57
The Firefly 萤火虫
They slept the first night on the beach, and he moved into the shack with her the next day. Packing and unpacking within a single tide. As sand creatures do.
第一晚，他们睡在沙滩上。第二天，泰特搬进了基娅的棚屋。在一轮潮汐的时间内打包和拆包。就像沙地生物那样。
As they walked along the tide line in late afternoon, he took her hand and looked at her. “Will you marry me, Kya?”
下午晚些时候，他们沿着潮线散步。他拉住她的手，看着她，说：“嫁给我好吗，基娅？”
“We are married. Like the geese,” she said.
“我们已经结婚了。像大雁那样。”她说。
“Okay. I can live with that.”
“好吧。我能接受这个。”
Each morning they rose at dawn and, while Tate percolated coffee, Kya fried corn fritters in Ma's old iron skillet—blackened and dented—or stirred grits and eggs as sunrise eased over the lagoon. The heron posing one-legged in the mist. They cruised estuaries, waded waterways, and slipped through narrow streams, collecting feathers and amoebas. In the evenings, they drifted in her old boat until sunset, then swam naked in moonlight or loved in beds of cool ferns.
每天，他们在黎明时分起身，泰特准备咖啡，基娅用妈妈那个变黑还有凹痕的旧铁锅做玉米煎饼，或者在太阳升到潟湖上空时，拌粗玉米粉和鸡蛋。苍鹭在雾气中单腿而立。他们开船过河口，在水道里跋涉，滑过窄窄的溪流，收集羽毛和变形虫。黄昏，他们漂在基娅的旧船里直到日落，然后在月光下裸泳，或者在蕨类铺就的清凉床铺上欢爱。
Archbald Lab offered Kya a job, but she turned it down and continued writing her books. She and Tate hired the fix-it man again, and he built a lab and studio—of raw wood, hand-hewn posts, and tin roof—for her behind the shack. Tate gave her a microscope and installed worktables, shelves, and closets for her specimens. Trays of instruments and supplies. Then they refurbished the shack, adding a new bedroom and bath, a larger sitting room. She insisted on keeping the kitchen as it was and the exterior unpainted, so that the dwelling, more of a cabin now, remained weathered and real.
阿奇博尔德实验室给了基娅一份工作，但她拒绝了，继续写自己的书。她和泰特又雇了那个维修工，让他在棚屋后面为她建了一个实验室和工作室——原木、手工刨削的柱子和铁皮屋顶。泰特给了她一台显微镜，为她的标本装了工作台、架子和柜子。还有一些工具和补给。他们翻新了棚屋，加了一个新卧室和浴室，一间更大的起居室。她坚持让厨房保持原样，也不漆外墙，因此住所——现在不再是小屋了——保持了斑驳而真实的外观。
From a phone in Sea Oaks she called Jodie and invited him and his wife, Libby, for a visit. The four of them explored the marsh and fished some. When Jodie pulled in a large bream, Kya squealed, “Lookee there. You got one big as Alabamee!” They fried up fish and hush puppies big as “goose aigs.”
在橡树海，她打电话给乔迪，邀请他和他的妻子莉比来住几天。他们四人一起探索湿地，还钓了几次鱼。当乔迪钓上一条巨大的鲤鱼时，基娅尖叫道：“看，你钓到一条亚拉巴马州那么大的鱼！”他们炸了鱼和“鹅蛋那么大”的玉米饼。
Kya never went to Barkley Cove again in her life, and for the most part, she and Tate spent their time in the marsh alone. The villagers saw her only as a distant shape gliding through fog, and over the years the mysteries of her story became legend, told over and over with buttermilk pancakes and hot pork sausages at the diner. The theories and gossip over how Chase Andrews died never stopped.
