英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第十七章（中）
英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第十七章(中)
Chapter 17 THE PASTOR AND HIS PARISHIONER
第十七章 教长和教民
Hester Prynne was now fully sensible of the deep injury for which she was responsible to this unhappy man, in permitting him to lie for so many years, or, indeed, for a single moment, at the mercy of one whose purposes could not be other than malevolent. The very contiguityof his enemy, beneath whatever mask the latter might conceal himself, was enough to disturb the magneticsphere of a being so sensitive as Arthur Dimmesdale. There had been a period when Hester was less alive to this consideration; or, perhaps, in the misanthropyof her own trouble, she left the minister to bear what she might picture to herself as a more tolerable doom. But of late, since the night of his vigil, all her sympathies towards him had been both softened and invigorated. She now read his heart more accurately. She doubted not, that the continual presence of Roger Chillingworth the secret poison of his malignity, infecting all the air about him- and his authorised interference, as a physician, with the minister's physical and spiritual infirmities- that these bad opportunities had been turned to a cruel purpose. By means of them, the sufferer's conscience had been kept in an irritated state, the tendency of which was, not to cure by wholesome pain, but to disorganiseand corrupt his spiritual being. Its result, on earth, could hardly fail to be insanity, and hereafter, that eternal alienationfrom the Good and True, of which madness is perhaps the earthly type.
海丝特·白兰如今才充分意识到，这个不幸的男人所受的伤害有多深，她对此是有责任的，她不该允许那个一心抱着恶毒动机的人在他身边摆布他这么些年，其实即使是一瞬间也不该的。那个心怀叵测的人不管蒙上什么面具来遮掩，仅仅接近一下象阿瑟，丁梅斯代尔那样敏感的人，就足以扰乱他的方寸了。有一段时间，海丝特没怎么动脑筋考虑这一点;也许是因为她自己痛不欲生，而把他的厄运看得比较容易忍受，也就没去过问他。但自从他那天晚上夜游以来，最近她对他的全部同情都变得又温柔又有力了。如今她对他的心看得更准了。她毫不怀疑，罗杰·齐灵渥斯没日没夜地守在他身边，他那不可告人的险恶用心毒化了他周围的气氛，他那医生的身分对牧师的身心痈疾具有权威性的影响——这一切都构成了达到残酷目的的可乘之机。凡此种种，使那个受苦人的良心始终处于一种烦躁状态，长此以往，不但不会以有益健康的痛苦治愈他，反而会紊乱和腐蚀他的精神生命。其结果，他在世间难以不弄得精神错乱，之后则与“真”和“善”永远绝缘，其现世的表现就是疯狂。
Such was the ruin to which she had brought the man, once- nay, why should we not speak it?- still so passionatelyloved! Hester felt that the sacrifice of the clergyman's good name, and death itself, as she had already told Roger Chillingworth, would have been infinitelypreferable to the alternative which she had taken upon herself to choose. And now, rather than have had this grievouswrong to confess, she would gladly have lain down on the forest-leaves, and died there, at Arthur Dimmesdale's feet.
这就是她带给那个男人的毁灭，而那个男人正是她一度——唉，我们何必不直说呢?——而且至今仍满怀激情地爱恋着的!海丝特觉得，正如她最近对罗杰·齐灵渥斯所说，牺牲掉牧师的好名声，甚至让他死掉，都比她原先所选择的途径要强得多。如今，与其把这极其严重的错误坦白出来，她宁可高高兴兴地躺在这林中落叶之上，死在阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔脚旁。
"O Arthur," cried she, "forgive me! In all things else, I have striven to be true! Truth was the one virtue which I might have held fast, and did hold fast, through all extremitysave when thy good- thy life thy fame- were put in question! Then I consented to a deception. But a lie is never good, even though death threaten on the other side! Dost thou not see what I would say? That old man!- the physician!- he whom they call Roger Chillingworth!- he was my husband!"
“啊，阿瑟，”她叫道，“原谅我吧!不管我有什么不好，我可一直想努力作一个诚实的人!诚实是我可以仅守的美德，而且不管有什么艰难险阻，我也确实牢牢守住了这一美德;只有一条例外，那就是当你的利益、你的生命、你的名誉受到挑战的时候!只有在这种时候，我才同意采取欺骗的手段。但说谎永远不能算是好事，哪怕退路是死亡的威胁!你难道还不明白我要说的话吗?那个老人!——那个医生!——就是人们叫他罗杰·齐灵渥斯的那个人!——他是我过去的丈夫!”
The minister looked at her, for an instant, with all that violence of passion, which- intermixed, in more shapes than one, with his higher, purer, softer qualities- was, in fact, the portionof him which the Devil claimed, and through which he sought to win the rest. Never was there a blacker or a fiercer frown than Hester now encountered. For the brief space that it lasted, it was a dark transfiguration. But his character had been so much enfeebledby suffering, that even its lower energies were incapable of more than a temporary struggle. He sank down on the ground, and buried his face in his hands.
牧师以他的激情的全部冲动，看了她一会儿，这种激情以各种形态同他那比较高尚、比较纯洁、比较温柔的品德混杂在一起，事实上是恶魔在他身上所占领的阵地，并借以战胜其它的那部分。海丝特还从来没见过这么阴暗、这么凶猛的脸色。在那理额皱眉的刹那间，那可真是一种阴森的变脸。但他本人已经给折磨得十分虚弱，即使这种较低劣的表现也只能是转瞬即逝的挣扎。他一屁股坐在地上，把脸埋在双手之中。
"I might have known it," murmured he. "I did know it! Was not the secret told me, in the natural recoilof my heart, at the first sight of him, and as often as I have seen him since? Why did I not understand? O Hester Prynne, thou little, little knowest all the horror of this thing! And the shame!- the indelicacy!- the horrible uglinessof this exposure of a sick and guilty heart to the very eye that would gloatover it? Woman, woman, thou are accountable for this! I cannot forgive thee!"
