【经典名著阅读】《德伯家的苔丝》第二十七章（下）
'I wish I could fix my mind on what I hear there more firmly than I do,' she remarked as a safe generality. 'It is often a great sorrow to me.'“我希望能专心致志地听他讲道，但是我在那儿又老是不能专下心来。”她说着不会让人多心的普通话题。“对这件事我常常感到非常难过。”
She spoke so unaffectedly that Angel was sure in his heart that his father could not object to her on religious grounds, even though she did not know whether her principles were High, Low, or Broad. He himself knew that, in reality, the confused beliefs which she held, apparently imbibed in childhood, were, if any thing, Tractarian as to phraseology, and Pantheistic as to essence. Confused or otherwise, to disturb them was his last desire:她说得那样坦诚自然，安琪尔心里相信他的父亲是不能用宗教方面的理由反对苔丝了，即使她弄不清楚自己是高教派、低教派还是广教派，这也没有什么关系。但是安琪尔知道，她心中混乱的宗教信仰，明显是在儿童时代受到熏陶的结果，真正说来，就使用的词句而论，是特拉克特主义的①，就精神实质而论，是泛神论的。混乱也罢，不混乱也罢，他绝没有想到要去纠正它们：
Leave thou thy sister, when she prays,你的妹妹在祈祷，不要去打搅
Her early Heaven, her happy views;她儿时的天堂，幸福的观念；
Nor thou with shadow'd hint confuse也不要用晦涩的暗示搅乱
A life that leads melodious days.她在美妙岁月里过的生活。②
He had occasionally thought the counsel less honest than musical; but he gladly conformed to it now.他曾经认为，这首诗的主旨不如它的韵律可靠；但是他现在却乐意遵从它了。
He spoke further of the incidents of his visit, of his father's mode of life, of his zeal for his principles; she grew serener, and the undulations disappeared from her skimming; as she finished one lead after another he followed her, and drew the plugs for letting down the milk.他继续谈他回家后的种种琐事，谈他父亲的生活方式，谈他父亲追求生活原则的热情；苔丝也慢慢安静下来，撇奶油时手也不发颤了；他陪着她一桶一桶地撇着奶油，又帮她把塞子拔掉，把牛奶放出来。
'I fancied you looked a little downcast when you came in,' she ventured to observe, anxious to keep away from the subject of herself.“你刚进来的时候，我觉得你情绪不太好似的。”她冒昧地问，尽量绕开与自己有关的话题。
①特拉克特主义（Tractarian），一种英国宗教运动，又称牛津运动，因这一派自1832年到1841年发表九十本小册子，主张英国国教归于天主教，反对新教，后因遭人反对而逐渐消亡。
②该诗引自丁尼生（Alfted Lord Tennyson）的诗《纪念阿塞·哈莱姆》（In Memorian）第三十三节。
'Yes - well, my father has been talking a good deal to me of his troubles and difficulties, and the subject always tends to depress me. He is so zealous that he gets many snubs and buffetings from people of a different way of thinking from himself, and I don't like to hear of such humiliations to a man of his age, the more particularly as I don't think earnestness does any good when carried so far. He has been telling me of a very unpleasant scene in which he took part quite recently. He went as the deputy of some missionary society to preach in the neighbourhood of Trantridge, a place forty miles from here, and made it his business to expostulate with a lax young cynic he met with somewhere about there - son of some landowner up that way - and who has a mother afflicted with blindness. My father addressed himself to the gentleman point-blank, and there was quite a disturbance. It was very foolish of my father, I must say, to intrude his conversation upon a stranger when the probabilities were so obvious that it would be useless. But whatever he thinks to be his duty, that he'll do, in season or out of season; and, of course, he makes many enemies, not only among the absolutely vicious, but among the easy-going, who hate being bothered. He says he glories in what happened, and that good may be done indirectly; but I wish he would not so wear himself out now he is getting old, and would leave such pigs to their wallowing.'“是的——哦，我父亲跟我谈了许多的话，谈他的烦恼，谈他的困难，他谈的话对我总是有一种压抑的感觉。他是一个热情认真的人，遇到同他的想法不同的人，他们不仅冷淡他，甚至还动手打他，像他这样大年纪的一个人，我不愿意他遭受侮辱，尤其是一个人热心到那种程度，我认为并没有什么用处。他还告诉过我新近他遭遇的一件叫人非常不痛快的事。有一次他当一个讲道团的代表，到附近的特兰里奇去讲道，那是离这儿四十英里的一个地方，在那儿遇见了一个地主的儿子，妈妈是个瞎子。儿子是一个放荡狂妄的青年，我父亲就担负起教导他的责任，直截了当地教导他，结果竟引出了一场麻烦。我一定要说，我父亲太傻了，既然劝说明显是没有用的，何必去对一个素不相识的人费口舌呢。但是不管什么事，他只要认为是他的职责，他就不管什么时候，都要去做；当然，他结下了不少的仇人，其中不仅有绝对的坏人，也有一些容易相处的人，他们恨父亲多管闲事。他说，他的光荣就在发生的这些事情里，说善是在间接中实现的；可是我希望他不要老是这样自找苦吃，他已经渐渐老了，就让那些猪猡在污泥中打滚好了。”
Tess's look had grown hard and worn, and her ripe mouth tragical; but she no longer showed any tremulousness. Clare's revived thoughts of his father prevented his noticing her particularly; and so they went on down the white row of liquid rectangles till they had finished and drained them off, when the other maids returned, and took their pails, and Deb came to scald out the leads for the new milk. As Tess withdrew to go afield to the cows he said to her softly--苔丝的脸色变得呆滞憔悴了，红润的嘴唇露出凄惨的情态；但是再也没有看见她有颤栗的表现。克莱尔又想起了他的父亲，因此没有注意到苔丝的特别表现；他们就这样继续撇那一长排方形盆子里的牛奶，直到都撇完了，牛奶都放掉了才歇手。其他的挤奶女工也来了，拎起了她们的牛奶桶，德贝拉也下来刷洗铅桶，预备装新的牛奶。在首丝到草场上去挤牛奶的时候，克莱尔温柔地问她——
'And my question, Tessy?'“我问的问题你还没有回答呢，苔丝？”
'O no - no!' replied she with grave hopelessness, as one who had heard anew the turmoil of her own past in the allusion to Alec d'Urberville. 'It can't be!'“啊，不行——不行！”苔丝郑重和绝望地说，因为她刚才听见克莱尔说的德贝维尔的故事，又引发了她过去的痛苦。“我不可能嫁给你。”
She went out towards the mead, joining the other milkmaids with a bound, as if trying to make the open air drive away her sad constraint. All the girls drew onward to the spot where the cows were grazing in the farther mead, the bevy advancing with the bold grace of wild animals - the reckless unchastened motion of women accustomed to unlimited space - in which they abandoned themselves to the air as a swimmer to the wave. It seemed natural enough to him now that Tess was again in sight to choose a mate from unconstrained Nature, and not from the abodes of Art.她出了门，向草场走去，一步就跨进了挤奶女工的队伍中，仿佛要利用户外的新鲜空气，来赶走心中的不快。所有的女工们都向在远处草场上吃草的奶牛走去，这一群勇敢的姑娘身上带着野性的美，她们是一群已经习惯了不受任何拘束的姑娘，迈着自由随便的步子，在空旷的野外走着，就好像游泳的人去追逐波浪一样。克莱尔又看见了苔丝，现在他觉得，从无拘无束的自然中选择一个伴侣，而不是从艺术的宫殿里去选择伴侣，这都是再自然不过的。
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