基娅终其一生再也没有去过巴克利小湾镇。大部分时候，她和泰特独自在湿地生活。镇上居民只能远远地看到她的身影在雾气中滑行。这些年来，她神秘的故事成了传奇，在小餐馆的酪乳煎饼和热香肠间被不断重复。而关于蔡斯·安德鲁斯是怎么死的，推测和流言也从未停止。
As time passed, most everyone agreed the sheriff never should've arrested her. After all, there was no hard evidence against her, no real proof of a crime. It had been truly cruel to treat a shy, natural creature that way. Now and then a new sheriff—Jackson was never elected again—would open the folder, make some inquiries about other suspects, but not much came of it. Over the years the case, too, eased into legend. And though Kya was never completely healed from the scorn and suspicion surrounding her, a soft contentment, a near-happiness settled into her.
随着时间推移，大部分人都认为治安官不应该逮捕她。毕竟，没有针对她的确凿证据，也没有发生犯罪的事实证据。如此对待一个害羞的、自然的生命确实太过残忍。时不时地，新上任的治安官——杰克逊再也没有被选上——会翻开文件，质询其他一些嫌疑人，但都没什么结果。过了几年，这个案子也成了传奇。虽然基娅无法完全战胜加诸她身上的轻蔑和怀疑，但一种温柔的满足、一种近乎幸福的感觉沉淀了下来。
KYA LAY ON THESOFTDUFF near the lagoon one afternoon, waiting for Tate to return from a collecting trip. She breathed deep, knowing he would always come back, that for the first time in her life she would not be abandoned. She heard the deep purr of his cruiser, chugging up the channel; could feel the quiet rumble through the ground. She sat up as his boat pushed through the thickets and waved to him at the helm. He waved back but didn't smile. She stood.
一天下午，基娅躺在潟湖旁柔软的草地上，等着泰特结束采集任务回来。她呼吸悠长，知道他一定会回来，知道自己人生中第一次不会被抛弃。她听到小船发出低沉的嗡嗡声，正缓缓驶进水道。她能感觉到地面在无声地震动。他的船挤过灌木，基娅坐起来向他挥手。他也挥了挥手，但没有笑。她站了起来。
He tied to the small wharf he had built and walked up to her on the shore.
他把船系到他修建的小码头上，走向岸边的她。
“Kya, I'm so sorry. I have bad news. Jumpin' died last night in his sleep.”
“基娅，对不起。我有个坏消息。老跳昨晚在睡梦中去世了。”
An ache pushed against her heart. All those who left her had chosen to do so. This was different. This was not rejection; this was like the Cooper's hawk returning to the sky. Tears rolled down her cheeks, and Tate held her.
一阵剧痛挤压着她的心脏。所有那些离开她的人都是主动离开的。但这次不同。不是抛弃，而是像库珀鹰回到了天空。眼泪滚落脸颊。泰特抱住了她。
Tate and almost everyone in town went to Jumpin's funeral. Kya did not. But after the services, she walked to Jumpin' and Mabel's house, with some blackberry jam long overdue.
镇上几乎所有人都去了老跳的葬礼。基娅没有去。但是葬礼结束后，她去了老跳和玛贝尔的家，带着早已过期的黑莓果酱。
Kya paused at the fence. Friends and family stood in the dirt yard, swept clean as a whistle. Some talked, some laughed at old Jumpin' stories, and some cried. As she opened the gate everyone looked at her, then stepped aside to make a path. Standing on the porch, Mabel rushed to Kya. They hugged, rocking back and forth, crying.
基娅在篱笆外停住了。老跳的朋友和家人们站在扫得光溜溜的土院子里，有些在交谈，有些在为老跳生前的故事大笑，有些在哭。她推开门，所有人都看着她，然后自动让出一条路。站在门廊上的玛贝尔跑向基娅。她们拥抱着，来回摇晃着，哭了起来。
“Lawd, he loved ya like his own dawder,” Mabel said.
“上帝啊，他就像爱自己的女儿那样爱着你。”玛贝尔说。
“I know,” Kya said, “and he was my pa.”
“我知道，”基娅说，“他就是我的爸爸。”
Later, Kya walked to her beach and said farewell to Jumpin' in her own words, in her own way, alone.
后来，基娅走回自己的沙滩，用自己的语言、自己的方式和老跳说了再见。独自一人。
And as she wandered the beach remembering Jumpin', thoughts of her mother pushed into her mind. As though Kya were once again the little girl of six, she saw Ma walking down the sandy lane in her old gator shoes, maneuvering the deep ruts. But in this version, Ma stopped at the end of the trail and looked back, waving her hand high in farewell. She smiled at Kya, turned onto the road, and disappeared into the forest. And this time, finally, it was okay.
