第八章（第8/11页）

"It's amazing," said Connie, "how different one feels when there's a really fresh fine day. Usually one feels the very air is half dead. People are killing the very air.” "Do you think people are doing it?" he asked.

“多奇妙啊，”康妮感慨道，“风和丽日的日子里，人的感觉也完全不同。平日里，你会觉得空气都死气沉沉的。空气正遭到毁灭性的破坏。”“你这么认为？”他问。

"I do. The steam of so much boredom, and discontent and anger out of all the people, just kills the vitality in the air. I'm sure of it.” "Perhaps some condition of the atmosphere lowers the vitality of the people?" he said.

“的确如此。人类将无穷无尽的厌烦、不满以及愤怒呼出，恰恰将空气中的生机尽数毁灭。这一点毫无疑问。”“或许是大气的某些状况降低了人类的活力？”他说。

"No, it's man that poisons the universe," she asserted.

“不，是人类在荼毒宇宙。”她言之凿凿。

"Fouls his own nest," remarked Clifford.

“自毁家园。”克利福德评论道。

The chair puffed on. In the hazel copse catkins were hanging pale gold, and in sunny places the wood-anemones were wide open, as if exclaiming with the joy of life, just as good as in past days, when people could exclaim along with them. They had a faint scent of apple-blossom. Connie gathered a few for Clifford.

轮椅突突前进。榛丛中悬着淡金色的柔荑花，五叶银莲在阳光充足处盛放，仿佛在歌颂生命的快乐，就像往日人们可以同它们一道赞颂一样。散发出淡淡的苹果花香。康妮为克利福德采下几朵。

He took them and looked at them curiously.

他接到手中，好奇地盯着看。

"Thou still unravished bride of quietness," he quoted. "It seems to fit flowers so much better than Greek vases." "Ravished is such a horrid word!" she said. "It's only people who ravish things.” "Oh, I don't know...snails and things," he said.

“你这未被玷污的温婉新娘。”他又吟诵出济慈的名句。（注：引自英国诗人济慈的名诗《希腊古瓮颂》）“这句诗用来形容鲜花，远比比喻希腊古瓶恰当。”“玷污是个可怕的词汇！”她说。“只有人类才会如此龌龊。”“哦，我搞不清楚……蜗牛之类的东西。”他说。

"Even snails only eat them, and bees don't ravish.” She was angry with him, turning everything into words. Violets were Juno's eyelids, and windflowers were on ravished brides. How she hated words, always coming between her and life: they did the ravishing, if anything did: ready-made words and phrases, sucking all the life-sap out of living things.

“蜗牛只是贪嘴，蜜蜂不行奸污。”她讨厌他把所有事物都付诸诗句。紫罗兰是朱诺的眼睑，银莲花是未被玷污的新娘。她对这些陈词滥调深恶痛绝，它们总是将她与生命分隔开来。若论玷污，正是这些现成的词句玷污了一切，它们吸干了天地万物的生命精华。

The walk with Clifford was not quite a success. Between him and Connie there was a tension that each pretended not to notice, but there it was. Suddenly, with all the force of her female instinct, she was shoving him off. She wanted to be clear of him, and especially of his consciousness, his words, his obsession with himself, his endless treadmill obsession with himself, and his own words.

和克利福德的这次散步有些扫兴。他和康妮之间弥漫着剑拔弩张的气氛，虽然两人都故作不知，但其存在却无法回避。突然间，她想聚集所有女性的本能力量，将他推开。她要与他划清界限，尤其是要摆脱他的意识，他的词句，他的自恋，他无始无终的自恋，还有对华丽辞藻的痴迷。

The weather came rainy again. But after a day or two she went out in the rain, and she went to the wood. And once there, she went towards the hut. It was raining, but not so cold, and the wood felt so silent and remote, inaccessible in the dusk of rain.

天又下起雨来。但一两天后，她冒雨出门，直奔树林深处。一踏入树林，她就往小屋走去。虽然雨尚未停歇，但气温并不低，在雨幕的掩映下，树林显得那样静默孤傲，那样遥不可及。

She came to the clearing. No one there! The hut was locked. But she sat on the log doorstep, under the rustic porch, and snuggled into her own warmth. So she sat, looking at the rain, listening to the many noiseless noises of it, and to the strange soughings of wind in upper branches, when there seemed to be no wind. Old oak-trees stood around, grey, powerful trunks, rain-blackened, round and vital, throwing off reckless limbs. The ground was fairly free of undergrowth, the anemones sprinkled, there was a bush or two, elder, or guelder-rose, and a purplish tangle of bramble: the old russet of bracken almost vanished under green anemone ruffs. Perhaps this was one of the unravished places. Unravished! The whole world was ravished.