【经典名著阅读】《红字》第十五章（上）

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        Chapter 15 HESTER AND PEARL第十五章　海丝特和珠儿
        SO Roger Chillingworth- a deformed old figure, with a face that haunted men's memories longer than they liked- took leave of Hester Prynne, and went stooping away along the earth. He gathered here and there an herb, or grubbed up a root, and put it into the basket on his arm. His grey beard almost touched the ground, as he crept onward. Hester gazed after him a little while, looking with a half fantastic curiosity to see whether the tender grass of early spring would not be blighted beneath him, and show the wavering track of his footsteps, sere and brown, across its cheerful verdure. She wondered what sort of herbs they were, which the old man was so sedulous to gather. Would not the earth, quickened to an evil purpose by the sympathy of his eye, greet him with poisonous shrubs, of species hitherto unknown, that would start up under his fingers? Or might it suffice him, that every wholesome growth should be converted into something deleterious and malignant at his touch? Did the sun, which shone so brightly everywhere else, really fall upon him? Or was there, as it rather seemed, a circle of ominous shadow moving along with his deformity, whichever way he turned himself? And whither was he now going? Would he not suddenly sink into the earth, leaving a barren and blasted spot, where, in due course of time, would be seen deadly nightshade, dogwood, henbane, and whatever else of vegetable wickedness the climate could produce, all flourishing with hideous luxuriance? Or would he spread bat's wings and flee away, looking so much the uglier, the higher he rose towards heaven?就这样，罗杰·齐灵渥斯——那个身材畸形的老人，他那张面孔会长时间地萦绕在人们的脑海，想忘都忘不掉——离开了海丝特·白兰，一路弯着腰走开了。他东一处西一处地采集一棵药草或挖掘一个树根，然后装进他挎着的提篮里。他深猫着腰朝前走着，灰白的胡须几乎触到了地面。海丝特在他身后盯视了一小会儿，怀着一种有点想入非非的好奇心，想看清楚早春的嫩草会不会在他脚下枯萎，那一片欣欣向荣的葱翠会不会显出一条枯褐、弯曲的足迹。她不晓得那老人如此勤快地采集的是哪种药草。坟地会不会在他目光的感应下立刻产生邪意，在他手指的一触之下马上生出一种从不知名的毒草来迎接他呢？或者说，大地会不会把每一种良木益草在他接触之后都变成毒木莠草来满足他呢？那普照四方的明亮的太阳是不是也当真能照到他身上呢？或者说，是不是有一圈不样的阴影，当真象看上去的那样，始终伴随着他那畸形的身躯，任凭他走到哪里都如影随形呢？那么，现在他又往哪里去了呢？他会不会突然沉入地下？从而留下一块枯荒之地，很需要经过一段时间，才会看见龙葵、山茱萸、杀生草以及其它种种在这一气候中能够生长的毒草，可怕地滋生蔓延起来。或者说，他会不会展开蝙蝠的翅膀腾空飞去，飞得越高，样子越丑呢？
        "Be it sin or no," said Hester Prynne bitterly, as she still gazed after him, "I hate the man!"“不管是不是罪过，”海丝特·白兰一边继续注视着他的背影，一边狠狠地说，“我反正恨这个人！”

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        She upbraided herself for the sentiment, but could not overcome or lessen it. Attempting to do so, she thought of those long-past days, in a distant land, when he used to emerge at eventide from the seclusion of his study, and sit down in the firelight of their home, and in the light of her nuptial smile. He needed to bask himself in that smile, he said, in order that the chill of so many lonely hours among his books might be taken off the scholar's heart. Such scenes had once appeared not otherwise than happy, but now, as viewed through the dismal medium of her subsequent life, they classed themselves among her ugliest remembrances. She marvelled how such scenes could have been! She marvelled how she could ever have been wrought upon to marry him! She deemed it her crime most to be repented of, that she had ever endured, and reciprocated, the lukewarm grasp of his hand, and had suffered the smile of her lips and eyes to mingle and melt into his own. And it seemed a fouler offence committed by Roger Chillingworth, than any which had since been done him, that, in the time when her heart knew no better, he had persuaded her to fancy herself happy by his side.她为这种感情而自责，但她既不能抑制也不能减少这种感情。为了克制这种感情，她回忆起那些早巳逝去的岁月，那是在遥远的土地上，那时候他每到傍晚便从幽静的书斋中出来，坐在他们家的壁炉旁，沉浸在他妻子容光焕发的娇笑之中。他那时常说，他需要在她的微笑中温暖自己，以便从他那学者的心中驱散长时间埋头书卷所积郁的寒气。这种情景也曾经作为幸福而出现过；但如今，透过她随之而来的生活的悲惨的折射，只能归类于她回忆中最不堪入目的部分了。她惊诧何以会有过这种情景！她惊诧自己何以会最终嫁给了他！她认为，她以前竟然忍受并回握了他那不冷不热的篡握，竟然以自己眉眼和嘴唇的微笑来迎合他的笑意，实在是她最应追悔的罪过。在她看来，罗杰·齐灵渥斯对她的触犯，就是在她不谙世事时便使她误以为追随在他身边便是幸福，而这比起他后来受到的伤害要大得多。
        "Yes, I hate him!" repeated Hester, more bitterly than before. "He betrayed me! He has done me worse wrong than I did him!"“是啊，我是恨他！”海丝特又重复了一句，口气更狠了。“他害苦了我！他伤我要比我伤他厉害得多！”
        Let men tremble to win the hand of woman, unless they win along with it the utmost passion of her heart! Else it may be their miserable fortune, as it was Roger Chillingworth's, when some mightier touch than their own may have awakened all her sensibilities, to be reproached even for the calm content, the marble image of happiness, which they will have imposed upon her as the warm reality. But Hester ought long ago to have done with this injustice. What did it betoken? Had seven long years, under the torture of the scarlet letter, inflicted so much of misery, and wrought out no repentance?让那些只赢得女人首肯婚约但没有同时赢得她们内心最深处的激情的男人们发抖吧！他们会象罗杰·齐灵渥斯一样遭到不幸的：因为当某一个比他们更有力的接触唤醒她们的全部感知时，即使是他们当作温暖的现实而要加诸女人的那种平静的满足，那种坚如磐石的幸福形象，都要统统受到指责。但海丝特早就应该对这种不公乎处之泰然了。不公平又能怎样？难道在七年漫长的岁月中，在红字曲折磨下备受痛苦，还悟不出一些仟悔之意吗？