Excerpts from Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847)
Text: (https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/768/pg768-images.html)
楊苡譯: (https://xuoda.com/wgwx/cpxs/hxsz/index.htm)
Chapter 1
‘...In all England, I do not believe that I could have fixed on a situation so completely removed from the stir of society. A perfect misanthropist’s Heaven—and Mr. Heathcliff and I are such a suitable pair to divide the desolation between us(一笑). A capital fellow! He little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when I beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows(笑)... and when his fingers sheltered themselves, with a jealous(i.e. protective) resolution, still further in his waistcoat, as I announced my name.’
...
'Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff’s dwelling. “Wuthering” being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation(i.e. air) they must have up there at all times, indeed: one may guess the power of the north wind, blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted(i.e. small, prevented from growing properly) firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun(按：此節不啻已為全書定調). Happily, the architect had foresight to build it strong: the narrow windows are deeply set in the wall, and the corners defended with large jutting stones.'
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'...I know, by instinct, his reserve springs from an aversion to showy displays of feeling—to manifestations of mutual kindliness. He’ll love and hate equally under cover(梁實秋譯：他愛和恨，都同樣的藏在心裏), and esteem it a species of impertinence to be loved or hated again. No, I’m running on too fast: I bestow my own attributes over-liberally on him(一笑). Mr. Heathcliff may have entirely dissimilar reasons for keeping his hand out of the way when he meets a would-be acquaintance, to those which actuate(i.e. motivate) me(笑。「八卦」之情，躍然紙上)...'
Chapter 3
'I began to nod drowsily over the dim page: my eye wandered from manuscript to print. I saw a red ornamented title—“Seventy Times Seven, and the First of the Seventy-First(i.e. the first sin of the seventy-first is unforgivable). A Pious Discourse delivered by the Reverend Jabez Branderham, in the Chapel of Gimmerden Sough.” And while I was, half-consciously, worrying my brain to guess what Jabez Branderham would make of his subject, I sank back in bed, and fell asleep... I thought it was morning... we were journeying to hear the famous Jabez Branderham preach... We came to the chapel. I have passed it really in my walks, twice or thrice; it lies in a hollow山谷, between two hills: an elevated hollow, near a swamp, whose peaty moisture is said to answer all the purposes of embalming on the few corpses deposited there(楊苡譯：據說那兒泥炭的濕氣對存放在那兒的幾具死屍足以產生防腐作用). The roof has been kept whole hitherto; but as the clergyman’s stipend is only twenty pounds per annum... no clergyman will undertake the duties of pastor: especially as it is currently reported that his flock would rather let him starve than increase the living by one penny from their own pockets. However, in my dream, Jabez had a full and attentive congregation; and he preached—good God! what a sermon; divided into four hundred and ninety parts(一笑), each fully equal to an ordinary address from the pulpit, and each discussing a separate sin! Where he searched for them, I cannot tell(楊苡譯：我不知道他從哪兒搜索出來這麼些罪過)... Oh, how weary I grew. How I writhed, and yawned, and nodded, and revived! How I pinched and pricked myself, and rubbed my eyes, and stood up, and sat down again, and nudged Joseph to inform me if he would ever have done. I was condemned to hear all out: finally, he reached the “First of the Seventy-First.” At that crisis, a sudden inspiration descended on me; I was moved to rise and denounce Jabez Branderham as the sinner of the sin that no Christian need pardon. “Sir,” I exclaimed, “sitting here within these four walls, at one stretch, I have endured and forgiven the four hundred and ninety heads of your discourse(笑). Seventy times seven times have I plucked up my hat and been about to depart—Seventy times seven times have you preposterously forced me to resume my seat. The four hundred and ninety-first is too much. Fellow-martyrs, have at him! Drag him down, and crush him to atoms, that the place which knows him may know him no more!” “Thou art the Man!” cried Jabez... “Seventy times seven times didst thou gapingly contort thy visage面容... The First of the Seventy-First is come. Brethren, execute upon him the judgment written...” With that concluding word, the whole assembly, exalting their pilgrim’s staves(i.e. stick), rushed round me in a body; and I, having no weapon to raise in self-defence, commenced grappling with Joseph, my nearest and most ferocious assailant, for his(i.e. his stave). In the confluence of the multitude, several clubs crossed; blows, aimed at me, fell on other sconces(i.e. head; skull.楊苡譯：在人潮彙集之中，好多根棍子交叉起來，對我而來的打擊卻落在別人的腦袋上). Presently the whole chapel resounded with rappings and counter rappings: every man’s hand was against his neighbour; and Branderham, unwilling to remain idle, poured forth his zeal in a shower of loud taps on the boards of the pulpit, which responded so smartly that, at last, to my unspeakable relief, they woke me(按：笑中忽帶驚惻). And what was it that had suggested the tremendous tumult(隱然見歷史況味)?... Merely the branch of a fir-tree that touched my lattice as the blast wailed by, and rattled its dry cones against the panes!... I heard distinctly the gusty wind, and the driving of the snow; I heard, also, the fir bough repeat its teasing sound... but it annoyed me so much, that I resolved to silence it, if possible; and, I thought, I rose and endeavoured to unhasp the casement鏈窗. The hook was soldered焊接 into the staple鉤環/鎖環... “I must stop it, nevertheless!” I muttered, knocking my knuckles through the glass, and stretching an arm out to seize the importunate(i.e. persistent) branch; instead of which, my fingers closed on the fingers of a little, ice-cold hand(全書最最驚悚、經典的一幕)!'
