An up-hill and down-dale ride of twenty-odd miles through a garish mid-day atmosphere brought him in the afternoon to a detached knoll a mile or two west of Talbothays, whence he again looked into that green trough of sappiness and humidity, the valley of the Var or Froom. mmediately he began to descend from the upland to the fat alluvial soil below, the atmosphere grew heavier; —
通过一个绿树成荫、湿润多雾的山谷，他终于在下午来到了塔尔波塞斯西边一两英里处一个独立的小山丘，从那里他再次俯瞰着那个绿油油的、潮湿的福姆谷。立刻，当他开始从高地下降到下面肥沃的冲积土壤时，大气变得更加沉重。 —

the languid perfume of the summer fruits, the mists, the hay, the flowers, formed therein a vast pool of odour which at this hour seemed to make the animals, the very bees and butterflies, drowsy. —
令人昏昏欲睡的夏季水果、薰衣草香、幽香、鲜花，在这个时间点形成了一个庞大的气味池，使得动物，甚至是蜜蜂和蝴蝶们，都显得昏昏欲睡。 —

Clare was now so familiar with the spot that he knew the individual cows by their names when, a long distance off, he saw them dotted about the meads. —
克莱尔现在对这个地方如此熟悉，以至于他从远处就可以看到遍布草地的奶牛，而知道它们每头的名字。 —

It was with a sense of luxury that he recognized his power of viewing life here from its inner side, in a way that had been quite foreign to him in his student-days; —
他得以从内心的角度来观察这里的生活，这种体验在他的学生时代曾经完全陌生；这让他感到无比奢侈。 —

and, much as he loved his parents, he could not help being aware that to come here, as now, after an experience of home-life, affected him like throwing off splints and bandages; —
尽管他非常爱他的父母，但他不得不意识到，像现在这样回到这里，在体验了家庭生活之后，对他的影响就像是摆脱了箍和绷带； —

even the one customary curb on the humours of English rural societies being absent in this place, Talbothays having no resident landlord.
英国乡村社会的一项通常的约束在这里也没有，塔尔波塞斯没有常驻的地主。

Not a human being was out of doors at the dairy. —
奶牛房外没有一个人。 —

The denizens were all enjoying the usual afternoon nap of an hour or so which the exceedingly early hours kept in summer-time rendered a necessity. —
居民们都在享受日常的一个小时左右的午后小睡，这在夏季这个极早起床时间里是必不可少的。 —

At the door the wood-hooped pails, sodden and bleached by infinite scrubbings, hung like hats on a stand upon the forked and peeled limb of an oak fixed there for that purpose; —
门口的木箍桶濡湿而被无数次擦洗漂白，像帽子一样挂在那里专门用来支撑橡树树枝的岔开被剥皮的部分； —

all of them ready and dry for the evening milking. —
它们全部准备好了，晚上挤奶时已经干了。 —

Angel entered, and went through the silent passages of the house to the back quarters, where he listened for a moment. —
安吉尔走进去，穿过房子里静悄悄的走廊，到了后院，他停下来听了一会。 —

Sustained snores came from the cart-house, where some of the men were lying down; —
车房传来持续的打呼声，那里有一些男人躺着； —

the grunt and squeal of sweltering pigs arose from the still further distance. —
远处传来呼噜和猪在汗流浃背的声音。 —

The large-leaved rhubarb and cabbage plants slept too, their broad limp surfaces hanging in the sun like half-closed umbrellas.
大叶大豆葵和卷心菜也在睡觉，它们宽大而松懈的表面像半闭起的伞一样悬挂在阳光下。

He unbridled and fed his horse, and as he re-entered the house the clock struck three. —
他解下马勒，喂了马，当他再次进屋时，钟声敲响了三点。 —

Three was the afternoon skimming-hour; and, with the stroke, Clare heard the creaking of the floor-boards above, and then the touch of a descending foot on the stairs. —
三点是午后的略过时间；在敲击声中，克莱尔听到了楼上地板的吱吱声，然后听到了楼梯上有脚步的声音。 —

It was Tess’s, who in another moment came down before his eyes.
那是苔丝的脚步声，下一刻她就出现在他眼前。

She had not heard him enter, and hardly realized his presence there. —
她没有听到他进来，几乎没有意识到他在那里。 —

She was yawning, and he saw the red interior of her mouth as if it had been a snake’s. —
她打了个哈欠，他看到了她口内那红色的内部，就像是一条蛇的口腔。 —

