狄更斯雙語小說:《董貝父子》第33章Part8

Musing and working by turns; now constraining herself to be steady at her needle for a long time together, and now letting her work fall, unregarded, on her lap, and straying wheresoever her busier thoughts led, Harriet Carker found the hours glide by her, and the day steal on. The morning, which had been bright and clear, gradually became overcast; a sharp wind set in; the rain fell heavily; and a dark mist drooping over the distant town, hid it from the view.
She often looked with compassion, at such a time, upon the stragglers who came wandering into London, by the great highway hard by, and who, footsore and weary, and gazing fearfully at the huge town before them, as if foreboding that their misery there would be but as a drop of water in the sea, or as a grain of sea-sand on the shore, went shrinking on, cowering before the angry weather, and looking as if the very elements rejected them. Day after day, such travellers crept past, but always, as she thought, In one direction - always towards the town. Swallowed up in one phase or other of its immensity, towards which they seemed impelled by a desperate fascination, they never returned. Food for the hospitals, the churchyards, the prisons, the river, fever, madness, vice, and death, - they passed on to the monster, roaring in the distance, and were lost.
The chill wind was howling, and the rain was falling, and the day was darkening moodily, when Harriet, raising her eyes from the work on which she had long since been engaged with unremitting constancy, saw one of these travellers approaching.
A woman. A solitary woman of some thirty years of age; tall; well-formed; handsome; miserably dressed; the soil of many country roads in varied weather - dust, chalk, clay, gravel - clotted on her grey cloak by the streaming wet; no bonnet on her head, nothing to defend her rich black hair from the rain, but a torn handkerchief; with the fluttering ends of which, and with her hair, the wind blinded her so that she often stopped to push them back, and look upon the way she was going.
She was in the act of doing so, when Harriet observed her. As her hands, parting on her sunburnt forehead, swept across her face, and threw aside the hindrances that encroached upon it, there was a reckless and regardless beauty in it: a dauntless and depraved indifference to more than weather: a carelessness of what was cast upon her bare head from Heaven or earth: that, coupled with her misery and loneliness, touched the heart of her fellow-woman. She thought of all that was perverted and debased within her, no less than without: of modest graces of the mind, hardened and steeled, like these attractions of the person; of the many gifts of the Creator flung to the winds like the wild hair; of all the beautiful ruin upon which the storm was beating and the night was coming.
Thinking of this, she did not turn away with a delicate indignation - too many of her own compassionate and tender sex too often do - but pitied her.
Her fallen sister came on, looking far before her, trying with her eager eyes to pierce the mist in which the city was enshrouded, and glancing, now and then, from side to side, with the bewildered - and uncertain aspect of a stranger. Though her tread was bold and courageous, she was fatigued, and after a moment of irresolution, - sat down upon a heap of stones; seeking no shelter from the rain, but letting it rain on her as it would.
She was now opposite the house; raising her head after resting it for a moment on both hands, her eyes met those of Harriet.
In a moment, Harriet was at the door; and the other, rising from her seat at her beck, came slowly, and with no conciliatory look, towards her.
'Why do you rest in the rain?' said Harriet, gently.
'Because I have no other resting-place,' was the reply.
'But there are many places of shelter near here. This,' referring to the little porch, 'is better than where you were. You are very welcome to rest here.'

哈里特?卡克交替地沉思着和工作着；有時她強制自己長久地專心於着針線活；有時她又心不在焉地讓活計掉落在膝蓋上，聽任自己涌集的思潮隨意奔流；時間就這樣在她不知不覺之間悄悄地溜走了。早晨的天空，原先是明亮與晴朗的，現在逐漸遮滿了烏雲；刺骨的寒風吹刮進來；雨點沉重地落下；黑沉沉的迷霧籠罩着遠方的城市，使它看不見了。
每逢這樣的時候，她總時常憐憫地望着那些旅客沿着她房屋旁邊那條公路艱辛地向倫敦走去；他們的腳已經走痛了，身子已經走累了，正恐懼地望着前面宏偉的城市，彷彿預感到他們在那裏的悲慘境遇將只不過是大海中的一滴水或海灘上的一粒沙；他們在狂風暴雨面前心怯膽寒地收縮着身子，看來彷彿大自然也把他們拋棄了似的。一天又一天，這些旅客無力地、遲緩地拖着腳步，不過她覺得總是朝着一個方向--朝着城市的方向走去。似乎有一股猛烈的魔力把他們推進這座無限廣大的城市之中的某個部分一樣，他們被它吞沒了，再也沒有回來。他們成爲醫院、墓地、監獄、河流、熱病、瘋狂、惡習和死亡的食物，--他們向着在遠方吼叫的怪物走去，然後消失了。
寒風在怒號，雨在下着，白天在陰沉地黑下來，這時哈里特眼睛離開她孜孜不倦縫了好久的活計，看着這些走過來的旅客中的一位。
她是一位婦女。一位三十歲光景、孤身一人的婦女；她個子高大，身材端正，容貌漂亮，衣服破爛；在傾盆大雨下，她的灰色斗篷上粘滿了許多鄉村道路在各種氣候中飛濺起來的泥土--灰塵、白堊、粘土、沙礫--；她沒有戴帽子；濃密的黑髮上除了一塊撕破的手絹之外，沒有別的東西擋雨；手絹的邊端和頭髮在風中飄動，遮住了她的眼睛，所以她時常停下來把它們推回去，並望着她所前往的道路。
哈里特就在她這樣的時候注意到她。她把兩手舉到曬黑的前額，抹了抹臉，把覆蓋在臉上的障礙物挪開；這時候可以看出：她的姿容美麗，但她的性格卻是魯莽輕率、毫無顧慮的；比氣候更爲嚴重的事情她也毫無畏縮地置之度外，根本不去考慮自己的道德品行如何；對於從天上或地上拋擲到她的毫無遮蓋的頭上的一切東西，她都滿不在乎。這一切，再加上她的貧窮和孤獨，使她的同胞姐妹哈里特的內心深受感動。她想到這位婦女不僅在外表上而且在內心裏也是反常的、損壞了的；就像她富於魅力的姿容不像原先那麼嬌柔一樣，她那顆原本樸實優美的心也變得冷酷無情；造物主賦予她的許多高尚的資質都像那些蓬亂的頭髮一樣被風吹走了；暴風雨正在吹打着她那被毀損的美容，夜色即將籠罩着它。
她在想着這一切的時候，並沒有嫌惡、憤怒地避開她（在她富於同情心、溫柔體貼的女同胞中，過多的人是過於經常這樣做的），而是可憐她。
她的墮落的姐妹繼續向前走來，直望着遠遠的前方；銳利的眼睛想要穿透籠罩着城市的迷霧，時常以一個異鄉人不知所措和猶豫不決的神情左顧右盼。她的步伐雖然堅決有力，但她已疲倦了。她躊躇了一會兒以後，在一堆石頭上坐下，任憑雨落在她身上，不想避開。
她現在正好對着這座房屋。她把頭垂落在兩隻手上休息了一會兒以後，又擡起來，這時她的眼光碰到了哈里特的眼光。
哈里特一會兒就出現在門口；那位婦女聽到她的招呼之後，從坐位上站起來，慢吞吞地向她走去，她的態度並不是親切友好的。
“您爲什麼在雨裏休息呢？”哈里特溫柔地問她。
“因爲我沒有別的地方好休息，”她回答道。
“可是附近有許多可以避雨的地方。這裏，”她指着小門廊說，”比您剛纔坐的地方好。歡迎您到這裏來休息。”