...
'As it spoke, I discerned, obscurely, a child’s face looking through the window. Terror made me cruel; and, finding it useless to attempt shaking the creature off, I pulled its wrist on to the broken pane, and rubbed it to and fro till the blood ran down and soaked the bedclothes: still it wailed, “Let me in!” and maintained its tenacious gripe...'
...
'He(i.e. Heathcliff) got on to the bed, and wrenched open the lattice, bursting, as he pulled at it, into an uncontrollable passion of tears. “Come in! come in!” he sobbed. “Cathy, do come. Oh, do—once more!... hear me this time, Catherine, at last!” The spectre showed a spectre’s ordinary caprice: it gave no sign of being; but the snow and wind whirled wildly through, even reaching my station, and blowing out the light(楊苡譯：甚至吹到我站的地方，而且吹滅了蠟燭).'
...
'I declined joining their breakfast, and, at the first gleam of dawn, took an opportunity of escaping into the free air, now clear, and still, and cold as impalpable ice. My landlord... offered to accompany me across the moor. It was well he did, for the whole hill-back was one billowy, white ocean; the swells and falls not indicating corresponding rises and depressions in the ground: many pits, at least, were filled to a level; and entire ranges of mounds, the refuse of the quarries, blotted from the chart which my yesterday’s walk left pictured in my mind(楊苡譯：整個蜿蜒的丘陵——石礦的殘跡——都從我昨天走過時在我心上所留下的地圖中抹掉了). I had remarked(i.e. noticed) on one side of the road, at intervals of six or seven yards, a line of upright stones, continued through the whole length of the barren: these were erected and daubed(i.e. coated; painted) with lime on purpose to serve as guides in the dark, and also when a fall(i.e. snowfall), like the present, confounded the deep swamps on either hand with the firmer path: but, excepting a dirty dot pointing up here and there, all traces of their existence had vanished: and my companion found it necessary to warn me frequently to steer to the right or left, when I imagined I was following, correctly, the windings of the road.'
Chapter 5
‘(Nelly’s word) He(i.e. Joseph, the servant) was, and is yet most likely, the wearisomest self-righteous Pharisee法利賽人 that ever ransacked a Bible to rake the promises to himself and fling the curses to his neighbours(一笑).’
Chapter 6
‘(Heathcliff’s word)...we felt we had better flee(i.e. flee from Thrushcross Grange). I had Cathy by the hand, and was urging her on, when all at once she fell down. ‘Run, Heathcliff, run!’ she whispered. ‘They have let the bull-dog loose, and he holds me!’ The devil had seized her ankle... She did not yell out—no! she would have scorned to do it, if she had been spitted on the horns of a mad cow(楊苡譯：她就是戳在瘋牛的角上，也不會叫的)...’
Chapter 7
'“Shake hands, Heathcliff,” said Mr. Earnshaw, condescendingly; “once in a way, that is permitted.”
...
She(i.e. Catherine) gazed concernedly at the dusky fingers she held in her own, and also at her dress; which she feared had gained no embellishment from its contact with his(讀之心酸).'
