《榆树下的欲望》PART III SCENE FOUR
∙ DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS
About an hour later. Same as Scene Three. Shows the kitchen and Cabot's bedroom. It is after dawn. The sky is brilliant with the sunri. In the kitchen, Abbie sits at the table, her body limp and exhausted, her head bowed down over her arms, her face hidden. Upstairs, Cabot is still asleep but awakens with a start. He looks toward the window and gives a snort of surpri and irritation--throws back the covers and begins hurriedly pulling on his clothes. Without looking behind him, he begins talking to Abbie, whom he suppos beside him.
CABOT--Thunder 'n' lightnin', Abbie! I hain't slept this late in fifty year! Looks 's if the sun was full riz a'most. Must've been the dancin' an' likker. Must be gittin' old. I hope Eben's t' wuk. Ye might've tuk the trouble t' rou me, Abbie. (He turns--es no one there--surprid) Waal--whar air she? Gittin' vittles, I calc'late. (He tiptoes to the cradle and peers
西洋菜街down--proudly) Mornin', sonny. Putty's a picter! Sleepin' sound. He don't beller all night like most o' 'em. (He goes quietly out the door in rear--a few moments later enters kitchen--es Abbie--with satisfaction) So thar ye be. Ye got any vittles cooked?
ABBIE--(without moving) No.
CABOT--(coming to her, almost sympathetically) Ye feelin' sick?
ABBIE--No.
CABOT--(pats her on shoulder. She shudders.) Ye'd best lie down a spell. (half jocularly) Yer son'll be needin' ye soon. He'd ought t' wake up with a gnashin' appetite, the sound way he's sleepin'.
ABBIE--(shudders--then in a dead voice) He hain't never goin' t' wake up.
二手房合同
CABOT--(jokingly) Takes after me this mornin'. I hain't slept so late in. . . .
ABBIE--He's dead.
CABOT--(stares at her--bewilderedly苦瓜怎么做好吃) What. . . .红杏枝头春意浓
ABBIE--I killed him.
CABOT--(stepping back from her--aghast) Air ye drunk--'r crazy--'r . . . !
ABBIE--(suddenly lifts her head and turns on him--wildly) I killed him, I tell ye! I smothered him. Go up an' e if ye don't b'lieve me! (白居易的故事Cabot stares at her a cond, then bolts out the rear door, can be heard bounding up the stairs, and rushes into the bedroom and over to the cradle. Abbie has sunk back lifelessly into her former position. Cabot puts his hand down on the body in the crib. An expression of fear and horror comes over his face.)
CABOT--(shrinking away--tremblingly) God A'mighty! God A'mighty. (He stumbles out the door--in a short while returns to the kitchen--comes to Abbie, the stunned expression still on his face--hoarly) Why did ye do it? Why? (As she doesn't answer, he grabs her violently by the shoulder and shakes her.) I ax ye why ye done it! Ye'd better tell me 'r . . . !
奶香馒头
ABBIE--(gives him a furious push which nds him staggering back and springs to her feet--with wild rage and hatred) Don't ye dare tech me! What right hev ye t' question me 'bout him? He wa'n't yewr son! Think I'd have a son by yew? I'd die fust! I hate the sight o' ye an' allus did! It's yew I should've murdered, if I'd had good n! I hate ye! I love Eben. I did from the fust. An' he was Eben's son--mine an' Eben's--not your'n!
CABOT--(stands looking at her dazedly--a pau--finding his words with an effort--dully) That was it--what I felt--pokin' 'round the corners--while ye lied--holdin' yerlf from me--sayin' ye'd a'ready conceived--(He laps into crushed silence--then with a strange emotion) He's dead, sart'n. I felt his heart. Pore little critter! (He blinks back one tear, wiping his sleeve across his no.)
ABBIE--(hysterically足迹) Don't ye! Don't ye! (She sobs unrestrainedly.)
CABOT--(小猫的英文with a concentrated effort that stiffens his body into a rigid line and hardens his face into a stony mask--through his teeth to himlf) I got t' be--like a stone--a rock o' jedgment! (A pau. He gets complete control over himlf--harshly) If he was Eben's, I b
e glad he air gone! An' mebbe I suspicioned it all along. I felt they was somethin' onnateral--somewhars--the hou got so lonesome--an' cold--drivin' me down t' the barn--t' the beasts o' the field. . . . Ay-eh. I must've suspicioned--somethin'. Ye didn't fool me--not altogether, leastways--I'm too old a bird--growin' ripe on the bough. . . . (He becomes aware he is wandering, straightens again, looks at Abbie with a cruel grin.) So ye'd liked t' hev murdered me 'stead o' him, would ye? Waal, I'll live to a hundred! I'll live t' e ye hung! I'll deliver ye up t' the jedgment o' God an' the law! I'll git the Sheriff now. (starts for the door)
ABBIE--(dully) Ye needn't. Eben's gone fur him.
CABOT--(amazed) Eben--gone fur the Sheriff?
ABBIE--Ay-eh.
CABOT--T' inform agen ye?
ABBIE--Ay-eh.
CABOT--(considers this--a pau--then in a hard voice) Waal, I'm thankful fur him savin' me the trouble. I'll git t' wuk. (He goes to the door--then turns--in a voice full of strange emotion) He'd ought t' been my son, Abbie. Ye'd ought t' loved me. I'm a man. If ye'd loved me, I'd never told no Sheriff on ye no matter what ye did, if they was t' brile me alive!
ABBIE--(defensively) They's more to it nor yew know, makes him tell.
CABOT--(dryly) Fur yewr sake, I hope they be. (He goes out--comes around to the gate--stares up at the sky. His control relaxes. For a moment he is old and weary. He murmurs despairingly) God A'mighty, I be lonesomer'n ever! (He hears running footsteps from the left, immediately is himlf again. Eben runs in, panting exhaustedly, wild-eyed and mad looking. He lurches through the gate. Cabot grabs him by the shoulder. Eben stares at him dumbly.) Did ye tell the Sheriff?
