Chapter 1 Silas Marner, past and present(3)
第一章塞拉斯·馬南的過去和現在(三)
‘The lots say that Silas Marner has stolen the money,’ he said. ‘You will leave the chapel, Silas Marner, and you will not be accepted back until you confess your crime.’
“簽上說塞拉斯·馬南偷了錢。”牧師說。“你立刻離開禮拜堂，塞拉斯·馬南，在你承認罪行後，你才能重回禮拜堂。”
Silas listened in horror. At last he walked over to William Dane and said firmly, ‘I lent you my knife, you know that. You stole the money, while I was having a fit, and you’ve blamed me for it. But perhaps you'll never be punished. since there is no God who takes care of the good and punishes the bad, only a God of lies.’
塞拉斯驚恐地聽完。最後，他走到威廉·戴恩跟前，堅定地說：“我把刀借給了你，你自己清楚。當我發病時，你自己偷了錢，卻告發是我偷了錢。但也許你永遠都不會受到懲罰。既然上帝沒有維善懲惡，那它也只是個謊言。”
‘You hear, my friends?’ said William, smiling sadly. ‘This is the voice of the devil speaking.’
“你們聽到了嗎，我的朋友們？”威廉苦笑着說。“這是魔鬼的聲音。”
Silas went home. The next day he sat alone for the whole day, too miserable to do anything. On the second day the minister came to tell him that Sarah had decided she could not marry him. Only a month later, Sarah married William Dane, and soon afterwards Silas Marner left the town.
塞拉斯回家了。第二天，他一個人坐了一整天，太傷心了，什麼事都不想做。第三天，牧師來告訴他，薩拉決定不與他結婚了。但僅僅一個月後，薩拉嫁給了威廉·戴恩，再過不久，塞拉斯·馬南就離開了小鎮。
At Raveloe, Silas shut himself away in his cottage. He did not want to think about the disaster he had experienced. He could not understand why God had refused to help him. But now that his trust in God and his friends had been broken, he did not feel strong enough to build up that trust again, in a new church and with new friends. From now on, he would live in a dark, loveless, hopeless world.
在拉弗爾，塞拉斯把自己關在他的小屋裏。他不想去想他經歷過的慘事。他想不明白爲什麼上帝不幫他。但現在他對上帝和朋友的信任全塌了，他覺得自己沒有強大到能在一個新的教堂和新的朋友再次建立信任。從現在起，他將生活在一個黑暗、沒有愛、絕望的世界裏。
All that was left to him was his weaving, and he sat at his loom seven days a week, working all the daylight hours. In the town he had earned less, and had given much of his money to the chapel, for the old, the poor, and the sick. But now he began to earn more than ever before, and there was no reason for him to give away any of it. He was often paid for his linen in gold. He discovered that he liked holding the shining coins in his hand and looking at their bright faces.
唯一留給他的就是他的織布技術，他一週七天坐在織布機前，白天整日工作。在城裏，他掙的少，還把大部分錢捐給了禮拜堂、老人、窮人和病人。但現在他賺得比以前多了，也沒理由讓他把錢捐出去了。他編織出來的亞麻，人們經常付給他金幣。他發現他喜歡拿着閃閃發光的硬幣，看着上面明亮的面孔。
In his childhood, Silas had been taught, by his mother, to make simple medicines from wild flowers and plants. One day he saw the shoemaker’s wife, Sally Oates, sitting at her cottage door, and he realized she had all the signs of the illness which had killed his mother. He felt sorry for Sally, and although he knew he could not prevent her dying, he prepared some medicine for her which made her feel much better. The villagers considered this a good example of Silas's strange frightening power, but as it had worked for Sally, they started visiting Silas to ask for help with their own illnesses. But Silas was too honest to take their money and give them useless medicine. He knew he had no special power, and so he sent them away. The villagers believed he was refusing to help them, and they were angry with him. They blamed him for accidents that happened to them, and deaths in the village. So poor Silas's kindness to Sally did not help him make friends in Raveloe.
童年時，塞拉斯的母親教他用野花和野生植物製作簡單的藥物。有一天，他看見鞋匠的妻子薩莉·奧茨坐在她的小屋門口，他看到她的病症與讓母親過世的病相同。他爲莎莉感到難過，儘管他知道他無法阻止她的死亡，但他還是爲她準備了一些藥，讓她感覺好些。村民們認爲這是塞拉斯奇怪的可怕力量的一個很好的例子，但它讓莎莉好轉了，村民便開始拜訪塞拉斯，讓他幫忙診治他們自己的疾病。但是塞拉斯很誠實，無法拿村民的錢而給他們沒用的藥。他知道自己沒有什麼特殊的能力，所以他把他們打發走了。村民們認爲他不願幫他們，所以他們對他心生怨恨。他們把發生在自己身上的事和村裏人的病逝都歸咎於他。所以可憐的塞拉斯對薩莉的善舉並沒有幫他在拉弗爾結交朋友。
But little by little, the piles of gold coins in his cottage grew higher. The harder he worked, the less he spent on himself. He counted the coins into piles of ten, and wanted to see them grow into a square, and then into a larger square. He was delighted with every new coin, but it made him want another. His gold became a habit, a delight, a reason for living, almost a religion. He began to think the coins were his friends, who made the cottage less lonely for him. But it was only at night, when he had finished his work, that he spent time with them. He kept them in two bags, under the floorboards near the loom. Like a thirsty man who needs a drink, he took them out every evening to look at them, feel them, and count them. The coins shone in the firelight, and Silas loved every one of them. When he looked at his loom, he thought fondly of the half-earned gold in the work he was doing, and he looked forward to the years ahead of him, the countless days of weaving and the growing piles of gold.
但漸漸地，他小屋裏成堆的金幣越來越高了。他越努力工作，他在自己身上花的錢就越少。他十個一堆數硬幣，想要看到它們變成一個正方形，再變成一個大正方形。每一枚新硬幣都令他欣喜，但這讓他又想要另一枚硬幣。他掙金幣變成了一種習慣，一種快樂，一個活着的理由，近乎一種信仰。他開始覺得這些硬幣就是他的朋友，他們使小屋對他來說不那麼孤單了。但是，只有在晚上，當他完成工作後，他才花時間與它們在一起。他把它們裝在兩個袋子裏，放在織布機旁的地板下面。就像一個口渴的人需要喝水一樣，他每天晚上都將它們拿出來，看一看、摸一摸、數一數。硬幣在火光下閃閃發亮，塞拉斯愛每一枚硬幣。當他看着織布機時，他滿懷憧憬的是他工作時即將得到的金幣，他期待接下來的年月，數不盡的編織的日子，以及越來越多的金幣。
PS:本書爲書蟲系列四級讀物，由英國著名女作家喬治·艾略特所著、英國書蟲系列著名作家克萊爾·韋斯特改寫。
英文爲書蟲系列原文，譯文是筆者翻譯。本文僅因個人興趣而譯，故本文謝絕轉載和各種商業用途，同時承諾若出現任何責任由作者承擔，必要時簡書可刪除文章。