【經(jīng)典名著閱讀】《紅字》第十二章(上)
作者:Nathaniel Hawthorne
2011-08-20 10:00
Good heavens! Had Mr. Dimmesdale actually spoken? For one instant, he believed that these words had passed his lips. But they were uttered only within his imagination. The venerable Father Wilson continued to step slowly onward, looking carefully at the muddy pathway before his feet, and never once turning his head toward the guilty platform. When the light of the glimmering lantern had faded quite away, the minister discovered, by the faintness which came over him, that the last few moments had been a crisis of terrible anxiety; although his mind had made an involuntary effort to relieve itself by a kind of lurid playfulness.
天?。《∶匪勾鸂栂壬?dāng)真說(shuō)出聲了嗎?在一剎那間,他相信這些話(huà)確實(shí)已經(jīng)說(shuō)出了口。其實(shí)只是在他的想象之中發(fā)出了聲。那可敬的威爾遜神父依舊緩緩地朝前走著,眼睛死盯住腳下的泥徑,根本沒(méi)朝刑臺(tái)側(cè)頭瞥上一眼。在那閃亮的燈光漸漸消逝在遠(yuǎn)處之后,牧師在襲來(lái)的一陣昏迷中發(fā)現(xiàn),剛才那一刻間,確實(shí)有一種非常焦心的危機(jī);盡管他內(nèi)心不禁竭力用一種凄涼的強(qiáng)顏歡笑來(lái)加以寬慰。
Shortly afterwards, the like grisly sense of the humorous again stole in among the solemn phantoms of his thought. He felt his limbs growing stiff with the unaccustomed chilliness of the night, and doubted whether he should be able to descend the steps of the scaffold. Morning would break, and find him there. The neighbourhood would begin to rouse itself. The earliest riser, coming forth in the dim twilight, would perceive a vaguely defined figure aloft on the place of shame; and, half crazed betwixt alarm and curiosity, would go, knocking from door to door, summoning all the people to behold the ghost- as he needs must think it- of some defunct transgressor. A dusky tumult would flap its wings from one house to another. Then- the morning light still waxing stronger- old patriarchs would rise up in great haste, each in his flannel gown, and matronly dames, without pausing to put off their night-gear. The whole tribe of decorous personages, who had never heretofore been seen with a single hair of their heads awry, would start into public view, with the disorder of a nightmare in their aspects. Old Governor Bellingham would come grimly forth, with his King James ruff fastened askew; and Mistress Hibbins, with some twigs of the forest clinging to her skirts, and looking sourer than ever, as having hardly got a wink of sleep after her night ride; and good Father Wilson, too, after spending half the night at a death-bed, and liking ill to be disturbed, thus early, out of his dreams about the glorified saints. Hither, likewise, would come the elders and deacons of Mr Dimmesdale's church, and the young virgins who so idolised their minister, and had made a shrine for him in their white bosoms; which now, by-the-bye, in their hurry and confusion, they would scantily have given themselves time to cover with their kerchiefs. All people, in a word, would come stumbling over their thresholds, and turning up their amazed and horror-stricken visages around the scaffold. Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow? Whom, but the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, half frozen to death, overwhelmed with shame, and standing where Hester Prynne had stood!
不久,在他腦海中的肅穆幻象中又悄悄夾雜進(jìn)來(lái)同樣可怕的古怪念頭。他感到由于不慣于夜間的涼意,四肢逐漸發(fā)僵,并且懷疑自己還能否走下刑臺(tái)的臺(tái)階。天將破曉,他會(huì)被人發(fā)現(xiàn)站在臺(tái)上。四鄰將開(kāi)始起身。最早起床的人踏人晨曦的微光,將會(huì)看到有個(gè)輪廓模糊的身形高高站在恥辱臺(tái)上;于是便會(huì)在半驚駭半好奇之中走開(kāi)去,敲開(kāi)一家又一家的大門(mén),叫人們出來(lái)看這已死的罪人的鬼魂——那人一定會(huì)這么想的。一陣破曉時(shí)的喧鬧將從一家飛到另一家。之后,曙光漸明,老漢們會(huì)匆忙爬起身,穿上法蘭絨長(zhǎng)袍,主婦們則顧不上脫下她們的睡衣。那伙衣冠楚楚的人物,平素里從來(lái)沒(méi)人見(jiàn)過(guò)他們有一絲頭發(fā)散亂,此時(shí)也會(huì)遭了夢(mèng)魘股的衣冠不整地就跑到了眾人眼前。老總督貝靈漢會(huì)歪戴著他那詹姆士王時(shí)期的環(huán)狀皺領(lǐng),繃緊面孔走出來(lái);西賓斯太太,由于徹夜邀游不曾闔眼,臉色會(huì)較平時(shí)更加難看,而裙上還會(huì)沾著林中細(xì)校;好心的威爾遜神父也會(huì)來(lái)的,他在死者床邊熬了半夜,對(duì)于這么早就給從光榮的圣徒的美夢(mèng)中驚醒,滿(mǎn)肚子不高興。到這里來(lái)的還會(huì)有了梅斯代爾先生教堂中的長(zhǎng)老們和執(zhí)事們,以及那些對(duì)自己的牧師祟拜之極、在她們潔白的心胸中為他立了圣龕的少女們;順便說(shuō)一下,她們此時(shí)正在慌亂之中,會(huì)根本來(lái)不及蒙上面巾??偠灾械娜硕紩?huì)磕磕絆絆地通過(guò)門(mén)檻,在刑臺(tái)四周抬起驚惶的面孔。他們會(huì)依稀看到那里站著一個(gè)人,額上映著東方的紅光,那會(huì)是誰(shuí)呢?除去可敬的阿瑟·丁梅斯代爾先生還能是誰(shuí)!他已經(jīng)凍得半死,正滿(mǎn)面羞慚地站在海絲特·白蘭曾經(jīng)示眾的地方!
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