目 录 上一节 下一节 
世界是这样的错杂，这样的奇怪，这样的丑恶！普通的人是这样多，而又这样可怕，真的！她回家去时，心里这样想着，望着矿工们缓慢地离开矿坑，又炭又黑，一身歪着，一边肩耸着，一边肩低着，响着他们的沉重的镶铁的长靴。脸色苍白得鬼似的，眼睛闪着自，预项缩着，肩膊失了望膊的模样。这是人，这是人，唉。在某种说法上，他们是些忍耐的好人；在其他的说法上，他们只是鬼。他们的人类所应具有的某种东西被戮杀了。然而，他们却是人，他们却能生孩子，人是可以由他们而生孩子，可怕的，可怕的思索呵：他们是温和的好人。但是他们只是一种半人，灰色的半人，直至现在，他们是"好"的，但这也不过是他们的一半是好的，呵！假如他们死了的部分苏醒过来！晤！去想象这个，真是太可怕了！康妮是深怕工人群众的，她觉得他们是这样的不可思议。他们的生命是绝对没有美的，绝对没有直觉的，老是"在矿坑里"。 Children from such men! Oh God, oh God! 这样的人所生的孩子！呵，天哟天！ Yet Mellors had come from such a father. Not quite. Forty years had made a difference, an appalling difference in manhood. The iron and the coal had eaten deep into the bodies and souls of the men. 虽然，梅乐士是这样的一种人生的。也许不十分是。在人情上，四十年是有变迁的，有大大的变迁的。钦与煤把人类的肉体与灵魂深深地吞食了。 Incarnate ugliness, and yet alive! What would become of them all? Perhaps with the passing of the coal they would disappear again, off the face of the earth. They had appeared out of nowhere in their thousands, when the coal had called for them. Perhaps they were only weird fauna of the coal-seams. Creatures of another reality, they were elementals, serving the elements of coal, as the metal-workers were elementals, serving the element of iron. Men not men, but animas of coal and iron and clay. Fauna of the elements, carbon, iron, silicon: elementals. They had perhaps some of the weird, inhuman beauty of minerals, the lustre of coal, the weight and blueness and resistance of iron, the transparency of glass. Elemental creatures, weird and distorted, of the mineral world! They belonged to the coal, the iron, the clay, as fish belong to the sea and worms to dead wood. The anima of mineral disintegration! 虽然，那丑恶休身的人类却生活着！这一切结果要怎样呢？也许煤炭消灭之日，他们也会从这地面上消灭了罢。他们是当媒炭号召他们时，成千成万地从无中而来的，或者他们只是些煤层里的怪异的动物罢，他们是另一世界的生物，他们是煤的一种无素，好像铁工是铁的一种无素的一样。这是些非人的人。他们是煤、铁与陶土的灵魂。炭素、铁索、砂素等元素的动物。边些小元素，他们也许有点奇异的非人的矿物的美；跟煤的光泽，铁的重量也蓝色与抗力，玻璃的透明一样的美。矿物世界的妖怪的、伛偻的、无素的生物！他们属于煤、铁与阔土，正如鱼之属于水、虫之属于腐木一样。他们是矿物的分解物的灵魂！ Connie was glad to be home, to bury her head in the sand. She was glad even to babble to Clifford. For her fear of the mining and iron Midlands affected her with a queer feeling that went all over her, like influenza. 康妮惧怕这煤和铁的米德兰，这种惧怕使她周身觉得一种怪异的感觉如同受了流行感冒一样，她觉得高兴地离开了这一切而回到家里，把头埋在沙里，她甚至觉得高兴地去和克利福聊天。 
当然啦，我不得不在彭莱小姐的店里喝杯茶。"她说。 'Really! Winter would have given you tea.' " 真的么！但是文达家里会请你喝茶的。" 'Oh yes, but I daren't disappoint Miss Bentley.' Miss Bentley was a shallow old maid with a rather large nose and romantic disposition who served tea with a careful intensity worthy of a sacrament. " 呵。是的，不过我不便却彭莱小姐的情。"彭莱小姐是个脸色带黄的老处女，有个大鼻子和浪漫的气质，她侍候人喝茶时候的殷勤热烈，是好象在做圣典一样的。 'Did she ask after me?' said Clifford. " 她问起我没有？"克利福说。 'Of course!---. May I ask your Ladyship how Sir Clifford is!---I believe she ranks you even higher than Nurse Cavell!' " 当然啦！'请问夫人，克利福男爵身体好吗？'我相信她把你看得比嘉威尔小姐还高呢。" 
