第36章 红字 (1)

　　The Scarlet Letter

　　小说描写女主人公海丝特·白兰跟丈夫从英国移

　　居美国波士顿。中途丈夫被印第安人俘虏。海丝特只

　　身到了美国，被一青年牧师诱骗怀孕。此事，被当地

　　虚伪的清教徒社会视为大逆不道。当局把海丝特抓起

　　来并关入监狱，游街示众，还要终身佩带象征耻辱的

　　红色的A 字（Adultery ：通奸女犯）。海丝特宁愿一

　　人受辱，誓死也不招供。在远离社会，受尽屈辱的处

　　境中，海丝特孤苦顽强地生活着，若干年后，珠儿，

　　海丝特的女儿，长大成人，海丝特一人再回到波士顿，

　　仍带着那个红色的A 字，用自己的“崇高的道德和

　　助人精神”，把耻辱的红字变成了道德与光荣的象征，

　　直到老死。

　　[ 美] 纳撒尼尔·霍桑 （ Nathaniel Hawthorne）

　　The grass-plot before the jail，in Prison Lane，on a certain

　　summer morning，not less than two centuries ago，was occupied

　　by a pretty large number of the inhabitants of Boston ；all with

　　their eyes intently fastened on the iron-clamped oaken door.

　　Amongst any other population，or at a later period in the history

　　of New England，the grim rigidity that petrified the bearded

　　physiognomies of these good people would have augured some

　　awful business in hand. It could have betokened nothing short

　　of the anticipated execution of some noted culprit on whom the

　　sentence of a legal tribunal had but confirmed the verdict of public

　　sentiment. But，in that early severity of the Puritan character，

　　an inference of this kind could not so indubitably be drawn. It might

　　be，that a sluggish bond-servant，or an undutiful child，whom his

　　parents had given over to the civil authority，was to be corrected at

　　the whipping-post. It might be，that an Antinomian，a Quaker，

　　or other heterodox religionist，was to be scourged out of the

　　town，or an idle and vagrant Indian，whom the white man’s firewater

　　had made riotous about the streets，was to be driven with

　　stripes into the shadow of the forest. It might be，too，that a

　　witch，like old Mistress Hibbins，the bitter-tempered widow of

　　the magistrate，was to die upon the gallows. In either case，there

　　was very much the same solemnity of demeanour on the part of

　　the spectators ；as befitted a people amongst whom religion and

　　law were almost identical，and in whose character both were so

　　thoroughly interfused，that the mildest and the severest acts of

　　public discipline were alike made venerable and awful. Meagre，

　　indeed，and cold，was the sympathy that a transgressor might

　　look for，from such bystanders，at the scaffold. On the other

　　hand，a penalty which，in our days，would infer a degree of

　　mocking infamy and ridicule，might then be invested with almost

　　as stern a dignity as the punishment of death itself.

　　It was a circumstance to be noted，on the summer morning

　　when our story begins its course，that the women，of whom

　　there were several in the crowd，appeared to take a peculiar

　　interest in whatever penal infliction might be expected to

　　ensue. The age had not so much refinement，that any sense of

　　impropriety restrained the wearers of petticoat and farthingale

　　from stepping forth into the public ways，and wedging their

　　not unsubstantial persons，if occasion were，into the throng

　　nearest to the scaffold at an execution. Morally，as well as

　　materially，there was a coarser fibre in those wives and maidens

　　of old English birth and breeding，than in their fair descendants

　　separated from them by a series of six or seven generations ；

　　for，throughout that chain of ancestry every successive mother

　　has transmitted to her child a fainter bloom，a more delicate and

　　briefer beauty，and a slighter physical frame，if not a character

　　of less force and solidity，than her own. The women who were

　　now standing about the prison-door stood within less than half a

　　century of the period when the man-like Elizabeth had been the

　　not altogether unsuitable representative of the sex. They were her

　　country-women ；and the beef and ale of their native land，with

　　a moral diet not a whit more refined，entered largely into their

　　composition. The bright morning sun，therefore，shone on broad

　　shoulders and well-developed busts，and on round and ruddy

　　cheeks，that had ripened in the far-off island，and had hardly yet

　　grown paler or thinner in the atmosphere of New England. There

　　was，moreover，a boldness and rotundity of speech among these