【经典名著阅读】《德伯家的苔丝》第十七章（下）
Songs were often resorted to in dairies hereabout as an enticement to the cows when they showed signs of withholding their usual yield; and the band of milkers at this request burst into melody - in purely business-like tones, it is true, and with no great spontaneity; the result, according to their own belief, being a decided improvement during the song's continuance. When they had gone through fourteen or fifteen verses of a cheerful ballad about a murderer who was afraid to go to bed in the dark because he saw certain brimstone flames around him, one of the male milkers said--当奶牛一出现出奶量比平常减少的迹象，人们往往就采取在牛奶场唱歌的办法，想用这种办法把牛奶引出来；老板要求唱歌，这群挤牛奶的工人们就放开喉咙唱起来——唱的完全是一种应付公事的调子，老实说，一点也没有自愿的意思；结果，就像他们相信的那样，在他们不停地唱歌的时候，出奶的状况的确有了改变。他们唱的是一首民歌，说是有一个杀人凶手不敢在黑暗里睡觉，因为他看见有某种硫磺火焰在围绕着他燃烧，他们唱到第十四段还是第十五段的时候，挤牛奶的男工中有人说——
'I wish singing on the stoop didn't use up so much of a man's wind! You should get your harp, sir; not but what a fiddle is best.'“但愿弯着腰唱歌不要这样费气力才好！你应该把你的竖琴拿来，先生；不拿竖琴，最好还是拿小提琴。”
Tess, who had given ear to this, thought the words were addressed to the dairyman, but she was wrong. A reply, in the shape of 'Why?'came as it were out of the belly of a dun cow in the stalls; it had been spoken by a milker behind the animal, whom she had not hitherto perceived.一直在留神听他们说话的苔丝，以为这些话是对牛奶场老板说的，不过她想错了。有人接口说了句“为什么”，声音似乎是从牛棚里一头黄牛的肚子里发出来的；这句话是那头牛后面的一个挤奶工人说的，苔丝直到这时才看见他。
'Oh yes; there's nothing like a fiddle,' said the dairyman. 'Though I do think that bulls are more moved by a tune than cows - at least that's my experience. Once there was a old aged man over at Mellstock - William Dewy by name - one of the family that used to do a good deal of business as tranters over there, Jonathan, do ye mind? - I knowed the man by sight as well as I know my own brother, in a manner of speaking. Well, this man was a coming home-along from a wedding where he had been playing his fiddle, one fine moonlight night, and for shortness' sake he took a cut across Forty-acres, a field lying that way, where a bull was out to grass. The bull seed William, and took after him, horns aground, begad; and though William runned his best, and hadn't much drink in him (considering 'twas a wedding, and the folks well off), he found he'd never reach the fence and get over in time to save himself. Well, as a last thought, he pulled out his fiddle as he runned, and struck up a jig, turning to the bull, and backing towards the corner. The bull softened down, and stood still, looking hard at William Dewy, who fiddled on and on; till a sort of a smile stole over the bull's face. But no sooner did William stop his playing and turn to get over hedge than the bull would stop his smiling and lower his horns towards the seat of William's breeches. Well, William had to turn about and play on, willy-nilly; and 'twas only three o'clock in the world, and 'a knowed that nobody would come that way for hours, and he so leery and tired that 'a didn't know what to do. When he had scraped till about four