At this wild and singular appeal, which indicated that Hester Prynne's situation had provoked her to little less than madness, the young minister at once came forward, pale, and holding his hand over his heart, as was his custom whenever his peculiarly nervous temperament was thrown into agitation. He looked now more careworn and emaciated than as we described him at the scene of Hester's public ignominy; and whether it were his failing health, or whatever the cause might be, his large dark eyes had a world of pain in their troubled and melancholy depth.
这种狂野独特独特的吁请,意味着海丝特·白兰的处境已经把她快逼疯了。于是,那年轻的牧师马上走上前来,他面色苍氏一只手捂住心口——只要他那古怪的神经质一发作,他就会做出这个习惯的动作。他此时的样子,比起上次海丝特示众时我们所描绘的,还要疲惫和憔悴;不管是由于他那每况愈下的健康状况,抑或其它什么原因,他那双又大又黑的眼睛的深处,在烦恼和忧郁之中还有一个痛苦的天地。

"There is truth in what she says," began the minister, with a voice sweet, tremulous, but powerful, insomuch that the hall re-echoed, and the hollow armour rang with it- "truth in what Hester says, and in the feeling which inspires her! God gave her the child, and gave her, too, an instinctive knowledge of its nature and requirements- both seemingly so peculiar- which no other mortal being can possess. And, moreover, is there not a quality of awful sacredness in the relation between this mother and this child?"
“她所说的确有道理,”年轻的牧师开口说,他那甜蜜柔和的嗓音虽然微微发颤,却强劲有力地在大厅中回荡着,直震得那空壳铠中部随之轰鸣,“她的话确有道理,鼓舞她的感情也没有错!上帝赐给了她这个孩子,也就赋予了她了解孩子天性和需求的本能——而这孩子的天性和需求看来又是如此与众不同——她作母亲的这种本能别人是不可能具备的。何况,在她们的母女关系之中难道没有一种令人敬畏的神圣之处吗?”

"Ay!- how is that, good Master Dimmesdale?" interrupted the Governor. "Make that plain, I pray you!"
“喂!——这是怎么讲,善良的丁梅斯代尔先生?”总督接口说。“我请你把话说得明白些!”

"It must be even so," resumed the minister. "For, if we deem it otherwise, do we not thereby say that the Heavenly Father, the Creator of all flesh, hath lightly recognised a deed of sin, and made of no account the distinction between unhallowed lust and holy love? This child of its father's guilt and its mother's shame hath come from the hand of God, to work in many ways upon her heart, who pleads so earnestly, and with such bitterness of spirit, the right to keep her. It was meant for a blessing; for the one blessing of her life! It was meant, doubtless, as the mother herself hath told us, for a retribution too; a torture to be felt at many an unthought-of moment; a pang, a sting, an ever-recurring agony, in the midst of a troubled joy! Hath she not expressed this thought in the garb of the poor child, so forcibly reminding us of that red symbol which sears her bosom?"
“尤其是,”年轻牧师接着说,“如果我们换一个角度来看待这件事,我们岂不是说,那创造了一切肉体的天父,只是随便地承认了一次罪行,而对亵渎的淫秽和神圣的爱情之间毫不加以区别吗?这孩子是她父亲的罪孽和她母亲的耻辱的产物,但却来自上帝之手,面上帝要通过许多方式来感化做母亲的心灵,因此她才这么诚挚地、怀着这么痛苦的精神来祈求养育孩子的极利。她是在祈求祝福,向赐于孩子生命的上帝祈求祝福!毫无疑问,诚如这母亲自己对我们所说,她也是在祈求一种报应;她在祈求一种折磨,让她在意想不到的许多时刻体会到这种折磨;她在祈求一阵剧痛,一下刺扎,一种时时复发的、纠缠着她的快乐的痛楚!在这可怜的孩子的衣服上,她不是表达了她的这种想法吗?这身衣服不是有力地提醒我们那烙进她胸口的红色象征吗?”

"Well said again!" cried good Mr. Wilson. "I feared the woman had no better thought than to make a mountebank of her child!"
“还是你说得高明!”好心肠的威尔逊先生叫道。“我本来担心这女人除去拿她的孩子装幌子再也没有更好的想法呢!