Men were at work here and there - for it was the season for 'taking up' the meadows, or digging the little waterways clear for the winter irrigation, and mending their banks where trodden down by the cows. The shovelfuls of loam, black as 'et, brought there by the river when it was as wide as the whole valley, were an essence of soils, pounded champaigns of the past, steeped, refined, and subtilized to extraordinary richness, out of which came all the fertility of the mead, and of the cattle grazing there.
男工們正在四處干活——因為現(xiàn)在是修整牧場的季節(jié)，或者把草場上的一些冬天用來灌溉的溝渠挖干凈，把被奶牛踩壞的坡岸修理好。一鏟一鏟的黑土，像墨玉一樣漆黑，是在河流還同山谷一樣寬闊時被沖到這兒的，它們是土壤的精華，是過去被打碎的原野經(jīng)過浸泡、提煉，才變得特別肥沃，從這種土壤里又長出豐茂的牧草，喂養(yǎng)那兒的牛群。

Clare hardily kept his arm round her waist in sight of these watermen, with the air of a man who was accustomed to public dalliance, though actually as shy as she who, with lips parted and eyes askance on the labourers, wore the look of a wary animal the while.
在這些工人面前，克萊爾仍然大膽地用胳膊摟著苔絲的腰，臉上是一種慣于公開調(diào)情的神氣，盡管實際上他也像苔絲一樣羞怯，而苔絲張著嘴，斜眼看著那些干活的工人們，臉上的神色看上去就像是一只膽小的動物。

'You are not ashamed of owning me as yours before them!' she said gladly.
“在他們面前，你不怕承認我是你的人呢！”她高興地說。

'O no!'
“啊，不怕！”

'But if it should reach the ears of your friends at Emminster that you are walking about like this with me, a milkmaid--'
“但是如果傳到愛敏寺你家里的人的耳朵里，說你這樣和我散步，和一個擠牛奶的姑娘——”

'The most bewitching milkmaid ever seen.'
“從來沒有過的最迷人的擠奶姑娘?！?/div>

'They might feel it a hurt to their dignity.'
“他們也許會感到這有損他們的尊貴?！?/div>

'My dear girl - a d'Urberville hurt the dignity of a Clare! It is a grand card to play - that of your belonging to such a family, and I am reserving it for a grand effect when we are married, and have the proofs of your descent from Parson Tringham. Apart from that, my future is to be totally foreign to my family - it will not affect even the surface of their lives. We shall leave this part of England - perhaps England itself - and what does it matter how people regard us here. You will like going, will you not?'
“我親愛的姑娘——德北菲爾德家的小姐傷害了克萊爾家的尊貴！你屬于這樣一個家庭的出身，這才是一張王牌呢。我現(xiàn)在留著它，等我們結了婚，從特林漢姆牧師那兒找來你的出身的證據(jù)，然后再打出去，才有驚人的效果。除此而外，我們將來的生活同我的家庭完全沒有關系——甚至連他們生活的表面也不會有一點兒影響。我們也許要離開英國這一帶——也許離開英國——別人怎樣看待我們又有什么關系呢？你愿意離開吧，是不是？”