She had stretched one arm so high as above her coiled-up cable of hair that he could see its satin delicacy above the sunburn; —
她伸了一只胳膊高高地，头发盘旋起来，他能看到头发上面的绸缎般的细腻，而头发是被晒黑了的； —

her face was flushed with sleep, and her eyelids hung heavy over their pupils. —
她因睡意而脸红，眼皮压得几乎遮住了瞳孔。 —

The brimfulness of her nature breathed from her. —
她的本性充满了她。 —

It was a moment when a woman’s soul is more incarnate than at any other time; —
这是一个女人灵魂最为真切化身的时刻； —

when the most spiritual beauty bespeaks itself flesh; —
当最为精神的美丽展现为肉体； —

and sex takes the outside place in the presentation.
而性别在呈现时则显得更为外显。

Then those eyes flashed brightly through their filmy heaviness, before the remainder of her face was well awake. —
然后那双眼睛透过迷蒙的沉重闪亮着，在她的脸还没完全苏醒之前。 —

With an oddly compounded look of gladness, shyness, and surprise, she exclaimed–
脸上带着一种奇妙的喜悦、害羞和惊讶的复合表情，她惊叫道–

O Mr Clare! How you frightened me - I--' <span><tang1>哦，克莱尔先生！你吓着我了–’

There had not at first been time for her to think of the changed relations which his declaration had introduced; —
起初她还没有时间去思考他的声明带来的改变关系； —

but the full sense of the matter rose up in her face when she encountered Clare’s tender look as he stepped forward to the bottom stair.
但当她看到克莱尔在最后一级台阶上走过来时那温柔的眼神，她脸上的整个感情立刻涌上心头。

`Dear, darling Tessy!’ he whispered, putting his arm round her, and his face to her flushed cheek. —
“亲爱的，可爱的蒂西！”他轻声说着，搂着她，把脸贴在她红扑扑的脸颊上。 —

`Don’t, for Heaven’s sake, Mister me any more. —
“求求你，不要再称呼我先生了。” —

I have hastened back so soon because of you!’
“因为你，我才这么快回来的！”

Tess’s excitable heart beat against bis by way of reply; —
蒂丝激动的心跳回答了他； —

and there they stood upon the red-brick floor of the entry, the sun slanting in by the window upon his back, as he held her tightly to his breast; —
他们站在门厅的红砖地板上，阳光透过窗户斜射在他的后背上，他紧紧地将她拥入怀中； —

upon her inclining face, upon the blue veins of her temple, upon her naked arm, and her neck, and into the depths of her hair. —
照着她的倾斜的脸庞，她发际上的青筋，赤裸的手臂，脖子，和头发深处。 —

Having been lying down in her clothes she was warm as a sunned cat. —
她穿着衣服躺着，暖和得像晒太阳的猫一样。 —

At first she would not look straight up at him, but her eyes soon lifted, and his plumbed the deepness of the ever-varying pupils, with their radiating fibrils of blue, and black, and gray, and violet, while she regarded him as Eve at her second waking might have regarded Adam.
起初她不敢直视他，但是很快她抬起眼睛，他透过那变幻无常的瞳孔，探究着那辐射着蓝色、黑色、灰色和紫色的细丝，而她则像第二次醒来的夏娃望着亚当一样。

I've got to go a-skimming,' she pleaded,and I have on’y old Deb to help me to-day. —
“我得去撇奶，”她恳求道，“今天只有老黛布可以帮我的忙。 —

Mrs Crick is gone to market with Mr Crick, and Retty is not well, and the others are gone out somewhere, and won’t be home till milking.’
克里克夫人和克里克先生去市场了，瑞蒂不舒服，其他人出去了，要到晚上才回来挤奶。”

As they retreated to the milk-house Deborah Fyander appeared on the stairs.
当他们走进挤奶房时，黛博拉·费安德出现在楼梯上。

`I have come back, Deborah,’ said Mr Clare, upwards.‘So I can help Tess with the skimming; —
“我回来了，黛博拉，”克莱尔先生往上说。“所以我可以帮助蒂丝挤奶； —

and, as you are very tired, I am sure, you needn’t come down till milking-time.’
你看起来很疲倦，我确信你不需要下来直到挤奶的时候。”

Possibly the Talbothays milk was not very thoroughly skimmed that afternoon. —
也许那天下午的塔尔伯斯牛奶并没有被很彻底地撇净。 —

Tess was in a dream wherein familiar objects appeared as having light and shade and position, but no particular outline. —
蒂丝仿佛置身在一个梦境中，熟悉的物体似乎有了光影和位置，但没有特定的轮廓。 —

