第十七章（第10/21页）

但丹尼尔却是个本分的男人，拥有男人的坦率和忠诚。他没穿凤尾船船夫的大褂，只是穿着蓝色的毛衫。他颇为鲁莽粗陋，但却高傲。他受雇于卑躬屈膝的乔瓦尼，而乔瓦尼则受雇于康妮姐妹。世事便是如此！耶稣拒绝接受恶魔的金钱，但却听任它化身为犹太银行家，掌控着全局。

Connie would come home from the blazing light of the lagoon in a kind of stupor, to find letters from home. Clifford wrote regularly. He wrote very good letters: they might all have been printed in a book. And for this reason Connie found them not very interesting.

告别那令人目眩恍惚的湖光，返回别墅，康妮便会发现有家信在等她拆读。克利福德时常来信。即使是写信，他同样笔翰如流，区区家信也具备发表的水准。可正因为此，康妮觉得读他的信实在乏味。

She lived in the stupor of the light of the lagoon, the lapping saltiness of the water, the space, the emptiness, the nothingness: but health, health, complete stupor of health. It was gratifying, and she was lulled away in it, not caring for anything. Besides, she was pregnant. She knew now. So the stupor of sunlight and lagoon salt and sea-bathing and lying on shingle and finding shells and drifting away, away in a gondola, was completed by the pregnancy inside her, another fullness of health, satisfying and stupefying.

她沉迷在醉人的湖光里，沉浸在起伏的海水中，沉醉在虚无缥缈的异国，但却身心健康，精力充沛，仿佛全无知觉。生活如此舒适，她完全陶醉其中，将一切都抛诸脑后。而且，她如愿怀上宝宝。她已经察觉到这一事实。因此，晒晒太阳，赏赏湖光，洗洗海澡，躺躺沙滩，捡捡贝壳，乘船出海，一切都因为身怀六甲而变得完美，身心达到前所未有的绝佳状态，令她心满意足，如醉如痴。

She had been at Venice a fortnight, and she was to stay another ten days or a fortnight. The sunshine blazed over any count of time, and the fullness of physical health made forgetfulness complete. She was in a sort of stupor of well-being.

来威尼斯已有两周时间，按计划，她还能再逗留十天半月。耀目的阳光让她忘记了时光的流逝，而肉体的健康则使这种遗忘更加彻底。她陶醉于这种闲适康乐的状态里。

From which a letter of Clifford roused her.

直到克利福德的来信将她唤醒。

We too have had our mild local excitement. It appears the truant wife of Mellors, the keeper, turned up at the cottage and found herself unwelcome. He packed her off, and locked the door. Report has it, however, that when he returned from the wood he found the no longer fair lady firmly established in his bed, in puris naturalibus; or one should say, in impuris naturalibus. She had broken a window and got in that way. Unable to evict the somewhat man-handled Venus from his couch, he beat a retreat and retired, it is said, to his mother's house in Tevershall. Meanwhile the Venus of Stacks Gate is established in the cottage, which she claims is her home, and Apollo, apparently, is domiciled in Tevershall.

我们这里也有件本地小小的趣事。守林人梅勒斯的妻子，离家多日后再度现身农舍，结果发现自己不受欢迎。他把她撵出家去，还将大门紧锁。可据说，他从树林回到家中时，发现那个容颜不再的悍妇正稳稳盘踞在他的床上，身无片缕，或者应该说脱个精光。她趁他不在，砸碎玻璃，进到屋里。由于无法将这位饱经蹂躏的维纳斯从床上赶走，他只得偃旗息鼓，退避三舍，坊间传闻，他逃回特弗沙尔，住进母亲家里。与此同时，斯塔克斯门的维纳斯将农舍据为己有，声称那是她的地盘，而可怜的阿波罗，显然只好在特弗沙尔暂时落脚。

I repeat this from hearsay, as Mellors has not come to me personally. I had this particular bit of local garbage from our garbage bird, our ibis, our scavenging turkey-buzzard, Mrs. Bolton. I would not have repeated it had she not exclaimed: her Ladyship will go no more to the wood if that woman's going to be about!