第二章(第2/5页)

拉格比府与特弗沙尔村并无半点瓜葛,毫不往来。男人不脱帽致敬,女人不屈膝行礼。矿工们只是瞪眼凝视着他们,商贩们向康妮举举帽子,像是遇到相熟的人,对克里福德则会尴尬地点点头,仅此而已。仅此而已。双方被难以逾越的鸿沟隔开,心中深埋着无言的仇恨。起初,康妮因村民们细雨般不绝的仇恨颇觉苦恼。但还是逐渐硬起心肠,将这种恨意当作赖以为生的某种强身药剂。并非她与丈夫不受欢迎,只是他们与矿工们完全属于不同的阶层而已。人际间难以逾越的鸿沟,无法言喻的裂痕,或许在特伦特河以南的地区难觅其踪。但在中北部的工业区,这种不可调和的分歧却让不同阶级的人们断绝往来。你走你的阳关道,我过我的独木桥!这对人性中共通的情感是种无端地否定。

Yet the village sympathized with Clifford and Connie in the abstract. In the flesh it was—You leave me alone!—on either side.

然而在抽象中,村民们仍对查泰莱夫妇深感同情。而在实际中,双方却都坚守着“你别来管我!”的信条。

The rector was a nice man of about sixty, full of his duty, and reduced, personally, almost to a nonentity by the silent—You leave me alone!—of the village. The miners' wives were nearly all Methodists. The miners were nothing. But even so much official uniform as the clergyman wore was enough to obscure entirely the fact that he was a man like any other man. No, he was Mester Ashby, a sort of automatic preaching and praying concern.

年过花甲的教区长和蔼可亲,尽职尽责,但村民们这种各扫门前雪的冷漠态度,却让他几乎变成可有可无的人物。矿工的妻子们几乎是清一色的卫理公会信徒。矿工们却不信教。但身着牧师法袍,已经足够彻底掩饰他是个普通人这个事实。他不是普通人,他是阿什比牧师大人,一种讲道和祈祷自动机械。

This stubborn, instinctive—We think ourselves as good as you, if you are Lady Chatterley!—puzzled and baffled Connie at first extremely. The curious, suspicious, false amiability with which the miners' wives met her overtures; the curiously offensive tinge of—Oh dear me! I AM somebody now, with Lady Chatterley talking to me! But she needn't think I'm not as good as her for all that!—which she always heard twanging in the women's half-fawning voices, was impossible.

“就算你被尊为查泰莱夫人,但其实跟我们没有什么区别!”起初,村民们这种本能的固执的态度,让康妮感到十分困扰和为难。每当她主动向矿工家眷示好,总会换来怪里怪气、将信将疑的虚情假意,还有那莫名其妙的咄咄逼人的言语:我的天呢!现在我可是大人物了,查泰莱夫人跟我说话来着!可她也别认为这样就可以看扁我!主妇们那半是阿谀的话语中带着浓重的鼻音,在康妮的耳边时时回荡,确实让人难以忍受。

There was no getting past it.

但却是无法回避的。

It was hopelessly and offensively nonconformist.

这些不皈依国教的乡下佬简直无可救药,令人反感。

Clifford left them alone, and she learnt to do the same: she just went by without looking at them, and they stared as if she were a walking wax figure. When he had to deal with them, Clifford was rather haughty and contemptuous; one could no longer afford to be friendly. In fact he was altogether rather supercilious and contemptuous of anyone not in his own class. He stood his ground, without any attempt at conciliation. And he was neither liked nor disliked by the people: he was just part of things, like the pit-bank and Wragby itself.

克利福德从不搭理他们,康妮也学着依样照做:每次擦身而过,总是目不斜视,而村民们则不约而同地盯着她看,仿佛在凝视一座会走路的蜡像。当不得不跟他们打交道时,克利福德总是摆出傲慢骄横的神态,给这些家伙好脸色并不是明智的选择。事实上,他对于所有非其阶层的人们,都保持着这种不屑一顾的高傲态度。他固守着自己的阵地,没有任何修好的意图。村民们对克利福德无甚好感,但也并不讨厌:他不过是生活的组成部分,跟矿坑和格拉比府没什么两样。

But Clifford was really extremely shy and self-conscious now he was lamed. He hated seeing anyone except just the personal servants. For he had to sit in a wheeled chair or a sort of bath-chair. Nevertheless he was just as carefully dressed as ever, by his expensive tailors, and he wore the careful Bond Street neckties just as before, and from the top he looked just as smart and impressive as ever. He had never been one of the modern ladylike young men: rather bucolic even, with his ruddy face and broad shoulders. But his very quiet, hesitating voice, and his eyes, at the same time bold and frightened, assured and uncertain, revealed his nature. His manner was often offensively supercilious, and then again modest and self-effacing, almost tremulous.

然而自从意识到自己再也无法行走,克利福德就变得极端怯懦。除了自家的仆从,他不愿见到任何其他的人。因为残废的他只能坐在轮椅或者巴斯椅上。然而,他仍会像以往一样,穿着高级裁缝为他量身剪裁的高档服装,系着邦德街买回的精致领带,若仅看上半身,他依旧风流倜傥,气度非凡。克利福德本就没有时下青年的那副娘娘腔,红润的脸庞,外加宽厚的肩膀,让他看起来倒有几分牧民的气质。但他那细微迟疑的声音,兼具果敢与畏缩、自信与不安的眼神,则透露出他的本性。他的举止有时傲慢得让人难以忍受,有时却谨慎谦恭到怯懦战栗的地步。

Connie and he were attached to one another, in the aloof modern way. He was much too hurt in himself, the great shock of his maiming, to be easy and flippant. He was a hurt thing. And as such Connie stuck to him passionately.

康妮和他彼此依恋,又相互疏远,这可是时下夫妻间最盛行的相处之道。因伤致残对克利福德的打击过重,使其心灵倍受煎熬,再也无法像过去那般轻松释然。可怜的他身心俱伤。而康妮则对他情根深种,不离不弃。

But she could not help feeling how little connexion he really had with people. The miners were, in a sense, his own men; but he saw them as objects rather than men, parts of the pit rather than parts of life, crude raw phenomena rather than human beings along with him. He was in some way afraid of them, he could not bear to have them look at him now he was lame. And their queer, crude life seemed as unnatural as that of hedgehogs.

但她还是不禁觉得丈夫与他人缺乏沟通。矿工们可以说都是他的仆从,但他始终把他们当作没有生命的物体、而非活生生的人来看待,当他们是矿场而非生活的组成部分,是粗鄙天然事物,而非和自己一般无二的人类。克利福德甚至有些惧怕他们,受不了让他们看到自己如今这副残缺不全的模样。而他们过着古怪粗劣的生活,简直跟反常的刺猬没什么两样。