The season developed and matured. Another year’s instalment of flowers, leaves, nightingales, thrushes, finches, and such ephemeral creatures, took up their positions where only a year ago others had stood in their place when these were nothing more than germs and inorganic particles. —
季节逐渐成熟发展。另一年的花朵、叶子、夜莺、画眉鸟和其他短暂存在的生物都在它们的位置上，就在一年前，其他生物曾经占据过这些位置，而当时这些位置只是一些粒子和无机物质。 —

Rays from the sunrise drew forth the buds and stretched them into long stalks, lifted up sap in noiseless streams, opened petals, and sucked out scents in invisible jets and breathings.
朝阳的光线拉伸了芽，将它们伸展成长长的茎，悄无声息地提起树液，展开花瓣，吸收出看不见的气味。

Dairyman Crick’s household of maids and men lived on comfortably, placidly, even merrily. —
克里克牧场的家庭工人们过着舒适、平静，甚至愉快的生活。 —

Their position was perhaps the happiest of all positions in the social scale, being above the line at which neediness ends, and below the line at which the convenances begin to cramp natural feeling, and the stress of threadbare modishness makes too little of enough.
他们的处境也许是社会阶层中最幸福的，处于贫困的尽头之上，但又低于准则开始扼杀与自然感觉，以及陈旧时髦的压力使足够的东西显得微不足道的地带。

Thus passed the leafy time when arborescence seems to be the one thing aimed at out of doors. —
因此在树叶葱茏的季节里，似乎户外都在追求树木的繁茂。 —

Tess and Clare unconsciously studied each other, ever balanced on the edge of a passion, yet apparently keeping out of it. —
塞丝和克莱尔不知不觉地研究对方，始终在激情的边缘徘徊，却明显地避开了。 —

All the while they were converging, under an irresistible law, as surely as two streams in one vale.
他们不可抗拒地趋于一致，如同一谷中的两条溪流。

Tess had never in her recent life been so happy as she was now, possibly never would be so happy again. —
塞丝在这段时间里从未像现在这样幸福过，可能以后也再难如此幸福。 —

She was, for one thing, physically and mentally suited among these new surroundings. —
她在这个新环境中，在身体和心理上都得到了满足。 —

The sapling which had rooted down to a poisonous stratum on the spot of its sowing had been transplanted to a deeper soil. —
这株幼苗，曾在坚毅的土层上扎根，现在已经被移植到更深的土壤中。 —

Moreover she, and Clare also, stood as yet on the debatable land between predilection and love; —
此外，她和克莱尔也仍站在偏爱和爱情之间的摇摆地带； —

where no profundities have been reached; —
那里还没有探索到深刻； —

no reflections have set in, awkwardly inquiring, `Whither does this new current tend to carry me? —
已没有反思，令人尴尬地问道，“这条新的溪流要把我带到哪里去？ —

What does it mean to my future? How does it stand towards my past?’
这对我的未来意味着什么？与我的过去有什么关系？

Tess was the merest stray phenomenon to Angel Clare as yet - a rosy warming apparition which had only just acquired the attribute of persistence in his consciousness. —
对于安吉尔·克莱尔来说，塞丝只是一个纯粹的奇特现象——一个玫瑰色的温暖的幻影，刚刚在他的意识中获得了持久性这一属性。 —

So he allowed his mind to be occupied with her, deeming his preoccupation to be no more than a philosopher’s regard of an exceedingly novel, fresh, and interesting specimen of womankind.
于是，他允许自己的头脑被她占据，认为他对她的关注不过是一个哲学家对一种极其新奇、新鲜和有趣的女性样本的关注。

They met continually; they could not help it. —
他们经常相遇；他们无法避免。 —

They met dally in that strange and solemn interval, the twilight of the morning, in the violet or pink dawn; —
他们每天在那个奇怪而庄严的时段相遇，那就是清晨的黄昏，在紫罗兰色或粉红色的黎明中； —

for it was necessary to rise early, so very early, here. Milking was done betimes; —
因为这里必须起得很早，非常早。挤奶必须及时进行； —

and before the milking came the skimming, which began at a little past three. —
挤奶之前是撇油的工作，从三点多开始。 —

It usually fell to the lot of some one or other of them to wake the rest, the first being aroused by an alarm-clock; —
通常由他们中的某个人叫醒其他人，第一个被闹钟弄醒； —

and, as Tess was the latest arrival, and they soon discovered that she could be depended upon not to sleep through the alarm as the others did, this task was thrust most frequently upon her. —
既然苔丝是最晚到的，他们很快发现她不会像其他人一样被闹钟叫醒，所以这个任务经常落在她身上。 —

