第十一章（第7/17页）

而梅勒斯同样生长于斯——没错，但他同样出污泥而不染，和她一样超凡脱俗。即使在他身上，也找不到任何朋友情谊。已经消失殆尽。真情厚意已经不见踪影。如果说还留存着什么，那就是孤独和绝望。但这就是英格兰的真实写照，当今英格兰的绝大部分地区都是如此，对此康妮再清楚不过，因为她乘车从腹地一路驶来。

The car was rising towards Stacks Gate. The rain was holding off, and in the air came a queer pellucid gleam of May. The country rolled away in long undulations, south towards the Peak, east towards Mansfield and Nottingham. Connie was travelling South.

汽车直奔斯塔克斯门而去。云收雨歇，天空中呈现出澄明的奇异光彩，这是五月英伦特有的景象。绵延起伏的乡村景色在眼前掠过，往南是皮克，而曼斯菲尔德和诺丁汉则在东边。康妮正自北向南进发。

As she rose on to the high country, she could see on her left, on a height above the rolling land, the shadowy, powerful bulk of Warsop Castle, dark grey, with below it the reddish plastering of miners' dwellings, newish, and below those the plumes of dark smoke and white steam from the great colliery which put so many thousand pounds per annum into the pockets of the Duke and the other shareholders. The powerful old castle was a ruin, yet it hung its bulk on the low sky-line, over the black plumes and the white that waved on the damp air below.

汽车攀上高地，康妮看到左侧起伏的丘陵顶端，坐落着阴暗雄伟的沃索普城堡，主体呈深灰色，而下方则是稍新的矿工寓所，漆成红色，再往下，就是黑烟滚滚、白气腾腾的硕大煤矿，每年都会将成千上万的金元，送进公爵以及其他股东的腰包里。气势磅礴的旧城堡已成废墟，但它那庞大的身躯依然耸立于低垂的天际，俯瞰黑烟白雾在潮湿的空气中流动。

A turn, and they ran on the high level to Stacks Gate. Stacks Gate, as seen from the highroad, was just a huge and gorgeous new hotel, the Coningsby Arms, standing red and white and gilt in barbarous isolation off the road. But if you looked, you saw on the left rows of handsome "modern" dwellings, set down like a game of dominoes, with spaces and gardens, a queer game of dominoes that some weird "masters" were playing on the surprised earth. And beyond these blocks of dwellings, at the back, rose all the astonishing and frightening overhead erections of a really modern mine, chemical works and long galleries, enormous, and of shapes not before known to man. The head-stock and pit-bank of the mine itself were insignificant among the huge new installations. And in front of this, the game of dominoes stood forever in a sort of surprise, waiting to be played.

汽车转向，在高地上朝着斯塔克斯门驶去。从公路向上望去，整个斯塔克斯门只有那座恢弘壮丽、金碧辉煌的新饭店——康宁斯比饭店矗立在路旁，显得有些突兀。但只要仔细看，就会发现左手边有成排美观的“摩登”住宅，鳞次栉比，好似多米诺骨牌，其间点缀着空地和花园，像是某几位高深莫测的“大师”在这片奇迹的土地上展开的多米诺牌局。这片住宅区的另一端，在其背后，耸立着令人惊讶甚至望而生畏的高大建筑，包括一座真正现代化的煤矿，数座化工厂以及多条狭长的隧道，体积庞大，形状之奇特是人所未见。坐落在这些庞然大物般的全新设施之中，井架和矿坑都已算不得什么。在前端，多米诺骨牌经年累月地伫立着，带着几分惊讶，等待着轰然倒塌的命运。

This was Stacks Gate, new on the face of the earth, since the war. But as a matter of fact, though even Connie did not know it, downhill half a mile below the "hotel" was old Stacks Gate, with a little old colliery and blackish old brick dwellings, and a chapel or two and a shop or two and a little pub or two.

这就是战后重建的新斯塔克斯门。但事实上，甚至连康妮都不知晓，康宁斯比饭店下方半英里的所在就是昔日的斯塔克斯门。那儿有个小型旧矿，数座黑色旧砖房，一两座小礼拜堂，一两间店铺以及一两处小酒馆。

But that didn't count any more. The vast plumes of smoke and vapour rose from the new works up above, and this was now Stacks Gate: no chapels, no pubs, even no shops. Only the great works’, which are the modern Olympia with temples to all the gods; then the model dwellings: then the hotel. The hotel in actuality was nothing but a miners' pub though it looked first-classy.

但那些都已失去存在的价值。上方高耸着的新厂房，冒着阵阵浓烟和蒸汽，这里才是如今的斯塔克斯门，找不到礼拜堂、酒馆甚至店铺的踪影。只有巨大的厂房，好像现代的奥林匹亚，供奉各方神灵的庙堂一应俱全，还有千篇一律的住宅，以及那家顶级饭店。那饭店虽然看起来无可挑剔，但说白了，它只不过是矿工们醉生梦死的地方而已。