英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第九章（下）
英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第九章(下)
Chapter 09 THE LEECH
第九章 医生
In this manner, the mysteriousold Roger Chillingworth became the medical adviser of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale. As not only the disease interested the physician, but he was strongly moved to look into the character and qualities of the patient, these two men, so different in age, came gradually to spend much time together. For the sake of the minister's health, and to enable the leech to gather plants with healing balmin them, they took long walks on the sea-shore, or in the forest; mingling various talk with the plashand murmur of the waves, and the solemn wind-anthem among the tree-tops. Often, likewise, one was the guest of the other, in his place of study and retirement. There was a fascinationfor the minister in the company of the man of science, in whom he recognised an intellectual cultivation of no moderate depth or scopetogether with a range and freedom of ideas, that he would have vainlylooked for among the members of his own profession. In truth, he was startled, if not shocked, to find this attribute in the physician. Mr. Dimmesdale was a true priest, a true religionist, with the reverentialsentiment largely developed, and an order of mind that impelled itself powerfully along the track of a creed, and wore its passage continually deeper with the lapseof time. In no state of society would he have been what is called a man of liberal views; it would always be essential to his peace to feel the pressure of a faith about him, supporting, while it confined him within its iron framework. Not the less, however, though with a tremulousenjoyment, did he feel the occasional relief of looking at the universe through the medium of another kind of intellect than those with which he habitually held converse. It was as if a window were thrown open,admitting a freer atmosphere into the close and stifledstudy, where his life was wasting itself away, amid lamplight, or obstructedday-beams, and the musty fragrance, be it sensualor moral, that exhales from books. But the air was too fresh and chill to be long breathed with comfort. So the minister, and the physician with him, withdrew again within the limits of what their church defined as orthodox.
就这样，神秘的老罗杰·齐灵渥斯成了丁梅斯代尔牧师先生的健康顾问。这位医生不仅对疾病感到兴趣，而且还对他的病人的个性和品质严加窥测。这两个人虽然在年纪上相差悬殊，但逐渐共同消磨超更多的时间了。为了牧师的健康，而且也使医生能够收集具有奇效的植物，他俩在海滨、林间长时间散步，聆听海浪的低语与林涛的戾鸣。同样，他俩也时常到彼此的书斋和卧室中去作客。对牧师来说，这位科学家的陪伴中自有一种魅力，因为从他身上可以看出广博精深的知识修养，以及浩渺无际的自由观念——这在自己的同行中是万难找到的。事实上，他在医生身上发现了这些特色，即使没有引起震惊，也足以深感诧异。丁梅斯代尔先生是一个地道的牧师，一个真正的笃信宗教的人，他有高度发展的虔诚的感情和有力地推动着自身沿着信仰的道路前进的心境，而且会随着时间的流逝面日渐深入。无论在何种社会形态中，他都不会是那种所谓有自由见解的人;他总要感到周国有一种信仰的压力，才能心平气和，这信仰既支撑着他，又将他禁闭在其铁笼之中。然而当他放弃惯常采用的认识而换用另一种知识媒介来观察字宙时，他也确实感到一种偶然的舒畅，尽管这种喜悦之中仍带着几分震颤。犹如打开了一扇窗户，使一种更自由的气息得以进入那闭锁和窒人的书斋，而他通常就在这里的灯光或遮着的阳光之下，伴着从经书中散发出来的霉烂气味——不管是感官上还是道德上的，消耗看他的生命。但这破窗而入的空气又过于清冷，使他无法坦然地长久吸取。于是，牧师和陪伴他的医生只好再龟缩到他们的教会划为正宗的禁区之内。
