目 录 上一节 下一节 
我的目光仍在暗淡的高地游弋，并沿着消失在最荒凉的景色中的荒原边缘逡巡。这时，远在沼泽和山脊之中，一个模糊的点，一道光跃入我眼帘。"那是鬼火，"是我第一个想法，我估计它会立即消失。然而，那光继续亮着，显得很稳定，既不后退，也不前进。"难道是刚点燃的篝火？"我产生了疑问。我注视着，看它会不会扩散。但没有，它既不缩小，也不扩大。"这也许是一间房子里的烛光。"我随后揣想着，"即便那样，我也永远到不了那儿了。它离这儿太远，可就是离我一码远，又有什么用？我只会敲，开门，又当着我面关上。" And I sank down where I stood, and hid my face against the ground.I lay still a while: the night-wind swept over the hill and overme, and died moaning in the distance; the rain fell fast, wetting meafresh to the skin. Could I but have stiffened to the still frost--the friendly numbness of death--it might have pelted on; I shouldnot have felt it; but my yet living flesh shuddered at its chillinginfluence. I rose ere long. 我就在站立的地方颓然倒下，把头埋进地里，静静地躺了一会。夜风刮过小山，吹过我身上，呜咽着在远处消失。雨下得很大，重又把我浇透。要是这么冻成了冰块一-那么友好地麻木而死--雨点也许还会那么敲击着；而我毫无感觉。可是我依然活着的肉体，在寒气的侵袭下颤抖，不久我便站了起来。 The light was yet there, shining dim but constant through the rain.I tried to walk again: I dragged my exhausted limbs slowly towardsit. It led me aslant over the hill, through a wide bog, which wouldhave been impassable in winter, and was splashy and shaking evennow, in the height of summer. Here I fell twice; but as often Irose and rallied my faculties. This light was my forlorn hope: Imust gain it. 那光仍在那边，在雨中显得朦胧和遥远。我试着再走，拖着疲乏的双腿慢慢地朝它走去。它引导我穿过一个宽阔的泥沼，从斜刺里上了山。要是在冬天，这个泥沼是没法通过的，就是眼下盛夏，也是泥浆四溅，一步一摇晃。我跌倒了两次，两次都爬起来，振作起精神。那道光是我几乎无望的希望，我得赶到那里。 Having crossed the marsh, I saw a trace of white over the moor. Iapproached it; it was a road or a track: it led straight up to thelight, which now beamed from a sort of knoll, amidst a clump oftrees--firs, apparently, from what I could distinguish of thecharacter of their forms and foliage through the gloom. My starvanished as I drew near: some obstacle had intervened between meand it. I put out my hand to feel the dark mass before me: Idiscriminated the rough stones of a low wall--above it, somethinglike palisades, and within, a high and prickly hedge. I groped on.Again a whitish object gleamed before me: it was a gate--a wicket;it moved on its hinges as I touched it. On each side stood a sablebush-holly or yew. 穿过沼泽我看到荒原上有一条白印子，我向它走去，见是一条大路或是小径，直通那道正从树丛中一个小土墩上射来的光。在昏暗中从树形和树叶能分辨出，那显然是杉木树丛，我一走近，我的星星便不见了，原来某些障碍把它和我隔开了，我伸出手在面前一团漆黑中摸索。我辨认出了一堵矮墙的粗糙石头-一上面象是-道栅栏，里面是高而带刺的篱笆。我继续往前摸。那白色东西歪又在我面前闪光了，原来是一条门--一条旋转门，我一碰便在铰链上转了起来。门两边各有一丛黑黑的灌木--是冬青或是紫杉。 Entering the gate and passing the shrubs, the silhouette of a houserose to view, black, low, and rather long; but the guiding lightshone nowhere. All was obscurity. Were the inmates retired torest? I feared it must be so. In seeking the door, I turned anangle: there shot out the friendly gleam again, from the lozengedpanes of a very small latticed window, within a foot of the ground,made still smaller by the growth of ivy or some other creepingplant, whose leaves clustered thick over the portion of the housewall in which it was set. The aperture was so screened and narrow,that curtain or shutter had been deemed unnecessary; and when Istooped down and put aside the spray of foliage shooting over it, Icould see all within. I could see clearly a room with a sandedfloor, clean scoured; a dresser of walnut, with pewter plates rangedin rows, reflecting the redness and radiance of a glowing peat-fire.I could see a clock, a white deal table, some chairs. The candle,whose ray had been my beacon, burnt on the table; and by its lightan elderly woman, somewhat rough-looking, but scrupulously clean,like all about her, was knitting a stocking. 进了门，走过灌木，眼前便现出了一所房子的剪影，又黑又矮却相当长。但是那道引路的光却消失了，一切都模模糊糊。难道屋里的人都安息了？我担心准是这样。我转了一个角度去找门，那里又闪起了友好的灯光，是从一尺之内一扇格子小窗的菱形玻璃上射出来的，那扇窗因为长青藤或是满墙的爬藤类植物的叶子，显得更小了。留下的空隙那么小，又覆盖得那么好，窗帘和百叶窗似乎都没有必要了。我弯腰撩开窗户上浓密的小枝条，里面的一切便看得清清楚楚了。我能看得清房间的沙子地板擦得干干净净。还有一个核桃木餐具柜，上面放着一排排锡盘，映出了燃烧着的泥炭火的红光。我能看得见一只钟、一张白色的松木桌和几把椅子，桌子上点着一根蜡烛，烛光一直是我的灯塔。一个看去有些粗糙，但也像她周围的一切那样一尘不染的老妇人，借着烛光在编织袜子。 
