"Tell me, mother!" said the child seriously, coming up to Hester, and pressing herself close to her knees. "Do thou tell me!"
“告诉我吧,妈妈!”孩子走到海丝特跟前,紧紧靠着她膝头,一本正经地说。“一定跟我说说吧!”

"Thy Heavenly Father sent thee!" answered Hester Prynne.
“是你的天父把你送来的!”海丝特·白兰回答说。

But she said it with a hesitation that did not escape the acuteness of the child. Whether moved only by her ordinary freakishness, or because an evil spirit prompted her, she put up her small forefinger, and touched the scarlet letter.
但她说话时有点犹豫,这没有逃过孩子犀利的目光。不知孩于和往常一样想要调皮,还是受到一个邪恶的精灵的指使,她举起她小小的食指,去摸那红字。

"He did not send me!" cried she positively. "I have no Heavenly Father!"
“不是他把我送来的!”她明确地说。“我没有天父!

"Hush, Pearl, hush! Thou must not talk so!" answered the mother, suppressing a groan. "He sent us all into this world. He sent even me, thy mother. Then, much more, thee! Or, if not, thou strange and elfish child, whence didst thou come?"
“嘘,珠儿,嘘!你不许这么说!”母亲咽下一声哀叹,回答说。“我们所有的人都是他送到这世上来的。连我——你妈妈,都是他送来的。就更不用说你了!要不是这样,你这个怪里怪气的小妖精似的孩子是从哪儿来的?”

"Tell me! Tell me!" repeated Pearl, no longer seriously, but laughing, and capering about the floor. "It is thou that must tell me!"
“告诉我!告诉我!”珠儿一再喊着,这次不再板着面孔,而是笑出了声,还在地上跳着脚。“你非告诉我不可!

But Hester could not resolve the query, being herself in a dismal labyrinth of doubt. She remembered- betwixt a smile and a shudder- the talk of the neighbouring townspeople; who, seeking vainly elsewhere for the child's paternity, and observing some of her old attributes, had given out that poor little Pearl was a demon offspring; such as, ever since old Catholic times, had occasionally been seer, on earth, through the agency of their mother's sin, and to promote some foul and wicked purpose. Luther, according to the scandal of his monkish enemies, was a brat of that hellish breed; nor was Pearl the only child to whom this inauspicious origin was assigned among the New England Puritans.
对这一逼问,海丝特可没法作答了,因为连她自己也尚在阴暗的迷宫中徘徊呢。她面带微笑、周身战栗地想起了镇上邻居的说法,他们遍寻这孩子的父亲没有结果,又观察到珠儿的古怪作为,就声称可怜的小珠儿是一个妖魔助产物。自从古天主教时代以来,世上常见这种孩子,都是由于做母亲的有罪孽,才生下来以助长肮脏恶毒的目的。按照路德②在教会中那些敌人的谣言,他本人就是那种恶魔的孽种;而在新英格兰的请教徒中闯,有这种可疑血缘的,可不仅仅珠儿一个孩子。

①希腊种话中说,腓尼基王子卡德马斯杀一龙后种其齿,遂长出一支军队,相互征战,最后余下五人,与卡德马斯建立底比斯国。

②马丁.路德(1482一1546),德国神学家,家教改革的领袖。