英國語文第五冊(雙語):小內爾之死(3)
Along the crowded path they bore her now—pure as the newly fallen snow that covered it, whose day on earth had been as fleeting. Under that porch where she had sat when Heaven, in its mercy, brought her to that peaceful spot, she passed again; and the old church received her in its quiet shade. They carried her to one old nook, where she had many and many a time sat musing, and laid their burden softly on the pavement. The light streamed on it through the coloured window—a window where the boughs of trees were ever rustling in the summer, and where the birds sang sweetly all day long. With every breath of air that stirred among those branches in the sunshine, some trembling, changing light would fall upon her grave.
在那些前來煩擾她的人群中，她純潔地就像被白雪覆蓋著一樣，而她在世間的時光卻如飛梭般逝去了。如今她再一次經過那個門廊下，當上天以慈悲之心眷顧她時，曾帶她來過這個充滿和平的地方，這個曾另她駐足過的地方；而古老的教堂也在靜謐之中接待了她。人們帶她來到一個角落里，輕輕地把她放到地上，她過去曾經無數次坐在這里沉思冥想。陽光透過一扇彩色的窗戶映照過來——這是一扇夏天有樹葉沙沙作響，終日能聽聞小鳥們甜蜜歌唱的彩色玻璃窗。伴隨著每一陣微風和陽光下枝葉的微微顫動，婆娑的光影就會投射在她的身上。
"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Many a young hand dropped in its little wreath—many a stifled sob was heard. Some, and they were not a few, knelt down. All were sincere and truthful in their sorrow. The service done, the mourners stood apart, and the villagers closed round to look into the grave before the stone should be replaced.
“塵歸塵，土歸土，讓往生者安寧，讓在世者重獲解脫?！痹S多年輕人哽咽著將花圈丟下去。其中有些人，——為數不少的人，甚至還朝她跪拜。所有人都帶著真摯而肅穆的悲哀之情來為她送行。儀式結束后，送葬的人分列開來，在蓋棺之前，村民們圍成一圈憑吊她，最后一次瞻仰了她的遺容。
One called to mind how he had seen her sitting on that very spot, and how her book had fallen on her lap, and she was gazing with a pensive face upon the sky. Another told how he had wondered much that one so delicate as she should be so bold; how she had never feared to enter the church alone at night, but had loved to linger there when all was quiet, and even to climb the tower-stair, with no more light than that of the moon rays stealing through the loop-holes in the thick old walls. A whisper went about among the oldest there that she had seen and talked with angels; and when they called to mind how she had looked and spoken, and her early death, some thought it might be so indeed.
有人回憶起如何看到她就坐在這個地方，她的書本如何掉落在裙子的下擺處，而她那張憂郁的臉卻凝視著無盡的虛空。還有人說，他非常好奇像她這樣的一個柔弱女子竟然如此勇敢；她從不懼怕深夜里獨自一人進入教堂，竟然鐘情于在萬籟俱寂時在那里徘徊逗留，甚至于還在昏暗之中攀爬上通往鐘塔的樓梯，僅僅憑借著從又厚又陳舊的墻壁氣孔中透過來的月光領路。在老人中傳來竊竊私語，說她曾經見過天使，還同他們講過話；當人們回想起她的模樣，她說話的態(tài)度，以及她的早年夭亡時，有些人便真的信以為真了。
Thus, coming to the grave in little knots, and glancing down, and giving place to others, and falling off in whispering groups of three or four, the church was cleared in time of all but the sexton and the mourning friends. Then, when the dusk of evening had come on, and not a sound disturbed the sacred stillness of the place—when the bright moon poured in her light on tomb and monument, on pillar, wall, and arch, and most of all, it seemed to them, upon her quiet grave—in that calm time, when all outward things and inward thoughts teem with assurances or immortality, and worldly hopes and fears are humbled in the dust before them, then with tranquil and submissive hearts they turned away, and left the child with God.
就這樣，人們成群結隊地走向墓地，低頭不語，向下看一眼，然后把地方留給后來者，然后又三五成群的竊竊私語著離去，過了一段時間，教堂里的人走光了，只剩下教堂司事和幾個送葬的好友。隨后，當黃昏來臨，沒有任何聲音來打破這里的肅穆寧靜——當明亮如水的月光傾瀉而下照到她的墓穴和墓碑上，傾瀉到柱子上、墻上、圓拱上，尤其是傾瀉到她那安靜的墳墓上——在這片寧靜肅穆中，當所有外界事物和內在思想交織成永恒的誓言，人世間的希望和恐懼在其面前的塵埃中都那么的微不足道，然后，人們又帶著安寧與溫順的心轉身離去，將這個孩子交給了上帝。
—Charles Dickens
——查爾斯·狄更斯
