英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第十三章（下）

英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第十三章(下)

Chapter 13 ANOTHER VIEW OF HESTER

第十三章 海丝特的另一面

The effect of the symbol- or, rather, of the position in respect to society that was indicated by it- on the mind of Hester Prynne herself, was powerful and peculiar. All the light and graceful foliageof her character had been witheredup by this red-hot brand, and had long ago fallen away, leaving a bare and harshoutline, which might have been repulsive, had she possessed friends or companions to be repelled by it. Even the attractiveness of her person had undergone a similar change. It might be partly owing to the studied austerityof her dress, and partly to the lack of demonstration in her manners. It was a sad transformation, too, that her rich and luxurianthair had either been cut off, or was so completely hidden by a cap, that not a shining lock of it ever once gushedinto the sunshine. It was due in part to all these causes, but still more to something else, that there seemed to be no longer anything in Hester's face for Love to dwell upon; nothing in Hester's form, though majestic and statue-like, that Passion would ever dream of clasping in its embrace; nothing in Hester's bosom, to make it ever again the pillow of Affection. Some attribute had departed from her, the permanenceof which had been essential to keep her a woman. Such is frequently the fate, and such the sterndevelopment, of the feminine character and person, when the woman has encountered, and lived through, an experience of peculiar severity. If she be all tenderness, she will die. If she survive, the tenderness will either be crushed out of her, or- and the outward semblance is the same- crushed so deeply into her heart that it can never show itself more. The latter is perhaps the truest theory. She who has once been woman, and ceased to be so, might at any moment become a woman again, if there were only the magic touch to effect the transfiguration. We shall see whether Hester Prynne were afterwards so touched, and so transfigured.

那象征物，或者更确切地说，它所代表的社会地位，在海丝特·白兰本人的头脑中，有着强烈而独特的作用。她性格中一切轻松优雅的绿叶，全都因那火红的徽记而枯萎，并且早已落得精光，只剩下了光秃秃的粗糙的轮廓，如果说她还有朋友和伙伴的话，恐怕也早就为此而规避了。就连她人品上的魅力也经历了类似的变化。这可能部分由于她着装上故作严肃简朴，部分因为她举止上有意不动声色。还有一个令人伤感的变化：她那满头丰盈的秀发，不是剪得短短的，就是让一顶帽子完全遮住，以致从来没有一绺在阳光下闪烁。除去这一切原因之外，再加上其它一些因素，看来，在海丝特的面孔上已不再有任何“爱情可仔细揣摩之处，在海丝特那端庄和雕像般的身材上，不再有任何使“情欲梦想投入其紧紧拥抱之处，在海丝特的胸膛中也不再有任何能够使“慈爱落枕之处了。作为一个女性本来不可或缺的某些秉性，在她身上已不复存在。当女人遭遇井经受了一场非同一般的苛刻的惩罚时，她那女性的品格通常会遭受这种命运并经历这种严峻的变化。如果她只有柔情，她就会死掉。如果她侥幸活下去，她的柔情要么从她身上给排挤出去，要么在她心中给深深碾碎，永远不再表露出来。这两种情况在外人看来没什么不同，而后者或许更符合实际。她既然曾经是女人，虽然一时不再是女人，但只消有魔法点化一下，完全可以随时重新变成女人的。我们将要看到海丝特·白兰以后会不会受到这种点化，再变成女人。

Much of the marble coldness of Hester's impression was to be attributed to the circumstance, that her life had turned, in a great measure, from passion and feeling, to thought. Standing alone in the world- alone, as to any dependence on society, and with little Pearl to be guided and protected- alone, and hopeless of retrievingher position, even had she not scorned to consider it desirable- she cast away the fragments of a broken chain. The world's law was no law for her mind. It was an age in which the human intellect, newly emancipated, had taken a more active and a wider range than for many centuries before. Men of the sword had overthrown nobles and kings. Men bolder than these had overthrown and rearranged- not actually, but within the sphere of theory, which was their most real abode- the whole system of ancient prejudice, wherewithwas linked much of ancient principle. Hester Prynne imbibedthis spirit. She assumed a freedom of speculation, then common enough on the other side of the Atlantic, but which our forefathers, had they known it, would have held to be a deadliercrime than that stigmatisedby the scarlet letter. In her lonesome cottage by the seashore, thoughts visited her, such as dared to enter no other dwelling in New England; shadowy guests, that would have been as perilousas demons to their entertainer could they have been seen so much as knocking at her door.

