第十一章（第8/17页）

Even since Connie's arrival at Wragby this new place had arisen on the face of the earth, and the model dwellings had filled with riff-raff drifting in from anywhere, to poach Clifford's rabbits among other occupations.

自从康妮嫁到拉格比以来，斯塔克斯门迅速崛起，来自四面八方的乌合之众汇聚于此，住在样板化的住宅里，他们热衷的勾当之一，就是猎取克利福德的野兔。

The car ran on along the uplands, seeing the rolling county spread out. The county! It had once been a proud and lordly county. In front, looming again and hanging on the brow of the sky-line, was the huge and splendid bulk of Chadwick Hall, more window than wall, one of the most famous Elizabethan houses. Noble it stood alone above a great park, but out of date, passed over. It was still kept up, but as a show place. "Look how our ancestors lorded it!" That was the past. The present lay below. God alone knows where the future lies. The car was already turning, between little old blackened miners' cottages, to descend to Uthwaite. And Uthwaite, on a damp day, was sending up a whole array of smoke plumes and steam, to whatever gods there be. Uthwaite down in the valley, with all the steel threads of the railways to Sheffield drawn through it, and the coal-mines and the steel-works sending up smoke and glare from long tubes, and the pathetic little corkscrew spire of the church, that is going to tumble down, still pricking the fumes, always affected Connie strangely. It was an old market-town, centre of the dales. One of the chief inns was the Chatterley Arms. There, in Uthwaite, Wragby was known as Wragby, as if it were a whole place, not just a house, as it was to outsiders: Wragby Hall, near Tevershall: Wragby, a "seat'.

汽车沿着高地行驶，错落有致的村落绵延不绝。村落！这村落曾经充满自豪，富丽堂皇。正前方，赫然耸现于天际的，是雄伟壮观的查德威克大厦，其窗户占去墙壁的绝大部分比重，是伊丽莎白时期最著名的建筑之一。它依然孤傲地耸立着，下方有个广袤的园林，但早已经落伍，无法引起人们的注意。但它依然被完整地保存下来，作为参观的景点。“看看我们的祖先曾经多么不可一世！”那些都是过往云烟。现在横亘在下方。而未来在何处，只有上帝才清楚。汽车已经转向，将路两旁那些漆黑低矮、破烂不堪的矿工屋舍抛在身后，向下驶向乌斯维特。天气阴暗潮湿，乌斯维特升腾起滚滚浓烟和蒸汽，好像在焚香祈求哪路神仙。乌斯维特位于峪底，所有通往谢菲尔德的铁道钢轨都从这里经过，煤矿和钢铁厂的长烟囱吐出烟尘和火光，教堂那螺旋形的小尖塔凄凉破败，虽已几近倒塌，但仍能刺穿烟雾。这样的景象总是让康妮莫名地感动。这个古老的集镇坐落在溪谷中央。当地的主要旅栈里面，有家名为查泰莱。而在乌斯维特人心目中，拉格比好像是一方土地，而不是一座宅邸；而在外地人看来，毗邻特弗沙尔村的拉格比，不过是座豪宅。

The miners' cottages, blackened, stood flush on the pavement, with that intimacy and smallness of colliers' dwellings over a hundred years old. They lined all the way. The road had become a street, and as you sank, you forgot instantly the open, rolling country where the castles and big houses still dominated, but like ghosts. Now you were just above the tangle of naked railway-lines, and foundries and other "works" rose about you, so big you were only aware of walls. And iron clanked with a huge reverberating clank, and huge lorries shook the earth, and whistles screamed.

矿工们黑龊龊的棚屋，齐齐地排在路旁，延续着百年来矿工住所温暖狭小的特点。它们沿路排列成行。公路已经蜕变成街道，置身其间，空旷开阔、绵延起伏的乡村旧貌霎时被遗忘，在那里，城堡与豪宅仍如鬼魅般地耸立着。如今，脚下赤裸裸的铁轨纠缠交错，四周铸造厂及各式厂房拔地而起，让人感觉仿佛被坚壁环绕。钢铁相互撞击，叮当作响，回音震耳，巨型卡车摇撼着大地，汽笛嘶鸣。

Yet again, once you had got right down and into the twisted and crooked heart of the town, behind the church, you were in the world of two centuries ago, in the crooked streets where the Chatterley Arms stood, and the old pharmacy, streets which used to lead Out to the wild open world of the castles and stately couchant houses.

不过，若继续前进，来到蜿蜒曲折的市镇中心，踏进教堂背后那方两世纪前的天地，查泰莱旅栈和旧药房挺立在萦回屈曲的街道两旁，条条道路通向荒芜空旷的古老世界，那里散布着巍峨的城堡以及宏伟堂皇的宅邸。

But at the corner a policeman held up his hand as three lorries loaded with iron rolled past, shaking the poor old church. And not till the lorries were past could he salute her ladyship.