【经典名著阅读】《德伯家的苔丝》第三十一章（中）

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        Men were at work here and there - for it was the season for 'taking up' the meadows, or digging the little waterways clear for the winter irrigation, and mending their banks where trodden down by the cows. The shovelfuls of loam, black as 'et, brought there by the river when it was as wide as the whole valley, were an essence of soils, pounded champaigns of the past, steeped, refined, and subtilized to extraordinary richness, out of which came all the fertility of the mead, and of the cattle grazing there.男工们正在四处干活——因为现在是修整牧场的季节，或者把草场上的一些冬天用来灌溉的沟渠挖干净，把被奶牛踩坏的坡岸修理好。一铲一铲的黑土，像墨玉一样漆黑，是在河流还同山谷一样宽阔时被冲到这儿的，它们是土壤的精华，是过去被打碎的原野经过浸泡、提炼，才变得特别肥沃，从这种土壤里又长出丰茂的牧草，喂养那儿的牛群。
        Clare hardily kept his arm round her waist in sight of these watermen, with the air of a man who was accustomed to public dalliance, though actually as shy as she who, with lips parted and eyes askance on the labourers, wore the look of a wary animal the while.在这些工人面前，克莱尔仍然大胆地用胳膊搂着苔丝的腰，脸上是一种惯于公开调情的神气，尽管实际上他也像苔丝一样羞怯，而苔丝张着嘴，斜眼看着那些干活的工人们，脸上的神色看上去就像是一只胆小的动物。
        'You are not ashamed of owning me as yours before them!' she said gladly.“在他们面前，你不怕承认我是你的人呢！”她高兴地说。
        'O no!'“啊，不怕！”
        'But if it should reach the ears of your friends at Emminster that you are walking about like this with me, a milkmaid--'“但是如果传到爱敏寺你家里的人的耳朵里，说你这样和我散步，和一个挤牛奶的姑娘——”
        'The most bewitching milkmaid ever seen.'“从来没有过的最迷人的挤奶姑娘。”
        'They might feel it a hurt to their dignity.'“他们也许会感到这有损他们的尊贵。”
        'My dear girl - a d'Urberville hurt the dignity of a Clare! It is a grand card to play - that of your belonging to such a family, and I am reserving it for a grand effect when we are married, and have the proofs of your descent from Parson Tringham. Apart from that, my future is to be totally foreign to my family - it will not affect even the surface of their lives. We shall leave this part of England - perhaps England itself - and what does it matter how people regard us here. You will like going, will you not?'“我亲爱的姑娘——德北菲尔德家的小姐伤害了克莱尔家的尊贵！你属于这样一个家庭的出身，这才是一张王牌呢。我现在留着它，等我们结了婚，从特林汉姆牧师那儿找来你的出身的证据，然后再打出去，才有惊人的效果。除此而外，我们将来的生活同我的家庭完全没有关系——甚至连他们生活的表面也不会有一点儿影响。我们也许要离开英国这一带——也许离开英国——别人怎样看待我们又有什么关系呢？你愿意离开吧，是不是？”

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        She could answer no more than a bare affirmative, so great was the emotion aroused in her at the thought of going through the world with him as his own familiar friend. Her feelings almost filled her ears like a babble of waves, and surged up to her eyes. She put her hand in his, and thus they went on, to a place where the reflected sun glared up from the river, under a bridge, with a molten-metallic glow that dazzled their eyes, though the sun itself was hidden by the bridge. They stood still, whereupon little furred and feathered heads popped up from the smooth surface of the water; but, finding that the disturbing presences had paused, and not passed by, they disappeared again. Upon this river-brink they lingered till the fog began to close round them - which was very early in the evening at this time of the year - settling on the lashes of her eyes, where it rested like crystals, and on his brows and hair.她除了表示同意而外，再也说不出话来，她一想到要和她亲密的朋友一起去闯荡世界，就引起她感情的无比激动。她的感情就像波涛的浪花，塞满了她的耳朵，涌满了她的眼睛。她握住他的手，就这样向前走，走到了一座桥的地方，耀眼的太阳从河面上反射上来，就像是熔化了的金属一样放射的光，使人头晕目炫。他们静静地站在那儿，桥下一些长毛和长羽毛的小脑袋从平静的水面冒了出来；不过当它们发现打搅它们的两个人还站在那儿，并没有走过去，于是就又钻进水里不见了。他们一直在河边走来走去，直到雾霭开始把他们包围起来——在一年中这个时候，夜雾起得非常早——它们好像一串串水晶，凝结在他们的眼睫毛上，凝结在他们的额头上和头发上。
        They walked later on Sundays, when it was quite dark. Some of the dairy-people, who were also out of doors on the first Sunday evening after their engagement, heard her impulsive speeches, ecstasized to fragments, though they were too far off to hear the words discoursed; noted the spasmodic catch in her remarks, broken into syllables by the leapings of her heart, as she walked leaning on his arm; her contented pauses, the occasional little laugh upon which her soul seemed to ride - the laugh of a woman in company with the man she loves and has won from all other women - unlike anything else in nature. They marked the buoyancy of her tread, like the skim of a bird which has not quite alighted.星期天他们在外面呆的时间更久，一直等到天完全黑了才回去。在他们订婚后的第一个礼拜天的傍晚，有些奶牛场的工人也在外面散步，听见了苔丝激动的说话，由于太高兴，说话断断续续的，不过他们隔得太远，听不清她说的什么话；只见她靠在克莱尔的胳膊上走着，说的话时断时续，因为心的跳动而变成了一个个音节；还看见她心满意足地停住说话，偶尔低声一笑，好像她的灵魂就驾驭着她的笑声——这是一个女人陪着她所爱的男人而且还是从其他女人手中赢来的男人散步时发出的笑声——自然中任何其它的东西都不能与之相比。他们看见她走路时轻快的样子，好像还没有完全落下来的鸟儿滑翔似的。
        Her affection for him was now the breath and life of Tess's being; it enveloped her as a photosphere, irradiated her into forgetfulness of her past sorrows, keeping back the gloomy spectres that would persist in their attempts to touch her - doubt, fear, moodiness, care, shame. She knew that they were waiting like wolves just outside the circumscribing light, but she had long spells of power to keep them in hungry subjection there.她对他的爱现在达到了极点，成了她生命的存在；它像一团灵光把她包围起来，让她眼花缭乱，忘记了过去的不幸，赶走了那些企图向她扑来的忧郁的幽灵——疑虑、恐惧、郁闷、烦恼、羞辱。她也知道，它们像狼一样，正等在那团灵光的外面，但是她有持久的力量制服它们，让它们饿着肚子呆在外面。
        A spiritual forgetfulness coexisted with an intellectual remembrance. She walked in brightness, but she knew that in the background those shapes of darkness were always spread. They might be receding, or they might be approaching, one or the other, a little every day.精神上的忘却和理智上的回忆是同时并存的。她在光明里走着，但是她也知道，她背后的那些黑色幽灵正在蠢蠢欲动。它们也许会后退一点儿，也许会前进一点儿，每天都在一点一点地变化着。