作者：George Sand 乔治·桑
出版社：外语教学与研究出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
魔沼(外研社双语读库)试读：
CHAPTER I THE AUTHOR TO THE READER
第一章 致读者
By the sweat of thy brow,Thou wilt earn thy poor livelihood;After long travail and service,Lo! Death comes and calls thee.
累得汗流满面，只为生计可怜；一生劳累辛苦，瞧！如今阎王来见。
The quatrain in old French written below one of Holbein's pictures is profoundly sad in its simplicity. The engraving represents a ploughman driving his plough through a field. A vast expanse of country stretches away in the distance, with some poor cabins here and there; the sun is setting behind the hill. It is the close of a hard day's work. The peasant is a short, thick-set man, old, and clothed in rags. The four horses that he urges forward are thin and gaunt; the ploughshare is buried in rough, unyielding soil. A single figure is joyous and alert in that scene of sweat and toil. It is a fantastic personage, a skeleton armed with a whip, who runs in the furrow beside the terrified horses and belabors them, thus serving the old husbandman as ploughboy. This spectre, which Holbein has introduced allegorically in the succession of philosophical and religious subjects, at once lugubrious and burlesque, entitled the Dance of Death, is Death itself.
这首用古法语写的四行诗题在霍尔拜因创作的一幅版画下端，寥寥几行写出了无限哀伤。这幅版画描绘了一个正在扶犁耕田的农夫。一片广袤的乡野消失在远方，一些破旧的木屋点缀在其间；太阳落到了山后。一天的辛苦劳作结束了。这个农夫个头不高，身材壮实，已上了年纪，衣衫褴褛。被他驱策前行的四匹马瘦骨嶙峋，犁头没入了干硬不平的泥土里。在这个充满汗水和苦力的场景里，唯有一人满心愉悦、步履轻盈。这个虚幻的人物是一个手执鞭子的骷髅，它沿着犁沟鞭打着旁边受到惊吓的马，当老农夫的耕童。这个幽灵就是死神。霍尔拜因带有寓意地将死神引入到一组哲理和宗教题材的画里，这组画阴郁而具有讽刺意味，名为《死神之舞》。
In that collection, or rather in that great book, in which Death, playing his part on every page, is the connecting link and the dominant thought, Holbein has marshalled sovereigns, pontiffs, lovers, gamblers, drunkards, nuns, courtesans, brigands, paupers, soldiers, monks, Jews, travellers, the whole world of his day and of ours; and everywhere the spectre of Death mocks and threatens and triumphs. From a single picture only, is it absent. It is that one in which Lazarus, the poor man, lying on a dunghill at the rich man's door, declares that he does not fear Death, doubtless because he has nothing to lose and his life is premature death.
在那部画集里，或者说在那部伟大的作品里，死神活跃在每一页中，是贯穿全书的线索和主题。霍尔拜因在画中集结了君主、教皇、恋人、赌徒、酒鬼、修女、交际花、土匪、穷光蛋、士兵、僧人、犹太人、旅行者，描绘了他那个时代和我们这个时代的每一类人；死神到处嘲弄我们，威胁我们，而且总是胜利者。它只有在一幅画里没有出现。在那幅画里，可怜的拉扎勒斯躺在一户富人家门前的粪堆里，声称他不怕死神，这无疑是因为他没有什么可失去的，他活着的日子便是死亡的序曲。
Is that stoicist idea of the half-pagan Christianity of the Renaissance very comforting, and do devout souls find consolation therein? The ambitious man, the rascal, the tyrant, the rake, all those haughty sinners who abuse life, and whom Death holds by the hair, are destined to be punished, without doubt; but are the blind man, the beggar, the madman, the poor peasant, recompensed for their long life of misery by the single reflection that death is not an evil for them? No! An implacable melancholy, a ghastly fatality, overshadows the artist's work. It resembles a bitter imprecation upon the fate of mankind.
在文艺复兴时代，近乎异教的基督教中的这种禁欲思想能给人安慰吗？虔诚的灵魂能在其中找到慰藉吗？野心家、流氓、暴君、花花公子，所有这些傲慢的罪人糟践了生命，又被死神拽住了头发。无疑，他们命中注定要受到惩罚。然而，盲人、乞丐、疯子、贫穷的农民悲惨一生，是否仅仅因为领悟到死亡对于他们并非一种罪恶便得到了补偿？不！一种无法平息的忧愁，一种可怕的宿命思想笼罩着这位画家的作品。这幅作品就如对人类命运的无情诅咒。
There truly do we find the grievous satire, the truthful picture of the society Holbein had under his eyes. Crime and misfortune, those are what impressed him; but what shall we depict, we artists of another age? Shall we seek in the thought of death the reward of mankind in the present day? Shall we invoke it as the punishment of injustice and the guerdon of suffering?
在这里，我们感受到了悲伤的讽刺，看到了霍尔拜因眼中真实的社会图景。罪恶和不幸让霍尔拜因触目惊心。作为另一个时代的艺术家，我们应该描绘什么呢？我们是应该在对死亡的思考中寻找当今人类应得的命运？还是应该把死亡看作是对不公的惩罚和对苦难的回报？
No, we have no longer to deal with Death, but with Life. We no longer believe either in the nothingness of the tomb or in salvation purchased by obligatory renunciation; we want life to be good because we want it to be fruitful. Lazarus must leave his dunghill, so that the poor may no longer rejoice at the death of the rich. All must be happy, so that the happiness of some may not be a crime and accursed of God. The husbandman as he sows his grain must know that he is working at the work of life, and not rejoice because Death is walking beside him. In a word, death must no longer be the punishment of prosperity or the consolation of adversity. God did not destine death as a punishment or a compensation for life; for he blessed life, and the grave should not be a refuge to which it is permitted to send those who cannot be made happy.
不，我们不再与死亡打交道，我们要面对的是生命。我们不再相信坟墓的虚无，也不相信强制性的克己修行能换来救赎；我们希望生活变得美好，因为我们希望生活能回报给我们累累硕果。拉扎勒斯必须离开他的粪堆，这样穷人才会不再因富人的死而额手称庆。人人都应该幸福，这样一些人的幸福才不会成为受到上帝诅咒的罪恶。农夫在播种谷物的时候应当明白他在为生命而劳动，当死神伴随在他身旁时，他不该感到高兴。总之，死亡不应再是对幸运者的惩罚或是对不幸者的安慰。上帝没有把死亡当作是对生命的惩罚亦或是补偿，因为他祝福生命。而坟墓不应该是送给那些无法感受到幸福的人的避难所。
Certain artists of our time, casting a serious glance upon their surroundings, strive to depict grief, the abjectness of poverty, Lazarus's dunghill. That may be within the domain of art and philosophy; but, by representing poverty as so ugly, so base, and at times so vicious and criminal a thing, do they attain their end, and is the effect as salutary as they could wish? We do not dare to say. We may be told that by pointing out the abyss that yawns beneath the fragile crust of opulence, they terrify the wicked rich man, as, in the time of the Danse Macabre, they showed him its yawning ditch, and Death ready to wind its unclean arms about him. To-day, they show him the thief picking his lock, the assassin watching until he sleeps. We confess that we do not clearly understand how they will reconcile him with the humanity he despises, how they will move his pity for the sufferings of the poor man whom he fears, by showing him that same poor man in the guise of the escaped felon and the burglar. Ghastly Death, gnashing his teeth and playing the violin in the productions of Holbein and his predecessors, found it impossible in that guise to convert the perverse and to comfort their victims. Is it not a fact that the literature of our day is in this respect following to some extent in the footsteps of the artists of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance?
我们这个时代的某些艺术家一本正经地看着周围的世界，挖空心思去描述不幸、贫穷的悲惨和拉扎勒斯的粪堆。他们的作品依然属于艺术和哲学的范畴，但是，将贫穷刻画得如此丑陋、卑鄙，并且有时是如此邪恶和可耻，他们的目的达到了吗？是不是如愿取得了积极的效果呢？我们不敢妄自断言。人们说，只要指出富庶脆弱的外壳下是张开血盆大口的深渊，就能让为富不仁者感到恐惧。比如，在表演《死神之舞》的时代，人们向富人指着敞开的坟墓，告诉他死神正准备张开污秽的双臂迎接他。如今，他们告诉富人，小偷正在撬他家的锁，杀手正等着在他入睡后下手。我们承认我们不太理解他们的做法。他们告诉富人，在逃的重罪犯和强盗本质上都是穷人，这如何能让富人接受他所鄙视的人性，又如何让害怕穷人的富人同情穷人的苦难呢？可怕的死神在霍尔拜因和前人的作品里咬牙切齿，拉着提琴，这个模样并不能使乖张者顺从，也无法让穷苦者得到安慰。从某种程度上说，我们这个时代的文学在这个方面难道不是在步中世纪和文艺复兴时期艺术家们的后尘吗？
Holbein's drunkards fill their glasses in a sort of frenzied desire to put aside the thought of Death, who, unseen by them, acts as their cup-bearer. The wicked rich men of to-day demand fortifications and cannon to put aside the thought of a rising of the Jacquerie, whom art shows them at work in the shadow, separately awaiting the moment to swoop down upon society. The Church of the Middle Ages answered the terrors of the powerful ones of the earth by selling indulgences. The government of to-day allays the anxiety of the rich by making them pay for many gendarmes and jailers, bayonets and prisons.
