英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第二十二章（下）

英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第二十二章(下)

Chapter 22 THE PROCESSION

第二十二章 游行

"Now, what mortalimagination could conceive it!" whispered the old lady, confidentially, to Hester. "Yonder divine man! That saint on earth, as the people uphold him to be, and as- I must needs say- he really looks! Who, now, that saw him pass in the procession, would think how little while it is since he went forth out of his study- chewing a Hebrew text of Scripture in his mouth, I warrant- to take an airing in the forest! Aha! we know what that means, Hester Prynne! But, truly, forsooth, I find it hard to believe him the same man. Many a church-member saw I, walking behind the music, that has danced in the same measure with me, when Somebody was fiddler, and, it might be, an Indian powwowor a Lapland wizard changing hands with us! That is but a trifle, when a woman knows the world. But this minister! Couldst thou surely tell, Hester, whether he was the same man that encountered thee on the forest-path?"

“瞧啊，这些凡夫俗子是绝对想象不出的!那老太婆对海丝特耳语着悄悄话。“瞧那神圣的人!人们都把他看作世间的圣者，而且连我都得说，他的样子真象极了!眼睁睁看着他在游行队伍中走过的人们，谁会想得到，就在不久之前，他还走出他的书斋，——我担保，他嘴里还念念有词地诵着希伯来文的《圣经》，——到森林中去逍遥呢!啊哈!我们清楚那意味着什么，海丝特·白兰!不过，说老实话，我简直不敢相信他就是那同一个人呢。我看见这么多教堂里的人跟在乐队后面游行，他们都曾随着我踏着同样的舞步，由某个人物演奏着提琴，或许，还有一个印第安人的祭司或拉普兰人③的法师同我们牵着手呢!只要一个女人看透了这个世界，这原本是小事一桩。但这个人可是牧师啊!海丝特，你说得准他是不是在林间小路上和你相遇的那同一个人呢?

"Madam, I know not of what you speak," answered Hester Prynne, feeling Mistress Hibbins to be of infirm mind; yet strangely startled and awe-stricken by the confidence with which she affirmed a personal connection between so many persons (herself among them) and the Evil One. "It is not for me to talk lightly of a learned and piousminister of the Word, like the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale!"

“夫人，我实在不明白你讲的话，海丝特·白兰觉得西宾斯太太有点老糊涂了，就这么回答说;然而，听老太婆说这么多人(包括她本人在内)和那个邪恶的家伙发生了个人联系，她异常吃惊并且吓得要命。“我可没资格随便乱谈象丁梅斯代尔牧师先生那样有学问又虔信《圣经》的牧师!

"Fie, woman, fie!" cried the old lady, shaking her finger at Hester. "Dost thou think I have been to the forest so many times, and have yet no skill to judge who else has been there? Yea; though no leaf of the wild garlands, which they wore while they danced, be left in their hair! I know thee, Hester; for I behold the token. We may all see it in the sunshine; and it glows like a red flame in the dark. Thou wearest it openly; so there need be no question about that. But this minister! Let me tell thee, in thine ear! When the Black Man sees one of his own servants, signed and sealed, so shy of owning to the bond as is the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, he hath a way of ordering matters so that the mark shall be disclosed in open daylight to the eyes of all the world! What is it that the minister seeks to hide, with his hand always over his heart? Ha, Hester Prynne!"

“呸，女人，呸!那老太婆向海丝特摇着一个指头喊道。“你以为我到过那树林里那么多次，居然还没本领判断还有谁去过那儿吗?我当然有;虽说他们在跳舞时戴的野花环没有在他们的头发上留下叶子!我可认识你，海丝特，因为我看见了那个标记。我们在光天化日之下全都可以看见它，而在黑暗中，它象红色火焰一样闪光。你是公开戴着它的，因此绝不会弄错。可是这位牧师!听我在你耳根上告诉你吧!当那个黑男人看见一个他的签过名、盖了章的仆人，象丁梅斯代尔先生那样羞怯地不敢承认有这么个盟约时，他便有一套办法，把那标记在大庭广众之中暴露在世人面前。牧师总用手捂着心口，他想掩藏什么呢?哈，海丝特·白兰!

