Chapter II
杰克逊岛的萤火Fireflies on Jackson's Island
“Jim said it made him all over trembly and feverish to be so close to freedom.”
“吉姆说,离自由这么近,他浑身上下都在发抖发热。”
Pap had come back, just as Huck feared. The old drunk dragged the boy to a lonely cabin in the woods, locked him inside, and beat him whenever the whiskey ran out. Huck endured it as long as he could — then he hatched a plan. He killed a wild pig, smeared its blood across the cabin floor to make it look like murder, and staged his own death. With the whole town believing Huck Finn had been killed, the boy dragged a canoe into the dark water and paddled hard for Jackson's Island — a wild, uninhabited patch of trees and rock in the middle of the Mississippi. The current pulled at him like a hand, and the trees on the island rose up black against the stars like a wall between him and everything he was leaving behind. He beached the canoe, crawled into the brush, and fell asleep with his face in the dirt, free at last and terrified of it.
老爹回来了,正如哈克害怕的那样。那个老酒鬼把男孩拖进林子深处一间孤零零的木屋,锁在里面,威士忌喝光了就揍他。哈克忍了好久——然后他想出了一个办法。他杀了一头野猪,把血仔仔细细地抹在木屋地板上,伪造成一场谋杀,上演了自己的死。整个镇子都以为哈克·费恩被人害了。男孩把独木舟拖进黑沉沉的河水里,拼命地划向杰克逊岛——密西西比河中央一座长满树木和岩石的荒岛。水流像一只手拽着他,岛上的树木在星光下黑魆魆地耸立,像一堵墙隔开了他和身后的一切。他把船拖上岸,钻进灌木丛,脸朝下趴在泥地里就睡着了——终于自由了,却怕得要命。
He found the campfire on his second morning. The smoke curled up thin and pale through the sycamore trees, and Huck crept toward it with his heart hammering — then stopped cold. Sitting by the fire was Jim — a brave, loving man who had been enslaved by Miss Watson, the Widow Douglas's sharp-tongued sister. Jim was now running for his life because he had learned he was about to be sold down the river to the Deep South, torn away from his wife and children forever. Jim's eyes went wide when he saw Huck. For a long moment, neither of them moved.
第二天早上他发现了那堆篝火。烟丝一样淡淡地穿过美国梧桐的枝叶往上升,哈克心跳如鼓地摸了过去——然后愣住了。坐在火边的是吉姆——一个勇敢善良的男人,道格拉斯寡妇那个说话尖刻的妹妹华珍小姐的奴隶。吉姆得知自己就要被卖到南方腹地、永远和妻儿分离,所以拼了命地逃了出来。吉姆看见哈克,眼睛一下子睁得老大。好半天,两个人谁也没动。
The days that followed were the sweetest Huck had ever tasted. Jim built them a shelter from branches and river grass. He cooked catfish over the coals and saved the best piece for Huck every time. At night, fireflies blinked around them like fallen stars come back to life, and the river sang its low, steady song. Jim told Huck about his daughter, how she had gone deaf after a fever and he hadn't known, and how he had shouted at her for not listening and the memory still broke his heart. In that moment, Huck saw Jim not as what the world called him, but as what he was: a father, aching for his children.
接下来的日子,是哈克这辈子尝过的最甜的日子。吉姆用树枝和河草给他们搭了棚子,在炭火上烤鲶鱼,每次都把最好的那块留给哈克。夜里,萤火虫在他们四周明明灭灭,像掉落的星星又活了过来,河水唱着它低沉而平稳的歌。吉姆跟哈克说起他的女儿——她发了一场烧之后聋了,他不知道,还冲她嚷嚷她怎么不听话,那个记忆到现在还让他心碎。那一刻,哈克看见的不是这世界给吉姆贴的标签,而是他真正的样子:一个想念孩子想得心疼的父亲。
But the river was rising. Water lapped at the edges of their camp, swallowing their fire pit inch by inch. Logs and whole uprooted trees came rushing past in the current — along with stranger things: a whole house, ripped from its foundations, drifting by in the flood. Jim and Huck climbed inside and found a dead man lying in the corner, but Jim made Huck look away and wouldn't tell him who it was. Then the sky turned the color of a bruise. They could not stay. Jim lashed together a raft from driftwood, steady and patient as always, and Huck loaded what little they had. As they pushed off into the swollen Mississippi, the island behind them disappeared into the rain. Ahead lay the river — wide, unknowable, and full of both promise and danger.
可河水在涨。水一寸一寸地舔上他们营地的边缘,吞没了火塘。圆木和连根拔起的整棵树在急流中呼啸而过——还有更古怪的东西:一整栋房子,被洪水从地基上掀走,在水面上漂着。吉姆和哈克爬了进去,发现角落里躺着一具死人。吉姆让哈克别看,怎么也不肯说那人是谁。然后天空变成了淤青的颜色。他们不能再留了。吉姆用漂流木扎了一架木筏,一如既往地沉稳而耐心,哈克把仅有的家当搬了上去。当他们撑离岸边、驶入暴涨的密西西比河时,身后的小岛在雨幕中消失了。前方是大河——辽阔、不可知、既有希望,也满是危险。