【經(jīng)典名著閱讀】《德伯家的苔絲》第十六章(下)
作者:托馬斯·哈代
2011-11-03 10:00
From the furthest east to the furthest west the cries spread as if by contagion, accompanied in some cases by the barking of a dog. It was not the expression of the valley's consciousness that beautiful Tess had arrived, but the ordinary announcement of milking-time - half-past four o'clock, when the dairymen set about getting in the cows.
這種聲音好像受到了感染,從東邊最遠(yuǎn)的地方傳到西邊最遠(yuǎn)的地方,其中偶爾還摻雜著一只狗的叫聲。它不是表示山谷里知道美麗的苔絲來了,而是四點(diǎn)半鐘擠牛奶時間到了的慣常通知,這時候奶牛場的工人們就動手把奶牛趕回去。
The red and white herd nearest at hand, which had been phlegmatically waiting for the call, now trooped towards the steading in the background, their great bags of milk swinging under them as they walked. Tess followed slowly in their rear, and entered the barton by the open gate through which they had entered before her. Long thatched sheds stretched round the enclosure, their slopes encrusted with vivid green moss, and their eaves supported by wooden posts rubbed to a glossy smoothness by the flanks of infinite cows and calves of bygone years, now passed to an oblivion almost inconceivable in its profundity. Between the posts were ranged the milchers, each exhibiting herself at the present moment to a whimsical eye in the rear as a circle on two stalks, down the centre of which a switch moved pendulum-wise; while the sun, lowering itself behind this patient row, threw their shadows accurately inwards upon the wall. Thus it threw shadows of these obscure and homely figures every evening with as much care over each contour as if it had been the profile of a Court beauty on a palace wall; copied them as diligently as it had copied Olympian shapes on marble fa?ades long ago, or the outline of Alexander, Caesar, and the Pharaohs.
早已在那兒等候呼喚的最近的一群紅牛和白牛,這時候就成群結(jié)隊地朝建在后面的田間牛舍里走去,它們一邊走,裝滿了牛奶的奶袋子就在它們腹下擺來擺去。苔絲跟在它們的后面慢慢走著,從前面的牛群通過的敞開著的柵欄門里走進(jìn)院子。院子的四周圍著長長的草棚,草棚斜坡的表面長滿了鮮艷的綠色青苔,用來支撐棚檐的木頭柱子,在過去的歲月中被無數(shù)的奶牛和小牛的肚腹磨擦得又光又亮,而那些?,F(xiàn)在卻在遺忘的深淵中不可想象地被人忘記得一干二凈。要被擠奶的牛都被安排在柱子中間,此刻讓一個異想天開的人從后面看來,排在那兒的每一頭牛就像一個圓環(huán)拴在兩根木樁上,中間的下方是一只來回擺動的鐘擺;這時候向草棚后面落去的夕陽,把這群能夠容忍的牛群的影子精確地投射到草棚的墻上。因為,每天傍晚,夕陽都要把這些朦朧的、簡樸的形體的影子投射出去,仔細(xì)地勾畫好每一個輪廓,就好像是宮廷美人映照在宮廷墻壁上的側(cè)影;它用心用意地描畫它們,就好像是很久以前把奧林匹斯的天神描畫到大理石壁上,或者是描畫亞尼山大·凱撒和埃及法老的輪廓。
They were the less restful cows that were stalled. Those that would stand still of their own will were milked in the middle of the yard, where many of such better behaved ones stood waiting now - all prime milchers, such as were seldom seen out of this valley, and not always within it; nourished by the succulent feed which the water-meads supplied at this prime season of the year. Those of them that were spotted with white reflected the sunshine in dazzling brilliancy, and the polished brass knobs on their horns glittered with something of military display. Their large-veined udders hung ponderous as sandbags, the teats sticking out like the legs of a gipsy's crock; and as each animal lingered for her turn to arrive the milk oozed forth and fell in drops to the ground.
被趕進(jìn)棚子的奶牛都不大安分守己。在院子中間安安靜靜地站著的那些奶牛,都是擠奶的,還有許多表現(xiàn)得更加安靜的奶牛等在那兒——它們都是上等的奶牛,這樣的奶牛在谷外很少看得到,就是在谷內(nèi)也不是常見;它們是由這一年中主要季節(jié)里的水草場生長的汁液豐富的草料喂養(yǎng)起來的。那些身上有白點(diǎn)的奶牛皮毛光亮,把陽光反射過來,使人日炫,它們的犄角上套著發(fā)亮的銅箍,就像是某種兵器閃耀著光輝。它們那些布滿粗大脈管的奶房沉重地垂在下面,就像是一個個沙袋,上面乳頭突起,好像吉普賽人使用的瓦罐的腳;每一頭奶牛逗留在那兒,等著輪到自己擠奶,在它們等候的時候牛奶就從奶頭滲出來,一點(diǎn)一滴地落到地上。