霍尔拜因笔下的酒鬼斟满他们的酒杯，恨不得把对死神的恐惧抛到脑后，殊不见倒酒者正是死神。如今，奸诈的富人修筑工事，购买枪炮，来防范雅克团式的暴动。艺术作品告诉他们，暴动分子正在私下里准备，各自等待时机来一举摧垮这个社会。中世纪的教会出售赎罪券来缓解权贵们的恐惧。如今的政府让富人们出钱来养活宪兵、狱卒、军队和监狱，以平息他们的不安。
Albert Derer, Michael Angelo, Holbein, Callot, Goya, produced powerful satires upon the evils of their age and their country. They are immortal works, historical pages of unquestionable value; we do not undertake, therefore, to deny artists the right to probe the wounds of society and lay them bare before our eyes; but is there nothing better to be done to-day than to depict the terrifying and the threatening? In this literature of mysteries of iniquity, which talent and imagination have made fashionable, we prefer the mild, attractive figures to the villains for dramatic effect. The former may undertake and effect conversions, the others cause fear, and fear does not cure egoism, but increases it.
阿尔贝·丢勒、迈克尔·安杰洛、霍尔拜因、卡洛和戈雅都曾狠狠嘲讽过他们那个时代和他们国家的罪恶。他们的作品是不朽的历史篇章，其价值不容置疑。因此，我们不打算否认艺术家有权揭露社会伤口，并将之公诸于众。但是现在，除了描述恐惧和威胁，难道我们没有更好的选择了吗？写作才能和想象力使得探究罪恶神秘性的文学变得风靡一时，但我们更喜欢那些温柔迷人的角色，而不是一见便令人胆寒的恶棍。前者可以劝人向善，后者只能令人恐惧。而恐惧不能治愈自私，只能令自私膨胀。
We believe that the mission of art is a mission of sentiment and love, that the novel of to-day ought to replace the parable and the fable of simpler times, and that the artist has a broader and more poetic task than that of suggesting a few prudential and conciliatory measures to lessen the alarm his pictures arouse. His object should be to make the objects of his solicitude lovable, and I would not reproach him for flattering them a little, in case of need. Art is not a study of positive reality, it is a quest for ideal truth, and the Vicar of Wakefield was a more useful and healthy book for the mind than the Paysan Perverti or the Liaisons Dangereuses.
我们相信，艺术的使命是情感和爱，当代小说应取代人类早期单纯年代里的寓言。当代的艺术家应该肩负更广阔和更诗意的任务，而不仅仅是提一些谨慎而缓和的方案来减轻他的绘画所引起的波澜。他的目的应该是让他关注的对象更加讨人喜欢，如有必要，甚至可以稍加美化，对此我不会加以指责。艺术不是对现实的研究，艺术是对理想真谛的追求。因此与《堕落的农民》和《危险的联系》相比，《威克菲尔牧师传》更有益于思想健康。
Reader, pardon these reflections, and deign to accept them by way of preface. There will be no other to the little tale I propose to tell you, and it will be so short and so simple that I felt that I must apologize beforehand by telling you what I think of terrifying tales.
读者朋友，恕我赘言，是以为序，请屈尊一读。接下来就是我要给您讲的故事。因为这个故事很简短，所以我觉得在此之前有必要把自己关于恐怖故事的想法告诉您，请原谅。
I allowed myself to be drawn into this digression apropos of a ploughman. It is the story of a ploughman that I set out to tell you, and will tell you forthwith.
关于这个农夫，我不由自主地说了些中肯的题外话。我打算并且马上要给您讲的正是一个农夫的故事。
CHAPTER II THE PLOUGHING
第二章 犁地
I had been gazing for a long time and with profound sadness at Holbein's ploughman, and I was walking in the fields, musing upon country-life and the destiny of the husbandman. Doubtless it is a depressing thing to consume one's strength and one's life driving the plough through the bosom of the jealous earth, which yields the treasures of its fecundity only under duress, when a bit of the blackest and coarsest bread at the end of the day is the only reward and the only profit of such laborious toil. The wealth that covers the ground, the crops, the fruit, the proud cattle fattening on the long grass, are the property of a few, and the instruments of fatigue and slavery of the majority. As a general rule, the man of leisure does not love, for themselves, the fields, or the meadows, or the spectacle of nature, or the superb beasts that are to be converted into gold pieces for his use. The man of leisure comes to the country in search of a little air and health, then returns to the city to spend the fruit of his vassal's toil.
我曾带着深深的哀伤凝视了许久霍尔拜因画笔下的农夫，然后我漫步田间，思考着乡村生活和农夫的命运。一个农夫耗尽他的的气力和生命在这片吝啬的土地上犁地耕耘，而土地只有在胁迫之下才会产出丰饶的宝藏。可一天辛苦工作的奖赏和利润只是些许最黑、最粗糙的面包。无疑，这是一件可悲的事。这些从土地中生长的财富，这些庄稼、水果、丰美青草养肥的值得称耀的牲畜只是少数人的财产，却是使多数人受累和被奴役的工具。一般来说，有闲者自己并不爱田地、草场、大自然的美景，也不爱能换成金币供他使用的肥硕牲口。有闲人者来乡村透透气、散散心，调养好身体之后，便回到城里挥霍奴仆们劳动的果实。
The man of toil, for his part, is too crushed, too wretched, and too frightened concerning the future, to enjoy the beauties of the landscape and the charms of rustic life. To him also the golden fields, the lovely meadows, the noble animals, represent bags of crowns, of which he will have only a paltry share, insufficient for his needs, and yet those cursed bags must be filled every year to satisfy the master and pay for the privilege of living sparingly and wretchedly on his domain.
而做苦力的人呢，太累，太悲惨，对未来充满恐惧，哪里有心思去欣赏田野的美景和乡村生活的乐趣。对他来说，金黄的田野、秀丽的草场、壮观的牲口群意味着一袋袋的钱币，从中他只能分到微不足道的一份，还不够养活自己，然而那些该死的钱袋还得每年装得满满的，好满足他们的主子，以便使自己获得在主子的领地内过拮据和悲惨生活的权利。
And still nature is always young and beautiful and generous. She sheds poetry and beauty upon all living things, upon all the plants that are left to develop in their own way. Nature possesses the secret of happiness, and no one has ever succeeded in wresting it from her. He would be the most fortunate of men who, possessing the science of his craft and working with his hands, deriving happiness and liberty from the exercise of his intelligent strength, should have time to live in the heart and the brain, to understand his work, and to love the work of God. The artist has enjoyment of that sort in contemplating and reproducing the beauties of Nature; but, when he sees the suffering of the men who people this paradise called the earth, the just, kind-hearted artist is grieved in the midst of his enjoyment. Where the mind, heart, and arms work in concert under the eye of Providence, true happiness would be found, and a holy harmony would exist between the munificence of God and the delights of the human soul. Then, instead of piteous, ghastly Death walking in his furrow, whip in hand, the painter of allegories could place beside the ploughman a radiant angel, sowing the blessed grain in the smoking furrows with generous hand.
然而，大自然的年轻、美丽和慷慨一如往昔。她把诗意和美丽倾注在一切生命体上，倾注在一切自由生长的植物上。大自然掌握了幸福的奥秘，还没人能成功地从它那里将其夺走过。一个人如果技艺在身，勤劳肯干，运用智慧的力量赢得幸福和自由，有时间去感受和思考，了解自己的工作，也热爱上帝的事业，那么这样的人是最幸运的。艺术家们在注视和再现大自然之美时，也拥有那种乐趣。但是一旦看到在这个天堂般的地球上繁衍的人们在忍受苦难时，拥有正义感和好心肠的艺术家不免悲从中来。在上帝的注视下，精神、心灵和肢体保持协调，这就是真正的幸福所在，在上帝的仁慈和人类灵魂的愉悦之间便有了一种神圣的和谐。于是，画寓言作品的画家就可以把一位祥光笼罩的天使画在农夫身旁，大把地将带着祝福的种子播撒在冒着水汽的田沟里，而不是去画一位手执鞭子、行走于犁沟间、伪善而恐怖的死神。
And the dream of a peaceful, free, poetical, laborious, simple existence for the husbandman is not so difficult of conception that it need be relegated to a place among chimeras. The gentle, melancholy words of Virgil: "O how happy the life of the husbandman, if he but knew his happiness!" is an expression of regret; but, like all regrets, it is also a prediction. A day will come when the ploughman may be an artist, if not to express,—which will then matter but little, perhaps,—at all events, to feel, the beautiful. Do you believe that this mysterious intuition of poesy does not already exist within him in the state of instinct and vague revery? In those who have a little hoard for their protection to-day, and in whom excess of misery does not stifle all moral and intellectual development, pure happiness, felt and appreciated, is at the elementary stage; and, furthermore, if poets' voices have already arisen from the bosom of sorrow and fatigue, why should it be said that the work of the hands excludes the exercise of the functions of the mind? That exclusion is probably the general result of excessive toil and profound misery; but let it not be said that when man shall work only moderately and profitably, then there will be none but bad workmen and bad poets. He who derives noble enjoyment from the inward sentiment of poesy is a true poet, though he has never written a line in his life.
