因此，乔瓦尼早已对两位夫人心有所属，正如他过去曾经恋上过无数太太小姐一样。只要她俩有所暗示，他随时做好献身的准备，这家伙早已暗自希冀着姐妹俩能提出此类要求。这样一来，他就能得到可观的馈赠，这可能派上大用场，因为他正打算结婚。他跟她俩谈及自己的婚事，康妮姐妹倒也颇感兴趣。

He thought this trip to some lonely bank across the lagoon probably meant business: business being l'amore, love. So he got a mate to help him, for it was a long way; and after all, they were two ladies. Two ladies, two mackerels! Good arithmetic! Beautiful ladies, too! He was justly proud of them. And though it was the Signora who paid him and gave him orders, he rather hoped it would be the young milady who would select hint for L'AMORE. She would give more money too.

他认为横渡泻湖、远赴无人的海岸，就意味着那种事，性爱之事。他这才想起找个同伴，路途遥远固然是原因，而且毕竟有两位贵妇。两位贵妇，两只肥羊！多么高明的计算！再说又是两位漂亮的贵妇！他不禁暗暗得意起来。虽然付钱和下达命令的都是那位年长些的夫人，但他还是希望那位年轻些的能够选中自己。她给的报酬肯定更加优厚。

The mate he brought was called Daniele. He was not a regular gondolier, so he had none of the cadger and prostitute about him. He was a sandola man, a sandola being a big boat that brings in fruit and produce from the islands.

他找来的同伴名叫丹尼尔。他只是偶尔充当凤尾船船夫，因此身上找不到乞丐或者娼妓的卑贱气息。他本是名水手，跟着大船从附近的岛屿将水果和其他特产运到威尼斯。

Daniele was beautiful, tall and well-shapen, with a light round head of little, close, pale-blond curls, and a good-looking man's face, a little like a lion, and long-distance blue eyes. He was not effusive, loquacious, and bibulous like Giovanni. He was silent and he rowed with a strength and ease as if he were alone on the water. The ladies were ladies, remote from him. He did not even look at them. He looked ahead.

丹尼尔仪表堂堂，身材高挑，体型匀称，圆整的头上生着淡金色的细密卷发，英俊的脸庞如雄狮般威武，两只蓝色眸子煞是开阔。乔瓦尼放荡不羁，油腔滑调，好酒贪杯，但丹尼尔却并非如此。他少言寡语，敏捷有力地操纵着船桨，旁若无人。贵妇就是贵妇，跟他毫无干系。他甚至都不正眼瞧她们。只是目视前方。

He was a real man, a little angry when Giovanni drank too much wine and rowed awkwardly, with effusive shoves of the great oar. He was a man as Mellors was a man, unprostituted. Connie pitied the wife of the easily-overflowing Giovanni. But Daniele's wife would be one of those sweet Venetian women of the people whom one still sees, modest and flower-like in the back of that labyrinth of a town.

他是个真正的男子汉，乔瓦尼如果多喝几杯，划起船来迤逦歪斜，他就会气不打一处来，奋力拨动着大桨。他和梅勒斯一样，都是地道的男子汉，绝不会出卖自己的身体和尊严。康妮心想，谁要是嫁给乔瓦尼这个风流种子，那可真怪可怜的。可丹尼尔的未婚妻准是个威尼斯甜心，这类女子如今仍能见到，她们幽居在这座迷宫般的水城里，优雅羞怯得好像含苞的花朵。

Ah, how sad that man first prostitutes woman, then woman prostitutes man. Giovanni was pining to prostitute himself, dribbling like a dog, wanting to give himself to a woman. And for money!

唉，男人先让女人失身为娼，女人再让男人沦落风尘。乔瓦尼一心想着出卖自己的肉体，像只野狗口角流涎，渴望献身给女人。自然是为了金钱！

Connie looked at Venice far off, low and rose-coloured upon the water. Built of money, blossomed of money, and dead with money. The money-deadness! Money, money, money, prostitution and deadness.

康妮眺望着威尼斯，这座玫瑰色的城市低低地栖于水上。因金钱而生，因金钱而荣，最终因金钱而亡。那致命的金钱！金钱，金钱，金钱，出卖灵魂，堕入地狱。

Yet Daniele was still a man capable of a man's free allegiance. He did not wear the gondolier's blouse: only the knitted blue jersey. He was a little wild, uncouth and proud. So he was hireling to the rather doggy Giovanni who was hireling again to two women. So it is! When Jesus refused the devil's money, he left the devil like a Jewish banker, master of the whole situation.

但丹尼尔却是个本分的男人，拥有男人的坦率和忠诚。他没穿凤尾船船夫的大褂，只是穿着蓝色的毛衫。他颇为鲁莽粗陋，但却高傲。他受雇于卑躬屈膝的乔瓦尼，而乔瓦尼则受雇于康妮姐妹。世事便是如此！耶稣拒绝接受恶魔的金钱，但却听任它化身为犹太银行家，掌控着全局。

Connie would come home from the blazing light of the lagoon in a kind of stupor, to find letters from home. Clifford wrote regularly. He wrote very good letters: they might all have been printed in a book. And for this reason Connie found them not very interesting.