“我早就该明白了，”他幽幽地说。“我其实早就知道了!从我第一眼看到他起，直到后来每次见到他，我的心都会退缩，这难道不是向我泄露了秘密吗?我怎么还没明白呢?噢，海丝特·白兰，你简直，你根本不懂这件事有多可怕!有多无耻!——有多粗鄙!——竟然把一颗病弱和犯罪的心暴露给幸灾乐祸地注视着的眼睛，丑得有多可怕啊!女人啊，女人啊，你要对此负责的!我不能原谅你!”
"Thou shalt forgive me!" cried Hester, flingingherself on the fallen leaves beside him. "Let God punish! Thou shalt forgive!"
“你应当原谅我!”海丝特一边叫着，一边扑倒在落叶上，躺在他身边。“让上帝来惩罚吧!你得原谅我!”
With sudden and desperatetenderness, she threw her arms around him, and pressed his head against her bosom; little caring though his cheek rested on the scarlet letter. He would have released himself, but strove in vain to do so. Hester would not set him free, lest he should look her sternlyin the face. All the world had frowned on her- for seven long years had it frowned upon this lonely woman- and still she bore it all, nor ever once turned away her firm, sad eyes. Heaven, likewise, had frowned upon her, and she had not died. But the frown of this pale, weak, sinful, and sorrow-stricken man was what Hester could not bear, and live!
她怀着突然和绝望的柔情，猛地伸出两臂搂住了他，并且把他的头靠在她胸前;她没有顾及这样一来，他的面颊恰好贴在那红字上。他本想抽身出来，但是动弹不得。海丝特不肯放松他，以免看见他盯望着她面孔的那种严厉表情。整整七年，全世界都曾经对她，对她这孤苦无依的女人，皱起眉头，但她还是挺过来了，从来没有一次掉转开她那坚定而伤心的目光。上天也同样向她皱眉，但她活了过来。然而，这个苍白虚弱、负罪而伤透心的男人的皱眉，却是海丝特所忍受不了，会让她死掉的!
"Wilt thou yet forgive me?" she repeated, over and over again. "Wilt thou not frown? Wilt thou forgive?"
“你还得原谅我!”她一遍又一遍地重复着。“你别皱眉好吗?你肯原谅我吗?”
"I do forgive you, Hester," replied the minister, at length, with a deep utterance, out of an abyssof sadness, but no anger. "I freely forgive you now. May God forgive us both! We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctityof a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!"
“我一定原谅你，海丝特，”牧师终于回答了，同时深深地叹了一口气，那是发自悲伤而不是气愤的深渊的。“我现在爽快地原谅你。愿上帝饶恕我们俩吧!海丝特，我们并不是世上最坏的罪人。还有一个人，甚至比受到玷污的教士还要坏!那老人的复仇比我的罪过更见不得人。他阴险地凌辱一颗神圣不可侵犯的心灵。你和我，海丝特，从来没干过这种事!”
"Never, never!" whispered she. "What we did had a consecrationof its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other! Hast thou forgotten it?"
“从来没有，从来没有!”她悄声说。“我们的所作所为其本身是一种神圣的贡献。我们是这样看的!我们在一起说过的!你忘了吗?”
"Hush, Hester!" said Arthur Dimmesdale, rising from the ground. "No; I have not forgotten!"
“嘘，海丝特!”阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔说着，从地上站起身来。“没有;我没忘!”
They sat down again, side by side, and hand clasped in hand, on the mossytrunk of the fallen tree. Life had never brought them a gloomier hour; it was the point whither their pathway had so long been tending, and darkening ever, as it stole along; and yet it enclosed a charm that made them linger upon it, and claim another, and another, and, after all, another moment. The forest was obscurearound them, and creakedwith a blastthat was passing through it. The boughswere tossing heavily above their heads; while one solemn old tree groaned dolefullyto another, as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath, or constrained to forbodeevil to come.
他俩重新坐下;肩并着肩，手握着手，就这样坐在长满青苔的倒下的树干上。这是生命赋予他们的最阴郁的时刻;这是生命旅途早就引导他们走来的地方，而且在他们的不知不觉之中越走越黑暗;然而此时此地却包含着一种魅力，叫他们留连忘返，期望着能够再停留一会儿，再停留一会儿，终归仍是再停留一会儿。四下的森林朦胧一片，一阵风吹过，响起噼啪之声。粗大的树枝在他们的头上沉重地摇晃;一棵肃穆的老树对另一棵树悲声低吟，仿佛在倾诉树下坐着的这一对人儿的伤心的故事，或是在不得不预告那行将到来的邪恶。
And yet they lingered. How drearylooked the forest-track that led backward to the settlement, where Hester Prynne must take up again the burden of her ignominy, and the minister the hollowmockeryof his good name! So they lingered an instant longer. No golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom of this dark forest. Here, seen only by his eyes, the scarlet letter need not burn into the bosom of the fallen woman! Here, seen only by her eyes, Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God and man, might be for one moment true!
然而他们仍然不肯回去。那通往居民区的林中小路看来有多么沉闷，一回到那居民区，海丝特·白兰就得重新负起她那耻辱的重荷，而牧师则要再次戴上他那好名声的空虚的面具!因此他们就又多呆了一会儿。金色的光辉从来没有象在这黑树林的幽暗中这么可贵。在这里，红字只有他一个人的眼睛能够看见，也就不必烧进那堕落的女人的胸膛中去了!在这里，对上帝和人类都虚伪的阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔也只有她一人的眼睛能够看见，也就在这片刻之间变得诚实了!
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