But, before Mr. Dimmesdale had done speaking, a light gleamed far and wide over all the muffled sky. It was doubtless caused by one of those meteors which the night-watcher may so often observe burning out to waste, in the vacant regions of the atmosphere. So powerful was its radiance, that it thoroughly illuminated the dense medium of cloud betwixt the sky and earth. The great vault brightened, like the dome of an immense lamp. It showed the familiar scene of the street, with the distinctness of mid-day, but also with the awfulness that is always imparted to familiar objects by an unaccustomed light. The wooden houses, with their jutting stories and quaint gable-peaks; the door-steps and thresholds, with the early grass springing up about them; the garden-plots, black with freshly turned earth; the wheel-track, little worn, and, even in the market-place, margined with green on either side all- were visible, but with a singularity of aspect that seemed to give another moral interpretation to the things of this world than they had ever borne before. And there stood the minister, with his hand over his heart; and Hester Prynne, with the embroidered letter glimmering on her bosom; and little Pearl, herself a symbol, and the connecting link between those two. They stood in the noon of that strange and solemn splendour, as if it were the light that is to reveal all secrets, and the daybreak that shall unite all who belong to one another.
但不等丁梅斯代爾先生把話(huà)講完，烏云遮蔽的夜空上便遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地閃過(guò)一道寬闊的亮光。那無(wú)疑是一顆流星發(fā)出來(lái)的，守夜人可能經(jīng)?？吹竭@種流星在空曠的蒼竄中燃成灰燼。它發(fā)散出的光輝十分強(qiáng)烈，把天地間濃厚的云層照得通明。那廣漠的天穹變得雪亮，猶如一盞巨燈的圓頂。它就象白晝一般清晰地勾勒出街上熟悉的景色，但也乎添了那種由不尋常的光線(xiàn)照到熟悉的物體上總要產(chǎn)生的可怕印象。那些附有突出的樓層和古怪的角頂?shù)哪疚?；那臺(tái)階和門(mén)檻，以、及周?chē)缭缙仆炼龅那嗖?；那些覆著新翻出的黑土的園圃；那些有點(diǎn)發(fā)舊，甚至在市場(chǎng)一帶兩側(cè)都長(zhǎng)滿(mǎn)了綠草的車(chē)道——這一切全都清晰可見(jiàn)，不過(guò)都露出一種獨(dú)特的模樣，似是給這些世上的事物一種前所未有的另一種道義上的解釋。就在那兒，站著牧師，他一手捂著心口；還有海絲特，白蘭，胸前閃著刺繡的字母；以及小珠兒，她本人就是一個(gè)象征著他同她之間連接的環(huán)節(jié)。他們?nèi)苏驹诹寥绨讜兊钠婷疃C穆的光輝里，似乎正是那光輝要揭示一切隱秘，而那白晝則要將所有相屬的人結(jié)合在一起。

There was witchcraft in little Pearl's eyes; and her face, as she glanced upward at the minister, wore that naughty smile which made its expression frequently so elvish. She withdrew her hand from Mr. Dimmesdale's, and pointed across the street. But he clasped both his hands over his breast, and cast his eyes towards the zenith.
小珠兒的眼中閃著妖氣，當(dāng)她仰望牧師時(shí)，臉上帶著那種調(diào)皮的微笑，使她的表情時(shí)常都是那么鬼精靈似的。她從牧師手中抽出手來(lái)，指著街道對(duì)面。但他緊握雙手捂在胸前，抬眼眺望天頂。