英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第五章（下）

英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第五章(下)

Chapter 05 HESTER AT HER NEEDLE

第五章 海丝特做针线

Except for that small expenditurein the decorationof her infant, Hester bestowed all her superfluousmeans in charity, on wretches less miserable than herself, and who not infrequently insulted the hand that fed them. Much of the time, which she might readily have applied to the better efforts of her art, she employed in making coarsegarments for the poor. It is probable that there was an idea of penancein this mode of occupation, and that she offered up a real sacrifice of enjoyment, in devoting so many hours to such rude handiwork. She had in her nature a rich, voluptuous, Oriental characteristic- a taste for the gorgeously beautiful, which, save in the exquisiteproductions of her needle, found nothing else, in all the possibilities of her life, to exercise itself upon. Women derivea pleasure, incomprehensible to the other sex, from the delicate toil of the needle. To Hester Prynne it might have been a mode of expressing, and therefore soothing, the passion of her life. Like all other joys, she rejected it as sin. This morbidmeddling of conscience with an immaterialmatter betokened, it is to be feared, no genuine and steadfastpenitence, but something doubtful, something that might be deeply wrong, beneath.

海丝特除去在打扮孩子上稍有花费外，她把全部积蓄都用在了救济他人上面，尽管那些入并不比她更为不幸，而且还时常忘思负义地对她横加侮辱。她时常替穷人制作粗布衣服，而如果她把这些时间用来发挥她的手艺，收入原可以更多的。她做这种活计可能有忏悔的念头，不过，她花这么多时间干粗活，确实牺牲了乐趣。她天生就有一种追求富足和奢华的东方人的秉性——一种喜欢穷奢极欲的情调，但这一点在她的全部生活中，除去在她那精美的针线手士中尚可施展之外，已经别无表现的可能了。女人从一针一线的操劳中所能获得的乐趣，是男人无法理解的。对海丝特·白兰来说，可能只有靠这样一种抒发形式，才能慰藉自己对生活的激情。但即使对这绝无仅有的一点乐趣，她也不例外地象看待其它乐趣一样地视为罪过。把良心和一件无关紧要的事情病态地联系在一起，恐怕并不能说明真心实意的仟悔，其背后可能有些颇值怀疑和极其荒谬的东西。

In this manner, Hester Prynne came to have a part to perform in the world. With her native energy of character, and rare capacity, it could not entirely cast her off, although it had set a mark upon her, more intolerable to a woman's heart than that which branded the brow of Cain. In all her intercoursewith society, however, there was nothing that made her feel as if she belonged to it. Every gesture, every word, and even the silence of those with whom she came in contact, implied, and often expressed, that she was banished, and as much alone as if she inhabited another sphere, or communicated with the common nature by other organs and senses than the rest of human kind. She stood apart from moral interests, yet close beside them, like a ghost that revisits the familiar fireside, and can no longer make itself seen or felt; no more smile with the household joy, nor mournwith the kindredsorrow; or, should it succeed in manifesting its forbidden sympathy, awakening only terror and horrible repugnance. These emotions, in fact, and its bitterest scorn besides, seemed to be the sole portionthat she retained in the universal heart. It was not an age of delicacy; and her position, although she understood it well, and was in little danger of forgetting it, was often brought before her vivid self-perception, like a new anguish, by the rudest touch upon the tenderest spot. The poor, as we have already said, whom she sought out to be the objects of her bounty, often reviledthe hand that was stretched forth to succourthem. Dames of elevated rank, likewise, whose doors she entered in the way of her occupation, were accustomed to distildrops of bitterness into her heart; sometimes through that alchemyof quiet malice, by which women can concoct a subtilepoison from ordinary trifles; and sometimes, also, by a coarser expression, that fell upon the sufferer's defenceless breast like a rough blow upon an ulcerated wound. Hester had schooled herself long and well; she never responded to these attacks, save by a flush of crimson that rose irrepressiblyover her pale cheek, and again subsided into the depths of her bosom. She was patient- a martyr, indeed- but she forbore to pray for her enemies; lest, in spite of her forgiving aspirations, the words of the blessing should stubbornlytwist themselves into a curse.