Every time she held the skimmer under the pump to cool it for the work her hand trembled, the ardour of his affection being so palpable that she seemed to flinch under it like a plant in too burning a sun.
每次她将脱脂撇取器放在泵下冷却时，手都会颤抖，他的爱意如此明显，让她感觉像是在太烈的阳光下挣扎不已。

Then he pressed her again to his side, and when she had done running her forefinger round the leads to cut off the cream-edge, he cleaned it in nature’s way; —
然后他再次把她搂到自己身边，当她用手指绕着管子边缘切去奶油时，他用自然的方式清理了手指。 —

for the unconstrained manners of Talbothays dairy came convenient now.
因为塔尔博特斯奶厂的自然方式现在显得很方便。

I may as well say it now as later, dearest,' he resumed gently. --- <span><tang1>我也许现在还是说出来为好，亲爱的，’他温柔地继续说道。 —

I wish to ask you something of a very practical nature, which I have been thinking of ever since that day last week in the meads. --- <span><tang1>从上周在草地上的那一天起，我就一直在考虑一个非常具体的问题。 —

I shall soon want to marry, and, being a farmer, you see I shall require for my wife a woman who knows all about the management of farms. —
我很快将要结婚了，作为一个农民，你知道我需要一个懂得如何管理农场的妻子。 —

Will you be that woman, Tessy?’
你愿意成为那个女人，泰丝吗?’

He put it in that way that she might not think he had yielded to an impulse of which his head would disapprove.
他以这种方式提出来，以免她认为他是在听从头脑不赞同的冲动。

She turned quite careworn. She had bowed to the inevitable result of proximity, the necessity of loving him; —
她看起来很疲倦。她已经接受了近距离的结果，爱上了他的必要性； —

but she had not calculated upon this sudden corollary, which, indeed, Clare had put before her without quite meaning himself to do it so soon. —
但她没有预料到这个突然的推论，事实上，克莱尔没有想到他会这么快。 —

With pain that was like the bitterness of dissolution she murmured the words of her indispensable and sworn answer as an honourable woman.
在像解体的痛苦下，她低声说出了她作为一名正派女人不可或缺的和宣过的答复。

O Mr Clare - I cannot be your wife - I cannot be!' <span><tang1>哦，克莱尔先生 - 我不能成为你的妻子，我不能！’

The sound of her own decision seemed to break Tess’s very heart, and she bowed her face in her grief.
她自己决定的声音似乎撕裂了泰丝的心脏，她低下头悲伤着。

But, Tess!' he said, amazed at her reply, and holding her still more greedily close. --- <span><tang1>但，泰丝！’ 他对她的回答感到惊讶，更贪婪地把她搂得更紧。 —

Do you say no? Surely you love me?' <span><tang1>你说不？你一定是爱我的吧？’

`O yes, yes! And I would rather be yours than anybody’s in the world,’ returned the sweet and honest voice of the distressed girl. —
“哦，是的，是的！我宁愿做你的人，也不愿做世界上任何人的人，”那位困扰的女孩甜美而诚实的声音回答道。 —

`But I cannot marry you!’
“但我不能嫁给你！”

Tess,' he said, holding her at arm's length,you are engaged to marry some one else!’
“苔丝，”他说着，把她拉开一些，“你已经和别人订婚了！”

`No, no!’
“不，不！”

`Then why do you refuse me?’
“那你为什么拒绝我？”

`I don’t want to marry! I have not thought o’doing it. I cannot! I only want to love you.’
“我不想结婚！我没有考虑过。我不能！我只想爱你。”

`But why?’
“但为什么？”

Driven to subterfuge, she stammered–
她被迫使用诡辩，结结巴巴地说道–

`Your father is a parson, and your mother wouldn’ like you to marry such as me. —
“你父亲是牧师，你母亲不会喜欢你娶像我这样的人。” —

She will want you to marry a lady.’
“胡说 - 我已经和他们都说过。这部分是我回家的原因。”

`Nonsense - I have spoken to them both. That was partly why I went home.’
“我觉得我不能 - 永远，永远！”她重复道。

`I feel I cannot - never, never!’ she echoed.
“这样突然被问到，很难接受吗，我亲爱的？”

`Is it too sudden to be asked thus, my Pretty?’
“是的 - 我没想到。”

`Yes - I did not expect it.’
“如果你愿意不计较，苔丝，我可以给你时间，”他说。

`If you will let it pass, please, Tessy, I will give you time,’ he said. —
“如果你再授权，我会给你时间，苔丝，”他说。 —

