"Wilt thou yet forgive me?" she repeated, over and over again. "Wilt thou not frown? Wilt thou forgive?"
“你还得原谅我!”她一遍又一遍地重复着。“你别皱眉好吗?你肯原谅我吗?”

"I do forgive you, Hester," replied the minister, at length, with a deep utterance, out of an abyss of sadness, but no anger. "I freely forgive you now. May God forgive us both! We are not, Hester, the worst sinners in the world. There is one worse than even the polluted priest! That old man's revenge has been blacker than my sin. He has violated, in cold blood, the sanctity of a human heart. Thou and I, Hester, never did so!"
“我一定原谅你,海丝特,”牧师终于回答了,同时深深地叹了一口气,那是发自悲伤而不是气愤的深渊的。“我现在爽快地原谅你。愿上帝饶恕我们俩吧!海丝特,我们并不是世上最坏的罪人。还有一个人,甚至比受到玷污的教士还要坏!那老人的复仇比我的罪过更见不得人。他阴险地凌辱一颗神圣不可侵犯的心灵。你和我,海丝特,从来没干过这种事!”

"Never, never!" whispered she. "What we did had a consecration of its own. We felt it so! We said so to each other! Hast thou forgotten it?"
“从来没有,从来没有!”她悄声说。“我们的所作所为其本身是一种神圣的贡献。我们是这样看的!我们在一起说过的!你忘了吗?”

"Hush, Hester!" said Arthur Dimmesdale, rising from the ground. "No; I have not forgotten!"
“嘘,海丝特!”阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔说着,从地上站起身来。“没有;我没忘!”

They sat down again, side by side, and hand clasped in hand, on the mossy trunk of the fallen tree. Life had never brought them a gloomier hour; it was the point whither their pathway had so long been tending, and darkening ever, as it stole along; and yet it enclosed a charm that made them linger upon it, and claim another, and another, and, after all, another moment. The forest was obscure around them, and creaked with a blast that was passing through it. The boughs were tossing heavily above their heads; while one solemn old tree groaned dolefully to another, as if telling the sad story of the pair that sat beneath, or constrained to forbode evil to come.
他俩重新坐下;肩并着肩,手握着手,就这样坐在长满青苔的倒下的树干上。这是生命赋予他们的最阴郁的时刻;这是生命旅途早就引导他们走来的地方,而且在他们的不知不觉之中越走越黑暗;然而此时此地却包含着一种魅力,叫他们留连忘返,期望着能够再停留一会儿,再停留一会儿,终归仍是再停留一会儿。四下的森林朦胧一片,一阵风吹过,响起噼啪之声。粗大的树枝在他们的头上沉重地摇晃;一棵肃穆的老树对另一棵树悲声低吟,仿佛在倾诉树下坐着的这一对人儿的伤心的故事,或是在不得不预告那行将到来的邪恶。

And yet they lingered. How dreary looked the forest-track that led backward to the settlement, where Hester Prynne must take up again the burden of her ignominy, and the minister the hollow mockery of his good name! So they lingered an instant longer. No golden light had ever been so precious as the gloom of this dark forest. Here, seen only by his eyes, the scarlet letter need not burn into the bosom of the fallen woman! Here, seen only by her eyes, Arthur Dimmesdale, false to God and man, might be for one moment true!
然而他们仍然不肯回去。那通往居民区的林中小路看来有多么沉闷,一回到那居民区,海丝特·白兰就得重新负起她那耻辱的重荷,而牧师则要再次戴上他那好名声的空虚的面具!因此他们就又多呆了一会儿。金色的光辉从来没有象在这黑树林的幽暗中这么可贵。在这里,红字只有他一个人的眼睛能够看见,也就不必烧进那堕落的女人的胸膛中去了!在这里,对上帝和人类都虚伪的阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔也只有她一人的眼睛能够看见,也就在这片刻之间变得诚实了!