对于一位农夫来说，平静、自由、诗意、勤劳、纯朴的生活梦想并不是难以实现的，不必将其看作是妄想。“哦，要是农夫知道自己的幸福，他的生活该会多么幸福啊！”维吉尔温和、忧郁的词语传递出一种遗憾情绪，但和所有遗憾一样，遗憾也是一种预言。有朝一日，农夫也会成为一个艺术家，即使不能表现美——或许那时已无关紧要——无论如何也能感受到美。你相信在他身上，这种神秘的诗意直觉难道不是已经存在于本能和模糊的遐想中吗？今天，在那些有一点儿生活保障的人群里，在那些没有因过度的苦难而完全扼杀道德和心智发展的人群里，能感受和领会的纯粹幸福只是处于初级阶段的幸福，况且，如果诗人的声音已从痛苦和疲惫的胸膛里迸发出来，为什么还要说将体力劳动排斥在智力活动之外呢？这种排斥可能是过度劳动和极端贫困造成的普遍结果。即便如此，我们也不能说当人们只是适度劳动就有所收获时，世上便只有差劲的工人和糟糕的诗人了。一个能从内心诗意情感中获得高尚乐趣的人是一个真正的诗人，即便他一生中从没有写过一行诗。
My thoughts had taken this course, and I did not notice that this confidence in man's capacity for education was strengthened in my mind by external influences. I was walking along the edge of a field which the peasants were preparing for the approaching sowing. The field was an extensive one, like that in Holbein's picture. The landscape, too, was of great extent and framed in broad lines of verdure, slightly reddened by the approach of autumn, the lusty brown earth, where recent rains had left in some of the furrows lines of water which sparkled in the sun like slender silver threads. It was a blight, warm day, and the ground, freshly opened by the sharp ploughshares, exhaled a slight vapor. At the upper end of the field, an old man, whose broad back and stern face recalled the man in Holbein's picture, but whose clothing did not indicate poverty, gravely drove his old-fashioned areau, drawn by two placid oxen, with pale yellow hides, veritable patriarchs of the fields, tall, rather thin, with long, blunt horns, hard-working old beasts whom long companionship has made brothers, as they are called in our country districts, and who, when they are separated, refuse to work with new mates and die of grief. People who know nothing of the country call this alleged friendship of the ox for his yoke-fellow fabulous. Let them go to the stable and look at a poor, thin, emaciated animal, lashing his sunken sides with his restless tail, sniffing with terror and contempt at the fodder that is put before him, his eyes always turned toward the door, pawing the empty place beside him, smelling the yoke and chains his companion wore, and calling him incessantly with a pitiful bellow. The driver will say: "There's a yoke of oxen lost; his brother's dead, and he won't work. We ought to fatten him for killing; but he won't eat, and he'll soon starve to death."
我这样想着，由于外部的影响，我并没有察觉到在我心里对人的可教育性增添了信心。我沿着一片田地的边缘地带走着，农夫们正在田里准备播种。这块田很大，就如霍尔拜因画中的田地一样。景色也很开阔，深褐色的土壤四周都是碧绿的带状；秋天临近使得土地稍微有点泛红，犁好的田沟里积着不久前下的雨水，在阳光的照射下就如纤细的银线，闪闪发亮。天气干涩温暖，泥土刚被锋利的犁翻过，散发出微微的水汽。在这块田的高处有一位老人，脊背宽阔，脸色严峻，让人想起霍尔拜因画里的农夫，但不同的是他的穿着并不寒酸。老人严肃地推着他的老式犁，前面由两头老实的牛拉着。它们是田里真正的主宰者。这两头牛的皮毛是淡黄色的，又高又瘦，牛角长而钝。它们常年在一起，亲如兄弟，在乡下人们也这样说，如果两头牛被拆开了，它们会拒绝和新伙伴一起干活，直到郁郁而终。不熟悉乡村的人会觉得耕牛之间这种所谓的友谊不可思议。让他们到牛棚里看看吧，一头瘦骨嶙峋、精疲力尽的牲口用不安分的尾巴拍打瘦削的两侧身子，恐惧但又轻蔑地对放在它面前的饲料呼着气，牛眼睛总是看向门边，牛蹄不停地刨着身旁的空地，牛鼻嗅着它伙伴戴的犁轭和铁链的味道，用悲惨的哞哞声不停地呼喊着它的伙伴。赶牛人会说：“它的兄弟死了，它也不干活了，我损失了两头牛。我们想把它养肥再宰掉，但它不吃东西，很快就会饿死。”
The old ploughman was working slowly, in silence, without useless expenditure of strength. His docile team seemed in no greater hurry than he; but as he kept constantly at work, never turning aside, and exerting always just the requisite amount of sustained power, his furrow was as quickly cut as his son's, who was driving four less powerful oxen on some harder and more stony land a short distance away.
那位老农夫一声不吭慢慢地犁着田，不愿因说话而多花力气。他温顺的耕牛看起来和他一样不慌不忙。老农一心一意地干着活，从不东张西望，用力均匀又恰如其分，他犁起地来和他儿子一样快。他儿子在不远处赶着四头力气稍小的公牛，耕着一块满是石头且土质坚硬的地。
But the spectacle that next attracted my attention was a fine one indeed, a noble subject for a painter. At the other end of the arable tract, a young man of attractive appearance was driving a superb team: four yoke of young beasts, black-coated with tawny spots that gleamed like fire, with the short, curly heads that suggest the wild bull, the great, wild eyes, the abrupt movements, the nervous, jerky way of doing their work, which shows that the yoke and goad still irritate them and that they shiver with wrath as they yield to the domination newly imposed upon them. They were what are called oxen freshly yoked. The man who was guiding them had to clear a field until recently used for pasturage, and filled with venerable stumps—an athlete's task which his energy, his youth, and his eight almost untamed beasts were hardly sufficient to accomplish.
然而，接下来吸引我的景象很美，是画家创作的理想素材。在耕地的另一头，一个英俊的年轻人驾驭着一支出色的队伍：四对年轻力壮的耕牛，一身漆黑的皮毛上点缀着褐色的斑点，发出似火的亮光，粗短的头颅上一头卷毛，散发着野牛的气息。它们双眼大而充满野性，动作蛮横，干活急躁，虽然刚刚屈服于驾驭，却对轭和牛鞭的束缚怒气不止、浑身发抖。它们就是所谓新上套的牛。这个赶着牛的人要耕完一片不久前还是牧场的地，地里满是老树根。光靠他的力气、他的年轻和他那八头还未驯服的牛还远不能干完这样一件力气活。
A child of six or seven years, as beautiful as an angel, with a lamb's fleece covering his shoulders, over his blouse, so that he resembled the little Saint John the Baptist of the painters of the Renaissance, was trudging along in the furrow beside the plough and pricking the sides of the oxen with a long, light stick, the end of which was armed with a dull goad. The proud beasts quivered under the child's small hand, and made the yokes and the straps about their foreheads groan, jerking the plough violently forward. When the ploughshare struck a root, the driver shouted in a resonant voice, calling each beast by his name, but rather to soothe than to excite them; for the oxen, annoyed by the sudden resistance, started forward, digging their broad forked feet into the ground, and would have turned aside and dragged the plough across the field, had not the young man held the four leaders in check with voice and goad, while the child handled the other four. He, too, shouted, poor little fellow, in a voice which he tried to render terrible, but which remained as sweet as his angelic face. The whole picture was beautiful in strength and in grace: the landscape, the man, the child, the oxen under the yoke; and, despite the mighty struggle in which the earth was conquered, there was a feeling of peace and profound tranquillity hovering over everything. When the obstacle was surmounted and the team resumed its even, solemn progress, the ploughman, whose pretended violence was only to give his muscles a little practice and his vitality an outlet, suddenly resumed the serenity of simple souls and cast a contented glance upon his child, who turned to smile at him. Then the manly voice of the young paterfamilias would strike up the solemn, melancholy tune which the ancient tradition of the province transmits, not to all ploughmen without distinction, but to those most expert in the art of arousing and sustaining the spirit of working-cattle. That song, whose origin was perhaps held sacred, and to which mysterious influences seem to have been attributed formerly, is reputed even to the present day to possess the virtue of keeping up the courage of those animals, of soothing their discontent, and of whiling away the tedium of their long task. It is not enough to have the art of driving them so as to cut the furrow in an absolutely straight line, to lighten their labor by raising the share or burying it deeper in the ground: a man is not a perfect ploughman if he cannot sing to his cattle, and that is a special science which requires special taste and powers.