It was very abrupt to come home and speak to you all at once. --- <span><tang1>突然回家和你们全部一起交谈很突然。 —

I’ll not allude to it again for a while.’
`我暂时不再提到它了。

She again took up the shining skimmer, held it beneath the pump, and began anew. —
她重新拿起闪闪发光的撇取器，放在水泵下面，重新开始。 —

But she could not, as at other times, hit the exact under-surface of the cream with the delicate dexterity required, try as she might: —
但是她无论如何都无法像以往那样准确地撇出奶油的底部，尽管她努力： —

sometimes she was cutting down into the milk, sometimes in the air. —
有时候她切入到奶里，有时候在空中。 —

She could hardly see, her eyes having filled with two blurring tears drawn forth by a grief which, to this her best friend and dear advocate, she could never explain.
她几乎看不清了，眼睛被两滴由无法向这位最好的朋友和亲密的辩护者解释的悲伤吸引而流淌的泪水弄模糊了。

I can't skim - I can't!' she said, turning away from him. <span><tang1>我撇不出奶油 - 我撇不出来!’ 她转身离开他。

Not to agitate and hinder her longer the considerate Clare began talking in a more general way:
为了不再使她焦虑和阻碍她，周到的克莱尔开始以更抽象的方式谈话：

You quite misapprehend my parents. They are the most simple-mannered people alive, and quite unambitious. --- <span><tang1>你完全误解了我的父母。他们是活着的最单纯的人，而且相当不雄心勃勃。 —

They are two of the few remaining Evangelical school. —
他们是为数不多的还剩下的福音派学校。 —

Tessy, are you an Evangelical?’
苔丝，你是福音派吗？’

I don't know.' <span><tang1>我不知道。’

You go to church very regularly, and our parson here is not very High, they tell me.' <span><tang1>你非常规律地去教堂，我们这里的牧师据说不是很高敬，他们告诉我。’

Tess’s ideas on the views of the parish clergyman, whom she heard every week, seemed to be rather more vague than Clare’s, who had never heard him at all.
苔丝对每周听到的教区牧师的观点似乎比克莱尔的更模糊，克莱尔根本没有听说过他。

I wish I could fix my mind on what I hear there more firmly than I do,' she remarked as a safe generality. --- <span><tang1>我希望我能更专心地听教堂里的事物，’她说，作为一个安全的概括。 —

It is often a great sorrow to me.' <span><tang1>这常常使我很悲伤。’

She spoke so unaffectedly that Angel was sure in his heart that his father could not object to her on religious grounds, even though she did not know whether her principles were High, Low, or Broad. He himself knew that, in reality, the confused beliefs which she held, apparently imbibed in childhood, were, if any thing, Tractarian as to phraseology, and Pantheistic as to essence. —
她说话如此自然，安吉尔确信他父亲不会因为宗教观念而反对她，即使她自己也不清楚自己的原则是高派、低派还是宽派。他自己知道，实际上，她所持的混乱信念，看起来是在童年时期形成的，无论从措辞上看还是本质上看，更像是传道会式的，同时又有泛神论的成分。 —

Confused or otherwise, to disturb them was his last desire:
无论混乱与否，打扰这些信念是他最不愿做的事：

Leave thou thy sister, when she prays, Her early Heaven, her happy views; —
当你的姐妹在祈祷时，请让她享受她早期的天堂般幸福的景象； —

Nor thou with shadow’d hint confuse A life that leads melodious days.
不要用暗示来扰乱那些度过幸福时光的生活；

He had occasionally thought the counsel less honest than musical; but he gladly conformed to it now. —
他有时觉得这种建议更多是音乐性的而非诚实的；但他现在很乐意遵从。 —

He spoke further of the incidents of his visit, of his father’s mode of life, of his zeal for his principles; —
他进一步谈及他此行的情况，谈及他父亲的生活方式，谈及他对原则的热忱； —

she grew serener, and the undulations disappeared from her skimming; —
她变得更加宁静，水面上的波动消失了； —

as she finished one lead after another he followed her, and drew the plugs for letting down the milk.
当她挤完奶，他跟着她，拉开插头来放下牛奶；

I fancied you looked a little downcast when you came in,' she ventured to observe, anxious to keep away from the subject of herself. <span><tang1>我觉得你进来的时候看起来有点沮丧，’她冒昧地观察到，急于避开谈论自己的话题；

Yes - well, my father has been talking a good deal to me of his troubles and difficulties, and the subject always tends to depress me. --- <span><tang1>是的 - 嗯，我父亲一直在跟我说他的困难和烦恼，这个话题总是让我感到沮丧。 —