Thus Roger Chillingworth scrutinisedhis patient carefully, both as he saw him in his ordinary life, keeping an accustomed pathway in the range of thoughts familiar to him, and as he appeared when thrown amidst other moral scenery, the novelty of which might call out something new to the surface of his character. He deemed it essential, it would seem, to know the man, before attempting to do him good. Wherever there is a heart and an intellect, the diseases of the physical frame are tingedwith the peculiarities of these. In Arthur Dimmesdale, thought and imagination were so active, and sensibility so intense, that the bodily infirmitywould be likely to have its groundwork there. So Roger Chillingworth- the man of skill, the kind and friendly physician- strove to go deep into his patient's bosom, delvingamong his principles, prying into his recollections, and probing everything with a cautious touch, like a treasure-seeker in a dark cavern. Few secrets can escape an investigator, who has opportunity and license to undertake such a quest, and skill to follow it up. A man burdened with a secret should especially avoid the intimacy of his physician. If the latter possess native sagacity, and a nameless something more- let us call it intuition; if he show no intrusiveegotism, nor disagreeably prominent characteristics of his own; if he have the power, which must be born with him, to bring his mind into such affinitywith his patient's, that this last shall unawares have spoken what he imagines himself only to have thought; if such revelations be received without tumult, and acknowledged not so often by an uttered sympathy as by silence, an inarticulatebreath, and here and there a word, to indicate that all is understood; if to these qualifications of a confidant be joined the advantages afforded by his recognised character as a physician- then, at some inevitable moment, will the soul of the sufferer be dissolved, and flow forth in a dark, but transparentstream, bringing all its mysteries into the daylight.
罗杰·齐灵渥斯就是这样仔细检查他的病人的：一方面，观察他的日常生活，看他在熟悉的思绪上所保持的惯常的途径，另一方面，也观察他被投入另一种道德境界时的表现，因为那种境界的新意可能唤起某些新东西浮出他性格的表面。看来，医生认为首先要了解其人，然后才能对症下药。凡有心智的东西，其躯体上的病痛必然染有心智上的特色。在阿瑟，丁梅斯代尔的身上，他的思维和想象力十分活跃，他的情感又是十分专注，他身体上的病症大概根源于此。于是，罗杰·齐灵渥斯，那位和善友好又技艺精湛的医生，就竭力深入他病人的心扉，挖掘于他的准则之中，探询着他的记忆，而且如同一个在黑暗的洞穴中寻找宝藏的人一样，小心翼翼地触摸每一件东西。象他这样一个得到机会和特许来从事这种探索，而且又有熟巧将其进行下去的调查人，很少有秘密能逃过他的眼睛。一个荷有秘密的人应该特别避免与医生亲密相处。假如那医生有天生的洞察力，还有难以名状的某种能力——我们姑且称之为直觉吧，假如他没有流露出颐指气使的唯我独尊，他自己又没有鲜明的难以相处的个性，假如他生来就有一种与病人脉脉相通鲍能力，借此使病人丧失警觉，以致自言自语地说出心中所想的事，假如他平静地听到这些表白，只是偶尔用沉默无声的同情，用自然而然的喘息，以及间或的一两个字眼，表示充分的理解，假如在一个可信赖的人的这些品格上加上他那医生身分所提供的有利条件——那么，在某些难以避免的时刻，患者的灵魂便会融解，在一个黑暗而透明的小溪中涓涓向前，把全部隐私带到光天化日之下。
Roger Chillingworth possessed all, or most, of the attributes above enumerated. Nevertheless, time went on; a kind of intimacy, as we have said, grew up between these two cultivated minds, which had as wide a field as the whole sphere of human thought and study, to meet upon; they discussed every topic of ethicsand religion, of public affairs, and private character; they talked much, on both sides, of matters that seemed personal to themselves; and yet no secret, such as the physician fancied must exist there, ever stole out of the minister's consciousness into his companion's ear. The latter had his suspicions, indeed, that even the nature of Mr. Dimmesdale's bodily disease had never fairly been revealed to him. It was a strange reserve!
