This phenomenon, in the various shapes which it assumed, indicated no external change, but so sudden and important a change in the spectator of the familiar scene, that the intervening space of a single day had operated on his consciousness like the lapse of years. The minister's own will, and Hester's will, and the fate that grew between them, had wrought this transformation. It was the same town as heretofore; but the same minister returned not from the forest. He might have said to the friends who greeted him, "I am not the man for whom you take me! I left him yonder in the forest, withdrawn into a secret dell, by a mossy tree-trunk, and near a melancholy brook! Go, seek your minister, and see if his emaciated figure, his thin cheek, his white, heavy, pain-wrinkled brow, be not flung down there, like a cast-off garment!" His friends, no doubt, would still have insisted with him- "Thou art thyself the man!"- but the error would have been their own, not his.
这一变幻得千姿百态的现象，并非表明外观上起了变化，只是说明观察这些熟悉景现的人内心发生了重要的突变，以致在他的意识上有了“一日不见、如隔三秋”之感。是牧师本人的意志和海丝特的意志，以及他俩之间出现的命运，造成了这一变形。镇子还是原来的镇子；但从林中归来的牧师却不同了。他很可能对向他打招呼的朋友们说：“我不是你们心目中的那个人了！我把他留在那边那座林子里了，他退缩到一个秘密的山谷里，离一条忧郁的小溪不远，就在一棵长满青苔的树干旁边！去找找你们的牧师吧，看看他那憔悴的身形，他那消瘦的面颊，他那苞白、沉重、爬满痛苦皱纹的前额，是不是象一件扔掉的衣袍一样给遗弃在那里了！”而他的朋友们，不消说，还会继续坚持对他说：“你自己就是那个人！”——但弄错的恐怕是他们，而不是他。

Before Mr. Dimmesdale reached home, his inner man gave him other evidences of a revolution in the sphere of thought and feeling. In truth, nothing short of a total change of dynasty and moral code, in that interior kingdom, was adequate to account for the impulses now communicated to the unfortunate and startled minister. At every step he was incited to do some strange, wild, wicked thing or other, with a sense that it would be at once involuntary and intentional; in spite of himself, yet growing out of a profounder self than that which opposed the impulse. For instance, he met one of his own deacons. The good old man addressed him with the paternal affection and patriarchal privilege, which his venerable age, his upright and holy character, and his station in the Church, entitled him to use; and, conjoined with this, the deep, almost worshipping respect, which the minister's professional and private claims alike demanded. Never was there a more beautiful example of how the majesty of age and wisdom may comport with the obeisance and respect enjoined upon it, as from a lower social rank, and inferior order of endowment, towards a higher. Now, during a conversation of some two or three moments between the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale and this excellent and hoary-bearded deacon, it was only by the most careful self-control that the former could refrain from uttering certain blasphemous suggestions that rose into his mind, respecting the communion-supper. He absolutely trembled and turned pale as ashes, lest his tongue should wag itself, in utterance of these horrible matters, and plead his own consent for so doing, without his having fairly given it. And, even with this terror in his heart, he could hardly avoid laughing, to imagine how the sanctified old patriarchal deacon would have been petrified by his minister's impiety.
在丁梅斯代尔先生到家之前，他内心的那个人又给了他一些别的证据，说明在他的思想感情领域中已发生了彻底的变革。的确，若不是他心内的王国已经改朝换代、纲常全非的话，实在无法解释如今支配着不幸而惊惧的牧师的种种冲动。他每走一步，心中都想作出这样那样的出奇的、狂野的、恶毒的事情，他感到这种念头既非心甘情愿，却又有意为之；一方面是不由自主，然而另一方面又是发自比反对这种冲动更深层的自我。比如说，他遇见了他的一名执事，那位好心肠的老人用一种父辈的慈爱和家长般的资格跟他打招呼，那老人是由于具备受人尊敬的高龄、正直圣洁的品性和在教会由的地位所赋予的权利才这么做的；而与此相应的是，牧师则应报以深切并近乎崇拜的敬意，这同样是出于他的职业和个人品德所要求的作法。象这样社会地位较低和天赋能力较劣的人对高于自己者的毕恭毕敬，是年高德重之人如何使自己既有等严又有相应的礼敬的前所未有的绝好范例。此时，当丁梅斯代尔牧师先生和这位德高望重、须发灰白的执事谈话的片刻之间，牧师只是极其小心翼翼地控制自己，才不致把涌上心头的有关圣餐的某些亵渎神明的意思说出口来。他紧张得周身战抖，面色灰白，生怕他的舌头会不经他的认可，就会自作主张地说出那些可怕的言辞。然而，尽管他内心如此惧怕，但一想到假着他当真说出那番大不敬的话来，那位圣洁的父辈老执事会吓得何等瞠目结舌，他还是禁不住要笑出声来！