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Chapter 10 THE LEECH AND HIS PATIENT第十章 医生和病人
OLD Roger Chillingworth, throughout life, had been calm in temperament, kindly, though not of warm affections, but ever, and in all his relations with the world, a pure and upright man. He had begun an investigation, as he imagined, with the severe and equal integrity of a judge, desirous only of truth, even as if the question involved no more than the air-drawn lines and figures of a geometrical problem, instead of human passions, and wrongs inflicted on himself. But, as he proceeded, a terrible fascination, a kind of fierce, though still calm, necessity seized the old man within its gripe, and never set him free again, until he had done all its bidding. He now dug into the poor clergyman's heart, like a miner searching for gold; or, rather, like a sexton delving into a grave, possibly in quest of a jewel that had been buried on the dead man's bosom, but likely to find nothing save mortality and corruption. Alas for his own soul, if these were what he sought!老罗杰·齐灵渥斯一生中都是个脾气平和的人，他虽无温暖的爱，但却心地慈悲，而且在涉及同各方面的关系时，始终是一个纯粹而正直的人。照他自己的想象，他是以一个法官的同等的严峻与公正来开始一次调查的，他只向往真理，简直把间题看得既不包含人类的情感，也不卷入个人的委屈，完全如同几何学中抽象的线和形一般。但在他着手进行这一调查的过程中，一种可怕的迷惑力，一种尽管依然平静、却是猛烈的必然性，却紧紧地将这老人攫在自己的掌握之中，而且在他未完成它的全部旨意之前。绝不肯将他放松。如今，他象一个矿工搜寻黄金似的掘进这可怜的牧师鲍内心：或者更确切地说，象一个掘葱人挖进一座坟墓，可能原指望找到陪葬在死者胸部的珠宝。结果却除去死尸及腐烂之外一无所获。假若那里果真有他要我的东西的话，天啊，让我们为他自己的灵魂哀叹吧！
Sometimes, a light glimmered out of the physician's eyes, burning blue and ominous, like the reflection of a furnace, or, let us say, like one of those gleams of ghastly fire that darted from Bunyan's awful doorway in the hill-side, and quivered on the pilgrim's face. The soil where this dark miner was working had perchance shown indications that encouraged him.有时候，从医生的眼中闪出一线光芒，象是炉火映照似的，燃着蓝幽幽的不祥之光，或者我们也可以说，象是班扬那山边可怕的门洞中射出、在朝圣者的脸上跳动着的鬼火的闪光①。那是因为这个阴沉的矿工所挖掘的土地中刚好显露了鼓励他的一些迹象。
"This man," said he, at one such moment, to himself, "pure as they deem him- all spiritual as he seems- hath inherited a strong animal nature from his father or his mother. Let us dig a little farther in the direction of this vein!"“这个人，”他在一次这种场合中自言自语说，“尽管人们相信他很纯洁，尽管他看来极其高尚神圣，但他从他父亲或母亲身上继承了一种强烈的兽性。让我们沿着这一矿脉再向前掘进一点吧！”
Then, after long search into the minister's dim interior, and turning over many precious materials, in the shape of high aspirations for the welfare of his race, warm love of souls, pure sentiments, natural piety, strengthened by thought and study, and illuminated by revelation- all of which invaluable gold was perhaps no better than rubbish to the seeker- he would turn back, discouraged, and begin his quest towards another point. He groped along as stealthily, with as cautious a tread, and as wary an outlook, as a thief entering a chamber where a man lies only half asleep- or, it may be, broad awake-with purpose to steal the very treasure which this man guards as the apple of his eye. In spite of his premeditated carefulness, the floor would now and then creak; his garments would rustle; the shadow of his presence, in a forbidden proximity, would be thrown across his victim. In other words, Mr. Dimmesdale, whose sensibility of nerve often produced the effect of spiritual intuition, would become vaguely aware that something inimical to his peace had thrust itself into relation with him. But old Roger Chillingworth, too, had perceptions that were almost intuitive; and when the minister threw his startled eyes towards him, there the physician sat; his kind, watchful, sympathising, but never intrusive friend.之后，他就对这位牧师的幽暗的内心加以长时间的搜寻，翻出了许多宝资的东西，都是由思想和钻研而强化的、由天启而燃亮的，诸如对灵魂的热爱、纯洁的情操、自然的虔诚等等，均以对人类的福祉的高尚志向为其形式——然而这一切无价之宝于那位探矿人无异于一堆废物——他只好沮丧地转回身来，朝着另一个方向开始寻求。他鬼鬼祟祟，左顾右盼，小心翼翼地向前探索，犹如一个偷儿进入一间卧室，想去窃取主人视如服珠的宝物，而主人却躺在那里半睡半醒——或者可能还大睁着眼睛。尽管他事先策划周密，但地板会不时吱嘎作响，他的衣服也会细碎有声。而且到了，近在咫尺的禁地，他的身影也会投射到被窃人的身上。另一方面，丁梅斯代尔先生的敏感的神经时常会产生一种精神直觉的功效，他会模模糊糊地意识到，对他的平静抱有敌意的某种东西已经同他发生了关联。面老罗杰·齐灵渥斯也具备近乎直觉的感知能力；当牧师向他投来惊恐的目光时，医生就会坐在那里，成了关切和同情牧师的好心朋友，绝不打探他的隐私了。
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发表于 2016-8-4 10:49:24