No sooner had the hour of three struck and whizzed, than she left her room and ran to the dairyman’s door; —
三点钟敲响的一瞬间，她就离开房间，跑向奶农的房门； —

then up the ladder to Angel’s, calling him in a loud whisper; then woke her fellow-milkmaids. —
然后爬上阶梯去叫醒安吉尔，用大声的低声说话；然后叫醒其他挤奶女工。 —

By the time that Tess was dressed Clare was downstairs and out in the humid air. —
当苔丝穿好衣服时，克莱尔已经下楼，站在潮湿的空气中。 —

The remaining maids and the dairyman usually gave themselves another turn on the pillow, and did not appear till a quarter of an hour later.
剩下的女佣和挤奶工通常还在枕头上多睡一会，直到15分钟后才出现。

The gray half-tones of daybreak are not the gray half-tones of the day’s close, though the degree of their shade may be the same. —
黎明的灰色是不同于黄昏的灰色，尽管它们的色调可能相同。 —

In the twilight of the morning light seems active, darkness passive; —
在清晨黄昏时分，光线是主动的，黑暗是被动的； —

in the twilight of evening it is the darkness which is active and crescent, and the light which is the drowsy reverse.
在傍晚的黄昏，黑暗是主动的、新月形，而光线则是昏昏欲睡的反面。

Being so often - possibly not always by chance - the first two persons to get up at the dairy-house, they seemed to themselves the first persons up of all the world. —
在挤奶场屋经常 - 可能并非总是偶然 - 第一组起床的人，他们似乎是全世界第一批起床的人。 —

In these early days of her residence here Tess did not skim, but went out of doors at once after rising, where he was generally awaiting her. —
在她初来此地的这些日子里，苔丝并没有匆匆忙忙出门，而是一起外出，一般是他在等待她。 —

The spectral, half-compounded, aqueous light which pervaded the open mead, impressed them with a feeling of isolation, as if they were Adam and Eve. At this dim inceptive stage of the day Tess seemed to Clare to exhibit a dignified largeness both of disposition and physique, an almost regnant power, possibly because he knew that at that preternatural time hardly any woman so well endowed in person as she was likely to be walking in the open air within the boundaries of his horizon; —
弥漫在开阔的牧场上的那种半成的、带水的光线，让他们感到孤独，仿佛他们是亚当和夏娃。在这一天的黎明的模糊初期阶段，苔丝给克莱尔的印象是，她展现了一种高贵的宽容，不仅在性格上，还在体格上，一种几乎统治性的力量，可能是因为他知道在那种超自然的时刻，几乎没有什么女人在他的视野范围内在户外行走。 —

very few in all England. Fair women are usually asleep at midsummer dawns. —
英格兰很少有在仲夏黎明时分还活跃的美丽女性。 —

She was close at hand, and the rest were nowhere.
她就在眼前，其他的人都不在。

The mixed, singular, luminous gloom in which they walked along together to the spot where the cows lay, often made him think of the Resurrection hour. —
当他们一起走到奶牛躺着的地方，混合着奇异的、明亮的阴暗让他想起复活的时刻。 —

He little thought that the Magdalen might be at his side. —
他从没有想过玛格丽特可能就在他身边。 —

Whilst all the landscape was in neutral shade his companion’s face, which was the focus of his eyes, rising above the mist stratum, seemed to have a sort of phosphorescence upon it. —
在整个风景都处于中性色调的时候，他眼中的焦点——她的脸，在薄雾层上升之上，似乎发出了某种发光。 —

She looked ghostly, as if she were merely a soul at large. —
她看起来鬼魅般，仿佛只是一个自由自在的灵魂。 —

In reality her face, without appearing to do so, had caught the cold gleam of day from the north-east; —
实际上，她的脸，虽然看起来没有，但是从东北方捕捉到了冷冽的白昼光芒； —

his own face, though he did not think of it, wore the same aspect to her.
他自己的脸，虽然他没有想到，对她来说也是一样的。

It was then, as has been said, that she impressed him most deeply. —
正如前文所说的，那时她给他留下了最深刻的印象。 —

She was no longer the milkmaid, but a visionary essence of woman - a whole sex condensed into one typical form. —
她不再是挤牛奶的女孩，而是一种女人的幻影精华——整个性别凝缩为一种典型形态。 —

He called her Artemis, Demeter, and other fanciful names half teasingly, which she did not like because she did not understand them.
他半是揶揄地给她起了阿尔忒弥斯、狄蜜特和其他幻想般的名字，她并不喜欢，因为她不理解。

`Call me Tess,’ she would say askance; and he did.
“叫我苔丝吧”，她斜眼看他说；他就叫她苔丝。

Then it would grow lighter, and her features would become simply feminine; —
接着白天就会变得更明亮，她的面容会变得更加简单的女性化； —

they had changed from those of a divinity who could confer bliss to those of a being who craved it.
他们已经不再是那些能够带来幸福的神性存在，而变成了一个渴望幸福的存在。

