英美文化：《红字》第二十四章

Chapter 24 Conclusion第二十四章 尾声

After many days, when time sufficed for the people to arrange their thoughts in reference to the foregoing scene, there was more than one account of what had been witnessed on the scaffold.

过了许多天，人们总算有了充分的时间来调整有关那件事的看法，于是对于他们所看到的刑台上的情景就有了多种说法。

Most of the spectators testified to having seen, on the breast of the unhappy minister, a SCARLET LETTER--the very semblance of that worn by Hester Prynne--imprinted in the flesh. As regarded its origin, there were various explanations, all of which must necessarily have been conjectural. Some affirmed that the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, on the very day when Hester Prynne first wore her ignominious badge, had begun a course of penance,--which he afterwards, in so many futile methods, followed out,--by inflicting a hideous torture on himself. Others contended that the stigma had not been produced until a long time subsequent, when old Roger Chillingworth, being a potent necromancer, had caused it to appear, through the agency of magic and poisonous drugs. Others, again,--and those best able to appreciate the minister's peculiar sensibility, and the wonderful operation of his spirit upon the body,--whispered their belief, that the awful symbol was the effect of the ever active tooth of remorse, gnawing from the inmost heart outwardly, and at last manifesting Heaven's dreadful judgment by the visible presence of the letter. The reader may choose among these theories. We have thrown all the light we could acquire upon the portent, and would gladly, now that it has done its office, erase its deep print out of our own brain; where long meditation has fixed it in very undesirable distinctness.

许多在场的人断言，他们在那个不幸的牧师的胸前看到了一个嵌在肉里的红字，与海丝特·白兰所佩戴的十分相似。至于其来源，则有着种种解释，当然都是些臆测。一些人一日咬定，丁梅斯代尔牧师先生自从海丝特·白兰戴上那耻辱的徽记的第一天开始，就进行他的苦修，随后一直用各色各样的劳而无功的方法，对自己施加骇人的折磨。另一些人则争诊说，那烙印是经过很长时间之后，由那个有法力的巫师老罗杰·齐灵渥斯，靠着魔法和毒剂的力量，才把它显示出来的。还有一些人是最能理解牧师的特殊的敏感和他的精神对肉体的奇妙作用的，他们悄悄提出看法，认为那可怕的象征是悔恨的牙齿从内心向外不停地咬啮的结果，最后才由这个有形的字母宣告了上天的可怕的裁决。读者可以从这几种说法中自行选择。关于这件怪事，我们所能掌握的情况已经全都披露了，既然这一任务已经完成，而长时间的思考已在我们的头脑中印下了并非我们所愿的清晰印象，我们倒很高兴把这深深的印记抹掉。

It is singular, nevertheless, that certain persons, who were spectators of the whole scene, and professed never once to have removed their eyes from the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale, denied that there was any mark whatever on his breast, more than on a new-born infant's. Neither, by their report, had his dying words acknowledged, nor even remotely implied, any, the slightest connection, on his part, with the guilt for which Hester Prynne had so long worn the scarlet letter. According to these highly respectable witnesses, the minister, conscious that he was dying,--conscious, also, that the reverence of the multitude placed him already among saints and angels,--had desired, by yielding up his breath in the arms of that fallen woman, to express to the world how utterly nugatory is the choicest of man's own righteousness. After exhausting life in his efforts for mankind's spiritual good, he had made the manner of his death a parable, in order to impress on his admirers the mighty and mournful lesson, that, in the view of Infinite Purity, we are sinners all alike. It was to teach them, that the holiest among us has but attained so far above his fellows as to discern more clearly the Mercy which looks down, and repudiate more utterly the phantom of human merit, which would look aspiringly upward. Without disputing a truth so momentous, we must be allowed to consider this version of Mr. Dimmesdale's story as only an instance of that stubborn fidelity with which a man's friends--and especially a clergyman's--will sometimes uphold his character; when proofs, clear as the mid-day sunshine on the scarlet letter, establish him a false and sin-stained creature of the dust.

