英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第二十一章（下）

英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第二十一章(下)

Chapter 21 THE NEW ENGLAND HOLIDAY

第二十一章 新英格兰的节日

But we perhaps exaggeratethe grey or sable tinge, which undoubtedly characterised the mood and manners of the age. The persons now in the market-place of Boston had not been born to an inheritanceof Puritanic gloom. They were native Englishmen, whose fathers had lived in the sunny richness of the Elizabethan epocha time when the life of England, viewed as one great mass, would appear to have been as stately, magnificent, and joyous, as the world has ever witnessed. Had they followed their hereditarytaste, the New England settlers would have illustrated all events of public importance by bonfires, banquets, pageantries, and processions. Nor would it have been impracticable, in the observance of majesticceremonies, to combine mirthfulrecreation with solemnity, and give, as it were, a grotesqueand brilliant embroideryto the great robe of state, which a nation, at such festivals, puts on. There was some shadow of an attempt of this kind in the mode of celebrating the day on which the political year of the colony commenced. The dim reflection of a remembered splendour, a colourless and manifolddilutedrepetition of what they had beheld in proud old London- we will not say at a royal coronation, but at a Lord Mayor's show- might be traced in the customs which our forefathers instituted, with reference to the annual installation of magistrates. The fathers and founders of the commonwealth- the statesman, the priest, and the soldier- deemed it a duty then to assume the outward state and majesty, which, in accordance with antique style, was looked upon as the proper garb of public or social eminence. All came forth to move in procession before the people's eye, and thus impart a needed dignity to the simple framework of a government so newly constructed.

不过，我们也许过于夸张了这种灰黑的色调，尽管那确实是当年的心情和举止的特色。此刻在波士顿市场上的人们，并非生来就继承了清教徒的阴郁。他们本来都生在英国，其父辈曾在伊丽莎白时代的明媚和丰饶中生活;当时英国的生活，大体上看，堪称世界上前所未见的庄严、壮丽和欢乐。假若新英格兰的定居者们遵依传统的趣味，他们就会用篝火、宴会、表演和游行来装点一切重大的公共事件。而且，在隆重的典礼仪式中，把欢欣的消遣同庄重结合起来，就象国民在这种节日穿戴的大礼服上饰以光怪陆离的刺绣一样，也就没什么不实际的了。在殖民地开始其政治年度的这一天庆祝活动中，还有这种意图的影子。在我们祖先们所制定的每年一度的执政官就职仪式中，还能窥见他们当年在古老而骄傲的伦敦——我们妨且不谈国王加冕大典，只指市长大人的就职仪式——所看到的痕迹的重现，不过这种反映已经模糊，记忆中的余辉经多次冲淡已然褪色。当年，我们这个合众国的奠基人和先辈们——那些政治家、牧师和军人，将注重外表的庄严和威武视为一种职责，按照古老的风范，那种打扮正是社会贤达和政府委员的恰当装束。他们在人们眼前按部就班地一一定来，以使那刚刚组成的政府的简单机构获得所需的威严。

Then, too, the people were countenanced, if not encouraged, in relaxing the severe and close application to their various modes of rugged industry, which, at all other times, seemed of the same piece and material with their religion. Here, it is true, were none of the appliances which popular merriment would so readily have found in the England of Elizabeth's time, or that of James- no rude shows of a theatricalkind; no minstrel, with his harp and legendary ballad, nor gleeman, with an ape dancing to his music; no juggler, with his tricks of mimic witchcraftno Merry Andrew, to stir up the multitude with jests, perhaps hundreds of years old, but still effective, by their appeals to the very broadest sources of mirthfulsympathy. All such professors of the several branches of jocularity would have been sternly repressed, not only by the rigid discipline of law, but by the general sentiment which gives law its vitality. Not the less, however, the great, honest face of the people smiled-grimly, perhaps, but widely too. Nor were sports wanting, such as the colonists had witnessed, and shared in, long ago, at the country fairs and on the village-greens of England; and which it was thought well to keep alive on this new soil, for the sake of the courage and manlinessthat were essential in them. Wrestling-matches, in the different fashions of Cornwall and Devonshire, were seen here and there about the market-place; in one corner, there was a friendly bout at quarterstaff; and- what attracted most interest of all- on the platform of the pillory, already so noted in our pages, two masters of defence were commencing an exhibition with the buckler and broadsword. But, much to the disappointment of the crowd, this latter business was broken off by the interposition of the town beadle, who had no idea of permitting the majesty of the law to be violated by such an abuse of one of its consecratedplaces.

