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既然时间紧急，为什么要等到晚上再动身？"乔治问。 "Thou art safe here by daylight, for every one in the settlement is a Friend, and all are watching. It has been found safer to travel by night."" 你们白天呆在这儿安全，因为我们村的人都是教友会的信徒，大家会随时警惕着。你们夜晚上路会安全得多。" "A young star! which shone O'er life--too sweet an image, for such glass! A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded; A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded."" 夜空中一颗闪亮的小星星，用你的光辉照耀人问。你的容颜是无比的娇美，尘世间竟没有映照你的明镜。你这可爱的小精灵，虽然还未到成熟之时，却像含苞的玫瑰花吐露芬芳。" The Mississippi! How, as by an enchanted wand, have its scenes been changed, since Chateaubriand wrote his prose-poetic description of it,[1] as a river of mighty, unbroken solitudes, rolling amid undreamed wonders of vegetable and animal existence. 密西西比河，曾令无数的文人墨客为之倾倒。夏多布里昂就曾运用散文诗的体裁描绘过他眼中的密西西比河：在广阔浩渺的荒原上，一条河流如万马奔腾般奔流着，无数的奇花异草，珍禽怪兽在她的两岸繁殖着。但那以后，好像有人对她施了魔法一样，大河两岸的景致发生了如此巨大的变化。 But as in an hour, this river of dreams and wild romance has emerged to a reality scarcely less visionary and splendid. What other river of the world bears on its bosom to the ocean the wealth and enterprise of such another country?--a country whose products embrace all between the tropics and the poles! Those turbid waters, hurrying, foaming, tearing along, an apt resemblance of that headlong tide of business which is poured along its wave by a race more vehement and energetic than any the old world ever saw. Ah! would that they did not also bear along a more fearful freight,--the tears of the oppressed, the sighs of the helpless, the bitter prayers of poor, ignorant hearts to an unknown God--unknown, unseen and silent, but who will yet "come out of his place to save all the poor of the earth!" 仿佛只是一瞬间，这条带有传奇梦幻色彩的大河流淌到和她同样具有虚幻色彩的现实世界里。在这个世界上，还有哪条河像密西西比河一样，将财富和物产源源不断地输入大海，还有哪个国家像美利坚这样物产丰富（几乎拥有所有热带和寒带之间的物产）。密西西比河那湍急、浑浊的河水以磅礴的气势奔流向前，如同商业大潮推动美利坚民族的精力和情绪以无以匹敌的速度不断高涨一样。可惜的是，他们到现在为止还在密西西比河上运送着一种可怕的商品--被压迫者的眼泪，孤苦无依者的悲叹，贫穷无知者对听而不闻的上帝进行的祈祷。尽管上帝听而不闻，视而不见，但是，总有一天，他会"从天而降，拯救普天下受苦受难的众生！" 
夕阳的余辉，照耀着密西西比河那宽阔的河面，一圈圈乌黑的苔藓，挂在两岸随风摇曳的甘蔗和黑藤萝树上，在晚霞的映照下，闪闪发光。此时，"美丽河"号轮船载着沉重的负荷向前行进着。 Piled with cotton-bales, from many a plantation, up over deck and sides, till she seems in the distance a square, massive block of gray, she moves heavily onward to the nearing mart. We must look some time among its crowded decks before we shall find again our humble friend Tom. High on the upper deck, in a little nook among the everywhere predominant cotton-bales, at last we may find him. 从各地庄园运来的棉花包堆放在甲板和走道里，远远望去就好像是一块四四方方的灰色石头，而这块大石头此时正拖着沉重的身躯驶向附近的一个商埠。甲板上的人这时已经拥挤不堪，我们费了好大一番功夫，才在高大的棉花包间的一个狭小角落里找到了我们的朋友汤姆。 Partly from confidence inspired by Mr. Shelby's representations, and partly from the remarkably inoffensive and quiet character of the man, Tom had insensibly won his way far into the confidence even of such a man as Haley. 由于希尔比先生的介绍和汤姆老实、忠厚的秉性，以及一路上他温顺的表现，汤姆在不知不觉中居然已经赢得了赫利的信任。 