不过，也有一些从头至尾都在场的人持有异议，他们声明，他们的跟睛始终没离开道丁梅斯代尔牧师先生，但他们否认曾经在他胸脯上看到有任何表记，那上面和新生婴儿的胸脯一样光洁。据他们讲，他的临终致辞，既没有承认，也没有丝毫暗示，他同海丝特·白兰长期以来戴着的红字所代表的罪过有过些微的牵连。按照这些极其值得尊敬的证人的说法，牧师意识到自己形将辞世，也意识到了众人已经把他尊崇到圣者和天使中间，于是便希望能在那堕落的女人的怀抱中咽气，以便向世界表明，一个人类的精英的正直是多么微不足道。他在竭力为人类的精神的美好耗尽了生命之后，又以他自己死的方式作为一种教谕，用这个悲恸有力的教训使他的崇拜者深信：在无比纯洁的上帝的心目中，我们都是相差无几的罪人。他要教育他们：我们当中最神圣的人无非比别人高得能够更清楚地分辨俯视下界的仁慈的上帝，能够更彻底地否定一般人翘首企望的人类功绩的幻影。对这样一个事关重大的真理，我们毋庸争辩，不过，应该允许我们把有关丁梅斯代尔先生的故事的这种说法，仅仅看作是那种墨守忠诚的实例，证明一个人的朋友们——尤其是一个牧师的朋友们，即使在证据确凿得如同正午的阳光照在红字上一般，指明他是尘埃中一个虚伪和沾满罪恶的生物时，有时还要维护他的人格。

The authority which we have chiefly followed--a manuscript of old date, drawn up from the verbal testimony of individuals, some of whom had known Hester Prynne, while others had heard the tale from contemporary witnesses--fully confirms the view taken in the foregoing pages. Among many morals which press upon us from the poor minister's miserable experience, we put only this into a sentence:--"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby the worst may be inferred!"

我们这篇故事所依据的权威性素材，是记载了许多人口述的一部古旧书稿，其中有些人曾经认识海丝特·白兰，另一些人则从当时的目击者口中听说了这个故事，该书稿完全证实了前面诸页所取的观点。从那可怜的牧师的悲惨经历中，我们可以汲取许多教训，但我们只归结为一句话：“要真诚!要真诚!一定要真诚!即使不把你的最坏之处无所顾忌地显示绘世人，至少也要流露某些迹象，让别人借以推断出你的最坏之处!

Nothing was more remarkable than the change which took place, almost immediately after Mr. Dimmesdale's death, in the appearance and demeanour of the old man known as Roger Chillingworth. All his strength and energy--all his vital and intellectual force--seemed at once to desert him; insomuch that he positively withered up, shrivelled away, and almost vanished from mortal sight, like an uprooted weed that lies wilting in the sun. This unhappy man had made the very principle of his life to consist in the pursuit and systematic exercise of revenge; and when, by its completest triumph and consummation, that evil principle was left with no further material to support it,--when, in short, there was no more devil's work on earth for him to do, it only remained for the unhumanized mortal to betake himself whither his Master would find him tasks enough, and pay him his wages duly. But, to all these shadowy beings, so long our near acquaintances,--as well Roger Chillingworth as his companions,--we would fain be merciful. It is a curious subject of observation and inquiry, whether hatred and love be not the same thing at bottom. Each, in its utmost development, supposes a high degree of intimacy and heart-knowledge; each renders one individual dependent for the food of his affections and spiritual life upon another; each leaves the passionate lover, or the no less passionate hater, forlorn and desolate by the withdrawal of his object. Philosophically considered, therefore, the two passions seem essentially the same, except that one happens to be seen in a celestial radiance, and the other in a dusky and lurid glow. In the spiritual world, the old physician and the minister--mutual victims as they have been--may, unawares, have found their earthly stock of hatred and antipathy transmuted into golden love.

