英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第十六章（上）

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　　英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第十六章(上)
　　Chapter 16 A FOREST WALK
　　第十六章　林中散步
　　HESTER PRYNNE remained constant in her resolve to make known to Mr. Dimmesdale, at whatever risk of present pain or ulteriorconsequences, the true character of the man who had crept into his intimacy. For several days, however, she vainly sought an opportunity of addressing him in some of the meditativewalks which she knew him to be in the habit of taking, along the shores of the peninsula, or on the wooded hills of the neighbouring country. There would have been no scandal, indeed, nor perilto the holy whiteness of the clergyman's good fame, had she visited him in his own study; where many a penitent, ere now, had confessed sins of perhaps as deep a dyeas the one betokenedby the scarlet letter. But, partly that she dreaded the secret or undisguisedinterference of old Roger Chillingworth, and partly that her conscious heart imputed suspicion where none could have been felt, and partly that both the minister and she would need the whole wide world to breathe in, while they talked together- for all these reasons, Hester never though of meeting him in any narrower privacy than beneath the open sky.
　　海丝特·白兰不管眼下有什么痛苦或日后有什么结果，也甘冒风险，一心要对丁梅斯代尔先生揭示那个钻到他身边的人的真实身分。她知道他有一个习惯，喜欢沿着半岛的岸边或邻近的乡间的山林中边散步边思考，但接连好几天，她都没能趁着这个时间找个机会同他交谈。当然，她就是到他自己的书斋去拜访，也不会引起谣言，更不会对牧师那圣洁的名声有什么影响，因为原本就有许多人到他的书斋中去仟侮，他们所招认的罪孽之深重，或许不亚于红字所代表的那种。然而，一来她担心老罗杰·齐灵渥斯会暗中或公然搅扰;一来她自己心里疑神疑鬼，虽说别人并不会猜测;一来她和牧师谈话时，两人都需要整个旷野来呼吸空气——出于这一切原因，海丝特从来没想过不在光天化日之下面在什么狭窄的私下场所去见他。
　　At last, while attending in a sick-chamber, whither the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale had been summoned to make a prayer, she learnt that he had gone, the day before, to visit the Apostle Eliot, among his Indian converts. He would probably return, by a certain hour, in the afternoon of the morrow. Betimes, therefore, the next day, Hester took little Pearl- who was necessarily the companion of all her mother's expeditions, however inconvenienther presence- and set forth.
　　后来，她到一家病人的房中去帮忙，而丁梅斯代尔牧师先生先前也曾应邀去作道祈祷，她才在那里听说他已经在前一天就走了——到他的印第安信徒中拜访使徒艾略特去了。他可能要在第二天下午的某个时刻回来。于是，到了次日那个钟点，海丝特就带上珠儿出发了——只要母亲外出，不管带着她方便与否，她反正总是必不可少的伴侣。
　　The road, after the two wayfarershad crossed from the peninsula to the mainland, was no other than a footpath. It straggled onward into the mystery of the primevalforest. This hemmedit in so narrowly, and stood so black and dense on either side, and disclosed such imperfect glimpsesof the sky above, that, to Hester's mind, it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in which she had so long been wandering. The day was chill and sombre. Overhead was a grey expanseof cloud, slightly stirred, however, by a breeze; so that a gleamof flickering sunshine might now and then be seen at its solitary play along the path. This flitting cheerfulness was always at the farther extremityof some long vista through the forest. The sportivesunlight- feebly sportive, at best, in the predominantpensivenessof the day and scene- withdrew itself as they came nigh, and left the spots where it had danced the drearier, because they had hoped to find them bright.
　　这两个行路人穿过半岛踏上大陆之后，脚下便只有一条人行小径可走了。这条小路婉蜒伸入神秘的原始森林之中。树木紧紧夹位窄窄的小路，耸立在两旁，浓密蔽荫，让人举目难见青天。在海丝特看来，这恰是她多年来徘徊其中的道德荒野的写照。天气阴沉面寒冷。头上是灰蒙蒙的云天，时而被微风轻拂;因而不时可见缕缕阳光，孤寂地在小径上闪烁跳跃。这种转瞬即逝的欢快，总是闪现在森林纵深的远端。在天气和景色的一片阴霾中，那嬉戏的阳光——充其量不过是微弱的闪跃——在她们走近时就退缩了，她们原本希望阳光闪跃过的地方会明亮些，但走到跟前倒显得益发阴暗了。
　　
            
            