在这种时刻，人们平日视如宗教教义一般严加施行的种种勤俭生活方式，即使没有受到鼓励吧，总可以获准稍加放松。诚然，这里没有伊丽莎白时代或詹姆斯时代在英国比比皆是的通俗娱乐设施，没有演剧之类的粗俗表演，没有弹着竖琴唱传奇歌谣的游吟诗人，没有奏着音乐耍猴的走江湖的人，没有变戏法的民间艺人，也没有逗得大家哄堂大笑的“快乐的安德鲁①说那些由于笑料选出、虽已流传上百年、仍让人百听不厌的笑话。从事这种种滑稽职业的艺人们，不仅为严格的法律条文所严厉禁止，也遭到使法律得以生效的人们感情上的厌恶。然而，普通百姓那一本正经和老成持重的面孔上依然微笑着，虽说可能有点不自然，却也很开心。竞技活动也不算缺乏，诸如移民们好久以前在英国农村集市和草地上看到和参加的格斗比赛，由于本质上发扬了英武和阳刚精神，被视为应于这片新大陆上加以保留。在康沃尔和德文郡的种种形式的角力比赛，在这里的市场周围随处可见;在一个角落里，正在进行一场使用铁头木棍作武器的友谊较量;而最吸引大家兴趣的，是在刑台上——这地方在我们书中已经颇为注目了，有两位手执盾牌和宽剑的武士，正在开始一场公开表演。但是，使大家扫兴的是，刑台上的这场表演因遭到镇上差役的干涉而中断，他认为对这祭献之地妄加滥用，是侵犯了法律的尊严，是绝对不能允许的。

It may not be too much to affirm, on the whole (the people being then in the first stages of joyless deportment, and the offspring of sires who had known how to be merry, in their day), that they would compare favourably, in point of holiday keeping, with their descendants, even at so long an interval as ourselves. Their immediate posterity, the generation next to the early emigrants, wore the blackest shade of Puritanism, and so darkened the national visage with it, that all the subsequent years have not sufficed to clear it up. We have yet to learn again the forgotten art of gaiety.

当时的居民还是第一代没有欢乐活动的人，而且又是那些活着时深诸如何行乐曲父辈们的直接后裔，就过节这一点而论，比起他们的子孙，乃至相隔甚久的我们这些人，算是懂得快活的了，我们作这种一般性的结论，恐怕并不过分。早期移民的子嗣，也就是他们的下一代后人，受清教主义阴影笼罩最深，从而使国家的形象黯淡无光，以致在随后的多年中都不足以清洗干净。我们只好重新学习这门忘却已久的寻欢作乐曲本领。

The picture of human life in the market-place, though its general tint was the sad grey, brown, or black of the English emigrants, was yet enlivened by some diversity of hue. A party of Indians- in their savage finery of curiously embroidered deer-skin robes, wampum-belts, red and yellow ochre, and feathers, and armed with the bow and arrow and stone-headed spear- stood apart, with countenances of inflexible gravity, beyond what even the Puritan aspect could attain. Nor, wild as were these painted barbarians, were they the wildest feature of the scene. This distinction could more justly be claimed by some mariners-a part of the crew of the vessel from the Spanish Main- who had come ashoreto see the humours of Election Day. They were rough-looking desperadoes, with sun-blackened faces, and an immensityof beard; their wide, short trousers were confined about the waist by belts, often clasped with a rough plate of gold, and sustaining always a long knife, and, in some instances, a sword. From beneath their broad-brimmed hats of palm-leaf, gleamed eyes which, even in good-nature and merriment, had a kind of animal ferocity. They transgressed, without fear or scruple, the rules of behaviour that were binding on all others; smoking tobacco under the beadle's very nose, although each whiff would have cost a townsman a shilling; and quaffing, at their pleasure, draughts of wine or aqua-vitae from pocket-flasks, which they freely tendered to the gaping crowd around them. It remarkably characterised the incomplete morality of the age, rigid as we call it, that a license was allowed the seafaring class, not merely for their freaks on shore, but for far more desperate deeds on their proper element. The sailor of that day would go near to be arraigned as a pirate in our own. There could be little doubt, for instance, that this very ship's crew, though no unfavourable specimens of the nautical brotherhood, had been guilty, as we should phrase it, of depredationson the Spanish commerce, such as would have perilled all their necks in a modern court of justice.