最引人注目的是，丁梅斯代尔先生死后不久，在被叫作罗杰·齐灵渥斯的那老人容貌和举止上所发生的变化。他的全部体力和精力——他的全部活力和智力，象是立即抛弃了他;以致他明显地凋谢了，枝萎了，几乎如同拔出地面、绘太阳晒蔫的野草一般从人们眼界中消失了。这个不快的人给自己的生活确立的准则是不断地按部就班地执行他的复仇计划;但是，当他取得了彻底的胜利和完满的结果，那一邪恶的准则再也没有物质来支撑的时候，简言之，当他在世上再也没有魔鬼给的任务可进行的时候，这个没有人性曲人只有到他的主中那里去谋职并领取相应的报酬了。然而，对于所有这些阴影式的人物，只要是我们的熟人——不管是罗杰·齐灵渥斯，抑或是他的伙伴，我们还不得不显示点仁慈。一个值得探讨的、引人人胜的课题是：恨和爱，归根结底是不是同一的东西。二者在发展到极端时，都必须是高度的密不可分和息患相通;二者都可以使一个人向对方谋求爱慕和精神生活的食粮;二者在完成其课题之后，都能够将自己热爱的人或痛恨的人同样置于孤寂凄凉的境地。因此，从哲学上看，这两种感情在本质上似乎是相同的，只不过一种刚好显现于神圣的天光中，而另一种则隐蔽在晦暗的幽光里。老医生和牧师这两个事实上相互成为牺牲品的人，在神灵的世界中，或许会.不知不觉地发现他俩在尘世所贮藏的怨恨和厌恶变成了黄金般的热爱。

Leaving this discussion apart, we have a matter of business to communicate to the reader. At old Roger Chillingworth's decease (which took place within the year), and by his last will and testament, of which Governor Bellingham and the Reverend Mr. Wilson were executors, he bequeathed a very considerable amount of property, both here and in England, to little Pearl, the daughter of Hester Prynne.

我们先把这一讨论撇在一旁，把一件正事通报给读者。不出一年，老罗杰·齐灵渥斯便死了;根据他的最后意愿和遗嘱——贝灵汉总督和威尔逊牧师先生是其执行人——，他把一笔数目可观的遗产，包括在此地和在英国的，都留给了海丝特·白兰的女儿，小珠儿。

So Pearl--the elf-child,--the demon offspring, as some people, up to that epoch, persisted in considering her--became the richest heiress of her day, in the New World. Not improbably, this circumstance wrought a very material change in the public estimation; and, had the mother and child remained here, little Pearl, at a marriageable period of life, might have mingled her wild blood with the lineage of the devoutest Puritan among them all. But, in no long time after the physician's death, the wearer of the scarlet letter disappeared, and Pearl along with her. For many years, though a vague report would now and then find its way across the sea,--like a shapeless piece of driftwood tost ashore, with the initials of a name upon it,--yet no tidings of them unquestionably authentic were received. The story of the scarlet letter grew into a legend. Its spell, however, was still potent, and kept the scaffold awful where the poor minister had died, and likewise the cottage by the sea-shore, where Hester Prynne had dwelt. Near this latter spot, one afternoon, some children were at play, when they beheld a tall woman, in a gray robe, approach the cottage-door. In all those years it had never once been opened; but either she unlocked it, or the decaying wood and iron yielded to her hand, or she glided shadow-like through these impediments,--and, at all events, went in.

于是，小珠儿——那个小精灵，那个直到那时人们还坚持认为是恶魔的后裔，就成了当年新大陆的最富有的继承人。自然，这种景况引起了公众评价的很实际的变化;如果母女俩留在当地，小珠儿在到达结婚年龄之后，很可能会把她那野性的血液，同那里最虔诚的清教徒的血统结合起来。但是，医生死后不久，红字的佩戴者就消失了，而珠儿也跟她走了。多年之中，虽然不时有些模糊的传闻跨过大洋——犹如一块不成形的烂木头漂到岸上，上面只有姓氏的第一个字母，但从未接到过有关她们的可靠消息。红字的故事渐渐变成了传说。然而，它的符咒的效力依旧，使那可怜的牧师死在上面的刑台和海丝特·白兰居住过的海边茅屋都令人望面生畏。一天下午，有些孩子正在那茅屋的近旁玩耍，他们忽然看见一个身穿灰袍的高个子女人走进了屋门;那些年来，屋门从来没有打开过一次;不知是那女人开了锁，还是那腐朽了的木头和铁页在她手里散落了，或是她象影子一般穿过这重重障碍。反正她是进了屋。

On the threshold she paused,--turned partly round,--for, perchance, the idea of entering, all alone, and all so changed, the home of so intense a former life, was more dreary and desolate than even she could bear. But her hesitation was only for an instant, though long enough to display a scarlet letter on her breast.