我想你对地说了我身体很好罢？" 'Yes! And she looked as rapt as if I had said the heavens had opened to you. I said if she ever came to Tevershall she was to come to see you.' " 是的！她听了这话，好象听了我对她说天堂的门为你开了一般的喜悦。我对她说，要是她来达娃斯喻时，她定要到这儿来看看你。" 'Me! Whatever for! See me!' " 我！为什么？来看看我！" 'Why yes, Clifford. You can't be so adored without making some slight return. Saint George of Cappadocia was nothing to you, in her eyes.' " 呵，是的，克利福。你不能尿让人家这样崇拜你而不稍稍报答人家。在她的眼里，嘉巴多西亚的圣乔治都绝对赶不上你呢。" 'And do you think she'll come?' " 你相信她会来吗？" 
呵。她的脸红了起来，那片刻问，她变得怪美丽的，可怜的东西！为汁么男子们不跟真正崇拜他们的女子结婚呢？" 'The women start adoring too late. But did she say she'd come?' " 女子们的崇拜开始得太迟了。但是她有没有说她会来？" 'Oh!' Connie imitated the breathless Miss Bentley, 'your Ladyship, if ever I should dare to presume!' " 呵！"康妮模仿着彭莱小姐的喘息着的声音说，"夫人哟、我哪几敢这么告次！" 'Dare to presume! how absurd! But I hope to God she won't turn up. And how was her tea?' " 造次！多么可笑！但是我希望她不要真的来了，她的茶怎么洋？" 'Oh, Lipton's and very strong. But Clifford, do you realize you are the Roman de la rose of Miss Bentley and lots like her?' " 呵，立敦茶，浓得很呢！但是，克利福，你知道你是彭莱小姐和许多；宝一类的老处女的《玫瑰史》？，么？" 
纵令这样，我也不引以为荣。" 'They treasure up every one of your pictures in the illustrated papers, and probably pray for you every night. It's rather wonderful.' " 她们把你在画报上所登的像怎。都好象宝贝般藏了起来，并且她们也许每天晚上都替你祈祷呢，真是樟极了。" She went upstairs to change. 她回到楼上去换布裳。 That evening he said to her: 那天晚上，他对她说。 'You do think, don't you, that there is something eternal in marriage?' " 你是不是觉得在结婚生活之中，有些什么永存的东西？" 
她望着他。 'But Clifford, you make eternity sound like a lid or a long, long chain that trailed after one, no matter how far one went.' " 不过，克利福，你把'永存'看得象个帽子似的，或者看得象个长长的链索似的，施曳一个人后边，无论人走到多么远都得曳着。" He looked at her, annoyed. 她烦恼地望着她。 'What I mean,' he said, 'is that if you go to Venice, you won't go in the hopes of some love affair that you can take au grand serieux, will you?' " 我的意思是，"他说，"假如你到威尼斯去，你不要抱着一种希望，希望有个什么可以认为大正经的情史罢。" 'A love affair in Venice au grand serieux? No. I assure you! No, I'd never take a love affair in Venice more than au tres petit serieux.' " 在威尼斯有个可以认为大正经的情史？不，放心罢！不，我在威尼斯决不会有个比小正经更正经的情史的。" 
她的声调里，带着一种奇特的轻鄙的意味。他皱着眉头望着她。 Coming downstairs in the morning, she found the keeper's dog Flossie sitting in the corridor outside Clifford's room, and whimpering very faintly. 第二天早晨，当她到楼下去时，她看见守猎人的狗一佛萝茜，正坐在克利福卧室门前的走廓里，轻轻地叫着。 'Why, Flossie!' she said softly. 'What are you doing here?' " 怎么，佛萝茜"她温柔地说，"你在这儿干吗？"
| 
