第五章（第2/16页）

林中鸦雀无声，地上的枯叶掩住冰霜。松鸦的嘶鸣惊起许多小鸟。但这里早已没有可供猎取的飞禽走兽，连只野鸡的踪影也见不到。战争期间，它们早被斩尽诛绝，树林也多年无人照管，直到最近，克利福德才又雇来一位守林人。

Clifford loved the wood; he loved the old oak-trees. He felt they were his own through generations. He wanted to protect them. He wanted this place inviolate, shut off from the world.

克利福德深爱这片树林，深爱那一株株古老的橡树。他觉得它们世世代代都归他所有。他希望保护它们免受损害。他希望使这片净土不受侵扰，成为与世隔绝的桃源。

The chair chuffed slowly up the incline, rocking and jolting on the frozen clods. And suddenly, on the left, came a clearing where there was nothing but a ravel of dead bracken, a thin and spindly sapling leaning here and there, big sawn stumps, showing their tops and their grasping roots, lifeless. And patches of blackness where the woodmen had burned the brushwood and rubbish.

轮椅缓慢地攀爬着斜坡，在冰冻的土块上摇摆颠簸。陡然间，左侧现出一片空地，只有几棵枯萎的蕨草缠绕其间，几株纤细的树苗东倒西歪，几根被锯断的粗大树桩袒露着顶部以及盘曲的根系，感受不到半点生气。还有几块黑漆漆的地方，那是樵夫焚烧断枝杂草和废物时留下的痕迹。

This was one of the places that Sir Geoffrey had cut during the war for trench timber. The whole knoll, which rose softly on the right of the riding, was denuded and strangely forlorn. On the crown of the knoll where the oaks had stood, now was bareness; and from there you could look out over the trees to the colliery railway, and the new works at Stacks Gate. Connie had stood and looked, it was a breach in the pure seclusion of the wood. It let in the world. But she didn't tell Clifford.

杰弗里爵士战时支援前线堑壕修筑的木料，有部分就出自这里。马道右侧矗立着的小丘线条柔和，但却寸草不生，一片诡异的凄凉景象。小丘之上也曾橡树成荫，如今却是满目荒凉，从那里透过树梢极目远望，运煤的铁道和斯塔克斯门的新厂房便映入眼帘。康妮曾经站在那里向外张望，若说这片树林是远离尘嚣的世外桃源，小丘的顶端便是唯一的缺口。那里与凡尘俗世相连接。然而，她却从未与克利福德提及此事。

This denuded place always made Clifford curiously angry. He had been through the war, had seen what it meant. But he didn't get really angry till he saw this bare hill. He was having it replanted. But it made him hate Sir Geoffrey.

这块不毛之地总让克利福德无名火起。他曾亲历大战烽火，深知战争的意义何在。但只有亲眼目睹这里的荒凉景象，才会不由得怒从心头起。他已调动人手，在这里重新栽种树木。但这仍使他对亡父平添几分怨恨。

Clifford sat with a fixed face as the chair slowly mounted. When they came to the top of the rise he stopped; he would not risk the long and very jolty down-slope. He sat looking at the greenish sweep of the riding downwards, a clear way through the bracken and oaks. It swerved at the bottom of the hill and disappeared; but it had such a lovely easy curve, of knights riding and ladies on palfreys.

轮椅继续缓慢地向上爬升，克利福德脸上没有任何表情。两人在坡顶停住脚步，克利福德不愿冒险尝试那漫长而又崎岖的下坡旅程。他呆坐在原地，眼望着绿色坡地向下延伸，从蕨草和橡树间穿过。最后在山脚下转个弯，便从视线中消失不见。然而它的蜿蜒曲折是那样的优雅从容，让人不禁想起旧日策马徐行的骑士和贵妇。

"I consider this is really the heart of England," said Clifford to Connie, as he sat there in the dim February sunshine.

“我认为这里才是英格兰的中心。”克利福德对康妮说，沐浴在二月朦胧的阳光中。