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'(Nelly's word to Heathcliff) ...Do you mark those two lines between your eyes; and those thick brows, that, instead of rising arched, sink in the middle(i.e. frowning); and that couple of black fiends(i.e. eyes), so deeply buried, who never open their windows boldly, but lurk glinting under them, like devil’s spies? Wish and learn to smooth away the surly wrinkles, to raise your lids frankly, and change the fiends to confident, innocent angels, suspecting and doubting nothing, and always seeing friends where they are not sure of foes. Don’t get the expression of a vicious cur(i.e. an aggressive or unkempt dog) that appears to know the kicks it gets are its desert(i.e. deserve), and yet hates all the world, as well as the kicker, for what it suffers.”'
...
'“(Heathcliff's word) I’m trying to settle how I shall pay Hindley back. I don’t care how long I wait, if I can only do it at last. I hope he will not die before I do!”
“For shame, Heathcliff!” said I(i.e. Nelly). “It is for God to punish wicked people; we should learn to forgive.”
“No, God won’t have the satisfaction that I shall(一笑),” he returned. “I only wish I knew the best way! Let me alone, and I’ll plan it out: while I’m thinking of that I don’t feel pain(確實).”'
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'"(Lockwood's word)...I perceive that people in these regions(i.e. countryside) acquire over people in towns the value that a spider in a dungeon does over a spider in a cottage, to their various occupants(i.e. people who live in cottages wouldn't mind much about spiders because they have so much else to see, unlike people in dungeons, who would pay much attention to a spider because they have nothing else to look at); and yet the deepened attraction is not entirely owing to the situation of the looker-on. They do live more in earnest, more in themselves, and less in surface, change, and frivolous external things. I could fancy a love for life here almost possible; and I was a fixed unbeliever in any love of a year’s standing. One state resembles setting a hungry man down to a single dish, on which he may concentrate his entire appetite and do it justice; the other, introducing him to a table laid out by French cooks: he can perhaps extract as much enjoyment from the whole; but each part is a mere atom in his regard and remembrance.”
Chapter 8
‘“Where are you going?” demanded Catherine, advancing to the door... “You must not go!” she exclaimed, energetically...“Can I stay after you have struck me?” asked Linton...
The soft thing(i.e. Edgar Linton) looked askance through the window: he possessed the power to depart as much as a cat possesses the power to leave a mouse half killed, or a bird half eaten.’
Chapter 9
'"(Hindley's word, drunk)...I shall make you swallow the carving-knife, Nelly!... and I want to kill some of you: I shall have no rest till I do!”
“But I don’t like the carving-knife, Mr. Hindley,” I answered; “it has been cutting red herrings紅鯡魚. I’d rather be shot, if you please(一笑).”
...
'...he(i.e. Hareton) gave a sudden spring, delivered himself from the careless grasp(i.e. his father’s grasp) that held him, and fell(i.e. down the stairs)... Heathcliff arrived underneath just at the critical moment; by a natural impulse he arrested his descent, and setting him on his feet, looked up to discover the author of the accident. A miser who has parted with a lucky lottery ticket for five shillings, and finds next day he has lost in the bargain five thousand pounds, could not show a blanker countenance than he did on beholding the figure of Mr. Earnshaw above. It expressed, plainer than words could do, the intensest anguish at having made himself the instrument of thwarting his own revenge.'
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“It’s a pity he cannot kill himself with drink,” observed Heathcliff, muttering an echo of curses back when the door was shut. “He’s doing his very utmost; but his constitution defies him(一笑). Mr. Kenneth says he would wager his mare that he’ll outlive any man on this side Gimmerton(地名，即山莊就近一帶), and go to the grave a hoary sinner; unless some happy chance out of the common course befall him.”
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'"(Catherine's word)...To-day, Edgar Linton has asked me to marry him, and I’ve given him an answer... Be quick, and say whether I was wrong!”
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“(Nelly's word)...First and foremost, do you love Mr. Edgar?”
“Who can help it? Of course I do,” she answered.
...
“Why do you love him...?”
“Nonsense, I do—that’s sufficient.”
“By no means; you must say why?”
“Well, because he is handsome, and pleasant to be with.”
“Bad!” was my commentary.
“And because he is young and cheerful.”
“Bad, still.”
“And because he loves me.”
“Indifferent, coming there(一笑).”
