名著·查太莱夫人的情人 - 第13节

　　克利福小心地从他们的房屋所在的小山丘上，向着斜坡驶了下去。康妮在旁边用手扶着车子。树林在他们的面前展开着，最近处是擦树丛林，稍远处便是带紫色的浓密的橡树林。树林的边缘，一些兔子在那儿跳跃着或咀嚼着，一群小乌鸦突然地飞了起来，在那小小的天空里翱翔而过。

Connie opened the wood-gate, and Clifford puffed slowly through into the broad riding that ran up an incline between the clean-whipped thickets of the hazel. The wood was a remnant of the great forest where Robin Hood hunted, and this riding was an old, old thoroughfare coming across country. But now, of course, it was only a riding through the private wood. The road from Mansfield swerved round to the north.

　　康妮把树林的门开了，克利福慢慢地驶了过去，到了一条宽大的马路。这马路向着一个斜坡上去，两旁是修剪得很整齐的擦林。这树林是从前罗宾汉打猎的大森林的残余，而这条马路是从前横经这个乡野的很古很古的大道。但是现在，这只是一条私人树林里的马路了。从曼斯非尔德来的的路，至此往北折转。

In the wood everything was motionless, the old leaves on the ground keeping the frost on their underside. A jay called harshly, many little birds fluttered. But there was no game; no pheasants. They had been killed off during the war, and the wood had been left unprotected, till now Clifford had got his game-keeper again.

　　树林里，一切都静息着。地上千叶子的背面藏着一层范霜。一只鸟粗哑地叫着，许多小鸟震着翼。但是这儿已没有供人狞猎的野兽，也没有雄鸡。因为在大战时都给人杀光了。树林也荒着没人看管，一直到现在，克利福才再雇了一个守猎的人。

Clifford loved the wood; he loved the old oak-trees. He felt they were his own through generations. He wanted to protect them. He wanted this place inviolate, shut off from the world.

　　克利福深爱这个树林，他深爱那些老橡树。他觉得它们经过了许多世代都是属于他的，他要保护它们，他要使这个地方不为人所侵犯，紧紧地关闭着，使之与世界隔绝。

The chair chuffed slowly up the incline, rocking and jolting on the frozen clods. And suddenly, on the left, came a clearing where there was nothing but a ravel of dead bracken, a thin and spindly sapling leaning here and there, big sawn stumps, showing their tops and their grasping roots, lifeless. And patches of blackness where the woodmen had burned the brushwood and rubbish.

　　小车子馒慢地驶上斜坡，在冰陈了的泥块上颠簸着前进，忽然左边现出一块空地，是儿只有一丛枯稿了的蕨草，四下杂布着一些斜倾的细长的小树，几根锯断了的大树桩，毫无生气地露着顶和根；还有几处乌黑的地方，那是樵夫们焚烧树枝乱草和废物过后的痕迹。

　　这是大战中佐费来男爵伐木以供战壕之用的一个地方，在马路的右边渐次隆起的圆丘，一片光溜溜，怪荒芜的。圆丘的顶上，从前有的话多橡树，现在一株也没有了。在那儿，你从树梢上望去，可以看见煤矿场的铁道和史曲门的新工厂。康妮站在那儿远眺着。这几是与世界隔绝的树林中的一个开口。从这开口咱使可与世相通。但是她并不告诉克利福。

This denuded place always made Clifford curiously angry. He had been through the war, had seen what it meant. But he didn't get really angry till he saw this bare hill. He was having it replanted. But it made him hate Sir Geoffrey.

　　这块光地，常常便克利福觉得非常地忿怒。他曾参与大战，他知道战争是怎么一回事，但是大战并没有使他忿怒，直至他看见了这光溜溜的小山之后，才真正地忿怒起来。他现在正叫人重新植些树木。不过这小山使他看了便怨恨他的父亲。

Clifford sat with a fixed face as the chair slowly mounted. When they came to the top of the rise he stopped; he would not risk the long and very jolty down-slope. He sat looking at the greenish sweep of the riding downwards, a clear way through the bracken and oaks. It swerved at the bottom of the hill and disappeared; but it had such a lovely easy curve, of knights riding and ladies on palfreys.

　　小车儿徐徐地向上前进，克利福坐在车里，呆板地向前望着。当他们到了最高处时，他把车停住，他不肯向那不平的斜坡冒险下去了。他望着那条马路向下降落里在蕨草和橡树中间形成的一个开口。这马路在小山脚下拐弯而淹没，但是它的迂回是这样的美好而自然，令人联想起往日的骑士们和乘马的贵妇们在这儿行乐的情形。

I consider this is really the heart of England,' said Clifford to Connie, as he sat there in the dim February sunshine. "

　　我认为这儿是真正的英格兰的心。"在二月谈淡的阳光下坐着的克利福对康妮这样说。

Oh yes!' said Connie. But, as she said it she heard the eleven-o'clock hooters at Stacks Gate colliery. Clifford was too used to the sound to notice. "

　　是吗？"康妮说着，却听见了史德门煤矿场发来的十一点钟的气笛声。克利福是太习惯于这声音了，他一点也没有注意。

　　我要使这个树林完整……无疆。谁也不许侵犯它。"克利福说。

There was a certain pathos. The wood still had some of the mystery of wild, old England; but Sir Geoffrey's cuttings during the war had given it a blow. How still the trees were, with their crinkly, innumerable twigs against the sky, and their grey, obstinate trunks rising from the brown bracken! How safely the birds flitted among them! And once there had been deer, and archers, and monks padding along on asses. The place remembered, still remembered.

　　克利福这话里，带着某种愤慨悲伤的情绪。这树林还保存着一点荒野的老英格兰时代的什么神秘东西，但是大战时候佐佛来罗爵的伐木却把它损伤了。那些树木是多么静穆，无数弯曲的树枝向天空上伸，灰色的树干，倔强地从棕争的蕨草丛中直立！鸟雀在这些树木间飞翻着，多么安稳！从前，这儿有过鹿，有过弓手，也有过骑驴得得地经过的道士。这地方还没有忘记，还追忆着呢。

Clifford sat in the pale sun, with the light on his smooth, rather blond hair, his reddish full face inscrutable.

　　巨利福静坐着，灰白和阳光照着他的光滑的近全栗色的头发，照着他的圆满红润的、不可思仪的脸孔。

I mind more, not having a son, when I come here, than any other time,' he said. "

　　当我来到这儿时，我比平时尤其觉得无后的缺感。"他说。

But the wood is older than your family,' said Connie gently."

　　但是这树林比你的家族还要老呢。"康妮温和地说。

　　的确！"克利福说。"但这是我们把它保存的。没有我们，它定已消灭了，象其余的森林似的早巳消灭了，我们定要保存点老英格兰的东西。"

There was a sad pause. Yes, for a little while,' said Connie.

　　两人忧郁地静默了一会。"是人，在一个短时间内。"康妮说。

For a little while! It's all we can do. We can only do our bit. I feel every man of my family has done his bit here, since we've had the place. One may go against convention, but one must keep up tradition.' Again there was a pause. "

　　在一个短时间内！这是我他仅能做到的，我们只能尽我们的职份。我觉得自从我们有这块地以来，我们家族中每个男子都曾在这儿尽过他的职份，一个人可以超越习俗之处，但是传统馈例是定要维持的。"

What tradition?' asked Connie. "

　　什么传统惯例？"康妮问。

The tradition of England! of this!'"

　　英格兰的传统惯例！就是这个！