But sometimes, once in many days, or perchance in many months, she felt an eye- a human eye- upon the ignominiousbrand, that seemed to give a momentaryrelief, as if half of her agony were shared. The next instant, back it all rushed again, with still a deeper throbof pain; for, in that brief interval, she had sinned anew. Had Hester sinned alone?
但也有时候——好多天有这么一次,或者要好几个月才有这么一次,她会感到一双眼睛——一双人类的眼睛望着她那耻辱的印记,似乎能给她片刻的宽慰,象是分担了她的一半痛苦。但那瞬向一过,更深的刺病便疾速返回;因为在这短暂的邂逅中,她又重新犯了罪。难道海丝特是独自犯下这罪过的吗?
Her imagination was somewhat affected, and, had she been of a softer moral and intellectual fibre, would have been still more so, by the strange and solitary anguishof her life. Walking to and fro, with those lonely footsteps, in the little world with which she was outwardly connected, it now and then appeared to Hester- if altogether fancy, it was nevertheless too potentto be resisted- she felt or fancied, then, that the scarlet letter had endowedher with a new sense. She shudderedto believe, yet could not help believing, that it gave her a sympatheticknowledge of the hidden sin in other hearts. She was terror-stricken by the revelations that were thus made. What were they? Could they be other than the insidiouswhispers of the bad angel, who would fain have persuaded the struggling woman, as yet only half his victim, that the outward guiseof purity was but a lie, and that, if truth were everywhere to be shown, a scarlet letter would blaze forth on many a bosom besides Hester Prynne's? Or, must she receive those intimations- so obscure, yet so distinct-as truth? In all her miserable experience, there was nothing else so awful and so loathsomeas this sense. It perplexed, as well as shocked her, by the irreverent inopportunenessof the occasions that brought it into vivid action. Sometimes the red infamy upon her breast would give a sympathetic throb, as she passed near a venerableminister or magistrate, the model of pietyand justice, to whom that age of antiquereverence looked up, as to a mortal man in fellowship with angels. "What evil thing is at hand?" would Hester say to herself. Lifting her reluctant eyes, there would be nothing human within the scope of view, save the form of this earthly saint! Again, a mysticsisterhood would contumaciouslyassert itself, as she met the sanctifiedfrown of some matron, who, according to the rumour of all tongues, had kept cold snow within her bosom throughout life. That unsunnedsnow in the matron's bosom, and the burning shame on Hester Prynne's- what had the two in common? Or, once more, the electric thrill would give her warning- "Behold, Hester, here is a companion!"-and, looking up, she would detectthe eyes of a young maidenglancing at the scarlet letter, shyly and aside, and quickly averted, with a faint, chill crimsonin her cheeks; as if her purity were somewhat sulliedby that momentaryglance. O Fiend, whose talismanwas that fatal symbol, wouldst thou leave nothing, whether in youth or age, for this poor sinner to revere?- such loss of faith is ever one of the saddest results of sin. Be it accepted as a proof that all was not corrupt in this poor victim of her own frailty, and man's hard law, that Hester Prynne yet struggled to believe that no fellow-mortal was guilty like herself.
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