o'clock he felt that he verily would have to give over soon, and he said to himself, "There's only this last tune between me and eternal welfare! Heaven save me, or I'm a done man." Well, then he called to mind how he'd seen the cattle kneel o' Christmas Eves in the dead o' night. It was not Christmas Eve then, but it came into his head to play a trick upon the bull. So he broke into the 'Tivity Hymn, just as at Christmas carol-singing; when, lo and behold, down went the bull on his bended knees, in his ignorance, just as if 'twere the true 'Tivity night and hour. As soon as his horned friend were down, William turned, clinked off like a long-dog, and jumped safe over hedge, before the praying bull had got on his feet again to take after him. William used to say that he'd seen a man look a fool a good many times, but never such a fool as that bull looked when he found his pious feelings had been played upon, and 'twas not Christmas Eve... Yes, William Dewy, that was the man's name; and I can tell you to a foot where's he a-lying in Mellstock Churchyard at this very moment - just between the second yew-tree and the north aisle.'“啊，是的；什么也比不上提琴，”奶牛场老板说。“尽管我确实认为公牛比母牛更容易受到音乐的感动——至少这是我的经验。从前梅尔斯托克有一个老头儿——名字叫威廉·杜伊——他家里从前是赶大车的，在那一带做了不少的活儿，约纳森，你不在意吗？——也可以这么说，我见面就认识他，就像熟悉我的兄弟一样。哦，有一次他在婚礼上拉提琴，那是一个月光明媚的晚上，他在回家的路上为了少走一些路，就走了一条穿过名叫四十亩地的近路，在横在路中的那块田野里，有一头公牛跑出来吃草。公牛看见威廉，天呀，把头上的角一晃就追了过去；尽管威廉拼命地跑，而且酒他也喝得不多（因为那是婚礼，办婚事的人家也很有钱），但是他还是感到他没法及时跑到树篱跟前跳过去，救自己的命。唉，后来他急中生智，一边跑，一边把提琴拿出来，转身对着公牛拉起一支跳舞的曲子，一边倒着向角落里退去。那头公牛安静下来，站着不动了，使劲地看着威廉·杜伊，看着他把曲子拉了又拉；看到后来，公牛的脸上都悄悄露出一种笑容来了。可是就在威廉停下来刚要翻过树篱的时候，那头公牛就不再笑了，低下头要向威廉的胯裆触过去。啊，威廉不得不转过身去继续拉给它听，拉呀拉呀，不停地拉；那时还只是凌晨三点钟，他知道再有几个小时那条路上也不会有人来，他又累又饿，简直不知道怎么办才好。当他拉到大约四点钟的时候，他真不知道他是不是很快就要拉不下去了，就自言自语地说，“这是我剩下的最后一支曲子了！老天爷，救救我吧，莫让我把命丢了。”哦，后来他突然想起来他看见圣诞节前夕的半夜里有头牛下跪的事来。不过那时候不是圣诞节前夕，但是他突然想到要同那头公牛开个玩笑。因此，他就转而拉了一首“耶稣诞生颂”，就像圣诞节有人在唱圣诞颂歌一样；啊哈，你瞧，那头公牛不知道是开玩笑，就弯着双腿跪了下去，似乎真的以为耶稣诞生的时刻到了。威廉等到他那长角的朋友一跪下去，就转过身去像一条猎狗蹿起来，祈祷的公牛还没有站起来向他追过去，他已经跳过树篱平安无事了。威廉曾经说过愚蠢的人他见得多了，但从没有见过那头公牛发现那天原来不是圣诞节而自己虔诚的感情受到欺骗时那种傻样的……对了，威廉·杜伊，这就是那个人的名字；这阵儿他埋在梅尔斯托克教堂院子里，什么地方我都能说得一点儿不差——他就埋在教堂北边的走道和第二棵紫杉中间那块地方。”
'It's a curious story; it carries us sack to medieval times, when faith was a living thing!'“这真是一个离奇的故事；它又把我们带回到中古时代，那时候信仰是一件有生命的东西！”
The remark, singular for a dairy-yard, was murmured by the voice behind the dun cow; but as nobody understood the reference no notice was taken, except that the narrator seemed to think it might imply scepticism as to his tale.这是奶牛场里一句很奇特的评论，是那头黄褐色母牛身后的人嘟哝着说的；不过当时没有人懂得这句话的意思，就没有引起注意，只是讲故事的人似乎觉得这句话的意思是对他的故事表示怀疑。
'Well, 'tis quite true, sir, whether or no. I knowed the man well.'“哦，这可是千真万确的事，先生，不管你信不信。那个人我熟得很。”
'Oh yes; I have no doubt of it,' said the person behind the dun cow.“哦，不错；我不是怀疑它，”黄褐色母牛身后的人说。
