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【经典名著阅读】《红字》第六章(下)

Nathaniel Hawthorne 2011-08-09 09:00
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Chapter 06 PEARL
第六章 珠儿

The truth was, that the little Puritans, being of the most intolerant brood that ever lived, had a vague idea of something outlandish, unearthly, or at variance with ordinary fashions, in the mother and child; and therefore scorned them in their hearts, and not unfrequently reviled them with their tongues. Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom. These outbreaks of a fierce temper had a kind of value, and even comfort, for her mother; because there was at least an intelligible earnestness in the mood, instead of the fitful caprice that so often thwarted her in the child's manifestations. It appalled her, nevertheless, to discern here again, a shadowy reflection of the evil that had existed in herself. All this enmity and passion had Pearl inherited, by inalienable right, out of Hester's heart. Mother and daughter stood together in the same circle of seclusion from human society; and in the nature of the child seemed to be perpetuated those unquiet elements that had distracted Hester Prynne before Pearl's birth, but had since begun to be soothed away by the softening influences of maternity.
事实上,这伙小清教徒们是世上最不容人的,他们早就在这对母女身上模模糊糊地看出点名堂,觉得她们不象是人世间的人,古里古怪地与众不同;于是便从心里蔑视她们,嘴里时常不干不净地诅咒她们。珠儿觉察出这种情绪,便以一个孩子心胸中所能激起的最刻毒的仇恨反唇相讥,这种大发脾气对她母亲颇有价值,甚至是一种慰藉,因为在这种气氛中,她至少表现出一种显而易见的真诚,替代了那种刺痛她母亲的一阵阵的任性发作。然而,海丝特吃惊地从中又辨出了曾存在她自己身上的那种邪恶的阴影的反射。这一切仇恨和热情,都是珠儿理所当然地从海丝特心中承袭下来的。母女二人一起被摒弃在人间社会之外,在珠儿降生之前折磨着海丝特·白兰,在孩子出生后随母性的温柔而渐渐平息下去的那些不安定成分,似乎都植根于珠儿的天性之中了。

At home, within and around her mother's cottage, Pearl wanted not a wide and various circle of acquaintance. The spell of life went forth from her ever creative spirit, and communicated itself to a thousand objects, as a torch kindles a flame wherever it may be applied. The unlikeliest materials- a stick, a bunch of rags, a flower- were the puppets of Pearl's witchcraft, and, without undergoing any outward change, became spiritually adapted to whatever drama occupied the stage of her inner world. Her one baby-voice served a multitude of imaginary personages, old and young, to talk withal. The pine-trees, aged, black and solemn, and flinging groans and other melancholy utterances on the breeze, needed little transformation to figure as Puritan elders; the ugliest weeds of the garden were their children, whom Pearl smote down and uprooted, most unmercifully. It was wonderful, the vast variety of forms into which she threw her intellect, with no continuity, indeed, but darting up and dancing, always in a state of preternatural activity- soon sinking down, as if exhausted by so rapid and feverish a tide of life- and succeeded by other shapes of a similar wild energy. It was like nothing so much as the phantasmagoric play of the northern lights. In the mere exercise of the fancy, however, and the sportiveness of a growing mind, there might be little more than was observable in other children of bright faculties; except as Pearl, in the dearth of human playmates, was thrown more upon the visionary throng which she created. The singularity lay in the hostile feelings with which the child regarded all these offspring of her own heart and mind. She never created a friend, but seemed always to be sowing broadcast the dragon's teeth, whence sprung a harvest of armed enemies, against whom she rushed to battle. It was inexpressibly sad- then what depth of sorrow to a mother, who felt in her own heart the cause!- to observe, in one so young, this constant recognition of an adverse world, and so fierce a training of the energies that were to make good her cause, in the contest that must ensue.
珠儿在家中,并不想在母亲茅屋的里里外外结识很多各种各样的伙伴。她那永不停歇的创造精神会进发出生命的魔力,并同丰万种物体交流,犹如一个火炬可以点燃一切。那些最不值一玩的东西——一根棍子、一块破布、一朵小花——都是珠儿巫术的玩偶,而且无需经过任何外部变化,便可以在她内心世界的舞台上的任何戏剧中,派上想象中的用场。她用自己一人的童音扮作想象中的形形色色、老老少少的角色相互交谈。在风中哼哼唧唧或是发出其它忧郁呻吟的苍劲肃穆的松树,无需变形,就可充当清教徒的长者,面园中最丑陋的杂草便权充他们的子孙,珠儿会毫不留情地将这些“儿童”踩倒,再连根拔起。真是绝妙之极!她开动脑筋幻化出来的备色各样的形体,虽然缺乏连续性,但确实活脱跳跃,始终充满超越自然的活力——这种活力很快便消沉下去,仿佛在生命之潮的急剧而热烈的进发之中衰竭了,继之而来的又是另一种有狂野精力的形象。这和北极光的变幻不定极其相似。然而,单从一个正在成长着的头脑喜欢想象和活泼好动来说,珠儿比起其他聪慧的儿童并没有什么明显的长处,只不过是由于缺乏玩伴,她同自己创造出来的幻想中的人群更加接近而己。她的独特之处在于她对自己心灵和头脑中幻化出来的所有的人都怀着敌对情绪。她从来没有创造过一个朋友,却总象是在大面积地播种龙牙①,从而收获到一支敌军,她便与之厮杀。看到孩子还这么年幼,居然对一个同自己作对的世界有如此坚定的认识,而且猛烈地训练自己的实力,以便在肯定会有的争斗中确保自己获胜,是多么让人心酸得难以形容啊!而当一个母亲在内心中体会到这一切都是由她才引起的,又是多么深切地哀伤啊!

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