她漫步在沙滩上，想着老跳，关于妈妈的回忆闯进了脑海。她似乎还是那个六岁的小女孩，看着妈妈穿着旧鳄鱼皮鞋走下沙路，走在深深的车辙里。但在这个画面中，妈妈在道路尽头停下了，转头看向她，挥手道别。她对着基娅笑了，然后转身上路，消失在树林里。这一次，基娅终于释然了。
With no tears or censure, Kya whispered, “Good-bye, Ma.” She thought of the others briefly—Pa, her brother and sisters. But she didn't have enough of that bygone family to bid farewell.
没有眼泪，也没有责难，基娅轻声说：“再见，妈妈。”她短暂地想起了其他家人——爸爸，还有哥哥姐姐们。但关于他们，她没有足够的记忆来道别。
That regret faded too when Jodie and Libby began bringing their two children—Murph and Mindy—to visit Kya and Tate several times a year. Once again the shack swelled with family around the old cookstove, serving up Ma's corn fritters, scrambled eggs, and sliced tomatoes. But this time there was laughter and love.
后来，那点遗憾也消失了，因为乔迪和莉比带着他们的两个孩子墨菲和明迪，一年中会来拜访好几次。棚屋再一次热闹起来，一家人围坐在老灶台旁，吃着妈妈的玉米煎饼、炒鸡蛋和切片西红柿。但这一次，热闹里有欢笑和爱。
BARKLEY COVE CHANGED over the years. A man from Raleigh built a fancy marina where Jumpin's shack had leaned for more than a hundred years. With bright blue awnings over each slip, yachts could pull in. Boaters from up and down the coastline moseyed up to Barkley Cove and paid $3.50 for an espresso.
这些年，巴克利小湾镇也发生了变化。一个从罗利市来的男人在老跳的棚屋站立了超过百年之久的地方修建了一个高档码头。每个滑道上都装了蓝色遮阳篷，可以停靠游艇。沿岸的船夫们都来巴克利小湾镇休息，花三点五美元买一杯浓缩咖啡。
Little sidewalk cafés with smart-colored umbrellas and art galleries with seascapes sprouted on Main. A lady from New York opened a gift shop that sold everything the villagers didn't need but every tourist had to have. Almost every shop had a special table displaying the books by Catherine Danielle Clark ~ Local Author ~ Award-Winning Biologist. Grits were listed on the menus as polenta in mushroom sauce and cost $6.00. And one day, some women from Ohio walked into the Dog-Gone Beer Hall, never imagining they were the first females to pass through the door, and ordered spicy shrimp in paper boats, and beer, now on draft. Adults of either sex or any color can walk through the door now, but the window, which was cut out of the wall so that women could order from the sidewalk, is still there.
主街上冒出几家装了明亮的遮阳伞的路边小咖啡店和海景艺术画廊。来自纽约的一位女士开了一家礼品店，卖一切镇上居民不需要而每一个游客都需要的东西。几乎每家店里都摆着一张桌子，专门陈列凯瑟琳·丹妮尔·克拉克的书。本地作家，获奖生物学家。菜单上列入了粗玉米粉以及蘑菇酱汁玉米粥，售价六美元。有一天，从俄亥俄州来的几位女士走进了狗日啤酒屋，完全没想到她们是穿过这扇门的第一批女性。她们点了纸船辣虾、啤酒，如今是散装啤酒了。从此，无论性别、肤色，所有成年人都能进门。但当年那扇为了方便女人们点餐而在墙上开的窗还保留着。
Tate continued his job at the lab, and Kya published seven more award-winning books. And though she was granted many accolades—including an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill—she never once accepted the invitations to speak at universities and museums.
