小伙子布朗[纳撒尼尔.霍桑]

Young Goodman Brown

作者简介：

纳撒尼尔·霍桑 (Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804-1864)

生於麻塞诸塞州塞勒姆。父为船长，一八○八年去世。曾在缅因州博多因学院就读，与朗费罗和後来当选为美国总统的佛兰克林·皮尔斯相识。毕业後隐居塞勒姆，写了一本名叫《范肖》(Fanshawe)的小说，在一八二八年匿名出版，还有一些短篇小说与小品文(辑为《重讲一遍的故事》(Twice-Told Tales, 两集分别於一八三七及一八四二年出版)。一八三六年离开塞勒姆去波士顿，一面写作，一面在海关任职。一八四一年参加创办布鲁克农场，一八四二年与有超验论思想(transcendentalist)的索菲娅·皮博迪("爱默生先生是纯音正调")结婚并搬到康考德"古宅"居住，写了更多的短篇和小品文，都收集在一八四六年出版的《古宅青苔》(Mosses from an Old Manse)里。一八四六到四九年在塞勒姆任港务总监；後来迁居伯克夏，与梅尔维尔相契。一八五三到五七年任美国驻利物浦领事，後至义大利，一八六○年回到康考德。第一部成功的小说《红字》(The Scarlet Letter)於一八五○年出版，其後尚有《带七个尖角阁的房子》(The House of the Seven Gables, 1851)，《福谷传奇》(The Blithedale Romance, 1852)与《玉石雕像》(The Marble Faun, 1860)。其他作品有短篇小说集《雪影》(The Snow Image, 1851)，儿童故事集《坦格林的故事》(Tanglewood Tales)，《我们的老家》(Our Old Home, 1863)，英国记事和死後发表的一些残篇。

在他最好的短篇《小伙子布朗》('Young Goodman Brown')里，霍桑写了早年的新英格兰，故事主人公去出席在半夜举行的魔鬼聚会，发现在座的不仅有镇上所有德高望重的人，甚至还有他的妻子费思...

Young Goodman Brown came forth at sunset into the street at Salem Village; but put his head back after crossing the threshold, to exchange a parting kiss with his young wife. And Faith, as the wife was aptly named, thrust her own pretty head into the street, letting the wind play with the pink ribbons of her cap while she called to Goodman Brown.
     "Dearest heart," whispered she, softly and rather sadly, when her lips were close to his ear, "prithee put off your journey until sunrise and sleep in your own bed to-night. A lone woman is troubled with such dreams and such thoughts that she's afeard of herself sometimes. Pray tarry with me this night, dear husband, of all nights in the year."
     "My love and my Faith," replied young Goodman Brown, "of all nights in the year, this one night must I tarry away from thee. My journey, as thou callest it, forth and back again, must needs be done 'twixt now and sunrise. What, my sweet, pretty wife, cost thou doubt me already, and we but three months married?"
     "Then God bless you!" said Faith, with the pink ribbons; "and may you find all well when you come back."
     "Amen!" cried Goodman Brown. "Say thy prayers, dear Faith, and go to bed at dusk, and no harm will come to thee."
     So they parted; and the young man pursued his way until, being about to turn the corner by the meeting-house, he looked back and saw the head of Faith still peeping after him with a melancholy air, in spite of her pink ribbons.
     "Poor little Faith!" thought he, for his heart smote him. "What a wretch am I to leave her on such an errand! She talks of dreams, too. Methought as she spoke there was trouble in her face, as if a dream had warned her what work is to be done to-night. But no, no; 't would kill her to think it. Well, she's a blessed angel on earth; and after this one night I'll cling to her skirts and follow her to heaven."
     With this excellent resolve for the future, Goodman Brown felt himself justified in making more haste on his present evil purpose. He had taken a dreary road, darkened by all the gloomiest trees of the forest, which barely stood aside to let the narrow path creep through, and closed immediately behind. It was all as lonely as could be; and there is this peculiarity in such a solitude, that the traveller knows not who may be concealed by the innumerable trunks and the thick boughs overhead; so that with lonely footsteps he may yet be passing through an unseen multitude.

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