一个约摸六七岁的小孩，长得如天使般漂亮，穿着罩衫，肩上披着羊皮，活脱脱像文艺复兴时期画家作品里施洗礼的小约翰。他沿着与犁平行的一条犁沟步履艰难地走着，用一根又长又轻却并不尖利的小棒戳着牛群两侧的身体。这群高傲的牲畜们在这个孩子的小手下颤抖着，牛轭和箍在前额上的皮带啪啪作响，犁也随之猛地向前拽动。每当一个树根挡住犁头时，农夫便大声吆喝着每头牛的名字，不是为了刺激它们，而是使它们镇定下来。因为这群牛被突如其来的阻力激怒时，它们会向前蹦去，宽大的叉状牛蹄会在地上挖出洞来，要是年轻人不用吆喝和刺棒控制住领头的四头牛，一旁的小孩不能管住另外四头的话，这群牛便会转向一边，拖着犁朝旁边耕过去。可怜的小孩也吆喝着，竭力让自己的声音听起来可怕，但是如他天使般的脸蛋一样，他的声音也很甜美。整个景象充满了力量和优雅之美：景色、年轻人、孩童、套着犁的公牛。尽管土地被征服的过程中充满了力量的挣扎，但仍有一种平和与静谧萦绕着这一切。待障碍物被清除后，这个队伍继续平稳庄重地前行。犁田的农夫装出来的凶狠只不过使他稍微活动了一下筋骨，发泄了活力。他很快又恢复了那种淳朴心灵的宁静，向他的孩子投去了满意的一瞥，孩子也朝着他笑了笑。随后，这个年轻的父亲便用他那雄浑的嗓音唱起庄严又充满忧郁的曲子。这种当地自古留传下来的曲子并非每个农夫都会唱，只有那些深谙如何激发和维持耕牛干劲的农夫才唱得出来。这个曲子的起源可能是圣歌，以前被认为具有神秘的力量，直到现在人们还认为它能使耕牛无所畏惧，能平息它们的不满，还能排解它们长久干活的厌烦。只懂得怎么驾驭它们耕出笔直的犁沟，懂得如何调整犁头的角度以减轻耕牛的辛苦是不够的。不会给牛唱歌的农夫不是一流的农夫。这是一门特殊的学问，需要特别的品位和力量。
To speak accurately, this song is only a sort of recitative, broken off and taken up again at pleasure. Its irregular form and its intonations, false according to the rules of musical art, make it impossible to reproduce. But it is a fine song none the less, and so entirely appropriate to the nature of the work it accompanies, to the gait of the ox, to the tranquillity of rural scenes, to the simple manners of the men who sing it, that no genius unfamiliar with work in the fields could have invented it, and no singer other than a cunning ploughman of that region would know how to render it. At the time of year when there is no other work and no other sign of activity in the country than the ploughing, that sweet and powerful chant rises like the voice of the breeze, which it resembles somewhat in its peculiar pitch. The final word of each phrase, sustained at incredible length, and with marvellous power of breath, ascends a fourth of a tone, purposely making a discord. That is barbarous, perhaps, but the charm of it is indescribable, and when one is accustomed to hear it, one cannot conceive of any other song at that time and in those localities that would not disturb the harmony.
准确地说，这首曲子不过是一种可以随意中断、又可以接着唱下去的宣叙曲。它无规则的形式和音调与音乐艺术的规则完全不符，因此无法谱写。但它仍不失为一首妙曲，与它所伴唱的劳动的本质、耕牛的步伐、田野的宁静、唱歌农夫的淳朴完全和谐一致。任何不熟悉耕作的天才都无法创作出这样的曲子，除了当地聪明的农夫外，没有人知道该怎么演唱。在一年里的耕作时节，这种动听又有力的曲子如微风般吟唱，它独特的调子与微风确有相似之处。每个乐句的最后一个词都被强大的气息拖得很长，并提高四分之一音阶，故意制造出不和谐的效果。这种声音听起来粗俗，但是它的魅力却难以形容。一个人听习惯以后会觉得此处同时响起的任何曲子都会破坏这种和谐。
It happened, therefore, that I had before my eyes a picture in striking contrast with Holbein's, although it might be a similar scene. Instead of a sad old man, a cheerful young man; instead of a team of thin, sorry horses, two yoke of four sturdy, spirited cattle; instead of Death, a lovely child; instead of an image of despair and a suggestion of destruction, a spectacle of energetic action and a thought of happiness.
所以此刻我眼前浮现出一幅与霍尔拜因的作品完全不同的画面，虽然两者可能都是相似的场景。代替那个悲伤老人的是一个满心喜悦的年轻人。代替那一群瘦骨嶙峋、无精打采的马匹的是两队四头健壮而精神高亢的耕牛。代替死神的是一个可爱的孩子。代替绝望和毁灭形象的是充满干劲的劳动场面和幸福的想法。
Then it was that the French quatrain: "A la sueur de ton visaige," etc., and the O fortunatos—agricolas of Virgil, came to my mind simultaneously, and when I saw that handsome pair, the man and the child, performing a grand and solemn task under such poetic conditions, and with so much grace combined with so much strength, I had a feeling of profound compassion mingled with involuntary respect.
这时那首法语的四行诗“累得汗流满面”等等和维吉尔的“啊，要是农夫知道他的幸福”同时浮现在我的脑海里。当我看到英俊的年轻人和他漂亮的孩子，优雅而又活力充沛地在如此诗意的环境里从事着一件庄严又伟大的工作时，我感到一种深深的怜悯，其中夹杂着不知不觉的尊敬。
Happy the husbandman. Yes, so I should be in his place, if my arm should suddenly become strong and my chest powerful, so that they could thus fertilize nature and sing to her, without my eyes losing the power to see and my brain to understand the harmony of colors and sounds, the delicacy of tones, and the gracefulness of contours,—in a word, the mysterious beauty of things, and, above all, without my heart ceasing to be in relation with the divine sentiment that presided at the immortal and sublime creation.
农夫是快乐的。是的，我也应该和和他一样，如果我的臂膀和胸膛突然变得强壮有力，我能使土地变得肥沃，我也能歌唱大自然，我的双眼也不会失去观察的能力，我的思想便能懂得色彩和声音的和谐、音调的细腻和委婉回旋的优雅——一句话，倘若如此，我便能懂得事物神秘之美，尤其是我的心仍然能和神圣的情感沟通，正是这种情感主宰着不朽和崇高的创造。
But, alas! that man has never understood the mystery of the beautiful, that child will never understand it! God preserve me from the thought that they are not superior to the animals they guide, and that they have not at times a sort of ecstatic revelation that charms away their weariness and puts their cares to sleep! I see upon their noble brows the seal of the Lord God, for they are born kings of the earth much more truly than they who possess it, because they have paid for it. And the proof that they feel that it is so is found in the fact that you cannot expatriate them with impunity, and that they love the ground watered by the sweat of their brow, that the true peasant dies of homesickness in the uniform of the soldier, far from the fields where he was born. But that man lacks a part of the enjoyments I possess, immaterial enjoyments to which he is abundantly entitled, he the workman in the vast temple which the heavens are vast enough to embrace. He lacks knowledge of his own sentiments. They who condemned him to servitude from his mother's womb, being unable to take from him the power of reverie, have taken the power of reflection.
可是，唉！那个年轻人永远不懂美的神秘，孩子也不会懂！上帝告诫我不要认为他们和他们驾驭的牲畜一样卑贱，他们时不时也会用一种令人欣喜的启示来减轻他们的厌倦，赶走他们的忧虑！我在他们高贵的额头上看见了上帝的印信，比起那些花钱买地的人，他们生来便是土地之王。他们也有同样的感受，那些迫使他们背井离乡的人一定会受到惩罚，他们热爱这片用自己额头上的汗水浇灌的土地；真正的农民就算置身行伍之间，也会因乡愁而客死他乡。但是这个年轻人缺少我所拥有的那部分快乐，那部分非物质的享受。这原本应无可争议地属于他，属于这个浩瀚的天空才能容下的巨大神殿中的工匠。他缺少对自己情感的认识。那些当他还在娘胎里就认定他要被奴役的人们无法剥夺他幻想的能力，却带走了他思考的能力。
Ah! well, such as he is, incomplete and doomed to never-ending childhood, he is nobler even so than he in whom knowledge has stifled sentiment. Do not place yourselves above him, you who consider yourselves endowed with the lawful and inalienable right to command him, for that terrible error proves that in you the mind has killed the heart and that you are the most incomplete and the blindest of men!—I prefer the simplicity of his mind to the false enlightenment of yours; and if I had to tell his life, it would be more pleasant for me to bring out its attractive and affecting aspects than it is creditable to you to depict the abject condition to which the scornful rigor of your social precepts may debase him.
唉！可是，即便他不是十全十美，而且注定永远如儿童般的幼稚，他仍比那些被知识扼杀了情感的人更加高贵。你们不要以为自己拥有合法和无可剥夺的权利去指使他，便能凌驾于他之上。这个可怕的错觉说明你的理智已经杀死了你的心灵，你自己才是最有缺陷、最盲目的人！我爱他心灵的淳朴胜过于你们虚伪的智慧。如果要我来描述他们的生活，我会因述说它有魅力和感人的一面而感到快乐，而不是像你们所相信的那样去描述那悲惨的境遇，那是你们充满轻蔑的社会概念把他推到那里去的。
I knew that young man and that beautiful child; I knew their story, for they had a story, everybody has his story, and everybody might arouse interest in the romance of his own life if he but understood it. Although a peasant and a simple ploughman, Germain had taken account of his duties and his affections. He had detailed them to me ingenuously one day, and I had listened to him with interest. When I had watched him at work for a considerable time, I asked myself why his story should not be written, although it was as simple, as straightforward, and as devoid of ornament as the furrow he made with his plough.
