第十六章（第3/20页）

"You must be mad!" He said.

“你准是疯了！”他说。

"Why? To like a shower bath from the rain?" "And how did you dry yourself?" "On an old towel and at the fire." He still stared at her in a dumbfounded way.

“为什么？就因为喜欢洗雨水浴？”“可你怎么擦干身体呢？”“用条旧毛巾，就着炉火烤了烤。”他仍是那副瞠目结舌的神情，愣愣地望着她。

"And supposing anybody came," he said.

“要是遇到人怎么办？”他问。

"Who would come?" "Who? Why, anybody! And Mellors. Does he come? He must come in the evenings." "Yes, he came later, when it had cleared up, to feed the pheasants with corn." She spoke with amazing nonchalance. Mrs. Bolton, who was listening in the next room, heard in sheer admiration. To think a woman could carry it off so naturally!

“遇到谁？”“谁？无论是谁！梅勒斯。遇到他了吗？他傍晚总会去树林。”“遇到了，雨停之后，他才来的，带着谷粒去喂野鸡。”她若无其事地说着，出人意料地镇定。博尔顿太太正在隔壁偷听，不禁由衷地佩服女主人。试想一下，身为女人的她，竟能如此从容不迫！

"And suppose he'd come while you were running about in the rain with nothing on, like a maniac?” "I suppose he'd have had the fright of his life, and cleared out as fast as he could.” Clifford still stared at her transfixed. What he thought in his under-consciousness he would never know. And he was too much taken aback to form one clear thought in his upper consciousness. He just simply accepted what she said, in a sort of blank. And he admired her. He could not help admiring her. She looked so flushed and handsome and smooth: love smooth.

“要是你在雨中疯狂裸奔的时候，与他碰个正着怎么办？”“我猜他会吓得灵魂出窍，落荒而逃。”克利福德依然怔怔地瞪着她。自己的潜意识里到底在想些什么，连他本人都不知道。他受惊过度，大脑根本无法形成清晰的想法。他只是全盘接受了她的解释，脑袋里空空如也。他对她充满仰慕。他抑制不住自己钦佩的心情。她面色红润，皮肤光滑，美艳不可方物，这都是因为爱情的滋润。

"At least," he said, subsiding, "you'll be lucky if you've got off without a severe cold.” "Oh, I haven't got a cold," she replied. She was thinking to herself of the other man's words: Tha's got the nicest woman's arse of anybody! She wished, she dearly wished she could tell Clifford that this had been said her, during the famous thunderstorm. However! She bore herself rather like an offended queen, and went upstairs to change.

“至少，”他说，情绪渐渐平复下来，“如果你不会因此患上重感冒，那就算是万幸了。”“噢，我没感冒。”她回应道。她心里想着另一个男人的话：恁拥有世间最美的女人的屁股！她希望，由衷地希望能够告诉克利福德，在那场倾盆暴雨中，有人这样赞美她。但话到嘴边又咽下。她端起架子，活像位被冒犯的女王，上楼换衣服去了。

That evening, Clifford wanted to be nice to her. He was reading one of the latest scientific-religious books: he had a streak of a spurious sort of religion in him, and was egocentrically concerned with the future of his own ego. It was like his habit to make conversation to Connie about some book, since the conversation between them had to be made, almost chemically. They had almost chemically to concoct it in their heads.

那天晚上，克利福德极力想要讨好她。他正在读最新出版的一本有关科学的宗教书籍，他对宗教的笃信只不过是惺惺作态，心里真正关心的只不过是自己的前途。自从他俩间的谈话变成没话找话，几乎有些要去制造化学反应的意味，克利福德总习惯跟康妮谈论书籍。他们在脑海里炮制着谈话的内容，很像是在进行化学实验。

"What do you think of this, by the way?" He said, reaching for his book. "You'd have no need to cool your ardent body by running out in the rain, if only we have a few more aeons of evolution behind us.” Ah, here it is!—— "The universe shows us two aspects: on one side it is physically wasting, on the other it is spiritually ascending.” Connie listened, expecting more. But Clifford was waiting. She looked at him in surprise.

“我说，你觉得这种说法如何？”他说着，伸手拿过书。“如果人类再经过更多个纪元的进化，你就不需要去雨中奔跑，以求冷却自己炽热的身躯。呵，就是这句话！——‘宇宙向我们展现出两种趋势，物质被损耗，精神在上升。’”康妮听着，期待着他继续说下去。但克利福德却在等待。她诧异地看着他。

"And if it spiritually ascends," she said, "what does it leave down below, in the place where its tail used to be?" "Ah!" He said. "Take the man for what he means. ASCENDING is the opposite of his WASTING, I presume." "Spiritually blown out, so to speak!" "No, but seriously, without joking: do you think there is anything in it?” She looked at him again.