"Oh, not so!- not so!" continued Mr. Dimmesdale. "She recognises, believe me, the solemn miracle which God hath wrought, in the existence of that child. And may she feel, too- what, methinks, is the very truth- that this boon was meant, above all things else, to keep the mother's soul alive, and to preserve her from blacker depths of sin into which Satan might else have sought to plunge her! Therefore it is good for this poor, sinful woman that she hath an infant immortality, a being capable of eternal joy or sorrow, confided to her care- to be trained up by her to righteousness- to remind her, at every moment, of her fall- but yet to teach her, as it were by the Creator's sacred pledge, that, if she bring the child to heaven, the child also will bring its parent thither! Herein is the sinful mother happier than the sinful father. For Hester Prynne's sake, then, and no less for the poor child's sake, let us leave them as Providence hath seen fit to place them!"
“噢,并非如此!——并非如此!”丁梅斯代尔先生继续说。“请相信我,她已经认识到了上帝在这个孩子的存在上所创造的神圣的奇迹。而且她可能也感受到了——我想恰恰如此——上帝赐给她这个孩子,尤其意味着,要保持母亲的灵魂的活力,防止她陷入罪恶的更黑暗的深渊,否则撒旦还会设法诱惑她的!因此,给这个可怜而有罪的女人留下一个不朽助婴儿,一个可能带来永恒的欢乐或悲伤的生命,对她会大有好处;让她去抚养孩子,让她培养孩子走上正路,这样才能随时提醒她记着自己的堕落;因为这也是对造物主的神圣誓言,同时教育她,如果她能把孩子送上天国,那么孩子也就能把她带到天国!就此而论,有罪的母亲可要比那有罪的父亲有幸。因此,为了海丝特·白兰,也同样为这可怜的孩子的缘故,我们还是按照天意对她们的安排,不去管她们吧!

"You speak, my friend, with a strange earnestness," said old Roger Chillingworth, smiling at him.
“我的朋友,你讲这番话,真是诚挚得出奇呢,”老罗杰·齐灵温斯对他笑着说。

"And there is a weighty import in what my young brother hath spoken," added the Reverend Mr. Wilson. "What say you, worshipful Master Bellingham? Hath he not pleaded well for the poor woman?"
“而且,我这年轻兄弟的话里的重要意义还满有分量呢,”威尔逊牧师先生补充说。“你怎么看,尊敬的贝灵汉老爷?他为这可怜的女人所作的请求满好吧?

"Indeed hath he," answered the magistrate, "and hath adduced such arguments, that we will even leave the matter as it now stands; so long, at least, as there shall be no further scandal in the woman. Care must be had, nevertheless, to put the child to due and stated examination in the catechism, at thy hands or Master Dimmesdale's. Moreover, at a proper season, the tithing-men must take heed that she go both to school and to meeting."
“确实不错,”那长官回答,“并且还引证了这些论据,我们只好让事情依旧如此喽,至少,只要没有人说这女人的闲话就行。不过,我们还是要认真,对这孩子要按时进行《教义问答手册》的正式考核,这事就交给你和丁梅斯代尔先生吧。再有,到了适当时候,耍让十户长注意送她上学校和做礼拜。

The young minister, on ceasing to speak, had withdrawn a few steps from the group, and stood with his face partially concealed in the heavy folds of the window-curtain; while the shadow of his figure, which the sunlight cast upon the floor, was tremulous with the vehemence of his appeal. Pearl, that wild and flighty little elf, stole softly towards him, and taking his hand in the grasp of both her own, laid her cheek against it; a caress so tender, and withal so unobtrusive, that her mother, who was looking on, asked herself, "Is that my Pearl?" Yet she knew that there was love in the child's heart, although it mostly revealed itself in passion, and hardly twice in her lifetime had been softened by such gentleness as now. The minister- for, save the long-sought regards of woman, nothing is sweeter than these marks of childish preference, accorded spontaneously by a spiritual instinct, and therefore seeming to imply in us something truly worthy to be loved- the minister looked round, laid his hand on the child's head, hesitated an instant, and then kissed her brow. Little Pearl's unwonted mood of sentiment lasted no longer; she laughed, and went capering down the hall, so airily, that old Mr. Wilson raised a question whether even her tiptoes touched the floor.
那年轻的牧师说完话之后,便离开人群,后退几步,让窗帘厚厚的褶襞住了他部分面孔;而阳光在地板上照出的他的身影,还在由于刚才激昂的呼吁面颤抖。珠儿那野性子的轻灵小鬼,轻手轻脚地偷偷溜到他身旁,用双手握住他的手,还把小脸贴在上面;那抚爱是那么温柔,而且还那么从容,使得在一旁看着的海丝特不禁自问:“那是我的珠儿吗?”然而她明白,这孩子的心中是有着爱的,不过这种爱通常是以激情的形式来表达的;她生来恐怕还没有第二次这样温文尔雅呢。而牧师呢——除去追寻已久的女性的关心之外,再没有这种孩子气的爱的表示更为甜蜜的了,由于这种爱发自精神本能,因此似乎是在暗示着,我们身上确实具有一些值得一爱的东西——此时他环顾四周,将一只手放在孩子的头上,迟疑了一会儿,然后吻了她的额头。小珠儿这种不寻常的温情脉脉到此为止,她放声笑着,朝大厅另一头轻捷地蹦跳而去,威尔逊老先生甚至怀疑,她的脚尖是否触到了地板。