告别那令人目眩恍惚的湖光，返回别墅，康妮便会发现有家信在等她拆读。克利福德时常来信。即使是写信，他同样笔翰如流，区区家信也具备发表的水准。可正因为此，康妮觉得读他的信实在乏味。

She lived in the stupor of the light of the lagoon, the lapping saltiness of the water, the space, the emptiness, the nothingness: but health, health, complete stupor of health. It was gratifying, and she was lulled away in it, not caring for anything. Besides, she was pregnant. She knew now. So the stupor of sunlight and lagoon salt and sea-bathing and lying on shingle and finding shells and drifting away, away in a gondola, was completed by the pregnancy inside her, another fullness of health, satisfying and stupefying.

她沉迷在醉人的湖光里，沉浸在起伏的海水中，沉醉在虚无缥缈的异国，但却身心健康，精力充沛，仿佛全无知觉。生活如此舒适，她完全陶醉其中，将一切都抛诸脑后。而且，她如愿怀上宝宝。她已经察觉到这一事实。因此，晒晒太阳，赏赏湖光，洗洗海澡，躺躺沙滩，捡捡贝壳，乘船出海，一切都因为身怀六甲而变得完美，身心达到前所未有的绝佳状态，令她心满意足，如醉如痴。

She had been at Venice a fortnight, and she was to stay another ten days or a fortnight. The sunshine blazed over any count of time, and the fullness of physical health made forgetfulness complete. She was in a sort of stupor of well-being.

来威尼斯已有两周时间，按计划，她还能再逗留十天半月。耀目的阳光让她忘记了时光的流逝，而肉体的健康则使这种遗忘更加彻底。她陶醉于这种闲适康乐的状态里。

From which a letter of Clifford roused her.

直到克利福德的来信将她唤醒。

We too have had our mild local excitement. It appears the truant wife of Mellors, the keeper, turned up at the cottage and found herself unwelcome. He packed her off, and locked the door. Report has it, however, that when he returned from the wood he found the no longer fair lady firmly established in his bed, in puris naturalibus; or one should say, in impuris naturalibus. She had broken a window and got in that way. Unable to evict the somewhat man-handled Venus from his couch, he beat a retreat and retired, it is said, to his mother's house in Tevershall. Meanwhile the Venus of Stacks Gate is established in the cottage, which she claims is her home, and Apollo, apparently, is domiciled in Tevershall.

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。

Mr. Mellors stayed on with his mother, and went to the wood through the park, and it seems she stayed on at the cottage. Well, there was no end of talk. So at last Mr. Mellors and Tom Phillips went to the cottage and fetched away most of the furniture and bedding, and unscrewed the handle of the pump, so she was forced to go. But instead of going back to Stacks Gate she went and lodged with that Mrs. Swain at Beggarlee, because her brother Dan's wife wouldn't have her. And she kept going to old Mrs. Mellors' house, to catch him, and she began swearing he'd got in bed with her in the cottage and she went to a lawyer to make him pay her an allowance. She's grown heavy, and more common than ever, and as strong as a bull. And she goes about saying the most awful things about him, how he has women at the cottage, and how he behaved to her when they were married, the low, beastly things he did to her, and I don't know what all. I'm sure it's awful, the mischief a woman can do, once she starts talking. And no matter how low she may be, there'll be some as will believe her, and some of the dirt will stick. I'm sure the way she makes out that Mr. Mellors was one of those low, beastly men with women, is simply shocking. And people are only too ready to believe things against anybody, especially things like that. She declared she'll never leave him alone while he lives. Though what I say is, if he was so beastly to her, why is she so anxious to go back to him? But of course she's coming near her change of life, for she's years older than he is. And these common, violent women always go partly insane whets the change of life comes upon them— This was a nasty blow to Connie. Here she was, sure as life, coming in for her share of the lowness and dirt. She felt angry with him for not having got clear of a Bertha Coutts: nay, for ever having married her. Perhaps he had a certain hankering after lowness. Connie remembered the last night she had spent with him, and shivered. He had known all that sensuality, even with a Bertha Coutts! It was really rather disgusting. It would be well to be rid of him, clear of him altogether. He was perhaps really common, really low.

梅勒斯先生住在他母亲那里，每天穿过花园去树林巡视，而她却将农舍占据。并且四处传播谣言。最终，梅勒斯先生和汤姆·菲利普斯去了趟农舍，几乎将所有家具和被褥取走，连抽水机的手柄都拧了下来，她也只好滚蛋了。但她却没回斯塔克斯门，而是住进贝加里的斯万太太家，因为她嫂子同样不愿接纳她。她三天两头往梅勒斯母亲家跑，缠着他不放，还发誓说他在农舍里跟她上过床。她还请了位律师，要求他支付赡养费。她比以前更膘肥体壮，更下贱无耻，身体结实得像头牛。她四处散播他的坏话，他怎样跟别的女人过夜，婚后他怎样虐待她，以及他对她做过的种种兽行，具体的情形我也不太清楚。我觉得这简直太糟糕了，女人要是发起飙来，什么样的瞎话她也敢说。可无论她如何低贱，总会有人相信她的话，总会有人将这些丑事传扬出去。依我看，她将梅勒斯先生说成虐待女人的无耻禽兽，实在有些耸人听闻。但人们就是愿意相信别人的坏话，尤其是这类事情。她宣称，只要他活着，就不会让他有好日子过。可让我纳闷的是，如果他当真虐待过她，那她干嘛还要忙不迭地回到他身边呢？可其实，她已经临近更年期，因为她比他大好几岁。这些粗俗恶劣的泼妇，更年期来到的时候，总会变得疯疯癫癫——对于康妮来说，这封信无异于当头一棒。虽然身在异国，但毫无疑问，她也要被卷进这些流言蜚语之中。她很生气，气他连个贝莎·库茨都奈何不得，别价，应该是气他当时不该娶她。或许他真的对下流无耻的东西有所偏好。康妮记起两人共度的最后一晚，不禁心有余悸。他了解那些肉欲的东西，甚至和贝莎·库茨一起体验过！这实在让人恶心。最好能够摆脱他，跟他一刀两断。他或许当真粗俗不堪，下贱无耻。

