Chapter 14 HESTER AND THE PHYSICIAN
第十四章 海丝特和医生

"Yea, woman, thou sayest truly!" cried old Roger Chillingworth, letting the lurid fire of his heart blaze out before her eyes. "Better had he died at once! Never did mortal suffer what this man has suffered. And all, all, in the sight of his worst enemy! He has been conscious of me. He has felt an influence dwelling always upon him like a curse. He knew, by some spiritual sense- for the Creator never made another being so sensitive as this- he knew that no friendly hand was pulling at his heart-strings, and that an eye was looking curiously into him, which sought only evil, and found it. But he knew not that the eye and hand were mine! With the superstition common to his brotherhood, he fancied himself given over to a fiend, to be tortured with frightful dreams, and desperate thoughts, the sting of remorse, and despair of pardon; as a foretaste of what awaits him beyond the grave. But it was the constant shadow of my presence!- the closest propinquity of the man whom he had most vilely wronged!- and who had grown to exist only by this perpetual poison of the direst revenge! Yea, indeed!- he did not err!- there was a fiend at his elbow! A mortal man, with once a human heart, has become a fiend for his especial torment!"
“是啊,妇人,你算说对了!”老罗杰·齐灵渥斯叫着,内心的火焰在她眼前烧得一片血红。“他不如马上死掉!他遭的那份罪还没有一个活人受过呢。而且这一切的一切全都让他最恶毒的政手看在眼里!他已经意识到我这个人了。’他已经感觉到有个象是诅咒的势力始终在他身边徘徊。他通过某种精神的感觉——造物主从来没有造过象他这样敏感的人——得知,拉扯他心弦的并不是什么友谊之手,而且还知道,有一双好奇的眼睛正在窥视他的内心,一心要寻找邪恶,并且已经找到了。不过他并不清楚,那双眼和那只手就是我的!他也有他的牧师兄弟们所共有的那种迷信,幻想着自己已被交给一个恶魔,受尽骇人的梦幻、绝望的念头、悔恨的螫刺和无望的宽怨的折磨;象是让他预先尝试一下等待着他的进入坟墓之后的是什么滋味。然而这恰恰是我的无所不在的暗影!——一个受到他最卑劣的委屈的人的最紧密的接触!——那个人已经变得只是出于极端的复仇的毒剂的永恒的驱使才活着了!是啊,他是对的!他没有弄错!他肘腋边确有一个恶魔!一个曾经有过人心的活人已经变成专门折磨他的恶魔了!”

The unfortunate physician, while uttering these words, lifted his hands with a look of horror, as if he had beheld some frightful shape, which he could not recognise, usurping the place of his own image in a glass. It was one of those moments- which sometimes occur only at the interval of years- when a man's moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind's eye. Not improbably, he had never before viewed himself as he did now.
那不幸的医生,一边说着这番话,一边神色恐怖地举起双手,仿佛他看到了某个不认识的怪影在镜中侵夺了他的映象。这属于那种多少年才出现一次的时刻:此时,一个人的精神风貌一丝不苟地显示在他心灵的眼前。他恐怕从来没有象此时这样看清他自己——这样说大概没有什么不要。

"Hast thou not tortured him enough?" said Hester, noticing the old man's look. "Has he not paid thee all?"
“难道你还没有把他折磨够吗?”海丝特注意到了那老人的神色,就这么问他,“难道他还没有偿还你的一切吗?”