第八章

Mrs. Bolton also kept a cherishing eye on Connie, feeling she must extend to her her female and professional protection. She was always urging her ladyship to walk out, to drive to Uthwaite, to be in the air. For Connie had got into the habit of sitting still by the fire, pretending to read; or to sew feebly, and hardly going out at all.

博尔顿太太对康妮同样关爱有加，她觉得有必要让女主人也体验到自己细致入微的职业看护。她常劝夫人外出散步，驾车去乌斯维特逛逛，呼吸新鲜的空气。因为康妮已经习惯每天呆坐在壁炉旁，装作在读书，又或是慵懒地做着针线活，几乎足不出户。

It was a blowy day soon after Hilda had gone, that Mrs. Bolton said: "Now why don't you go for a walk through the wood, and look at the daffs behind the keeper's cottage? They're the prettiest sight you'd see in a day's march. And you could put some in your room; wild daffs are always so cheerful-looking, aren't they?” Connie took it in good part, even daffs for daffodils. Wild daffodils! After all, one could not stew in one's own juice. The spring came back… "Seasons return, but not to me returns Day, or the sweet approach of Ev'n or Morn.” And the keeper, his thin, white body, like a lonely pistil of an invisible flower! She had forgotten him in her unspeakable depression. But now something roused… "Pale beyond porch and portal"...the thing to do was to pass the porches and the portals.

那是个有风的日子，希尔达刚刚告辞返家，博尔顿太太提议说：“您干嘛不去树林走走呢，到守林人农舍去，欣赏屋后的水仙？信步闲游后，便能将那最美丽的景色尽收眼底。您还可以采几朵，用来点缀房间，野水仙总能令人心旷神怡，不是吗？”康妮欣然接受了博尔顿太太的建议，甚至对她提及水仙花时使用省略语都没有介意。娇艳的野水仙！总不能自己折磨自己。春天已经回归……“季节轮转，但那愉快的日子，甜蜜的晨昏，却不再回来。”（注：引自英国诗人弥尔顿的长篇史诗《失乐园》）而那守林人，他那白皙修长的身体，像寂寥的花蕊，生在不起眼的小花上。在那些极为消沉的日子里，她甚至已经将他遗忘。而此刻，某种情感被悄然唤醒……“苍白，在走廊及大门之外”（注：出自英国诗人斯温伯恩的《珀尔塞福涅的花园》）……所要做的只是穿过走廊，迈出门去。

She was stronger, she could walk better, and in the wood the wind would not be so tiring as it was across the bark, flatten against her. She wanted to forget, to forget the world, and all the dreadful, carrion-bodied people. "Ye must be born again! I believe in the resurrection of the body! Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it shall by no means bring forth. When the crocus cometh forth I too will emerge and see the sun!" In the wind of March endless phrases swept through her consciousness. Little gusts of sunshine blew, strangely bright, and lit up the celandines at the wood's edge, under the hazel-rods, they spangled out bright and yellow. And the wood was still, stiller, but yet gusty with crossing sun. The first windflowers were out, and all the wood seemed pale with the pallor of endless little anemones, sprinkling the shaken floor. "The world has grown pale with thy breath." But it was the breath of Persephone, this time; she was out of hell on a cold morning. Cold breaths of wind came, and overhead there was an anger of entangled wind caught among the twigs. It, too, was caught and trying to tear itself free, the wind, like Absalom. How cold the anemones looked, bobbing their naked white shoulders over crinoline skirts of green. But they stood it. A few first bleached little primroses too, by the path, and yellow buds unfolding themselves.

她较以往结实许多，走起路来也更加有力，树林里的风比吹过花园时轻柔许多，不再那样咄咄逼人。她想忘却，忘却整个世界，忘却那些行尸走肉般丑恶嘴脸。“你必须重生（注：引自《新约·约翰福音》）！我深信肉体的复活！一粒麦子不落在地里死了，仍旧是一粒，若是死了，就结出许多子粒来。（注：引自《新约·约翰福音》）当报春花怒放之际，我也将再度复苏，仰望光芒万丈的太阳！”沐浴着三月的春风，无穷无尽的辞藻在她的脑海中涌现。缕缕阳光在树影间跳跃，奇异的光线照亮树林边缘的白屈菜，它们躺在榛树下，闪烁着灼灼的黄光。树林依然寂静，甚至更为寂静，只是偶尔射进来几束阳光。赶早的银莲花已经绽放，星星点点地散满颤巍巍的地面，整个树林似乎都被它们染成苍白色。“在你的气息中，世界已然苍白。”（注：引自斯温伯恩的《珀尔塞福涅赞歌》）但那是珀尔塞福涅（注：希腊神话中冥王哈德斯的妻子）的呼吸，在这清冷的早晨，她从地狱来到人间。阵阵冷风呼啸而来，在头顶上被枝桠纠缠住，而发出怒号。它也和押沙龙（注：《圣经》中犹太王大卫的第三子，因反叛其父，最终被杀）一样，被树枝困住，奋力想要挣脱出来。白莲花身着翠绿色衬裙，坦露着雪白的肩膀，冷得瑟瑟发抖。但它们却能抵挡住严寒的侵袭。还有那路边初放的樱草花，稍稍泛白，黄色的蓓蕾开始绽放。