"What is it, good Mistress Hibbins?" eagerly asked little Pearl."Hast thou seen it?"

“到底是什么啊，好西宾斯太太?小珠儿急切地问着。“你见过吗?

"No matter, darling!" responded Mistress Hibbins, making Pearl a profoundreverence. "Thou thyself wilt see it, one time or another. They say, child, thou art of the lineageof the Prince of the Air! Wilt thou ride with me, some fine night, to see thy father? Then thou shalt know wherefore the minister keeps his hand over his heart!"Laughing so shrillythat all the market-place could hear her, the weird old gentlewoman took her departure.

“别去管这个吧，乖孩子!西宾斯太太对珠儿毕恭毕敬地说。“总有一天，你自己会看到的。孩子，他们都说你是‘空中王子’的后代呢!你愿意在一个晚上和我一起驾云上天去看你父亲吗?到那时你就会明白，牧师总把手指在心口上的原因了!那怪模怪样的老夫人尖声大笑着走开了，惹得全市场的人都听到了。

By this time the preliminaryprayer had been offered in the meeting-house, and the accents of the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale were heard commencing his discourse. An irresistiblefeeling kept Hester near the spot. As the sacred edificewas too much thronged to admit another auditor, she took up her position close beside the scaffold of the pillory. It was in sufficient proximityto bring the whole sermonto her ears, in the shape of an indistinct, but varied, murmur and flow of the minister's very peculiar voice.

此时，议事厅中已经作完场前祈祷，可以听到丁梅斯代尔牧师先生开始布道的声音了。一种不可抑制的情感促使海丝特向近处靠去。由于神圣的大厦中挤得人山人海，再也无法容纳新的听讲人，她只好在紧靠刑台的地方占了个位置。这地方足以听到全部说教.虽说不很响亮，但牧师那富有特色的声音象是流水的低吟，缓缓送入她的耳鼓。

The vocal organ was in itself a rich endowmentinsomuchthat a listener, comprehending nothing of the language in which the preacher spoke, might still have been swayed to and fro by the mere tone and cadence. Like all other music, it breathed passion and pathos, and emotions high or tender, in a tongue native to the human heart, wherever educated. Muffled as the sound was by its passage through the church walls, Hester Prynne listened with such intentness, and sympathised so intimately, that the sermon had throughout a meaning for her, entirely apart from its indistinguishablewords. These, perhaps, if more distinctly heard, might have been only a grosser medium, and have clogged the spiritual sense. Now she caught the low undertone, as of the wind sinking down to repose itself; then ascended with it, as it rose through progressive gradationsof sweetness and power, until its volume seemed to envelop her with an atmosphere of awe and solemn grandeur. And yet, majestic as the voice sometimes became, there was for ever in it an essential character of plaintivenessa loud or low expression of anguish- the whisper, or the shriek, as it might be conceived, of suffering humanity, that touched a sensibility in every bosom! At times this deep strain of pathoswas all that could be heard, and scarcely heard, sighing amid a desolate silence. But even when the minister's voice grew high and commanding- when it gushed irrepressiblyupward- when it assumed its utmost breadth and power, so overfilling the church as to burst its way through the solid walls, and diffuseitself in the open air- still, if the auditor listened intently, and for the purpose, he could detect the same cry of pain. What was it? The complaint of a human heart, sorrow-laden, perchance guilty, telling its secret, whether of guilt or sorrow, to the great heart of mankind; beseeching its sympathy or forgiveness- at every moment- in each accent- and never in vain! It was this profound and continual undertone that gave the clergyman his most appropriatepower. During all this time, Hester stood, statue-like, at the foot of the scaffold. If the minister's voice had not kept her there, there would nevertheless have been an inevitable magnetismin that spot, whence she dated the first hour of her life of ignominy. There was a sense within her- to ill-defined to be made a thought, but weighing heavily on her mind- that her whole orb of life, both before and after, was connected with this spot, as with the one point that gave it unity.

