Discerningthe impractiblestate of the poorculprit's mind, the elder clergyman, who had carefully prepared himself for the occasion, addressed to the multitude a discourse on sin, in all its branches, but with continual reference to the ignominiousletter. So forcibly did he dwell upon this symbol, for the hour or more during which his periods were rolling over the people's heads, that it assumed new terrors in their imagination, and seemed to deriveits scarlet huefrom the flames of the infernalpit. Hester Prynne, meanwhile, kept her place upon the pedestalof shame, with glazed eyes, and an air of weary indifference. She had borne, that morning, all that nature could endure; and as her temperamentwas not of the order that escapes from too intense suffering by a swoon, her spirit could only shelter itself beneath a stonycrustof insensibility, while the faculties of animal life remained entire. In this state, the voice of the preacherthundered remorselessly, but unavailingly, upon her ears. The infant, during the latter portion of her ordeal, piercedthe air with its wailingsand screams; she strove to hush it, mechanically, but seemed scarcely to sympathise with its trouble. With the same hard demeanour, she was led back to prison, and vanished from the public gaze within its iron-clamped portal. It was whispered, by those who peered after her, that the scarlet letter threw a luridgleam along the dark passage-way of the interior.
那年长的牧师看出来这可怜的罪人一意孤行,他对此早已成竹在胸,便对人群发表了一通论述罪恶的演讲,他列举了形形色色的罪过,并且时时涉及那不光彩的字母。他在长达一个多小时的演讲中,详尽地叙述着这个标记,他那强有力的言辞在人们的耳际反复轰鸣,在他们的心头引起了新的恐惧,似乎把这个标记用炼狱之火染得通红。与此同时,海丝特·白兰始终带着一种疲惫的淡然神情,在她的耻辱台上凝眸端立。那天早晨,她忍受了人性所能承担的一切;由于她的气质决定了她不会以昏厥来逃避过于强烈的苦难,她的精神只能躲藏在麻木的石质硬壳下,而令动物生命助机能依然无损。因此,那位布道者的声音虽在她耳畔残酷无情地响如雷鸣,但却无济于事。在她备受折磨的这后一段时间,那婴儿的尖声哭号直贯云霄;她虽下意识地想哄着孩子安静下来,但似乎对婴儿的不安无动于衷。她就这样木雕泥塑般地又给带回监狱,从众人眼前捎失在钉满铁钉的牢门后面。那些目光随着她身影窥视的人耳语着说,她胸前的红字在中内黑漆漆的通路上投下了一道血红的闪光。
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