“My grief lies onward and my joy behind.” –SHAKESPEARE: Sonnets.
“我的悲伤在前方，我的快乐在身后。”–莎士比亚：十四行诗。

Exiles notoriously feed much on hopes, and are unlikely to stay in banishment unless they are obliged. —
“放逐者通常寄希望，不太可能继续流亡，除非被迫。” —

When Will Ladislaw exiled himself from Middlemarch he had placed no stronger obstacle to his return than his own resolve, which was by no means an iron barrier, but simply a state of mind liable to melt into a minuet with other states of mind, and to find itself bowing, smiling, and giving place with polite facility. —
“当威尔·拉迪斯劳从米德尔马奇放逐自己时，他没有设置更强大的障碍阻止他回去，只是自己的决心，这并不是一道铁壁，而只是一种心态，易于与其他心态融合成一支舞曲，并因礼貌而很容易地消失。” —

As the months went on, it had seemed more and more difficult to him to say why he should not run down to Middlemarch–merely for the sake of hearing something about Dorothea; —
“随着时间的推移，他似乎越来越难以理解为什么他不应该跑到米德尔马奇去–只是为了听听多萝西娅的消息；” —

and if on such a flying visit he should chance by some strange coincidence to meet with her, there was no reason for him to be ashamed of having taken an innocent journey which he had beforehand supposed that he should not take. —
“如果在这样一次匆忙的访问中，他碰巧与她相遇，那么没有理由让他为了一个事先预料到不会发生的无辜旅程而感到羞耻。” —

Since he was hopelessly divided from her, he might surely venture into her neighborhood; —
“因为他与她之间已经无法弥合，所以他完全可以冒险走进她的周围；” —

and as to the suspicious friends who kept a dragon watch over her– their opinions seemed less and less important with time and change of air.
“至于那些对她进行龙般看守的可疑朋友–他们的观点随着时间和空气的变化似乎变得越来越不重要。”

And there had come a reason quite irrespective of Dorothea, which seemed to make a journey to Middlemarch a sort of philanthropic duty. —
“此外，不考虑多萝西娅，还有一个理由似乎使得去米德尔马奇变成了一种慈善义务。” —

Will had given a disinterested attention to an intended settlement on a new plan in the Far West, and the need for funds in order to carry out a good design had set him on debating with himself whether it would not be a laudable use to make of his claim on Bulstrode, to urge the application of that money which had been offered to himself as a means of carrying out a scheme likely to be largely beneficial. —
“威尔对一个新计划在法西斯特地区的安置给予无私的关注，所需资金用来实现一个有利于多方的计划使得他开始在内心斟酌，是否将其对布尔斯特罗德的索赔视为一种好用途，促使那笔曾被用来实现一项可能大大有利的计划的款项被申请。” —

The question seemed a very dubious one to Will, and his repugnance to again entering into any relation with the banker might have made him dismiss it quickly, if there had not arisen in his imagination the probability that his judgment might be more safely determined by a visit to Middlemarch.
“这个问题对威尔来说似乎是个非常可疑的问题，而他对再次与银行家建立任何关系的厌恶感可能会让他很快放弃，如果他的想象中没有强烈可能性——他通过访问米德尔马奇能够更安全地确定自己的判断。”

That was the object which Will stated to himself as a reason for coming down. —
“这就是威尔下来的理由。” —

He had meant to confide in Lydgate, and discuss the money question with him, and he had meant to amuse himself for the few evenings of his stay by having a great deal of music and badinage with fair Rosamond, without neglecting his friends at Lowick Parsonage: —
“他原打算和李德格特坦白，并与他讨论金钱问题，然后他打算在逗乐和音乐中度过他的短暂逗留中的几个晚上，与美丽的蘿莎蒙德亲切相处，而不忽略他在洛威克牧师宅邸的朋友们：” —

–if the Parsonage was close to the Manor, that was no fault of his. —
“–如果牧师宅邸离庄园很近，这不是他的错。” —

He had neglected the Farebrothers before his departure, from a proud resistance to the possible accusation of indirectly seeking interviews with Dorothea; —
“他之前因为对可能被间接谴责试图与多萝西娅会面而自豪而忽视了费尔布拉斯兄弟们；” —

but hunger tames us, and Will had become very hungry for the vision of a certain form and the sound of a certain voice. —
“但是饥饿使我们驯服，而威尔对某种形态的幻觉和某种声音变得非常饥饿。” —

Nothing, had done instead– not the opera, or the converse of zealous politicians, or the flattering reception (in dim corners) of his new hand in leading articles.
什么都没有，取而代之的是–不是歌剧，也不是热衷政治家的对话，或者他的新作品在评论文章中的巴结的接待（在昏暗的角落里）。

Thus he had come down, foreseeing with confidence how almost everything would be in his familiar little world; —
因此，他下定决心来的时候，对自己熟悉的小世界几乎一切都有信心。 —

fearing, indeed, that there would be no surprises in his visit. —
实际上，他担心在访问中不会有什么意外。 —