上述这些特色，罗杰·齐灵渥斯全部或者大部分具备。然面，随着时间的流逝，如我们所说，在这两个有教养的头脑之间发展起了亲密无间的关系，他们有如同人类思维与研究的整个领域那么广阔的地带可以交汇;他们讨论涉及伦理和宗教、公共事业和私人性格的各种题目;他们就似乎涉及两人自己私事的问题大量交谈;然而医生想象中肯定存在的那种隐私，却始终没有溜出牧师的意识传进他的同伴的耳中。的确，医生怀疑连丁梅斯代尔先生身体痼疾的本质都从来没有坦率地泄露给他。这种含蓄实在是太奇特了!
After a time, at a hint from Roger Chillingworth, the friends of Mr. Dimmesdale effected an arrangement by which the two were lodged in the same house; so that every ebband flow of the minister's life-tide might pass under the eye of his anxious and attached physician. There was much joy throughout the town, when this greatly desirable object was attained. It was held to be the best possible measure for the young clergyman's welfare: unless, indeed, as often urged by such as felt authorised to do so, he had selected some one of the many bloomingdamsels, spiritually devoted to him, to become his devoted wife. This latter step, however, there was no present prospect that Arthur Dimmesdale would be prevailed upon to take; he rejected all suggestions of the kind, as if priestly celibacywere one of his articles of church-discipline. Doomed by his own choice, therefore, as Mr. Dimmesdale so evidently was, to eat his unsavourymorselalways at another's board, and endure the lifelong chill which must be his lot who seeks to warm himself only at another's fireside, it truly seemed that this sagacious, experienced, benevolentold physician, with his concord of paternal and reverentiallove for the young pastor, was the very man, of all mankind, to be constantly within reach of his voice.
过了一段时间，在罗杰·齐灵渥斯的暗示之下，丁梅斯代尔先生的朋友们作出安排，让他俩同住在一栋房子里;这样，牧师生活之潮的每一个起落都只能在他的这位形影相随的热心医生的眼皮底下发生。这一众望所瞩的目的达到之后，举镇欢腾。人们认为，这是有利于年轻牧师的最好的可行措施。除非，当真如某些自认为有权威的人所一再催促的那样，他从那众多的如花似玉、在精神上崇拜他的年轻姑娘当中选择一位充当他忠实的妻子。然而，目前尚无迹象表明阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔已经屈从众愿采取这一步骤;他对这类建议一概加以拒绝，仿佛僧侣的独身主义是他教会规章中的一项条款。因此，既然丁梅斯代尔先生明显地作了这种选择，他就注定耍永远在别人的饭桌上吃无味的配餐，除去在别人的炉火旁取暖之外，只有忍受终生寒冷的份;看来，这位洞察一切、经验丰富、慈爱为本的老医生，以父兄般的关怀和教民的敬爱对待这年轻的牧师，确实是全人类中与他如影随形的最恰当的人选了。
The new abodeof the two friends was with a piouswidow, of good social rank, who dwelt in a house covering pretty nearly the site on which the venerablestructure of King's Chapel has since been built. It had the graveyard, originally Isaac Johnson's home-field, on one side, and so was well adapted to call up serious reflections, suited to their respective employments, in both minister and man of physic. The motherly care of the good widow assigned to Mr. Dimmesdale a front apartment, with a sunny exposure, and heavy window-curtains, to create a noon-tide shadow, when desirable. The walls were hung round with tapestry, said to be from the Gobelin looms, and, at all events, representing the Scriptural story of David and Bathsheba, and Nathan the Prophet, in colours still unfaded, but which made the fair woman of the scene almost as grimlypicturesqueas the woe-denouncing seer. Here, the pale clergyman piled up his library, rich with parchment-bound foliosof the Fathers, and the loreof Rabbis, and monkisherudition, of which the Protestant divines, even while they vilifiedand decried that class of writers, were yet constrained often to avail themselves. On the other side of the house, old Roger Chillingworth arranged his study and laboratorynot such as a modern man of science would reckoneven tolerably complete, but provided with a distillingapparatus, and the means of compounding drugs and chemicals, which the practised alchemistknew well how to turn to purpose. With such commodiousnessof situation, these two learned persons sat themselves down, each in his own domain, yet familiarly passing from one apartment to the other, and bestowing a mutual and not incuriousinspection into one another's business.