我认识这个年轻人和他漂亮的孩子，我知道他们的故事，因为他们是有故事的人，人人都有自己的故事。如果每个人能理解他自己生活中的浪漫，他就会对它感兴趣。热尔曼虽然是个农民，一个淳朴的庄稼汉，但他了解自己的责任和感情。我曾怀着极大的兴趣听他坦诚地向我详述过。当我长时间看着他干活的时候，我问自己为什么不应当写他的故事，虽然他的故事简单、直接、不加雕饰，就像他犁出来的沟一样。
Next year that furrow will be filled up and covered by a new furrow. Thus the majority of men make their mark and disappear in the field of humanity. A little earth effaces it, and the furrows we have made succeed one another like graves in the cemetery. Is not the furrow of the ploughman as valuable as that of the idler, who has a name, however, a name that will live, if, by reason of some peculiarity or some absurd exploit, he makes a little noise in the world?
明年，这犁沟将被填平，这里将出现新的一条犁沟。大多数人在人类文明的田野上留下痕迹后逝去。一抔黄土将其掩盖，田野里的犁沟就如同墓园里的座座坟墓一样。农夫的犁沟难道还不如一个仅留下姓名的过客有价值吗？即便这个名字因某些荒唐的成就而在世上流传，也不过是在这个世界上留下点儿声响罢了。
So let us, if we can, rescue from oblivion the furrow of Germain, the cunning ploughman. He will know nothing about it, and will not be disturbed; but I shall have had a little pleasure in making the attempt.
如果可能的话，让我们从遗忘的虚无里把聪明能干的农夫热尔曼的犁沟拯救出来吧。他会对此一无所知，并不会感到不安，而我则会在这个尝试中收获一点儿喜悦。CHAPTER III PeRE MAURICE
第三章 莫里斯老爹
"Germain," his father-in-law said to him one day, "you must make up your mind to marry again. It's almost two years since you lost my daughter, and your oldest boy is seven years old. You're getting on toward thirty, my boy, and when a man passes that age, you know, in our province, he's considered too old to begin housekeeping again. You have three fine children, and thus far they haven't been a trouble to us. My wife and daughter-in-law have looked after them as well as they could, and loved them as they ought. There's Petit-Pierre, he's what you might call educated; he can drive oxen very handily already; he knows enough to keep the cattle in the meadow, and he's strong enough to drive the horses to water. So he isn't the one to be a burden to us; but the other two—we love them, God knows! poor innocent creatures!—cause us much anxiety this year. My daughter-in-law is about lying-in, and she still has a little one in her arms. When the one we expect has come, she won't be able to look after your little Solange, and especially your little Sylvain, who isn't four years old and hardly keeps still a minute day or night. His blood is hot, like yours: he'll make a good workman, but he's a terrible child, and my old woman can't run fast enough now to catch him when he runs off toward the ditch or in among the feet of the cattle. And then, when my daughter-in-law brings this other one into the world, her last but one will be thrown on my wife's hands for a month, at least. So your children worry us and overburden us. We don't like to see children neglected; and when you think of the accidents that may happen to them for lack of watching, your mind's never at rest. So you must have another wife, and I another daughter-in-law. Think it over, my boy. I've already warned you more than once; time flies, and the years won't wait for you. You owe it to your children and to us, who want to have everything go right in the house, to marry as soon as possible."“热尔曼，”一天他的岳父对他说，“你要打定注意再讨个老婆啊。我女儿过世差不多有两年了，你的大儿子都七岁了。你自己也是快三十的人了，我的孩子，一个男人过了三十的话，你也知道，在我们这个地方，别人就会觉得上了年纪，不好再成家了。你有三个乖孩子，到现在为止他们一直没让我们烦心过。我老伴和儿媳妇一直都在尽力照顾他们，疼爱他们。你看小皮埃尔，就是你说的‘有教养’；他赶牛的技术已经很不赖了，他知道怎么在牧场放牛，还强壮得足以赶着马去喝水了。他不再要我们操心了。可其他两个呢——我们也很心疼，这点上帝都知道！两个可怜又不懂事的小家伙！——今年可没少让我们操心。我的儿媳妇快生了，她自己怀里还抱着一个小家伙。生下这个孩子后，她就不能再管你的小索朗热了，更别说小西尔万了，一个不到四岁的小孩一天到晚没有一刻老实。这个孩子和你一样暴脾气，长大后会像你一样能干，可现在真是个调皮蛋，他要溜到沟边或扑到牲口脚下，我那老太婆现在可撵不上他。还有，我媳妇生下这个孩子以后，她的老大要让我老伴带上最少一个月。那么你的小孩怎么办，我们又带不了。我们可不想看到这几个孩子没人管，万一小孩子没人看管出了事，你怎么能放心。你得再娶个媳妇，这样我也多了一个儿媳妇。考虑一下吧，我的孩子。我已经提醒过你几次了，时光飞逝，岁月不等人啊。我们希望你家里一切都好，为了你的孩子们，也为了我们，你最好尽快再婚。”
"Well, father," the son-in-law replied, "if you really want me to do it, I must gratify you. But I don't propose to conceal from you that it will cause me a great deal of annoyance, and that I'd about as lief drown myself. You know what you've lost, and you don't know what you may find. I had an excellent wife, a good-looking wife, sweet and brave, good to her father and mother, good to her husband, good to her children, a good worker, in the fields or in the house, clever about her work, good at everything, in fact; and when you gave her to me, when I took her, it wasn't one of the conditions that I should forget her if I had the bad luck to lose her."“好吧，爸爸，”女婿回答说，“如果您真想我这样做的话，我怎敢违您的好意。不过，不瞒您说，这可是件烦心事，我情愿去投水，也不想惹这样的麻烦。一个人知道自己失去的是什么样的人，可不知道会找到一个什么样的人。我有过一个好老婆，她漂亮、可爱又勇敢，孝顺父母，疼丈夫和孩子，里外都是一把好手，聪明能干，确实样样都好。您把她许给了我，我娶她的时候，可没有说好如果我不幸失去她的话，我得把她忘掉啊。”
"What you say shows a good heart, Germain," rejoined Père Maurice; "I know you loved my daughter, that you made her happy, and that if you could have satisfied Death by going in her place, Catherine would be alive at this moment and you in the cemetery. She well deserved to have you love her like that, and if you don't get over her loss, no more do we. But I'm not talking about forgetting her. The good God willed that she should leave us, and we don't let a day pass without showing Him, by our prayers, our thoughts, our words, our acts, that we respect her memory and are grieved at her departure. But if she could speak to you from the other world and tell you her will, she would bid you seek a mother for her little orphans. The question, then, is to find a woman worthy to take her place. It won't be very easy; but it isn't impossible; and when we have found her for you, you will love her as you loved my daughter, because you are an honest man and because you will be grateful to her for doing us a service and loving your children."“热尔曼，听得出你是个好人，”莫里斯老爹说，“我知道你爱我的女儿，知道你让她幸福，要是你能替她死的话，那么卡特琳眼下就还活着，而你就会在坟墓里。她的确值得你这样去爱，可如果你迈不过她这道坎，我们也一样不能。可我并不是说要忘了她。善良的上帝把她从我们身边带走了，于是我们每天都做祷告，用我们的想法和言行向上帝表明，我们心里记着她，没了她我们很难过。不过，如果她能在另外一个世界跟你说话，能告诉你她的想法，那她会让你去给她几个没妈的孩子找个新妈妈。那么，问题是要找一个能代替她的女人。这不会是件容易的事，可也不是不可能做到。要是我们给你找到了一个称心的女人，你也会像爱我的女儿一样去爱她。因为你是个老实人，她对我们好，也疼你的孩子，你会感激她的。”
"Very good, Père Maurice," said Germain, "I will do what you wish, as I always have done."“好的，莫里斯老爹，”热尔曼说，“我一直听您的，这次也一样。”
"I must do you the justice to say, my son, that you have always listened to the friendship and sound arguments of the head of your family. So let us talk over the matter of your choice of a new wife. In the first place, I don't advise you to take a young woman. That isn't what you need. Youth is fickle; and as it's a burden to bring up three children, especially when they're the children of another marriage, what you must have is a kind-hearted soul, wise and gentle, and used to hard work. If your wife isn't about as old as yourself, she won't have sense enough to accept such a duty. She will think you too old and your children too young. She will complain, and your children will suffer."“我的孩子，说句良心话，你一直听我这个一家之主的好心忠告。我们还是说说你选新媳妇的事吧。首先，我建议你不要找年轻的。你要的不是个年轻姑娘。年轻女人不可靠，抚养三个孩子对于她们是个负担，更别说是前妻生的三个孩子。你要的是那种心地善良、聪明温柔又能吃苦的女人。如果你的老婆不和你年纪一样，她就会不愿挑起这样的责任。她会嫌你太老，嫌你的孩子太小。她会抱怨不断，那你的孩子就遭殃了。”
"That is just what disturbs me," said Germain. "Suppose she should hate the poor little ones, and they should be maltreated and beaten?"“这也正是我担心的。”热尔曼说，“如果她讨厌可怜的孩子们的话，他们该不会遭虐待和挨打吧？”
"God forbid!" said the old man. "But evil-minded women are rarer in these parts than good ones, and a man must be a fool not to be able to put his hand on the one that suits him.”“上帝保佑！”老爹说，“不过，咱们这里坏心肠的女人比好心肠的少见，要是一个男人不懂怎样找一个适合他的老婆的话，那他肯定是个傻瓜。”
"True, father: there are some good girls in our village. There's Louise and Sylvaine and Claudie and Marguerite—any one you please, in fact.”“没错，爸爸，我们村就有些好姑娘。有路易丝、西尔瓦妮、克洛蒂、玛格丽特——总之，有您看得上的。”
"Softly, softly, my boy, all those girls are too young or too poor—or too pretty; for we must think of that, too, my son. A pretty woman isn't always as steady as a plainer one."“冷静，冷静，我的孩子，所有这些姑娘要么太年轻，要么太穷，要么太漂亮，这些我们也要考虑，我的孩子。一个漂亮的女人不总是像一个长相一般的女人那样可靠。”
"Do you want me to take an ugly one, pray?" said Germain, a little disturbed.“拜托，您难道想让我找个丑媳妇吗？”热尔曼有点儿不安地说道。
"No, not ugly, for you will have other children by her, and there's nothing so sad as to have ugly, puny, unhealthy children. But a woman still in her prime, in good health and neither ugly nor pretty, would do your business nicely."“不，不是要难看的，你们还要生孩子呢，没有什么比生一个又丑又瘦、体弱多病的孩子更让人难过。而是要一个正值壮年、身体健康，既不难看也不漂亮的女人才适合你。”
"It is easy to see," said Germain, smiling rather sadly, "that to get such a one as you want we must have her made to order; especially as you don't want her to be poor, and rich wives aren't easy to get, especially for a widower."“我懂了，”热尔曼苦笑着说，“要找到一个像您所说那样的女人非得定制不可，尤其是您不想要没钱的，可富家女我一个鳏夫也攀不上。”
"Suppose she was a widow herself, Germain? what do you say to a widow without children, and a snug little property?"
