The Hollow of the Three Hills

In those strange old times, when fantastic dreams and madmen's reveries were realized among the actual circumstances of life, two persons met together at an appointed hour and place. One was a lady, graceful in form and fair of feature, though pale and troubled, and smitten with an untimely blight in what should have been the fullest bloom of her years; the other was an ancient and meanly-dressed woman, of ill-favored aspect, and so withered, shrunken, and decrepit, that even the space since she began to decay must have exceeded the ordinary term of human existence.

在那些奇异的古老岁月里，光怪陆离的梦境和疯人的呓语竟能在现实生活中真真切切地发生，有两个人在约定的时刻、约定的地点相会了。一位是位女子，身形优美，容貌姣好，只是面色苍白，神情忧愁，本该是她一生最灿烂的年华，却过早地遭受了摧折；另一位是个衣着寒酸的老妇人，面容丑陋，早已干瘪、萎缩、老朽不堪，看她这般凋敝的模样，光是她开始衰老以来所经过的岁月，恐怕就已经超出了人类寿命的寻常年限。

In the spot where they encountered, no mortal could observe them. Three little hills stood near each other, and down in the midst of them sunk a hollow basin, almost mathematically circular, two or three hundred feet in breadth, and of such depth that a stately cedar might but just be visible above the sides.

她们相会的这个地方，凡人是无法窥见的。三座小山彼此相邻而立，山峦之间凹陷下去一处盆地，几乎呈规整的圆形，宽约两三百英尺，深得连一株高大的雪松也只能勉强露出边缘之上的一点树梢。

Dwarf pines were numerous upon the hills, and partly fringed the outer verge of the intermediate hollow, within which there was nothing but the brown grass of October, and here and there a tree trunk that had fallen long ago, and lay mouldering with no green successor from its roots. One of these masses of decaying wood, formerly a majestic oak, rested close beside a pool of green and sluggish water at the bottom of the basin.

这几座小山上矮小的松树十分繁茂，其中一些还沿着这处凹陷盆地的外缘生长着；盆地里面，除了十月枯黄的野草，便什么都没有了，偶尔还能见到一株早已倒下的树干，静静地朽烂在那里，树根处也再没有新的绿芽长出。这些朽烂的木料当中，有一株原本是棵威严的橡树，如今正倒卧在盆地底部一汪碧绿而滞涩的水潭旁边。

Such scenes as this (so gray tradition tells) were once the resort of the Power of Evil and his plighted subjects; and here, at midnight or on the dim verge of evening, they were said to stand round the mantling pool, disturbing its putrid waters in the performance of an impious baptismal rite. The chill beauty of an autumnal sunset was now gilding the three hill-tops, whence a paler tint stole down their sides into the hollow.

据古老而模糊的传说讲，像这样的地方，昔日曾是恶魔和向它宣誓效忠的信徒们聚集的场所；据说在午夜时分，或是暮色朦胧之际，他们便会围站在那泛着浮沫的水潭四周，搅动着那潭腐臭的水，举行一场亵渎神明的洗礼仪式。此刻，秋日夕阳那清冷的余晖正给三座山头镀上金边，一层更淡的色泽也顺着山坡悄悄漫向了盆地。

"Here is our pleasant meeting come to pass," said the aged crone, "according as thou hast desired. Say quickly what thou wouldst have of me, for there is but a short hour that we may tarry here."

“我们这场愉快的相会，如今终于成行了，”那年老的巫婆说道，“正如你所期望的那样。快说吧，你想从我这里得到什么，因为我们能在此地逗留的时间不多了。”

As the old withered woman spoke, a smile glimmered on her countenance, like lamplight on the wall of a sepulchre. The lady trembled, and cast her eyes upward to the verge of the basin, as if meditating to return with her purpose unaccomplished. But it was not so ordained.

这位干瘪的老妇人说话时，脸上闪过一丝笑意，就像墓穴石壁上摇曳的灯光。那位女子颤抖起来，抬眼望向盆地的边缘，仿佛在盘算着就此打消念头、无功而返。可命运却并不允许她这样做。

"I am a stranger in this land, as you know," said she at length. "Whence I come it matters not; but I have left those behind me with whom my fate was intimately bound, and from whom I am cut off forever. There is a weight in my bosom that I cannot away with, and I have come hither to inquire of their welfare."

“你也知道，我是这片土地上的一个异乡人，”她终于开口说道。“我从何处而来并不重要；可我已经把那些与我命运息息相关的人抛在了身后，从此与他们永诀。我心口压着一块石头，怎么也放不下，我到这里来，就是想打听打听他们的近况。”

"And who is there by this green pool that can bring thee news from the ends of the earth?" cried the old woman, peering into the lady's face. "Not from my lips mayst thou hear these tidings; yet, be thou bold, and the daylight shall not pass away from yonder hill-top before thy wish be granted."