She had a revulsion against the whole affair, and almost envied the Guthrie girls their gawky inexperience and crude maidenliness. And she now dreaded the thought that anybody would know about herself and the keeper. How unspeakably humiliating! She was weary, afraid, and felt a craving for utter respectability, even for the vulgar and deadening respectability of the Guthrie girls. If Clifford knew about her affair, how unspeakably humiliating! She was afraid, terrified of society and its unclean bite. She almost wished she could get rid of the child again, and be quite clear. In short, she fell into a state of funk.

她对与他的关系充满厌恶，甚至几乎要羡慕起格思里家不谙世事、未经雕琢的姑娘来了。她担心不已，生怕别人知道她跟守林人的事情。那样的羞耻实在无法言喻！她心生厌倦，满腔恐惧，对体面的生活充满渴望，即便像格思里家姑娘那样庸俗不堪，死气沉沉。如果克利福德知道她的私情，她简直能找个地缝钻进去。她对社会充满畏惧，生怕会被冠以淫妇的头衔。她甚至希望能把胎儿打掉，恢复自己的清白之身。总而言之，她陷入了极度恐慌的境地。

As for the scent-bottle, that was her own folly. She had not been able to refrain from perfuming his one or two handkerchiefs and his shirts in the drawer, just out of childishness, and she had left a little bottle of Coty's Wood-violet perfume, half empty, among his things. She wanted him to remember her in the perfume. As for the cigarette-ends, they were Hilda's.

说到香水瓶，那完全是她自己犯傻。她一时冲动，幼稚地往他抽屉里的几条手帕和衬衫上喷了香水，还把一小瓶半空的柯蒂斯·伍德牌紫罗兰香水塞进他的东西里。她希望他能睹物思人。至于烟蒂，则是希尔达留下的。

She could not help confiding a little in Duncan Forbes. She didn't say she had been the keeper's lover, she only said she liked him, and told Forbes the history of the man.

她忍不住向邓肯倾诉起来。她没说自己就是守林人的情妇，只是说很喜欢他，并向福布斯透露了他过往的经历。

"Oh," said Forbes, "you'll see, they'll never rest till they've pulled the man down and done him in. If he has refused to creep up into the middle classes, when he had a chance; and if he's a man who stands up for his own sex, then they'll do him in. It's the one thing they won't let you be, straight and open in your sex. You can be as dirty as you like. In fact the more dirt you do on sex the better they like it. But if you believe in your own sex, and won't have it done dirt to: they'll down you. It's the one insane taboo left: sex as a natural and vital thing. They won't have it, and they'll kill you before they'll let you have it. You'll see, they'll hound that man down. And what's he done, after all? If he's made love to his wife all ends on, hasn't he a right to? She ought to be proud of it. But you see, even a low bitch like that turns on him, and uses the hyena instinct of the mob against sex, to pull him down. You have a snivel and feel sinful or awful about your sex, before you're allowed to have any. Oh, they'll hound the poor devil down.” Connie had a revulsion in the opposite direction now. What had he done, after all? What had he done to herself, Connie, but give her an exquisite pleasure and a sense of freedom and life? He had released her warm, natural sexual flow. And for that they would hound him down.

“哦，”福布斯说，“你就瞧着吧，人们不把他搞垮，不把他打倒，绝不会善罢甘休。既然他不愿借机爬进中产阶级，既然他矢志维护自己的性爱，那人们就会将他整倒。他们无法容忍的事情，是对性爱的开诚布公，不加掩饰。你想怎么肮脏下流，尽可随心所欲。事实上，他们乐得看你在性爱方面无耻淫荡。但若是你坚信自己的性爱，不愿龌龊地对待此事，他们便要将你打垮。性爱是硕果仅存的疯狂禁忌，是人类与生俱来的关键本能。他们无法得到，也绝不会容许你拥有，否则就要将你击垮。你等着看吧，他们会对那家伙穷追猛打的。可他到底做了什么呢？要是他只跟自己老婆做爱，那就万事皆休，这原本就是他的权力不是吗？她还会为自己的魅力感到骄傲呢。可你瞧瞧，甚至连那只下贱的母狗都掉过头来攻击他，发挥自己凶暴的本性，来反对性爱，来将他整垮。在品尝性爱之前，你必须先嗅嗅清楚，如果能够感到罪恶，觉得难堪，才能得到许可。噢，人们非要把那个可怜鬼弄死不行。”现在，康妮的情感再度向相反的方向发生突变。他到底做了什么呢？他对她本人，对康妮到底做了什么？只不过让她体验到淋漓尽致的快感，感受到自由和生活的美好。她那温暖自然的性欲洪流，因他完全得以释放。为此，他们恨不得将他生吞活嚼。

No no, it should not be. She saw the image of him, naked white with tanned face and hands, looking down and addressing his erect penis as if it were another being, the odd grin flickering on his face. And she heard his voice again: Tha's got the nicest woman's arse of anybody! And she felt his hand warmly and softly closing over her tail again, over her secret places, like a benediction. And the warmth ran through her womb, and the little flames flickered in her knees, and she said: Oh, no! I mustn't go back on it! I must not go back on him. I must stick to him and to what I had of him, through everything. I had no warm, flamy life till he gave it me. And I won't go back on it.