ensix

　　"Mother," said little Pearl, "the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. Now, see! There it is, playing, a good way off. Stand you here, and let me run and catch it. I am but a child. It will not flee from me; for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!"
　　“妈妈，”小珠儿说，“阳光并不爱你。它跑开躲起来了，因为它害怕你胸口的什么东西。你瞧嘛!它在那儿跳呢，远远地。你站在这儿，让我跑过去抓住它。我只不过是个孩子。它不会逃避我的，因为我胸前还什么都没戴呢!”
　　"Nor ever will, my child, I hope," said Hester.
　　“我的孩子，我但愿你一辈子也别戴吧，”海丝特说。
　　"And why not, mother?" asked Pearl, stopping short just at the beginning of her race. "Will not it come of its own accord, when I am a woman grown?"
　　“干嘛不戴呢，妈妈?”珠儿问道，她刚要拔腿朝前跑，忽地停下了脚步。“等我长成大人，难道它不会自然就来了吗?”
　　"Run away, child," answered her mother, "and catch the sunshine!It will soon be gone."
　　“快跑吧，孩子，”她母亲回答，“去抓住阳光!它会转眼就跑掉的。”
　　Pearl set forth, at a great pace, and, as Hester smiled to perceive, did actually catch the sunshine, and stood laughing in the midst of it, all brightened by its splendour, and scintillatingwith the vivacityexcited by rapid motion. The light lingered about the lonely child, as if glad of such a playmate, until her mother had drawn almost nigh enough to step into the magic circle too.
　　珠儿拔腿飞快地跑去，海丝特微笑着看到，她还真的抓住了阳光，并且站在阳光中放声大笑，全身披着的灿烂的彩晖，还随着她快速移动的活跃激荡着而闪闪发亮。那光亮依傍在孤独的孩子身边，似是因为有了这样一个玩伴而兴高采烈，一直到她母亲差不多也要迈步进入那充满魔力的光圈为止。
　　"It will go now," said Pearl, shaking her head.
　　“这下它要走了，”珠儿摇着头说。
　　"See!" answered Hester, smiling. "Now I can stretchout my hand, and grasp some of it."
　　“瞧!”海丝特微笑着回答。“现在我可以伸出手来，抓住一些阳光了。”
　　As she attempted to do so, the sunshine vanished; or, to judge from the bright expression that was dancing on Pearl's features, her mother could have fancied that the child had absorbedit into herself, and would give it forth again, with a gleam about her path, as they should plunge into some gloomier shade. There was no other attribute that so much impressed her with a sense of new and untransmittedvigour in Pearl's nature, as this never-failing vivacity of spirits; she had not the disease of sadness, which almost all children, in these latter days, inherit, with the scrofula, from the troubles of their ancestors. Perhaps this too was a disease, and but the reflexof the wild energy with which Hester had fought against her sorrows, before Pearl's birth. It was certainly a doubtful charm, imparting a hard, metalliclustreto the child's character. She wanted- what some people want throughout life- a grief that should deeply touch her, and thus humaniseand make her capable of sympathy. But there was time enough yet for little Pearl.
　　就在她打算这么做时，阳光又消失了;或者，从珠儿脸上闪跃着的焕发的容光来判断，她母亲也可能想象是孩子把阳光吞了进去，单等她们步入更幽暗的地方时，再放出来照亮她们的小径。在珠儿的秉性中，这种永不衰竭的精神活力带有一种蕴含着的崭新精力的感觉，给她的印象最为深刻;珠儿没有忧郁症——如今几乎所有的孩子都从他们先辈的烦恼中，把这种症状同瘟病一起继承了下来。也许这种活泼同样是一种疾病，不过是珠儿降生之前海丝特用来遏制自己的忧伤的那种野性的反映。这种活力在孩子的性格上增加了一种坚硬的金属般的光泽，其魅力甚属可疑。她需要——一些人终生都需要一些东西——一种阴郁来源源地触动她，以便增加她的人性，并使她能够同情。好在对小珠儿来说，还有的是时间呢。
　　
            
            

enone

　　"Come, my child!" said Hester, looking about her from the spot where Pearl had stood still in the sunshine. "We will sit down a little way within the wood, and rest ourselves."
　　“过来，我的孩子!”海丝特一边说着，士边从珠儿刚刚在阳光中站着不动的地方向四下望着。“我们要在林子里坐下来，休息一下。”
　　"I am not aweary, mother," replied the little girl. "But you may sit down, if you will tell me a story meanwhile."
　　“我还不累呢，妈妈，”那小姑娘回答说。“不过，你要是愿意借这个机会给我讲个故事的话，倒是可以坐下来。”
　　"A story, child!" said Hester. "And about what?"
　　“讲个故事，孩子!”海丝特说。“关于什么的故事呢?”
　　"Oh, a story about the Black Man," answered Pearl, taking hold of her mother's gown, and looking up, half earnestly, half mischievously, into her face. "How he hauntsthis forest, and carries a book with him- a big, heavy book, with iron clasps; and how this ugly Black Man offers his book and an iron pen to everybody that meets him here among the trees; and they are to write their names with their own blood. And then he sets his mark on their bosoms! Didst thou ever meet the Black Man, mother?"
　　“噢，讲个关于黑男人的故事吧，”珠儿回答着，一边攥住她母亲的袍子，一边又真诚又调皮地抬头盯着母亲的面孔。“讲讲他怎么在这座林子里走动，还随身带着一本书——一本又大又重的册子，上面还有铁箍;讲讲这个长得挺丑的黑男人怎么向在这林子里遇到的每一个人拿出他的册子和一支铁笔;让他们用自己的血写下他们的名字。然后他就在他们的胸前打上他的记号!你以前遇到过这个黑男人吗，妈妈?”
　　"And who told you this story, Pearl?" asked her mother, recognising a common superstitionof the period.
　　“谁给你讲的这个故事，珠儿?”她母亲这样问着，心里明白这是当时的一种普遍的迷信。
　　"It was the old dame in the chimney-corner, at the house where you watched last night," said the child. "But she fancied me asleep while she was talking of it. She said that a thousand and a thousand people had met him here, and had written in his book, and have his mark on them. And that ugly-tempered lady, old Mistress Hibbins, was one. And, mother, the old dame said that this scarlet letter was the Black Man's mark on thee, and that it glows like a red flame when thou meetest him at midnight, here in the dark wood. Is it true, mother? And dost thou go to meet him in the night-time?"
　　“就是昨天夜里你照看的那家的老太婆，她在屋角的炉灶那儿讲的，”那孩子说。“不过她讲的时候，还以为我睡着了呢。她说，有成千成千的人在这儿遇见过他，在他的册子上写下了名字，身上也让他打了记号。那个脾气挺坏的西宾斯老太太就是一个。还有，妈妈，那个老太婆说，这个红字就是黑男人打在你身上的记号，夜里在这黑林子里遇见他时，红字就会家红色火苗一样闪闪发光。这是真的吗，妈妈?你是在夜里去见他的吗?”