泰特继续着自己在实验室的工作，而基娅又出版了七本书，都获了奖。虽然她被授予了很多荣誉——包括坐落于教堂山的北卡罗来纳大学的荣誉博士学位——但她从没接受过任何去大学或博物馆演讲的邀请。
TATE AND KYA HOPED for a family, but a child never came. The disappointment wove them closer together, and they were seldom separated for more than a few hours of any day.
泰特和基娅期待建立家庭，但是一直没有孩子，这份失望让两人靠得更近。他们每天分开的时间不超过几小时。
Sometimes Kya walked alone to the beach, and as the sunset streaked the sky, she felt the waves pounding her heart. She'd reach down and touch the sand, then stretch her arms toward the clouds. Feeling the connections. Not the connections Ma and Mabel had spoken of—Kya never had her troop of close friends, nor the connections Jodie described, for she never had her own family. She knew the years of isolation had altered her behavior until she was different from others, but it wasn't her fault she'd been alone. Most of what she knew, she'd learned from the wild. Nature had nurtured, tutored, and protected her when no one else would. If consequences resulted from her behaving differently, then they too were functions of life's fundamental core.
有时候，基娅独自在海滩上漫步。落日余晖照亮了天空，她感到海浪敲击着她的心房。她俯下身触摸沙粒，然后张开双臂拥抱云彩，感受联结。不是妈妈和玛贝尔说的那种联结，基娅从未拥有过一群亲密朋友，也不是乔迪描述的那种联结，因为她也从未拥有过自己的家庭。她知道多年的孤独已经改变了她的行为，让她不同于其他人，但独来独往并不是她的错。她所知道的大部分东西都习自野外。自然养育了她，教导了她，保护了她，而当时没有其他人愿意这么做。如果她异于常人的行为导致了某些后果，那也是生命基础核心的自然选择。
Tate's devotion eventually convinced her that human love is more than the bizarre mating competitions of the marsh creatures, but life also taught her that ancient genes for survival still persist in some undesirable forms among the twists and turns of man's genetic code.
泰特的奉献最终让她相信，人类的爱情不只是湿地生物间那种奇怪的交配竞争。但是生活也教导她，古老的生存基因仍以某些不讨人喜欢的形式潜伏在人类遗传密码的迂回曲折之中。
For Kya, it was enough to be part of this natural sequence as sure as the tides. She was bonded to her planet and its life in a way few people are. Rooted solid in this earth. Born of this mother.
对于基娅，能够成为同潮汐一般确定的自然秩序的一部分已经足够了。她与自己的星球以及星球上的生命紧密结合在一起，鲜有人及。她深深扎根于地球。它是她的母亲。
AT SIXTY-FOUR Kya's long black hair had turned as white as the sand. One evening she did not return from a collecting trip, so Tate puttered around in the marsh, searching. As dusk eased in, he came around a bend and saw her drifting in her boat in a lagoon surrounded by sycamores touching the sky. She had slumped backward, her head lying against the old knapsack. He called her name softly, and, when she didn't move, he shouted, then screamed. Pulling his boat next to hers, he stumbled awkwardly into the stern of her boat. Reaching out his long arms, he took her shoulders and gently shook her. Her head slumped farther to the side. Her eyes not seeing.
六十四岁时，基娅的黑色长发已经白得和沙子一样。某天晚上，她出门采集没有回来，泰特在湿地里四处游荡、寻找。薄暮降临，他到了一个转角，看到她的船漂浮在一个环绕着美国梧桐的潟湖里，那些树仿佛能触到天空。她仰躺在船里，脑袋搁在旧背包上。他温柔地叫她的名字，她没有动。他大喊，然后尖叫起来。他把船停到她旁边，笨拙地爬进她的小船，伸出胳膊握住她的肩，轻轻摇晃。她的头垂向一边。她的眼睛看不见了。
“Kya, Kya, no. No!” he screamed.
“基娅，基娅，不。不！”他尖叫着。
Still young, so beautiful, her heart had quietly stopped. She had lived long enough to see the bald eagles make a comeback; for Kya that was long enough. Folding her in his arms, he rocked back and forth, weeping. He wrapped her in a blanket and towed her back to her lagoon in the old boat through the maze of creeks and estuaries, passing the herons and deer for the last time.
