Heart-smitten at this bewildering and baffling spell, that so often came between herself and her sole treasure, whom she had bought so dear, and who was all her world, Hester sometimes burst into passionate tears. Then, perhaps- for there was no foreseeing how it might affect her- Pearl would frown, and clench her little fist, and harden her small features into a stern, unsympathising look of discontent. Not seldom, she would laugh anew, and louder than before, like a thing incapable and unintelligent of human sorrow. Or- but this more rarely happened- she would be convulsed with a rage of grief, and sob out her love for her mother, in broken words, and seem intent on proving that she had a heart, by breaking it. Yet Hester was hardly safe in confiding herself to that gusty tenderness; it passed, as suddenly as it came. Brooding over all these matters, the mother felt like one who has evoked a spirit, but, by some irregularity in the process of conjuration, has failed to win the master-word that should control this new and incomprehensible intelligence. Her only real comfort was when the child lay in the placidity of sleep. Then she was sure of her, and tasted hours of quiet, sad, delicious happiness; until- perhaps with that perverse expression glimmering from beneath her opening lids- little Pearl awoke!
海絲特把她花了極其高昂的代價才得到的珠兒，看作她唯一的財富和全部的天地，但她看到在自己和孩子之間十分經(jīng)常地插入這令她困惑的魔障，則痛心不已，有時還流下熱淚。此時，珠兒或許就會——因?yàn)闊o法預(yù)見那魔障可能對她有何影響——攥起小手，緊皺眉頭，板起面孔，在小腸上露出不滿的冷冷表情。也有不少時候，她會再次咯咯大笑，比前一次笑得還響，就象是個對人類的哀傷無從知曉的東西。還有更罕見的，她會因一陣悲慟而全身抽搐，還會抽抽噎噎地說出幾個不連貫的詞語來表達(dá)她對母親的愛，似乎要用心碎證明她確實(shí)有一顆心。不過，海絲特毫無把握使自己相信這種來得快、去得疾助旋風(fēng)般的柔情。這位母親將這一切情況前思后想之后，覺得自己象是一個呼喚精靈的人，但是由于沒有按照魔法的步驟行事，尚把握不住制服這個還鬧不清底細(xì)的新精靈的咒語。只有在孩子躺下安然入睡時，她才感到真正的寬心；這時她才能確定她的存在，體陳上幾小時的沁人肺腑的恬靜和幸福，直到小珠兒一覺醒來——也許就在孩子剛剛睜眼的時候，那種倔勁又表現(xiàn)出來了！

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How soon- with what strange rapidity, indeed!- did Pearl arrive at an age that was capable of social intercourse, beyond the mother's ever-ready smile and nonsense-words!And then what a happiness would it have been, could Hester Prynne have heard her clear, birdlike voice mingling with the uproar of other childish voices, and have distinguished and unravelled her own darling's tones, amid all the entangled outcry of a group of sportive children! But this could never be. Pearl was a born outcast of the infantile world. An imp of evil, emblem and product of sin, she had no right among christened infants. Nothing was more remarkable than the instinct, as it seemed, with which the child comprehended her loneliness; the destiny that had drawn an inviolable circle round about her; the whole peculiarity, in short, of her position in respect to other children. Never, since her release from prison, had Hester met the public gaze without her. In all her walks about the town, Pearl, too, was there; first as the babe in arms, and afterwards as the little girl, small companion of her mother, holding a forefinger with her whole grasp, and tripping along at the rate of three or four footsteps to one of Hester's. She saw the children of the settlement, on the grassy margin of the street, or at the domestic thresholds, disporting themselves in such grim fashion as the Puritanic nurture would permit; playing at going to church, perchance; or at scourging Quakers; or taking scalps in a sham-fight with the Indians; or scaring one another with freaks of imitative witchcraft. Pearl saw, and gazed intently, but never sought to make acquaintance. If spoken to, she would not speak again. If the children gathered about her, as they sometimes did, Pearl would grow positively terrible in her puny wrath, snatching up stones to fling at them, with shrill, incoherent exclamations, that made her mother tremble, because they had so much the sound of a witch's anathemas in some unknown tongue.
好快啊，真是迅速得出奇呢！珠兒已經(jīng)長到不滿足于母親臉上常掛著的微笑和嘴里嘮叨的閑言碎語，能夠與社會交往的年紀(jì)了！若是海絲特·白蘭能夠在別的孩子高聲叫嚷的童聲中，聽到珠兒那鶯啼燕囀般的清脆嗓音，能夠從一群嬉戲的兒童的喧嘩之中辨明她自己的寶貝兒的腔調(diào)．她該有多么幸福?。〉@是絕不可能的。珠兒生來便是那嬰孩天地的棄兒。她是一個邪惡的小妖精，是罪孽的標(biāo)志和產(chǎn)物，無極臍身于受洗的嬰孩之列。最值得注意的是，這孩子仿佛有一種理解自己孤獨(dú)處境的本能；懂得自己周圍有一條命中注定不可逾越的鴻溝；簡言之，她知道自己與其他孩子迥然不同的特殊地位。自從海絲特出獄以來，她從來都帶著珠兒出現(xiàn)在人們面前。她在鎮(zhèn)上四處走動，珠兒也始終都在她身邊；起初是她懷中的嬰兒，后來又成了她的小伙伴，滿把握著她的一根食指，得蹦蹦跳跳地用三四步才趕上海絲特的一步。珠兒看到過這塊殖民地上的小孩子們，在路邊的草地上或是在自家門前，做著請教徒童規(guī)所允許的種種怪里怪氣的游戲：有時裝作一起去教堂，或是拷問教友派的教徒，或是玩同印第安人打仗和剝頭皮的把戲，或是模仿巫術(shù)的怪樣互相嚇唬。珠兒在一勞瞅著，注視著，但從來沒打算和他們結(jié)識。如果這時和她說話，她也不會咬聲。如果孩子們有時圍起她來，她就發(fā)起小脾氣，變得非常兇狠，她會抄起石于向他們?nèi)尤?，同時發(fā)出連續(xù)的尖聲怪叫，跟巫婆用沒入能懂的咒語喊叫極其相似，嚇得她母親渾身直抖。