【经典名著阅读】《德伯家的苔丝》第二章（下）

英语自学网

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        The clubbists tittered, except the girl called Tess - in whom a slow heat seemed to rise at the sense that her father was making himself foolish in their eyes.妇女会的会员们都吃吃地笑起来，只是那个叫做苔丝的姑娘除外——她意识到她的父亲在众人眼里出丑卖乖，不禁感到脸上发烧。
        'He's tired, that's all,' she said hastily, 'and he has got a lift home, because our own horse has to rest to-day.'“他只是累了，没有别的，”她急忙说：“他是搭别人的便车回家，因为我们家的马今天休息。”
        'Bless thy simplicity, Tess,' said her companions. 'He's got his market-nitch. Haw-haw!'“别装糊涂了吧，苔丝，”她的同伴们说，“他是在集市上喝醉了。哈哈！”
        'Look here; I won't walk another inch with you, if you say any jokes about him!' Tess cried, and the colour upon her cheeks spread over her face and neck.“听着，你们要是拿他开玩笑，那我就一步也不同你往前走了！”苔丝叫起来，脸颊上的红晕扩大了，从脸上延伸到脖子上。
        In a moment her eyes grew moist, and her glance drooped to the ground. Perceiving that they had really pained her they said no more, and order again prevailed. Tess's pride would not allow her to turn her head again, to learn what her father's meaning was, if he had any; and thus she moved on with the whole body to the enclosure where there was to be dancing on the green. By the time the spot was reached she had recovered her equanimity, and tapped her neighbour with her wand and talked as usual.不一会儿，她的眼睛湿润了，目光垂到了地上。她们看见真的让她难过了，就住口不再说了，重新整理好队伍。苔丝的自尊心不让她再扭过头去，看看她的父亲是什么意思，如果她的父亲有什么意思的话。因此，苔丝又随着队伍移动了，一直向在草地上跳舞的地方走去。一走到那个地方，苔丝就恢复了平静，用手中的柳枝轻轻地抽打她的同伴，同往常一样有说有笑了。
        Tess Durbeyfield at this time of her life was a mere vessel of emotion untinctured by experience. The dialect was on her tongue to some extent, despite the village school: the characteristic intonation of that dialect for this district being the voicing approximately rendered by the syllable UR, probably as rich an utterance as any to be found in human speech. The pouted-up deep red mouth to which this syllable was native had hardly as yet settled into its definite shape, and her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward, when they closed together after a word.苔丝·德北菲尔德在她人生的这个时候，满腔的纯情还没有带上人生的经验。尽管进过乡村小学，但在她的说话里还是带有某种程度的乡音：因为这个地区的方言的特殊音调，大约就体现在音节UR的发声上，也许同任何可以发现的人类说话的言语一样丰富。要念这个本地的音节，苔丝得把她深红的嘴巴撅起来，但是又刚好没有把形状固定下来，她的下嘴唇在上嘴唇的中部有点儿撮起，念完一个字后，她才把嘴巴闭起来。
        Phases of her childhood lurked in her aspect still. As she walked along to-day, for all her bouncing handsome womanliness, you could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth sparkling from her eyes; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then. Yet few knew, and still fewer considered this. A small minority, mainly strangers, would look long at her in casually passing by, and grow momentarily fascinated by her freshness, and wonder if they would ever see her again: but to almost everybody she was a fine and picturesque country girl, and no more.她的童年的各个阶段的特征，现在仍然还留在她的身上。在她今天一路走着的时候，就她全部的一个漂亮健壮妇女的丰韵来说，有时候你在她的双颊上能够看到她十二岁时的影子，或者从她的眼睛里看到她九岁时的神情，在她的嘴角的曲线上，甚至有时候还能够看到她五岁时的模样。但是这一点很少有人知道，更没有多少人加以注意。有一小群人，主要是一群陌生人，在他们偶然路过的时候会对她看上一阵，暂时为她的新鲜美感所吸引，心想他们是不是还能再见到她：但是对其他大多数人来说，她只不过是一个俊俏的迷人的乡村姑娘而已。

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        Nothing was seen or heard further of Durbeyfield in his triumphal chariot under the conduct of the ostleress, and the club having entered the allotted space, dancing began. As there were no men in the company the girls danced at first with each other, but when the hour for the close of labour drew on, the masculine inhabitants of the village, together with other idlers and pedestrians, gathered round the spot, and appeared inclined to negotiate for a partner.德北菲尔德坐在荣耀的双轮马车里，由女车夫赶着车走了，既看不见也听不见了。队伍已经走进了指定的地点，开始跳起舞来。因为队伍里没有男子，所以开始时姑娘们相互对舞着，但是随着收工时间的临近，村子里的男性居民就同其他没事的闲人和过路行人一起聚集到舞场的周围，似乎想争取到一个舞伴。
        Among these on-lookers were three Young men of a superior class, carrying small knapsacks strapped to their shoulders, and stout sticks in their hands. Their general likeness to each other, and their consecutive ages, would almost have suggested that they might be, what in fact they were, brothers. The eldest wore the white tie, high waistcoat, and thin-brimmed hat of the regulation curate; the second was the normal undergraduate; the appearance of the third and youngest would hardly have been sufficient to characterize him; there was an uncribbed, uncabined aspect in his eyes and attire, implying that he had hardly as yet found the entrance to his professional groove. That he was a desultory tentative student of something and everything might only have been predicted of him.在这群旁观的人中间有三个阶层较高的年轻男子，肩上背着小背包，手里拄着粗棍子。他们的面貌大致上相似，年龄一个比一个小，这几乎已经暗示说他们可能是亲兄弟，而实际上他们正是亲兄弟。年龄最长的一个是助理牧师，系白色的领带，穿圆领背心，戴窄边帽子；第二个是通常的大学生；最小的第三个似乎还很难看出他的身分。从他的眼神里和衣服上，可以看出一种不拘形迹的神情，暗示他到目前为止还没有找到专门职业的大门。从他身上大概可以猜测出，他是一个对什么事情都想广泛学习的学生。
        These three brethren told casual acquaintance that they were spending their Whitsun holidays in a walking tour through the Vale of Blackmoor, their course being south-westerly from the town of Shaston on the north-east.这兄弟三个告诉他们偶然遇见的人，他们正在过圣灵降临节，要步行游玩黑荒原谷，他们的路线是从东北的小镇夏斯顿往西南方向走。
        They leant over the gate by the highway, and inquired as to the meaning of the dance and the white-frocked maids. The two elder of the brothers were plainly not intending to linger more than a moment, but the spectacle of a bevy of girls dancing without male partners seemed to amuse the third, and make him in no hurry to move on. He unstrapped his knapsack, put it, with his stick, on the hedge-bank, and opened the gate.他们斜靠在大路边的栅栏门上，询问妇女穿白袍跳舞的意思。兄弟中年纪较大的两位显然不想在这儿逗留，可是看见一群姑娘跳舞而没有男子相伴，这似乎引起了老三的兴趣，使他不急着往前走了。他把背包从身上取下来，连同手中的棍子一起放在树篱坡上，把门打开了。
        'What are you going to do, Angel?' asked the eldest.“你要干什么呀，安琪儿？”大哥问。
        'I am inclined to go and have a fling with them. Why not all of us - just for a minute or two - it will not detain us long?'“我想去同她们跳一会儿舞。为什么我们不都去跳一会儿舞——就一会儿，不会耽误我们太久的。”