如此年轻，如此美丽，她的心却静静地停止了跳动。她活得够久了，看到了秃鹰返航。对基娅来说，这已经够久了。他抱她入怀，轻轻摇晃着，哭泣着。他把她裹进毯子里，用她的小船带她回她的潟湖，穿过小溪和河口织就的水网，最后一次经过苍鹭和鹿群。
And I'll hide the maid in a cypress tree,
When the footstep of death is near.
我会把她藏入柏树，
当死亡的脚步临近。
He got special permission for her to be buried on her land under an oak overlooking the sea, and the whole town came out for the funeral. Kya would not have believed the long lines of slow-moving mourners. Of course, Jodie and his family came and all of Tate's cousins. Some curiosity-seekers attended, but most people came out of respect for how she had survived years alone in the wild. Some remembered the little girl, dressed in an oversized, shabby coat, boating to the wharf, walking barefoot to the grocery to buy grits. Others came to her graveside because her books had taught them how the marsh links the land to the sea, both needing the other.
他取得了特殊许可，将她葬在她自己的土地上，就在一棵能远眺大海的橡树下。整个小镇的人都来参加了葬礼。基娅不会相信这长长的、缓慢移动的哀悼者队伍。当然了，乔迪和他的家人，还有泰特所有的亲戚都来了。有些人是出于好奇，但大部分人是出于敬意，因为她独自一人在荒野里生存了那么多年。有人还记得那个小女孩，穿着过大的、破破烂烂的外套，开船去码头，然后赤着脚走去杂货店买粗玉米粉。还有一部分人来到她的墓前，因为她的书告诉了他们湿地如何连接海洋和陆地，这两者如何互相需要。
By now, Tate understood that her nickname was not cruel. Only few become legend, so he chose as the epitaph for her tombstone:
到了现在，泰特明白了，她的绰号并不残忍。只有极少数人可以成为传奇。所以，他用这个绰号作为她的墓志铭：
CATHERINE DANIELLE CLARK
“KYA”
THE MARSH GIRL
1945–2009
凯瑟琳·丹妮尔·克拉克
“基娅”
湿地女孩
1945—2009
THE EVENING OF HER FUNERAL, when everyone was finally gone, Tate stepped into her homemade lab. Her carefully labeled samples, more than fifty years' worth, was the longest-running, most complete collection of its kind. She had requested that it be donated to Archbald Lab, and someday he would do so, but parting with it now was unthinkable.
葬礼那天晚上，等所有人都离开后，泰特走进她自建的实验室。她那些小心标记的标本，超过五十年的累积，是同类收藏里时间最长、种类最完备的。她曾要求把它们捐赠给阿奇博尔德实验室。日后他会这么做，但现在就和它们分开是不可想象的。
Walking into the shack—as she always called it—Tate felt the walls exhaling her breath, the floors whispering her steps so clear he called out her name. Then he stood against the wall, weeping. He lifted the old knapsack and held it to his chest.
走进棚屋——她一直这么叫它——泰特感到墙面呼出她的气息，地板轻轻回响着她的脚步，如此清晰，他喊出了她的名字。然后，他靠在墙边，哀哀哭泣，拿起她的旧背包，抱在胸口。
The officials at the courthouse had asked Tate to look for her will and birth certificate. In the old back bedroom, which had once been her parents', he rummaged through the closet and found boxes of her life stuffed in the bottom, almost hidden, under some blankets. He pulled them onto the floor and sat beside them.
法院的工作人员让泰特找找她的遗嘱和出生证明。在房子后方的旧卧室——那里曾属于她父母——他翻遍了柜子，在底部找到几个收着她一生重要物件的盒子，藏在几床毯子下面，差点逃过他的眼睛。他把它们拿出来，放到地板上，在旁边坐下。
Ever so carefully he opened the old cigar box, the one where all the collecting began. The box still smelled of sweet tobacco and little girl. Among a few birds' feathers, insects' wings, and seeds was the small jar with the ashes from her ma's letter, and a bottle of Revlon fingernail polish, Barely Pink. The bits and bones of a life. The stones of her stream.
