'It's a curious story; it carries us sack to medieval times, when faith was a living thing!'
“这真是一个离奇的故事;它又把我们带回到中古时代,那时候信仰是一件有生命的东西!”

The remark, singular for a dairy-yard, was murmured by the voice behind the dun cow; but as nobody understood the reference no notice was taken, except that the narrator seemed to think it might imply scepticism as to his tale.
这是奶牛场里一句很奇特的评论,是那头黄褐色母牛身后的人嘟哝着说的;不过当时没有人懂得这句话的意思,就没有引起注意,只是讲故事的人似乎觉得这句话的意思是对他的故事表示怀疑。

'Well, 'tis quite true, sir, whether or no. I knowed the man well.'
“哦,这可是千真万确的事,先生,不管你信不信。那个人我熟得很。”

'Oh yes; I have no doubt of it,' said the person behind the dun cow.
“哦,不错;我不是怀疑它,”黄褐色母牛身后的人说。

Tess's attention was thus attracted to the dairyman's interlocutor, of whom she could see but the merest patch, owing to his burying his head so persistently in the flank of the milcher. She could not understand why he should be addressed as 'sir' even by the dairyman himself. But no explanation was discernible; he remained under the cow long enough to have milked three, uttering a private ejaculation now and then, as if he could not get on.
苔丝这时候才注意到和老板说话的那个人,由于他把头紧紧地埋在奶牛的肚子上,苔丝看见的只是他身体的一部分。她也不明白,为什么老板和他说话也叫他“先生”。不过苔丝看不出一点儿道理来;他老是呆在母牛的下面,时间长得足够挤三头奶牛的奶,他时而嘴里悄悄地发出一声喘息,好像他坚持不下去了。

'Take it gentle, sir; take it gentle,' said the dairyman. ''Tis knack, not strength that does it.'
“挤得柔和点儿,先生;挤得柔和点儿,”奶牛场老板说。“挤牛奶用的是巧劲儿,不是蛮力。”

'So I find,' said the other, standing up at last and stretching his arms. 'I think I have finished her, however, though she made my fingers ache.'
“我也觉得是这样,”那个人说,终于站起来伸伸胳膊。“不过,我想我还是把它挤完了,尽管我把手指头都给挤疼了。”

Tess could then see him at full length. He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy-farmer when milking, and his boots were clogged with the mulch of the yard; but this was all his local livery. Beneath it was something educated, reserved, subtle, sad, differing.
直到这时候苔丝才看见他的全身。他系一条普通的白色围裙,腿上打着奶牛场挤奶工人打的绑腿,靴子上沾满了院子里的烂草污泥;不过所有这些装束都是本地的装束。在这种外表之下,看得出来他受过教育,性格内向,性情敏感,神情忧郁和与众不同。

But the details of his aspect were temporarily thrust aside by the discovery that he was one whom she had seen before. Such vicissitudes had Tess passed through since that time that for a moment she could not remember where she had met him; and then it flashed upon her that he was the pedestrian who had joined in the club-dance at Marlott - the passing stranger who had come she knew not whence, had danced with others but not with her, had slightingly left her, and gone on his way with his friends.
但是苔丝暂时把他外表上的这些细节放到了一边,因为他发现他是她以前见过的一个人。自从他们那次相遇之后,苔丝已经历尽沧桑,因而一时竟记不起在那儿见过他;后来心里一亮,她才想起来他就是那个曾在马洛特村参加过他们村社舞会的过路人——就是那个她不知道从哪儿来的过路的陌生人,不是同她而是同另一个女孩子跳过舞,离开时又冷落她,上路同他的朋友们一起走了。

The flood of memories brought back by this revival of an incident anterior to her troubles produced a momentary dismay lest, recognizing her also, he should by some means discover her story. But it passed away when she found no sign of remembrance in him. She saw by degrees that since their first and only encounter his mobile face had grown more thoughtful, and had acquired a young man's shapely moustache and beard - the latter of the palest straw colour where it began upon his cheeks, and deepening to a warm brown farther from its root. Under his linen milking-pinner he wore a dark velveteen jacket, cord breeches and gaiters, and a starched white shirt. Without the milking-gear nobody could have guessed what he was. He might with equal probability have been an eccentric landowner or a gentlemanly ploughman. That he was but a novice at dairy-work she had realized in a moment, from the time he had spent upon the milking of one cow.
她回想起在她遭受了不幸以前发生的那件小事,对过去的回忆像潮水一样涌了上来,使她暂时生发出一阵忧郁,害怕他认出她来,并设法发现她的经历。不过她在他身上看不出他有记得的迹象,也就放心了。她还逐渐看见,自从他们第一次也是仅有的一次相遇以后,他那生动的脸变得更为深沉了,嘴上已经长出了年轻人有的漂亮胡须了——下巴上的胡须是淡淡的麦秸色,已经长到了两边的脸颊,逐渐变成了温暖的褐色。他在麻布围裙里面穿一件深色天鹅绒夹克衫,配一条灯芯绒裤子,扎着皮绑腿,里面穿一件浆洗过的白衬衫。要是他没有穿那件挤牛奶的围裙,没有人能够猜出他是谁。他完全可能是一个怪癖的地主,也完全可能是一个体面的农夫。从他给那头母牛挤奶所费的时间上,苔丝立刻就看出来,他只不过是在奶牛场干活的一个新手。