不行，不行，不能那样做。眼前浮现出他的身影，白皙的裸体，古铜色脸庞和双手，低头对着自己挺立的阴茎倾诉，脸上闪耀着怪异的笑容，好像它也拥有生命。耳边再次响起他的那句赞美：恁拥有世间女子最美的屁股！她感觉到他温热的双手轻柔地覆盖着她的臀丘，遮蔽住她隐秘的所在，仿佛要献上祝福。股股暖流从她的子宫淌过，小小爱火在她的膝间燃烧，她说：噢，不！我绝不能违背承诺！我绝不能背弃他！我要跟他生死与共，永不分离，哪怕海枯石烂。直到遇见他，我才真正拥有了温暖炽热的生活。我要坚守信诺。

She did a rash thing. She sent a letter to Ivy Bolton, enclosing a note to the keeper, and asking Mrs. Bolton to give it him. And she wrote to him: I am very much distressed to hear of all the trouble your wife is making for you, but don't mind it, it is only a sort of hysteria. It will all blow over as suddenly as it came. But I'm awfully sorry about it, and I do hope you are not minding very much. After all, it isn't worth it. She is only a hysterical woman who wants to hurt you. I shall be home in ten days' time, and I do hope everything will be all right. A few days later came a letter from Clifford. He was evidently upset.

她做了件鲁莽的事。她写信给艾维·博尔顿，里面附着给守林人的短笺，拜托博尔顿太太转交。她写给他的信内容如下：听说你妻子给你造成的种种麻烦，我深感苦恼，但千万不要介意，这不过是种歇斯底里的表现。这将来也匆匆，去也匆匆。但我对此深感遗憾，衷心希望你不要太过挂怀。毕竟，这种事不值得如此耿耿于怀。她不过是个疯婆子，一心只想伤害你。我10天后就会回去，希望届时一切都已云开雾散。几天后，她受到克利福德的来信。他显然心有忐忑。

I am delighted to hear you are prepared to leave Venice on the sixteenth. But if you are enjoying it, don't hurry home. We miss you, Wragby misses you. But it is essential that you should get your full amount of sunshine, sunshine and pyjamas, as the advertisements of the Lido say. So please do stay on a little longer, if it is cheering you up and preparing you for our sufficiently awful winter. Even today, it rains.

听说你准备16日从威尼斯动身，我深感高兴。可若你的确享受着旅行的乐趣，倒也不必急着回家。我们想念你，拉格比想念你。但更为重要的还是你能够畅享和煦的阳光，正如利多岛旅游广告所标榜的，阳光与泳衣。因此，如果度假确实令你感到愉快，能赋予你更加健康的身体，来应对这里严酷的寒冬，那不妨再多作逗留。即使是今天，拉格比依然在下雨。

I am assiduously, admirably looked after by Mrs. Bolton. She is a queer specimen. The more I live, the more I realize what strange creatures human beings are. Some of them might Just as well have a hundred legs, like a centipede, or six, like a lobster. The human consistency and dignity one has been led to expect from one's fellow-men seem actually nonexistent. One doubts if they exist to any startling degree even is oneself.

博尔顿太太任劳任怨，无微不至地照顾着我。她是个奇怪的生物。随着岁月的流逝，我越来越感觉人类是如此奇异的生物。有些人或许真能像蜈蚣那样，拥有百只足，或者像龙虾那样，生有六条腿。人类希望彼此身上体现出诚信和尊严，但其实那并不存在。就连我们，也不禁要怀疑，自己的这些品质是否还明显地存在着。

The scandal of the keeper continues and gets bigger like a snowball. Mrs. Bolton keeps me informed. She reminds me of a fish which, though dumb, seems to be breathing silent gossip through its gills, while ever it lives. All goes through the sieve of her gills, and nothing surprises her. It is as if the events of other people's lives were the necessary oxygen of her own.

守林人的丑事愈演愈烈，好像雪球般越滚越大。从博尔顿太太那里，我随时能够得知最新的消息。她让我联想起鱼类，虽然不会说话，但只要活着，就能在呼吸时，通过两腮传播无声的流言。流言蜚语都经过她两腮的过滤，没什么新闻能令她感到讶异。似乎别人的家长里短，就是她生存必须的氧气。

She is preoccupied with tie Mellors scandal, and if I will let her begin, she takes me down to the depths. Her great indignation, which even then is like the indignation of an actress playing a role, is against the wife of Mellors, whom she persists in calling Bertha Courts. I have been to the depths of the muddy lies of the Bertha Couttses of this world, and when, released from the current of gossip, I slowly rise to the surface again, I look at the daylight its wonder that it ever should be.

