Heart-smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so often came between herself and her sole treasure, whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world, Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears. Then, perhaps- for there was no foreseeing how it might affect her- Pearl would frown, and clench her little fist, and harden her small features into a stern, unsympathising look of discontent. Not seldom, she would laugh anew, and louder than before, like a thing incapable and unintelligent of human sorrow. Or- but this more rarely happened- she would be convulsed with a rage of grief, and sob out her love for her mother, in broken words, and seem intent on proving that she had a heart, by breaking it. Yet Hester was hardly safe in confiding herself to that gusty tenderness; it passed, as suddenly as it came. Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but, by some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has failed to win the master-word that should control this new and incomprehensible intelligence. Her only real comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep. Then she was sure of her, and tasted hours of quiet, sad, delicious happiness; until- perhaps with that perverse expression glimmering from beneath her opening lids- little Pearl awoke!
海丝特把她花了极其高昂的代价才得到的珠儿,看作她唯一的财富和全部的天地,但她看到在自己和孩子之间十分经常地插入这令她困惑的魔障,则痛心不已,有时还流下热泪。此时,珠儿或许就会——因为无法预见那魔障可能对她有何影响——攥起小手,紧皱眉头,板起面孔,在小肠上露出不满的冷冷表情。也有不少时候,她会再次咯咯大笑,比前一次笑得还响,就象是个对人类的哀伤无从知晓的东西。还有更罕见的,她会因一阵悲恸而全身抽搐,还会抽抽噎噎地说出几个不连贯的词语来表达她对母亲的爱,似乎要用心碎证明她确实有一颗心。不过,海丝特毫无把握使自己相信这种来得快、去得疾助旋风般的柔情。这位母亲将这一切情况前思后想之后,觉得自己象是一个呼唤精灵的人,但是由于没有按照魔法的步骤行事,尚把握不住制服这个还闹不清底细的新精灵的咒语。只有在孩子躺下安然入睡时,她才感到真正的宽心;这时她才能确定她的存在,体陈上几小时的沁人肺腑的恬静和幸福,直到小珠儿一觉醒来——也许就在孩子刚刚睁眼的时候,那种倔劲又表现出来了!

 

How soon- with what strange rapidity, indeed!- did Pearl arrive at an age that was capable of social intercourse, beyond the mother's ever-ready smile and nonsense-words!And then what a happiness would it have been, could Hester Prynne have heard her clear, birdlike voice mingling with the uproar of other childish voices, and have distinguished and unravelled her own darling's tones, amid all the entangled outcry of a group of sportive children! But this could never be. Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with which the child comprehended her loneliness; the destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her; the whole peculiarity, in short, of her position in respect to other children. Never, since her release from prison, had Hester met the public gaze without her. In all her walks about the town, Pearl, too, was there; first as the babe in arms, and afterwards as the little girl, small companion of her mother, holding a forefinger with her whole grasp, and tripping along at the rate of three or four footsteps to one of Hester's. She saw the children of the settlement, on the grassy margin of the street, or at the domestic thresholds, disporting themselves in such grim fashion as the Puritanic nurture would permit; playing at going to church, perchance; or at scourging Quakers; or taking scalps in a sham-fight with the Indians; or scaring one another with freaks of imitative witchcraft. Pearl saw, and gazed intently, but never sought to make acquaintance. If spoken to, she would not speak again. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.
好快啊,真是迅速得出奇呢!珠儿已经长到不满足于母亲脸上常挂着的微笑和嘴里唠叨的闲言碎语,能够与社会交往的年纪了!若是海丝特·白兰能够在别的孩子高声叫嚷的童声中,听到珠儿那莺啼燕啭般的清脆嗓音,能够从一群嬉戏的儿童的喧哗之中辨明她自己的宝贝儿的腔调.她该有多么幸福啊!但这是绝不可能的。珠儿生来便是那婴孩天地的弃儿。她是一个邪恶的小妖精,是罪孽的标志和产物,无极脐身于受洗的婴孩之列。最值得注意的是,这孩子仿佛有一种理解自己孤独处境的本能;懂得自己周围有一条命中注定不可逾越的鸿沟;简言之,她知道自己与其他孩子迥然不同的特殊地位。自从海丝特出狱以来,她从来都带着珠儿出现在人们面前。她在镇上四处走动,珠儿也始终都在她身边;起初是她怀中的婴儿,后来又成了她的小伙伴,满把握着她的一根食指,得蹦蹦跳跳地用三四步才赶上海丝特的一步。珠儿看到过这块殖民地上的小孩子们,在路边的草地上或是在自家门前,做着请教徒童规所允许的种种怪里怪气的游戏:有时装作一起去教堂,或是拷问教友派的教徒,或是玩同印第安人打仗和剥头皮的把戏,或是模仿巫术的怪样互相吓唬。珠儿在一劳瞅着,注视着,但从来没打算和他们结识。如果这时和她说话,她也不会咬声。如果孩子们有时围起她来,她就发起小脾气,变得非常凶狠,她会抄起石于向他们扔去,同时发出连续的尖声怪叫,跟巫婆用没入能懂的咒语喊叫极其相似,吓得她母亲浑身直抖。