”如果她是个寡妇呢，热尔曼？一个没有孩子的寡妇，自己还有点儿钱，你觉得怎么样？”
"I don't know of any just now in our parish."“在咱们的教区，我还不知道有这样的人。”
"Nor do I, but there are other places."“我也不知道，但还有其他地方。”
"You have some one in view, father; so tell me at once who it is."“看来您心里已经有人了，爸爸，快告诉我。”CHAPTER IV GERMAIN, THE CUNNING PLOUGHMAN
第四章 聪明的农夫热尔曼
"Yes, I have some one in view," replied Père Maurice. "It's one Leonard, widow of one Guerin, who lives at Fourche.”“没错，我心里有个人选，”莫里斯老爹回答说，“她的娘家姓莱昂纳尔，亡夫姓介朗，住在富尔什。”
"I don't know the woman or the place," replied Germain, resigned, but becoming more and more depressed.“我没听说过这个女人，也不知道这么个地方。”热尔曼认命地答道，但他越发愁眉不展了。
"Her name is Catherine, like your deceased wife's."“她和你过世的老婆一样，也叫卡特琳。”
"Catherine? Yes, I shall enjoy having to say that name: Catherine! And yet, if I can't love her as well as I loved the other, it will cause me more pain than pleasure, for it will remind me of her too often."“卡特琳？是呀，我以后会很高兴叫这个名字：卡特琳！可是，如果我不能像爱您的女儿一样爱这个卡特琳，那会使我更加难过，而且不会快乐，因为这个名字会时不时让我想到我的卡特琳。”
"I tell you that you will love her: she's a good creature, a woman with a big heart; I haven't seen her for a long time, she wasn't a bad-looking girl then; but she is no longer young, she is thirty-two. She belongs to a good family, all fine people, and she has eight or ten thousand francs in land which she would be glad to sell, and buy other land where she goes to live; for she, too, is thinking of marrying again, and I know that, if her disposition should suit you, she wouldn't think you a bad match."“我跟你说，你会爱上她的。她是个好女人，有副好心肠，我很久没见过她了，她做姑娘的时候并不难看，不过她现在也不年轻了，今年三十二。她出生在大户人家，一家人都不赖，她很乐意卖掉自己的土地，那足足值八千到一万法郎，然后到未来的安居之地再重新购置。因为她也想着再婚，我知道这件事。如果你们合得来的话，她会考虑你的。”
"So you have arranged it all?"“看来您什么都安排好了吧？”
"Yes, subject to the judgment of you two; and that is what you must ask each other after you are acquainted. The woman's father is a distant relation of mine and has been a very close friend. You know him, don't you—Père Leonard?”“没错，就看你们双方的意见了。你们见面以后都要问清楚对方这个问题。这个女人的爸爸是我的一个远亲，我们俩也是好朋友。你也认识他的吧——就是那个莱昂纳尔老爹？”
"Yes, I have seen him talking with you at the fairs, and at the last one you breakfasted together: is this what you were talking about at such length?”“我曾在集市上见他跟您说过话。最近你们俩还一起吃过早饭，你们俩聊了那么久，莫非说的就是这件事？”
"To be sure; he watched you selling your cattle and thought you did the business very well, that you were a fine-appearing fellow, that you seemed active and shrewd; and when I told him all that you are and how well you have behaved to us during the eight years we've lived and worked together, without ever an angry or discontented word, he took it into his head that you must marry his daughter; and the plan suits me, too, I confess, considering the good reputation she has, the integrity of her family, and what I know about their circumstances."“没错，他一直看着你卖牲口，觉得你能干，长得好，人很精神，又精明。我跟他聊起你，八年来咱们在一起过日子，一起干活，你对我们不赖，从没有发过火，也没抱怨过。他听了以后觉得一定得把女儿许给你。不瞒你说，凭着他女儿的好名声，她家里人的正直品格，还有他们的家底，我觉得这是门好亲事。”
"I see, Père Maurice, that you think a little about worldly goods.”“莫里斯老爹，我觉得您把家业看得重了些。”
"Of course I think about them. Don't you?"“这还用说，我当然得考虑。你不考虑这点吗？”
"I will think about them, if you choose, to please you; but you know that, for my part, I never trouble myself about what is or is not coming to me in our profits. I don't understand about making a division, and my head isn't good for such things. I know about the land and cattle and horses and seed and fodder and threshing. As for sheep and vines and gardening, the niceties of farming, and small profits, all that, you know, is your son's business, and I don't interfere much in it. As for money, my memory is short, and I prefer to yield everything rather than dispute about thine and mine. I should be afraid of making a mistake and claiming what is not due me, and if matters were not simple and clear, I should never find my way through them."“如果您这样选的话，为了随您的意，我也会看重的。不过您知道我这个人，咱们赚的钱哪些归我，哪些不归我，我从来不在意。我也搞不懂怎么分，脑袋瓜在这方面不开窍。我在行的是耕地、养牛、喂马、撒种、打场和割草。至于养羊、种葡萄、搞园艺、种地的细活和薄利润的活儿，您知道，所有这些都是您儿子管的，我从不过问。钱呢，我记不住，我宁愿一分不要也不跟别人争来争去。我怕弄错了，得了自己不该得的。要是事情不是简单明了的话，我永远也弄不清楚。”
"So much the worse, my son, and that's why I would like you to have a wife with brains to take my place when I am no longer here. You have never been willing to look into our accounts, and that might make trouble between you and my son, when you don't have me to keep the peace between you and tell you what is coming to each of you."“这可不行，我的孩子。这就是为什么我要你娶个聪明的女人，以后我不在了，她可以替我管钱。你从来不愿看一眼我们的账，将来我不在了，没人从中维持和谐，告诉你们每个人应得多少，你和我的儿子会有矛盾的。
"May you live many years, Père Maurice! But don't you worry about what will happen when you are gone; I shall never dispute with your son. I trust Jacques as I trust myself, and as I have no property of my own, as everything that can possibly come to me, comes to me as your daughter's husband and belongs to our children, I can be easy in my mind and so can you; Jacques would never try to defraud his sister's children for his own, as he loves them almost equally."“莫里斯老爹，愿您长命百岁！不过您不用担心您去世以后的事，我不会和您的儿子闹翻的。我信得过雅克，正如我信得过自己一样。我自己两手空空，作为您的女婿，我所有的东西都是您女儿带来的，也归我们孩子所有。我没什么舍不得，您也一样，雅克永远不会为了自己的孩子来抢他姐姐孩子的东西，这些孩子他都一样疼爱。”
"You are right in that, Germain. Jacques is a good son, a good brother, and a man who loves the truth. But Jacques may die before you, before your children are grown up, and one must always have a care not to leave minors without a head to give them good advice and arrange their differences. Otherwise the lawyers interfere, set them at odds with each other, and make them eat everything up in lawsuits. So we ought not to think of bringing another person into our house, man or woman, without saying to ourselves that that person may some day have to direct the conduct and manage the business of thirty or more children, grandchildren, sons-in-law, and daughters-in-law. No one knows how much a family may grow, and when the hive is too full and the time has come to swarm, every one thinks about carrying off his honey. When I took you for my son-in-law, although my daughter was rich and you poor, I never reproached her for choosing you. I saw you were a good worker, and I knew well that the best sort of riches for country people like us is a good pair of arms and a heart like yours. When a man brings those things into a family, he brings enough. But it's different with a woman: her work in the house is to keep, not to