那发育器官本身就是一种圆润的天赋;对一个听讲人来说，哪怕全然不懂牧师布道的语言，仍然可以随着那声腔的抑扬顿挫而心往神驰。那声音如同一切音乐一般，传达着热情与悲怆，传达着高昂或温柔的激动，不管你在何地受的教育，听起来内心都会感到亲切熟悉。那声音虽因穿过教堂的重重墙壁而显得低沉，但海丝特·白兰听得十分专注，产生了息息相通的共鸣，那布道对她有着一种与其难以分辨的词句全然无关的完整的含义。这些话如果所得分明些，或许只是一种粗俗的媒介，反倒影响了其精神意义。如今她聆听着那低低的音调，犹如大风缓吹，逐渐平患一般;然后，她又随着那步步上升的甜美和力量飞腾，直到那音量似乎用敬畏和庄严的宏体氛围将她包裹起来。然而，尽管那声音有时变得很威严，但其中始终有一种娓娓动听的本色。那听起来时而如低语，时面如高叫的忽低忽高地表达出来的极度痛苦和受难的人生，触动着每个人心扉的感受!那低沉而悲怆的旋律时时成为你所能听到的全部声音，隐约地在凄凉的沉默之中哀叹。但是甚至当牧师的声音变得高亢而威严，当他的声音不可遏止地直冲云霄，当他的声音达到了最为宽厚有力的音量，以致要充斥整个教堂，甚至要破壁而出，弥漫到户外的空气之中的时候，如果一个听讲人洗耳恭听，他仍然会由此而得以清晰地分辨出同样的痛苦的呼号。那是什么呢?那是一颗人心的哀怨，悲痛地或许是负疚地向人类的伟大胸怀诉说着深藏的秘密，不管是罪孽还是悲伤;它无时无刻不在通过每一个音素祈求着同情或谅解，而且从来都不是徒劳无益的!牧师正是靠了这种深邃而持续的低沉语调而获得了恰到好处的力量。在整个这段时间，海丝特都如泥塑木雕般地僵立在刑台脚下。如果不是牧师的声音把她吸引在那里的话，就必然还有一个不可或缺的磁力让她离不开这块她经受了耻辱生活第一个小时的地方。她内心有一种感觉，虽说难于明晰地表现为一种思想，但却沉重地区在她心头，那就是，她的全部生活轨道，无论过去还是未来，都和这地方密不可分，似乎是由这一点才把她的生活连成一体。

Little Pearl, meanwhile, had quitted her mother's side, and was playing at her own will about the market-place. She made the sombre crowd cheerful by her erraticand glisteningray; even as a bird of bright plumageilluminates a whole tree of dusty foliage, by darting to and fro, half seen and half concealed amid the twilight of the clustering leaves. She had an undulating, but, oftentimes, a sharp and irregular movement. It indicated the restless vivacityof her spirit, which to-day was doubly indefatigablein its tiptoe dance, because it was played upon and vibrated with her mother's disquietude. Whenever Pearl saw anything to excite her ever active and wandering curiosity, she flew thitherward, and, as we might say, seized upon that man or thing as her own property, so far as she desired it; but without yielding the minutest degree of control over her motions in requital. The Puritans looked on, and, if they smiled, were none the less inclined to pronounce the child a demon offspring, from the indescribable charm of beauty and eccentricitythat shone through her little figure, and sparkled with its activity. She ran and looked the wild Indian in the face; and he grew conscious of a nature wilder than his own. Thence, with native audacity, but still with a reserve as characteristic, she flew into the midst of a group of mariners, the swarthy-cheeked wild men of the ocean, as the Indians were of the land; and they gazed wonderingly and admiringly at Pearl, as if a flake of the sea-foam had taken the shape of a little maid, and were gifted with a soul of the sea-fire, that flashes beneath the prowin the night-time.