At these non-human hours they could get quite close to the waterfowl. —
在这些非人类的时刻，他们可以与水禽相当接近。 —

Herons came, with a great bold noise as of opening doors and shutters, out of the boughs of a plantation which they frequented at the side of the mead; —
鹭鸶们发出一阵咯噔咯噔的声音，如同打开门窗，从他们常去的树林中飞出来； —

or, if already on the spot, hardily maintained their standing in the water as the pair walked by, watching them by moving their heads round in a slow, horizontal, passionless wheel, like the turn of puppets by clockwork.
或者，如果它们已经在原地，便大胆地站在水中，随着这一对人的经过，用缓慢水平的方式，像是木偶被时钟打动一样，无所动情地转动头部。

They could then see the faint summer fogs in layers, woolly, level, and apparently no thicker than counterpanes, spread about the meadows in detached remnants of small extent. —
他们可以看到夏日的薄雾以层层叠叠的形式展现在草地上，呈羊毛般的质感，平坦无比，看起来比床罩还要薄，零星地散布在草地上，小范围的残余。 —

On the gray moisture of the grass were marks where the cows had lain through the night - dark-green islands of dry herbage the size of their carcases, in the general sea of dew. —
草地上的灰色潮气上，有牛躺倒的痕迹——干枯的深绿色干草岛，大小与它们的身躯一样，在露水的环绕下， —

From each island proceeded a serpentine trail, by which the cow had rambled away to feed after getting up, at the end of which trail they found her; —
从每个岛上发出一条蛇形痕迹，牛在起身后沿着这条痕迹漫步离开，他们最后在这条痕迹的尽头找到她； —

the snoring puff from her nostrils, when she recognized them, making an intenser little fog of her own amid the prevailing one. —
看到他们的时候，她认出他们后，从她的鼻孔里发出轻轻的鼾声，形成自己更浓密的小雾气。 —

Then they drove the animals back to the barton, or sat down to milk them on the spot, as the case might require.
然后他们把动物赶回牲口栏，或者就地挤奶，根据情况而定。

Or perhaps the summer fog was more general, and the meadows lay like a white sea, out of which the scattered trees rose like dangerous rocks. —
又或许夏日的薄雾更为普遍，草地宛如一片白色的海洋，其中零星散布的树木如危险的岩石。 —

Birds would soar through it into the upper radiance, and hang on the wing sunning themselves, or alight on the wet rails subdividing the mead, which now shone like glass rods. —
鸟儿穿越薄雾进入上方的明亮处，挂在空中晒太阳，或者停在分隔草地的湿栏杆上，如同玻璃棒一样闪闪发光。 —

Minute diamonds of moisture from the mist hung, too, upon Tess’s eyelashes, and drops upon her hair, like seed pearls. —
小雾气中还挂着蒂丝的睫毛上的微小水钻，头发上的雨珠，如同种子珍珠一般。 —

When the day grew quite strong and commonplace these dried off her; —
当天气变得非常普通和寻常，这些水珠都要蒸发掉； —

moreover, Tess then lost her strange and ethereal beauty; —
此时蒂丝又失去了她奇异而超凡脱俗的美； —

her teeth, lips, and eyes scintillated in the sunbeams, and she was again the dazzlingly fair dairymaid only, who had to hold her own against the other women of the world.
她的牙齿、嘴唇和眼睛在阳光中闪烁，她再次成为那位令人眼花缭乱的美丽牛奶女工，必须在世界其他女人中站稳脚跟。

About this time they would hear Dairyman Crick’s voice, lecturing the non-resident milkers for arriving late, and speaking sharply to old Deborah Fyander for not washing her hands.
正在这个时候，他们听到了牛场工人克里克的声音，责备那些迟到的非常驻挤奶工，并且严厉地训斥老黛博拉·费安德，因为她没洗手。

`For Heaven’s sake, pop thy hands under the pump, Deb! —
“天啊，底伯拉，快把手伸到水泵下冲一下！” —

Upon my soul if the London folk only knowed of thee and thy slovenly my ways, they’d swaller their milk and butter more mincing, than they do a’ready; —
“天哪，要是伦敦人知道你和你那草率的习惯，他们会比现在吃的奶和黄油还要小心，这可是说了好多了。” —

and that’s saying a good deal.’
“那可真是些说得不错的话。”

The milking progressed, till towards the end Tess and Clare, in common with the rest, could hear the heavy breakfast table dragged out from the wall in the kitchen by Mrs Crick, this being the invariable preliminary to each meal; —
挤奶活动继续进行，直到接近尾声，苔丝和克莱尔和其他人一起，都能听到克里克夫人在厨房从墙边把沉重的早餐桌拉出来，这总是每顿饭前的必要步骤。 —

the same horrible scrape accompanying its return journey when the table had been cleared.
当桌子被清空之后，同样可怕的刮擦声伴随着它返回原位置的过程。