第十七章（第7/13页）

我们这里也有件本地小小的趣事。守林人梅勒斯的妻子，离家多日后再度现身农舍，结果发现自己不受欢迎。他把她撵出家去，还将大门紧锁。可据说，他从树林回到家中时，发现那个容颜不再的悍妇正稳稳盘踞在他的床上，身无片缕，或者应该说脱个精光。她趁他不在，砸碎玻璃，进到屋里。由于无法将这位饱经蹂躏的维纳斯从床上赶走，他只得偃旗息鼓，退避三舍，坊间传闻，他逃回特弗沙尔，住进母亲家里。与此同时，斯塔克斯门的维纳斯将农舍据为己有，声称那是她的地盘，而可怜的阿波罗，显然只好在特弗沙尔暂时落脚。

I repeat this from hearsay, as Mellors has not come to me personally. I had this particular bit of local garbage from our garbage bird, our ibis, our scavenging turkey-buzzard, Mrs. Bolton. I would not have repeated it had she not exclaimed: her Ladyship will go no more to the wood if that woman's going to be about!

上述故事均是道听途说，因为梅勒斯本人并未来找过我。这则无聊的传闻是从我们的垃圾鸟，我们的美洲鹳，我们吃腐肉的秃鹫，博尔顿太太那里听来的。我转述此事，全因为她说过：要是那女人赖着不走，夫人可就没法再去林中散步了！

I like your picture of Sir Malcolm striding into the sea with white hair blowing and pink flesh glowing. I envy you that sun. Here it rains. But I don't envy Sir Malcolm his inveterate mortal carnality. However, it suits his age. Apparently one grows more carnal and more mortal as one grows older. Only youth has a taste of immortality— This news affected Connie in her state of semi-stupefied ell being with vexation amounting to exasperation. Now she ad got to be bothered by that beast of a woman! Now she must start and fret! She had no letter from Mellors. They had agreed not to write at all, but now she wanted to hear from him personally. After all, he was the father of the child that was coming. Let him write!

我很喜欢你栩栩如生的作品，画里的马尔科姆爵士正阔步走进大海，白发迎风飘摆，肌肤泛着红光。真羡慕你那里的太阳。拉格比阴雨连绵。可我并不羡慕他对肉欲无休无止的追求。不过，这种行为倒也符合他的年纪。年龄越大，越是贪图肉欲。只有青春才知不朽为何物——这消息彻底将康妮从半昏迷似的幸福状态中唤醒，心情渐渐从苦恼升格为愤怒。如今，那个泼妇还是跳了出来，扰乱她的清静！从现在开始，有她烦的了！她没收到梅勒斯的信。他俩约好互不通信，但眼下，她渴望能从他那儿了解到真实的情况。他毕竟是腹中婴孩的父亲。快让他写信吧！

But how hateful! Now everything was messed up. How foul those low people were! How nice it was here, in the sunshine and the indolence, compared to that dismal mess of that English Midlands! After all, a clear sky was almost the most important thing in life.

真是可恶！现在所有事都乱成一团。平民百姓的行径果然恶劣！跟英国中部那团解不开的令人沮丧的乱麻相比，这儿和煦的阳光，慵懒的生活实在惬意极了！无论怎样，晴朗的天空几乎是生活中最紧要的东西。

She did not mention the fact of her pregnancy, even to Hilda. She wrote to Mrs. Bolton for exact information.

她没向任何人透露过自己怀孕的事，甚至连希尔达都不知情。她写信给博尔顿太太，打听详细情况。

Duncan Forbes, an artist friend of theirs, had arrived at the Villa Esmeralda, coming north from Rome. Now he made a third in the gondola, and he bathed with them across the lagoon, and was their escort: a quiet, almost taciturn young man, very advanced in his art.

姐妹俩的朋友，画家邓肯·福布斯从罗马北上，来到威尼斯，住进埃斯梅拉达别墅。现在，他成为凤尾船的第三位乘客，跟姐妹俩一起到泻湖彼岸畅泳，充当起护花使者的角色。他安静寡言，在艺术上却很有造诣。

She had a letter from Mrs. Bolton: You will be pleased, I am sure, my Lady, when you see Sir Clifford. He's looking quite blooming and working very hard, and very hopeful. Of course he is looking forward to seeing you among us again. It is a dull house without my Lady, and we shall all welcome her presence among us once more.

她接到博尔顿太太的来信：夫人，要是您能见到克利福德爵士，我保证您准会开心不已。他看上去精力旺盛，刻苦工作，对未来充满希望。当然，他期盼着您能回到我们身边。夫人没在，家里变得异常沉闷，大家都盼望着您能早日归来。

About Mr. Mellors, I don't know how much Sir Clifford told you. It seems his wife came back all of a sudden one afternoon, and he found her sitting on the doorstep when he came in from the wood. She said she was come back to him and wanted to live with him again, as she was his legal wife, and he wasn't going to divorce her. But he wouldn't have anything to do with her, and wouldn't let her in the house, and did not go in himself; he went back into the wood without ever opening the door.

关于梅勒斯先生的事，我不清楚克利福德爵士跟您透露过多少。情况似乎是这样，某天下午，他的妻子突然出现，他从树林回到家时，发现她坐在门阶上。她说她回来找他的目的，是想跟他重归于好，因为她是他的合法妻子，不能随随便便就离婚。但他根本不想跟她有任何瓜葛，连门都不让她进，自己也赌气没回家。锁都没开，就回树林去了。

But when he came back after dark, he found the house broken into, so he went upstairs to see what she'd done, and he found her in bed without a rag on her. He offered her money, but she said she was his wife and he must take her back. I don't know what sort of a scene they had. His mother told me about it, she's terribly upset. Well, he told her he'd die rather than ever live with her again, so he took his things and went straight to his mother's on Tevershall hill. He stopped the night and went to the wood next day through the park, never going near the cottage. It seems he never saw his wife that day. But the day after she was at her brother Dan's at Beggarlee, swearing and carrying on, saying she was his legal wife, and that he'd been having women at the cottage, because she'd found a scent-bottle in his drawer, and gold-tipped cigarette-ends on the ash-heap, and I don't know what all. Then it seems the postman Fred Kirk says he heard somebody talking in Mr. Mellors' bedroom early one morning, and a motor-car had been in the lane.

但他晚上再次回来时，发现有人破窗而入，于是，他上楼去看她究竟干了什么勾当，却发现她正一丝不挂地躺在床上。他想用钱把她打发走，但她却说，他是她的丈夫，必须接受她回到家来。我不知道当时他俩究竟吵成啥样。这些事都是我从他母亲那里听来的，她感到很不安。总而言之，他已经跟她挑明，就算死也不愿再跟她过，收拾东西径直搬到特弗沙尔他母亲那里。他在母亲家过夜，第二天直接经过花园去了树林，没再靠近农舍。似乎那天他并没有见到他的妻子。但第三天，她跑去贝加里，上门找她哥哥丹，撒泼打滚，赌咒发愿，说她是他合法的妻子，可他却背地里跟别的女人偷欢。因为她在抽屉里找到个香水瓶，还在炉灰上发现了金嘴的烟头，还有些什么我不太清楚。后来，邮差弗雷德·柯克也说，有天清早，他听到梅勒斯先生卧室里有女人的声音，小路上还停着辆汽车。