The irresistible, universal, automatic tendency to find sweet pleasure somewhere, which pervades all life, from the meanest to the highest, had at length mastered Tess. Being even now only a young woman of twenty, one who mentally and sentimentally had not finished growing, it was impossible that any event should have left upon her an impression that was not in time capable of transmutation.
那种寻找欢乐的趋向是不可抵抗的、普遍存在的、自然发生的,它渗透在所有从最低级到最高级的生命中,最后终于把苔丝控制住了。即使现在她也只是一个二十岁的青年女子,她的思想和情感还在发展变化,因此任何事件给她留下的印象,就不可能经久不变。

And thus her spirits, and her thankfulness, and her hopes, rose higher and higher. She tried several ballads, but found them inadequate; till, recollecting the psalter that her eyes had so often wandered over of a Sunday morning before she had eaten of the tree of knowledge, she chanted: 'O ye Sun and Moon... O ye Stars... ye Green Things upon the Earth... ye Fowls of the Air Beasts and Cattle... Children of Men... bless ye the Lord, praise Him and magnify Him for ever!'
所以她的精神、她的感激、她的希望,就越来越高涨。她唱了好几首民歌,但是感到它们都不能把内心的情绪表达出来;后来,她回想起在吞吃智慧树的禁果之前,在礼拜的早晨她的眼睛浏览过多少次的圣诗,于是又开口唱起来:“哦,你这太阳,你这月亮……哦,你们这些星星……你们这些世间的绿色万物……你们这些空中的飞禽……野兽和家畜……你们世人……你们应当赞美主,颂扬主,永远尊崇主!”

She suddenly stopped and murmured: 'But perhaps I don't quite know the Lord as yet.'
她突然住口不唱了,嘴里嘟哝着说:“可是我也许还不完全知道我唱的主呢。”

And probably the half-unconscious rhapsody was a Fetichistic utterance in a Monotheistic setting; women whose chief companions are the forms and forces of outdoor Nature retain in their souls far more of the Pagan fantasy of their remote forefathers than of the systematized religion taught their race at later date. However, Tess found at least approximate expression for her feelings in the old Benedicite that she had lisped from infancy; and it was enough. Such high contentment with such a slight initial performance as that of having started towards a means of independent living was a part of the Durbeyfield temperament. Tess really wished to walk uprightly, while her father did nothing of the kind; but she resembled him in being content with immediate and small achievements, and in having no mind for laborious effort towards such petty social advancement as could alone be effected by a family so heavily handicapped as the once powerful d'Urbervilles were now.
这种半不自觉的吟唱圣诗,也许就是在一神教背景中的一种拜物狂吟;那些把户外大自然的形体和力量作为主要伙伴的女子们,她们在心灵中保有的多半是她们遥远祖先的异教幻想,而很少是后世教给她们的那种系统化了的宗教。但是,苔丝至少在她从摇篮时代就开始呀呀学唱的古老的万物颂中,找到大约可以表达她的感情的句子;因此这也就足够了。她已经朝着自食其力的方向开始走了,对这种细小的最初表现她感到高度满足,这种满足也正是德北菲尔德性情的一部分。苔丝的确希望行为正直地往前走,而她的父亲完全不是这样;但是对眼前一点点成就就感到满足,不肯付出艰苦的努力把低下的社会地位向前推动,她却像她的父亲。德北菲尔德家曾是辉煌一时的家族,现在却成了一个受到严重阻碍的家庭,影响到社会地位的发展。