【经典名著阅读】《德伯家的苔丝》第三十一章（上）
Tess wrote a most touching and urgent letter to her mother the very next day, and by the end of the week a response to her communication arrived in Joan Durbeyfield's wandering last-century hand.第二天，苔丝给母亲写了一封最动情、最紧迫的信，在周末她就收到了母亲琼·德北菲尔德写给她的回信，信是用上个世纪的花体字写的。
DEAR TESS, - I write these few lines Hoping they will find you well, as they leave me at Present, thank God for it. Dear Tess, we are all glad to Hear that you are going really to be married soon. But with respect to your question, Tess, I say between ourselves, quite private but very strong, that on no account do you say a word of your Bygone Trouble to him. I did not tell everything to your Father, he being so Proud on account of his Respectability, which, perhaps, your Intended is the same. Many a woman - some of the Highest in the Land - have had a Trouble in their time; and why should you Trumpet yours when others don't Trumpet theirs? No girl would be such a Fool, specially as it is so long ago, and not your Fault at all. I shall answer the same if you ask me fifty times. Besides, you must bear in mind that, knowing it to be your Childish Nature to tell all that's in your heart - so simple! - I made you promise me never to let it out by Word or Deed, having your Welfare in my Mind; and you most solemnly did promise it going from this Door. I have not named either that Question or your coming marriage to your Father, as he would blab it everywhere, poor Simple Man.亲爱的苔丝，——我给你写一封短信，现在寄出这封信的时候，托上帝的福，我的身体很好，希望你的身体也很好。亲爱的苔丝，听说不久你真的就要结婚，我们全家人都感到很高兴、不过关于你那个问题，苔丝，要千万千万保守秘密，只能让我们两个人知道，决不能把你过去的不幸对他说一个字。我没有把所有的事都告诉你的父亲，因为他总以为自己门第高贵，自命不凡，也许你的未婚夫也是如此。许多女人——有些世界上最高贵的女人——一生中也曾有过不幸；为什么她们就可以不声不响，而你却要宣扬出去呢？没有一个女孩子会是这样傻的，尤其是事情已经过去这样久了，况且本来就不是你的错。即使你问我五十次，我也是这样回答你。另外，你一定要把那件事埋在心里，我知道你那种小孩子的天性，愿意把心里的话都告诉别人——你太单纯了！——为了你将来的幸福，我曾经要你答应我，永远不得以言语和行动泄露你过去的事；你在从这个门口离开的时候，你已经郑重其事地答应过我。我还没有把你那个问题和你现在的婚事，告诉你的父亲，因为他一听说就要到处嚷嚷的，真是一个头脑简单的人。
Dear Tess, keep up your Spirits, and we mean to send you a Hogshead of Cyder for your Wedding, knowing there is not much in your parts, and thin Sour Stuff what there is. So no more at present, and with kind love to your Young Man. - From your affectte. Mother, J. DURBEYFIELD.亲爱的苔丝，把你的勇气鼓起来，我们想在你结婚的时候送给你一大桶苹果酒，我们知道你们那一带的酒不多，而且又淡又酸。现在不多写了，代我向你的未婚夫问好。——爱你的母亲亲笔。琼·德北菲尔德
'O mother, mother!' murmured Tess.“啊，妈妈啊，妈妈！”苔丝低声说。
She was recognizing how light was the touch of events the most oppressive upon Mrs Durbeyfield's elastic spirit. Her mother did not see life as Tess saw it. That haunting episode of bygone days was to her mother but a passing accident. But perhaps her mother was right as to the course to be followed, whatever she might be in her reasons. Silence seemed, on the face of it, best for her adored one's happiness: silence it should be.她从信中看出来，即使最深重的事情压在德北菲尔德太太的富有弹性的精神上，也会轻松得不着痕迹。她母亲对生活的理解，和她对生活的理解是不相同的。对她母亲来说，她萦绕在心头的那件往事，只不过是一件烟消云散的偶然事件。不过，无论她的母亲的理由是什么，她出的主意也许是对的。从表面上看，为了她一心崇拜的那个人的幸福，沉默似乎是最好的办法：既然如此，那就沉默好啦。
Thus steadied by a command from the only person in the world who had any shadow of right to control her action, Tess grew calmer. The responsibility was shifted, and her heart was lighter than it had been for weeks. The days of declining autumn which followed her assent, beginning with the month of October, formed a season through which she lived in spiritual altitudes more nearly approaching ecstasy than any other period of her life.在这个世界上，唯一有一点儿权利控制住她的行动的人，就是她的母亲了，现在她的母亲写来了信，她也就定下了心。苔丝慢慢平静下来。责任已经被推卸掉了，和这几个星期以来的沉重心情比起来，现在也变得轻松多了。在她答应他的求婚以后，十月的深秋就开始了，在整个秋季里，同她以前的生活相比，她生活在一种快乐的精神状态里，都差不多达到了快乐的极点。
There was hardly a touch of earth in her love for Clare. To her sublime trustfulness he was all that goodness could be - knew all that a guide, philosopher, and friend should know. She thought every line in the contour of his person the perfection of masculine beauty, his soul the soul of a saint, his intellect that of a seer. The wisdom of her love for him, as love, sustained her dignity; she seemed to be wearing a crown. The compassion of his love for her, as she saw it, made her lift up her heart to him in devotion. He would sometimes catch her large, worshipful eyes, that had no bottom to them, looking at him from their depths, as if she saw something immortal before her.她对克莱尔的爱情，几乎没有一丝世俗的痕迹。在她崇高的信任里，他身上能有的就是美德——他懂得一个导师、哲学家和朋友懂得的一切。在她看来，他身上的每一根线条都是男性美的极点，他的灵魂就是一个圣徒的灵魂，他的智慧就是一个先知的智慧。她爱上了他这就是一种智慧，作为爱情，又维持了她的高贵；她好像觉得自己正在戴上一顶皇冠。因为在她看来，他爱她就是对她的一种同情，这就使她对他更加倾心相爱。他有时候也注意到她那双虔诚的大眼睛，深不可测，正在从最深处看着他，仿佛她看见了自己面前不朽的神一样。
She dismissed the past - trod upon it and put it out, as one treads on a coal that is smouldering and dangerous.她抛弃了过去——用脚踩它，把它消除掉，就像一个人用脚踩还在冒烟的危险炭火一样。
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