“And he will be rich, and I shall like to be the greatest woman of the neighbourhood, and I shall be proud of having such a husband.”
“Worst of all... You love Mr. Edgar because he is handsome, and young, and cheerful, and rich, and loves you. The last, however, goes for nothing: you would love him without that, probably; and with it you wouldn’t, unless he possessed the four former attractions.”
“No, to be sure not: I should only pity him—hate him, perhaps, if he were ugly, and a clown.”
“But there are several other handsome, rich young men in the world: handsomer, possibly, and richer than he is. What should hinder you from loving them?”
“If there be any, they are out of my way: I’ve seen none like Edgar.”
“You may see some; and he won’t always be handsome, and young, and may not always be rich.”
“He is now; and I have only to do with the present...”
“Well, that settles it: if you have only to do with the present, marry Mr. Linton.”
“... and yet you have not told me whether I’m right.”
“Perfectly right... Your brother will be pleased; the old lady and gentleman will not object, I think; you will escape from a disorderly, comfortless home into a wealthy, respectable one; and you love Edgar, and Edgar loves you. All seems smooth and easy: where is the obstacle?”
“Here! and here!” replied Catherine, striking one hand on her forehead, and the other on her breast: “in whichever place the soul lives. In my soul and in my heart, I’m convinced I’m wrong!”
...
“Nelly, do you never dream queer dreams?” she said, suddenly...
“Oh! don’t, Miss Catherine!” I cried. “We’re dismal enough without conjuring up ghosts and visions to perplex us... Look at little Hareton! he’s dreaming nothing dreary. How sweetly he smiles in his sleep!”
“Yes; and how sweetly his father curses in his solitude! You remember him, I daresay, when he was just such another as that chubby thing: nearly as young and innocent..."
...
“If I were in heaven, Nelly, I should be extremely miserable.”
“Because you are not fit to go there,” I answered. “All sinners would be miserable in heaven.”
“But it is not for that. I dreamt once that I was there... I was only going to say that heaven did not seem to be my home; and I broke my heart with weeping to come back to earth; and the angels were so angry that they flung me out into the middle of the heath on the top of Wuthering Heights; where I woke sobbing for joy. That will do to explain my secret, as well as the other. I’ve no more business to marry Edgar Linton than I have to be in heaven; and if the wicked man(i.e. Hindley) in there had not brought Heathcliff so low, I shouldn’t have thought of it. It would degrade me to marry Heathcliff now; so he shall never know how I love him: and that, not because he’s handsome, Nelly, but because he’s more myself than I am. Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same; and Linton’s is as different as a moonbeam from lightning, or frost from fire.”
...(I) saw him(i.e. Heathcliff) rise from the bench, and steal out noiselessly. He had listened till he heard Catherine say it would degrade her to marry him, and then he stayed to hear no further...
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"(Nelly's word) ...As soon as you become Mrs. Linton, he loses friend, and love, and all! Have you considered... how he’ll bear to be quite deserted in the world?"
“He quite deserted! we separated!” she exclaimed... “... Not as long as I live... Every Linton on the face of the earth might melt into nothing before I could consent to forsake Heathcliff. Oh, that’s not what I intend... I shouldn’t be Mrs. Linton were such a price demanded!... Edgar must shake off his antipathy, and tolerate him, at least. He will, when he learns my true feelings towards him. Nelly, I see now you think me a selfish wretch; but did it never strike you that if Heathcliff and I married, we should be beggars? whereas, if I marry Linton I can aid Heathcliff to rise, and place him out of my brother’s power.”
“With your husband’s money, Miss Catherine?” I asked. “You’ll find him not so pliable as you calculate upon... I think that’s the worst motive you’ve given yet for being the wife of young Linton.”
“It is not,” retorted she; “it is the best! The others were the satisfaction of my whims: and for Edgar’s sake, too, to satisfy him. This is for the sake of one(i.e. Heathcliff) who comprehends in his person my feelings to Edgar and myself. I cannot express it; but surely you and everybody have a notion that there is or should be an existence of yours beyond you. What were the use of my creation, if I were entirely contained here? My great miseries in this world have been Heathcliff’s miseries, and I watched and felt each from the beginning: my great thought in living is himself. If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem a part of it. My love for Linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it, I’m well aware, as winter changes the trees. My love for Heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight, but necessary. Nelly, I am Heathcliff! He’s always, always in my mind: not as a pleasure, any more than I am always a pleasure to myself, but as my own being."