他小心翼翼地打开那个旧烟盒，所有收藏从此处开始。这个盒子闻起来似乎依然有烟草的甜味和小女孩的气息。里面除了鸟羽、虫翅、种子，还有装了她妈妈那封信的灰烬的小瓶子，一瓶裸粉色指甲油。一生中的零零碎碎。嵌在她生命河床上的石头。
Tucked in the bottom was the deed for the property, which Kya had put in a conservation easement, protecting it from development. At least this fragment of the marsh would always be wild. But there was no will or personal papers, which did not surprise him; she would not have thought of such things. Tate planned to live out his days at her place, knowing she had wanted that and that Jodie would not object.
底下塞着地契，基娅申请了保护地役权，防止这片土地被开发。至少湿地这一角将永远保持天然。但是没有遗嘱或私人文件。这毫不奇怪，她不会想到这些。泰特打算在这里度过余生，他知道她希望如此，而乔迪也不会反对。
Late in the day, the sun dipping behind the lagoon, he stirred corn mush for the gulls and mindlessly glanced at the kitchen floor. He cocked his head as he noticed for the first time that the linoleum had not been installed under the woodpile or the old stove. Kya had kept firewood stacked high, even in summer, but now it was low, and he saw the edge of a cutout in the floorboard. He moved the remaining logs aside and saw a trapdoor in the plywood. Kneeling down, he slowly opened it to find an enclosed compartment between the joists, which held, among other things, an old cardboard box covered in dust. He pulled it out and found inside scores of manila envelopes and a smaller box. All the envelopes were marked with the initials A.H., and from them he pulled out pages and pages of poetry by Amanda Hamilton, the local poet who had published simple verses in regional magazines. Tate had thought Hamilton's poems rather weak, but Kya had always saved the published clippings, and here were envelopes full of them. Some of the written pages were completed poems, but most of them were unfinished, with lines crossed out and some words rewritten in the margin in the poet's handwriting—Kya's handwriting.
天晚了，太阳落到了潟湖后面。他给海鸥们搅拌着玉米碎，心不在焉地瞥了一眼厨房地板，第一次注意到油毡没有铺到柴火堆和旧炉子下面，他抬起头来。基娅一向把柴火堆得很高，即使是在夏天，但现在它变矮了，他看到地板上露出一道切口的边缘。他把剩下的柴火移开，发现胶合板上嵌着一个活板门。他跪坐下来，慢慢打开活板门，在托梁之间找到一个封闭的隔间，里面除了其他东西还有一个蒙尘的旧纸板箱。他拿出箱子，看到里面有几十个马尼拉纸信封和一个小一点的盒子。所有信封上都写着缩写A.H。他从信封里抽出一页页阿曼达·汉密尔顿的诗。她是一位本地诗人，在地区杂志上发表过一些简单的诗。泰特一直觉得汉密尔顿的诗太浅显，但基娅总是将它们剪下来保存起来。这些信封内都是她的诗。有些是写完的，但大部分都未完成，划掉了一些句子，在边上写了一些单词，手写的——基娅的笔迹。
Amanda Hamilton was Kya. Kya was the poet.
阿曼达·汉密尔顿就是基娅。基娅就是那个诗人。
Tate's face grimaced in disbelief. Through the years she must have put the poems in the rusty mailbox, submitting them to local publications. Safe behind a nom de plume. Perhaps a reaching-out, a way to express her feelings to someone other than gulls. Somewhere for her words to go.
泰特的脸因为难以置信而皱了起来。这么多年，她一直把诗放进生锈的邮箱，投给当地出版商，安然躲在笔名后。或许这是伸出的手，向海鸥之外的他者表达感情的一种方式。她心声的一个出口。
He glanced through some of the poems, most about nature or love. One was folded neatly in its own envelope. He pulled it out and read:
他浏览了一些诗，大部分是关于自然或爱情的。其中一首整齐地折好，单独放在一个信封里。他拿出来，读道：
The Firefly
Luring him was as easy
As flashing valentines.
But like a lady firefly
They hid a secret call to die.
A final touch,
Unfinished;
The last step, a trap.
Down, down he falls,
His eyes still holding mine
Until they see another world.
