Presently there arose from within a ticking like the love-making of the grasshopper. The machine had begun, and a moving concatenation of three horses and the aforesaid long rickety machine was visible over the gate, a driver sitting upon one of the hauling horses, and an attendant on the seat of the implement. Along one side of the field the whole wain went, the arms of the mechanical reaper revolving slowly, till it passed down the hill quite out of sight. In a minute it came up on the other side of the field at the same equable pace; the glistening brass star in the forehead of the fore horse first catching the eye as it rose into view over the stubble, then the bright arms, and then the whole machine.
不久，麥地里傳來一種“嚓嚓”聲，好像是螞蚱情說愛的聲音。機器開始割麥了，從柵欄門這邊看過去，只見三匹馬并排拉著前面說過的搖搖晃晃的長方形機器向前走著，有一匹拉機器的馬上騎著一個趕馬的，機器的座位上坐著一個看機器的。機器戰(zhàn)車沿著麥地的一邊向前開動，機器割麥子的手臂慢慢轉(zhuǎn)動著，一直開過了山坡，完全從眼前消失了。過了一會兒，它又以同樣均勻的速度出現(xiàn)在麥地的另一邊；割麥子的機器在麥茬地上出現(xiàn)時，最先看見的是前面那匹馬額上閃閃發(fā)光的銅星，然后看見的是機器割麥子的鮮紅色手臂，最后看見的才是整部機器。

The narrow lane of stubble encompassing the field grew wider with each circuit, and the standing corn was reduced to smaller area as the morning wore on. Rabbits, hares, snakes, rats, mice, retreated inwards as into a fastness, unaware of the ephemeral nature of their refuge, and of the doom that awaited them later in the day when, their covert shrinking to a more and more horrible narrowness, they were huddled together, friends and foes, till the last few yards of upright wheat fell also under the teeth of the unerring reaper, and they were every one put to death by the sticks and stones of the harvesters.
割麥子的機器每走一圈，麥地周圍狹長的麥茬長帶就加寬一層，隨著早晨的時光慢慢過去，還長有麥子的麥地就只剩下不大的一塊了。大野兔、小野兔、長蟲、大老鼠、小耗子，都一起向麥田的內(nèi)地退去，好像要躲進堡壘里，卻沒有意識到它們避難的地方也只能是暫時的，沒有意識到它們毀滅的命運正在后面等著它們，當(dāng)今天它們躲避的地方越縮越小，最后變成可怕的一小塊時，它們無論是朋友還是仇敵，都要擁擠著躲藏在一塊兒了，等到收割機把地上最后剩下的幾百碼麥子割倒后，收莊稼的人就會拿起棍子和石頭，把它們一個個打死。

The reaping-machine left the fallen corn behind it in little heaps, each heap being of the quantity for a sheaf; and upon these the active binders in the rear laid their hands - mainly women, but some of them men in print shirts, and trousers supported round their waists by leather straps, rendering useless the two buttons behind, which twinkled and bristled with sunbeams at every movement of each wearer, as if they were a pair of eyes in the small of his back.
割麥子的機器割倒麥子，一小堆一小堆地留在機器后面，每一堆剛好可以捆作一捆；捆麥子的人在有麥堆的地方忙著，正在用手把麥子捆起來——捆麥子的人主要是婦女，但也有些人是男人，他們上穿印花布襯衣，下穿長褲，長褲用皮帶系在腰間，這樣后面的兩顆扣子也就失去了用處，他們每動一下，扣子就在陽光下一閃，仿佛是他們后腰上長的一雙眼睛。

But those of the other sex were the most interesting of this company of binders, by reason of the charm which is acquired by woman when she becomes part and parcel of outdoor nature, and is not merely an object set down therein as at ordinary times. A field-man is a personality afield; a field-woman is a portion of the field; she has somehow lost her own margin, imbibed the essence of her surrounding, and assimilated herself with it.
但是在這一群捆麥子的人中間，還是那些女子們最能引起人的興致，因為女人一旦在戶外變成了大自然的一部分，不再和平時那樣，僅僅只是擺放在那兒的一件物品，那時候她們就特別具有魅力。一個男人在地里只是地里的一個人；一個女人在地里卻是田地的組成部分；她在某些方面同田地失去了界限，吸收了周圍環(huán)境的精華，使自己同周圍的環(huán)境融成了一體。

The women - or rather girls, for they were mostly young - wore drawn cotton bonnets with great flapping curtains to keep off the sun, and gloves to prevent their hands being wounded by the stubble. There was one wearing a pale pink jacket, another in a cream-coloured tight-sleeved gown, another in a petticoat as red as the arms of the reaping-machine; and others, older, in the brown-rough 'wropper' or over-all-the old-established and most appropriate dress of the field-woman, which the young ones were abandoning. This morning the eye returns involuntarily to the girl in the pink cotton jacket, she being the most flexuous and finely-drawn figure of them all. But her bonnet is pulled so far over her brow that none of her face is disclosed while she binds, though her complexion may be guessed from a stray twine or two of dark brown hair which extends below the curtain of her bonnet. Perhaps one reason why she seduces casual attention is that she never courts it, though the other women often gaze around them.
婦女們——不如說是女孩子們，因為她們大多青春年少——都戴著打著皺折的女帽，帽子上寬大的帽檐可以遮擋太陽，她們的手上戴的手套可以保護雙手不被麥茬劃傷。在她們中間，有一個人穿著粉紅色上衣，有一個人穿著奶油色的窄袖長衫，還有一個人穿著短裙，短裙的顏色紅得就像收割機的十字架一樣；其他的婦女們年紀(jì)都要大些，都穿著棕色的粗布罩衫或者外套——那是婦女在地里勞動穿的最合適的老式樣的服裝，年輕的女孩子們都已經(jīng)不再穿它們了。這天早晨，大家的目光都被吸引到那個穿粉紅色棉布上衣的姑娘身上，在所有的女孩子中間，她的身材最苗條和最富有彈性。但是她的帽子拉得低低的，蓋住了她的額頭，所以在她捆麥子的時候，一點兒也看不見她的臉，不過從她的帽檐下面散落出來的一兩綹深褐色頭發(fā)上，大致可以猜測出她的皮膚的顏色來，她不能躲避別人的偶爾注意，也許有一個原因就是她不想別人注意她，而其他的婦女們的眼睛總是流波四顧的。