It might be, too- doubtless it was so, although she hid the secret from herself, and grew pale whenever it struggled out of her heart, like a serpent from its hole- it might be that another feeling kept her within the scene and pathway that had been so fatal. There dwelt, there trode the feet of one with whom she deemed herself connected in a union, that, unrecognised on earth, would bring them together before the bar of final judgment, and make that their marriage-altar, for a joint futurity of endless retribution. Over and over again, the tempter of souls had thrust this idea upon Hester's contemplation, and laughed at the passionate and desperate joy with which she seized, and then strove to cast it from her. She barely looked the idea in the face, and hastened to bar it in its dungeon. What she compelled herself to believe- what, finally, she reasoned upon, as her motive for continuing a resident of New England- was half a truth, and half a self-delusion. Here, she said to herself, had been the scene of her guilt, and here should be the scene of her earthly punishment; and so, perchance, the torture of her daily shame would at length purge her soul, and work out another purity than that which she had lost; more saint-like, because the result of martyrdom.
虽然她向自己隐藏着那个秘密,但只要那个秘密象蟒蛇出洞似的从她心中一钻出来,她就会面色苍白,这或许是——应该说无疑是,将她滞留在如此息息攸关的场地和小路上的另一种感情。在这场地上居住着一个人,在这里的小路上踏着他的脚步,虽说不为世人所认可,她却自信他俩已结成一体,井将共同来到末日审判的席位前凭栏而立,在那里举行神圣的婚礼,以共同承担未来的永无止期的报应。人类灵魂的诱惑者一再把这个念头塞进海丝特的脑海,还嘲笑着搜住她的情欲和狂喜,然后又竭力让她抛掉这一念头。她只能对这个念头匆匆一瞥,便又急忙将其闭锁在它的地窖里。终于,她分析出自己在新英格兰继续后留下来的动机,并且迫使自己去相信,其实只有一半是真情,另一半则是自欺。她对自己说,这里曾是她犯下罪孽的地方,这愿也应是她接受人问惩罚的地方;这样,或许她逐日受到的耻辱的折磨最终会荡涤她的灵魂,并产生出比她失去的那个还要神圣的另一个纯洁,因为这是她殉道的结果。

Hester Prynne, therefore, did not flee. On the outskirts of the town, within the verge of the peninsula, but not in close vicinity to any other habitation, there was a small thatched cottage. It had been built by an earlier settler, and abandoned, because the soil about it was too sterile for cultivation, while its comparative remoteness put it out of the sphere of that social activity which already marked the habits of the emigrants. It stood on the shore, looking across a basin of the sea at the forest-covered hills, towards the west. A clump of scrubby trees, such as alone grew on the peninsula, did not so much conceal the cottage from view, as seem to denote that here was some object which would fain have been, or at least ought to be, concealed. In this little, lonesome dwelling, with some slender means that she possessed, and by the license of the magistrates, who still kept an inquisitorial watch over her, Hester established herself, with her infant child. A mystic shadow of suspicion immediately attached itself to the spot. Children, too young to comprehend wherefore this woman should be shut out from the sphere of human charities, would creep nigh enough to behold her plying her needle at the cottage-window, or standing in the doorway, or labouring in her little garden, or coming forth along the pathway that led townward; and, discerning the scarlet letter on her breast, would scamper off with a strange, contagious fear.
因此,海丝特·白兰并没有出走。在镇郊半岛的边缘上,有—间小茅屋远离居民区。这是原先的一名移民建起后又放弃了的,因为那一带土地过了贫瘠,不宜耕种,况且离群索居,而社会活动当时已成为移民的一个显著的习惯。茅屋位于岸边,隔着一做海水与西边一片浓荫覆盖的小山相望。半岛上只长着一丛孤零零的矮树,非但没有遮住茅屋,反倒象是在指示出这里有一个目标,而那个目标原本不情愿或至少是应该被挡得看不见的。就在这间孤随的小屋里,海丝特从仍在严密监视她的当局处获准,用她那菲薄的手段来养活她日己和她的孩于。一个疑虑重重的神秘阴影立刻就缠住了这块地方。年纪尚幼、不理解这个女人为什么会被人类的仁慈拒之门外的孩子们,会蹑手蹑脚地走近前来,窥视她在茅屋窗边飞针走线,窥视她位立门前,窥视她在小花园中耕作,窥视她踏上通往镇子的小径:待到看清她胸前的红字,便怀着一种害怕受到传染的奇异的恐惧,迅速逃开了。