"When we last spake together," said Hester, "now seven years ago, it was your pleasure to extort a promise of secrecy, as touching the former relation betwixt yourself and me. As the life and good fame of yonder man were in your hands, there seemed no choice to me, save to be silent, in accordance with your behest. Yet it was not without heavy misgivings that I thus bound myself; for, having cast off all duty towards other human beings, there remained a duty towards him; and something whispered me that I was betraying it, in pledging myself to keep your counsel. Since that day, no man is so near to him as you. You tread behind his every footstep. You are beside him, sleeping and waking. You search his thoughts. You burrow and rankle in his heart! Your clutch is on his life, and you cause him to die daily a living death; and still he knows you not. In permitting this, I have surely acted a false part by the only man to whom the power was left me to be true!"
“我們上次在一起交談的時(shí)候，”海絲特說，“是在七年以前，當(dāng)時(shí)你迫使我答應(yīng)為你我之間原先的關(guān)系保密。由于那個(gè)人的生命和名聲全都在你的把握之中，我除去遵從你的意志保持沉默之外，似乎已別無出路。’然而我受到這一承諾的約束，不能不疑慮重重；因?yàn)槲译m然拋棄了對其他人的一切責(zé)任，卻還保有對他的責(zé)任；而有一個(gè)聲音在悄悄對我說，在我發(fā)誓為你保密之時(shí)，就背叛了這一職責(zé)。從那一天起，誰都沒有象你這么接近他。你跟蹤著他的沉重的腳步。你無論睡著醒著都守在他的身旁。你搜尋著他的思想。你挖掘并折磨他的心靈！你玩弄他于你的股掌之上，讓他鎮(zhèn)日里備受死去活來之苦；然而他對你竟依舊毫不了解。他是上天留給我保持忠誠的唯一的一個(gè)人，我卻允許你對他這般肆虐，我確實(shí)扮演了一個(gè)虛偽的角色！”

"What choice had you?" asked Roger Chillingworth. "My finger, pointed at this man, would have hurled him from his pulpit into a dungeon- thence, peradventure, to the gallows!"
“難道你還有別的出路嗎？”羅杰·齊靈渥斯問道?！拔业氖种钢钢幌粍?dòng)，就可以把他從布道壇上拋到牢獄中去——甚至還會(huì)把他拋到絞刑架上！”

"It had been better so!" said Hester Prynne.
“那樣也許倒好些！”海絲特·白蘭說。

"What evil have I done the man?" asked Roger Chillingworth again. "I tell thee, Hester Prynne, the richest fee that ever physician earned from monarch could not have bought such care as I have wasted on this miserable priest! But for my aid, his life would have burned away in torments, within the first two years after the perpetration of his crime and thine. For, Hester, his spirit lacked the strength that could have borne up, as thine has, beneath a burden like thy scarlet letter. Oh, I could reveal a goodly secret! But enough! What art can do, I have exhausted on him. That he now breathes, and creeps upon earth, is owing all to me!"
“我對那人作了什么壞事呢？”羅杰·齊靈渥斯又問道?！拔腋阏f，海絲特·白蘭，自古以來，就連帝王付給醫(yī)生的最大報(bào)酬，也無法買到我在這不幸的牧師身上所花費(fèi)的心血！要不是我假以援手，他和你犯下罪孽之后的頭兩年里，他的生命便會(huì)在備受折磨之中燒光了。海絲特，因?yàn)樗木袢狈δ隳欠N力量，挺不住你所受的紅宇的那種重壓。嗅，我完全可以揭發(fā)一項(xiàng)天大的秘密！只要一說出口就足夠了！可是我在他身上盡了最大努力，凡醫(yī)術(shù)能做到的，無不設(shè)法。如今他得以在這個(gè)世界上茍延殘喘，全靠我的努力呢！”

"Better he had died at once!" said Hester Prynne.
“他還不如馬上死掉呢！”海絲特·白蘭說。