“这一潭碧水旁边，又有谁能给你带来天涯海角的消息呢？”老妇人喊道，凝视着这位女子的脸。“你别指望从我口中听到这样的消息；不过，你尽管放胆，太阳落到那山头之前，你的心愿就能实现。”

"I will do your bidding though I die," replied the lady desperately.

“就算要我为此送命，我也愿意照你说的做，”这位女子孤注一掷地答道。

The old woman seated herself on the trunk of the fallen tree, threw aside the hood that shrouded her gray locks, and beckoned her companion to draw near.

老妇人在那株倒下的树干上坐了下来，掀开遮住她花白鬓发的兜帽，招手示意同伴靠近。

"Kneel down," she said, "and lay your forehead on my knees."

“跪下吧，”她说道，“把额头贴在我的膝盖上。”

She hesitated a moment, but the anxiety that had long been kindling burned fiercely up within her. As she knelt down, the border of her garment was dipped into the pool; she laid her forehead on the old woman's knees, and the latter drew a cloak about the lady's face, so that she was in darkness. Then she heard the muttered words of prayer, in the midst of which she started, and would have arisen.

她犹豫了片刻，可那份早已在她心底燃烧许久的焦虑，此刻猛烈地涌上心头。她跪了下去，衣裙的边角浸入了水潭；她把额头贴在老妇人的膝盖上，老妇人便用斗篷把她的脸遮盖起来，让她陷入一片黑暗之中。随后她听见了低声念诵的祷词，念到一半，她猛地一惊，几乎想要站起来。

"Let me flee,—let me flee and hide myself, that they may not look upon me!" she cried. But, with returning recollection, she hushed herself, and was still as death.

“让我逃走吧，——让我逃走，把自己藏起来，别让他们看见我！”她喊道。可随即她又清醒过来，强忍着不再出声，静得如同死了一般。

For it seemed as if other voices—familiar in infancy, and unforgotten through many wanderings, and in all the vicissitudes of her heart and fortune—were mingling with the accents of the prayer. At first the words were faint and indistinct, not rendered so by distance, but rather resembling the dim pages of a book which we strive to read by an imperfect and gradually brightening light. In such a manner, as the prayer proceeded, did those voices strengthen upon the ear; till at length the petition ended, and the conversation of an aged man, and of a woman broken and decayed like himself, became distinctly audible to the lady as she knelt.

因为此刻仿佛有别的声音——那是她自幼便熟悉的声音，历经多年漂泊、历经她一生种种命运的起伏，却始终未曾遗忘——正与祷词的音调交织在一起。起初这些话语微弱而模糊，倒不是因为距离遥远，而更像是我们试图借着一点微弱而渐渐明亮起来的光亮，去辨读一本书上模糊的字迹一般。就这样，随着祷词的进行，那些声音也渐渐在她耳边清晰起来；终于，祈祷结束了，一位老人的谈话声，还有一位同样衰老憔悴的妇人的谈话声，在这位跪着的女子听来，已经变得清清楚楚了。

But those strangers appeared not to stand in the hollow depth between the three hills. Their voices were encompassed and reechoed by the walls of a chamber, the windows of which were rattling in the breeze; the regular vibration of a clock, the crackling of a fire, and the tinkling of the embers as they fell among the ashes, rendered the scene almost as vivid as if painted to the eye.

可那两个陌生人似乎并不站在这三座山之间的凹陷谷地里。他们的说话声，被一间房间的四壁环绕着、回响着，那房间的窗户正在风中吱吱作响；一座座钟摆均匀的滴答声、炉火噼啪的声响，还有炭火余烬簌簌落入灰烬的叮当声，都让这一幕情景鲜活得几乎如同画在眼前一般。

By a melancholy hearth sat these two old people, the man calmly despondent, the woman querulous and tearful, and their words were all of sorrow. They spoke of a daughter, a wanderer they knew not where, bearing dishonor along with her, and leaving shame and affliction to bring their gray heads to the grave. They alluded also to other and more recent woe, but in the midst of their talk their voices seemed to melt into the sound of the wind sweeping mournfully among the autumn leaves; and when the lady lifted her eyes, there was she kneeling in the hollow between three hills.

