那些無法抗拒的名篇22:The Scarlet Letter 紅字(節(jié)選)

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22 紅字

The grass-plot before the jail，in Prison Lane, on a certain summer morning, not less than two centuries ago, was occupied by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston;all with their eyes intently fastened on the iron—clamped oaken door. Amongst any other population，or at a later period in the history of New England，the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded physiognomies of these good people would have augured some awful business in hand. It could have betokened nothing short of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit on whom the sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public sentiment. But，in that early severity of the Puritan character, an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It might be, that a sluggish bond-servant, or an undutiful child, whom his parents had given over to the civil authority, was to be corrected at the whipping-post. It might be, that an Antinomian， a Quaker, or other heterodox religionist, was to be scourged out of the town，or an idle and vagrant Indian, whom the white man’s fire-water had made riotous about the streets, was to be driven with stripes into the shadow of the forest. It might be, too, that a witch, like old Mistress Hibbins, the bitter-tempered widow of the magistrate, was to die upon the gallows. In either case, there was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of the spectators; as befitted a people amongst whom religion and law were almost identical, and in whose character both were so thoroughly interfused, that the mildest and the severest acts of public discipline were alike made venerable and awful. Meagre, indeed，and cold, was the sympathy that a transgressor might look for, from such bystanders, at the scaffold. On the other hand，a penalty which，in our days，would infer a degree of mocking infamy and ridicule, might then be invested with almost as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself.

兩百多年前一個(gè)夏日的上午，波士頓監(jiān)獄門前的那塊草地上萬人攢動(dòng)，眾人的眼睛都牢牢地盯著布滿鐵釘?shù)臋的敬箝T。要是在其他居民區(qū)，或者在時(shí)間上推遲至新英格蘭后來的歷史時(shí)期，這些蓄著胡須的男子臉上的嚴(yán)峻表情，一定會(huì)被人認(rèn)為是將要發(fā)生某種可怕事端的先兆，很可能預(yù)示著一個(gè)臭名昭著的罪犯要被押出來接受宣判，盡管當(dāng)時(shí)對(duì)人的宣判只是確認(rèn)一下公眾輿論對(duì)他的裁決而已。但是在清教徒清規(guī)戒律非常嚴(yán)厲的早期，這種推測未免過于武斷。也許，受懲罰的是一個(gè)偷懶的奴仆;或者是一個(gè)不守規(guī)矩的頑童，其父母把他交給當(dāng)局，讓他在笞刑柱上受管教。也許，是一位唯信仰論者、一位貴格派的教友，或者其他異端的教徒，他們要被鞭撻出城。也許，是一名游手好閑的印第安人，因?yàn)楹攘税兹说牧揖圃诖蠼稚虾[，要挨著鞭子給趕進(jìn)樹林。也完全可能是一個(gè)巫婆，就像那個(gè)地方官的遺孀西賓斯老太太那樣惡毒的老巫婆，要被判處死刑，送上刑臺(tái)。不管屬于哪種情況，圍觀者總是擺出分毫不爽的莊嚴(yán)姿態(tài);這倒十分符合早期移民的身份，因?yàn)樗麄儼炎诮毯头梢暈橐惑w，二者在他們的品性中融二為一，凡涉及公共紀(jì)律的條款，不管是最輕微的還是最嚴(yán)重的，都令他們肅然起敬和望而生畏。確實(shí)，一個(gè)站在刑臺(tái)上的罪人能從這些旁觀者身上謀得的同情是少之又少，冷而又冷的。此外，在我們今天只會(huì)引起某種冷嘲熱諷的懲罰，在當(dāng)時(shí)卻如死刑般被賦予令人望而生畏的威嚴(yán)。

It was a circumstance to be noted, on the summer morning when our story begins its course，that the women，of whom there were several in the crowd，appeared to take a peculiar interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to ensue. The age had not so much refinement, that any sense of impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale from stepping forth into the public ways, and wedging their not unsubstantial persons, if occasion were, into the throng nearest to the scaffold at an execution. Morally, as well as materially, there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens of old English birth and breeding，than in their fair descendants separated from them by a series of six or seven generations; for, throughout that chain of ancestry every successive mother has transmitted to her child a fainter bloom，a more delicate and briefer beauty, and a slighter physical frame, if not a character of less force and solidity, than her own. The women who were now standing about the prison-door stood within less than half a century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth had been the not altogether unsuitable representative of the sex. They were her country-women;and the beef and ale of their native land, with a moral diet not a whit more refined, entered largely into their composition. The bright morning sun，therefore, shone on broad shoulders and well-developed busts, and on round and ruddy cheeks, that had ripened in the far-off island, and had hardly yet grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New England. There was, moreover, a boldness and rotundity of speech among these matrons, as most of them seemed to be, that would startle us at the present day, whether in respect to its purport or its volume of tone.