I saw them change.
First a question,
Then an answer,
Finally an end.
And love itself passing
To whatever it was before it began. A.H.
萤火虫
引诱他很容易
只需发光的情人节礼物。
但如同一只雌萤火虫
它们暗藏死亡的召唤。
最后的触碰，
未完成；
最后一步，一个陷阱。
坠落，他坠落，
他的眼睛始终看着我
直到看见另一个世界。
我看着那双眼睛变化。
先是疑问，
然后是答案，
最后终结。
爱情已逝
回到它开始前的模样。
A. H.
Still kneeling on the floor, he read it again. He held the paper next to his heart, throbbing inside his chest. He looked out the window, making certain no one was coming down the lane—not that they would, why would they? But to be sure. Then he opened the small box, knowing what he would find. There, laid out carefully on cotton, was the shell necklace Chase had worn until the night he died.
他跪坐在地上，又读了一遍。他把稿纸放在心口，那颗在胸膛里悸动着的心。他看向窗外，确认没有人走下小径——并不是说会有人来，怎么会有人来呢？但要确保万无一失。然后，他打开那个小盒子，知道自己将找到什么。被小心地放在棉布上的，是那串蔡斯一直戴到死的项链。
Tate sat at the kitchen table for a long while, taking it in, imagining her riding on night buses, catching a riptide, planning around the moon. Softly calling to Chase in the darkness. Pushing him backward. Then, squatting in mud at the bottom, lifting his head, heavy with death, to retrieve the necklace. Covering her footprints; leaving no trace.
泰特在厨房餐桌旁坐了很久，慢慢消化这件事，想象着她搭夜班车，赶海流，根据月相做计划。在黑暗中温柔地呼唤蔡斯。把他向后推倒。然后，蹲在塔底的泥泞中，抬起他因死亡而变得沉重的头，取回项链。掩盖好脚印，不留任何踪迹。
Breaking kindling into bits, Tate built a fire in the old woodstove and, envelope by envelope, burned the poems. Maybe he didn't need to burn them all, maybe he should have destroyed just the one, but he wasn't thinking clearly. The old, yellowed papers made a great whoosh a foot high, then smoldered. He took the shell off the rawhide, dropped the rawhide in the fire, and put the boards back in the floor.
泰特敲碎引火柴，在旧炉子里生起火，然后一个信封一个信封地烧了这些诗。或许他不需要烧完所有，只要销毁那一首，但他脑子已经糊涂了。老旧、泛黄的纸张腾起一英尺高，随后化为灰烬。他把贝壳从生牛皮绳上拿下，把绳子扔进火里，然后把活板重新嵌入地板。
Then, in near dusk, he walked to the beach and stood on a sharp bed of white and cracked mollusks and crab pieces. For a second he stared at Chase's shell in his open palm and then dropped it on the sand. Looking the same as all the others, it vanished. The tide was coming in, and a wave flowed over his feet, taking with it hundreds of seashells back into the sea. Kya had been of this land and of this water; now they would take her back. Keep her secrets deep.
接近黄昏时，他去了沙滩，站在一处硌脚的、布满破裂的白色软体动物和螃蟹碎片的地方。有一秒钟，他看着手心里蔡斯的贝壳，然后把它扔在沙地上。它消失了，看上去和其他一切并无分别。潮水来了，海浪漫过他的脚背，带着成百上千的贝壳回到大海。基娅属于这片土地，这片水域。如今，它们收回了她。深埋她的秘密。
And then the gulls came. Seeing him there, they spiraled above his head. Calling. Calling.
海鸥来了。看到他，它们在他头顶盘旋。呼喊着。呼喊着。
As night fell, Tate walked back toward the shack. But when he reached the lagoon, he stopped under the deep canopy and watched hundreds of fireflies beckoning far into the dark reaches of the marsh. Way out yonder, where the crawdads sing.
夜幕降临，泰特走回棚屋。但到了潟湖时，他在幽暗的树冠下驻足，看着几百只萤火虫在湿地黑暗的深处远远地召唤。就在远方，蝲蛄吟唱的地方。