她对梅勒斯的丑闻极为关注，只要打开话匣子，她便会让我了解到事情的全貌。她表现出的强烈愤慨，矛头直指梅勒斯的妻子，也就是她自始至终称之为贝莎·库茨的女人，那愤怒的情绪仿佛简直可以跟女演员的演绎媲美。通过她的描述，让我身临其境，深切地了解到贝莎·库茨那污秽不堪的生活。而当我从流言的洪流中解脱出来，慢慢浮出水面，我仰望灿烂的日光，不禁倍感惊异，原来我们的生活如此美好。

It seems to me absolutely true, that our world, which appears to us the surface of all things, is really the bottom of a deep ocean: all our trees are submarine growths, and we are weird, scaly-clad submarine fauna, feeding ourselves on offal like shrimps. Only occasionally the soul rises gasping through the fathomless fathoms under which we live, far up to the surface of the ether, where there is true air. I am convinced that the air we normally breathe is a kind of water, and men and women are a species of fish.

对我而言，呈现在眼前的世界似乎是深不可测的海底，所有的树木花草都是深海植物，而我们人类则是长相怪异、身披鳞甲的海洋生物，终日以小鱼小虾为食，这一切似乎都是千真万确的事实。我们都居住在无底的深渊之中，只有灵魂偶尔能够勉强上浮，浮到以太表面，呼吸到真正的空气。我确信，我们平时呼吸的空气其实是种水体，而世间男女不过是种鱼类。

But sometimes the soul does come up, shoots like a kittiwake into the light, with ecstasy, after having preyed on the submarine depths. It is our mortal destiny, I suppose, to prey upon the ghastly subaqueous life of our fellow-men, in the submarine jungle of mankind. But our immortal destiny is to escape, once we have swallowed our swimmy catch, up again into the bright ether, bursting out from the surface of Old Ocean into real light. Then one realizes one's eternal nature.

可灵魂完成深海捕食行动后，有时也会如同海鸥般忘我高飞，直奔光明的所在。我想，置身于人类的深海丛林，以掠杀形如鬼魅的同类为食，这或许就是我们的宿命。但我们永恒的命数却是逃离，一旦将海底的猎物吞噬，就会从古老的海洋冲出，再度回归光辉灿烂的以太，拥抱真正的光明。到那时，人类便会真正了解到自己永恒的天性。

When I hear Mrs. Bolton talk, I feel myself plunging down, down, to the depths where the fish of human secrets wriggle and swim. Carnal appetite makes one seize a beakful of prey: then up, up again, out of the dense into the ethereal, from the wet into the dry. To you I can tell the whole process. But with Mrs. Bolton I only feel the downward plunge, down, horribly, among the sea-weeds and the pallid monsters of the very bottom.

我听着博尔顿太太的讲述，感觉自己正不断下坠，下坠到海底，在那里，人类的私隐如同鱼类在翻滚游动。肉欲的驱使让人猛地啄食一口猎物，然后便上浮，再上浮，冲出潮湿的深海，回归干爽的以太。对你，我可以倾诉来龙去脉。而与博尔顿太太共处，我只感觉自己在下沉，沉到令人毛骨悚然的海底，与海藻及病态的怪兽为伍。

I am afraid we are going to lose our game-keeper. The scandal of the truant wife, instead of dying down, has reverberated to greater and greater dimensions. He is accused of all unspeakable things and curiously enough, the woman has managed to get the bulk of the colliers' wives behind her, gruesome fish, and the village is putrescent with talk.

恐怕我们不得不另找位守林人了。他那位去而复返的妻子始终没有消停，制造出的丑闻仍在不断地蔓延。种种莫可名状的罪恶都被扣在他头上，说来也怪，那女人居然能够煽动多数矿工家的婆娘为她摇旗呐喊，可怕的鱼群，整个村落充斥着流言蜚语。

I hear this Bertha Coutts besieges Mellors in his mother's house, having ransacked the cottage and the hut. She seized one day upon her own daughter, as that chip of the female block was returning from school; but the little one, instead of kissing the loving mother's hand, bit it firmly, and so received from the other hand a smack in the face which sent her reeling into the gutter: whence she was rescued by an indignant and harassed grandmother.

我听说贝莎·库茨先把农舍和林间小屋翻了个底朝天，又跑去梅勒斯母亲家纠缠不休。某天，适逢他们的女儿放学回家，那小家伙长得跟其母一般无二。库茨本打算将她拐走，可没想到，女儿非但没吻慈母的手，反倒结结实实地狠咬一口，结果，被她老妈赏了重重一记耳光，摇晃着跌进阴沟里。多亏其祖母即使赶来搭救，老太太见此情形，也是义愤填膺。

The woman has blown off an amazing quantity of poison-gas. She has aired in detail all those incidents of her conjugal life which are usually buried down in the deepest grave of matrimonial silence, between married couples. Having chosen to exhume them, after ten years of burial, she has a weird array. I hear these details from Linley and the doctor: the latter being amused. Of course there is really nothing in it. Humanity has always had a strange avidity for unusual sexual postures, and if a man likes to use his wife, as Benvenuto Cellini says, "in the Italian way", well that is a matter of taste. But I had hardly expected our game-keeper to be up to so many tricks. No doubt Bertha Coutts herself first put him up to them. In any case, it is a matter of their own personal squalor, and nothing to do with anybody else.

