Every village has its idiosyncrasy, its constitution, often its own code of morality. The levity of some of the younger women in and about Trantridge was marked, and was perhaps symptomatic of the choice spirit who ruled The Slopes in that vicinity. The place had also a more abiding defect; it drank hard. The staple conversation on the farms around was on the uselessness of saving money; and smock-frocked arithmeticians, leaning on their ploughs or hoes, would enter into calculations of great nicety to prove that parish relief was a fuller provision for a man in his old age than any which could result from savings out of their wages during a whole lifetime.
所有的村莊都有自己的特點、結構，甚至也有自己的道德準則。在特蘭里奇及其附近，有一些年輕婦女的輕佻惹人注意，這種輕佻也許就是控制附近那塊坡地上人們精神的征兆。這個地方還有一個根深蒂固的毛病，就是酗酒很厲害。附近農莊上常談的主要話題是攢錢沒有用處；身穿粗布罩衫的數(shù)學家們，倚著鋤頭或者犁歇息時，就會開始精確地計算，來證明人老后教區(qū)提供的全額救濟金，比一個人從一生中掙的工資中積攢起來的錢還要更充足。

The chief pleasure of these philosophers lay in going every Saturday night, when work was done, to Chaseborough, a decayed market town two or three miles distant; and, returning in the small hours of the next morning, to spend Sunday in sleeping off the dyspeptic effects of the curious compounds sold to them as beer by the monopolizers of the once independent inns.
這些哲學家們的主要快樂，就是在每個星期六的晚上收工后到兩三英里以外的已經衰敗了的市鎮(zhèn)獵苑堡去；一直到深夜過后的第二天凌晨，他們才回到家里，在星期天睡上一整天，把他們喝的那種有礙消化的混合飲料消化掉，這種飲料是從前獨立經營的酒店的壟斷者們作為啤酒賣給他們的。

For a long time Tess did not join in the weekly pilgrimages. But under pressure from matrons not much older than herself - for a fieldman's wages being as high at twenty one as at forty, marriage was early here - Tess at length consented to go. Her first experience of the journey afforded her more enjoyment than she had expected, the hilariousness of the others being quite contagious after her monotonous attention to the poultry-farm all the week. She went again and again. Being graceful and interesting, standing moreover on the momentary threshold of womanhood, her appearance drew down upon her some shy regards from loungers in the streets of Chaseborough; hence, though sometimes her journey to the town was made independently, she always searched for her fellows at nightfall, to have the protection of their companionship homeward.
長期以來，苔絲都沒有參加這些每星期一次的豪飲活動。但是她迫于年紀比她大不了多少的婦女的壓力——因為一個種地的工人，在二十歲時掙的工錢同四十歲的工人掙的工錢一樣多——苔絲最終還是同意去了。她第一次到那兒去的經歷使她得到了她沒有想到的快樂，整整一個星期她都在雞場過著照顧雞的單調生活，因此別人的快樂都是很能感染她的。她去了又去。她容貌美麗，逗人喜愛，而且又正處在即將發(fā)育成熟的年齡，所以她一在獵苑堡的大街上出現(xiàn)，就引來街上游手好閑的人偷偷瞟過來的目光。因此，有時候她雖然是獨自一人到那個鎮(zhèn)上去，但是在黃昏的時候她總要找她的同伴一起走，以便回家的時候能得到同伴們的照應。

This had gone on for a month or two when there came a Saturday in September, on which a fair and a market coincided; and the pilgrims from Trantridge sought double delights at the inns on that account. Tess's occupations made her late in setting out, so that her comrades reached the town long before her. It was a fine September evening, just before sunset, when yellow lights struggle with blue shades in hair-like lines, and the atmosphere itself forms a prospect without aid from more solid objects, except the innumerable winged insects that dance in it. Through this low-lit mistiness Tess walked leisurely along.
這種情況持續(xù)了一兩個月，到了九月的一個星期六，這一天定期集市和集市剛好碰到了一起；因此特蘭里奇的人就都到獵苑堡的酒店里去尋找雙重的快樂。苔絲工作沒有干完，出發(fā)得晚了，因此她的伙伴們到達鎮(zhèn)上時比她早了許多。這是九月里一個美好的傍晚，正是太陽落山的時候，黃色的亮光同藍色的暮靄相互爭斗，變成了一縷縷發(fā)絲一樣的光線，大氣本身就構成了一種景色，除了在大氣中展翅亂舞的無數(shù)飛蟲而外，它根本就不需要更多的實體的幫助。苔絲就在這種暗淡的暮靄中，不慌不忙地向前走去。