He is so zealous that he gets many snubs and buffetings from people of a different way of thinking from himself, and I don’t like to hear of such humiliations to a man of his age, the more particularly as I don’t think earnestness does any good when carried so far. —
他是如此热心，常常因为与他不同思维方式的人遭受训斥和冲击，我不喜欢听到这样的屈辱发生在一个他这个年纪的人身上，特别是因为我认为热忱如果达到这么极端地步是没有任何好处的。 —

He has been telling me of a very unpleasant scene in which he took part quite recently. —
他告诉我最近发生过的一场非常不愉快的场面。 —

He went as the deputy of some missionary society to preach in the neighbourhood of Trantridge, a place forty miles from here, and made it his business to expostulate with a lax young cynic he met with somewhere about there - son of some landowner up that way - and who has a mother afflicted with blindness. —
他作为某个传教协会的代表去了距这里四十英里的Trantridge附近传教，有一位轻浮的年轻怀疑论者引起他的兴趣 - 那人是那边某位地主的子弟 - 他有一位盲目的母亲。 —

My father addressed himself to the gentleman point-blank, and there was quite a disturbance. —
我父亲直截了当地对那位绅士发话，结果引发了一场骚乱。 —

It was very foolish of my father, I must say, to intrude his conversation upon a stranger when the probabilities were so obvious that it would be useless. —
我必须说，我父亲的举动非常愚蠢，他却不顾明显的可能性，硬要插入自己的谈话。 —

But whatever he thinks to be his duty, that he’ll do, in season or out of season; —
但无论他认为是自己的责任，他都会做到，不分时节； —

and, of course, he makes many enemies, not only among the absolutely vicious, but among the easy-going, who hate being bothered. —
当然，他招惹了很多敌人，不仅是在绝对邪恶的人中间，还有在不愿受打扰的人中间。 —

He says he glories in what happened, and that good may be done indirectly; —
他说他为所发生的事情感到骄傲，可以间接地做些好事； —

but I wish he would not so wear himself out now he is getting old, and would leave such pigs to their wallowing.’
但我希望他不要如此磨灭自己，因为现在他年纪大了，应该将这些猪留给它们自己打滚。

Tess’s look had grown hard and worn, and her ripe mouth tragical; —
Tess的表情变得坚硬而疲惫，她饱满的嘴唇显示出悲剧色彩； —

but she no longer showed any tremulousness. —
但她不再显示出任何颤抖。 —

Clare’s revived thoughts of his father prevented his noticing her particularly; —
Clare重新想起他父亲的思想，没注意到她，于是他们继续沿着白色的液体方块走下去，直到它们完成并排空，当其他女仆们返回并拿走她们的桶时，Deb来清洗新奶的铅板。 —

and so they went on down the white row of liquid rectangles till they had finished and drained them off, when the other maids returned, and took their pails, and Deb came to scald out the leads for the new milk. —
当Tess离开去放牧奶牛时，他轻声对她说- —

As Tess withdrew to go afield to the cows he said to her softly–
`那么我的问题，Tessy?’

And my question, Tessy?' <span><tang1>哦，不-不！’她带着严肃的绝望回答，仿佛在提到Alec d’Urberville时听到了她自己过去的混乱。`不可能！’

O no - no!' replied she with grave hopelessness, as one who had heard anew the turmoil of her own past in the allusion to Alec d'Urberville.It can’t be!’
她向草地走去，加入了其他挤奶女工，像一个试图让开阔的空气驱散她悲伤约束的人一样。

She went out towards the mead, joining the other milkmaids with a bound, as if trying to make the open air drive away her sad constraint. —
所有女孩朝着远处草地上吃草的奶牛走去，这支群体前进时展现出野生动物的大胆优雅-妇女习惯于无限空间的放纵不受约束的动作-她们放弃自我沉浸在空气中，就像游泳者沉浸在波浪中一样。 —

All the girls drew onward to the spot where the cows were grazing in the farther mead, the bevy advancing with the bold grace of wild animals - the reckless unchastened motion of women accustomed to unlimited space - in which they abandoned themselves to the air as a swimmer to the wave. —
现在，对他来说，Tess再次出现在视线中，选择一个伴侣来自自然的无拘束，而不是艺术的住所，这似乎是很自然的选择。 —

It seemed natural enough to him now that Tess was again in sight to choose a mate from unconstrained Nature, and not from the abodes of Art.
庄稼地的夜晚入侵到窗台上的深海蓝色；