A Rose for Emily
William Faulkner
When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town
went to her funeral: the men through a sort of
respectful affection for a fallen monument, the
women mostly out of curiosity to see the inside of
her house, which no one save an old man-
servanta combined gardener and cookhad
seen in at least ten years.
It was a big, squarish frame house that had once
been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and
scrolled balconies in the heavily lightsome style of
the seventies, set on what had once been our most
select street. But garages and cotton gins had
encroached and obliterated even the august
names of that neighborhood; only Miss Emily's
house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish
decay above the cotton wagons and the gasoline
pumpsan eyesore among eyesores. And now
Miss Emily had gone to join the representatives of
those august names where they lay in the cedar-
bemused cemetery among the ranked and
anonymous graves of Union and Confederate
soldiers who fell at the battle of Jefferson.
Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and
a care; a sort of hereditary obligation upon the
town, dating from that day in 1894 when Colonel
Sartoris, the mayorhe who fathered the edict
that no Negro woman should appear on the
streets without an apronremitted her taxes, the
dispensation dating from the death of her father
on into perpetuity. Not that Miss Emily would have
accepted charity. Colonel Sartoris invented an
involved tale to the effect that Miss Emily's father
had loaned money to the town, which the town, as
a matter of business, preferred this way of
repaying. Only a man of Colonel Sartoris'
generation and thought could have invented it,
and only a woman could have believed it.
Bng Hng Cho Emily
William Faulkner
Khi c Emily Grierson cht, c tnh chng ti i d
m tang; n ng th v lng qu mn mt th g c
knh sp ; cn n b th hu ht l v tnh hiu
k mun dm ng pha trong nh c, t ra cng
mi nm khng ai c t chn ti, tr ng lo
bc va l ngi u bp, va l ngi lm vn.
y l mt to nh bng g to ln vung vn, trc
kia c ln sn trng. To nh vi ng mi
cong, vi nhng chp nhn hot, vi nhng bao ln
cun vng theo ng li kin trc thanh k ca
nhng nm 70, to lc ti mt khu ph sang trng
nht nc kia. Nhng ri th nhng nh sa xe,
nhng nh my cn bng ln dn v xo m ngay c
nhng danh hiu c knh ca khu ph, ch cn tr li
c nh c Emily vn ngo ngh vn ln vi dng
suy tn m ng nh gia m xe gong ch bng
v nhng trm sn bng, ng l mt cnh trng
mt gia nhng cnh trng mt khc. V gi y,
c Emily ni gt theo nhng i din ca hai
danh hiu c knh y vo nm trong ngha trang
di bng tng vi vu, gia nhng dy m v danh
ca cc Hp chng min Bc v Lin Qun min
Nam gc ng trn chn trng Jefferson.
Lc sinh thi, c Emily l mt truyn thng, mt
ngha v, mt lo u, mt th m ph th truyn
vo nm 1894 nng l c tnh k t ngy vin i
t th trng Sartoris - ngi ban hnh iu lut
cm cc ph na da en ra ph nu khng qun tp
d - min hn mi khon thu cho c. Vic x
thu ny c tnh t ngy cha c qua i, v c
hiu lc vnh vin. Khng phi l c Emily s mang
ting chu nhn cu tr. i t Sartoris ba ra
mt cu chuyn loanh quanh l trc y thn ph
c Emily cho tnh vay tin, v nh vy theo l
sng phng thng tnh, tnh mi tm cch tr n
nh th. Ch c ngi thuc cng th h v vi tm
kin thc nh i t Sartoris mi c th ba ra cu
chuyn tng t, m cng ch c ph n mi tin
c chuyn .