"Thou wilt go!" said Hester calmly, as he met her glance.
“你就走吧！”海絲特說，當(dāng)他迎到她的目光時(shí)，她是那么安詳。

The decision once made, a glow of strange enjoyment threw its flickering brightness over the trouble of his breast. It was the exhilarating effect- upon a prisoner just escaped from the dungeon of his own heart- of breathing the wild, free atmosphere of an unredeemed, unchristianised, lawless region. His spirit rose, as it were, with a bound, and attained a nearer prospect of the sky, than throughout all the misery which had kept him grovelling on the earth. Of a deeply religious temperament, there was inevitably a tinge of the devotional in his mind.
這決定一旦做出之后，一般欣喜異常的色彩便將其跳動(dòng)的光輝投射到他胸中的煩惱之上。這種振奮人心的決定對(duì)于一個(gè)剛剛逃脫自己心靈禁錮的囚犯來說，有如踏上一片未受基督教化的、尚無法律管理的荒土，讓他呼吸到那曠野的自由空氣。他的精神就此一下升騰起來，比起被悲慘心境壓得匍匐在地時(shí)，更近地看到了天空的景色。他是一個(gè)深具宗教氣質(zhì)的人，因此他的情緒上便必然會(huì)染上虔敬的色調(diào)。

"Do I feel joy again?" cried he, wondering at himself. "Methought the germ of it was dead in me! O Hester, thou art my better angel! I seem to have flung myself- sick, sin-stained, and sorrow-blackened-down upon these forest-leaves, and to have risen up all made anew, and with new powers to glorify Him that hath been merciful! This is already the better life! Why did we not find it sooner?"
“我重新嘗到喜悅了嗎？”他對(duì)自己詫異地叫道?！拔疫€以為喜悅的胚胎已經(jīng)在我心中死掉了呢！，海絲特，你可真是我的好天使呢！我似乎已經(jīng)把我這個(gè)疾病纏身、罪孽玷污和憂愁滿腹的人拋到了這林中落葉之上，再站起來時(shí)已經(jīng)脫胎換骨，周身充滿新生的力量來為仁慈的上帝增光！如今我這條生命已經(jīng)好得多了！我們?cè)趺礇]有早點(diǎn)想到這一步呢？”

"Let us not look back," answered Hester Prynne. "the past is gone! Wherefore should we linger upon it now? See! With this symbol, I undo it all, and make it as it had never been!"
“咱們不要回頭看了，”海絲特·白蘭回答說?！斑^去的已經(jīng)一去不復(fù)返了！現(xiàn)在我們又何必去留戀呢？瞧！我取下這個(gè)標(biāo)志，也就同時(shí)取下了與此相關(guān)的一切，就象從來沒發(fā)生過這件事一樣！”

So speaking, she undid the clasp that fastened the scarlet letter, and, taking it from her bosom, threw it to a distance among the withered leaves. The mystic token alighted on the hither verge of the stream. With a hand's breadth farther flight it would have fallen into the water, and have given the little brook another woe to carry onward, besides the unintelligible tale which it still kept murmuring about. But there lay the embroidered letter, glittering like a lost jewel, which some ill-fated wanderer might pick up, and thenceforth be haunted by strange phantoms of guilt, sinkings of the heart, and unaccountable misfortune.
她一邊這樣說著，一邊解開別著紅字的胸針，從胸前取下紅字，遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)地拋到枯葉之中。那神秘的標(biāo)志落在離小溪不遠(yuǎn)的地方。只消再飛這幾指寬的距離，紅字就會(huì)落進(jìn)水里，那樣的話，小溪除去連續(xù)不斷地喃喃訴說著的莫測的故事之外，又要載著另一段哀怨流淌了。但那個(gè)刺繡的紅字落在岸邊，象一顆遺失的珠寶似的閃閃發(fā)光，某個(gè)倒霉的流浪者可能會(huì)把它揀起來，從此便會(huì)被神秘的罪惡幽靈、沉淪的心靈和難言的不幸所縈繞了。