Chapter 42

    Stamp Paid rearranged his way. Too angry to walk her home and listen to more, he watched her fora moment and turned to go before the alert white face at the window next door had come to anyconclusion.

　　Trying to get to 124 for the second time now, he regretted that conversation: the high tone he took;his refusal to see the effect of marrow¹ weariness in a woman he believed was a mountain. Now,too late, he understood her. The heart that pumped out love, the mouth that spoke² the Word, didn'tcount. They came in her yard anyway and she could not approve or condemn³ Sethe's rough choice.

　　One or the other might have saved her, but beaten up by the claims of both, she went to bed. Thewhitefolks had tired her out at last. And him. Eighteen seventy-four and whitefolks were still onthe loose. Whole towns wiped clean of Negroes; eighty-seven lynchings in one year alone inKentucky; four colored schools burned to the ground; grown men whipped like children; childrenwhipped like adults; black women raped⁴ by the crew; property taken, necks broken. He smelledskin, skin and hot blood. The skin was one thing, but human blood cooked in a lynch fire was awhole other thing. The stench stank⁶. Stank up off the pages of the North Star, out of the mouths ofwitnesses, etched in crooked⁷ handwriting in letters delivered by hand. Detailed⁸ in documents andpetitions full of whereas and presented to any legal body who'd read it, it stank. But none of thathad worn out his marrow. None of that. It was the ribbon. Tying his flatbed up on the bank of theLicking River, securing it the best he could, he caught sight of something red on its bottom.

　　Reaching for it, he thought it was a cardinal⁹ feather stuck to his boat. He tugged¹⁰ and what cameloose in his hand was a red ribbon knotted around a curl of wet woolly hair, clinging still to its bitof scalp. He untied¹¹ the ribbon and put it in his pocket, dropped the curl in the weeds. On the wayhome, he stopped, short of breath and dizzy. He waited until the spell passed before continuing onhis way. A moment later, his breath left him again. This time he sat down by a fence. Rested, hegot to his feet, but before he took a step he turned to look back down the road he was traveling andsaid, to its frozen mud and the river beyond, "What are these people? You tell me, Jesus. What are they?"When he got to his house he was too tired to eat the food his sister and nephews had prepared. Hesat on the porch in the cold till way past dark and went to his bed only because his sister's voicecalling him was getting nervous. He kept the ribbon; the skin smell nagged¹² him, and his weakenedmarrow made him dwell on Baby Suggs' wish to consider what in the world was harmless. Hehoped she stuck to blue, yellow, maybe green, and never fixed¹³ on red. Mistaking her, upbraidingher, owing her, now he needed to let her know he knew, and to get right with her and her kin⁵. So,in spite of his exhausted¹⁴ marrow, he kept on through the voices and tried once more to knock at thedoor of 124. This time, although he couldn't cipher¹⁵ but one word, he believed he knew who spokethem. The people of the broken necks, of fire-cooked blood and black girls who had lost theirribbons.

　　What a roaring.

　　Sethe had gone to bed smiling, eager to lie down and unravel¹⁶ the proof for the conclusion she hadalready leapt to. Fondle the day and circumstances of Beloved's arrival and the meaning of thatkiss in the Clearing. She slept instead and woke, still smiling, to a snow bright morning, coldenough to see her breath. She lingered a moment to collect the courage to throw off the blanketsand hit a chilly¹⁷ floor.

　　For the first time, she was going to be late for work.

　　Downstairs she saw the girls sleeping where she'd left them, but back to back now, each wrappedtight in blankets, breathing into their pillows. The pair and a half of skates were lying by the frontdoor, the stockings hung on a nail behind the cooking stove to dry had not.

1 marrow   

n.骨髓；精华；活力

参考例句：

• It was so cold that he felt frozen to the marrow. 天气太冷了，他感到寒冷刺骨。
• He was tired to the marrow of his bones.他真是累得筋疲力尽了。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 condemn   

vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑

参考例句：

• Some praise him,whereas others condemn him.有些人赞扬他，而有些人谴责他。
• We mustn't condemn him on mere suppositions.我们不可全凭臆测来指责他。

4 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

5 kin   

n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的

参考例句：

• He comes of good kin.他出身好。
• She has gone to live with her husband's kin.她住到丈夫的亲戚家里去了。

6 stank   

n. (英)坝，堰，池塘 动词stink的过去式

参考例句：

• Her breath stank of garlic. 她嘴里有股大蒜味。
• The place stank of decayed fish. 那地方有烂鱼的臭味。

7 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

8 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

9 cardinal   

n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的

参考例句：

• This is a matter of cardinal significance.这是非常重要的事。
• The Cardinal coloured with vexation. 红衣主教感到恼火，脸涨得通红。

10 tugged   

v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. 她拽了拽他的袖子引起他的注意。
• A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 他的嘴角带一丝苦笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 untied   

松开，解开( untie的过去式和过去分词 )； 解除，使自由； 解决

参考例句：

• Once untied, we common people are able to conquer nature, too. 只要团结起来，我们老百姓也能移山倒海。
• He untied the ropes. 他解开了绳子。

12 nagged   

adj.经常遭责怪的；被压制的；感到厌烦的；被激怒的v.不断地挑剔或批评（某人）( nag的过去式和过去分词 )；不断地烦扰或伤害（某人）；无休止地抱怨；不断指责

参考例句：

• The old woman nagged (at) her daughter-in-law all day long. 那老太婆一天到晚地挑剔儿媳妇的不是。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She nagged him all day long. 她一天到晚地说他。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

14 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

15 cipher   

n.零；无影响力的人；密码

参考例句：

• All important plans were sent to the police in cipher.所有重要计划均以密码送往警方。
• He's a mere cipher in the company.他在公司里是个无足轻重的小人物。

16 unravel   

v.弄清楚（秘密）；拆开，解开，松开

参考例句：

• He was good with his hands and could unravel a knot or untangle yarn that others wouldn't even attempt.他的手很灵巧，其他人甚至都不敢尝试的一些难解的绳结或缠在一起的纱线，他都能解开。
• This is the attitude that led him to unravel a mystery that long puzzled Chinese historians.正是这种态度使他解决了长期以来使中国历史学家们大惑不解的谜。

17 chilly   

adj.凉快的，寒冷的

参考例句：

• I feel chilly without a coat.我由于没有穿大衣而感到凉飕飕的。
• I grew chilly when the fire went out.炉火熄灭后，寒气逼人。