Chapter 19 THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE
第十九章 溪边的孩子

"THOU wilt love her dearly," repeated Hester Prynne, as she and the minister sat watching little Pearl. "Dost thou not think her beautiful? And see with what natural skill she has made those simple flowers adorn her! Had she gathered pearls, and diamonds, and rubies, in the wood, they could not have become her better. She is a splendid child! But I know whose brow she has!"
“你会十分喜爱她的,”海丝特·白兰又说了下遍,这时她和牧师正坐在那里瞅着小珠儿。“你难道不认为她很美吗?你看,她天生有多大的本事用那些普通的花朵来装扮自己啊!就算她能在林中采到珍珠、钻石和红宝石,也不会把自己打扮得比这更漂亮了。她是一个十分出色的孩子!但我知道她的额头长得象谁!”

"Dost thou know, Hester," said Arthur Dimmesdale, with an unquiet smile, "that this dear child, tripping about always at thy side, hath caused me many an alarm? Methought- O Hester, what a thought is that, and how terrible to dread it!- that my own features were partly repeated in her face, and so strikingly that the world might see them! But she is mostly thine!"
“你知道,海丝特,”阿瑟·丁梅斯代尔带着不安的微笑说, “这个总是在你身边蹦蹦跳跳的可爱的孩子,曾经多次引起我心惊肉跳吗?我认为,——噢,海丝特,这是个什么样的念头,而且产生这种顾虑又是多么可怕啊!——我自己的一部分面容重现在她的脸上,而且那么酷似,我真怕人们会认出来!不过,她主要还是象你!”

"No, no! Not mostly!" answered the mother, with a tender smile. "A little longer and thou needest not be afraid to trace whose child she is. But how strangely beautiful she looks, with those wild flowers in her hair! It is as if one of the fairies, whom we left in our dear old England, had decked her out to meet us."
“不,不!不是主要象我!”做母亲的露出温柔的微笑回答说。“过不多久,你就不必担心人们会追究她是谁的孩子了。她头发上戴着那些野花,显得她的模样漂亮得多么不平常啊!仿佛有一个被我们留在我们亲爱的老英格兰的仙子,把自己打扮好,跑来迎接我们了。”

It was with a feeling which neither of them had ever before experienced, that they sat and watched Pearl's slow advance. In her was visible the tie that united them. She had been offered to the world, these seven years past, as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide- all written in this symbol- all plainly manifest- had there been a prophet or magician skilled to read the character of flame! And Pearl was the oneness of their being. Be the foregone evil what it might, how could they doubt that their earthly lives and future destinies were conjoined, when they beheld at once the material union, and the spiritual idea, in whom they met, and were to dwell immortally together? Thoughts like these- and perhaps other thoughts, which they did not acknowledge or define- threw an awe about the child, as she came onward.
他俩坐在那里,正是怀着一种他们谁也没有体验过的感情来注视着珠儿慢慢走来。在她身上能够看出把他俩连系在一起的纽带。过去这七年里,她作为如同有生命的象形文字,被奉献给人类社会,在她身上揭示了他们竭力要隐藏的秘密,要是有一位先知或法师有本领破解这个火焰般的文字的话,就会懂得一切全都写在这个象征之中,一切全都显示得明明白自!而珠儿就是他俩生命的合而为一。不管以往的邪恶可能是什么,当他们一起看到,由他们交汇并将永在一起共存的肉体结晶和精神概念时,他们怎么可能会怀疑,他们在凡世的生命和未来的命运已经密不可分呢?象这样的想法,以及其它一些他们没有承认或尚未定形的可能的想法,当那孩子向前走着的时候,在她身上投射出一种使人敬畏的色彩。