Chapter 08 THE ELF-CHILD AND THE MINISTER
第八章 小鬼和牧师

"This is awful!" cried the Governor, slowly recovering from the astonishment into which Pearl's response had thrown him. "Here is a child of three years old, and she cannot tell who made her! Without question, she is equally in the dark as to her soul, its present depravity and future destiny! Methinks, gentlemen, we need inquire no further!"
“这太可怕了!”总督叫着,渐渐从珠儿的应答所带给他的震惊中恢复过来。“这是个三岁的孩子,可她根本说不出是谁造出了她!毫无疑问,她对自己的灵魂,对目前的堕落,对未来的命运,全然一无所知!依我看,诸位先生,我们无需再问了。

Hester caught hold of Pearl, and drew her forcibly into her arms, confronting the old Puritan magistrate with almost a fierce expression. Alone in the world, cast off by it, and with this sole treasure to keep her heart alive, she felt that she possessed indefeasible rights against the world, and was ready to defend them to the death.
海丝特抓住珠儿,强把她拉进自己的怀里,面对着那几乎是满险凶相的清教徒长官。她被这个世界所抛弃,只剩下孤身一人,只有这一件珍宝才能维持她心灵的生存,她感到她有不可剥夺的权利来对抗这个世界,而且准备好维护自己的权利一直到死。

"God gave me the child!" cried she. "He gave her in requital of all things else, which ye had taken from me. She is my happiness!- she is my torture, none the less! Pearl keeps me here in life! Pearl punishes me too! See ye not, she is the scarlet letter, only capable of being loved, and so endowed with a millionfold the power of retribution for my sin? Ye shall not take her! I will die first!"
“上帝给了我这个孩子!”她大声说道。“他把她给了我是为了补偿你们从我手中夺走的一切。她是我的幸福!——也分毫不爽地是我的拆磨!是珠儿叫我还活在世上!也是珠儿叫我受着惩罚!你们看见没有?她就是红字,只不过能够受到喜爱,因此也具有千万倍的力量来报应我的罪孽!你们带不走她!我情愿先死给你们看!

"My poor woman," said the not unkind old minister, "the child shall be well cared for!- far better than thou canst do it!"
“我可怜的女人,”那不无慈悲的老牧师说,“这孩子会受到很好的照顾的!——远比你能办到的要强。

"God gave her into my keeping," repeated Hester Prynne, raising her voice almost to a shriek. "I will not give her up!"- And here, by a sudden impulse, she turned to the young clergyman, Mr. Dimmesdale, at whom, up to this moment, she had seemed hardly so much as once to direct her eyes.- "Speak thou for me!" cried she. "Thou wast my pastor, and hadst charge of my soul, and knowest me better than these men can. I will not lose the child! Speak for me! Thou knowest- for thou hast sympathies which these men lack- thou knowest what is in my heart, and what are a mother's rights, and how much the stronger they are, when that mother has but her child and the scarlet letter! Look thou to it! I will not lose the child! Look to it!"
“上帝把这孩子交给了我来抚养,”海丝特·白兰重复说,嗓音大得简直象喊叫了。“我绝不会放弃她的!”说到这里,她突然一阵冲动,转向了年轻的牧师丁梅斯代尔先生,此前她简直始终没有正眼看过他。“你来替我说一句话嘛!”她说。“你原来是我的牧师,曾经对我的灵魂负责,你比这些人更了解我。我不能失去这个孩子!替我说句话吧!你了解我——而且你还具有这些人所缺乏的同情心!你了解我心里的想法,也了解一个母亲的权利,而当那位母亲只有她的孩子和红字的时候,这种权利就更烟强烈!请你关注一下吧!我绝不会失去这个孩子的!关注一下吧!”