Book First. The Three Women 1 - A Face on Which Time Makes but Little Impression

第一卷　三女性 一　苍颜一副几欲不留时光些须痕

A Saturday afternoon in November was approaching the time of twilight, and the vast tract of unenclosed wild known as Egdon Heath embrowned itself moment by moment. Overhead the hollow stretch of whitish cloud shutting out the sky was as a tent which had the whole heath for its floor.

十一月里一个星期六的后半天，越来越靠近暮色昏黄的时候了；那一大片没有垣篱界断的荒山旷野，提起来都叫它是爱敦荒原的，也一阵比一阵凄迷苍茫。抬头看来，弥漫长空的灰白浮云，遮断了青天，好像一座帐篷，把整个荒原当作了地席。

The heaven being spread with this pallid screen and the earth with the darkest vegetation, their meeting-line at the horizon was clearly marked. In such contrast the heath wore the appearance of an instalment of night which had taken up its place before its astronomical hour was come: darkness had to a great extent arrived hereon, while day stood distinct in the sky. Looking upwards, a furze-cutter would have been inclined to continue work; looking down, he would have decided to finish his faggot and go home.

天上张的既是这样灰白的帐幕，地上铺的又是一种最幽暗的灌莽，所以天边远处，天地交接的界线，分得清清楚楚。在这样的对衬之下，那片荒原看起来，就好像是夜的前驱，还没到正式入夜的时候，就走上夜的岗位了；因为大地上夜色已经很浓了，长空里却分明还是白昼。一个斫常青棘的樵夫，如果往天上看去，就还想继续工作，如果往地下看来，却又要决定束好柴捆，回家去了。

The distant rims of the world and of the firmament seemed to be a division in time no less than a division in matter. The face of the heath by its mere complexion added half an hour to evening; it could in like manner retard the dawn, sadden noon, anticipate the frowning of storms scarcely generated, and intensify the opacity of a moonless midnight to a cause of shaking and dread.

那时候，天边远处，大地的轮廓和长空的轮廓，不但是物质的分界，并且是时间的分界。荒原的表面，仅仅由于颜色这一端，就给暮夜增加了半点钟。它在同样的情况下，使曙色来得迟缓，使正午变得凄冷；狂风暴雨几乎还没踪影，它就变颜作色，预先显出一副阴沉面目；三更半夜，没有月光，它更加深咫尺难辨的昏暗，因而使人害怕发抖。

In fact, precisely at this transitional point of its nightly roll into darkness the great and particular glory of the Egdon waste began, and nobody could be said to understand the heath who had not been there at such a time. It could best be felt when it could not clearly be seen, its complete effect and explanation lying in this and the succeeding hours before the next dawn; then, and only then, did it tell its true tale.

事实上，爱敦荒原伟大而奇特的壮观，恰恰在它每晚由明入暗的过渡点上开始，凡是没有当着那种时节在那儿待过的人，就不能说他领会这片旷野。正是它在人们眼里看着朦胧迷离，它才在人们心里显得恰到好处，因为它的全部力量和意义，就附丽在从夜色将临的现在到曙光欲来的次展那几点钟里面；那时候，只有那时候，它才显露真面目。

The spot was, indeed, a near relation of night, and when night showed itself an apparent tendency to gravitate together could be perceived in its shades and the scene. The sombre stretch of rounds and hollows seemed to rise and meet the evening gloom in pure sympathy, the heath exhaling darkness as rapidly as the heavens precipitated it. And so the obscurity in the air and the obscurity in the land closed together in a black fraternization towards which each advanced halfway.

这块地方实在和夜是近亲属；只要夜一露面，就显然能看出来，在夜色的晦冥里和荒原的景物上，有一种互相凑合的趋势：那一大片阴森连绵的圆阜和空谷，好像以十二分的同情，起身迎接昏沉的暮色似的；因为荒原把黑暗一口呵出，天空就把黑暗一气泻下，两种动作同样迅速。这样一来，大气里的昏瞑和大地上的昏瞑，各走半程，中途相迎，仿佛同枝连理，结成一气氤氲。

The place became full of a watchful intentness now; for when other things sank blooding to sleep the heath appeared slowly to awake and listen. Every night its Titanic form seemed to await something; but it had waited thus, unmoved, during so many centuries, through the crises of so many things, that it could only be imagined to await one last crisis--the final overthrow.

现在这个地方，全部都显出专心一志、聚精会神的样子来了；因为别的东西，都两眼朦胧，昏昏入睡，这片荒原，才好像慢慢醒来，悄悄静听。它那泰坦一般的形体，每天夜里，老仿佛在那儿等候什么东西似的。不过它那样一动不动地等候，过了那么些世纪了，经历了那么些事物的危机了，而它仍旧在那儿等候，所以我们只能设想，它是在那儿等候最末一次的危机，等候天翻地覆的末日。