摘要：Usually the occupants of the rooms were former Confederate soldiers of the rougher, illiterate type, homeless men, men without fam
They say that Shantytown settlement on the Decatur road is just full of mean darkies and you'd have to pass right by it.
听说迪凯特街上的棚户区有很多为非作歹的黑鬼，你还非得从那儿经过不可。
Let me think––Darling, promise me you won't do anything today and I'll think of something.
让我想一想——亲爱的，答应我你今天什么事情也不做，让我想个法子。
Promise me you'll go home and lie down. You look right peaked. Promise me.”
回家去躺会儿吧，你的脸色很不好。你要答应我。”
Because she was too exhausted by her anger to do otherwise,
思嘉由于生气，这时已经筋疲力尽，也就只好这样了。
Scarlett sulkily promised and went home, haughtily refusing any overtures of peace from her household.
sulkily:闷闷不乐的;闷闷不乐地;
haughtily:傲慢地
她无精打采地表示同意，然后就回家去了。家里人想与她和好，都被她顶了回去。
That afternoon a strange figure stumped through Melanie's hedge and across Pitty's back yard.
那天下午，一个陌生人穿过媚兰家的矮树篱笆，一拐一拐地走进皮蒂姑妈的后院。
Obviously, he was one of those men whom Mammy and Dilcey referred to as “the riff-raff”
显然他就是嬷嬷和迪尔茜所说的那种“无业游民”，
what Miss Melly pick up off the streets and let sleep in her cellar."
媚兰小姐在街上碰见就把他们接到家里，让他们住在地窖里。
There were three rooms in the basement of Melanie's house which formerly had been servants’quarters and a wine room.
媚兰这所房子有三间地下室，过去两间给用人住，一间放酒。
Now Dilcey occupied one, and the other two were in constant use by a stream of miserable and ragged transients.
transients:临时工;过往旅客;暂住某地的人;
现在迪尔茜住着一间，另外两间住的是破衣烂衫的可怜的过路人，川流不息。
No one but Melanie knew whence they came or where they were going
除了媚兰，谁也不知道他们从哪儿来，到哪儿去，
and no one but she knew where she collected them.
也只有她知道是在哪儿碰上他们的。
Perhaps the negroes were right and she did pick them up from the streets.
也许那两个仆人说的是对的，她的确是在街上碰见他们的。
But even as the great and the near great gravitated to her small parlor,
gravitated:被吸引到
不过既然有些重要人物和不那么重要的人物到她的小客厅里来，
so unfortunates found their way to her cellar where they were fed, bedded and sent on their way with packages of food.
不幸的人们也就可以到她的地窖里来，吃点东西，睡一觉，带上点吃的，再赶路。
Usually the occupants of the rooms were former Confederate soldiers of the rougher, illiterate type, homeless men, men without families,
到这里住宿的，一般都是过去南部联盟的兵，他们粗鲁，没有文化，无家可归。
beating their way about the country in hope of finding work.
他们也没有亲人，到处流浪，寻求工作。
Frequently, brown and withered country women with broods of tow-haired silent children spent the night there,
在这里过夜的还常常有面色黝黑、饱经风霜的农村妇女，带着一大群金黄头发、默不作声的孩子。
women widowed by the war, dispossessed of their farms, seeking relatives who were scattered and lost.
这些妇女在战争中失去了丈夫，丢掉了农场，正在到处寻找失散的亲人。
Sometimes the neighborhood was scandalized by the presence of foreigners,
令人吃惊的是附近有时也出现外国人，
speaking little or no English, who had been drawn South by glowing tales of fortunes easily made.
他们不会讲或者只会讲一点英语，他们是听了花言巧语，以为南方的钱好挣，才到这里来的。
Once a Republican had slept there.
有一天，一个共和党人在这里过夜。
At least, Mammy insisted he was a Republican, saying she could smell a Republican, same as a horse could smell a rattlesnake;
至少嬷嬷非说他是个共和党人，她说共和党人她能闻得出来，就像马能闻出响尾蛇一样。
but no one believed Mammy's story, for there must be some limit even to Melanie's charity.
可是谁也不相信嬷嬷说的这一套，因为大家觉得媚兰慈爱也会有个限度。
At least everyone hoped so.
至少大家希望如此。
sitting on the side porch in the pale November sunshine with the baby on her lap,
那陌生人走进后院时，思嘉正坐在侧面的回廊上，怀里搂着小女儿，在十一月微弱的阳光下晒太阳。
Yes, thought Scarlett, he is one of Melanie's lame dogs. And he's really lame, at that!
思嘉一看见他就想：“是的，他一定是媚兰的那帮瘸腿狗。他还真是个瘸子呢！”
The man who was making his way across the back yard stumped, like Will Benteen, on a wooden leg.
这个人装着一条假腿，走起路来和威尔一样，一拐一拐的。
He was a tall, thin old man with a bald head, which shone pinkishly dirty,
他是一个又高又瘦的老人，头发已经脱落，头皮红得发亮，看上去很脏，
and a grizzled beard so long he could tuck it in his belt.
灰白胡子长得可以塞到腰带底下。
He was over sixty, to judge by his hard, seamed face, but there was no sag of age to his body.
sag:松垂
他满脸皱纹，面无表情，看上去六十开外，但身体还不显得衰老。
He was lank and ungainly but, even with his wooden peg, he moved as swiftly as a snake
此人其貌不扬，虽然装了假腿，走起路来却和长虫一样快。
来源：草帽