'Bless my soul, don't go troubling about that! Why,' he said with some enthusiasm, 'I should be only too glad, my dear Tess, to help you to anything in the way of history, or any line of reading you would like to take up--'
“哎呀,你快不要自寻苦恼了!唉,”他热情地说,“亲爱的苔丝,只要能够帮助你,我是别提有多高兴啦,你想学历史也好,你想念书也好,我都愿意帮你——”

'It is a lady again,' interrupted she, holding out the bud she had peeled.
“又是一个‘夫人’,”她举着那个被她剥开的花蕾插嘴说。

'What?'
“你说什么呀?”

'I meant that there are always more ladies than lords when you come to peel them.'
“我是说,我剥开这些花蕾的时候,‘夫人’总是比‘老爷’多。”

'Never mind about the lords and ladies. Would you like to take up any course of study - history, for example?'
“不要去管什么‘老爷’‘夫人’了。你愿不愿意学习点功课,比如说历史?”

'Sometimes I feel I don't want to know anything more about it than I know already.'
“有的时候我觉得,除了我已经知道的东西以外,就不想知道更多的东西了。”

'Why not?'
“为什么?”

'Because what's the use of learning that I am one of a long row only - finding out that there is set down in some old book somebody just like me, and to know that I shall only act her part; making me sad, that's all. The best is not to remember that your nature and your past doings have been just like thousands' and thousands', and that your coming life and doings 'I'll be like thousands' and thousands'.'
“知道了又怎么样呢,只不过是一长串人中的一个,只不过发现某本古书中有一个和我一样的人,只不过知道我要扮演她的角色,让我难过而已。最好不过的是,不要知道你的本质,不要知道你过去的所作所为和千千万万人一样,也不要知道你未来的生活和所作所为也和千千万万的人一样。”

'What, really, then, you don't want to learn anything?'
“那么,你真的什么都不想学吗?”

'I shouldn't mind learning why - why the sun do shine on the just and the unjust alike,' she answered, with a slight quaver in her voice. 'But that's what books will not tell me.'
“我倒想学一学为什么——为什么太阳都同样照耀好人和坏人,”她回答说,声音里有点儿发抖。“不过那是书本里不会讲的。”