就这样，海丝特·白兰在人世上有了自己的一席之地。由于她生性倔强而且才能出众，虽说人们让她佩戴了一个对女性的心灵来说比烙在该隐①额上的印记还要难堪的标志，部无法彻底摒弃她。然而，她在同社会的一切交往中，却只能有格格不入之感。同她有所接触的那些人的一举一动、一言一行、甚至他们的沉默不语，都在暗示，往往还表明：她是被排除在外的;而她的孤凄的处境似乎证明：她是生活在另一个世界中的，只有靠与众不同的感官来同其余的人类交流。对于人们感兴趣的道德问题，她避之犹恐不及，却又不能不关心，恰似一个幽灵重返故宅，但又无法让家入看见或感到，不能和家中的亲人们共笑同悲;即使得以表现出为人禁止的同情，也只能唤起别人的恐惧与厌恶。事实上，她的这种心情以及随之而来的最辛辣的嘲讽，似乎成了她在世人心目中所保留曲唯一份额了。在那感情还不够细腻的时代，虽然她深知自己的处境，时刻不敢忘怀，但由于人们不时最粗暴地触痛她最嫩弱的地方，使她清晰地自我感觉到一次次新的剧痛。如前所述，她一心一意接济穷苦人，但她伸出的救援之手所得到的回根却是谩骂。同样，她由于职业关系而迈入富室时，上流社会的夫人们却惯于向她心中滴入苦汁;有时她们不动声色地对她施展阴谋，因为女人们最善于利用日常琐事调制微妙的毒剂;有时她们则明目张长胆地攻汗她那毫无防御的心灵，犹如在渍烂的创口上再重重地一击。海丝特长期以来对此泰然处之;她毫无反手之力，只是在苍白的面颊上不禁泛起红潮，然后便潜入内心深处。她事事忍让，确实是一位殉道者，但她不准自己为敌人祈祷——她尽管宽宏大量，却唯恐自己用来祝福的语言会顽强地扭曲成对他们的诅咒。

Continually, and in a thousand other ways, did she feel the innumerable throbsof anguish that had been so cunninglycontrived for her by the undying, the ever-active sentence of the Puritan tribunal. Clergymen paused in the street to address words of exhortation, that brought a crowd, with its mingled grinand frown, around the poor, sinful woman. If she entered a church, trusting to share the Sabbath smile of the Universal Father, it was often her mishap to find herself the text of the discourse. She grew to have a dread of children; for they had imbibedfrom their parents a vague idea of something horrible in this dreary woman, gliding silently through the town, with never any companion but one only child. Therefore, first allowing her to pass, they pursued her at a distance with shrillcries, and the utterance of a word that had no distinct purportto their own minds, but was none the less terrible to her, as proceeding from lips that babbled it unconsciously. It seemed to argue so wide a diffusionof her shame, that all nature knew of it; it could have caused her no deeper pang, had the leaves of the trees whispered the dark story among themselves- had the summer breeze murmured about it- had the wintryblast shrieked it aloud! Another peculiar torture was felt in the gaze of a new eye. When strangers looked curiously at the scarlet letter- and none ever failed to do so- they branded it afreshinto Hester's soul; so that, oftentimes, she could scarcely refrain, yet always did refrain, from covering the symbol with her hand. But then, again, an accustomed eye had likewise its own anguish to inflict. Its cool stare of familiaritywas intolerable. From first to last, in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callousit seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture.

