英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第七章（上）
英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第七章(上)
Chapter 07 THE GOVERNOR'S HALL
第七章 总督的大厅
HESTER PRYNNE went, one day, to the mansionof Governor Bellingham, with a pair of gloves, which she had fringedand embroideredto his order, and which were to be worn on some great occasion of state; for, though the chances of a popular election had caused this former ruler to descenda step or two from the highest rank, he still held an honourable and influential place among the colonial magistracy.
一天，海丝特·白兰到贝灵汉总督的宅邸去交他订做的手套，这副绣了花并镶了边的手套是总督要在某个重大的庆典上戴的;因为这位前任统治者虽然在一次普选中从最高的品级上降了一两级，但他在殖民地的行政长官中仍然保持着举足轻重和受人尊崇的地位。
Another and far more important reason than the delivery of a pair of embroidered gloves impelled Hester, at this time, to seek an interview with a personageof so much power and activity in the affairs of the settlement. It had reached her ears, that there was a design on the part of some of the leading inhabitants, cherishingthe more rigid order of principles in religion and government, to depriveher of her child. On the supposition that Pearl, as already hinted, was of demon origin, these good people not unreasonably argued that a Christian interest in the mother's soul required them to remove such a stumbling-blockfrom her path. If the child, on the other hand, were really capable of moral and religious growth, and possessed the elements of ultimate salvation, then, surely, it would enjoy all the fairer prospect of these advantages, by being transferred to wiser and better guardianshipthan Hester Prynne's. Among those who promoted the design, Governor Bellingham was said to be one of the most busy. It may appear singular, and, indeed, not a little ludicrous, that an affair of this kind, which, in later days, would have been referred to no higher jurisdictionthan that of the selectmenof the town, should then have been a question publicly discussed, and on which statesmen of eminencetook sides. At that epochof pristinesimplicity, however, matters of even slighter public interest, and of far less intrinsicweight, than the welfare of Hester and her child, were strangely mixed up with the deliberationsof legislators and acts of state. The period was hardly, if at all, earlier than that of our story, when a dispute concerning the right of property in a pig, not only caused a fierce and bitter contest in the legislative body of the colony, but resulted in an important modification of the frameworkitself of the legislature.
此时，还有比呈递一副绣好的手套远为重要的另一个原因，促使她去谋求晋见一位在殖民地事务中有权有势的人物的一次机会。她耳闻，有几位力主在宗教和政府的原则上要严加治理的头面人物，正在谋划夺走她的孩子。前面已经暗示过，珠儿既然可能是妖魔的孽种，这些好心肠的人们就不无理由地主张：为了对做母亲的灵魂表示基督教的关怀，他们应该从她的道路上搬掉这样一块绊脚石。反之，如果这孩子当真能够接受宗教和道德的教化，并且具备最终获救的因素，那么，把孩子移交给比海丝特·白兰更高明的监护人，珠儿就可以更充分地发挥这些条件，从而肯定享有更美好的前途。在推进这一谋划的人们当中，据说贝灵汉总督是最为热心奔走的一个。这类事情如果推迟若干年，最多交由市镇行政管理委员会这一级去裁处，而在当时，居然要兴师动众地加以讨论，而且还要有显要人物来参与，看来未免稀奇，也确实有点荒唐可笑。然而，在早年的纯朴时期，哪怕对公众利益来说，比起海丝特和她孩子的安置问题还要次要的事情，都要由立法者审议并由政府立法，岂不妙哉。就在我们这个故事发生之前并不很久的时期，曾经发生过涉及一日猪的所有权的争议，其结果，不仅在这块殖民地的立法机构中引起了不可开交的激烈辩论，而且还导致了该机构组织上的重大变更。
Full of concern, therefore- but so conscious of her own right that it seemed scarcely an unequal match between the public, on the one side, and a lonely woman, backed by the sympathiesof nature, on the other- Hester Prynne set forth from her solitary cottage. Little Pearl, of course, was her companion. She was now of an age to run lightly along by her mother's side, and, constantly in motion, from morn till sunset, could have accomplished a much longer journey than that before her. Often, nevertheless, more from capricethan necessity, she demanded to be taken up in arms; but was soon as imperiousto be set down again, and friskedonward before Hester on the grassy pathway, with many a harmless trip and tumble. We have spoken of Pearl's rich and luxuriantbeauty; a beauty that shone with deep and vivid tints; a bright complexion, eyes possessing intensity both of depth and glow, and hair already of a deep, glossy brown, and which, in after years, would be nearly akinto black. There was fire in her and throughout her; she seemed the unpremeditatedoffshoot of a passionate moment. Her mother, in contriving the child's garb, had allowed the gorgeous tendencies of her imagination their full play; arrayingher in a crimsonvelvettunic, of a peculiar cut, abundantlyembroidered with fantasies and flourishes of gold thread. So much strength of colouring, which must have given a wan and pallidaspect to cheeks of a fainter bloom, was admirably adapted to Pearl's beauty, and made her the very brightest little jet of flame that ever danced upon the earth.