At first he had watched him narrowly through the day, and never allowed him to sleep at night unfettered; but the uncomplaining patience and apparent contentment of Tom's manner led him gradually to discontinue these restraints, and for some time Tom had enjoyed a sort of parole of honor, being permitted to come and go freely where he pleased on the boat. 起初，赫利几乎全天24小时严密监视着汤姆的一举一动，就连晚上睡觉的时候，也不给他松开镣铐，可汤姆对此似乎并不抱怨，没有说一句牢骚话，而是默默地接受这一切。这就使赫利慢慢解除了戒备心理，不再限制汤姆的行动。现在，汤姆仿佛是被刑满释放一样，可以在船上自由活动了。 Ever quiet and obliging, and more than ready to lend a hand in every emergency which occurred among the workmen below, he had won the good opinion of all the hands, and spent many hours in helping them with as hearty a good will as ever he worked on a Kentucky farm. 汤姆是个热心肠，每当底舱的水手们遇到什么紧急情况时，他都是主动去帮忙，所以他赢得了船上水手们的一致称赞。他帮水手们干活时非常卖力，跟他以前在肯塔基庄园干活时一样。 
每当空闲的时候，汤姆总是爬到上层甲板的棉花包上，找个小小的角落坐下来，仔细研究他那本《圣经》--我们就是在这个地方找到了他。 For a hundred or more miles above New Orleans, the river is higher than the surrounding country, and rolls its tremendous volume between massive levees twenty feet in height. The traveller from the deck of the steamer, as from some floating castle top, overlooks the whole country for miles and miles around. Tom, therefore, had spread out full before him, in plantation after plantation, a map of the life to which he was approaching. 轮船在进入新奥尔良境内的一百多英里的河段范围内，由于河床高出附近的地面，汹涌的河水在高达二十英尺，巨大而坚固的河堤之间，湍急地向前奔流。旅客们站在甲板上，好像是站在一个飘浮的城堡上一样，眼前是一望无际的原野。汤姆的眼前出现了一个又一个农庄，他知道，眼前的这些图景就是他即将生活的环境。 He saw the distant slaves at their toil; he saw afar their villages of huts gleaming out in long rows on many a plantation, distant from the stately mansions and pleasure-grounds of the master;--and as the moving picture passed on, his poor, foolish heart would be turning backward to the Kentucky farm, with its old shadowy beeches,--to the master's house, with its wide, cool halls, and, near by, the little cabin overgrown with the multiflora and bignonia. There he seemed to see familiar faces of comrades who had grown up with him from infancy; he saw his busy wife, bustling in her preparations for his evening meals; he heard the merry laugh of his boys at their play, and the chirrup of the baby at his knee; and then, with a start, all faded, and he saw again the canebrakes and cypresses and gliding plantations, and heard again the creaking and groaning of the machinery, all telling him too plainly that all that phase of life had gone by forever. 汤姆看见远处奴隶们正在干着活，还有他们那一排排的小窝棚。在每个庄园里都有这种由奴隶们的小窝棚聚集在一起形成的村落。窝棚村落和奴隶主那华丽的大宅子和游乐场所相距很远。随着眼前的场景不断向前移动，汤姆的心又飞回到了肯塔基庄园，那里古老的山毛榉树茂密成荫，主人住宅的大厅宽敞、凉爽，宅子不远处有一个小木屋，四周繁花似锦，爬满了绿藤。汤姆仿佛看见了一张张熟悉的面容，那是和他一起长大的伙伴们；他看见忙碌的妻子，来来回回地走动着，在为他准备晚饭；他听见孩子们玩耍的欢笑声和膝上婴儿发出的啧啧声。但突然间，一切都消失了，他的眼前又出现了一晃而过的庄园，甘蔗林和黑藤萝树，他的耳朵又听见机器吱吱嘎嘎的响声和隆隆声，他明白了：往昔的岁月不再复返。 In such a case, you write to your wife, and send messages to your children; but Tom could not write,--the mail for him had no existence, and the gulf of separation was unbridged by even a friendly word or signal. 在这种情况下，一个人总会写信给妻儿的，可汤姆不会写信。邮政系统对他来说简直就像不存在一样，即便是传递一句亲切的话语或信号，他都办不到。