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“(Catherine's word)I wonder where he is—I wonder where he can be! What did I say, Nelly? I’ve forgotten... Dear! tell me what I’ve said to grieve him?"
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‘It was a very dark evening for summer: the clouds appeared inclined to thunder(「inclined」用得頗有政治意味), and I said we had better all sit down; the approaching rain would be certain to bring him home without further trouble. However, Catherine would not be persuaded into tranquillity. She kept wandering to and fro, from the gate to the door, in a state of agitation which permitted no repose; and at length took up a permanent situation on one side of the wall, near the road: where, heedless of my expostulations勸告 and the growling thunder, and the great drops that began to plash around her, she remained, calling at intervals, and then listening, and then crying outright. She beat Hareton, or any child, at a good passionate fit of crying(楊苡譯：任何孩子都比不過的).
About midnight, while we still sat up, the storm came rattling over the Heights in full fury. There was a violent wind, as well as thunder, and either one or the other split a tree off at the corner of the building: a huge bough fell across the roof, and knocked down a portion of the east chimney-stack, sending a clatter of stones and soot into the kitchen-fire. We thought a bolt(i.e. lightening) had fallen in the middle of us; and Joseph swung on to his knees, beseeching the Lord to remember the patriarchs Noah and Lot(羅得，義人，故得在Sodom城滅亡時倖免於難), and, as in former times, spare the righteous, though he smote the ungodly(一笑). I felt some sentiment that it must be a judgment on us also. The Jonah(約拿，因逃避上帝吩咐而乘船出逃，為巨魚所吞，困於魚腹中三晝夜。或喻正在房中醉酒的Hindley), in my mind, was Mr. Earnshaw(i.e. Hindley); and I shook the handle of his den that I might ascertain if he were yet living. He replied audibly enough, in a fashion which made my companion(i.e. Joseph) vociferate(i.e. shout), more clamorously than before, that a wide distinction might be drawn between saints like himself and sinners like his master(一笑). But the uproar passed away in twenty minutes, leaving us all unharmed(按：一若歷史上一時之風潮); excepting Cathy, who got thoroughly drenched for her obstinacy in refusing to take shelter, and standing bonnetless and shawlless沒戴帽子披肩 to catch as much water as she could with her hair and clothes.’
Chapter 10
'...It was not the thorn(i.e. Catherine) bending to the honeysuckles(i.e. Edgar and Isabella), but the honeysuckles embracing the thorn. There were no mutual concessions: one stood erect, and the others yielded...
...
I believe I may assert that they were really in possession of deep and growing happiness... It ended. Well, we must be for ourselves in the long run; the mild and generous are only more justly selfish than the domineering(楊苡譯：溫和慷慨的人不過比傲慢霸道的人自私得稍微公平一點罷了); and it ended when circumstances caused each to feel that the one’s interest was not the chief consideration in the other’s thoughts(誠然). On a mellow evening in September, I was coming from the garden with a heavy basket of apples which I had been gathering. It had got dusk, and the moon looked over the high wall of the court院子, causing undefined shadows to lurk in the corners of the numerous projecting portions of the building. I set my burden on the house-steps by the kitchen-door, and lingered to rest, and drew in a few more breaths of the soft, sweet air(此段字字皆見情味); my eyes were on the moon, and my back to the entrance, when I heard a voice behind me say,—“Nelly, is that you?”
It was a deep voice, and foreign in tone; yet there was something in the manner of pronouncing my name which made it sound familiar. I turned about to discover who spoke, fearfully... Something stirred in the porch; and, moving nearer, I distinguished a tall man dressed in dark clothes, with dark face and hair. He leant against the side, and held his fingers on the latch as if intending to open for himself...
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"(Heathcliff's word) ...I want to have one word with her—your mistress. Go, and say some person from Gimmerton desires to see her.”
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He lifted the latch, and I entered; but when I got to the parlour where Mr. and Mrs. Linton were... They sat together in a window whose lattice lay back against the wall(即拉開、收攏在牆邊), and displayed, beyond the garden trees, and the wild green park, the valley of Gimmerton, with a long line of mist winding nearly to its top(何其靜美的一幅圖畫) (for very soon after you pass the chapel, as you may have noticed, the sough(i.e. whistling of the wind) that runs from the marshes joins a beck(i.e. stream) which follows the bend of the glen(i.e. valley)). Wuthering Heights rose above this silvery vapour(肅穆閃爍); but our old house was invisible; it rather dips down on the other side. Both the room and its occupants, and the scene they gazed on, looked wondrously peaceful...