这两位朋友的新居属于一个虔信宗教的寡妇，她有着不错的社会地位，她这所住宅所占的地皮离后来修建的王家教堂相距不远，一边有一块墓地，就是原先艾萨克·约翰逊的旧宅，这里易于唤起严肃认真的回忆，很适合牧师和医生双方各自的职业。那好心肠的寡妇，以慈母般的关怀，分配丁梅斯代尔先生住在前室，那里有充分的阳光，还有厚实的窗帘，如果愿意的话，中午也可把房间遮得十分幽暗。四壁悬挂着据说是戈白林②织机上织出的织锦，不管真假，上面确实绣着《圣经》上面所记载的大卫、拔示巴和预言者拿单的故事③，颜色尚未褪掉，可惜画中的美妇简直如那宣告灾难的预言者一样面目可憎了。面色苍白的牧师在这里摞起他的丰富藏书，其中有对开桑皮纸精装本的先哲们的著作、拉比④们记下的传说、以及许多僧院的考证——对这类文献，请教教士们尽管竭力诋毁，却不得不备作不时之需。在住宅的另一侧，老罗杰·齐灵渥斯布置下他的书斋和实验室;在一位现代科学家看来，连勉强齐备都称不上，但总还有一个蒸馏釜及一些配药和化验的设备，都是这位惯于实验的炼丹术士深知如何加以利用的。有了这样宽敞的环境，这两位学者便在各自的房间里坐了下来，不过经常不拘礼节地互访，彼此怀着好奇心观察另一个人的事情。
And the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale's best discerning friends, as we have intimated, very reasonably imagined that the hand of Providence had done all this, for the purpose- besoughtin so many public, and domestic, and secret prayers- of restoring the young minister to health. But- it must now be said- another portionof the community had latterly begun to take its own view of the relation betwixt Mr. Dimmesdale and the mysterious old physician. When an uninstructedmultitude attempts to see with its eyes, it is exceedingly apt to be deceived. When, however, it forms its judgment, as it usually does, on the intuitions of its great and warm heart, the conclusions thus attained are often so profound and so unerring, as to possess the character of truths supernaturallyrevealed. The people, in the case of which we speak, could justify its prejudice against Roger Chillingworth by no fact or argument worthy of serious refutation. There was an aged handicraftsman, it is true, who had been a citizen of London at the period of Sir Thomas Overbury's murder, now some thirty years agone; he testified to having seen the physician, under some other name, which the narrator of the story had now forgotten, in company with Doctor Forman, the famous old conjurer, who was implicated in the affair of Overbury. Two or three individuals hinted, that the man of skill, during his Indian captivity, had enlarged his medical attainments by joining in the incantationsof the savage priests; who were universally acknowledged to be powerful enchanters, often performing seemingly miraculouscures by their skill in the black art. A large number- and many of these were persons of such sober sense and practical observation that their opinions would have been valuable in other matters- affirmed that Roger Chillingworth's aspect had undergone a remarkable change while he had dwelt in town, and especially since his abode with Mr. Dimmesdale. At first, his expression had been calm, meditative, scholar-like. Now, there was something ugly and evil in his face, which they had not previously noticed, and which grew still the more obvious to sight, the oftener they looked upon him. According to the vulgar idea, the fire in his laboratory had been brought from the lower regions, and was fed with infernalfuel; and so, as might be expected, his visage was getting sootywith the smoke.