But he had found that humdrum world in a terribly dynamic condition, in which even badinage and lyrism had turned explosive; —
但他发现那个平淡的世界处于极度动荡状态，甚至连俏皮和抒情也变得爆炸性。 —

and the first day of this visit had become the most fatal epoch of his life. —
这次访问的第一天已成为他一生中最致命的时刻。 —

The next morning he felt so harassed with the nightmare of consequences– he dreaded so much the immediate issues before him–that seeing while he breakfasted the arrival of the Riverston coach, he went out hurriedly and took his place on it, that he might be relieved, at least for a day, from the necessity of doing or saying anything in Middlemarch. —
第二天早上，他感到如此烦恼，因为后果令人噩梦般恐惧–他非常害怕面对眼前的问题–所以看到里弗斯顿马车在旁边停下时，他赶忙出门上车，并且坐上了车，这样至少一天就可以从在米德尔马奇必须做或说的事情中解脱出来。 —

Will Ladislaw was in one of those tangled crises which are commoner in experience than one might imagine, from the shallow absoluteness of men’s judgments. —
威尔·拉迪斯劳正处于一种纠结的危机中，这种情况比人们表面上的绝对判断所想象的更为常见。 —

He had found Lydgate, for whom he had the sincerest respect, under circumstances which claimed his thorough and frankly declared sympathy; —
他发现了莱德格特，对他怀有最真挚的尊重，处于一种需要他彻底并坦诚表达同情的情况下; —

and the reason why, in spite of that claim, it would have been better for Will to have avoided all further intimacy, or even contact, with Lydgate, was precisely of the kind to make such a course appear impossible. —
虽然对威尔有强烈要求的原因，尽管如此，为了躲避一切可能的继续亲密接触，甚至接触，与莱德格特，对威尔来说更好的做法事实上是不可能的。 —

To a creature of Will’s susceptible temperament–without any neutral region of indifference in his nature, ready to turn everything that befell him into the collisions of a passionate drama–the revelation that Rosamond had made her happiness in any way dependent on him was a difficulty which his outburst of rage towards her had immeasurably increased for him. —
对于威尔这种容易受到影响的性情–他的天性中没有任何中立的冷淡区，很容易将发生的一切都变成激情戏剧的碰撞–罗莎蒙德已经让她的幸福有任何程度地依赖于他，这一事实使威尔更加困惑。 —

He hated his own cruelty, and yet he dreaded to show the fulness of his relenting: —
他厌恶自己的残酷，然而又不敢表现出自己的悔恨程度： —

he must go to her again; the friendship could not be put to a sudden end; —
他必须再次去找她; 这种友情不能突然结束; —

and her unhappiness was a power which he dreaded. —
她的不幸是一种他害怕的力量。 —

And all the while there was no more foretaste of enjoyment in the life before him than if his limbs had been lopped off and he was making his fresh start on crutches. —
同时，在他面前的生活没有任何享受的预感，如果他的四肢被躯干砍断，他像依靠拐杖重新开始。 —

In the night he had debated whether he should not get on the coach, not for Riverston, but for London, leaving a note to Lydgate which would give a makeshift reason for his retreat. —
在夜间，他在考虑是否应该上车，不是去里弗斯顿，而是去伦敦，留下一封给莱德格特的便笺，给他撤退一个权宜之计的理由。 —

But there were strong cords pulling him back from that abrupt departure: —
但是有强大的力量将他拉回，阻止他突然离开： —

the blight on his happiness in thinking of Dorothea, the crushing of that chief hope which had remained in spite of the acknowledged necessity for renunciation, was too fresh a misery for him to resign himself to it and go straightway into a distance which was also despair.
对于多萝西娅的想法给他带来的幸福的损害，以及尽管承认了必须放弃的现实，但依然存在的希望被碾碎，将这种痛苦深深刻在他心中，他不可能轻易就接受这个事实并直接走向绝望的远方。

Thus he did nothing more decided than taking the Riverston coach. —
因此，他所做的决定也不过是搭上了Riverston的马车。 —

He came back again by it while it was still daylight, having made up his mind that he must go to Lydgate’s that evening. —
当天仍是白天，他又坐上了马车回来，决定今晚必须去找莱德盖特。 —

The Rubicon, we know, was a very insignificant stream to look at; —
我们知道，流经的尼罗河 可能只是一个微不足道的小溪； —

its significance lay entirely in certain invisible conditions. —
其真正的意义完全在于某些看不见的条件。 —

Will felt as if he were forced to cross his small boundary ditch, and what he saw beyond it was not empire, but discontented subjection.
威尔感觉自己好像被迫穿越自己那个小小的界沟，而他所看到的并不是帝国，而是不满的服从。

