第八章（第3/8页）

He straightened himself and saluted, watching her in silence, as she came forward with weakening limbs. He resented the intrusion; he cherished his solitude as his only and last freedom in life.

他起身行礼，默默看着她四肢无力地走上前来。她不请自来，让他感到非常不满。他无比珍视这方净土，只有在这里，他才能远离尘嚣，安享自由。

"I wondered what the hammering was," she said, feeling weak and breathless, and a little afraid of him, as he looked so straight at her.

“我在奇怪这锤声是怎么回事。”康妮说，感到全身无力，呼吸急促，被他逼视，让她心里稍有畏惧。

"Ah'm gettin' th' coops ready for th' young bods," he said, in broad vernacular.

“俺在给鸡仔搭窝。”他操着浓重的土语解释道。

She did not know what to say, and she felt weak. "I should like to sit down a bit," she said.

她不知道如何作答，只是感到虚弱无力。“我想稍坐片刻。”她说。

"Come and sit 'ere i'th'ut," he said, going in front of her to the hut, pushing aside some timber and stuff, and drawing out a rustic chair, made of hazel sticks.

“进屋坐吧。”他说完，便将她引进小屋，将柴火和杂物推到一旁，拉出把榛条做成的粗木靠椅。

"Am Ah t'light yer a little fire?" he asked, with the curious naïveté of the dialect.

“俺给恁生点火吧？”他的土腔土调中透出难得的质朴。

"Oh, don't bother," she replied.

“噢，不用麻烦了。”她答道。

But he looked at her hands; they were rather blue. So he quickly took some larch twigs to the little brick fire-place in the corner, and in a moment the yellow flame was running up the chimney. He made a place by the brick hearth.

可他发觉她的双手都冻青了。于是，他急忙拾起松枝，填进角落里砖砌的壁炉，不一会儿，金黄色的火焰便蹿向烟囱。他在壁炉旁给她设座。

"Sit 'ere then a bit, and warm yer," he said.

“坐这儿，待会儿就暖和过来了。”他说。

She obeyed him. He had that curious kind of protective authority she obeyed at once. So she sat and warmed her hands at the blaze, and dropped logs on the fire, whilst outside he was hammering again. She did not really want to sit, poked in a corner by the fire; she would rather have watched from the door, but she was being looked after, so she had to submit.

她照他的话去做了。不知怎的，他让康妮体验到莫名的安全感，似乎不容置疑，她未加思索，立马照办。她坐在壁炉旁，任火焰温暖着双手，不时往里加点柴火，而他则出去继续敲敲打打。她不想就这么干坐着，蜷缩在角落里烤火，宁愿去门旁看他干活，但既然人家如此照顾，她也只能服从他的安排。

The hut was quite cosy, panelled with unvarnished deal, having a little rustic table and stool beside her chair, and a carpenter's bench, then a big box, tools, new boards, nails; and many things hung from pegs: axe, hatchet, traps, things in sacks, his coat. It had no window, the light came in through the open door. It was a jumble, but also it was a sort of little sanctuary.

小屋温暖舒适，四壁用未着漆的冷杉板镶嵌而成。她所坐的靠椅旁，还有一张粗制的小桌和一张矮凳、一条木工用长凳，然后是一只大箱子、数件工具，几块没用过的木板，一堆钉子。墙上还挂着长柄斧、短把斧、兽夹、盛满物件的口袋以及他的外套。屋里没有窗户，光线只能从敞开的门射进来。虽说这里杂乱无章，但仍不失为一个小小的庇护所。

She listened to the tapping of the man's hammer; it was not so happy. He was oppressed. Here was a trespass on his privacy, and a dangerous one! A woman! He had reached the point where all he wanted on earth was to be alone. And yet he was powerless to preserve his privacy; he was a hired man, and these people were his masters.

她聆听着锤子的敲击声，传递出的情绪并不快活。他有些压抑。他的私隐遭到侵扰，而且是危险的侵扰！一个女人！他本已心灰意冷，人世间唯一渴望的状态就是孑然一身。然而，此刻他却无力保持自己的清静，因为他只是个雇工，而这些家伙都是主子。

Especially he did not want to come into contact with a woman again. He feared it; for he had a big wound from old contacts. He felt if he could not be alone, and if he could not be left alone, he would die. His recoil away from the outer world was complete; his last refuge was this wood; to hide himself there!

更何况，他不再想和女人扯上关系。他对男女关系充满恐惧，过去失败的婚姻曾让他深受重创。他的想法是，如果不能保持孑然独立的状态，如果遭到他人的侵扰，那还不如一死了之。他已经完全与外界脱离开来，而最后的避难所就是这片树林，他可以藏身于此！

Connie grew warm by the fire, which she had made too big: then she grew hot. She went and sat on the stool in the doorway, watching the man at work. He seemed not to notice her, but he knew. Yet he worked on, as if absorbedly, and his brown dog sat on her tail near him, and surveyed the untrustworthy world.

坐在炉火旁，康妮渐渐暖和过来，但她却又把火生得太旺，搞得自己燥热不安。她离开壁炉，坐在门边的板凳上，注视着劳作的男人。他似乎没有注意到她，但其实心中有数。他不动声色，继续干活，似乎非常专注，那条棕色的猎犬蹲在一旁，审视着眼前这个难以捉摸的世界。

Slender, quiet and quick, the man finished the coop he was making, turned it over, tried the sliding door, then set it aside. Then he rose, went for an old coop, and took it to the chopping log where he was working. Crouching, he tried the bars; some broke in his hands; he began to draw the nails. Then he turned the coop over and deliberated, and he gave absolutely no sign of awareness of the woman's presence.

他身材修长，朴素沉静，动作敏捷，把鸡笼做好，随即翻转过来，试过拉门，便放在一旁。接着，他起身去取旧鸡笼，把它放在刚才干活的木墩上。他蹲下来，试试木条是否依然坚固，不觉便扯断几根，然后又开始拔钉子。他把笼子倒过来，思索应该如何处理，装作毫未觉察康妮在注视着自己。

So Connie watched him fixedly. And the same solitary aloneness she had seen in him naked, she now saw in him clothed: solitary, and intent, like an animal that works alone, but also brooding, like a soul that recoils away, away from all human contact. Silently, patiently, he was recoiling away from her even now. It was the stillness, and the timeless sort of patience, in a man impatient and passionate, that touched Connie's womb. She saw it in his bent head, the quick quiet hands, the crouching of his slender, sensitive loins; something patient and withdrawn. She felt his experience had been deeper and wider than her own; much deeper and wider, and perhaps more deadly. And this relieved her of herself; she felt almost irresponsible.