Along the crowded path they bore her now—pure as the newly fallen snow that covered it, whose day on earth had been as fleeting. Under that porch where she had sat when Heaven, in its mercy, brought her to that peaceful spot, she passed again; and the old church received her in its quiet shade. They carried her to one old nook, where she had many and many a time sat musing, and laid their burden softly on the pavement. The light streamed on it through the coloured window—a window where the boughs of trees were ever rustling in the summer, and where the birds sang sweetly all day long. With every breath of air that stirred among those branches in the sunshine, some trembling, changing light would fall upon her grave.
在那些前来烦扰她的人群中，她纯洁地就像被白雪覆盖着一样，而她在世间的时光却如飞梭般逝去了。如今她再一次经过那个门廊下，当上天以慈悲之心眷顾她时，曾带她来过这个充满和平的地方，这个曾另她驻足过的地方；而古老的教堂也在静谧之中接待了她。人们带她来到一个角落里，轻轻地把她放到地上，她过去曾经无数次坐在这里沉思冥想。阳光透过一扇彩色的窗户映照过来——这是一扇夏天有树叶沙沙作响，终日能听闻小鸟们甜蜜歌唱的彩色玻璃窗。伴随着每一阵微风和阳光下枝叶的微微颤动，婆娑的光影就会投射在她的身上。
"Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Many a young hand dropped in its little wreath—many a stifled sob was heard. Some, and they were not a few, knelt down. All were sincere and truthful in their sorrow. The service done, the mourners stood apart, and the villagers closed round to look into the grave before the stone should be replaced.
“尘归尘，土归土，让往生者安宁，让在世者重获解脱。”许多年轻人哽咽着将花圈丢下去。其中有些人，——为数不少的人，甚至还朝她跪拜。所有人都带着真挚而肃穆的悲哀之情来为她送行。仪式结束后，送葬的人分列开来，在盖棺之前，村民们围成一圈凭吊她，最后一次瞻仰了她的遗容。
One called to mind how he had seen her sitting on that very spot, and how her book had fallen on her lap, and she was gazing with a pensive face upon the sky. Another told how he had wondered much that one so delicate as she should be so bold; how she had never feared to enter the church alone at night, but had loved to linger there when all was quiet, and even to climb the tower-stair, with no more light than that of the moon rays stealing through the loop-holes in the thick old walls. A whisper went about among the oldest there that she had seen and talked with angels; and when they called to mind how she had looked and spoken, and her early death, some thought it might be so indeed.
有人回忆起如何看到她就坐在这个地方，她的书本如何掉落在裙子的下摆处，而她那张忧郁的脸却凝视着无尽的虚空。还有人说，他非常好奇像她这样的一个柔弱女子竟然如此勇敢；她从不惧怕深夜里独自一人进入教堂，竟然钟情于在万籁俱寂时在那里徘徊逗留，甚至于还在昏暗之中攀爬上通往钟塔的楼梯，仅仅凭借着从又厚又陈旧的墙壁气孔中透过来的月光领路。在老人中传来窃窃私语，说她曾经见过天使，还同他们讲过话；当人们回想起她的模样，她说话的态度，以及她的早年夭亡时，有些人便真的信以为真了。
Thus, coming to the grave in little knots, and glancing down, and giving place to others, and falling off in whispering groups of three or four, the church was cleared in time of all but the sexton and the mourning friends. Then, when the dusk of evening had come on, and not a sound disturbed the sacred stillness of the place—when the bright moon poured in her light on tomb and monument, on pillar, wall, and arch, and most of all, it seemed to them, upon her quiet grave—in that calm time, when all outward things and inward thoughts teem with assurances or immortality, and worldly hopes and fears are humbled in the dust before them, then with tranquil and submissive hearts they turned away, and left the child with God.
就这样，人们成群结队地走向墓地，低头不语，向下看一眼，然后把地方留给后来者，然后又三五成群的窃窃私语着离去，过了一段时间，教堂里的人走光了，只剩下教堂司事和几个送葬的好友。随后，当黄昏来临，没有任何声音来打破这里的肃穆宁静——当明亮如水的月光倾泻而下照到她的墓穴和墓碑上，倾泻到柱子上、墙上、圆拱上，尤其是倾泻到她那安静的坟墓上——在这片宁静肃穆中，当所有外界事物和内在思想交织成永恒的誓言，人世间的希望和恐惧在其面前的尘埃中都那么的微不足道，然后，人们又带着安宁与温顺的心转身离去，将这个孩子交给了上帝。
—Charles Dickens
——查尔斯·狄更斯
评论
打印
