Chapter 19 THE CHILD AT THE BROOK-SIDE
第十九章　溪邊的孩子

"THOU wilt love her dearly," repeated Hester Prynne, as she and the minister sat watching little Pearl. "Dost thou not think her beautiful? And see with what natural skill she has made those simple flowers adorn her! Had she gathered pearls, and diamonds, and rubies, in the wood, they could not have become her better. She is a splendid child! But I know whose brow she has!"
“你會十分喜愛她的，”海絲特·白蘭又說了下遍，這時她和牧師正坐在那里瞅著小珠兒?！澳汶y道不認為她很美嗎？你看，她天生有多大的本事用那些普通的花朵來裝扮自己??！就算她能在林中采到珍珠、鉆石和紅寶石，也不會把自己打扮得比這更漂亮了。她是一個十分出色的孩子！但我知道她的額頭長得象誰！”

"Dost thou know, Hester," said Arthur Dimmesdale, with an unquiet smile, "that this dear child, tripping about always at thy side, hath caused me many an alarm? Methought- O Hester, what a thought is that, and how terrible to dread it!- that my own features were partly repeated in her face, and so strikingly that the world might see them! But she is mostly thine!"
“你知道，海絲特，”阿瑟·丁梅斯代爾帶著不安的微笑說， “這個總是在你身邊蹦蹦跳跳的可愛的孩子，曾經(jīng)多次引起我心驚肉跳嗎？我認為，——噢，海絲特，這是個什么樣的念頭，而且產(chǎn)生這種顧慮又是多么可怕??！——我自己的一部分面容重現(xiàn)在她的臉上，而且那么酷似，我真怕人們會認出來！不過，她主要還是象你！”

"No, no! Not mostly!" answered the mother, with a tender smile. "A little longer and thou needest not be afraid to trace whose child she is. But how strangely beautiful she looks, with those wild flowers in her hair! It is as if one of the fairies, whom we left in our dear old England, had decked her out to meet us."
“不，不！不是主要象我！”做母親的露出溫柔的微笑回答說。“過不多久，你就不必擔(dān)心人們會追究她是誰的孩子了。她頭發(fā)上戴著那些野花，顯得她的模樣漂亮得多么不平常?。》路鹩幸粋€被我們留在我們親愛的老英格蘭的仙子，把自己打扮好，跑來迎接我們了。”

It was with a feeling which neither of them had ever before experienced, that they sat and watched Pearl's slow advance. In her was visible the tie that united them. She had been offered to the world, these seven years past, as the living hieroglyphic, in which was revealed the secret they so darkly sought to hide- all written in this symbol- all plainly manifest- had there been a prophet or magician skilled to read the character of flame! And Pearl was the oneness of their being. Be the foregone evil what it might, how could they doubt that their earthly lives and future destinies were conjoined, when they beheld at once the material union, and the spiritual idea, in whom they met, and were to dwell immortally together? Thoughts like these- and perhaps other thoughts, which they did not acknowledge or define- threw an awe about the child, as she came onward.
他倆坐在那里，正是懷著一種他們誰也沒有體驗過的感情來注視著珠兒慢慢走來。在她身上能夠看出把他倆連系在一起的紐帶。過去這七年里，她作為如同有生命的象形文字，被奉獻給人類社會，在她身上揭示了他們竭力要隱藏的秘密，要是有一位先知或法師有本領(lǐng)破解這個火焰般的文字的話，就會懂得一切全都寫在這個象征之中，一切全都顯示得明明白自！而珠兒就是他倆生命的合而為一。不管以往的邪惡可能是什么，當他們一起看到，由他們交匯并將永在一起共存的肉體結(jié)晶和精神概念時，他們怎么可能會懷疑，他們在凡世的生命和未來的命運已經(jīng)密不可分呢？象這樣的想法，以及其它一些他們沒有承認或尚未定形的可能的想法，當那孩子向前走著的時候，在她身上投射出一種使人敬畏的色彩。