她在门限处停下了脚步，还侧转了身体，或许，只身一人走进以往过着提心吊胆生活、如今已经面貌全非的家，连她都受不了那种阴森凄凉的劲头。但她只迟疑了片刻，不过人们还是来得及看到她胸前的红字。

And Hester Prynne had returned, and taken up her long-forsaken shame. But where was little Pearl? If still alive, she must now have been in the flush and bloom of early womanhood. None knew--nor ever learned, with the fulness of perfect certainty--whether the elf-child had gone thus untimely to a maiden grave; or whether her wild, rich nature had been softened and subdued, and made capable of a woman's gentle happiness. But, through the remainder of Hester's life, there were indications that the recluse of the scarlet letter was the object of love and interest with some inhabitant of another land. Letters came, with armorial seals upon them, though of bearings unknown to English heraldry. In the cottage there were articles of comfort and luxury, such as Hester never cared to use, but which only wealth could have purchased, and affection have imagined for her. There were trifles, too, little ornaments, beautiful tokens of a continualremembrance, that must have been wrought by delicate fingers, at the impulse of a fond heart. And, once, Hester was seen embroidering a baby-garment, with such a lavish richness of golden fancy as would have raised a public tumult, had any infant, thus apparelled, been shown to our sobre-hued community.

海丝特·白兰又回来了，又拣起了久已抛弃的耻辱!可是小珠儿在哪里呢?如果她还活着，如今应该是个楚楚动人的少女了。谁也不知道，谁也没有得到十足确切的消息，那个小精灵般的孩于是不是早已过早地埋进了少女的坟墓，还是她那狂野而多彩的本性已经被软化和驯服，从而得以享受一个女人的温雅的幸福。不过，从海丝特后半世的生活来看，有迹象表明，这位佩戴红字的幽居者是居住在另一片国度里的某个人热爱和关怀的对象。寄来的信件上印有纹章，不过那是英格兰家系上所没有记载的。在那间茅屋里，有一些奢侈的享受品，这些东西海丝特是从来不屑一用的，但这些东西只有富人才能买得起，只有对她充满感情的人才会想得到。还有一些小玩艺儿，一些小小的饰物，以及一些表示持续的怀念的精美的纪念品，想必是一颗爱心冲动之财，用一双纤手制作的。有一次，人们看到海丝特在刺绣一件婴儿的袍服，那种华美的样式和奢侈的色彩，如果有哪个婴儿穿在身上在我们这晦暗的居民区中招摇，一定会引起轩然大波的。

In fine, the gossips of that day believed,--and Mr. Surveyor Pue, who made investigations a century later, believed,--and one of his recent successors in office, moreover, faithfully believes,--that Pearl was not only alive, but married, and happy, and mindful of her mother; and that she would most joyfully have entertained that sad and lonely mother at her fireside.

总而言之，当年的那些爱讲闲话的人相信，一个世纪后对此作过调查的海关督察普先生相信，而最近接替他职务的一个人益发忠实地相信，珠儿不但活在世上，而且结了婚，生活很幸福，一直惦记着她母亲，要是她孤凄的母亲能够给接到她家里，她将无比高兴。

But there was a more real life for Hester Prynne, here, in New England, that in that unknown region where Pearl had found a home. Here had been her sin; here, her sorrow; and here was yet to be her penitence. She had returned, therefore, and resumed,--of her own free will, for not the sternest magistrate of that iron period would have imposed it,--resumed the symbol of which we have related so dark a tale. Never afterwards did it quit her bosom. But, in the lapse of the toilsome, thoughtful, and self-devoted years that made up Hester's life, the scarlet letter ceased to be a stigma which attracted the world's scorn and bitterness, and became a type of something to be sorrowed over, and looked upon with awe, yet with reverence too. And, as Hester Prynne had no selfish ends, nor lived in any measure for her own profit and enjoyment, people brought all their sorrows and perplexities, and besought her counsel, as one who had herself gone through a mighty trouble. Women, more especially,--in the continually recurring trials of wounded, wasted, wronged, misplaced, or erring and sinful passion,--or with the dreary burden of a heart unyielded, because unvalued and unsought,--came to Hester's cottage, demanding why they were so wretched, and what the remedy! Hester comforted and counselled them, as best she might. She assured them, too, of her firm belief, that, at some brighter period, when the world should have grown ripe for it, in Heaven's own time, a new truth would be revealed, in order to establish the whole relation between man and woman on a surer ground of mutual happiness. Earlier in life, Hester had vainly imagined that she herself might be the destined prophetess, but had long since recognized the impossibility that any mission of divine and mysterious truth should be confided to a woman stained with sin, bowed down with shame, or even burdened with a life-long sorrow. The angel and apostle of the coming revelation must be a woman, indeed, but lofty, pure, and beautiful; and wise, moreover, not through dusky grief, but the ethereal medium of joy; and showing how sacred love should make us happy, by the truest test of a life successful to such an end!