那女人散发出不可估量的毒气。她将床笫之事的种种细节都透漏出来，而这些原本应该被深埋在婚姻的静默之墓里，只有夫妻俩才清楚。而深埋十载之后，她却选择将它们全部挖出，不可思议地铺排开来。我从林利和医生那里听到事情的细节，而医生对此很感兴趣。当然，其实也没什么大不了的。人们本就喜好尝试林林总总的性交体位，如果某男人愿意如本韦努托·切利尼（注：1500-1571，意大利雕刻家）所说，跟妻子“来个意大利式”，那只不过是个人嗜好问题。但我的确没想到，咱们的守林人居然也能玩出那么多花招。毫无疑问，贝莎·库茨扮演着启蒙者的角色。无论如何，这只不过是他们恶俗的私事，跟其他人毫无干系。

However, everybody listens: as I do myself. A dozen years ago, common decency would have hushed the thing. But common decency no longer exists, and the colliers' wives are all up in arms and unabashed in voice. One would think every child in Tevershall, for the last fifty years, had been an immaculate conception, and every one of our nonconformist females was a shining Joan of Arc. That our estimable game-keeper should have about him a touch of Rabelais seems to make him more monstrous and shocking than a murderer like Crippen. Yet these people in Tevershall are a loose lot, if one is to believe all accounts.

尽管如此，几乎所有人都成为听众，连我也未能免俗。十几年前，公众的羞耻心便能让此类丑闻偃旗息鼓。可如今，这种道德意识已经荡然无存，矿工的婆娘们一个个撸胳膊挽袖子，厚着脸皮破口大骂。人们会以为过去50年间，降生于特弗沙尔的每个婴孩都是圣胎降世，每个不信奉国教的妇人都像圣女贞德那般光芒四射。我们可敬的守林人倒还真有些拉伯雷（注：1483-1553，法国作家）式的浪漫气质，可结果却似乎让他变得比杀妻犯克里平（注：1862-1910，美国医生，因谋杀其妻，在英国伦敦被绞死）更为凶残和令人发指。可是，如果特弗沙尔的村民们对这些描述都深信不疑，那么他们也都不过是群放荡之徒。

The trouble is, however, the execrable Bertha Coutts has not confined herself to her own experiences and sufferings. She has discovered, at the top of her voice, that her husband has been "keeping" women down at the cottage, and has made a few random shots at naming the women. This has brought a few decent names trailing through the mud, and the thing has gone quite considerably too far. An injunction has been taken out against the woman.

可麻烦的是，可恨的贝莎·库茨并不仅仅将自己的经历和遭遇公之于众。她大声疾呼，宣称自己发现丈夫在家里“养”野女人，甚至无所顾忌地指名道姓。这导致几位正派的女子被拖进泥沼，事情愈演愈烈，不可收拾。法庭不得不因此向她发出禁令。

I have had to interview Mellors about the business, as it was impossible to keep the woman away from the wood. He goes about as usual, with his Miller-of-the-Dee air, I care for nobody, no not I, if nobody care for me! Nevertheless, I shrewdly suspect he feels like a dog with a tin can tied to its tail: though he makes a very good show of pretending the tin can isn't there. But I heard that in the village the women call away their children if he is passing, as if he were the Marquis de Sade in person. He goes on with a certain impudence, but I am afraid the tin can is firmly tied to his tail, and that inwardly he repeats, like Don Rodrigo in the Spanish ballad: "Ah, now it bites me where I most have sinned!"

我不得不与梅勒斯面谈此事，因为想把那女人从树林赶走已是天方夜谭。他仍是那副“迪河上磨坊工（注：英国诗歌）”的态度，俺不在乎别人怎么说，不在乎，既然别人也不在乎俺怎么讲！不过，我还是敏锐地察觉到，他就像条尾巴上系着锡罐的狗，虽然他极力遮掩，装作锡罐并不存在。但我听说，只要他路过，村里的女人都会忙不迭地把孩子叫走，好像是萨德侯爵（注：1740-1814，法国贵族，政治家，色情文学作家）亲临。他干脆厚起脸皮，但恐怕那锡罐已经牢牢嵌进他的尾巴里，而在内心世界，他如同西班牙歌谣里的罗德里戈一般反复咏唱：“啊，我罪孽深重的地方，已经被狠狠咬住不放！”

I asked him if he thought he would be able to attend to his duty in the wood, and he said he did not think he had neglected it. I told him it was a nuisance to have the woman trespassing: to which he replied that he had no power to arrest her. Then I hinted at the scandal and its unpleasant course. "Ay," he said. "Folks should do their own fuckin', then they wouldn't want to listen to a lot of clatfart about another man's.” He said it with some bitterness, and no doubt it contains the real germ of truth. The mode of putting it, however, is neither delicate nor respectful. I hinted as much, and then I heard the tin can rattle again. "It's not for a man the shape you're in, Sir Clifford, to twit me for havin' a cod atween my legs.” These things, said indiscriminately to all and sundry, of course do not help him at all, and the rector, and Finley, and Burroughs all think it would be as well if the man left the place.

我问他是否还能负起守林的责任，他却说自己并未有过疏忽。我告诉他，任凭那疯婆娘在林中肆虐实在可恶，他却回答说自己没有将她拘捕的权力。然后，我提及那些丑闻，以及不可收拾的局面。他却说：“是呀。人们只需操心自己的性生活，那样就不会对人家的闲言闲语那么热衷了。”他说这话的时候，语带挖苦，但毫无疑问，这的确是事实。但他说话时的语调既不优雅，也无尊重。我透露出自己的感受，却又听到那锡罐叮当作响。“像您这种情况的人，克利福德爵士，没权力讥笑俺两腿之间的那话儿。”这样的口无遮拦自然对他毫无益处，况且牧师、芬利还有伯勒斯都认为我该将他辞退。

I asked him if it was true that he entertained ladies down at the cottage, and all he said was: "Why, what's that to you, Sir Clifford?” I told him I intended to have decency observed on my estate, to which he replied: "Then you mun button the mouths o' a' th' women.”— When I pressed him about his manner of life at the cottage, he said: "surely you might ma'e a scandal out o' me an' my bitch Flossie. You've missed summat there.” As a matter of fact, for an example of impertinence he'd be hard to beat.

