The minister grew comparatively calm. His eyes, however, were soon greeted by a little, glimmering light, which, at first a long way off, was approaching up the street. It threw a gleam of recognition on here a post, and there a garden-fence, and here a latticed windowpane, and there a pump, with its full trough of water, and here, again, an arched door of oak, with an iron knocker, and a rough log for the door-step. The Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale noted all these minute particulars, even while firmly convinced that the doom of his existence was stealing onward, in the footsteps which he now heard; and that the gleam of the lantern would fall upon him, in a few moments more, and reveal his long-hidden secret. As the light grew nearer, he beheld, within its illuminated circle, his brother clergyman- or, to speak more accurately, his professional father, as well as highly valued friend- the Reverend Mr. Wilson; who, as Mr. Dimmesdale now conjectured, had been praying at the bedside of some dying man. And so he had. The good old minister came freshly from the death-chamber of Governor Winthrop, who had passed from earth to heaven within that very hour. And now, surrounded, like the saint-like personages of olden times, with a radiant halo, that glorified him amid this gloomy night of sin- as if the departed Governor had left him an inheritance of his glory, or as if he had caught upon himself the distant shine of the celestial city, while looking thitherward to see the triumphant pilgrim pass within its gates- now, in short, good Father Wilson was moving homeward, aiding his footsteps with a lighted lantern! The glimmer of this luminary suggested the above conceits to Mr. Dimmesdale, who smiled- nay, almost laughed at them- and then wondered if he were going mad.
牧師漸漸地比較平靜了。不過，他的目光很快便迎到一道微弱的閃光，起初還在遠(yuǎn)處，后來便沿街逐漸接近了。那閃光投在周圍，可以辨出這里有一根立枝，那里有一段園籬；這兒有一扇格窗玻璃，那兒有一個(gè)卿筒和滿槽的水；近處還有一座拱形橡木大門，上面有鐵制扣環(huán)，下面是一段粗木充當(dāng)臺(tái)階?？删吹亩∶匪勾鸂栂壬M管此時(shí)堅(jiān)信，他的末日已經(jīng)在他聽到的腳步聲中悄悄臨近，但還是注意到了這些細(xì)小之物；而且再過幾分鐘，那閃亮的燈光就要照到他，暴露出他隱藏已久的秘密。當(dāng)那燈光越來越近時(shí)，他在那一暈光圈之中看到了他的牧師兄弟——或者說得更確切些，是他同道中的父輩，也是他極為敬重的朋友——可敬的威爾遜先生；據(jù)丁梅斯代爾先生此時(shí)的推斷，他一定是剛從某個(gè)彌留者的病榻邊祈禱歸來。事實(shí)果然如此。這位好心的老牧師正是剛剛從溫斯洛普總督的停尸房中回來，那位大人就在這一時(shí)辰中從塵世升入了天國。此時(shí)，老牧師象舊日的圣者似的，周圍罩著一圈光環(huán)，使他在這罪孽的昏夜中發(fā)出榮光——似乎那已故的總督把自己的榮光遺贈(zèng)繪了他，又好象當(dāng)老牧師仰望那凱旋的朝圣者跨進(jìn)天國時(shí)，那遙遠(yuǎn)的天光灑到了他身上——簡而言之，此財(cái)那好心的神父威爾遜正借助燈光為自己引路，一步步走回家去！也正是那盞燈的昏光，觸發(fā)了丁梅斯代爾先生的上述奇思異想，使他綻出了微笑——不，他簡直是對(duì)那想法放聲大笑——之后就懷疑自己是否要發(fā)瘋了。

As the Reverend Mr. Wilson passed beside the scaffold, closely muffling his Geneva cloak about him with one arm, and holding the lantern before his breast with the other, the minister could hardly restrain himself from speaking. "A good evening to you, venerable Father Wilson! Come up hither, I pray you, and pass a pleasant hour with me!"
可敬的威爾遜先生走過刑臺(tái)時(shí)，一手將黑色寬袖長法衣緊緊裹住他的身軀，另一手將燈舉到胸前，就在此刻，丁梅斯代爾牧師幾乎禁不住要說出口了：“晚上好，可敬的威爾遜神父！我請(qǐng)求你到這里來，陪我過上一小時(shí)歡樂的時(shí)光吧！