'I don't like my children going and making themselves beholden to strange kin,' murmured he. 'I'm the head of the noblest branch o' the family, and I ought to live up to it.'
“我不喜欢我的孩子们到不认得的亲戚那儿去沾光,”他嘟哝着说,“我是这个家族中最高贵的一房的家长,我做事应该符合身分。”

His reasons for staying away were worse to Tess than her own objection to going. 'Well, as I killed the horse, mother,' she said mournfully, 'I suppose I ought to do something. I don't mind going and seeing her, but you must leave it to me about asking for help. And don't go thinking about her making a match for me - it is silly.'
在苔丝看来,她父亲不让她去的理由比她自己反对前去的理由更加荒谬。“好吧,马死在我手里,母亲,”她悲伤地说,“我想应该作点儿什么来挽救。我不在乎前去见她,不过求她帮助的事,你们一定要让我看着办。你们也不要老想着她给我找丈夫的事啦——那是愚蠢的。”

'Very well said, Tess!' observed her father sententiously.
“说得很好,苔丝!”她的父亲以说教的口吻说。

'Who said I had such a thought?' asked Joan.
“谁说我有这样的想法?”琼问。

'I fancy it is in your mind, mother. But I'll go.'
“我猜想你心里是这样想的,母亲。不过我愿意去。”

Rising early next day she walked to the hill-town called Shaston, and there took advantage of a van which twice in the week ran from Shaston eastward to Chaseborough, passing near Trantridge, the parish in which the vague and mysterious Mrs d'Urberville had her residence.
第二天一早她就起了床,动身前往叫做沙斯顿的依山小镇,她在那儿就可以搭乘每个礼拜有两趟从沙斯顿向东前往猎苑堡的大车,大车从特兰里奇附近经过,那位神秘模糊的德贝维尔太太就住在那个教区里。

Tess Durbeyfield's route on this memorable morning lay amid the northeastern undulations of the Vale in which she had been born, and in which her life had unfolded. The Vale of Blackmoor was to her the world, and its inhabitants the races thereof. From the gates and stiles of Marlott she had looked down its length in the wondering days of infancy, and what had been mystery to her then was not much less than mystery to her now. She has seen dally from her chamber-window towers, villages, faint white mansions; above all the town of Shaston standing majestically on its height; its windows shining like lamps in the evening sun. She had hardly ever visited the place, only a small tract even of the Vale and its environs being known to her by close inspection. Much less had she been far outside the valley. Every contour of the surrounding hills was as personal to her as that of her relatives' faces; but for what lay beyond her judgment was dependent on the teaching of the village school, where she had held a leading place at the time of her leaving, a year or two before this date.
在这个难忘的早上,苔丝·德北菲尔德要走的路是从布莱克原野谷东北部高低起伏的中间地带穿过,她在这个谷中出生,她的人生也是在这个谷中展开的。对苔丝来说,黑荒原谷就是一个世界,因此黑荒原谷的所有居民就是整个人类。在她对一切都感到新奇的孩童时期,她就从马洛特村的栅栏门口和栅栏门旁的台阶上向下仔细地观察过这片谷地,那时候她感到很神秘,而现在她感到的神秘也没有减少多少。每天她都从自己房间的窗户里看见教堂的钟楼、村庄和白色的屋宇;尤其是高踞山顶的威严的沙斯顿小镇特别惹人注意;小镇的窗玻璃在夕阳里闪闪发光,宛如一盏盏灯火。她从来没有去过那个地方,即使这个山谷和这个山谷附近的地带,她通过就近观察而熟悉的地方只有一小片。远离山谷的地方她就去得更少了。四周山峦的所有外形她都熟悉,就像熟悉她的亲戚的面孔一样;但是对她没有去过的地方,她就只能根据在乡村小学学到的知识加以判断了。到今天她离开学校还只有一两年的时间,她离开学校的时候,她是学校里学得最好的学生。