Chapter 16 A FOREST WALK
第十六章 林中散步

"Didst thou ever awake, and find thy mother gone?" asked Hester.
“你夜里醒来时,可曾发现你妈妈出去了?”海丝特问。

"Not that I remember," said the child. "If thou fearest to leave me in our cottage, thou mightest take me along with thee. I would very gladly go! But, mother, tell me now! Is there such a Black Man? And didst thou ever meet him? And is this his mark?"
“我不记得有过,”孩子说。“要是你害怕把我一个人留在咱们的小屋里,你可以带我一块儿去那儿嘛。我可高兴去呢!不过,妈妈,现在就告诉我吧!有没有这么一个黑男人?你到底见过他没有?这红字是不是他的记号?”

"Wilt thou let me be at peace if I once tell thee?" asked her mother.
“要是我告诉你,你肯不肯让我安静安静?”她母亲问。

"Yes, if thou tellest me all," answered Pearl.
“成,你可得全告诉我,”珠儿回答。

"Once in my life I met the Black Man!" said her mother. "This scarlet letter is his mark!"
“我活这么大就见过那黑男人一次!”她母亲说。“这个红字就是他的记号!”

Thus conversing, they entered sufficiently deep into the wood to secure themselves from the observation of any casual passenger along the forest track. Here they sat down on a luxuriant heap of moss; which, at some epoch of the preceding century, had been a gigantic pine, with its roots and trunk in the darksome shade, and its head aloft in the upper atmosphere. It was a little dell where they had seated themselves, with a leaf-strewn bank rising gently on either side, and a brook flowing through the midst, over a bed of fallen and drowned leaves. The trees impending over it had flung down great branches, from time to time, which choked up the current, and compelled it to form eddies and black depths at some points; while, in its swifter and livelier passages, there appeared a channel-way of pebbles, and brown, sparkling sand. Letting the eyes follow along the course of the stream, they could catch the reflected light from its water, at some short distance within the forest, but soon lost all traces of it amid the bewilderment of tree-trunks and underbrush, and here and there a huge rock covered over with grey lichens. All these giant trees and boulders of granite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this small brook; fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loquacity, it should whisper tales out of the heart of the old forest whence it flowed, or mirror its revelations on the smooth surface of a pool. Continually, indeed, as it stole onward, the streamlet kept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without playfulness, and knew not how to be merry among sad acquaintance and events of sombre hue.
母女俩一边这么谈着,就走进了树林挺深的地方,在这儿她们很安全,绝不会被任何随便走过林中小径的路人看到。她们这时在一堆繁茂的青苔上坐了下来,这地方在一百多年以前,曾经长过一棵巨松,树冠高耸入云,树根和树干遮在浓荫之中。她们所坐的地方是一个小小的山谷,两侧的缓坡上铺满树叶,中间流着一条小溪,河底淹没着落时。悬在溪上的树木常年来投下的大树枝,阻逼了溪流,在一些地方形成了漩涡和深潭;而在溪水畅通、流得欢快的地段,则露出河底的石子和闪光的褐砂。她们放眼沿河道望去,可以看见在林中不远的地方水面粼粼的反光,但没多久,就在盘错的树干和灌木中失去了踪迹,而不时为一些长满灰色地衣的巨石遮住视线。所有这些大树和巨石似乎有意为这条小小的溪流蒙上一层神秘的色彩;或许是害怕它那喋喋不休的多嘴多舌会悄悄道出它所流经的古老树林的内心秘密,或者是害怕它那流过池塘时的光滑水面会映出其隐衷。确实,当小溪不停地偷偷向前流动时,一直在潺潺作响,那声音和蔼、平静又亲切,但总带点忧郁,就象一个婴儿时期没有玩痛快的小孩子,仍然不知如何在伤心的伙伴和阴暗的事件中自得其乐。