Every village has its idiosyncrasy, its constitution, often its own code of morality. The levity of some of the younger women in and about Trantridge was marked, and was perhaps symptomatic of the choice spirit who ruled The Slopes in that vicinity. The place had also a more abiding defect; it drank hard. The staple conversation on the farms around was on the uselessness of saving money; and smock-frocked arithmeticians, leaning on their ploughs or hoes, would enter into calculations of great nicety to prove that parish relief was a fuller provision for a man in his old age than any which could result from savings out of their wages during a whole lifetime.
所有的村庄都有自己的特点、结构,甚至也有自己的道德准则。在特兰里奇及其附近,有一些年轻妇女的轻佻惹人注意,这种轻佻也许就是控制附近那块坡地上人们精神的征兆。这个地方还有一个根深蒂固的毛病,就是酗酒很厉害。附近农庄上常谈的主要话题是攒钱没有用处;身穿粗布罩衫的数学家们,倚着锄头或者犁歇息时,就会开始精确地计算,来证明人老后教区提供的全额救济金,比一个人从一生中挣的工资中积攒起来的钱还要更充足。

The chief pleasure of these philosophers lay in going every Saturday night, when work was done, to Chaseborough, a decayed market town two or three miles distant; and, returning in the small hours of the next morning, to spend Sunday in sleeping off the dyspeptic effects of the curious compounds sold to them as beer by the monopolizers of the once independent inns.
这些哲学家们的主要快乐,就是在每个星期六的晚上收工后到两三英里以外的已经衰败了的市镇猎苑堡去;一直到深夜过后的第二天凌晨,他们才回到家里,在星期天睡上一整天,把他们喝的那种有碍消化的混合饮料消化掉,这种饮料是从前独立经营的酒店的垄断者们作为啤酒卖给他们的。

For a long time Tess did not join in the weekly pilgrimages. But under pressure from matrons not much older than herself - for a fieldman's wages being as high at twenty one as at forty, marriage was early here - Tess at length consented to go. Her first experience of the journey afforded her more enjoyment than she had expected, the hilariousness of the others being quite contagious after her monotonous attention to the poultry-farm all the week. She went again and again. Being graceful and interesting, standing moreover on the momentary threshold of womanhood, her appearance drew down upon her some shy regards from loungers in the streets of Chaseborough; hence, though sometimes her journey to the town was made independently, she always searched for her fellows at nightfall, to have the protection of their companionship homeward.
长期以来,苔丝都没有参加这些每星期一次的豪饮活动。但是她迫于年纪比她大不了多少的妇女的压力——因为一个种地的工人,在二十岁时挣的工钱同四十岁的工人挣的工钱一样多——苔丝最终还是同意去了。她第一次到那儿去的经历使她得到了她没有想到的快乐,整整一个星期她都在鸡场过着照顾鸡的单调生活,因此别人的快乐都是很能感染她的。她去了又去。她容貌美丽,逗人喜爱,而且又正处在即将发育成熟的年龄,所以她一在猎苑堡的大街上出现,就引来街上游手好闲的人偷偷瞟过来的目光。因此,有时候她虽然是独自一人到那个镇上去,但是在黄昏的时候她总要找她的同伴一起走,以便回家的时候能得到同伴们的照应。

This had gone on for a month or two when there came a Saturday in September, on which a fair and a market coincided; and the pilgrims from Trantridge sought double delights at the inns on that account. Tess's occupations made her late in setting out, so that her comrades reached the town long before her. It was a fine September evening, just before sunset, when yellow lights struggle with blue shades in hair-like lines, and the atmosphere itself forms a prospect without aid from more solid objects, except the innumerable winged insects that dance in it. Through this low-lit mistiness Tess walked leisurely along.
这种情况持续了一两个月,到了九月的一个星期六,这一天定期集市和集市刚好碰到了一起;因此特兰里奇的人就都到猎苑堡的酒店里去寻找双重的快乐。苔丝工作没有干完,出发得晚了,因此她的伙伴们到达镇上时比她早了许多。这是九月里一个美好的傍晚,正是太阳落山的时候,黄色的亮光同蓝色的暮霭相互争斗,变成了一缕缕发丝一样的光线,大气本身就构成了一种景色,除了在大气中展翅乱舞的无数飞虫而外,它根本就不需要更多的实体的帮助。苔丝就在这种暗淡的暮霭中,不慌不忙地向前走去。