get. Besides, now that you are a father and are looking for a wife, you must remember that your new children, having no sort of claim on the inheritance of your first wife's children, would be left in want if you should die, unless your wife had some property of her own. And then, it would cost something to feed the children you are going to add to our little colony. If that should fall on us alone, we would take care of them, never fear, and without complaining; but everybody's comfort would be diminished, and the first children would have to take their share of the privations. When families increase beyond measure, and their means do not increase in proportion, then want comes, however bravely we may struggle against it. This is all I have to say, Germain; think it over, and try to make yourself agreeable to Widow Guerin; for her good management and her crowns will bring us aid for the present and peace of mind for the future.”“你说得有理，热尔曼。雅克是个好儿子，一个好弟弟，一个明事理的人。但雅克可能走在你前面，那时你的孩子还没成年，一个人不能不替他的后代安排一个人来给他们拿拿主意，分配财产。要不然就要请律师，搞得他们彼此不和，打官司弄得倾家荡产。因此我们就得想想给家里多添一个人，不管是男是女，要是我们不在了的话，这个人就得管着三十个或更多的孩子、孙子、女婿和媳妇，主持家事。谁也不清楚一个家能人丁兴旺到什么样，蜂窝住满了以后，就要分群了，每个人都想要带走自己的那份蜜。我同意你作女婿的时候，虽然我女儿手头有钱，而你是个穷光蛋，我却从没因此数落她选择了你。我看重的是你勤劳能干，也明白对于我们这样的庄稼人，最好的财富就是像你一样有一双会干活的手臂和一颗善良的心。一个男人能把这些带到一个家里来，那就足够了。但女人就不同了，她们要做的事是管好家，而不是养家。还有，既然你带着孩子再婚，就要知道你还会生孩子，如果你死之前没有给你和前妻生的孩子留下任何继承遗嘱的话，他们就会变成穷光蛋，除非你的前妻留下了遗产。还有，如果你还要给我们家添孩子的话，养孩子也要花不少钱。要是这些都落到我们头上，不用说，我们会毫无怨言地养大他们，但是每个人的日子就没那么好过了，你的头几个孩子也跟着受苦了。要是家里人多了很多，而收入没有同样地增长，不管我们会怎么勇敢地努力，苦日子也要来的。我要说的就这么多，热尔曼，好好想想，想办法让这个寡妇介朗中意于你。她会持家又有钱，不仅眼下能帮咱们，以后也可以让咱们省心。”
"Very good, father. I will try to like her and make her like me."“好吧，爸爸。我会想办法喜欢上她，也尽力讨她喜欢。”
"To do that you must go to see her."“那你得去和她会会面。”
"At her home? At Fourche? That's a long way, isn't it? and we don't have much time to run about at this season."“去她家？富尔什吗？那可挺远的，您说呢？再说这个季节我们也没这个时间到处跑。”
"When a marriage for love is on the carpet, you must expect to waste time; but when it's a marriage of convenience between two people who have no whims and who know what they want, it's soon arranged. Tomorrow will be Saturday; you can shorten your day's ploughing a bit and start about two o'clock, after dinner; you will be at Fourche by night; there's a good moon just now, the roads are excellent, and it isn't more than three leagues. Fourche is near Magnier. Besides, you can take the mare."“如果是要考虑一桩恋爱婚姻，那估计得浪费些时间。不过这是一桩快捷婚姻，双方都没有什么异想天开的，都知道自己是奔什么来的，很快就能定下来。明天是礼拜六，你早点耕完田，吃过中饭后下午两点动身，晚上就能到富尔什。眼下月光很亮，路又好走，也不过三里格的路。富尔什就挨着马尼埃。再说你可以骑那匹母马去。”
"I should rather go afoot in this cool weather."“天气凉快，我还是走着去。”
"True, but the mare's a fine beast, and a suitor makes a better appearance if he comes well mounted. You must wear your new clothes and carry a nice present of game to Pere Leonard. You will say that you come with a message from me, you will talk with him, you will pass the Sunday with his daughter, and you will return with a yes or a no on Monday morning.”“也好，不过那匹母马很漂亮，求婚的人骑那样的好马去，才够神气。你得穿上你的新衣裳，给莱昂纳尔老爹带上件像样的猎物。你跟他说是我托你给他带个口信，然后跟他聊一聊，礼拜天和她的女儿呆上一天，不管成不成，礼拜一早上回来。”
"Very good," replied Germain calmly, and yet he was not altogether calm.“好吧。”热尔曼表面很平静，实际心绪万千。
Germain had always lived a virtuous life, as hard-working peasants do. Married at twenty, he had loved but one woman in his life, and since he had become a widower, although he was naturally impulsive and vivacious, he had never laughed and dallied with any other. He had faithfully cherished a genuine regret in his heart, and he did not yield to his father-in-law without a feeling of dread and melancholy; but the father-in-law had always managed his family judiciously, and Germain, who had devoted himself unreservedly to the common work, and consequently to him who personified it, the father of the family,—Germain did not understand the possibility of rebelling against sound arguments, against the common interest of all.
像那些吃苦耐劳的农夫一样，热尔曼一直过着安分守己的生活。他二十岁结了婚，一生只爱过一个女人，虽说他是个急性子，性格开朗，可自打妻子死了以后，他从没同别的女人嬉笑打闹过。他打心眼里感到由衷的痛惜，虽说一直跟着岳父过，可心里仍不免感到难过和孤独。但岳父在家事上向来公正，热尔曼呢，一心为这个大家庭干活，也就对岳父这个家长言听计从——他从没想过要去反对理由充分的想法和违背大家庭的利益。
Nevertheless, he was sad. Few days passed that he did not weep for his wife in secret, and, although solitude was beginning to weigh upon him, he was more terrified at the thought of forming a new union, than desirous to escape from his grief. He said to himself vaguely that love might have consoled him if it had taken him by surprise, for love does not console otherwise. One cannot find it by seeking it; it comes to us when we do not expect it. This project of marriage, conceived in cold blood, which Pere Maurice laid before him, the unknown fiancee, and, perhaps, even all the good things that were said of her common-sense and her virtue, gave him food for thought. And he went his way, musing as a man muses who has not enough ideas to fight among themselves; that is to say, not formulating in his mind convincing reasons for selfish resistance, but conscious of a dull pain, and not struggling against an evil which it was necessary to accept.
但是，他不开心。不久前他还在背地里为亡妻流泪，虽说孤枕难眠不好过，但比起摆脱痛苦来说，他更怕再婚。他模糊地意识到突如其来的爱情可能会带给他安慰，这就是爱情慰藉人的方式。众里寻爱千百度，爱却在不经意间降临。莫里斯老爹给他安排的这桩好姻缘，那位未曾谋面的未婚妻，还有那些关于她明事理和重品行的好话，都要好好想一想。他一边走，一边想。他是一个心思不多、想法不乱的人，也就是说，他心里找不出什么有力的理由来为自己说不，只是感到隐约的痛，但又觉得无须反抗必然要接受的痛苦。
Meanwhile, Pere Maurice had returned to the farm-house, while Germain employed the last hour of daylight, between sunset and darkness, in mending the breaches made by the sheep in the hedge surrounding a vineyard near the farm buildings. He raised the stalks of the bushes, and supported them with clods of earth, while the thrushes chattered in the neighboring thicket, and seemed to call to him to make haste, they were so curious to come to examine his work as soon as he had gone.
这个时候，莫里斯老爹回到了他的农庄里。热尔曼赶在太阳落山后天黑之前的最后一个钟头，修好了农舍旁葡萄园的篱笆上被羊弄开的缺口。他扶起篱笆，用土块培上。这时画眉鸟在一旁的灌木丛里叽叽喳喳，仿佛在催他；他一离开，它们就会迫不及待过来检查他的活干得怎样。CHAPTER V LA GUILLETTE
第五章 拉吉耶特大娘
Pere Maurice found in the house an elderly neighbor, who had come to have a chat with his wife, and borrow some embers to light her fire. Mere Guillette lived in a wretched hovel within two gunshots of the farm. But she was a decent woman and a woman of strong will. Her poor house was neat and clean, and her carefully patched clothes denoted proper self-respect with all her poverty.