与此同时，小珠儿早已离开了她母亲的身边，随心所欲地在市场里到处玩耍。她以自己的闪烁不定的光辉，使忧郁的人群欢快起来，就象是一只长着光彩夺目的羽毛的鸟儿跳来跳去，在幽暗的时簇中时隐时现，把一棵树的枝枝叶叶全都照亮了。她行踪飘忽，时常会作出突然而意外的动作。这表明了她那永不止歇的精神活力，而今天，由于受到她母亲不平静的心情的拨弄和挑动，她那足尖舞跳得益发不知疲倦。珠儿只要看到有什么激励她的永远活跃的好奇心，就会飞到那儿，只要她愿意，我们可以说，她会把那个人或物当作自己的财产一般抓到手里;而绝不因此而稍稍控制一下自己的行动。那些看着她的清教徒们，只见到那小小的躯体发射着难以言状的美丽和古怪的魅力，并且随着她的动作而闪着光芒，他们即使笑容满面，依然不得不把这孩子说成是妖魔的后裔。她跑去紧盯着野蛮的印第安人的面孔;那人便意识到一种比他自己还要狂野的天性。然后，她出于天生的放肆，但仍然带着特有的冷漠，又飞进了那伙水手中间，这些黑脸膛的汉子犹如陆地上的印第安人一样，是海上的野蛮人，他们惊羡地瞅着珠儿，似乎她是变成小姑娘模样的海水的泡沫，被赋予了海中发光生物的灵魂，于夜晚在船下闪烁。

One of these seafaring men- the shipmaster, indeed, who had spoken to Hester Prynne- was so smitten with Pearl's aspect, that he attempted to lay hands upon her, with purpose to snatcha kiss. Finding it as impossible to touch her as to catch a humming-bird in the air, he took from his hat the gold chain that was twisted about it, and threw it to the child. Pearl immediately twined it around her neck and waist, with such happy skill, that, once seen there, it became a part of her, and it was difficult to imagine her without it.

这些水手当中有一个人就是同海丝特·白兰谈过话的那位船长，他被珠儿的容貌深深吸引，试图把一双手放在她头上，并且打算亲亲她。但他发现要想碰到她简直象抓住空中飞鸣而过的鸟儿一样根本不可能，于是就从他的帽子上取下缠在上边的金链，扔给了那孩子。珠儿立刻用巧妙的手法把金链绕在颈上和腰间，使人看上去觉得那金链本来就是她的一部分，难以想象她怎么能够没有它。

"Thy mother is yonder woman with the scarlet letter," said the seaman. "Wilt thou carry her a message from me?"

“你妈妈就是那边那个戴红字的女人吗?那船长说。“你替我给她捎个口信好吗?

"If the message pleases me, I will," answered Pearl.

“要是那口信讨我喜欢，我就捎，珠儿回答说。

"Then tell her," rejoined he, "that I spake again with the black-a-visaged, hump-shouldered old doctor, and he engages to bring his friend, the gentleman she wots of, aboard with him. So let thy mother take no thought, save for herself and thee. Wilt thou tell her this, thou witch-baby?"

“那就告诉她，他接着说，“我又跟那个黑脸、驼背的老医生谈了，他保证要带他的朋友，也就是你妈妈认识的那位先生，随他上船。所以嘛，你妈妈除去她和你，就不必操别的心了。你把这话告诉她好吗，你这小妖精?

"Mistress Hibbins says my father is the Prince of the Air!" cried Pearl, with a naughty smile. "If thou callest me that ill name, I shall tell him of thee; and he will chase thy ship with a tempest!"

“西宾斯太太说，我爸爸是‘空中王子’!珠儿带着调皮的微笑大声说。“要是你叫我这么难听的名字，我就跟他告你的状，他就会用暴风雨追你的船!

Pursuing a zigzagcourse across the market-place, the child returned to her mother, and communicated what the mariner had said. Hester's strong, calm, steadfastly enduring spirit almost sank, at last, on beholding this dark and grimcountenance of an inevitable doom, which- at the moment when a passage seemed to open for the minister and herself out of their labyrinthof misery- showed itself, with an unrelenting smile, right in the midst of their path.

孩子沿着一条弯弯曲曲的路线穿过市场，回到她母亲身边，把船长的话转告给她。海丝特那种坚强、镇定、持久不变的精神，在终于看到那不可避免的命运的阴森面目之后，几乎垮了;就在牧师和她自己挣出悲惨的迷宫，眼前似乎有一条通路向他们敞开的时候，这副带着无情微笑的阴森面孔却出现在他们通路的中间。

