From the furthest east to the furthest west the cries spread as if by contagion, accompanied in some cases by the barking of a dog. It was not the expression of the valley's consciousness that beautiful Tess had arrived, but the ordinary announcement of milking-time - half-past four o'clock, when the dairymen set about getting in the cows.
这种声音好像受到了感染,从东边最远的地方传到西边最远的地方,其中偶尔还掺杂着一只狗的叫声。它不是表示山谷里知道美丽的苔丝来了,而是四点半钟挤牛奶时间到了的惯常通知,这时候奶牛场的工人们就动手把奶牛赶回去。

The red and white herd nearest at hand, which had been phlegmatically waiting for the call, now trooped towards the steading in the background, their great bags of milk swinging under them as they walked. Tess followed slowly in their rear, and entered the barton by the open gate through which they had entered before her. Long thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted with vivid green moss, and their eaves supported by wooden posts rubbed to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows and calves of bygone years, now passed to an oblivion almost inconceivable in its profundity. Between the posts were ranged the milchers, each exhibiting herself at the present moment to a whimsical eye in the rear as a circle on two stalks, down the centre of which a switch moved pendulum-wise; while the sun, lowering itself behind this patient row, threw their shadows accurately inwards upon the wall. Thus it threw shadows of these obscure and homely figures every evening with as much care over each contour as if it had been the profile of a Court beauty on a palace wall; copied them as diligently as it had copied Olympian shapes on marble fa?ades long ago, or the outline of Alexander, Caesar, and the Pharaohs.
早已在那儿等候呼唤的最近的一群红牛和白牛,这时候就成群结队地朝建在后面的田间牛舍里走去,它们一边走,装满了牛奶的奶袋子就在它们腹下摆来摆去。苔丝跟在它们的后面慢慢走着,从前面的牛群通过的敞开着的栅栏门里走进院子。院子的四周围着长长的草棚,草棚斜坡的表面长满了鲜艳的绿色青苔,用来支撑棚檐的木头柱子,在过去的岁月中被无数的奶牛和小牛的肚腹磨擦得又光又亮,而那些牛现在却在遗忘的深渊中不可想象地被人忘记得一干二净。要被挤奶的牛都被安排在柱子中间,此刻让一个异想天开的人从后面看来,排在那儿的每一头牛就像一个圆环拴在两根木桩上,中间的下方是一只来回摆动的钟摆;这时候向草棚后面落去的夕阳,把这群能够容忍的牛群的影子精确地投射到草棚的墙上。因为,每天傍晚,夕阳都要把这些朦胧的、简朴的形体的影子投射出去,仔细地勾画好每一个轮廓,就好像是宫廷美人映照在宫廷墙壁上的侧影;它用心用意地描画它们,就好像是很久以前把奥林匹斯的天神描画到大理石壁上,或者是描画亚尼山大·凯撒和埃及法老的轮廓。

They were the less restful cows that were stalled. Those that would stand still of their own will were milked in the middle of the yard, where many of such better behaved ones stood waiting now - all prime milchers, such as were seldom seen out of this valley, and not always within it; nourished by the succulent feed which the water-meads supplied at this prime season of the year. Those of them that were spotted with white reflected the sunshine in dazzling brilliancy, and the polished brass knobs on their horns glittered with something of military display. Their large-veined udders hung ponderous as sandbags, the teats sticking out like the legs of a gipsy's crock; and as each animal lingered for her turn to arrive the milk oozed forth and fell in drops to the ground.
被赶进棚子的奶牛都不大安分守己。在院子中间安安静静地站着的那些奶牛,都是挤奶的,还有许多表现得更加安静的奶牛等在那儿——它们都是上等的奶牛,这样的奶牛在谷外很少看得到,就是在谷内也不是常见;它们是由这一年中主要季节里的水草场生长的汁液丰富的草料喂养起来的。那些身上有白点的奶牛皮毛光亮,把阳光反射过来,使人日炫,它们的犄角上套着发亮的铜箍,就像是某种兵器闪耀着光辉。它们那些布满粗大脉管的奶房沉重地垂在下面,就像是一个个沙袋,上面乳头突起,好像吉普赛人使用的瓦罐的脚;每一头奶牛逗留在那儿,等着轮到自己挤奶,在它们等候的时候牛奶就从奶头渗出来,一点一滴地落到地上。