我问他在家里留宿女人是否为实，他却说：“呵，这跟您有什么关系，克利福德爵士？”我说不希望领地里出现有伤风化的丑事，他却说：“那您可要把那些恶婆娘的嘴巴都封上。”我再度追问留宿女人的事，他却回答：“您大可以编段我和母狗弗洛西乱搞的丑事。您可错过了好机会呢。”说实话，他可真是厚颜无耻的典型，无人能及。

I asked him if it would be easy for him to find another job. He said: "if you're hintin' that you'd like to shunt me out of this job, it'd be easy as wink.” So he made no trouble at all about leaving at the end of next week, and apparently is willing to initiate a young fellow, Joe Chambers, into as many mysteries of the craft as possible. I told him I would give him a month's wages extra, when he left. He said he'd rather I kept my money, as I'd no occasion to ease my conscience. I asked him what he meant, and he said: "you don't owe me nothing extra, Sir Clifford, so don't pay me nothing extra. If you think you see my shirt hanging out, just tell me.” Well, there is the end of it for the time being. The woman has gone away: we don't know where to: but she is liable to arrest if she shows her face in Tevershall. And I heard she is mortally afraid of gaol, because she merits it so well. Mellors will depart on Saturday week, and the place will soon become normal again.

我问他另找工作是否容易。他说：“要是您在暗示我卷铺盖走人，那再简单不过。”他毫未犹豫，答应下周末离开，似乎也毫不吝啬，愿意将自己的经验所得传授给年轻的乔·钱伯斯。我说会在他离职时，多付一个月的薪水。他却说宁愿我留着自己的钱，没必要借此换个心安理得。我问他此话怎讲，他说：“您没欠我任何东西，克利福德爵士，也没必要多付我钱。要是您还有什么不满，只管说出来。”好了，眼下这件事终于可以告一段落。那女人不见踪影，谁也不知道她去了哪里，只要她再在特弗沙尔露面，就会立即被关进班房。我听说她对坐牢怕得要命，可确实应该给她点教训。梅勒斯下周六就会走人，这里很快就将恢复原貌。

Meanwhile, my dear Connie, if you would enjoy to stay in Venice or in Switzerland till the beginning of August, I should be glad to think you were out of all this buzz of nastiness, which will have died quite away by the end of the month.

因此，我亲爱的康妮，如果你愿意在威尼斯或者瑞士呆到八月初，我会感到很高兴，因为那样的话，你就可以完全跟这些污言秽语绝缘，月底之前一切都会销声匿迹。

So you see, we are deep-sea monsters, and when the lobster walks on mud, he stirs it up for everybody. We must perforce take it philosophically. The irritation, and the lack of any sympathy in any direction, of Clifford's letter, had a bad effect on Connie. But she understood it better when she received the following from Mellors: The cat is out of the bag, along with various other pussies. You have heard that my wife Bertha came back to my unloving arms, and took up her abode in the cottage: where, to speak disrespectfully, she smelled a rat, in the shape of a little bottle of Coty. Other evidence she did not find, at least for some days, when she began to howl about the burnt photograph. She noticed the glass and the back-board in the square bedroom. Unfortunately, on the back-board somebody had scribbled little sketches, and the initials, several times repeated: C.S.R. This, however, afforded no clue until she broke into the hut, and found one of your books, an autobiography of the actress Judith, with your name, Constance Stewart Reid, on the front page. After this, for some days she went round loudly saying that my paramour was no less a person than Lady Chatterley herself. The news came at last to the rector, Mr. Burroughs, and to Sir Clifford. They then proceeded to take legal steps against my liege lady, who for her part disappeared, having always had a mortal fear of the police.

你瞧瞧，我们的确是深海的怪物，当龙虾从泥潭淌过，就会将水全部搞浑。我们必须冷静地接受这一点。克利福德的信里表现出十足的愤怒，并无半点同情，这让康妮感觉糟糕。但收到梅勒斯的来信时，她才更加透彻地了解到事情的真相。大猫从袋子里面跑出来，还带着形态各异的小猫。你应该已经听说，我妻子贝莎重新投入我冰冷的怀抱，将我家据为己有。在那儿，请原谅我的不敬，她在科蒂香水瓶里嗅到老鼠的气味。之后的几天里，她没能找到任何蛛丝马迹，就开始为我烧掉结婚照的事呼天抢地。她在卧室里找到玻璃框和后挡板。糟糕的是，有人在后挡板上涂抹了幅素描，落款留的首字母是C.S.R.，且留了数处。尽管如此，仅凭这些，她无法获取任何线索，直到她闯进林中小屋，找到你留下的一本书，女演员朱迪斯的自传，扉页上写有你的全名，康斯坦斯·斯图瓦特·里德。之后，她便四处宣扬，说我的情妇并非普通女子，而是查泰莱夫人。最终，这消息还是没逃过牧师，伯勒斯先生以及克利福德爵士的耳朵。接着，他们就对我忠诚的妻子提起控诉，那女人一向极为惧怕警察，见状不妙，立马溜之大吉。

Sir Clifford asked to see me, so I went to him. He talked around things and seemed annoyed with me. Then he asked if I knew that even her ladyship's name had been mentioned. I said I never listened to scandal, and was surprised to hear this bit from Sir Clifford himself. He said, of course it was a great insult, and I told him there was Queen Mary on a calendar in the scullery, no doubt because Her Majesty formed part of my harem. But he didn't appreciate the sarcasm. He as good as told me I was a disreputable character also walked about with my breeches' buttons undone, and I as good as told him he'd nothing to unbutton anyhow, so he gave me the sack, and I leave on Saturday week, and the place thereof shall know me no more.