With her mind harassedby the terrible perplexityin which the shipmaster's intelligence involved her, she was also subjected to another trial. There were many people present, from the country round about, who had often heard scarlet letter, and to whom it had been made terrificby a hundred false or exaggerated rumours, but who had never beheld it with their own bodily eyes. These, after exhausting other modes of amusement, now thronged about Hester Prynne with rude and boorishintrusiveness. Unscrupulous as it was, however, it could not bring them nearer than a circuit of several yards. At that distance they accordingly stood, fixed there by the centrifugalforce of the repugnancewhich the mystic symbol inspired. The whole gang of sailors, likewise, observing the press of spectators, and learning the purport of the scarlet letter, came and thrust their sunburnt and desperado-looking faces into the ring. Even the Indians were affected by a sort of cold shadow of the white man's curiosity, and, gliding through the crowd, fastened their snake-like black eyes on Hester's bosom; conceiving, perhaps, that the wearer of this brilliantly embroidered badge must needs be a personage of high dignity among her people. Lastly the inhabitants of the town (their own interest in this worn-out subject languidly reviving itself, by sympathy with what they saw others feel) lounged idlyto the same quarter, and tormented Hester Prynne, perhaps more than all the rest, with their cool, well-acquainted gaze at her familiar shame. Hester saw and recognised the self-same faces of that group of matrons, who had awaited her forthcoming from the prison-door, seven years ago; all save one, the youngest and only compassionate among them, whose burial-robe she had since made. At the final hour, when she was so soon to flingaside the burning letter, it had strangely become the centre of more remark and excitement, and was thus made to sear her breast more painfully, than at any time since the first day she put it on.

船长的这一通知将她投入了可怕的困惑之中，折磨得她心烦意乱，可这时她还要面对另一个考验。市场上有许多从附近乡下来的人，他们时常听人谈起红字，而且由于数以百计的虚构和夸张的谣传，红字对他们已经骇人听闻，但他们谁也没有亲眼目睹过。这伙人在看腻了诸色开心事之后，此时已粗鲁无礼地围在海丝特·白兰的身边。然而，他们尽管毫无顾忌地挤过来，却只停在数步之遥的圈子以外。他们就这样站在那个距离处，被那神秘的符号所激起的反感离心力钉住了。那帮水手们也注意到了人群拥到了一处，并且弄明白了红字的涵义，便也凑近来，把让太阳晒得黑黑的亡命徒的面孔伸进了圈子。连那些印第安人都受到了白人的好奇心的无声的影响，也眯起他们那蛇一般的黑眼睛，把目光穿过人群，斜腕着海丝特的胸前;他们或许以为佩戴这个光彩动人的丝绣徽记的人准是她那一伙人中德高望重的人士。最后，镇上的居民们(他们自己对这个陈旧的题目的兴趣，由于看到了别人的反应，也无精打采地恢复了)也慢吞吞地挪到这一角落，用他们那冰冷而惯见的目光凝视着海丝特·白兰的熟悉的耻辱标记，这或许比别人对她折磨尤甚。海丝特看见并认出了七年前等着她走出狱门的那伙人的同一副女监督式的面孔;其中只缺少一人，就是她们当中最年轻又是唯一有同情心的姑娘，海丝特后来给她做了葬服。就在她即将甩掉那灼人的字母之前的最后时刻，它居然莫名其妙地成为更令人瞩目和激动的中心，因而也使她自从第一天佩戴它以来，此时最为痛苦地感到它在烫烧着她的胸。

While Hester stood in that magic circle of ignominy, where the cunningcruelty of her sentence seemed to have fixed her for ever, the admirablepreacher was looking down from the sacred pulpitupon an audience, whose very inmost spirits had yielded to his control. The sainted minister in the church! The woman of the scarlet letter in the market-place! What imagination would have been irreverentenough to surmise that the same scorching stigmawas on them both!

就在海丝特站在那耻辱的魔圈中，似乎被对她作出的狡诈而残忍的判决永远钉住了的时候，那位令人赞美的牧师正在从那神圣的祭坛上俯视他的听众，他们最内在的精神已经完全被他攫住了。那位教堂中神圣的牧师!那位市场中佩戴红字的女人!谁能够竟然大不敬地猜想出，他俩身上会有着同样的灼热的耻辱烙印呢!

③居住在斯堪地那维亚半岛和科技半岛北部的拉普人。

（编辑：薛琳）