就在我們故事發(fā)生的那個(gè)夏天的早晨，有一個(gè)情況頗值一書:擠在那人群中有好幾個(gè)婦女，看來她們對(duì)即將發(fā)生的任何宣判懲處都抱有特殊的興趣。那年月沒有那么多的講究，這些穿著襯裙和圈著環(huán)裙的女人毫不在乎地出入于大庭廣眾之間，而且只要有可能，還扭動(dòng)她們那結(jié)實(shí)的身軀向前擠，擠到最靠近刑臺(tái)的人群中去，也不會(huì)給人什么不成體統(tǒng)的感覺。在英國土生土長的那些婦女和少女，比之相隔六七代之后她們的漂亮后代，無論在體魄上還是在精神上，都具有一種更粗獷的品質(zhì)，因?yàn)樵谑来毖艿倪^程中，每代母親遺傳給她們女兒的，就體質(zhì)而言，往往要比她們自己纖弱一些，容貌更為嬌嫩，身材更為苗條，縱然在性格方面，其堅(jiān)毅頑強(qiáng)的程度也未必遜色。當(dāng)時(shí)站在獄門附近的婦女，跟那位堪稱代表女性的、具有男子氣概的伊麗莎白女王相距不足半個(gè)世紀(jì)。她們是那位女王的同胞鄉(xiāng)親，家鄉(xiāng)的牛肉和麥酒，以及絲毫沒有經(jīng)過加工的精神食糧大量地進(jìn)入她們的軀體滋養(yǎng)助長。因此，燦爛的晨曦所照射的是她們寬厚的肩膀、豐滿的胸脯和又圓又紅潤的雙頰—她們都是在遙遠(yuǎn)的祖國本島上長大成人的，還沒有受到新英格蘭環(huán)境的熏陶而變得白哲或瘦削些呢!再者，這些婦女，至少是其中的大多數(shù)人，說起話來都是粗聲粗氣，直截了當(dāng)，要是在今天，無論是她們說話的內(nèi)容，還是嗓門的大小都會(huì)使我們瞳目結(jié)舌，嘆為觀止。

"Goodwives,"said a hard-featured dame of fifty, "I'll tell ye a piece of my mind. It would be greatly for the public behoof, if we women, being of mature age and church一members in good repute, should have the handling of such malefactresses as this Hester Prynne. What think ye, gossips? If the hussy stood up for judgment before us five, that are now here in a knot together, would she come off with such a sentence as the worshipful magistrates have awarded? Marry, I trove not!"

“娘兒們!”一個(gè)滿臉橫肉的50多歲的老女人說，“我要跟你們說說我的想法。要是我們這些上了年紀(jì)、在教會(huì)里有名聲的婦道人家，能把像海絲特· 白蘭那樣的壞女人處置了，倒是給公眾辦了一件大好事。你們是怎么想的，娘兒們?要是把那個(gè)破鞋交給我們眼下站在這兒的五個(gè)娘兒們來審判，她會(huì)獲得像那些可敬的地方長官們給她的判決，而輕易地混過去嗎?哼，我才不信呢!”“聽人說，”另一個(gè)婦女說:“她的教長、尊敬的丁梅斯代爾牧師，為他自己的教會(huì)里發(fā)生這樣的丑事傷透了心。”

"The magistrates are God-fearing gentlemen, but merciful overmuch—that is a truth," added a third autumnal matron. At the very least, they should have put the brand of a hot iron on Hester Prynne's forehead. Madam Hester would have winced at that, I warrant me. But she—the naughty baggage—little will she care what they put upon the bodice of her gown! Why, look you, she may cover it with a brooch, or such like heathenish adornment, and so walk the streets as brave as ever!

“那些地方長官都是些敬畏上帝的好好先生，心腸太軟—那倒是實(shí)話。”第三個(gè)人老珠黃的婆娘接著說，“最起碼，他們?cè)撛诤＝z特·白蘭的額頭上烙上個(gè)印記。我敢說，這個(gè)小賤人才會(huì)有點(diǎn)畏忌。但是，現(xiàn)在他們?cè)谒路男乜谏腺N個(gè)什么東西，她—那個(gè)賤貨—才不會(huì)在乎呢!嗨，你們等著瞧吧，她會(huì)別上一枚胸針，或者異教徒愛佩戴的其他什么裝飾品，把它遮住，照樣招搖過市!”

作者介紹:

納撒尼爾·霍桑(1804-1864)是19世紀(jì)美國著名的浪漫主義小說家，出生在美國東部新英格蘭地區(qū)某鎮(zhèn)，是當(dāng)?shù)鼐用裰幸粋€(gè)有名望的家族后代。大學(xué)畢業(yè)后，除了在海關(guān)供職和出任駐英公使之外，一生致力于文學(xué)寫作，寫下了《紅字》、《七個(gè)尖角閣的房屋》、《福谷傳奇》、《玉石雕像》等四部長篇小說，為美國文學(xué)的發(fā)展做出了杰出的貢獻(xiàn)。他稱自己的作品是人的“心理羅曼史”，故文學(xué)史家常把他列為浪漫主義作家。

小說描寫女主人公海絲特·白蘭跟丈夫從英國移居美國波士頓。中途丈夫被印第安人俘虜。海絲特只身到了美國，被一青年牧師誘騙懷孕。此事，被當(dāng)?shù)靥搨蔚那褰掏缴鐣?huì)視為大逆不道。當(dāng)局把海絲特抓起來并關(guān)入監(jiān)獄，游街示眾，還要終身佩帶象征恥辱的紅色的A字(Adultery:通奸女犯)。海絲特寧愿一人受辱，誓死也不招供。在遠(yuǎn)離社會(huì)，受盡屈辱的處境中，海絲特孤苦頑強(qiáng)地生活著，若干年后，珠兒，海絲特的女兒，長大成人，海絲特一人再回到波士頓，仍帶著那個(gè)紅色的A字，用自己的“崇高的道德和助人精神”，把恥辱的紅字變成了道德與光榮的象征，直到老死。