市场上的这幅人生图画，虽说基调是英国移民的忧伤的灰色、褐色和黑色，也还固间有一些其它色彩而显得活跃。一群印第安人，身穿有着野蛮人华丽的、绣着奇形怪状图案的鹿皮袍，腰束贝壳缀成的带子，头戴由红色和黄色赭石及羽毛做成的饰物，背挎弓箭，手执石尖长矛，站在一旁，他们脸上那种严肃刚毅的神情，比清教徒们还有过之而无不及。但这些周身涂得花花绿绿的野蛮人，还算不上当场最粗野的景象;更能充分表现这一特色的，是一批从那艘来自拉丁美洲北部海域的船上的水手，他们上岸来就是为了观看庆祝选举日的热闹的。他们是一伙外貌粗鲁的亡命之徒，个个面孔晒得黝黑，蓄着大胡子;又肥又短的裤子在腰间束着宽腰带，往往用一片粗金充当扣子，总是插着一柄长刀，偶尔是短剑。宽檐棕榈叶帽子下面闪着的那双眼睛，即使在心情好、兴致高的时候，也露出一股野兽般的凶光。他们肆元忌惮地违犯着约束着众人的行为准则;公然在差役的鼻子底下吸烟，尽管镇上人每这样吸上一日就要被罚一先令;他们还随心所欲地从衣袋里掏出酒瓶，大口喝着葡萄酒或烈性洒，并且随随便便地递给围周那些目蹬口呆的人们。这充分说明了当年道德标准的缺欠，我们虽然认为十分严格，但对那些浪迹海洋的人却网开一面，不仅容忍他们在陆上为所欲为，而且听凭他们在自己的天地里，更加无法无天。当年的那些水手，几乎与如今的海盗无异。就以这艘船上的船员为例吧，他们虽然不是海上生涯中那种声名狼藉的人物，但用我们的话说，肯定犯有劫掠西班牙商船的罪行，在今天的法庭上，都有处以绞刑的危险。

But the sea in those old times, heaved, swelled, and foamed, very much at its own will, or subject only to the tempestuouswind, with hardly any attempts at regulation by human law. The buccaneeron the wave might relinquishhis calling, and become at once, if he chose, a man of probityand piety on land; nor, even in the full career of his reckless life, was he regarded as a personage with whom it was disreputable to traffic, or casually associate. Thus, the Puritan elders, in their black cloaks, starchedbands, and steeple-crowned hats, smiled not unbenignantlyat the clamourand rude deportment of these jolly seafaringmen; and it excited neither surprise nor anim-adversion, when so reputable a citizen as old Roger Chillingworth, the physician, was seen to enter the market-place, in close and familiar talk with the commander of the questionable vessel.

但是那时候的大海，汹涌澎湃、掀浪卷沫，很大程度上是我行我素，或仅仅臣服于狂风暴雨，从来没有道接受人类法律束缚的念头。那些在风口浪尖上谋生的海盗们，只要心甘情愿，可以洗手不干，立刻成为岸上的一名正直诚实的君子;面即使在他们任意胡为的生涯中，人们也并不把他们视为不屑一颐或与之稍打交道就有损自己名声的人。因此，那些穿着黑色礼服、挺着浆过的环状皱领、戴着尖顶高帽的清教徒长者们，对于这帮快活的水手们的大声喧哗和粗野举动，反倒报以不无慈爱的微笑;而当人们看到老罗杰·齐灵渥斯这样一个德高望重的居民和医生走进市场、同那艘形迹可疑的船只曲船长亲密面随便地交谈的时候，既没有引起惊讶之感，也没有议论纷纷。

The latter was by far the most showy and gallantfigure, so far as apparel went, anywhere to be seen among the multitude. He wore a profusionof ribbonson his garment, and gold lace on his hat, which was also encircled by a gold chain, and surmounted with a feather. There was a sword at his side, and a sword-cut on his forehead, which, by the arrangement of his hair, he seemed anxious rather to display than hide. A landsman could hardly have worn this garband shown this face, and worn and shown them both with such a galliardair, without undergoing stern question before a magistrate, and probably incurring fine or imprisonment, or perhaps an exhibition in the stocks. As regarded the shipmaster, however, all was looked upon as pertaining to the character, as to a fish his glisteningscales.

