是人们漫不经心地擦靴子的时候留下来的，以及从敞开的门窗中随着又热又干的风飘进来的。菲不得不将起居室里的波斯地毯卷了起来，让斯图尔特用她瞒着人眼从基里的商店中买来的漆布将地毯包住。

　　人来人往最多的厨房铺上了柚木厚板，由于铁丝刷蘸碱皂液的没完没了的擦洗，柚木反被洗成了陈旧的骨头色。

 

Not all the visitors were swaggies, though they were in the majority; there was the Watkins man in his old model-T, for instance. He carried everything from horse liniment to fragrant¹ soap unlike the rock-hard stuff Fee made in the laundry copper² from fat and caustic³; he had lavender water and eau de cologne, powders and creams for sun-dried faces. There were certain things one never dreamed of buying from anyone but the Watkins man; like his ointment⁴, better by far than any drugstore or prescription⁵ salve, capable of healing anything from a rent in the side of a work dog to an ulcer⁶ on a human shin. The women would crowd around in every kitchen he visited, waiting eagerly for him to pop open his big suitcase of wares⁷. And there were other salesmen, less regular patrollers of the back-blocks than the Watkins man but equally welcome, hawking⁸ everything from tailor-made cigarettes and fancy pipes to whole bolts of material, sometimes even luridly⁹ seductive underwear and lavishly¹⁰ beribboned stays. They were so starved, these women of the Outback, limited to maybe one or two trips a year into the nearest town, far from the brilliant shops of Sydney, far from fashions and feminine furbelows.

 

Life seemed mostly flies and dust. There had not been any rain in a long time, even a sprinkle to settle the dust and drown the flies; for the less rain, the more flies, the more dust.

Every ceiling was festooned with long, lazily spinning helixes of sticky flypaper, black with bodies within a day of being tacked¹¹ up. Nothing could be left uncovered for a moment without becoming either an orgy or a graveyard¹² for the flies, and tiny speckles of fly dirt dewed the furniture, the walls, the Gillanbone General Store calendar.

And oh, the dust! There was no getting away from it, that fine-grained brown powder which seeped¹³ into even tightly lidded containers, dulled freshly washed hair, made the skin gritty, lay in the folds of clothes and curtains, smeared¹⁴ a film across polished tables which resettled the moment it was whisked away. The floors were thick with it, from carelessly wiped boots and the hot dry wind drifting it through the open doors and windows; Fee was forced to roll up her Persian carpets in the parlor¹⁵ and have Stuart nail down linoleum¹⁶ she bought sight unseen from the store in Gilly. The kitchen, which took most of the traffic from outside, was floored in teak planks¹⁷ bleached¹⁸ to the color of old bones by endless scrubbing with a wire brush and lye soap. 

1 fragrant   

adj.芬香的，馥郁的，愉快的

参考例句：

• The Fragrant Hills are exceptionally beautiful in late autumn.深秋的香山格外美丽。
• The air was fragrant with lavender.空气中弥漫薰衣草香。

2 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

3 caustic   

adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的

参考例句：

• He opened his mouth to make a caustic retort.他张嘴开始进行刻薄的反击。
• He enjoys making caustic remarks about other people.他喜欢挖苦别人。

4 ointment   

n.药膏，油膏，软膏

参考例句：

• Your foot will feel better after the application of this ointment.敷用这药膏后，你的脚会感到舒服些。
• This herbal ointment will help to close up your wound quickly.这种中草药膏会帮助你的伤口很快愈合。

5 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

6 ulcer   

n.溃疡，腐坏物

参考例句：

• She had an ulcer in her mouth.她口腔出现溃疡。
• A bacterium is identified as the cause for his duodenal ulcer.一种细菌被断定为造成他十二指肠溃疡的根源。

7 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

8 hawking   

利用鹰行猎

参考例句：

• He is hawking his goods everywhere. 他在到处兜售他的货物。
• We obtain the event horizon and the Hawking spectrumformula. 得到了黑洞的局部事件视界位置和Hawking温度以及Klein—Gordon粒子的Hawking辐射谱。

9 luridly   

adv. 青灰色的(苍白的, 深浓色的, 火焰等火红的)

参考例句：

• It was night, and the white faces and the scarlet banners were luridly floodlit. 时间是在夜里，人们的苍白的脸和鲜红的旗帜都沐浴在强烈的泛光灯灯光里。 来自英汉文学
• Nationalist netizens in China's hyperactive blogosphere are more luridly anti-western than China's current rulers. 中国互联网上活跃的民族主义网民中反西方的比反现行统治者的多。

10 lavishly   

adv.慷慨地，大方地

参考例句：

• His house was lavishly adorned.他的屋子装饰得很华丽。
• The book is lavishly illustrated in full colour.这本书里有大量全彩插图。

11 tacked   

用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝

参考例句：

• He tacked the sheets of paper on as carefully as possible. 他尽量小心地把纸张钉上去。
• The seamstress tacked the two pieces of cloth. 女裁缝把那两块布粗缝了起来。

12 graveyard   

n.坟场

参考例句：

• All the town was drifting toward the graveyard.全镇的人都象流水似地向那坟场涌过去。
• Living next to a graveyard would give me the creeps.居住在墓地旁边会使我毛骨悚然。

13 seeped   

v.（液体）渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出

参考例句：

• The rain seeped through the roof. 雨水透过房顶渗透。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Icy air seeped in through the paper and the room became cold. 寒气透过了糊窗纸。屋里骤然冷起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

14 smeared   

弄脏； 玷污； 涂抹； 擦上

参考例句：

• The children had smeared mud on the walls. 那几个孩子往墙上抹了泥巴。
• A few words were smeared. 有写字被涂模糊了。

15 parlor   

n.店铺，营业室；会客室，客厅

参考例句：

• She was lying on a small settee in the parlor.她躺在客厅的一张小长椅上。
• Is there a pizza parlor in the neighborhood?附近有没有比萨店？

16 linoleum   

n.油布，油毯

参考例句：

• They mislaid the linoleum.他们把油毡放错了地方。
• Who will lay the linoleum?谁将铺设地板油毡？

17 planks   

（厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点

参考例句：

• The house was built solidly of rough wooden planks. 这房子是用粗木板牢固地建造的。
• We sawed the log into planks. 我们把木头锯成了木板。

18 bleached   

漂白的，晒白的，颜色变浅的

参考例句：

• His hair was bleached by the sun . 他的头发被太阳晒得发白。
• The sun has bleached her yellow skirt. 阳光把她的黄裙子晒得褪色了。