'Ah - so have I, very often. This hobble of being alive is rather serious, don't you think so?'
“哦——我也害怕生活,经常怕。生活在这种境遇里真是不容易,你是不是这样认为?”

'It is - now you put it that way.'
“是的——现在你这样明明白白地一说,我也是这样认为的。”

'All the same, I shouldn't have expected a young girl like you to see it so just yet. How is it you do?'
“谁说都一样,我真没有想到一个像你这样的年轻女孩子,也会这样看待生活,你是怎样认识到的呢?”

She maintained a hesitating silence.
她犹犹豫豫地,不作回答。

'Come, Tess, tell me in confidence.'
“说吧,苔丝,相信我,对我说吧。”

She thought that he meant what were the aspects of things to her, and replied shyly--
她心想他的意思是说她怎样看事物的各个方面,就羞怯地问答说——

'The trees have inquisitive eyes, haven't they? - that is, seem as if they had. And the river says, - "Why do ye trouble me with your looks?" And you seem to see numbers of to-morrows just all in a line, the first of them the biggest and clearest, the others getting smaller and smaller as they stand farther away; but they all seem very fierce and cruel and as if they said, "I'm coming! Beware of me! Beware of me!"... But you, sir, can raise up dreams with your music, and drive all such horrid fancies away!'
“树木也都有一双探索的眼睛,是不是?我是说,它们似乎有一双眼睛。河水也似乎在说话,——‘你为什么看着我,让我不得安宁?’你似乎还会看到,无数个明天在一起排成了一排,它们中间的第一个是最大的一个,也是最清楚的一个,其它的一个比一个小,一个比一个站得远;但是它们都似乎十分凶恶,十分残忍,它们好像在说,‘我来啦!留神我吧!留神我吧!’……可是你,先生,却能用音乐激发出梦幻来,把所有这些幻影都通通赶走了!”

He was surprised to find this young woman - who though but a milkmaid had just that touch of rarity about her which might make her the envied of her housemates - shaping such sad imaginings. She was expressing in her own native phrases - assisted a little by her Sixth Standard training - feelings which might almost have been called those of the age - the ache of modernism. The perception arrested him less when he reflected that what are called advanced ideas are really in great part but the latest fashion in definition - a more accurate expression, by words in logy and ism, of sensations which men and women have vaguely grasped for centuries.
他惊奇地发现这个年轻的女孩子——虽然她不过是一个挤牛奶的女工,却已经有了这种罕有的见解了,这也使得她与其他的同屋女工不同——她竟有了一些如此忧伤的想法。她是用自己家乡的字眼儿表达的——再加上一点儿在标准的六年小学中学到的字眼——她表达的也许差不多是可以被称作我们时代的感情的那种感情,即现代主义的痛苦。他想到,那些所谓的先进思想,大半都是用最时髦的字眼加以定义——使用什么“学”或什么“主义”,那么许多世纪以来男男女女模模糊糊地领会到的感觉,就会被表达得更加清楚了,想到这里,他也就不太注意了。