就那位船长的服饰而论，无论他出现在人群中的什么地方，都是一个最显眼、最英武的人物。他的衣服上佩戴着备色奢华的缎带，帽子上缠着一圈金色丝绦，还缀着一根金链，上面插着一根羽毛。他胁下挎着一柄长剑，额头上留着一块伤疤——从他蓄的发式来看，似乎更急切地要显露出来而不是要加以掩盖。一个陆地上的人，若是周身这股穿戴、露出这副尊容，而且还得意洋洋地招摇过市，恐怕很难不被当宫的召去传讯，甚至会被课以罚金或判处监禁，也许会枷号示众。然而，对于这位船长而言，这一切都和他的身份相依相附，犹如鱼身上长着闪光的鳞片。

After parting from the physician, the commander of the Bristol ship strolled idly through the market-place; until, happening to approach the spot where Hester Prynne was standing, he appeared to recognise, and did not hesitate to address her. As was usually the case wherever Hester stood, a small vacant area- a sort of magic circle- had formed itself about her, into which, though the people were elbowing one another at a little distance, none ventured, or felt disposed to intrude. It was a forcible type of the moral solitude in which the scarlet letter enveloped its fated wearer; partly by her own reserve, and partly by the instinctive, though no longer so unkindly, withdrawal of her fellow-creatures. Now, if never before, it answered a good purpose, by enabling Hester and the seaman to speak together without the risk of being overheard; and so changed was Hester Prynne's repute before the public, that the matron in town most eminent for rigid morality could not have held such intercourse with less result of scandal than herself.

准备开往布利斯托尔的那艘船的船长，和医生分手后，就悠闲地踱过市场;后来他刚好走近海丝特·白兰站立的地方，他好象认识她，径直上前去打招呼。和通常一样，凡是海丝特所站之处，周围就会形成一小块空地，似乎有一种魔圈围着，圈外的人尽管在附近摩肩擦背地挤作一团，也没人甘冒风险或乐于闯进那块空地。这正是红字在注定要佩戴它的人四周所形成的一种强制性的精神上的孤立;这固然是由于她自己的回避，但也是由于她的同胞们的本能的退缩，尽管这种退缩早已不那么不友好了。如果说这种隔离圈以前毫无裨益的话，此时倒是大有好处，因为海丝特能够同那位船长交谈而不致冒被人听到的风险j何况海丝特·白兰在众人间的声名已经大有改变，即使是镇上以恪守妇道最为著称的妇人进行这种谈话，都不会比她少受风言风语的指责。

"So, mistress," said the mariner, "I must bid the steward make ready one more berththan you bargained for! No fear of scurvyor ship-fever, this voyage! What with the ship's surgeon and this other doctor, our only danger will be from drug or pill; more by token, as there is a lot of apothecary's stuff aboard, which I traded for with a Spanish vessel."

“啊，太太，船长说，“我得让船员在你要求的席位之外，再多安排一个!那就不必担心路上得坏血症或斑疹伤寒这类疾病了!有了船上的外科医生和另外这位医生，我们唯一的危险就差药剂或药丸了;其实，我船上还有一大批药物，是跟一艘西班牙船换的。

"What mean you?" inquired Hester, startled more than she permitted to appear. "Have you another passenger?"

“你这是什么意思啊?海丝特问道，脸上禁不佳露出了惊诧神色。“你还有另一位乘客吗?

"Why, know you not," cried the shipmaster, "that this physician here- Chillingworth, he calls himself- is minded to try my cabin-fare with you? Ay, ay, you must have known it; for he tells me he is of your party, and a close friend to the gentleman you spoke of- he that is in perilfrom these sour old Puritan rulers!"

“怎么，你还不知道?船长大声说，这儿的这位医生——他自称齐灵渥斯——打算同你一道尝尝我那船上饭菜的滋味呢，唉，唉，你准已经知道了;因为他告诉我，他是你们的一伙，还是你提到的那位先生的密友呢——你不是说那位先生正受着这些讨厌的老清教徒统治者的迫害嘛!

"They know each other well, indeed," replied Hester, with a mien of calmness, though in the utmost consternation. "They have long dwelt together."

“的确，他们彼此很了解，海丝特神色平静地回答说，尽管内心十分惊愕。“他们已经在一起往了好久了。

Nothing further passed between the mariner and Hester Prynne. But, at that instant, she beheld old Roger Chillingworth himself, standing in the remotest corner of the market-place, and smiling on her; a smile which- across the wide and bustling square, and through all the talk and laughter, and various thoughts, moods, and interests of the crowd- conveyed secret and fearful meaning.

船长和海丝特·白兰没有再说什么。但就在此时，她注意到老罗杰·齐灵渥斯本人，正站在市场远远的角落里，朝她微笑着，那副笑容越过宽阔熙攘的广场，穿透一切欢声笑语以及人群中的一切念头、情绪和兴趣，传达着诡秘而可怕的含义。

①一个小丑、弄臣或江湖医生侍者的形象，据说源出亨利八世的医生安德鲁’博尔德。

（编辑：薛琳）