莫里斯老爹回到家时，邻居拉吉耶特大娘过来和自己的老伴闲聊，顺便要点儿余火好生自己家的火。拉吉耶特大娘住在离农庄两射程远的一间破旧的小屋里。但她是一个行为正派、意志坚强的女人。破旧的房子干净又整齐，衣服都被细心缝补过，贫穷但并不潦倒。
"You came to get some fire for the night, eh, Mère Guillette?" said the old man. "Is there anything else you would like?"“拉吉耶特大娘，您是来要些晚上的火种吧？”莫里斯老爹说，“还要别的东西吗？”
"No, Père Maurice," she replied; "nothing just now. I'm no beggar, you know, and I don't abuse my friends' kindness."“不要了，莫里斯老爹，”她答道，“眼下不要什么。我不是叫花子，您知道，我是不会乱占朋友便宜的。”
"That's the truth; and so your friends are always ready to do you a service."“那倒是，所以您的朋友总是随时愿意为您效劳。”
"I was just talking with your wife, and I was asking her if Germain had at last made up his mind to marry again."“我刚才和您老伴唠叨，我问她热尔曼是不是打定主意要再讨个媳妇。”
"You're no gossip," replied Père Maurice, "and one can speak before you without fear of people talking; so I will tell my wife and you that Germain has really made up his mind; he starts to-morrow for Fourche.”“您不是个多嘴多舌的人，”莫里斯老爹说，“跟您说话不用担心会传出去，我可以告诉您和我的老太婆，热尔曼确实下定决心了，他明天起身去富尔什。”
"Bless me!" exclaimed Mère Maurice; "the poor fellow! God grant that he may find a wife as good and honest as himself!"“太好了！”莫里斯大娘大声叫起来，“这个可怜的孩子！上帝保佑他能找到一个像他一样好心又诚实的媳妇！”
"Ah! he is going to Fourche?" observed La Guillette. "Just see how things turn out! that helps me very much, and as you asked me just now, Père Maurice, if there was anything I wanted, I'll tell you what you can do to oblige me."“啊！他要去富尔什？”拉吉耶特大娘反应过来，“您看多凑巧！这倒省了我许多麻烦，莫里斯老爹，您刚才不是问我还需要什么，我现在告诉您，您能帮我一个忙。”
"Tell us, tell us, we shall be glad to oblige."“说吧，说吧，我们乐意效劳。”
"I would like to have Germain take the trouble to take my daughter with him."“我想麻烦热尔曼带上我的女儿一起去。”
"Where? to Fourche?"“去哪儿？去富尔什？”
"Not to Fourche, but to Ormeaux, where she is going to stay the rest of the year."“不是去富尔什，是去奥尔莫，她要在那里呆到年底。”
"What!" said Mère Maurice, "are you going to part from your daughter?"“什么！”莫里斯老爹说，“您要和您的女儿分开吗？”
"She has got to go out to service and earn something. It comes hard enough to me and to her, too, poor soul! We couldn't make up our minds to part at midsummer; but now Martinmas is coming, and she has found a good place as shepherdess on the farms at Ormeaux. The farmer passed through here the other day on his way back from the fair. He saw my little Marie watching her three sheep on the common land.—'You don't seem very busy, my little maid,' he said; 'and three sheep are hardly enough for a shepherd. Would you like to keep a hundred? I'll take you with me. The shepherdess at our place has been taken sick and she's going back to her people, and if you'll come to us within a week, you shall have fifty francs for the rest of the year, up to midsummer.'—The child refused, but she couldn't help thinking about it and telling me when she came home at night and found me sad and perplexed about getting through the winter, which is sure to be hard and long, for we saw the cranes and wild geese fly south this year a full month earlier than usual. We both cried; but at last we took courage. We said to each other that we couldn't stay together, because there's hardly enough to keep one person alive on our little handful of land; and then Marie's getting old—here she is nearly sixteen—and she must do as others do, earn her bread and help her poor mother.”“她得出去做事挣钱。我很难过，她也一样，可怜的孩子！我们下不了狠心在夏至的时候分开，可眼下快到圣马丁节了，她在奥尔莫的农场里找到了一个放羊的好差事。那天农场主从集市回来，打这里路过。他看见我的小玛丽在公地里看她的三头羊。他说：‘我的小姑娘，你看起来不忙啊，三头羊对于一个牧羊人来说太少了。你愿不愿意看一百头羊呢？我可以带你走。我们那里的牧羊女生病回去了，要是你能在一个礼拜内到我那里的话，从年内到夏至，你可以挣到五十法郎。’这孩子拒绝了，不过她心里头放不下这件事。她晚上回到家里，看见我为过冬发愁，她就把这事告诉了我。今年的冬天一定又长又冷，鹤和野鹅都比往年提早整整一个月飞往南方过冬。我们都哭了，不过最后还是鼓起了勇气。我们都知道我们俩不可能呆在一起，我们那一丁点儿的土地勉强只够养活一个人，玛丽也长大了——今年快十六岁了——也得跟别人一样干活养活自己，帮帮她可怜的妈妈了。”
"Mère Guillette," said the old ploughman, "if fifty francs was all that was needed to put an end to your troubles and make it unnecessary for you to send your daughter away, why, I would help you to find them, although fifty francs begins to mean something to people like us. But we must consult good sense as well as friendship in everything. If you were saved from want for this winter, you wouldn't be safe from future want, and the longer your daughter postpones taking the step, the harder it will be for you and for her to part. Little Marie is getting to be tall and strong, and she has nothing to do at home. She might fall into lazy habits—”“拉吉耶特大娘，”莫里斯老爹说，“如果有了五十法郎，你们就能解决困难，您也不用把您女儿送走的话，我可以帮你们凑到这笔钱，尽管五十法郎对于我们这样的人来说不是个小数目。但是什么事既要靠朋友，也要有长远打算。即便您今年冬天熬过了，以后的苦日子也逃不过。您的女儿迟迟不愿迈出家门，你们就越难分开。小玛丽现在长高了，身体又好，在家里没事可干。她会变懒的——”
"Oh! as far as that goes, I'm not afraid," said Mère Guillette. "Marie's as brave as a rich girl at the head of a big establishment could be. She doesn't sit still a minute with her arms folded, and when we haven't any work, she cleans and rubs our poor furniture and makes every piece shine like a looking-glass. She's a child that's worth her weight in gold, and I'd have liked it much better to have her come to you as a shepherdess instead of going so far away among people I don't know. You'd have taken her at midsummer if we could have made up our minds; but now you've hired all your help, and we can't think of it again until midsummer next year."“哦！这一点我倒不担心，”吉耶特大娘说，“玛丽像管着一大片家业的富家女孩子一样有勇气。她没有一分钟是袖手旁观的；我们闲下来的时候，她就打扫和擦洗我们的那些旧家具，把每件家具都擦得跟镜子一样亮。这个孩子就像同她一样重的金子那样值钱，我情愿让她到你家来放羊，也不愿她到一个不认识的人家去做事。要是我们早拿定了主意，那她在夏至的时候就能到你们这儿干活了，不过你们都请好了人，那要等到明年的夏至时才行。”
"Oh! I agree with all my heart, Guillette! I shall be very glad to do it. But, meanwhile, she will do well to learn a trade and get used to working for others."“嗯！我完全同意，吉耶特！明年让她过来吧，我非常乐意。不过，她也可以学门手艺，习惯一下替别人做事。”
"Yes, of course; the die is cast. The farmer at Ormeaux sent for her this morning; we said yes, and she must go. But the poor child doesn't know the way, and I shouldn't like to send her so far all alone. As your son-in-law is going to Fourche to-morrow, he can just as well take her. It seems that it's very near the farm she's going to, according to what they tell me; for I have never been there myself."“那是当然，就这样定了。奥尔莫的农场主今早派人来问过她，我们答应了，她要过去了。不过，这个可怜的孩子不认识路，我又不放心她一个人去那么远的地方。既然你的女婿明天要去富尔什，不妨就带上她吧。我听他们说，富尔什好像就在她要去的农场附近，我自己也没去过。”
"They're right side by side, and my son-in-law will take her. That's as it should be; indeed, he can take her behind him on the mare, and that will save her shoes. Here he is, coming in to supper. I say, Germain, Mère Guillette's little Marie is going to Ormeaux as shepherdess. You'll take her on your horse, won't you?"“这两个地方是紧挨着的，我女婿会带上她的。就这样定了，他们一起骑马去，让她坐在他身后，省得走路。瞧，他回家吃晚饭来了。我说，热尔曼，吉耶特大娘的小玛丽要去奥尔莫当放羊女。你带上她一起骑马去，行不行？”
"Very well," said Germain, who was preoccupied, but always ready to do his neighbor a service.“好啊。”热尔曼说，他虽然有心事，但总是乐意给邻居帮忙。
In our world, it would never occur to a mother to entrust a daughter of sixteen to a man of twenty-eight! for Germain was really only twenty-eight, and although, according to the ideas of his province, he was considered an old man so far as marriage was concerned, he was still the handsomest man in the neighborhood. Work had not furrowed and wrinkled his face, as is the case with most peasants who have ten years of ploughing behind them. He was strong enough to plough ten more years without looking old, and the prejudice of age must have been very strong in a young girl's mind to prevent her remarking that Germain had a fresh complexion, a bright eye, blue as the heavens in May, ruddy lips, superb teeth, and a body as graceful and supple as that of a colt that has never left the pasture.
在我们的世界里，一个母亲从不会把自己十六岁的女儿托付给一个二十八的男人！热尔曼的确仅有二十八岁，虽然在当地来说，他已经过了结婚的年龄，但他仍然是当地最英俊的男子。和大多数耕了十年田的农夫不一样，劳作并没有在他的脸上留下深深的皱纹。他身体强壮，再耕十年地也不会显老。年轻姑娘对于年龄有很深的偏见，才会对热尔曼的外表视而不见。他脸色红润，一双明亮的眼睛蓝得似五月的天空，他的嘴唇殷红，牙齿雪白，身材像一匹没有离开过牧场的小马驹一样俊美柔韧。
But chastity is a sacred tradition in certain country districts, far removed from the corrupt animation of large cities, and Maurice's family was noted among all the families of Belair for uprightness, and fidelity to the truth. Germain was going in search of a wife; Marie was too young and too pure for him to think of her in that light, and, unless he was a heartless, bad man, it was impossible that he should have a guilty thought in connection with her. Pere Maurice was in no way disturbed, therefore, to see him take the pretty girl en croupe; La
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