This outward mutability indicated, and did not more than fairly express, the various properties of her inner life. Her nature appeared to possess depth, too, as well as variety; but- or else Hester's fears deceived her- it lacked reference and adaptation to the world into which she was born. The child could not be made amenable to rules. In giving her existence, a great law had been broken; and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant, but all in disorder; or with an order peculiar to themselves, amidst which the point of variety and arrangement was difficult or impossible to be discovered. Hester could only account for the child's character- and even then most vaguely and imperfectly- by recalling what she herself had been, during that momentous period while Pearl was imbibing her soul from the spiritual world, and her bodily frame from its material of earth. The mother's impassioned state had been the medium through which were transmitted to the unborn infant the rays of its moral Life; and, however white and clear originally, they had taken the deep stains of crimson and gold, the fiery lustre, the black shadow, and the untempered light, of the intervening substance. Above all, the warfare of Hester's spirit, at that epoch, was perpetuated in Pearl. She could recognise her wild, desperate, defiant mood, the flightiness of her temper, and even some of the very cloud-shapes of gloom and despondency that had brooded in her heart. They were now illuminated by the morning radiance of a young child's disposition, but, later in the day of earthly existence, might be prolific of the storm and whirlwind.
外表上的千变万化说明——其实是恰到好处地表现出;她内在生命的多方面的特性。看来除去多方面的特性之外,她也具备深沉之处,只是对她所降临的这个世界还缺乏了解和适应的能力——也许只是由于海丝特忧心钟仲才误以为如此。这孩子根本不懂得循规蹈矩。随着她的诞生,就破坏了一条重大法律;其结果便是:构成这小家伙的素质或许可以说是美艳照人的,但都错了位,或许是本有其独特的次序,只是其安排和变化的要点,实在难以或不可能发现。海丝特只能靠回忆自己当时的情况来分析这孩子的性格:在珠儿从精神世界汲取自己的灵魂、从世上购物质中形成自己的躯体曲关键内期,她本人如何如何;但这样推断出来的孩子的性格,仍然是十分模糊不全的。做母亲的激动心态始终是将道德生活的光束传送给孕育着的胎儿的媒介;不管这些光束原先是多么洁白,总要深深地染上中问体的排红和金黄、火焰般的光辉、漆黑曲阴影和飘忽不定的光彩。而最主要的是,当时海丝特的好斗精神也永远注入了珠儿的身心。她能够看到当时笼罩着自己心灵的那种狂野、绝望和挑战的情绪,任性的脾气,甚至还有某种阴郁和沮丧的愁云。如今,这一切都在这小孩子的气质中略见端倪,眼下犹如晨曦照射,在今后的人生岁月中将会充满面骤风狂。

The discipline of the family, in those days, was of a far more rigid kind than now. The frown, the harsh rebuke, the frequent application of the rod, enjoined by Scriptural authority, were used, not merely in the way of punishment for actual offences, but as a wholesome regimen for the growth and promotion of all childish virtues. Hester Prynne, nevertheless, the lonely mother of this one child, ran little risk of erring on the side of undue severity. Mindful, however, of her own errors and misfortunes, she early sought to impose a tender, but strict control over the infant immortality that was committed to her charge. But the task was beyond her skill. After testing both smiles and frowns, and proving that neither mode of treatment possessed any calculable influence, Hester was ultimately compelled to stand aside, and permit the child to be swayed by her own impulses. Physical compulsion or restraint was effectual, of course, while it lasted. As to any other kind of discipline, whether addressed to her mind or heart, little Pearl might or might not be within its reach, in accordance with the caprice that ruled the moment. Her mother, while Pearl was yet an infant, grew acquainted with a certain peculiar look, that warned her when it would be labour thrown away to insist, persuade, or plead. It was a look so intelligent, yet inexplicable, so perverse, sometimes so malicious, but generally accompanied by a wild flow of spirits, that Hester could not help questioning, at such moments, whether Pearl was a human child. She seemed rather an airy sprite, which, after playing its fantastic sports for a little while upon the cottage-floor, would flit away with a mocking smile. Whenever that look appeared in her wild, bright, deeply black eyes, it invested her with a strange remoteness and intangibility; it was as if she were hovering in the air and might vanish, like a glimmering light, that comes we know not whence, and goes we know not whither. Beholding it, Hester was constrained to rush towards the child- to pursue the little elf in the flight which she invariably began- to snatch her to her bosom, with a close pressure and earnest kisses- not so much from overflowing love, as to assure herself that Pearl was flesh and blood, and not utterly delusive. But Pearl's laugh, when she was caught, though full of merriment and music, made her mother more doubtful than before.
当年的家规可耍比现在严厉得多。怒目瞪视、厉声呵斥和始手就打,全都有《圣经》可依,这些手段不仅是对错误言行的处罚,而且是作为培养儿童品德的有益措施。然而,海丝特·白兰和珠儿是寡母孤儿,她绝不会对孩子失之苛责。她多少出于自己的失足和不幸,早早便想对她受权负责的婴儿施以慈爱而严格的管教。但这一职责非她所能胜任。海丝特对珠儿试过用笑脸相劝或厉声训斥,但两种办法都不能奏效,最后只好被迫站在一旁,听凭孩子随心所欲了。当然,体罚和管柬在施行的当时还是有效的。至于对孩子思想或感情的任何其它教育开导,小珠儿也可能听,也可能不听,全看她当时是否高兴了。还在珠儿是婴儿的时候,她母亲就渐渐熟悉了她的一种特别的神情,那是在告诉母亲,此时对她的一切强制、劝说或请求都将无济于事。那一种神情极其聪慧,又极其费解,极其刚健,有时又极其凶狠,但总是伴随着一种奔放的情绪,令海丝特在此时无法盘洁,珠儿到底是不是一个凡人的子嗣。她更象是—个飘忽的精灵,在茅屋的地面上作过一阵奇思异想的游戏之后,使要面带嘲笑地飞走了。每逢她那狂野、明亮、漆黑的眼暗中出现那种神情时,她便蒙上一层远不可及的神秘色彩,仿佛正在空中翱翔,随时都可能消失,就象不知来自何处、去往何方的闪光似的。海丝特一看到这情景,就要象追逐逃跑的小精灵那样向孩子扑去,而珠儿也一定要开始逃跑;母亲抓住孩子,把她紧紧贴在胸前,热切地亲吻着,这样做倒不是出自爱的洋溢,而是使自己确信,珠儿是个血肉之躯,并非虚幻之物。但珠儿被抓住的时候,她咯咯的笑声中虽然充满欢乐和鸣,却使母亲较前益发困惑。