在一处凄凉的炉边，坐着这两位老人，男人平静而神情沮丧，女人则满腹牢骚、泪流满面，他们的话语中尽是哀伤。他们谈起一个女儿，一个不知漂泊到何处的女儿，她带着耻辱远走他乡，只留下羞愧与苦难，逼得他们这两个白发苍苍的老人快要含恨入土。他们也提到了另一桩更近的哀事，可就在他们谈话的过程中，他们的声音仿佛渐渐融入了秋叶间那哀婉呜咽的风声；等这位女子抬起眼来时，她依旧跪在那三座山之间的凹陷谷地里。

"A weary and lonesome time yonder old couple have of it," remarked the old woman, smiling in the lady's face.

“那边那对老夫妇的日子，过得可真是又疲惫又孤单啊，”老妇人说道，对着这位女子的脸微微一笑。

"And did you also hear them?" exclaimed she, a sense of intolerable humiliation triumphing over her agony and fear.

“你也听见他们说话了吗？”她惊呼道，一种难以忍受的屈辱感，此刻竟压过了她的痛苦与恐惧。

"Yea; and we have yet more to hear," replied the old woman. "Wherefore, cover thy face quickly."

“是啊；我们还有更多要听的呢，”老妇人答道。“所以，快把你的脸遮起来吧。”

Again the withered hag poured forth the monotonous words of a prayer that was not meant to be acceptable in heaven; and soon, in the pauses of her breath, strange murmurings began to thicken, gradually increasing so as to drown and overpower the charm by which they grew. Shrieks pierced through the obscurity of sound, and were succeeded by the singing of sweet female voices, which, in their turn, gave way to a wild roar of laughter, broken suddenly by groanings and sobs, forming altogether a ghastly confusion of terror and mourning and mirth.

那干瘪的老妖婆又开始念诵起单调的祷词来，那祷词原本就不是为了讨天堂的欢心而念的；不久，在她换气的间隙里，一些奇怪的低语声开始渐渐密集起来，逐渐增强，几乎要淹没、压过那孕育出它们的咒语本身。尖叫声穿透了这一片混沌的声浪，随后便是甜美的女声在歌唱，而这歌声转瞬间又化作一阵狂野的哄笑，忽然又被呻吟和啜泣声打断，一切交织成一片令人毛骨悚然、既恐怖又悲哀又带着几分狂欢意味的混乱。

Chains were rattling, fierce and stern voices uttered threats, and the scourge resounded at their command. All these noises deepened and became substantial to the listener's ear, till she could distinguish every soft and dreamy accent of the love songs that died causelessly into funeral hymns. She shuddered at the unprovoked wrath which blazed up like the spontaneous kindling of flames and she grew faint at the fearful merriment raging miserably around her.

锁链哗啦作响，凶狠严厉的声音发出威胁，鞭子也应声抽响。这一切声响在这位倾听者耳中渐渐加深、变得真实起来，直到她能分辨出那些情歌当中每一个轻柔而如梦似幻的音调，那歌声毫无来由地渐渐化作了丧钟般的挽歌。她因那毫无缘由、如烈焰般骤然燃起的怒火而浑身战栗，又因周遭那可悲而疯狂的欢闹而几乎晕厥过去。

In the midst of this wild scene, where unbound passions jostled each other in a drunken career, there was one solemn voice of a man, and a manly and melodious voice it might once have been. He went to and fro continually, and his feet sounded upon the floor. In each member of that frenzied company, whose own burning thoughts had become their exclusive world, he sought an auditor for the story of his individual wrong, and interpreted their laughter and tears as his reward of scorn or pity.

在这一片混乱的场景之中，各种放纵不羁的情绪相互冲撞，宛如一场醉醺醺的狂欢，其间却有一个男子肃穆的声音，那声音想必曾经也是雄浑而悦耳的。他不停地来回踱步，脚步声在地板上回响着。在那群疯狂的众人当中，每一个人都各自沉浸在自己炽烈的心事之中，仿佛那便是他们全部的世界，而他却在其中寻找着一个能听他诉说个人冤屈的听众，把他们的笑声和泪水都解读成对他的轻蔑或怜悯的回应。

He spoke of woman's perfidy, of a wife who had broken her holiest vows, of a home and heart made desolate. Even as he went on, the shout, the laugh, the shriek the sob, rose up in unison, till they changed into the hollow, fitful, and uneven sound of the wind, as it fought among the pine-trees on those three lonely hills. The lady looked up, and there was the withered woman smiling in her face.

