第八章（第5/13页）

她聆听着锤子的敲击声，传递出的情绪并不快活。他有些压抑。他的私隐遭到侵扰，而且是危险的侵扰！一个女人！他本已心灰意冷，人世间唯一渴望的状态就是孑然一身。然而，此刻他却无力保持自己的清静，因为他只是个雇工，而这些家伙都是主子。

Especially he did not want to come into contact with a woman again. He feared it; for he had a big wound from old contacts. He felt if he could not be alone, and if he could not be left alone, he would die. His recoil away from the outer world was complete; his last refuge was this wood; to hide himself there!

更何况，他不再想和女人扯上关系。他对男女关系充满恐惧，过去失败的婚姻曾让他深受重创。他的想法是，如果不能保持孑然独立的状态，如果遭到他人的侵扰，那还不如一死了之。他已经完全与外界脱离开来，而最后的避难所就是这片树林，他可以藏身于此！

Connie grew warm by the fire, which she had made too big: then she grew hot. She went and sat on the stool in the doorway, watching the man at work. He seemed not to notice her, but he knew. Yet he worked on, as if absorbedly, and his brown dog sat on her tail near him, and surveyed the untrustworthy world.

坐在炉火旁，康妮渐渐暖和过来，但她却又把火生得太旺，搞得自己燥热不安。她离开壁炉，坐在门边的板凳上，注视着劳作的男人。他似乎没有注意到她，但其实心中有数。他不动声色，继续干活，似乎非常专注，那条棕色的猎犬蹲在一旁，审视着眼前这个难以捉摸的世界。

Slender, quiet and quick, the man finished the coop he was making, turned it over, tried the sliding door, then set it aside. Then he rose, went for an old coop, and took it to the chopping log where he was working. Crouching, he tried the bars; some broke in his hands; he began to draw the nails. Then he turned the coop over and deliberated, and he gave absolutely no sign of awareness of the woman's presence.

他身材修长，朴素沉静，动作敏捷，把鸡笼做好，随即翻转过来，试过拉门，便放在一旁。接着，他起身去取旧鸡笼，把它放在刚才干活的木墩上。他蹲下来，试试木条是否依然坚固，不觉便扯断几根，然后又开始拔钉子。他把笼子倒过来，思索应该如何处理，装作毫未觉察康妮在注视着自己。

So Connie watched him fixedly. And the same solitary aloneness she had seen in him naked, she now saw in him clothed: solitary, and intent, like an animal that works alone, but also brooding, like a soul that recoils away, away from all human contact. Silently, patiently, he was recoiling away from her even now. It was the stillness, and the timeless sort of patience, in a man impatient and passionate, that touched Connie's womb. She saw it in his bent head, the quick quiet hands, the crouching of his slender, sensitive loins; something patient and withdrawn. She felt his experience had been deeper and wider than her own; much deeper and wider, and perhaps more deadly. And this relieved her of herself; she felt almost irresponsible.

康妮的目光完全聚焦在他身上。无论是当日上身赤裸的他，还是现在衣着整齐的他，所透露出的那份孤寂都未曾变过。孤独而又专注，像头离群独居的野兽，自生自灭，但却也常苦思冥想，像个形单影只的灵魂，远离尘嚣。而此时此刻，他正以静默坚忍的态度，努力逃避着她关注的目光。性格焦躁、热情似火的七尺男儿，却能如此沉稳安静，拥有持久的耐心，正是这点触动了康妮的心灵。从他低垂着的头，灵活沉着的双手，以及伏着的纤细敏感的腰身，康妮体会到的是内敛和隐忍。她感觉他的人生历练远比自己深广，所遭所遇或许更加残酷。这样的想法让她感到释然，顿觉肩头的责任减轻许多。

So she sat in the doorway of the hut in a dream, utterly unaware of time and of particular circumstances. She was so drifted away that he glanced up at her quickly, and saw the utterly still, waiting look on her face. To him it was a look of waiting. And a little thin tongue of fire suddenly flickered in his loins, at the root of his back, and he groaned in spirit. He dreaded with a repulsion almost of death, any further close human contact. He wished above all things she would go away, and leave him to his own privacy. He dreaded her will, her female will, and her modern female insistency. And above all he dreaded her cool, upper-class impudence of having her own way. For after all he was only a hired man. He hated her presence there.