英文名著精选阅读：《红字》第五章(上)

　　Chapter 05 HESTER AT HER NEEDLE

　　第五章　海丝特做针线

　　HESTER PRYNNE'S term of confinementwas now at an end. Her prison-door was thrown open, and she came forth into the sunshine, which, falling on all alike, seemed, to her sick and morbidheart, as if meant for no other purpose than to reveal the scarlet letter on her breast. Perhaps there was a more real torturein her first unattendedfootsteps from the thresholdof the prison, than even in the procession and spectacle that have been described, where she was made the common infamy, at which all mankind was summoned to point its finger. Then, she was supported by an unnatural tension of the nerves, and by all the combativeenergy of her character, which enabled her to convertthe scene into a kind of luridtriumph. It was, moreover, a separate and insulatedevent, to occur but once in her lifetime, and to meet which, therefore, recklessof economy, she might call up the vital strength that would have sufficedfor many quiet years. The very law that condemned her- a giant of stern features, but with vigour to support, as well as to annihilate, in his iron arm- had held her up, through the terrible ordealof her ignominy. But now, with this unattended walk from her prison-door, began the daily custom; and she must either sustain and carry it forward by the ordinary resources of her nature, or sink beneath it. She could no longer borrow from the future to help her through the present grief. Tomorrow would bring its own trial with it; so would the next day, and so would the next; each its own trial, and yet the very same that was now so unutterablygrievousto be borne. The days of the far-off future would toilonward, still with the same burden for her to take up, and bear along with her, but never to fling down; for the accumulating days, and added years, would pile up their misery upon the heap of shame. Throughout them all, giving up her individuality, she would become the general symbol at which the preacher and moralist might point, and in which they might vivifyand embody their images of woman's frailtyand sinful passion. Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast- at her, the child of honourable parents- at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman- at her, who had once been innocent- as the figure, the body, the reality of sin. And over her grave, the infamy that she must carry thither would be her only monument.

　　海丝特·白兰的监禁期满了。牢门打开，她迈步走到阳光下。普照众生的日光，在她那病态的心灵看来，似乎只是为了暴露她胸前的红字。这是她第一次独自步出牢门，比超前面所描写的在众目睽睽之下前呼后拥，走上千夫所指的示众受辱台，这才是一次真正的折磨。那天，她为一种反常的神经紧张和个性中全部好斗的精神所支撑，使她能够将那种场面变成一种惨淡的胜利。更主要的，那是在她一生中独一无二的一次各别的孤立事件，因此她可以不借调动在平静的岁月中足够多年消耗的生命力去应付一时之需。就惩办她示众的法律而论，那是一个外貌狰狞的巨人，其铁腕既可以消灭她，也可以支撑她，正是法律本身扶持着她挺过了那示众的可怕煎熬。然而此时此刻，从不然一身步出狱门起，她就要开始过一天又一天的正常生活了;她必须以自身的普通体力支撑自己活下去，否则只有倒在生活下面。她再也不能靠预支生命力来帮助自己度过目前的悲痛。明天还要有明天的考验与之俱来，后天也会如此，再下一天仍会如此;每天都有每天的考验，然而在忍受难以言喻的痛苦这一点士又都是一样的。遥远的未来的时日，仍有其要由她承载的重荷，需要她一步步摄下去，终生背负着，永远不得抛却;日复一日，年复一年，都将在耻辱曲堆积上再叠上层层苦难。她将在长年累月之中，放弃她的个性，面成为布道师和道学家指指点点的一般象征，借以形象具体地说明女性的脆弱与罪孽的情欲。他们将教育纯沾的年轻人望着她——这个胸前佩戴着灼热鲜明的红字的女人;望着她——这个有着可敬的父母的孩子;望着她———这个有着今后会长成女人的婴儿的母亲;望着她——这个原本是纯洁无辜的女人;把她当作罪恶的形象、罪恶的肉体和罪恶的存在。而她必将带到坟墓中去的那个耻辱，将是矗立在她坟上的唯一墓碑。

　　It may seem marvellous, that, with the world before her- kept by no restrictiveclause of her condemnationwithin the limits of the Puritan settlement, so remote and so obscure- free to return to her birthplace, or to any other European land, and there hide her character and identity under a new exterior, as completely as if emerging into another state of being- and having also the passes of the dark, inscrutableforest open to her, where the wildness of her nature might assimilateitself with a people whose customs and life were alien from the law that had condemned her- it may seem marvellous, that this woman should still call that place her home, where, and where only, she must needs be the type of shame. But there is a fatality, a feeling so irresistibleand inevitable that it has the force of doom, which almost invariably compels human beings to linger around and haunt, ghost-like, the spot where some great and marked event has given the colour to their lifetime; and still the more irresistibly, the darker the tinge that saddensit. Her sin, her ignominy, were the roots which she had struck into the soil. It was as if a new birth, with stronger assimilations than the first, had converted the forest-land, still so uncongenialto every other pilgrimand wanderer, into Hester Prynne's wild and dreary, but life-long home. All other scenes of earth- even that village of rural England, where happy infancy and stainless maidenhoodseemed yet to be in her mother's keeping, like garments put off long ago- were foreign to her, in comparison. The chain that bound her here was of iron links, and galling to her inmostsoul, but could never be broken.

　　这事说来令人不可思议：既然她的判决词中没有限制她不得超越清教徒居民区的条款，那么在这片边远偏僻的土地之外，她面对着整个世界，原可以自由地回到她的出生地或任何其它欧洲国家，改头换面，隐姓埋名，一切从新开始;她还面对着通向阴森莫测的莽林的道路，也可以在那里逃脱制裁她的法律，使自己不驯顺的本性在生活习俗完全两样的民族中相得益彰。看来实在不可思议的是，她竟然仍把这地方视作自己的家园;而恰恰在这里，况且也只有在这里，她才会成为耻辱的典型。但确实有一种天数，一种具有冥冥之力的如此不可抗拒和难以避免的感情，迫使人们象幽灵般出汲并滞留在发生过为他终生增色添辉、引人瞩目的重大事件的地方，而且那事件的悲伤色调愈浓，人们也就愈难以背离那块地方。她的罪孽，她的耻辱，便是她深扎于此地的根。她在这块土地上好象获得了比她降生人世更具融熔力量的新生，海丝特·白兰的这一新生把所有其他移民和飘泊者仍感到格格不入的森林地带，变成了她自己荒凉阴郁但却是终生安身立命之家。世界上别的景色，甚至包括她度过幸福的童年和无暇的少女时期的英格兰乡村——象是早巳换下的衣服，交给她母亲去保管了——，相比之下，那些地方在她眼里那是它乡异地了。将她束缚在这里的，是源源傲进她心灵深处的铁打的锁链，永远不可能断裂了。