Men were at work here and there - for it was the season for 'taking up' the meadows, or digging the little waterways clear for the winter irrigation, and mending their banks where trodden down by the cows. The shovelfuls of loam, black as 'et, brought there by the river when it was as wide as the whole valley, were an essence of soils, pounded champaigns of the past, steeped, refined, and subtilized to extraordinary richness, out of which came all the fertility of the mead, and of the cattle grazing there.
男工们正在四处干活——因为现在是修整牧场的季节,或者把草场上的一些冬天用来灌溉的沟渠挖干净,把被奶牛踩坏的坡岸修理好。一铲一铲的黑土,像墨玉一样漆黑,是在河流还同山谷一样宽阔时被冲到这儿的,它们是土壤的精华,是过去被打碎的原野经过浸泡、提炼,才变得特别肥沃,从这种土壤里又长出丰茂的牧草,喂养那儿的牛群。

Clare hardily kept his arm round her waist in sight of these watermen, with the air of a man who was accustomed to public dalliance, though actually as shy as she who, with lips parted and eyes askance on the labourers, wore the look of a wary animal the while.
在这些工人面前,克莱尔仍然大胆地用胳膊搂着苔丝的腰,脸上是一种惯于公开调情的神气,尽管实际上他也像苔丝一样羞怯,而苔丝张着嘴,斜眼看着那些干活的工人们,脸上的神色看上去就像是一只胆小的动物。

'You are not ashamed of owning me as yours before them!' she said gladly.
“在他们面前,你不怕承认我是你的人呢!”她高兴地说。

'O no!'
“啊,不怕!”

'But if it should reach the ears of your friends at Emminster that you are walking about like this with me, a milkmaid--'
“但是如果传到爱敏寺你家里的人的耳朵里,说你这样和我散步,和一个挤牛奶的姑娘——”

'The most bewitching milkmaid ever seen.'
“从来没有过的最迷人的挤奶姑娘。”

'They might feel it a hurt to their dignity.'
“他们也许会感到这有损他们的尊贵。”

'My dear girl - a d'Urberville hurt the dignity of a Clare! It is a grand card to play - that of your belonging to such a family, and I am reserving it for a grand effect when we are married, and have the proofs of your descent from Parson Tringham. Apart from that, my future is to be totally foreign to my family - it will not affect even the surface of their lives. We shall leave this part of England - perhaps England itself - and what does it matter how people regard us here. You will like going, will you not?'
“我亲爱的姑娘——德北菲尔德家的小姐伤害了克莱尔家的尊贵!你属于这样一个家庭的出身,这才是一张王牌呢。我现在留着它,等我们结了婚,从特林汉姆牧师那儿找来你的出身的证据,然后再打出去,才有惊人的效果。除此而外,我们将来的生活同我的家庭完全没有关系——甚至连他们生活的表面也不会有一点儿影响。我们也许要离开英国这一带——也许离开英国——别人怎样看待我们又有什么关系呢?你愿意离开吧,是不是?”