海丝特给人的那种如大理石般冰冷的印象，大部要归咎于这一事实：她的生活，在很大程度上已经从情和欲变成了思想。她形只影单地立足于世上——孤独得对社会无所依靠，只有小珠儿需要她指点和保护，——孤独得对恢复她的地位已不抱希望，即使她还没有鄙夷这种愿望，但是她已把断裂的锁链的碎片全然抛弃了。人世间的法律并非她心目中的法律。当年正处于人类智慧初获解放的时代，比起以前的许多世纪，有着广阔得多的天地任其驰骋。手执利剑的人已经推翻了王室贵胄。比他们更勇敢的人，则将与古代准则密切相关的古代偏见的完整体系，并非实际地，而是在理论范围之内——这是那些王室贵胃真正的藏身之地——予以颠覆并重新安排了。海丝特·白兰汲取了这一精神。她采取了思想自由的观点，这在当年的大西洋彼岸本是再普通不过的事，但设若我们的移民祖先们对这种自由思想有所了解的话，她的观点会被认为比红字烙印所代表的罪恶还要致命的。在她那独处海边的茅舍里，拜访她的那些思想是不敢进入新英格兰的其它住宅的;假如有人看见这些影子般的客人轻叩她的门扉的话，就会把接待他们的主人视同魔鬼般危险了。

It is remarkable, that persons who speculate the most boldly often conform with the most perfect quietudeto the external regulations of society. The thought suffices them, without investing itself in the flesh and blood of action. So it seemed to be with Hester. Yet, had little Pearl never come to her from the spiritual world, it might have been far otherwise. Then, she might have come down to us in history, hand in hand with Ann Hutchinson, as the foundress of a religious sect. She might, in one of her phases, have been a prophetess. She might, and not improbably would, have suffered death from the stern tribunalsof the period, for attempting to undermine the foundations of the Puritan establishment. But, in the education of her child, the mother's enthusiasm of thought had something to wreakitself upon. Providence, in the person of this little girl, had assigned to Hester's charge the germand blossom of womanhood, to be cherished and developed amid a host of difficulties. Everything was against her. The world was hostile. The child's own nature had something wrong in it, which continually betokenedthat she had been born amiss- the effluenceof her mother's lawless passion- and often impelled Hester to ask, in bitterness of heart, whether it were for ill or good that the poor little creature had been born at all.

值得重视的是，那些具有最大胆的思想观点的人，对于外界的清规戒律也最能泰然处之。他们满足于思想观点，并不想赋予其行动的血肉。海丝特的情况似乎就是这样。不过，假若小珠儿未曾从精神世界来到她身边的话，她的情况也许就会大不一样了。那样的话，她也许会同安妮·哈钦逊携手并肩，作为一个教派的创始人，名标青史。她也许会在自己的某一时期成为一名女先知。她也许会——并非不可能——因企图颠覆清教制度的基础，而被当时严厉的法官处以死刑。但她的思想热情，因为她成了母亲，得以在教育孩子之中宣泄出去。上天把这小女孩交付给海丝特，就是要她保护女性的幼芽和蓓蕾，在众多的困难中加以抚育和培养。一切都与她作对。世界在以她为敌。孩子的本性中含有欠妥之处，不断表明她降临到这个世界上是个错误——是她母亲无视法律的激情的发泄，而且时常迫使海丝特辛酸地扪心自问：这个可怜的小家伙降生到世上，究竟是祸还是福。

Indeed, the same dark question often rose into her mind, with reference to the whole race of womanhood. Was existence worth accepting, even to the happiest among them? As concerned her own individual existence, she had long ago decided in the negative, and dismissed the point as settled. A tendency to speculation, though it may keep woman quiet, as it does man, yet makes her sad. She discerns, it may be, such a hopeless task before her. As a first step, the whole system of society is to be torn down, and built up anew. Then, the very nature of the opposite sex, or its long hereditaryhabit, which has become like nature, is to be essentially modified, before woman can be allowed to assume what seems a fair and suitable position. Finally, all other difficulties being obviated, woman cannot take advantage of these preliminaryreforms, until she herself shall have undergone a still mightier change; in which, perhaps, the etherealessence, wherein she has her truest life, will be found to have evaporated. A woman never overcomes these problems by any exercise of thought. They are not to be solved, or only in one way. If her heart chance to come uppermost, they vanish. Thus, Hester Prynne, whose heart had lost its regular and healthy throb, wandered without a clew in the dark labyrinthof mind; now turned aside by an insurmountableprecipicenow starting back from a deep chasm. There was wild and ghastlyscenery all around her, and a home and comfort nowhere. At times, a fearful doubt strove to possess her soul, whether it were not better to send Pearl at once to heaven, and go herself to such futurityas Eternal Justice should provide.