清教徒的法庭对她极其狡狯地安排下的惩罚，时刻不停地以种种方式使她感到永无休止的悸痛。牧师会在街心停住脚步，对她规劝一番，还会招来一群人围任这可怜的有罪的女人，对她又是嘻笑，又是蹙额。当地走进教堂，一心以为自己会分享众生之父在安息日的微笑时，往往不幸地发现，她正是讲道的内容。她对孩子们渐生畏惧之心，因为他们从父母那里摄取到一种模模糊糊的概念;这个除去一个小孩之外从无伴侣、在镇上蹈踊独行的可怕的女人，身上有着某种骇人之处。于是，他们先放她过去，再远远尾随着她尖声喊叫，那些出于无心肠口而出的语言，对他们本无明确的含义，可她听来却同样可畏。她的耻辱似乎已广为传播，连整个自然界都无有不晓了;即使树时在窃窃私语这一隐私;夏口的微风在悄然四散，冬天的寒风在高声疾呼，她的痛楚也不过如此!此外，一双陌生的眼睛的凝视也会让她感到特别难过。当不速之客毫无例外地好奇地盯着她那红字时，就把那标记又一次烙进海丝特的灵魂;以致她常常禁不住，但终归还是控制使自己，不去用手捂住那象征。其实，熟人的目光又何尝不给地带来苦恼!那种习以为常的冷冷的一瞥真叫她受不了。简而言之，海丝特·白兰始终感到被人们注视那标记的可怕的痛苦;那地方不但众远不会结痂，相反;看来还会随着逐日的折磨而变得益发敏感。

But sometimes, once in many days, or perchance in many months, she felt an eye- a human eye- upon the ignominiousbrand, that seemed to give a momentaryrelief, as if half of her agony were shared. The next instant, back it all rushed again, with still a deeper throbof pain; for, in that brief interval, she had sinned anew. Had Hester sinned alone?

但也有时候——好多天有这么一次，或者要好几个月才有这么一次，她会感到一双眼睛——一双人类的眼睛望着她那耻辱的印记，似乎能给她片刻的宽慰，象是分担了她的一半痛苦。但那瞬向一过，更深的刺病便疾速返回;因为在这短暂的邂逅中，她又重新犯了罪。难道海丝特是独自犯下这罪过的吗?

Her imagination was somewhat affected, and, had she been of a softer moral and intellectual fibre, would have been still more so, by the strange and solitary anguishof her life. Walking to and fro, with those lonely footsteps, in the little world with which she was outwardly connected, it now and then appeared to Hester- if altogether fancy, it was nevertheless too potentto be resisted- she felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowedher with a new sense. She shudderedto believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympatheticknowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. She was terror-stricken by the revelations that were thus made. What were they? Could they be other than the insidiouswhispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet only half his victim, that the outward guiseof purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne's? Or, must she receive those intimations- so obscure, yet so distinct-as truth? In all her miserable experience, there was nothing else so awful and so loathsomeas this sense. It perplexed, as well as shocked her, by the irreverent inopportunenessof the occasions that brought it into vivid action. Sometimes the red infamy upon her breast would give a sympathetic throb, as she passed near a venerableminister or magistrate, the model of pietyand justice, to whom that age of antiquereverence looked up, as to a mortal man in fellowship with angels. "What evil thing is at hand?" would Hester say to herself. Lifting her reluctant eyes, there would be nothing human within the scope of view, save the form of this earthly saint! Again, a mysticsisterhood would contumaciouslyassert itself, as she met the sanctifiedfrown of some matron, who, according to the rumour of all tongues, had kept cold snow within her bosom throughout life. That unsunnedsnow in the matron's bosom, and the burning shame on Hester Prynne's- what had the two in common? Or, once more, the electric thrill would give her warning- "Behold, Hester, here is a companion!"-and, looking up, she would detectthe eyes of a young maidenglancing at the scarlet letter, shyly and aside, and quickly averted, with a faint, chill crimsonin her cheeks; as if her purity were somewhat sulliedby that momentaryglance. O Fiend, whose talismanwas that fatal symbol, wouldst thou leave nothing, whether in youth or age, for this poor sinner to revere?- such loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin. Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own frailty, and man's hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled to believe that no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself.