他谈起了女人的背信弃义，谈起一个背弃了最神圣誓言的妻子，谈起一个家庭、一颗心是如何变得荒凉破碎的。他说着说着，那呼喊声、笑声、尖叫声、啜泣声便一齐涌起，交织成一片，直到最终都化作了那空洞、忽起忽落、参差不齐的风声，正如同风在那三座孤零零的山上的松林间搏斗时发出的声音一样。这位女子抬起头来，只见那干瘪的老妇人正对着她的脸微笑着。

"Couldst thou have thought there were such merry times in a madhouse?" inquired the latter.

“你可曾想到，疯人院里竟也有这样欢闹的时刻？”老妇人问道。

"True, true," said the lady to herself; "there is mirth within its walls, but misery, misery without."

“不错，不错，”这位女子暗自说道，“这高墙之内是有欢愉，可高墙之外，却尽是苦难，苦难啊。”

"Wouldst thou hear more?" demanded the old woman.

“你还想再听下去吗？”老妇人问道。

"There is one other voice I would fain listen to again," replied the lady, faintly.

“还有一个声音，我愿意再听一次，”这位女子有气无力地答道。

"Then, lay down thy head speedily upon my knees, that thou mayst get thee hence before the hour be past."

“那就快把你的头放到我膝盖上来，好让你在这一个时辰过去之前，能够脱身离去。”

The golden skirts of day were yet lingering upon the hills, but deep shades obscured the hollow and the pool, as if sombre night were rising thence to overspread the world. Again that evil woman began to weave her spell. Long did it proceed unanswered, till the knolling of a bell stole in among the intervals of her words, like a clang that had travelled far over valley and rising ground, and was just ready to die in the air.

金色的暮光尚且徘徊在山头之上，可深浓的阴影却已笼罩了那盆地和水潭，仿佛阴沉的夜色正从那里升腾起来，要将整个世界笼罩其中。那邪恶的老妇人又开始织起她的法咒来。这咒语念了许久都没有得到回应，直到一阵钟声悄然潜入她话语的间隙，仿佛那钟声已跨越了漫长的山谷和起伏的丘陵，正要在空气中渐渐消散。

The lady shook upon her companion's knees as she heard that boding sound. Stronger it grew and sadder, and deepened into the tone of a death bell, knolling dolefully from some ivy-mantled tower, and bearing tidings of mortality and woe to the cottage, to the hall, and to the solitary wayfarer that all might weep for the doom appointed in turn to them.

这位女子听见那不祥的钟声，靠在同伴膝盖上的身子颤抖起来。钟声越来越响，也越来越哀伤，渐渐化作了丧钟的音调，从某座爬满常青藤的塔楼里悲凄地敲响，把死亡与哀伤的消息传向了茅舍，传向了大厦，也传向了孤零零的行路人，好让所有人都能为终将轮到自己头上的命运而哭泣。

Then came a measured tread, passing slowly, slowly on, as of mourners with a coffin, their garments trailing on the ground, so that the ear could measure the length of their melancholy array. Before them went the priest, reading the burial service, while the leaves of his book were rustling in the breeze.

接着传来了一阵缓慢而有节奏的脚步声，一步一步地向前挪动着，仿佛是抬棺送葬的人群，他们的衣裙拖曳在地上，因此单凭耳朵便能丈量出这支哀伤队伍的长度。走在他们前面的是位牧师，正念诵着葬礼的祷文，他手中书本的书页也在风中沙沙作响。

And though no voice but his was heard to speak aloud, still there were revilings and anathemas, whispered but distinct, from women and from men, breathed against the daughter who had wrung the aged hearts of her parents,—the wife who had betrayed the trusting fondness of her husband,—the mother who had sinned against natural affection, and left her child to die. The sweeping sound of the funeral train faded away like a thin vapor, and the wind, that just before had seemed to shake the coffin pall, moaned sadly round the verge of the Hollow between three Hills. But when the old woman stirred the kneeling lady, she lifted not her head.

虽然除了他的声音之外，再没有别的声音大声说出口，可仍旧有辱骂与诅咒的声音，虽是低语，却字字清晰，从男男女女口中吐出，冲着那个让年迈的父母心碎的女儿——那个背叛了丈夫一片痴心信赖的妻子——那个违背了天生母爱、丢下自己的孩子任其死去的母亲。这支送葬队伍渐行渐远的声响，如一缕薄雾般消散了，方才似乎还在摇动棺罩的那阵风，此刻也在这三座山之间的凹陷谷地边缘，发出哀伤的呜咽。可当老妇人推了推这位跪着的女子时，她却没有抬起头来。

"Here has been a sweet hour's sport!" said the withered crone, chuckling to herself.

“这真是一个甜美的时辰的消遣啊！”那干瘪的老妖婆说道，自顾自地窃笑起来。