The d'Urbervilles - or Stoke-d'Urbervilles, as they at first called themselves - who owned all this, were a somewhat unusual family to find in such an old-fashioned part of the country. Parson Tringham had spoken truly when he said that our shambling John Durbeyfield was the only really lineal representative of the old d'Urberville family existing in the county, or near it; he might have added, what he knew very well, that the Stoke-d'Urbervilles were no more d'Urbervilles of the true tree than he was himself. Yet it must be admitted that this family formed a very good stock whereon to regraft a name which sadly wanted such renovation.
德贝维尔家——或者像他们最先称呼自己的那样叫斯托克·德贝维尔家拥有这儿的一切产业,在英国如此保守的这块地方看到这样的家庭,是有些异乎寻常的。特林汉姆牧师说,我们那位步履蹒跚的约翰·德北菲尔德是英国古老的德贝维尔家族唯一仅存的嫡系子孙,他说的倒是真的,或者说接近真的;他还应该加上一句,他知道得清清楚楚,叫斯托克·德贝维尔的这户人家就像他自己一样,本来就不是德贝维尔家族的真正后裔。不过我们必须承认,如果要重新嫁接德贝维尔这个急需更新复苏的名字,斯托克这户人家倒是一根上好的砧木。

When old Mr Simon Stoke, latterly deceased, had made his fortune as an honest merchant (some said money-lender) in the North, he decided to settle as a county man in the South of England, out of hall of his business district; and in doing this he felt the necessity of recommencing with a name that would not too readily identify him with the smart tradesman of the past, and that would be less commonplace than the original bald stark words. Conning for an hour in the British Museum the pages of works devoted to extinct, half extinct, obscured, and ruined families appertaining to the quarter of England in which he proposed to settle, he considered that d'Urberville looked and sounded as well as any of them: and d'Urberville accordingly was annexed to his own name for himself and his heirs eternally. Yet he was not an extravagant minded man in this, and in constructing his family tree on the new basis was duly reasonable in framing his inter-marriages and aristocratic links, never inserting a single title above a rank of strict moderation.
最近死去的老西蒙·斯托克是北方的一个本分诚实的商人(有人说他是放债的),发财以后,他就决定在英国南部定居下来,做一个乡绅,好远离他做生意的那个混乱地方;迁居过来的时候,他感到有必要改换一个名字,这名字既要避免别人一下子就认出他就是过去那个精明的商人,又要不像原来赤裸乏味的名字那样平凡。他在大英博物馆里找到那些记载英国南部他计划移居地方的已经灭绝、半灭绝和破产家族的文献,仔细地查找了一个小时,最后认为德贝维尔这个姓看起来和听起来比其它任何一个姓都不会差:因此德贝维尔就被加到了他自己的姓上,为他自己和他的世代子孙所用了。不过他在这方面并不是一个让想法失了分寸的人,在新的基础上重建他的家庭这棵树的时候,总是合情合理地编造家族之间的通婚和同贵族的联系,从来不在严格合适的身分上加上其它的头衔。

Of this work of imagination poor Tess and her parents were naturally in ignorance - much to their discomfiture; indeed, the very possibility of such annexations was unknown to them; who supposed that, though to be well favoured might be the gift of fortune, a family name came by nature.
关于这个运用想象力的杰作,可怜的苔丝和她的父母自然一无所知——更多的是令他们难堪;说实话,他们从来就没有想到这种添加姓名的可能性;他们只是认为,尽管人长得漂亮也许是运气赐予的,但是一个家庭的姓氏却是天生的。

Tess still stood hesitating like a barber about to make his plunge, hardly knowing whether to retreat or to persevere, when a figure came forth from the dark triangular door of the tent. It was that of a tall young man, smoking.
苔丝还站在那儿犹豫着,像一个沐浴的人想跳进水里去一样,不知道是跳进去还是退回去,正在这个时候,有一个人从帐篷黑色的三角形门里走了出来。他是一个个子高高的抽着烟的年轻人。