Chapter 16 A FOREST WALK
第十六章 林中散步

HESTER PRYNNE remained constant in her resolve to make known to Mr. Dimmesdale, at whatever risk of present pain or ulterior consequences, the true character of the man who had crept into his intimacy. For several days, however, she vainly sought an opportunity of addressing him in some of the meditative walks which she knew him to be in the habit of taking, along the shores of the peninsula, or on the wooded hills of the neighbouring country. There would have been no scandal, indeed, nor peril to the holy whiteness of the clergyman's good fame, had she visited him in his own study; where many a penitent, ere now, had confessed sins of perhaps as deep a dye as the one betokened by the scarlet letter. But, partly that she dreaded the secret or undisguised interference of old Roger Chillingworth, and partly that her conscious heart imputed suspicion where none could have been felt, and partly that both the minister and she would need the whole wide world to breathe in, while they talked together- for all these reasons, Hester never though of meeting him in any narrower privacy than beneath the open sky.
海丝特·白兰不管眼下有什么痛苦或日后有什么结果,也甘冒风险,一心要对丁梅斯代尔先生揭示那个钻到他身边的人的真实身分。她知道他有一个习惯,喜欢沿着半岛的岸边或邻近的乡间的山林中边散步边思考,但接连好几天,她都没能趁着这个时间找个机会同他交谈。当然,她就是到他自己的书斋去拜访,也不会引起谣言,更不会对牧师那圣洁的名声有什么影响,因为原本就有许多人到他的书斋中去仟侮,他们所招认的罪孽之深重,或许不亚于红字所代表的那种。然而,一来她担心老罗杰·齐灵渥斯会暗中或公然搅扰;一来她自己心里疑神疑鬼,虽说别人并不会猜测;一来她和牧师谈话时,两人都需要整个旷野来呼吸空气——出于这一切原因,海丝特从来没想过不在光天化日之下面在什么狭窄的私下场所去见他。

At last, while attending in a sick-chamber, whither the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale had been summoned to make a prayer, she learnt that he had gone, the day before, to visit the Apostle Eliot, among his Indian converts. He would probably return, by a certain hour, in the afternoon of the morrow. Betimes, therefore, the next day, Hester took little Pearl- who was necessarily the companion of all her mother's expeditions, however inconvenient her presence- and set forth.
后来,她到一家病人的房中去帮忙,而丁梅斯代尔牧师先生先前也曾应邀去作道祈祷,她才在那里听说他已经在前一天就走了——到他的印第安信徒中拜访使徒艾略特去了。他可能要在第二天下午的某个时刻回来。于是,到了次日那个钟点,海丝特就带上珠儿出发了——只要母亲外出,不管带着她方便与否,她反正总是必不可少的伴侣。

The road, after the two wayfarers had crossed from the peninsula to the mainland, was no other than a footpath. It straggled onward into the mystery of the primeval forest. This hemmed it in so narrowly, and stood so black and dense on either side, and disclosed such imperfect glimpses of the sky above, that, to Hester's mind, it imaged not amiss the moral wilderness in which she had so long been wandering. The day was chill and sombre. Overhead was a grey expanse of cloud, slightly stirred, however, by a breeze; so that a gleam of flickering sunshine might now and then be seen at its solitary play along the path. This flitting cheerfulness was always at the farther extremity of some long vista through the forest. The sportive sunlight- feebly sportive, at best, in the predominant pensiveness of the day and scene- withdrew itself as they came nigh, and left the spots where it had danced the drearier, because they had hoped to find them bright.
这两个行路人穿过半岛踏上大陆之后,脚下便只有一条人行小径可走了。这条小路婉蜒伸入神秘的原始森林之中。树木紧紧夹位窄窄的小路,耸立在两旁,浓密蔽荫,让人举目难见青天。在海丝特看来,这恰是她多年来徘徊其中的道德荒野的写照。天气阴沉面寒冷。头上是灰蒙蒙的云天,时而被微风轻拂;因而不时可见缕缕阳光,孤寂地在小径上闪烁跳跃。这种转瞬即逝的欢快,总是闪现在森林纵深的远端。在天气和景色的一片阴霾中,那嬉戏的阳光——充其量不过是微弱的闪跃——在她们走近时就退缩了,她们原本希望阳光闪跃过的地方会明亮些,但走到跟前倒显得益发阴暗了。