【经典名著阅读】《德伯家的苔丝》第二十三章（下）
'Oh! would you? Why?' said wondering Retty.“啊，真的吗？为什么？”莫名其妙的莱蒂问。
'It cannot be! But I will be plain. Putting myself quite on one side, I don't think he will choose either of you.'“那是不可能的！不过我得把话说明白。我要把自己完全撇在一边，但是他也不会从你们中间选一个的。”
'I have never expected it - thought of it!'moaned Retty. 'But O! I wish I was dead!'“我从来没有这样希望过——也没有这样想过！”莱蒂痛苦地说。“可是，唉！我但愿我已经死了才好。”
The poor child, torn by a feeling which she hardly understood, turned to the other two girls who came upstairs just then.这个可怜的女孩子，被一种连她自己都不明白的感情折磨着，转身面向刚刚上楼的另外两个女孩子。
'We be friends with her again,' she said to them. 'She thinks no more of his choosing her than we do.'“我们跟她还是朋友，”她对她们说。“她觉得他娶她的机会并不比娶我们的多。”
So the reserve went off, and they were confiding and warm.她们中间的隔阂就这样消除了，又亲亲热热地说起知心话来。
'I don't seem to care what I do now,' said Marian, whose mood was tuned to its lowest bass. 'I was going to marry a dairyman at Stickleford, who's asked me twice; but - my soul - I would put an end to myself rather'n be his wife now! Why don't ye speak, Izz?'“我似乎现在做什么都不在乎了，”玛丽安说，她的心情现在低落到了极点。“我要嫁给斯底克福特的一个奶牛场老板了，他已经向我求婚两次了；可是——大啊——我现在宁肯死了也不愿做他的妻子了！你为什么不说话啊，伊茨？”
'To confess, then,' murmured Izz, 'I made sure to-day that he was going to kiss me as he held me; and I lay still against his breast, hoping and hoping, and never moved at all. But he did not. I don't like biding here at Talbotbays any longer! I shall go hwome.'“那么我承认，”伊茨小声说，“今天他抱着我走过水塘的时候，我心里想他一定要吻我的；我静静地靠在他的胸膛上，等了又等，一动也不动。但是他没有吻我。我再也不愿意在泰波塞斯住下去了！我要回家去。”
The air of the sleeping-chamber seemed to palpitate with the hopeless passion of the girls. They writhed feverishly under the oppressiveness of an emotion thrust on them by cruel Nature's law - an emotion which they had neither expected nor desired. The incident of the day had fanned the flame that was burning the inside of their hearts out, and the torture was almost more than they could endure. The differences which distinguished them as individuals were abstracted by this passion, and each was but portion of one organism called sex. There was so much frankness and so little jealousy because there was no hope. Each one was a girl of fair common sense, and she did not delude herself with any vain conceits, or deny her love, or give herself airs, in the idea of outshining the others. The full recognition of the futility of their infatuation, from a social point of view; its purposeless beginning; its self-bounded outlook; its lack of everything to justify its existence in the eye of civilization (while lacking nothing in the eye of Nature); the one fact that it did exist, ecstasizing them to a killing joy; all this imparted to them a resignation, a dignity, which a practical and sordid expectation of winning him as a husband would have destroyed.姑娘们的爱情既然没有了希望，卧室里的气氛也就变得烦躁不安起来。冷酷的自然法则把她们的感情激发出来——这种感情既不是她们想要的，也不是她们情愿的，就是在这种感情的压力下，她们在床上辗转反侧，久久不能入睡。白天发生的事已经燃起了火苗，在她们的胸膛里燃烧着，折磨着她们，使她们痛苦得几乎无法忍受了。她们作为个体存在的差别被这种感情消除了，她们每一个人都不过是被称作女人的这种有机体的一部分。因为谁也没有希望，所以她们都是那样坦诚，没有一点儿忌妒。她们每一个人都是明白事理的姑娘，谁也没有想到为了超过别人，就用虚荣的幻想去自欺欺人，或是去否认她们的爱情，或去卖弄风情。从她们的身分地位看，她们完全明白她们的痴情不会有什么结果；这件事从一开始就是没有意义的；是她们自己建立起来的思想观念在作怪；从文明的观点看，她们的爱情根本就没有任何存在的理由（但是从自然的观点看，什么理由也不缺少）；事实是，爱情是确实存在的，而且给她们带来的极度喜悦到了销魂蚀魄的程度；所有这一切也使她们产生出一种听天由命和自尊自重的思想，而她们要是真的去争夺他作丈夫，卑鄙地想心思，那么这种态度就会被破坏掉了。
They tossed and turned on their little beds, and the cheese-wring dripped monotonously downstairs.她们在小床上翻来覆去的，老是睡不着，楼下的奶油榨机里也传来单调的滴答声。
'B' you awake, Tess?' whispered one, half-an-hour later.“你没睡着吧，苔丝？”过了半小时，有一个女孩子低声问。
It was Izz Huett's voice.那是伊茨·体特的声音。
Tess replied in the affirmative, whereupon also Retty and Marian suddenly flung the bedclothes off them, and sighed--苔丝回答说没有睡着，刚一说完，莱蒂和玛丽安也掀开了被单叹着气说——
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