But it is given to us sometimes even in our every-day life to witness the saving influence of a noble nature, the divine efficacy of rescue that may lie in a self-subduing act of fellowship. —
但是有时候，甚至在我们日常生活中，我们也会见证高贵品性的拯救力量，自我克制的共同行动所蕴含的神圣功效。 —

If Dorothea, after her night’s anguish, had not taken that walk to Rosamond–why, she perhaps would have been a woman who gained a higher character for discretion, but it would certainly not have been as well for those three who were on one hearth in Lydgate’s house at half-past seven that evening.
如果多萝西娅在经历夜晚的痛苦后没有去找罗莎蒙，也许她可能会因谨慎而获得更高的声誉，但对于那天晚上七点半在莱德盖特家中同在一个炉边的那三个人来说，情况肯定不会那么美好。

Rosamond had been prepared for Will’s visit, and she received him with a languid coldness which Lydgate accounted for by her nervous exhaustion, of which he could not suppose that it had any relation to Will. And when she sat in silence bending over a bit of work, he innocently apologized for her in an indirect way by begging her to lean backward and rest. —
罗莎蒙早就为威尔的访问做好了准备，她以一种疲惫的冷漠接待了他，莱德盖特则认为这是她神经衰弱造成的，他不可能认为这与威尔有任何关系。当她沉默地盯着手工活时，他无意间为她辩解，请求她往后倚靠休息。 —

Will was miserable in the necessity for playing the part of a friend who was making his first appearance and greeting to Rosamond, while his thoughts were busy about her feeling since that scene of yesterday, which seemed still inexorably to enclose them both, like the painful vision of a double madness. —
威尔在不得不扮演一个对罗莎蒙作首次露面和问候的朋友的角色时，感到很痛苦，而他的思绪却忙碌于昨天的那场桥段之后，似乎仍然无法摆脱，就像一场双重疯狂的痛苦景象。 —

It happened that nothing called Lydgate out of the room; —
幸运的是莱德盖特并没有被外间所阻扰； —

but when Rosamond poured out the tea, and Will came near to fetch it, she placed a tiny bit of folded paper in his saucer. —
但当罗莎蒙倒茶时，威尔走近接过，她将一小张纸折好放在他的茶盘里。 —

He saw it and secured it quickly, but as he went back to his inn he had no eagerness to unfold the paper. —
他看见了并迅速将其保存，但回到旅店时，并没有急着打开那张纸。 —

What Rosamond had written to him would probably deepen the painful impressions of the evening. —
罗莎蒙给他写的东西很可能会加深那个晚上的痛苦印象。 —

Still, he opened and read it by his bed-candle. —
然而，他点着床头的蜡烛，打开并阅读了信件。 —

There were only these few words in her neatly flowing hand:–
在她工整流畅的字迹中，只有几个字：–

“I have told Mrs. Casaubon. She is not under any mistake about you. —
“我已告诉卡索本太太。她对你没有任何误解。 —

I told her because she came to see me and was very kind. —
我告诉她是因为她来看我，而且非常友善。 —

You will have nothing to reproach me with now. —
你现在不会再责备我什么了。 —

I shall not have made any difference to you.”
我对你没有造成任何影响。”

The effect of these words was not quite all gladness. —
这些字带来的效果并非完全是欣喜。 —

As Will dwelt on them with excited imagination, he felt his cheeks and ears burning at the thought of what had occurred between Dorothea and Rosamond– at the uncertainty how far Dorothea might still feel her dignity wounded in having an explanation of his conduct offered to her. —
当威尔兴奋地想着这些字，想到了多萝西娅和罗莎蒙之间发生的事情时，他感到脸颊和耳朵发烫，因为他不确定多萝西娅是否仍会感到自己的尊严受到侵犯，是否会接受对他行为的解释。 —

There might still remain in her mind a changed association with him which made an irremediable difference–a lasting flaw. —
在她心中可能仍存在一种改变的联系，这造成了一种无法弥补的差别–一种永久的缺陷。 —

With active fancy he wrought himself into a state of doubt little more easy than that of the man who has escaped from wreck by night and stands on unknown ground in the darkness. —
在激动的想象力驱使下，他使自己处于一种比夜间从船只中幸存更为艰难的疑惑状态，站在陌生的黑暗中。 —

Until that wretched yesterday– except the moment of vexation long ago in the very same room and in the very same presence–all their vision, all their thought of each other, had been as in a world apart, where the sunshine fell on tall white lilies, where no evil lurked, and no other soul entered. —
直到那个可恶的昨天– 除了很久以前在同一个房间、同一个场合发生的烦恼时刻–他们彼此的愿景，彼此的思念，都像是存在于一个完全不同的世界中，那里阳光照耀在高高的白百合花上，那里没有邪恶潜藏，也没有其他灵魂进入。 —

But now–would Dorothea meet him in that world again?
但是现在–多萝西娅还会在那个世界与他相遇吗？