克利福德爵士说要见我，我就去了拉格比。他反复盘问，似乎很生我的气。之后，他问我是否知道连从男爵夫人都被牵扯进来。我说我对什么丑闻毫不知情，从克利福德爵士口中得知此事深感惊讶。他说这对他而言是个莫大的侮辱，我跟他讲，我的洗涤间里挂着画有玛丽女王肖像的日历，那样说来，女王陛下岂不是也成了我的姘头。但他并不欣赏我的玩笑。他说我是个声名狼藉的家伙，总是开着裤裆四处招摇，我反唇相讥，说他即便开着裤裆，也没啥可看的。于是，他就炒了我的鱿鱼，下周六我就会离开，从此，这地方跟我再无瓜葛。

I shall go to London, and my old landlady, Mrs. Inger, 17 Coburg Square, will either give me a room or will find one for me.

我会去伦敦落脚，旧房东英格太太住在科堡广场17号，她应该会收留我，或者帮我找到住处。

Be sure your sins will find you out, especially if you're married and her name's Bertha— There was not a word about herself, or to her. Connie resented this. He might have said some few words of consolation or reassurance. But she knew he was leaving her free, free to go back to Wragby and to Clifford. She resented that too. He need not be so falsely chivalrous. She wished he had said to Clifford: "Yes, she is my lover and my mistress and I am proud of it!" But his courage wouldn't carry him so far.

要知道你们的罪必追上你们，尤其是在娶到像贝莎这样的妻子的情况下——信里没有一个字提到她，没有一句话对她倾诉。这让康妮深感不满。他本应该说些安慰或保证的话。但她明白，他这样做是为了给她选择的自由，选择重回拉格比，重返克利福德身边。而这样的意图同样令她不满。他何必装出这副伪善的气度。她巴不得他当面告诉克利福德：“没错，她是我的情人，我的爱人，而且我为此深感自豪！”可他的勇气显然还没达到如此高度。

So her name was coupled with his in Tevershall! It was a mess. But that would soon die down.

这么说，在特弗沙尔，他和她的私情已经成为茶余饭后的谈资！真是一团糟。可事情很快就会平息。

She was angry, with the complicated and confused anger that made her inert. She did not know what to do nor what to say, so she said and did nothing. She went on at Venice just the same, rowing out in the gondola with Duncan Forbes, bathing, letting the days slip by. Duncan, who had been rather depressingly in love with her ten years ago, was in love with her again. But she said to him: "I only want one thing of men, and that is, that they should leave me alone." So Duncan left her alone: really quite pleased to be able to. All the same, he offered her a soft stream of a queer, inverted sort of love. He wanted to be with her.

她异常愤怒，难以消解的愤怒让人心烦意乱，她因此变得毫无生气。她不知道该做些什么，说些什么，索性也就不说不做。她继续在威尼斯过着自在的日子，跟邓肯·福布斯乘凤尾船过湖畅泳，任凭时光从指缝中溜走。十年前，邓肯曾经追求过她，可惜受挫而回，如今对她旧情复炽。可她只是冷冷地说：“我只要求男人做一件事，那就是别来烦我。”于是，邓肯也听之任之，甚至很高兴能够达到她的要求。不过，他仍然表现出淡淡的奇妙爱意。他想要跟她长相厮守。

"Have you ever thought," he said to her one day, "how very little people are connected with one another. Look at Daniele! He is handsome as a son of the sun. But see how alone he looks in his handsomeness. Yet I bet he has a wife and family, and couldn't possibly go away from them.” "Ask him," said Connie.

“你是否想过，”某天，他对她说，“人们相互之间的联结是多么地微不足道。看看丹尼尔！他英俊得好像太阳神的儿子。但他的英俊之中透出无比落寞的神情。我敢打赌，他准已结婚生子，而且绝不可能背弃自己的家庭。”“不妨问问他。”康妮建议。

Duncan did so. Daniele said he was married, and had two children, both male, aged seven and nine. But he betrayed no emotion over the fact.

邓肯果然照办。丹尼尔说他已有妻室，还生有两个儿子，大的九岁，小的七岁。可他说这些的时候面无表情。

"Perhaps only people who are capable of real togetherness have that look of being alone in the universe," said Connie. "The others have a certain stickiness, they stick to the mass, like Giovanni." "And," she thought to herself, "like you, Duncan."

“或许只有真正能够融入世事的人，才可以表现出这种孤立于宇宙之间的超然态度。”康妮说。“除此之外，其他人都有某种黏性，跟芸芸众生黏连在一起，像乔瓦尼一样。”“而且，”她心里暗想，“你也毫不例外，邓肯。”