眼前涉及海丝特·白兰自身权利的这件事，虽然一方面是广大公众，另一方面是只以自然的同情为后盾的弧身女人，双方众寡悬殊，难以对垒，但她还是忧心仲仲地从她那孤零零的小茅屋中出发去力争了。不消说，小珠儿仍然陪伴着她。珠儿如今已经长到能够在母亲身边轻快跑动的年龄，一天到晚不肯闲着，就是比这再远的路也能走到了。不过，她经常还要母亲抱着走，其实并不是因为走不动，而是想撒娇;可是没抱几步就又迫不及待地要下来，蹦蹦跳跳地在海丝特前面走着，跑着，不时还在长草的小路上磕磕绊绊，不过绝不会摔出伤来。我们曾经谈到珠儿洋溢着光彩照人的美丽，是个浓墨重彩、生动活泼的小姑娘：她有晶莹的皮肤，一双大眼睛既专注深沉又炯炯有神，头发此时已是润泽的深棕色，再过几年就几乎是漆黑色的了。她浑身上下有一团火，向四下发散着，象是在激情时刻不期而孕的一个子嗣。她母亲在给孩子设计服装时呕心沥血，充分发挥了华丽的倾向，用鲜红的天鹅绒为她裁剪了一件式样独特的束腰裙衫，还用金丝线在上面绣满新奇多采的花样。这种强烈的色调，如果用来衬托一个不够红润的面颊，会使容貌显得苍白黯淡，但却与珠儿的美貌相得益彰，使她成了世上前所未有的活跳跳的一小团焰目的火焰。
But it was a remarkable attribute of this garb, and, indeed, of the child's whole appearance, that it irresistiblyand inevitably reminded the beholder of the token which Hester Prynne was doomed to wear upon her bosom. It was the scarlet letter in another form; the scarlet letter endowed with life! The mother herself- as if the red ignominywere so deeply scorched into her brain that all her conceptionsassumed its form- had carefully wrought out the similitudelavishingmany hours of morbid ingenuity, to create an analogybetween the object of her affection and the emblemof her guilt and torture. But, in truth, Pearl was the one, as well as the other; and only in consequence of that identity had Hester contrived so perfectly to represent the scarlet letter in her appearance.
然而，这身衣裙，老实讲，还有这孩子的整个外貌，实在引人注目，使目睹者不可遏止也难以避免地想到海丝特·白兰胸前注定要佩戴的那个标记。孩子是另一种形式的红字，是被赋予了生命的红字!做母亲的头脑中似乎给这红色的耻辱所深深印烙，她的一切观念都采取了它的形式，才精心制作出来了这个相仿的对应物;她不借花费许多时间，用病态的才智创造出这个既象她的慈爱的对象又象她的罪孽和折磨的标志的作品。然而，事实上，恰恰是珠儿集二者于一身;而且，也正因为有了这个同一性，海丝特才能如此完美地用孩子的外表率象征她的红字。
As the two wayfarers came within the precincts of the town, the children of the Puritans looked up from their play- or what passed for play with those sombre little urchins- and spake gravely one to another-
当这两个行路人来到镇区之时，那些清教徒的孩子们停下了游戏——那些闷闷不乐的小家伙们其实也没什么可玩的，抬起眼来，一本正经地互相议论着：
"Behold, verily, there is the woman of the scarlet letter; and, of a truth, moreover, there is the likeness of the scarlet letter running along by her side! Come, therefore, and let us fling mud at them!"
