芒果街上的小屋

《芒果街上的小屋》 一本優美純凈的小書，一本“詩小說”。由幾十個短篇組成，語言清澈如流水，點綴著零落的韻腳和新奇的譬喻，如一首首長歌短調，各自成韻，又彼此鉤連，匯聚出一個清晰世界，各樣雜沓人生。所有的講述都歸于一個敘述中心：居住在芝加哥拉美移民社區芒果街上的女孩埃斯佩朗莎。生就對弱的同情心和對美的感覺力，她用清澈的眼打量周圍的世界，用美麗稚嫩的語言講述成長、滄桑、生命的美好與不易和年輕的熱望與夢想，夢想有一所自己的房子，夢想在寫作中追尋自我，獲得自由和幫助別人的能力。

Hairs

Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa"s hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos" hair is thick and straight. He doesn"t need to comb it. Nenny"s hair is slippery--slides out of your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur.

But my mother"s hair, my mother"s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. The snoring, the rain, and Mama’s hair that smells like bread.

頭發

我們家里每個人的頭發都不一樣。爸爸的頭發像掃把，根根直立往上插。而我，我的頭發挺懶惰。它從來不聽發夾和發帶的話。卡洛斯的頭發又直又厚。他不用梳頭。蕾妮的頭發滑滑的——會從你手里溜走。還有奇奇，他最小，茸茸的頭發像毛皮。

只有媽媽的頭發，媽媽的頭發，好像一朵朵小小的玫瑰花結[ 玫瑰花結是指玫瑰花狀的圓形花飾]。

一枚枚小小的糖果圈兒，全都那么拳曲，那么漂亮，因為她成天給它們上發卷。把鼻子伸進去聞一聞吧，當她摟著你時。當她摟著你時，你覺得那么安全，聞到的氣味又那么香甜。是那種待烤的面包暖暖的香味，是那種她給你讓出一角被窩時，和著體溫散發的芬芳。你睡在她身旁，外面下著雨，爸爸打著鼾。哦，鼾聲、雨聲，還有媽媽那聞起來像面包的頭發。

Darius and the Clouds

You can never have too much sky. You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad. Here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful. Still, we take what we can get and make the best of it.

Darius, who doesn"t like school, who is sometimes stupid and mostly a fool, said something wise today, though most days he says nothing. Darius, who chases girls with firecrackers or a stick that touched a rat and thinks he"s tough, today pointed up because the world was full of clouds, the kind like pillows.

You all see that cloud, that fat one there? Darius said, See that? Where? That one next to the one that look like popcorn. That one there. See that. That"s God, Darius said.God? somebody little asked. God, he said, and made it simple.

大流士和云

你永遠不能擁有太多的天空。你可以在天空下睡去，醒來又沉醉。在你憂傷的時候，天空會給你安慰。可是憂傷太多，天空不夠。蝴蝶也不夠，花兒也不夠。大多數美的東西都不夠。于是，我們取我們所能取，好好地享用。

大流士[ 也是古代波斯帝國國王的名字。一代雄主大流士大帝在位期間(前522—前486)，對內強化君主專制，對外實行大規模軍事擴張，使得波斯帝國進入全盛期。自命不凡的他曾在貝希斯敦的懸崖上刻下銘文：“我，大流士，偉大的王、萬邦之王、波斯之王……我是國王。”后世因此尊他為“萬王之王”。]，不喜歡上學的他，有時很傻，幾乎是個笨人，今天卻說了一句聰明的話，雖然大多數日子他什么都不說。大流士，喜歡用爆竹，用碰過老鼠的小棍子去追逐女孩，還以為自己很了不起的他，今天卻指著天空，因為那里有滿天的云朵，像枕頭樣的云朵。

你們都看到那朵云了，那朵胖乎乎的云了?大流士說，看到了?哪里?那朵看起來像爆米花的旁邊的那朵。那邊那朵。看，那是上帝。大流士說。上帝?有個小點的問道。上帝。他說。簡潔地說。

Cathy Queen of Cats

She says, I am the great great grand cousin of the queen of France. She lives upstairs, over there, next door to Joe the baby-grabber. Keep away from him, she says. He is full of danger. Benny and Blanca own the corner store. They"re okay except don"t lean on the candy counter. Two girls raggedy as rats live across the street. You don"t want to know them. Edna is the lady who owns the building next to you. She used to own a building big as a whale, but her brother sold it. Their mother said no, no, don"t ever sell it. I won"t. And then she closed her eyes and he sold it. Alicia is stuck-up ever since she went to college. She used to like me but now she doesn"t.

Cathy who is queen of cats has cats and cats and cats. Baby cats, big cats, skinny cats, sick cats. Cats asleep like little donuts. Cats on top of the refrigerator. Cats taking a walk on the dinner table. Her house is like cat heaven.

You want a friend, she says. Okay, I"ll be your friend. But only till next Tuesday. That"s when we move away. Got to. Then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad.

Cathy"s father will have to fly to France one day and find her great great distant grand cousin on her father"s side and inherit the family house. How do I know this is so? She told me so. In the meantime they"ll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in.

貓皇后凱茜

貓皇后凱茜[在劉易斯·卡洛爾的《愛麗絲鏡中奇遇記》中，有這樣一節：愛麗絲一夢醒來，發現紙牌皇后變成了她的小貓。卡洛爾是對作者影響頗深的作家。此篇或許是個例證。在這里，小姑娘凱茜的綽號，以及她自稱和法蘭西皇后的親緣，都暗合了卡洛爾童話中的情節。因此，凱茜、貓和皇后的關聯指向一個暗嵌的典故。這既是對自己喜愛的大師的致禮，也延伸了作品的內涵。]

她說，我是法蘭西皇后的遠遠遠房表親。她住在樓上，那邊，那個“捉小孩的人”喬的隔壁。離他遠點，她告訴我說，他很危險。街角那家小店是賓尼和布蘭卡的。他們還蠻好，可只是靠在糖果柜臺上時才對你好。兩個像老鼠一樣邋遢的女孩住在街對面。你不會想去認識她們的。埃德娜是你家隔壁房子的主人。她過去有幢大得像鯨魚的房子，可她弟弟把它賣了。他們的媽媽說，別，別呀，千萬別賣。我不會的。可后來她一閉眼，他就賣了它。阿莉西婭自從上了大學就傲氣起來了。她過去挺喜歡我，可現在不了。

貓皇后凱茜養了好多好多好多貓。貓寶寶、大個貓、瘦貓、病貓。睡姿像個面包圈的貓。爬到冰箱頂上的貓。在餐桌上散步的貓。她的房子就像個貓天堂。

第5節：貓皇后凱茜(2)

你想要個朋友。她說，好的，我會做你的朋友，可只能做到下星期二，那時我們就得搬走了，不得不搬了。然后，她似乎忘了我才搬進來，說，這個社區的人越來越雜了。

凱茜的父親有一天會要飛到法國去，找到遠方的、她父親那邊的遠遠遠房表親，去繼承家宅。我是怎么知道這些的呢?是她告訴我的。同時，他們要從芒果街向北面搬遷，離開這里一點路，在每次像我們這樣的人家不斷搬進來的時候。[ 要明白這段話，須了解上世紀六十年代的社會背景：在芝加哥，因為文化、經濟和種族等方面的差異，相對貧困的拉丁裔移民大量涌入某個社區，原來居住在這里的白人就會選擇搬遷，到以白人為主的社區里去。 ]