事实上，她心中也时常升腾起涉及全人类女性的同样阴郁的问题：即使对女性中最幸福的人来说，那人的生存有价值吗?至于她自己本人的生存，她早已予以否定，并且作为已决之点不再重提。勤于思考，虽说可以对女人起到和对男人相同的作用——使人安静下来，但却使她感到伤感。也许她已经看清了自己面临的任务是无望的。首先，整个社会制度要彻底推翻并予以重建。其次，男人的本性，或者说由于世代沿袭的习惯面变得象是本性的东西，应该从本质上加以改变，然后妇女才可能取得似是公平合理的地位。最后，即使排除掉一切其它困难，妇女也必须先进行一番自身的更有力的变化，才能享有这些初步改革的成果，然而到那时，，凝聚着她的女性的最真实的生命的精髓，或许巳然蒸发殆尽了。一个女人，无论如何运用她的思维，也无法解决这些问题。或许只有一条出路才能解决这些问题：如果她的精神能够主宰一切，这些问题便会不复存在。然面，由于海丝特·白兰的心脏已经不再有规律而健康的搏动，她便只有茫无头绪地徘徊在思考的幽暗迷宫之中：时而因无法攀越的峭壁而转弯，时而因深陷的断层而返回。她周围是一道恐怖的野景，四处不见舒适的家园。不时有一种可怕的疑虑攫佐她的灵魂，不知是否该把珠儿马上送上天庭，自己也走向“永恒的裁判所断定的来世，才更好些。

The scarlet letter had not done its office.

那个红字尚未克尽厥责。

Now, however, her interview with the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the night of his vigil, had given her a new theme of reflection, and held up to her an object that appeared worthy of any exertionand sacrifice for its attainment. She had witnessed the intense misery beneath which the minister struggled, or, to speak more accurately, had ceased to struggle. She saw that he stood on the vergeof lunacy, if he had not already stepped across it. It was impossible to doubt, that, whatever painful efficacythere might be in the secret sting of remorse, a deadlier venomhad been infused into it by the hand that profferedrelief. A secret enemy had been continually by his side, under the semblance of a friend and helper, and had availed himself of the opportunities thus afforded for tampering with the delicatesprings of Mr. Dimmesdale's nature. Hester could not but ask herself, whether there had not originally been a defect of truth, courage, and loyalty, on her own part, in allowing the minister to be thrown into a position where so much evil was to be foreboded, and nothing auspiciousto be hoped. Her only justification lay in the fact, that she had been able to discern no method of rescuing him from a blacker ruin than had overwhelmed herself, except by acquiescingin Roger Chillingworth's scheme of disguise. Under that impulse, she had made her choice, and had chosen, as it now appeared, the more wretched alternative of the two. She determined to redeem her error, so far as it might yet be possible. Strengthened by years of hard and solemn trial, she felt herself no longer so inadequate to cope with Roger Chillingworth as on that night, abased by sin, and half maddened by the ignominy that was still new, when they had talked together in the prison-chamber. She had climbed her way, since then, to a higher point. The old man, on the other hand, had brought himself nearer to her level, or perhaps below it, by the revenge which he had stoopedfor.

但是此时，自从那天夜里丁梅斯代尔先生夜游时他俩见了一面以来，她又有了一个新的题目去思索;在她看来，为了达到那一目标，她简直值得耗尽一切精力并作出一切牺牲。她已经目睹了牧师是在多么剧烈的痛苦之中挣扎着——或者说得更准确些，是怎样停止挣扎的。她亲眼看到，他已经站到发疯的边缘——如果说他还没有跨过那边缘处于疯狂状态的话。无庸置疑，不管自责的秘刺中有什么致痛的功效，那只提供救援之手又在那螫刺中注入了致他死命的毒液。一个秘密的敌人，假借朋友和救护者之名，时刻不离他的方前左右，并借此机会撬动丁梅斯代尔先生秉性中纤弱的锁簧。海丝特不禁自问：是否由于她这方面在真诚、勇气及忠贞上本来存在着缺陷，才造成牧师被抛进凶隙横生、毫无祥兆的境地呢?她唯一能够自我辩解的就是：除去默许罗杰·齐灵渥斯隐姓埋名之外，她原本别无它法使牧师免遭比她承受的还要阴暗的毁灭。在那种动机之下，她作出了自己的抉择，而如今看来，她所选定购却是二者之间更加不幸的方案。她决心在尽可能的情况下来补偿自己的过失。经过多年艰苦和严正的考验，她已经坚强有力多了，自信不象当年那个夜晚那样不是罗杰·齐灵渥斯的对手了：当晚他俩在牢房中谈话时，她是刚刚肩负犯罪的重压，并为羞耻之心逼得半疯的。从那晚起，她已在自己的道路上攀登到一个新高度了。面另一方面;那个老人呢，由于不顾一切地寻求复仇，则使自己降低到同她接近或许比她还低的水平了。

In fine, Hester Prynne resolved to meet her former husband, and do what might be in her power for the rescue of the victim on whom he had so evidently set his gripe. The occasion was not long to seek. One afternoon, walking with Pearl in a retired part of the peninsula, she beheld the old physician, with a basket on one arm, and a staff in the other hand, stooping along the ground, in quest of roots and herbs to concoct his medicines withal.

终于，海丝特·白兰打定主意去会她原先的丈夫，尽她的全力来解救显然已落入对方掌握之中的牺牲品。没过多久;她便找到了机会;一天下午，在半岛上一处荒无人烟的地点，她带着珠儿散步，刚好看见那老医生，一手挽着篮子，另一只手往着拐杖，正弯着腰在地上一路搜寻可以配药的树根和药草。

（编辑：薛琳）