“瞧，还真有个戴红字的女人;还且，一点不假，还有个象红字似的小东西在她身边跑着呢!这下可好啦，咱们朝她们扔泥巴吧!”
But Pearl, who was a dauntlesschild, after frowning, stamping her foot, and shaking her little hand with a variety of threatening gestures, suddenly made a rush at the knotof her enemies, and put them all to flight. She resembled, in her fierce pursuit of them, an infant pestilence- the scarlet fever, or some such half-fledgedangel of judgment- whose mission was to punish the sins of the rising generation. She screamed and shouted, too, with a terrificvolume of sound, which, doubtless, caused the hearts of the fugitivesto quake within them. The victory accomplished, Pearl returned quietly to her mother, and looked up, smiling, into her face.
珠儿可是个谁也不怕的孩子，她在皱眉、跺脚、挥着小手作出各种吓人的姿势之后，突然朝这伙敌人冲去，把他们全都赶跑了。她怒气冲冲地追着他们，简直象个小瘟神——猩红热或某个羽毛未丰的专司惩罚的这类小天使，其使命就是惩处正在成长的一代人的罪孽。她尖呼高叫，其音量之骇人，无疑会使这些逃跑的孩子心儿狂跳不止。珠儿大获全胜，不声不晌地凯旋面归，她回到母亲身边，微笑着抬眼望着母亲的脸。
Without further adventure, they reached the dwelling of Governor Bellingham. This was a large wooden house, built in a fashion of which there are specimens still extantin the streets of our elder towns; now moss-grown, crumblingto decay, and melancholyat heart with the many sorrowful or joyful occurrences, remembered or forgotten, that have happened, and passed away, within their duskychambers. Then, however, there was the freshness of the passing year on its exterior, and the cheerfulness, gleaming forth from the sunny windows, of a human habitation, into which death had never entered. It had, indeed, a very cheery aspect; the walls being overspread with a kind of stucco, in which fragments of broken glass were intermixedso that, when the sunshine fell aslant-wise over the front of the edifice, it glittered and sparkled as if diamonds had been flung against it by the double handful. The brilliancymight have befitted Aladdin's palace, rather than the mansion of a grave old Puritan ruler. It was further decorated with strange and seemingly cabalisticfigures and diagrams, suitable to the quainttaste of the age, which had been drawn in the stucco when newly laid on, and had now grown hard and durable, for the admiration of after times.
之后，她们便一路平安地来到了贝灵汉总督的住所。这是一座宏大的木造宅邸，那种建筑形式在今天的一些老城镇的街道上仍可见其遗风;不过如今已是盲苔丛生，招摇欲坠，其昏暗的房间中发生过并消逝了的那些悲欢离合，无论是记忆犹新还是全然忘却，都令人缀然伤感。然而在当年，这样的宅邸，外观上仍保持着初建年代的清新，从洒满阳光的窗中闪烁着人丁的欢乐，家中还没有人去世。确实，住宅呈现着一派欣然景象：墙面除着一层拉毛灰泥，由于里面掺和着大量的碎玻璃碴，当阳光斜照到大厦的前脸时，便会闪着熔目的光芒，好像有一双手在向它抛撤着钻石。这种夺目的光彩或许更适合阿拉丁①的宫殿，面对于一个庄重的清教徒统治者则并不相宜。大厦的前脸还装饰着当年显得情调古雅、怪模怪样、看着很神秘的人形和图象，都是在涂灰泥时画就的，此时已变得坚实耐久，供后世观赏了。
Pearl, looking at this bright wonder of a house, began to caperand dance, and imperativelyrequired that the whole breadthof sunshine should be stripped off its front, and given her to play with.
珠儿望着这幢灿烂而奇妙的住宅，开始雀跃起来，使劲要求从住宅前腿上把整整一层阳光给剥下来，好让她玩个痛快。
"No, my little Pearl!" said her mother. "Thou must gather thine own sunshine. I have none to give thee!"
“不行，我的小珠儿!”她母亲说。“你要采集你自己的阳光。我可没有阳光可以给你!”
①见《一千零一夜》中阿拉丁与神灯的故事，他的宫殿是灯神所建，故辉煌异常。
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