Chapter 16 A FOREST WALK
第十六章　林中散步

"Didst thou ever awake, and find thy mother gone?" asked Hester.
“你夜里醒來時，可曾發(fā)現(xiàn)你媽媽出去了？”海絲特問。

"Not that I remember," said the child. "If thou fearest to leave me in our cottage, thou mightest take me along with thee. I would very gladly go! But, mother, tell me now! Is there such a Black Man? And didst thou ever meet him? And is this his mark?"
“我不記得有過，”孩子說。“要是你害怕把我一個人留在咱們的小屋里，你可以帶我一塊兒去那兒嘛。我可高興去呢！不過，媽媽，現(xiàn)在就告訴我吧！有沒有這么一個黑男人？你到底見過他沒有？這紅字是不是他的記號？”

"Wilt thou let me be at peace if I once tell thee?" asked her mother.
“要是我告訴你，你肯不肯讓我安靜安靜？”她母親問。

"Yes, if thou tellest me all," answered Pearl.
“成，你可得全告訴我，”珠兒回答。

"Once in my life I met the Black Man!" said her mother. "This scarlet letter is his mark!"
“我活這么大就見過那黑男人一次！”她母親說?！斑@個紅字就是他的記號！”

Thus conversing, they entered sufficiently deep into the wood to secure themselves from the observation of any casual passenger along the forest track. Here they sat down on a luxuriant heap of moss; which, at some epoch of the preceding century, had been a gigantic pine, with its roots and trunk in the darksome shade, and its head aloft in the upper atmosphere. It was a little dell where they had seated themselves, with a leaf-strewn bank rising gently on either side, and a brook flowing through the midst, over a bed of fallen and drowned leaves. The trees impending over it had flung down great branches, from time to time, which choked up the current, and compelled it to form eddies and black depths at some points; while, in its swifter and livelier passages, there appeared a channel-way of pebbles, and brown, sparkling sand. Letting the eyes follow along the course of the stream, they could catch the reflected light from its water, at some short distance within the forest, but soon lost all traces of it amid the bewilderment of tree-trunks and underbrush, and here and there a huge rock covered over with grey lichens. All these giant trees and boulders of granite seemed intent on making a mystery of the course of this small brook; fearing, perhaps, that, with its never-ceasing loquacity, it should whisper tales out of the heart of the old forest whence it flowed, or mirror its revelations on the smooth surface of a pool. Continually, indeed, as it stole onward, the streamlet kept up a babble, kind, quiet, soothing, but melancholy, like the voice of a young child that was spending its infancy without playfulness, and knew not how to be merry among sad acquaintance and events of sombre hue.
母女倆一邊這么談著，就走進(jìn)了樹林挺深的地方，在這兒她們很安全，絕不會被任何隨便走過林中小徑的路人看到。她們這時在一堆繁茂的青苔上坐了下來，這地方在一百多年以前，曾經(jīng)長過一棵巨松，樹冠高聳入云，樹根和樹干遮在濃蔭之中。她們所坐的地方是一個小小的山谷，兩側(cè)的緩坡上鋪滿樹葉，中間流著一條小溪，河底淹沒著落時。懸在溪上的樹木常年來投下的大樹枝，阻逼了溪流，在一些地方形成了漩渦和深潭；而在溪水暢通、流得歡快的地段，則露出河底的石子和閃光的褐砂。她們放眼沿河道望去，可以看見在林中不遠(yuǎn)的地方水面粼粼的反光，但沒多久，就在盤錯的樹干和灌木中失去了蹤跡，而不時為一些長滿灰色地衣的巨石遮住視線。所有這些大樹和巨石似乎有意為這條小小的溪流蒙上一層神秘的色彩；或許是害怕它那喋喋不休的多嘴多舌會悄悄道出它所流經(jīng)的古老樹林的內(nèi)心秘密，或者是害怕它那流過池塘?xí)r的光滑水面會映出其隱衷。確實(shí)，當(dāng)小溪不停地偷偷向前流動時，一直在潺潺作響，那聲音和藹、平靜又親切，但總帶點(diǎn)憂郁，就象一個嬰兒時期沒有玩痛快的小孩子，仍然不知如何在傷心的伙伴和陰暗的事件中自得其樂。