我们已经提及，阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔牧师那些最明智的朋友于是便顺理成章地认为，是上天接受了人们在公开场合、在家中以及私下的许多祈祷，才安排了这一切，以达到恢复年轻牧师健康的目的。但是，我们现在必须说明的是，后来另外一部分居民开始对丁梅斯代尔先生和那神秘的老医生之间的关系持有异议了。当没有受过教育的人们试图用自己的眼光来看问题时，是极其容易上当的。不过，当他们通常凭自己伟大面温暖的心胸的直觉来形成自己的判断时，他们的结论往往深刻无误，具有超自然表象的真理的特征。就我们所谈的这些人而论，他们对罗杰·齐灵渥斯的偏见，其事实或理由都不值认真一驳。有一个上年纪的手艺人，在三十多年以前托玛斯·奥佛白利爵士⑤被害的时代，确曾是伦敦的一个市民;他出面证明说，他曾经看见这位医生——当时叫的是另外一个名字，笔者如今已经忘了，陷着那位著名的老术士福尔曼博士⑥，而那个老博士涉嫌与奥佛白利被害一事有关。还有两三个人暗示说，这位医术高明的人在被印第安人俘获的时期，曾经参与野蛮人法师的念咒活动，以此来增加其医学上的造诣;那些印第安法师的法力无边，这是众所周知的，他们时常用邪门歪道奇迹艇地把人治好。还有一大批人——其中不少都是头脑拎静、观察务实的，他们在别的事情上：的见解一向颇有价值——肯定地说，罗杰·齐灵渥斯自从在镇上定居，尤其是和丁梅斯代尔先生伙居一宅以来，外貌上发生了明显的变化。起初，他外表安详而沉思，一派学者模样;而如今，他的险上有一种前所末见的丑陋和邪恶，而且他们对他看得越多，那丑陋和邪恶就变得越明显。按照一种粗俗的说法，他实验室中的火来自下界，而且是用炼狱的柴薪来燃烧的;因此，理所当然地，他的面孔也就给那烟熏得越来越黑了。
To sum up the matter, it grew to be a widely diffusedopinion, that the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, like many other personages of especial sanctity, in all ages of the Christian world, was haunted either by Satan himself, or Satan's emissary, in the guiseof old Roger Chillingworth. This diabolicalagent had the Divine permission, for a season, to burrowinto the clergyman's intimacy, and plot against his soul. No sensible man, it was confessed, could doubt on which side the victory would turn. The people looked, with an unshaken hope, to see the minister come forth out of the conflict, transfiguredwith the glory which he would unquestionably win. Meanwhile, nevertheless, it was sad to think of the perchancemortal agony through which he must struggle towards his triumph.
总而言之，有一种广为流传的看法，认为阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔牧师和基督教世界各个时期特别圣洁的许多其他人一样，脑海中萦绕着的不是撒旦本人，就是扮作老罗杰·齐灵渥斯的撒旦的使者。这个恶魔的代理人获得神圣的特许，在一段时问里，钻入牧师的内心，阴谋破坏他的灵魂。人们断言，任何有理智的人都不会怀疑哪一方会得到胜利。人们都怀着不可动摇的希望，等着看到牧师焕发着必胜的荣光，走出这场争斗。然而，一想到他为了赢得胜利而在挣扎中所经受的致命的折磨，同时又令人神伤。
Alas! to judge from the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister's eyes, the battle was a sore one, and the victory anything but secure.
天啊!从这可怜的牧师眼睛深处的阴郁和恐怖来判断，这场争斗极其剧烈，而且远不能说胜利在握。
②15世纪时法国的一著名染织家族所建的同名织锦及壁毯场。
③《旧约·撤母耳记下》言，以色列王大卫杀死乌利亚，并夺其美妻拔示巴，面拿单则预言大卫必自取其祸。
④犹太教教士，基督教的诞生与古犹太教有渊源，战古犹太教拉比的著述有基督教古文献价值。
⑤奥佛白利爵士(1581一1613)英国诗人和散文家后因反对其恩主之婚姻，被投入伦敦塔监禁，并被慢性毒药毒死。
⑥福尔曼博士(Drrorman)，生平不详，可能是作者假托的人物。
页:
[1]