'It's a curious story; it carries us sack to medieval times, when faith was a living thing!'
“這真是一個離奇的故事；它又把我們帶回到中古時代，那時候信仰是一件有生命的東西！”

The remark, singular for a dairy-yard, was murmured by the voice behind the dun cow; but as nobody understood the reference no notice was taken, except that the narrator seemed to think it might imply scepticism as to his tale.
這是奶牛場里一句很奇特的評論，是那頭黃褐色母牛身后的人嘟噥著說的；不過當時沒有人懂得這句話的意思，就沒有引起注意，只是講故事的人似乎覺得這句話的意思是對他的故事表示懷疑。

'Well, 'tis quite true, sir, whether or no. I knowed the man well.'
“哦，這可是千真萬確的事，先生，不管你信不信。那個人我熟得很?！?/div>

'Oh yes; I have no doubt of it,' said the person behind the dun cow.
“哦，不錯；我不是懷疑它，”黃褐色母牛身后的人說。

Tess's attention was thus attracted to the dairyman's interlocutor, of whom she could see but the merest patch, owing to his burying his head so persistently in the flank of the milcher. She could not understand why he should be addressed as 'sir' even by the dairyman himself. But no explanation was discernible; he remained under the cow long enough to have milked three, uttering a private ejaculation now and then, as if he could not get on.
苔絲這時候才注意到和老板說話的那個人，由于他把頭緊緊地埋在奶牛的肚子上，苔絲看見的只是他身體的一部分。她也不明白，為什么老板和他說話也叫他“先生”。不過苔絲看不出一點兒道理來；他老是呆在母牛的下面，時間長得足夠擠三頭奶牛的奶，他時而嘴里悄悄地發(fā)出一聲喘息，好像他堅持不下去了。

'Take it gentle, sir; take it gentle,' said the dairyman. ''Tis knack, not strength that does it.'
“擠得柔和點兒，先生；擠得柔和點兒，”奶牛場老板說。“擠牛奶用的是巧勁兒，不是蠻力?！?/div>

'So I find,' said the other, standing up at last and stretching his arms. 'I think I have finished her, however, though she made my fingers ache.'
“我也覺得是這樣，”那個人說，終于站起來伸伸胳膊。“不過，我想我還是把它擠完了，盡管我把手指頭都給擠疼了?！?/div>

Tess could then see him at full length. He wore the ordinary white pinner and leather leggings of a dairy-farmer when milking, and his boots were clogged with the mulch of the yard; but this was all his local livery. Beneath it was something educated, reserved, subtle, sad, differing.
直到這時候苔絲才看見他的全身。他系一條普通的白色圍裙，腿上打著奶牛場擠奶工人打的綁腿，靴子上沾滿了院子里的爛草污泥；不過所有這些裝束都是本地的裝束。在這種外表之下，看得出來他受過教育，性格內(nèi)向，性情敏感，神情憂郁和與眾不同。

But the details of his aspect were temporarily thrust aside by the discovery that he was one whom she had seen before. Such vicissitudes had Tess passed through since that time that for a moment she could not remember where she had met him; and then it flashed upon her that he was the pedestrian who had joined in the club-dance at Marlott - the passing stranger who had come she knew not whence, had danced with others but not with her, had slightingly left her, and gone on his way with his friends.
但是苔絲暫時把他外表上的這些細節(jié)放到了一邊，因為他發(fā)現(xiàn)他是她以前見過的一個人。自從他們那次相遇之后，苔絲已經(jīng)歷盡滄桑，因而一時竟記不起在那兒見過他；后來心里一亮，她才想起來他就是那個曾在馬洛特村參加過他們村社舞會的過路人——就是那個她不知道從哪兒來的過路的陌生人，不是同她而是同另一個女孩子跳過舞，離開時又冷落她，上路同他的朋友們一起走了。

The flood of memories brought back by this revival of an incident anterior to her troubles produced a momentary dismay lest, recognizing her also, he should by some means discover her story. But it passed away when she found no sign of remembrance in him. She saw by degrees that since their first and only encounter his mobile face had grown more thoughtful, and had acquired a young man's shapely moustache and beard - the latter of the palest straw colour where it began upon his cheeks, and deepening to a warm brown farther from its root. Under his linen milking-pinner he wore a dark velveteen jacket, cord breeches and gaiters, and a starched white shirt. Without the milking-gear nobody could have guessed what he was. He might with equal probability have been an eccentric landowner or a gentlemanly ploughman. That he was but a novice at dairy-work she had realized in a moment, from the time he had spent upon the milking of one cow.
她回想起在她遭受了不幸以前發(fā)生的那件小事，對過去的回憶像潮水一樣涌了上來，使她暫時生發(fā)出一陣憂郁，害怕他認出她來，并設(shè)法發(fā)現(xiàn)她的經(jīng)歷。不過她在他身上看不出他有記得的跡象，也就放心了。她還逐漸看見，自從他們第一次也是僅有的一次相遇以后，他那生動的臉變得更為深沉了，嘴上已經(jīng)長出了年輕人有的漂亮胡須了——下巴上的胡須是淡淡的麥秸色，已經(jīng)長到了兩邊的臉頰，逐漸變成了溫暖的褐色。他在麻布圍裙里面穿一件深色天鵝絨夾克衫，配一條燈芯絨褲子，扎著皮綁腿，里面穿一件漿洗過的白襯衫。要是他沒有穿那件擠牛奶的圍裙，沒有人能夠猜出他是誰。他完全可能是一個怪癖的地主，也完全可能是一個體面的農(nóng)夫。從他給那頭母牛擠奶所費的時間上，苔絲立刻就看出來，他只不過是在奶牛場干活的一個新手。

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