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Baritone thunder. Snarling winds. Consuming downpours.
电闪雷鸣，狂风大作，暴雨倾泻。
Okeechobee, the disastrous hurricane of 1928, tore through the North Atlantic basin, laying waste to entire communities.
1928年，一场灾难性的飓风--奥基乔比肆虐美国北部盆地，到处废墟遍地。
In Eatonville, Florida, the storm forced many to flee. But for Janie Crawford, it inspired an unexpected homecoming.
在佛罗里达的伊顿维尔，许多人因为飓风而背井离乡。但是对于珍妮·克劳福德来说，这却让她意外地踏上了返乡的旅程。
Janie's return begins "Their Eyes Were Watching God,"
珍妮的这次返乡，就是《他们眼望上苍》的开端，
Zora Neale Hurston's acclaimed novel about a Black woman's quest for love and agency in a time that sought to deprive her of both.
佐拉·尼尔·赫斯顿的这部著名小说讲述一位黑人女性在被压抑的时期仍然追寻爱与权利的故事。
When Janie arrives back in Eatonville, her arrival is shrouded in mystery.
当珍妮重新抵达伊顿维尔时，她的回归笼罩了一团神秘的色彩。
Her neighbors and friends are quick to gossip about her reappearance, her finances, and most importantly, the whereabouts of her missing husband.
她的邻居和朋友很快地长舌闲话她的回归、经济状况，但最议论纷纷的则是她失踪的丈夫的下落。
But only Janie's friend Pheoby gets to hear the whole story.
不过只有珍妮的朋友菲比有机会听到事情完整的经过。
Over the course of a conversation that spans most of the novel, Hurston untangles Janie's life story;
在持续了几乎整本小说的对话过程中，赫斯顿整理了珍妮的一生，
from her complicated childhood and her life in Eatonville, to her scandalous departure and the shocking events that followed.
从她的复杂的童年生活和她在伊顿维尔的生活，一直到那次可耻的离开和随之而来的骇人听闻的事件。
The specifics of Janie's story are often larger than life, but many of the book's details reflect the incredible experiences of its author.
当然，珍妮的故事经过艺术加工，但是书中的许多细节却真实地反映着作者不可思议的人生经历。
Zora Neale Hurston was raised in Eatonville, one of the first planned and incorporated all-Black communities in America.
赫斯顿同样在伊顿维尔长大，伊顿维尔也是美国第一个全黑人的社区。
Like Janie, she also left Eatonville abruptly, traveling first to Jacksonville and DC, before eventually moving further north.
和书中的珍妮一样，她也突然离开了伊顿维尔，路途中经过了杰克逊维尔和华盛顿特区，最终向更远的北方走去。
In New York City, Hurston studied anthropology and became a renowned author in the Harlem Renaissance,
在纽约，赫斯顿学习了人类学，并且成为了美国黑人哈林区文艺复兴时期的著名作家。
a cultural, literary and artistic movement that's still considered a golden era of Black artistry and creativity.
这个时期对于黑人的艺术创作来说可以称得上是文艺运动的黄金年代。
Here, her work garnered enough support to fund research trips through the South, where she collected stories and folktales from Black Americans.
也正是在这个时期她的作品获得了足够的支持，让她有财力完成在南部的研究之旅，她沿途收集了美国黑人更多的故事和民间传说。
By 1937, her fieldwork had taken her all the way to Haiti, where she wrote most of "Their Eyes Were Watching God."
直到1937年，她的实地研究之旅来到了海地，也就是她完成《他们眼望上苍》这本书的地方。
Hurston drew on all these experiences for the novel,
赫斯顿在小说中利用这次实地考察的经验，
incorporating folkloric elements alongside her own family and romantic history to bring readers into the intimate spaces of Black southern life.
并且很好地融合了民间元素与她自己家庭的故事，还有浪漫的历史，让小说读者和南方黑人的生活进行了一次亲密接触。
She uses regional phrases and sayings to capture the dialect of her Floridian characters.
她在小说中运用了方言和俚语来展现她佛罗里达人的一面。
And the novel's omniscient third-person narration
小说以全知的第三人称视角展开叙述，
allows Hurston to unleash her poetic prose on everything from birdsong, architecture, and fashion, to her characters' deepest feelings and motivations.
这也让赫斯顿可以尽情使用她诗情画意般的语言，来描绘从鸟鸣、建筑、时尚，一直到她角色内心中最深处的感受和需求。
Perhaps more than any specific details, Hurston's experiences of being a Black woman in America at this time are more evident in the novel's themes.
但或许与这些细节相比，赫斯顿在当时的美国作为黑人女性的经历，在小说的主题中更是体现得淋漓尽致。
Over the course of one long evening, Janie and Pheoby discuss the nature of family, marriage, spirituality and more.
在那个持续了整整一个傍晚的对话中，珍妮和菲比聊起了家庭、婚姻、精神等等。
But their conversation always comes back to Janie's truest desire: to live honestly and be truly loved in return.
但种种话题最后都回归到珍妮内心中最真实的诉求：真实地活着，同时也被真实地爱着。
As a teenager, Janie resents an arranged marriage, despite the safety it offers her and the wishes of her loving grandmother.
年轻的时候，珍妮一直对包办婚姻感到愤恨，尽管它让人很有安全感，同时也是深爱她的外婆的愿望。
When her family becomes well-respected in Eatonville, she struggles with the judgmental eyes of strangers and a husband who wants her to be something she's not.
而当她的家庭在伊顿维尔变得受人尊敬时，她也曾在陌生人和丈夫的评头论足中彷徨过，因为他们都希望她成为完全不像她自己的另一个人。
Throughout her life, Janie frequently feels she's at the whim of natural and spiritual forces that can shift the course of her existence without warning.
在珍妮的一生中，她时常感觉到大脑被一些来自自然的精神世界的力量所控制，而这些力量能毫无预兆改变她的人生进程。
And when she finally does find true love, these unknowable powers continue to act on her, threatening to destroy the life she's so painstakingly built.
所以当她最终找到真爱的时候，这些未知的力量完全占据了上风，威胁着要破坏她煞费苦心建立起来的现在生活。
The story takes place during a time where women had little to no agency,
这一切都发生在一个女性得不到任何机构帮助的年代，
and Janie's life is full of complicated characters who demand different kinds of love and submission.
而珍妮的生活中却又充满错综复杂的人物，以至于她需要来自不同人的不同的爱和建议。
But despite the loneliness of her situation, Janie navigates these trials with defiance and curiosity.
但是尽管她一直孤身一人，她仍然用她的反叛精神和好奇心来应对一切。
Her questions and commentary push back in subtle, clever ways.
她提出的问题和评论总能用最巧妙的方式回击。
And as the reader follows Janie's journey from childhood to middle age, her confidence becomes infectious.
所以当读者跟随着珍妮重温了她从童年到中年的成长经历，珍妮的自信心也能感染到每一个读者。
Just like Hurston, Janie defies the restrictive expectations for a woman in her time.
就像赫斯顿一样，珍妮同样藐视对于当时每一个女人的设限的期待。
Early in the novel, Hurston writes that "there are years that ask questions and years that answer,"
在小说的开头，赫斯顿写到，“总有疑惑的岁月但也一定有明朗的时候”，
suggesting that life can only truly be understood by living it.
这也表明，只有坚强地活下去才能更好理解生活。
But through her empathetic storytelling, Hurston invites us into Janie's life, her life, and the lives of so many other women.
但是通过她富有共鸣的讲述，赫斯顿带领我们走入了珍妮的一生，她自己的一生，同时又是千千万万的女人的一生。