奇特而孤独的生活的折磨，已经在一定程度上影响了她的思绪，设若她精神上怯懦些，心理上脆弱些，这种影响就会更加严重。当地在这个与她表面上保持着联系的小小天地中迈着孤独的步伐走来定去时，海丝特似乎时时觉得，——如果全然出于幻觉，其潜在的力量也是不可抗拒的——她感到或者说想象着，那红字赋予了她一种新的体验。她战战兢兢又不由得不去相信，那字母让她感应到别人内心中隐藏着的罪孽。她对这些启示诚惺诚恐。这些启示意昧着什么呢?如若不是那个邪恶的天使的阴险的挑动，难道还能是别的吗?他一心想说服这个目前还只是他的半个牺牲品的、劳苦挣扎着的女人：表面的贞洁不过是骗人的伪装，如果把一处处真情全都暴露在光天化日之下的话，除去海丝特·白兰之外，好多人的胸前都会有红字闪烁的。或许，她应该把那些如此含糊又如此明晰的暗示当作真理来接受吧?在她所有的不幸遭遇中，再没有比这种感受更使她难堪和厌恶的了。这种感受总是不合时宜地涌上心头，令她既困惑又震惊。有时候，当她走过一位德高望重的长官或牧师身边时，她胸前的红色耻辱就会感应出一种悸动——这些人可都是虔诚的楷模和正义的化身，在那个崇尚古风的年代，他们都是人间天使，令人肃然起敬的。每逢这种时刻，海丝特总会自忖：“我又遇到什么魔障了吗?可是，在她勉强抬起的眼睛前面，除去那位活圣人的身形之外，却看不到别人!也有时候，当她遇到某位太太时，望着她们那神圣凛然的面孔，心中便会油然生出一种神秘的妹妹之感，而那位太太却是被众口一词地公认为从来都是冷若冰霜的。那位太太胸中的未见阳光的冰雪和海丝特·白兰胸前的灼热逼人的耻辱，这二者之间有何共同之处呢?还有时候，她周身通电似的战栗会警告说;“看啊，海丝特，这位可是你的伙伴!而她抬头一看，就会发现一双少女的眼睛，羞怯地对红字一瞥，便连忙榴开，脸上迅速泛起一片隐隐可见的冰冷的赧颜，似乎她的女贞因这刹那的一瞥就此受到某种珐辱。啊，用那个致命的象征为护符的恶魔，你无论在青年人还是老年人身上，难道不肯给这个可怜的罪人留下一点值得祟敬的东西吗?——象这样的丧失信仰从来都是罪恶的一种最悲惨的结果咽。所幸，海丝特·白兰仍在竭力使自己相信，世人还没有象她那样罪孽深重;如果承认这一点，就足以证明：这个自身脆弱和男人的严酷法律的可怜的牺牲品，还没有彻底堕落。

The vulgar, who, in those drearyold times, were always contributing a grotesquehorror to what interested their imaginations, had a story about the scarlet letter which we might readily work up into a terrific legend. They averred, that the symbol was not mere scarlet cloth, tingedin an earthly dye-pot, but was red-hot with infernalfire, and could be seen glowing all alight, whenever Hester Prynne walked abroad in the night-time. And we must needs say, it seared Hester's bosom so deeply, that perhaps there was more truth in the rumour than our modern incredulitymay be inclined to admit.

在那个压抑人性的古老年月里，凡夫俗子们对他们感兴趣的事情，总要涂上一层荒诞恐怖的色彩，他们就此杜撰了一篇关于红字的故事，我们完全可以随手写成一个骇人的传说。他们曾经断言，那个象征不仅是人间的染缸中染出来的红布，而且还由炼狱之火烧得通红，每逢海丝待·白兰夜间外出，那红字便闪闪发光。而我们应该说，那红字深深烙进海丝特的胸膛，因此在那个传说中包含着比我们如今将信将疑的更多的真理。

①《旧约.创世记》中说，该隐是亚当及夏接之长于，固妒嫉而杀死弟弟亚伯。