我只是粗略地看了看这些东西，--它们并没有不同寻常的地方。令我更感兴趣的是火炉旁的一群人，在洋溢着的玫瑰色的宁静和暖意中默默地坐着。两个年轻高雅的女子一一从各方面看都像贵妇人--坐着，一个坐在低低的摇椅里；另一个坐在一条更矮的凳子上。两人都穿戴了黑纱和毛葛的重丧服，暗沉沉的服饰格外烘托出她们白皙的脖子和面孔。一只大猎狗把它巨大无比的头靠在一个姑娘膝头，--另一个姑娘的膝头则偎着一只黑猫。 A strange place was this humble kitchen for such occupants! Whowere they? They could not be the daughters of the elderly person atthe table; for she looked like a rustic, and they were all delicacyand cultivation. I had nowhere seen such faces as theirs: and yet,as I gazed on them, I seemed intimate with every lineament. Icannot call them handsome--they were too pale and grave for theword: as they each bent over a book, they looked thoughtful almostto severity. A stand between them supported a second candle and twogreat volumes, to which they frequently referred, comparing them,seemingly, with the smaller books they held in their hands, likepeople consulting a dictionary to aid them in the task oftranslation. This scene was as silent as if all the figures hadbeen shadows and the firelit apartment a picture: so hushed was it,I could hear the cinders fall from the grate, the clock tick in itsobscure corner; and I even fancied I could distinguish the click-click of the woman's knitting-needles. When, therefore, a voicebroke the strange stillness at last, it was audible enough to me. 这个简陋的厨房里居然呆着这样两个人，真是奇怪。她们会是谁呢，不可能是桌子旁边那个长者的女儿，因为她显得很土，而她们却完全是高雅而有教养。我没有在别处看到过这样的面容，然而我盯着她们看时，却似乎觉得熟悉每一个面部特征。她们说不上漂亮一-过份苍白严肃了些，够不上这个词。两人都低头看书，显得若有所思，甚至还有些严厉。她们之间的架子上放着第二根蜡烛，和两大卷书，两人不时地翻阅着，似乎还在与手中的小书作比较，像是在查阅词典，翻译什么一样。这一幕静得仿佛所有的人都成了影子，生了火的房间活像一幅画。这儿那么静谧，我能听到煤渣从炉栅上落下的声音，昏暗的角落时钟的嘀嗒声，我甚至想象我能分辨出那女人嚓嚓嚓嚓的编织声，因而当一个嗓音终于打破奇怪的宁静时，我足以听得分明。 "Listen, Diana," said one of the absorbed students; "Franz and oldDaniel are together in the night-time, and Franz is telling a dreamfrom which he has awakened in terror--listen!" And in a low voiceshe read something, of which not one word was intelligible to me;for it was in an unknown tongue--neither French nor Latin. Whetherit were Greek or German I could not tell." 听着，黛安娜，"两位专心致志的学生中的一位说，"费朗茨和老丹尼尔在一起过夜。费朗茨正说起一个梦，这个梦把他给吓醒--听着！"她声音放得很低，读了什么东西，我连一个字也没听懂，因为这是一种完全陌生的语言--既不是法文，也不是拉丁。至于是希腊文还是德文，我无法判断。 "That is strong," she said, when she had finished: "I relish it."The other girl, who had lifted her head to listen to her sister,repeated, while she gazed at the fire, a line of what had been read.At a later day, I knew the language and the book; therefore, I willhere quote the line: though, when I first heard it, it was onlylike a stroke on sounding brass to me--conveying no meaning:-" 那说得很有力，"她念完后说，"我很欣赏。"另一位抬头听着她妹妹的站娘，一面凝视炉火，一面重复了刚才读过的一行。后来，我知道了那种语言和那本书，所以我要在这里加以引用，尽管我当初听来，仿佛是敲在铜器上的响声一-不传达任何意义 Both were again silent. 两人沉默了， 
有哪个国家的人是那么说话的？"那老妇人停下手头的编织、抬起头来问。 "Yes, Hannah--a far larger country than England, where they talk inno other way."" 有的、汉娜一-一个比英国要大得多的国家、那里的人就只这么说。" "Well, for sure case, I knawn't how they can understand t' onet'other: and if either o' ye went there, ye could tell what theysaid, I guess?"" 噢，说真的，我不知道他们彼此怎么能明白，要是你们谁上那儿去，我想你们能懂他说的话吧？" "We could probably tell something of what they said, but not all--for we are not as clever as you think us, Hannah. We don't speakGerman, and we cannot read it without a dictionary to help us."" 他们说的我们很可能只懂-些，不是全部都懂--因为我们不像你想象的那么聪明，汉娜，我们不会说德语，而且不借助词典还读不懂。" "And what good does it do you?"" 那这对你们有什么用？" 
某一天我们想教德语--或者像他们说的，至少教基础，然后我们会比现在赚更多的钱，" "Varry like: but give ower studying; ye've done enough for to-night."" 很可能的，不过今晚你们读得够多了。该停止了。" "I think we have: at least I'm tired. Mary, are you?"" 我想是够多了，至少我倦了，玛丽，你呢？" "Mortally: after all, it's tough work fagging away at a languagewith no master but a lexicon."" 累极了，那么孜孜不倦学一门语言，没有老师，只靠一部词典，毕竟是吃力的。"
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