Good heavens! Had Mr. Dimmesdale actually spoken? For one instant, he believed that these words had passed his lips. But they were uttered only within his imagination. The venerable Father Wilson continued to step slowly onward, looking carefully at the muddy pathway before his feet, and never once turning his head toward the guilty platform. When the light of the glimmering lantern had faded quite away, the minister discovered, by the faintness which came over him, that the last few moments had been a crisis of terrible anxiety; although his mind had made an involuntary effort to relieve itself by a kind of lurid playfulness.
天啊!丁梅斯代尔先生当真说出声了吗?在一刹那间,他相信这些话确实已经说出了口。其实只是在他的想象之中发出了声。那可敬的威尔逊神父依旧缓缓地朝前走着,眼睛死盯住脚下的泥径,根本没朝刑台侧头瞥上一眼。在那闪亮的灯光渐渐消逝在远处之后,牧师在袭来的一阵昏迷中发现,刚才那一刻间,确实有一种非常焦心的危机;尽管他内心不禁竭力用一种凄凉的强颜欢笑来加以宽慰。

Shortly afterwards, the like grisly sense of the humorous again stole in among the solemn phantoms of his thought. He felt his limbs growing stiff with the unaccustomed chilliness of the night, and doubted whether he should be able to descend the steps of the scaffold. Morning would break, and find him there. The neighbourhood would begin to rouse itself. The earliest riser, coming forth in the dim twilight, would perceive a vaguely defined figure aloft on the place of shame; and, half crazed betwixt alarm and curiosity, would go, knocking from door to door, summoning all the people to behold the ghost- as he needs must think it- of some defunct transgressor. A dusky tumult would flap its wings from one house to another. Then- the morning light still waxing stronger- old patriarchs would rise up in great haste, each in his flannel gown, and matronly dames, without pausing to put off their night-gear. The whole tribe of decorous personages, who had never heretofore been seen with a single hair of their heads awry, would start into public view, with the disorder of a nightmare in their aspects. Old Governor Bellingham would come grimly forth, with his King James ruff fastened askew; and Mistress Hibbins, with some twigs of the forest clinging to her skirts, and looking sourer than ever, as having hardly got a wink of sleep after her night ride; and good Father Wilson, too, after spending half the night at a death-bed, and liking ill to be disturbed, thus early, out of his dreams about the glorified saints. Hither, likewise, would come the elders and deacons of Mr Dimmesdale's church, and the young virgins who so idolised their minister, and had made a shrine for him in their white bosoms; which now, by-the-bye, in their hurry and confusion, they would scantily have given themselves time to cover with their kerchiefs. All people, in a word, would come stumbling over their thresholds, and turning up their amazed and horror-stricken visages around the scaffold. Whom would they discern there, with the red eastern light upon his brow? Whom, but the Reverend Arthur Dimmesdale, half frozen to death, overwhelmed with shame, and standing where Hester Prynne had stood!
不久,在他脑海中的肃穆幻象中又悄悄夹杂进来同样可怕的古怪念头。他感到由于不惯于夜间的凉意,四肢逐渐发僵,并且怀疑自己还能否走下刑台的台阶。天将破晓,他会被人发现站在台上。四邻将开始起身。最早起床的人踏人晨曦的微光,将会看到有个轮廓模糊的身形高高站在耻辱台上;于是便会在半惊骇半好奇之中走开去,敲开一家又一家的大门,叫人们出来看这已死的罪人的鬼魂——那人一定会这么想的。一阵破晓时的喧闹将从一家飞到另一家。之后,曙光渐明,老汉们会匆忙爬起身,穿上法兰绒长袍,主妇们则顾不上脱下她们的睡衣。那伙衣冠楚楚的人物,平素里从来没人见过他们有一丝头发散乱,此时也会遭了梦魇股的衣冠不整地就跑到了众人眼前。老总督贝灵汉会歪戴着他那詹姆士王时期的环状皱领,绷紧面孔走出来;西宾斯太太,由于彻夜邀游不曾阖眼,脸色会较平时更加难看,而裙上还会沾着林中细校;好心的威尔逊神父也会来的,他在死者床边熬了半夜,对于这么早就给从光荣的圣徒的美梦中惊醒,满肚子不高兴。到这里来的还会有了梅斯代尔先生教堂中的长老们和执事们,以及那些对自己的牧师祟拜之极、在她们洁白的心胸中为他立了圣龛的少女们;顺便说一下,她们此时正在慌乱之中,会根本来不及蒙上面巾。总而言之,所有的人都会磕磕绊绊地通过门槛,在刑台四周抬起惊惶的面孔。他们会依稀看到那里站着一个人,额上映着东方的红光,那会是谁呢?除去可敬的阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔先生还能是谁!他已经冻得半死,正满面羞惭地站在海丝特·白兰曾经示众的地方!