They met continually; they could not help it. They met dally in that strange and solemn interval, the twilight of the morning, in the violet or pink dawn; for it was necessary to rise early, so very early, here. Milking was done betimes; and before the milking came the skimming, which began at a little past three. It usually fell to the lot of some one or other of them to wake the rest, the first being aroused by an alarm-clock; and, as Tess was the latest arrival, and they soon discovered that she could be depended upon not to sleep through the alarm as the others did, this task was thrust most frequently upon her. No sooner had the hour of three struck and whizzed, than she left her room and ran to the dairyman's door; then up the ladder to Angel's, calling him in a loud whisper; then woke her fellow-milkmaids. By the time that Tess was dressed Clare was downstairs and out in the humid air. The remaining maids and the dairyman usually gave themselves another turn on the pillow, and did not appear till a quarter of an hour later.
他們繼續(xù)不斷地見面；他們無法克制自己。他們每天都在那個(gè)新奇莊嚴(yán)的時(shí)刻里見面，也就是在朦朧的晨光里、在紫色的或粉紅色的黎明里見面；因?yàn)樵谶@兒必須早起，要起得非常早。牛奶是要準(zhǔn)時(shí)擠完的，在擠牛奶之前還要撇奶油，這都是在三點(diǎn)剛過就要開始的。他們通常是通過抽簽在他們中間選好一個(gè)人，這第一個(gè)人先由一架鬧鐘叫醒，然后再由他叫醒其他的人。由于苔絲是最近才來的，不久他們又發(fā)現(xiàn)她不像其他的人那樣，要依靠鬧鐘才能睡覺，因此這項(xiàng)把人叫醒的任務(wù)大多就托付給她。三點(diǎn)鐘剛剛敲響，苔絲就走出房間，先跑到老板的房門前叫醒老板，然后從樓梯上樓來到安琪爾的房門前，低聲把他叫醒，最后才叫醒她的女伙伴們。在苔絲穿好衣服的時(shí)候，克萊爾已經(jīng)下了樓，走進(jìn)了屋外的潮濕空氣里。其他的擠奶女工和老板自己，通常都要在床上多躺一會(huì)兒，要過了一刻鐘才會(huì)露面。

The gray half-tones of daybreak are not the gray half-tones of the day's close, though the degree of their shade may be the same. In the twilight of the morning light seems active, darkness passive; in the twilight of evening it is the darkness which is active and crescent, and the light which is the drowsy reverse.
在破曉的時(shí)刻和黃昏的時(shí)刻，雖然它們明暗的程度都是一樣的，但是它們半灰的色調(diào)卻不盡相同。在清早的晨羲里，亮光活躍，黑暗消極；在黃昏的暮靄電，活躍的不斷增強(qiáng)的卻是黑暗，昏倦沉寂的反而是亮光。

Being so often - possibly not always by chance - the first two persons to get up at the dairy-house, they seemed to themselves the first persons up of all the world. In these early days of her residence here Tess did not skim, but went out of doors at once after rising, where he was generally awaiting her. The spectral, half-compounded, aqueous light which pervaded the open mead, impressed them with a feeling of isolation, as if they were Adam and Eve. At this dim inceptive stage of the day Tess seemed to Clare to exhibit a dignified largeness both of disposition and physique, an almost regnant power, possibly because he knew that at that preternatural time hardly any woman so well endowed in person as she was likely to be walking in the open air within the boundaries of his horizon; very few in all England. Fair women are usually asleep at midsummer dawns. She was close at hand, and the rest were nowhere.
由于他們經(jīng)常是奶牛場(chǎng)里起得最早的兩個(gè)人——可能從來就不是偶然——因此他們覺得自己就是全世界起得最早的兩個(gè)人。在苔絲剛在這兒住下的最初的日子里，她不撇奶油，但是她起床后就立即走出門外，安琪爾總是在外面等著她。空曠的草地上彌漫著半明半暗的、明暗混合的和帶著水汽的光線，給他們留下的印象是一種孤獨(dú)的感覺，似乎他們就是亞當(dāng)和夏娃。在一天中這個(gè)朦朧的最初的階段，克萊爾覺得苔絲似乎在性格和形體兩個(gè)方面都表現(xiàn)出一種尊貴和莊嚴(yán)，那幾乎就是一種女王的力量，也可能是因?yàn)樗?，在外貌上像苔絲那樣天賦麗質(zhì)的女子，都不大會(huì)在這個(gè)奇異的時(shí)刻里走進(jìn)露天里來，走進(jìn)他的視線的范圍以內(nèi)；這在全英國(guó)是非常少的。在仲夏的黎明里，漂亮的女人總是還沉睡在睡夢(mèng)里。她就在自己的身邊，而別的女子他不知道哪兒才有。

The mixed, singular, luminous gloom in which they walked along together to the spot where the cows lay, often made him think of the Resurrection hour. He little thought that the Magdalen might be at his side. Whilst all the landscape was in neutral shade his companion's face, which was the focus of his eyes, rising above the mist stratum, seemed to have a sort of phosphorescence upon it. She looked ghostly, as if she were merely a soul at large. In reality her face, without appearing to do so, had caught the cold gleam of day from the north-east; his own face, though he did not think of it, wore the same aspect to her.
在這種明暗混合的奇異的朦朧曙光里，他們一起走到奶牛伏臥的地方，這常常使安琪爾想到了耶穌復(fù)活的時(shí)刻。他很少想到走在他身邊的也許是個(gè)抹大拉女人。當(dāng)所有的景物都沐浴在明暗相宜的色調(diào)中的時(shí)候，他的同伴的臉就成了他眼睛注意的中心，那張臉從層層霧靄中顯露出來，臉上似乎染上了一層磷光。她看上去像一個(gè)幽靈，仿佛只是一個(gè)自由的靈魂。實(shí)際上是來自東北方向的白天清冷的光線照到了她的臉上，不過不太明顯而已；而他自己的臉，雖然他自己并沒有想到，但在苔絲看來也是同樣的光景。

It was then, as has been said, that she impressed him most deeply. She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman - a whole sex condensed into one typical form. He called her Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names half teasingly, which she did not like because she did not understand them.
正如先前說過的那樣，從那個(gè)時(shí)候開始，苔絲才給了他最為深刻的印象。她不再是一個(gè)擠牛奶的女工了，而是一種空幻玲瓏的女性精華——是全部女性凝聚而成的一個(gè)典型形象。他用半開玩笑的口氣叫她阿耳忒彌斯和德墨忒耳①，還叫她其他一些幻想中的名字，但是苔絲不喜歡，因?yàn)樗牪欢?/div>

'Call me Tess,' she would say askance; and he did.
“叫我苔絲吧，”她說，斜了他一眼；而他也就照辦了。

①阿耳忒彌斯（Artemis）和德墨忒耳（Demeter）。希臘女神。阿耳忒彌斯為狩獵女神；德墨忒耳為豐產(chǎn)和農(nóng)業(yè)女神。