And thus, while standing on the scaffold, in this vain show of expiation, Mr. Dimmesdale was overcome with a great horror of mind, as if the universe were gazing at a scarlet token on his naked breast, right over his heart. On that spot, in very truth, there was, and there had long been, the gnawing and poisonous tooth of bodily pain. Without any effort of his will, or power to restrain himself, he shrieked aloud; an outcry that went pealing through the night, and was beaten back from one house to another, and reverberated from the hills in the background; as if a company of devils, detecting so much misery and terror in it, had made a plaything of the sound, and were bandying it to and fro.
就這樣，丁梅斯代爾先生站立到刑臺之上，進(jìn)行這場無濟(jì)于事的贖罪表演，這時，一種巨大的恐怖感攫佐了他，仿佛整個宇宙都在盯視他裸露的胸膛上正在心口處的紅色標(biāo)記。就在那塊地方，肉體痛苦的毒牙確確實(shí)實(shí)在咬嚙著他，而且已經(jīng)為時很久了。他沒有了任何意志力或控制力，便大吼一聲，這一聲嘶叫直插夜空，在一家家住宅間震響，并回蕩在背后的叢山之中，象是有一伙魔鬼發(fā)現(xiàn)這聲音中有如許多的不幸和恐怖，便將它當(dāng)作玩物，來來回回地?cái)[弄起來。

"It is done!" muttered the minister, covering his face with his hands. "The whole town will awake, and hurry forth, and find me here!"
“這下子完了！”牧師用雙手遮住臉，喃喃自語?！叭?zhèn)的人都會驚醒，匆忙跑來，在這兒發(fā)現(xiàn)我了！

But it was not so. The shriek had perhaps sounded with a far greater power, to his own startled ears, than it actually possessed. The town did not awake; or, if it did, the drowsy slumberers mistook the cry either for something frightful in a dream, or for the noise of witches; whose voices, at that period, were often heard to pass over the settlements or lonely cottages, as they rode with Satan through the air. The clergyman, therefore, hearing no symptoms of disturbance, uncovered his eyes and looked about him. At one of the chamber-windows of Governor Bellingham's mansion, which stood at some distance, on the line of another street, he beheld the appearance of the old magistrate himself, with a lamp in his hand, a white night-cap on his head, and a long white gown enveloping his figure. He looked like a ghost, evoked unseasonably from the grave. The cry had evidently startled him. At another window of the same house, moreover, appeared old Mistress Hibbins, the Governor's sister, also with a lamp, which, even thus far off, revealed the expression of her sour and discontented face. She thrust forth her head from the lattice, and looked anxiously upward. Beyond the shadow of a doubt, this venerable witch-lady had heard Mr. Dimmesdale's outcry, and interpreted it, with its multitudinous echoes and reverberations, as the clamour of the fiends and night-hags, with whom she was well known to make excursions into the forest.?Detecting the gleam of Governor Bellingham's lamp, the old lady quickly extinguished her own, and vanished. Possibly, she went up among the clouds. The minister saw nothing further of her motions. The magistrate, after a wary observation of the darkness- into which, nevertheless, he could see but little farther than he might into a mill-stone- retired from the window.
但是并沒有發(fā)生這種情況。，那聲尖叫，在他自己受驚的耳朵聽起來，要比實(shí)際的音響大得多。鎮(zhèn)上人并沒有驚醒，就算驚醒了，那些睡得昏昏沉沉的人也會誤以為這喊叫是夢中的驚悸或是女巫的吵鬧——在那個年月，當(dāng)女巫們隨著撒旦飛過天際時，她們的聲音時常在居民區(qū)或孤獨(dú)的茅屋上空掠過，被人們聽見。因此，牧師沒有聽見任何騷動的征象，便不再捂著眼，并四下張望。在稍遠(yuǎn)的另一條街上，在貝靈漢總督宅邸的一個內(nèi)室的窗口，他看到那位老長官露出頭來，手中拿著一盞燈，頭上戴著一頂白色睡帽，周身上下裹著一件白色長袍。他那副樣子就象是一個從墳?zāi)怪胁缓蠒r宜地鉆出來的鬼魂。顯然是那叫聲驚醒了他。還有，那座房子的另一個窗口，出現(xiàn)了總督的姐姐，，西賓斯老夫人，她手里也拿著一盞燈，盡管距離這么遠(yuǎn)，仍然能看出她臉上那種乖戾不滿的表情。她把頭探出窗格，不安地朝天仰望。不消說，這位令人敬畏的老妖婆已經(jīng)聽到了丁梅斯代爾先生的叫喊，并且由于那無數(shù)的回聲和反響，她還以為是惡魔和夜間飛行的女巫的喧囂呢，人們都知道，她常同它們一起在林中嬉游。那老夫人一發(fā)現(xiàn)貝靈漢總督的燈光，就趕緊一日吹熄了自己的燈，消失不見了。很可能她飛上了云端。牧師再也望不見她‘的蹤影了?？偠皆谛⌒囊硪淼叵虬抵杏^察一番之后，也縮回了身子，當(dāng)然，在這般黑夜中他看不了多遠(yuǎn)，比起要望穿一塊磨石相差無幾。