Tess's attention was thus attracted to the dairyman's interlocutor, of whom she could see but the merest patch, owing to his burying his head so persistently in the flank of the milcher. She could not understand why he should be addressed as 'sir' even by the dairyman himself. But no explanation was discernible; he remained under the cow long enough to have milked three, uttering a private ejaculation now and then, as if he could not get on.苔丝这时候才注意到和老板说话的那个人，由于他把头紧紧地埋在奶牛的肚子上，苔丝看见的只是他身体的一部分。她也不明白，为什么老板和他说话也叫他“先生”。不过苔丝看不出一点儿道理来；他老是呆在母牛的下面，时间长得足够挤三头奶牛的奶，他时而嘴里悄悄地发出一声喘息，好像他坚持不下去了。
'Take it gentle, sir; take it gentle,' said the dairyman. ''Tis knack, not strength that does it.'“挤得柔和点儿，先生；挤得柔和点儿，”奶牛场老板说。“挤牛奶用的是巧劲儿，不是蛮力。”
'So I find,' said the other, standing up at last and stretching his arms. 'I think I have finished her, however, though she made my fingers ache.'“我也觉得是这样，”那个人说，终于站起来伸伸胳膊。“不过，我想我还是把它挤完了，尽管我把手指头都给挤疼了。”
Tess could then see him at full length. He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy-farmer when milking, and his boots were clogged with the mulch of the yard; but this was all his local livery. Beneath it was something educated, reserved, subtle, sad, differing.直到这时候苔丝才看见他的全身。他系一条普通的白色围裙，腿上打着奶牛场挤奶工人打的绑腿，靴子上沾满了院子里的烂草污泥；不过所有这些装束都是本地的装束。在这种外表之下，看得出来他受过教育，性格内向，性情敏感，神情忧郁和与众不同。
But the details of his aspect were temporarily thrust aside by the discovery that he was one whom she had seen before. Such vicissitudes had Tess passed through since that time that for a moment she could not remember where she had met him; and then it flashed upon her that he was the pedestrian who had joined in the club-dance at Marlott - the passing stranger who had come she knew not whence, had danced with others but not with her, had slightingly left her, and gone on his way with his friends.但是苔丝暂时把他外表上的这些细节放到了一边，因为他发现他是她以前见过的一个人。自从他们那次相遇之后，苔丝已经历尽沧桑，因而一时竟记不起在那儿见过他；后来心里一亮，她才想起来他就是那个曾在马洛特村参加过他们村社舞会的过路人——就是那个她不知道从哪儿来的过路的陌生人，不是同她而是同另一个女孩子跳过舞，离开时又冷落她，上路同他的朋友们一起走了。
The flood of memories brought back by this revival of an incident anterior to her troubles produced a momentary dismay lest, recognizing her also, he should by some means discover her story. But it passed away when she found no sign of remembrance in him. She saw by degrees that since their first and only encounter his mobile face had grown more thoughtful, and had acquired a young man's shapely moustache and beard - the latter of the palest straw colour where it began upon his cheeks, and deepening to a warm brown farther from its root. Under his linen milking-pinner he wore a dark velveteen jacket, cord breeches and gaiters, and a starched white shirt. Without the milking-gear nobody could have guessed what he was. He might with equal probability have been an eccentric landowner or a gentlemanly ploughman. That he was but a novice at dairy-work she had realized in a moment, from the time he had spent upon the milking of one cow.她回想起在她遭受了不幸以前发生的那件小事，对过去的回忆像潮水一样涌了上来，使她暂时生发出一阵忧郁，害怕他认出她来，并设法发现她的经历。不过她在他身上看不出他有记得的迹象，也就放心了。她还逐渐看见，自从他们第一次也是仅有的一次相遇以后，他那生动的脸变得更为深沉了，嘴上已经长出了年轻人有的漂亮胡须了——下巴上的胡须是淡淡的麦秸色，已经长到了两边的脸颊，逐渐变成了温暖的褐色。他在麻布围裙里面穿一件深色天鹅绒夹克衫，配一条灯芯绒裤子，扎着皮绑腿，里面穿一件浆洗过的白衬衫。要是他没有穿那件挤牛奶的围裙，没有人能够猜出他是谁。他完全可能是一个怪癖的地主，也完全可能是一个体面的农夫。从他给那头母牛挤奶所费的时间上，苔丝立刻就看出来，他只不过是在奶牛场干活的一个新手。
页:
[1]