但对海丝特·白兰来说，住在新英格兰这里，比起珠儿建立了家园的陌生的异乡，生活更加真实。这里有过她的罪孽，这里有过她的悲伤，这里也还会有她的忏悔。因此，她回来了，并且又戴上了使我们讲述了这篇如此阴暗故事的象征，此举完全出于她自己的自由意志，因为连那冷酷时代的最严厉的官员也不会强迫她了。从那以后，那红字就再也没离开过她的胸前。但是随着那构成海丝特生活的含辛茹苦、自我献身和对他人的体贴入微的岁月的流逝，那红字不再是引起世人嘲笑和毒骂的耻辱烙印，却变成了一种引人哀伤，令人望面生畏又起敬的标志。而由于海丝特·白兰毫无自私的目的，她的生活既非为自己谋私利又非贪图个人的欢愉，人们就把她视为饱经忧患的人，带着他们的所有的哀伤和困惑，来寻求她的忠告。尤其是妇女们，因为她们会不断经受感情的考验：受伤害、被滥用、遭委屈、被玩弄、入歧途、有罪过，或是因为不受重视和未被追求而无所寄托的心灵的忧郁的负担，而来到海丝特的茅屋，询问她们为什么这么凄苦，要如何才能得到解脱!海丝特则尽其所能安慰和指点她们。她还用她自己的坚定信仰使她们确信，到了更光明的时期，世界就会为此而成熟，也就是到了天国自己的时间，就会揭示一个新的真理，以便在双方幸福的更可靠的基础上建立起男女之间的全部关系。海丝特年轻时也曾虚妄地幻想过，她本人或许就是命定的女先知，但从那以后，她早已承认了：任何上界的神秘真理的使命是不可能委托给一个为罪孽所玷污、为耻辱所压倒或者甚至为终生的忧愁而沉闷的女人的。将来宣示真理的天使和圣徒必定是一个女性，但应是一个高尚、纯洁和美丽的女性;尤其应是一个其聪慧并非来自忧伤而是来自飘渺的喜悦的女性;而且还应是一个通过成功地到达这一目的的真实生活的考验显示出神圣的爱将如何使我们幸福的女性!

So said Hester Prynne, and glanced her sad eyes downward at the scarlet letter. And, after many, many years, a new grave was delved, near an old and sunken one, in that burial-ground beside which King's Chapel has since been built. It was near that old and sunken grave, yet with a space between, as if the dust of the two sleepers had no right to mingle. Yet one tombstone served for both. All around, there were monuments carved with armorial bearings; and on this simple slab of slate--as the curious investigator may still discern, and perplex himself with the purport--there appeared the semblance of an engraved escutcheon. It bore a device, a herald's wording of which might serve for a motto and brief description of our now concluded legend; so sombre is it, and relieved only by one ever-glowing point of light gloomier than the shadow:-

-海丝特·白兰就一边这么说着，一边垂下双眸瞅着那红字。又经过许多许多年之后，在一座下陷的老坟附近，又挖了一座新坟，地点就是后来在一旁建起王家教堂的那块墓地。这座新坟靠近那座下陷的老坟，但中间留着一处空地，仿佛两位长眠者的骨殖无权相混。然而两座坟却共用一块墓碑。周围全是刻着家族纹章的碑石;而在这一方简陋的石板上——好奇的探索者仍会看见，却不明所以了——有着类似盾形纹章的刻痕。上面所刻的铭文，是一个专司宗谱纹章的官员的词句，可以充当我们现在结束的这个传说的箴言和简短描述;这传说实在阴惨，只有一点比阴影还要幽暗的永恒的光斑稍稍给人一点宽慰："On a field, sable, the letter A, gules."“一片墨黑的土地，一个血红的A字。

(编辑：薛琳)