Chapter 1 Silas Marner, past and present(3)
第一章塞拉斯·马南的过去和现在(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.’
“签上说塞拉斯·马南偷了钱。”牧师说。“你立刻离开礼拜堂，塞拉斯·马南，在你承认罪行后，你才能重回礼拜堂。”
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.’
塞拉斯惊恐地听完。最后，他走到威廉·戴恩跟前，坚定地说：“我把刀借给了你，你自己清楚。当我发病时，你自己偷了钱，却告发是我偷了钱。但也许你永远都不会受到惩罚。既然上帝没有维善惩恶，那它也只是个谎言。”
‘You hear, my friends?’ said William, smiling sadly. ‘This is the voice of the devil speaking.’
“你们听到了吗，我的朋友们？”威廉苦笑着说。“这是魔鬼的声音。”
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，他一个人坐了一整天，太伤心了，什么事都不想做。第三天，牧师来告诉他，萨拉决定不与他结婚了。但仅仅一个月后，萨拉嫁给了威廉·戴恩，再过不久，塞拉斯·马南就离开了小镇。
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.
在拉弗尔，塞拉斯把自己关在他的小屋里。他不想去想他经历过的惨事。他想不明白为什么上帝不帮他。但现在他对上帝和朋友的信任全塌了，他觉得自己没有强大到能在一个新的教堂和新的朋友再次建立信任。从现在起，他将生活在一个黑暗、没有爱、绝望的世界里。
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.
唯一留给他的就是他的织布技术，他一周七天坐在织布机前，白天整日工作。在城里，他挣的少，还把大部分钱捐给了礼拜堂、老人、穷人和病人。但现在他赚得比以前多了，也没理由让他把钱捐出去了。他编织出来的亚麻，人们经常付给他金币。他发现他喜欢拿着闪闪发光的硬币，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.
童年时，塞拉斯的母亲教他用野花和野生植物制作简单的药物。有一天，他看见鞋匠的妻子萨莉·奥茨坐在她的小屋门口，他看到她的病症与让母亲过世的病相同。他为莎莉感到难过，尽管他知道他无法阻止她的死亡，但他还是为她准备了一些药，让她感觉好些。村民们认为这是塞拉斯奇怪的可怕力量的一个很好的例子，但它让莎莉好转了，村民便开始拜访塞拉斯，让他帮忙诊治他们自己的疾病。但是塞拉斯很诚实，无法拿村民的钱而给他们没用的药。他知道自己没有什么特殊的能力，所以他把他们打发走了。村民们认为他不愿帮他们，所以他们对他心生怨恨。他们把发生在自己身上的事和村里人的病逝都归咎于他。所以可怜的塞拉斯对萨莉的善举并没有帮他在拉弗尔结交朋友。
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.
但渐渐地，他小屋里成堆的金币越来越高了。他越努力工作，他在自己身上花的钱就越少。他十个一堆数硬币，想要看到它们变成一个正方形，再变成一个大正方形。每一枚新硬币都令他欣喜，但这让他又想要另一枚硬币。他挣金币变成了一种习惯，一种快乐，一个活着的理由，近乎一种信仰。他开始觉得这些硬币就是他的朋友，他们使小屋对他来说不那么孤单了。但是，只有在晚上，当他完成工作后，他才花时间与它们在一起。他把它们装在两个袋子里，放在织布机旁的地板下面。就像一个口渴的人需要喝水一样，他每天晚上都将它们拿出来，看一看、摸一摸、数一数。硬币在火光下闪闪发亮，塞拉斯爱每一枚硬币。当他看着织布机时，他满怀憧憬的是他工作时即将得到的金币，他期待接下来的年月，数不尽的编织的日子，以及越来越多的金币。
PS:本书为书虫系列四级读物，由英国著名女作家乔治·艾略特所著、英国书虫系列著名作家克莱尔·韦斯特改写。
英文为书虫系列原文，译文是笔者翻译。本文仅因个人兴趣而译，故本文谢绝转载和各种商业用途，同时承诺若出现任何责任由作者承担，必要时简书可删除文章。