所以他无法逾越和亲人间由于离别而带来的鸿沟。 Is it strange, then, that some tears fall on the pages of his Bible, as he lays it on the cotton-bale, and, with patient finger, threading his slow way from word to word, traces out its promises? Having learned late in life, Tom was but a slow reader, and passed on laboriously from verse to verse. Fortunate for him was it that the book he was intent on was one which slow reading cannot injure,--nay, one whose words, like ingots of gold, seem often to need to be weighed separately, that the mind may take in their priceless value. Let us follow him a moment, as, pointing to each word, and pronouncing each half aloud, he reads,"Let--not--your--heart--be--troubled. In--my --Father's--house--are--many--mansions. I--go--to--prepare--a--place--for--you." 他把《圣经》放在棉花包上，用手指头指着，逐字逐句地读着，指望能从中找出希望。这时，他的泪水落到《圣经》上，可这有什么值得惊讶的呢？由于到了晚年才开始识字，所以汤姆念书非常慢，他只能非常吃力地一节一节谈下去。幸亏他是要精心钻研这本书，所以慢点读也没什么坏处--书里一字一句好像一锭锭金子，只有不时地把它们一个个分开来掂量，才能领会其中无价的意义。让我们来和汤姆一起，一字一句地轻声读会儿吧："你-们-不-要-忧-愁，在-我-父-家-里-有-许-多-住-处，我-去-那-里-是-为-你-们-准-备-地-方。" 
西塞罗在埋葬他那唯一的爱女时，心情就像此时的汤姆一样，充满着哀伤，可他的哀伤还未必比汤姆的更深切，因为他们都不过是人罢了。可西塞罗却没有机会停下来琢磨这些神圣而充满希望的字眼，所以也不盼望能有团聚的一天。即使他能看到这些，他大概也不会相信--他准会满脑子充满疑惑，想着手稿是不是可靠呀，译文是不是准确呀诸如此类的问题。可对汤姆来说，面前的这个《圣经》正是他所需要的，它显然是真实的、神圣的，他对此绝不会有任何的疑问。它绝对是真实的，否则，他活着还有什么盼头？ As for Tom's Bible, though it had no annotations and helps in margin from learned commentators, still it had been embellished with certain way-marks and guide-boards of Tom's own invention, and which helped him more than the most learned expositions could have done. It had been his custom to get the Bible read to him by his master's children, in particular by young Master George; and, as they read, he would designate, by bold, strong marks and dashes, with pen and ink, the passages which more particularly gratified his ear or affected his heart. His Bible was thus marked through, from one end to the other, with a variety of styles and designations; so he could in a moment seize upon his favorite passages, without the labor of spelling out what lay between them;--and while it lay there before him, every passage breathing of some old home scene, and recalling some past enjoyment, his Bible seemed to him all of this life that remained, as well as the promise of a future one. 汤姆的那本《圣经》中虽然没有学者的注释，却点缀着汤姆自己发明的一些标记，同那些最渊博的注释比较起来，这些东西也许对他的帮助会更大。以前，他习惯让主人家的孩子，尤其是小主人乔治读《圣经》给他听。他在听的时候往往用墨水笔在那些他认为最受感动的段落上画下醒目粗大的记号和横线。他那本《圣经》从头到尾都注满了这样种类繁多的记号，凭借着这些记号他能很快找到他最喜欢的段落而不需花什么力气。这本《圣经》此刻正放在他的面前，每一段落都构成一幅故乡的图景，让他回想起往日的欢乐。汤姆觉得这本《圣经》不光是他今生唯一保留下来的东西，而且是他来世希望的寄托。 Among the passengers on the boat was a young gentleman of fortune and family, resident in New Orleans, who bore the name of St. Clare. He had with him a daughter between five and six years of age, together with a lady who seemed to claim relationship to both, and to have the little one especially under her charge. 在这条船上，有位住在新奥尔良市的年轻绅士，名叫圣克莱尔。他出身名门望族，家境殷实，身边带着个五六岁的女儿和一位女士。显然这位女士是父女俩的亲戚，好像是专门负责照顾那个小女孩的。
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