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"(Edgar's word) ...Catherine, try to be glad, without being absurd. The whole household need not witness the sight of your welcoming a runaway servant as a brother.”
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“(Heathcliff's word) I heard of your marriage, Cathy, not long since; and, while waiting in the yard below, I meditated this plan—just to have one glimpse of your face, a stare of surprise, perhaps, and pretended pleasure; afterwards settle my score with Hindley; and then prevent the law by doing execution on myself. Your welcome has put these ideas out of my mind; but beware of meeting me with another aspect next time..."
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"(Catherine’s word)...they(i.e. Edgar and Isabella) are spoiled children, and fancy the world was made for their accommodation; and though I humour both..."
“You’re mistaken, Mrs. Linton,” said I. “They humour you... You can well afford to indulge their passing whims as long as their business is to anticipate all your desires. You may, however, fall out(i.e. argue), at last, over something of equal consequence to both sides; and then those you term weak are very capable of being as obstinate as you.”
“And then we shall fight to the death, sha’n’t we, Nelly?” she returned, laughing. “No! I tell you, I have such faith in Linton’s love, that I believe I might kill him, and he wouldn’t wish to retaliate.”
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"(Catherine’s word)...The event of this evening has reconciled me to God and humanity! I had risen in angry rebellion against Providence. Oh, I’ve endured very, very bitter misery, Nelly! If that creature(i.e. Heathcliff) knew how bitter, he’d be ashamed to cloud its removal with idle petulance(i.e. being childishly sulky.楊苡譯：他就該對他那因無聊的憤怒而不知去向的往事引以為羞哩). It was kindness for him which induced me to bear it alone... However, it’s over, and I’ll take no revenge on his folly; I can afford to suffer anything hereafter! Should the meanest thing alive slap me on the cheek, I’d not only turn the other, but I’d ask pardon for provoking it; and, as a proof, I’ll go make my peace with Edgar instantly. Good-night! I’m an angel!”
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“(Isabella's word) I love him more than ever you loved Edgar, and he might love me, if you would let him!”
"(Catherine’s word)...Nelly, help me to convince her of her madness. Tell her what Heathcliff is: an unreclaimed未開墾的 creature, without refinement, without cultivation; an arid wilderness of furze金雀花 and whinstone玄武岩. I’d as soon put that little canary into the park on a winter’s day, as recommend you to bestow your heart on him! It is deplorable ignorance of his character, child, and nothing else, which makes that dream enter your head. Pray, don’t imagine that he conceals depths of benevolence and affection beneath a stern exterior! He’s not a rough diamond—a pearl-containing oyster of a rustic: he’s a fierce, pitiless, wolfish man. I never say to him, ‘Let this or that enemy alone, because it would be ungenerous or cruel to harm them;’ I say, ‘Let them alone, because I should hate them to be wronged:’ and he’d crush you like a sparrow’s egg, Isabella, if he found you a troublesome charge. I know he couldn’t love a Linton; and yet he’d be quite capable of marrying your fortune and expectations: avarice is growing with him a besetting sin. There’s my picture: and I’m his friend—so much so, that had he thought seriously to catch you, I should, perhaps, have held my tongue, and let you fall into his trap.”
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"(Isabella's word) ...But she uttered falsehoods, didn’t she? Mr. Heathcliff is not a fiend: he has an honourable soul, and a true one, or how could he remember her(i.e. Catherine)?”
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“Come in, that’s right!” exclaimed the mistress, gaily, pulling a chair to the fire. “Here are two people sadly in need of a third to thaw the ice between them; and you(i.e. Heathcliff) are the very one we should both of us choose. Heathcliff, I’m proud to show you, at last, somebody that dotes(i.e. fond) on you more than myself. I expect you to feel flattered. Nay, it’s not Nelly... My poor little sister-in-law is breaking her heart by mere contemplation of your physical and moral beauty... No, no, Isabella, you sha’n’t run off,” she continued, arresting, with feigned playfulness, the confounded girl, who had risen indignantly. “We were quarrelling like cats about you, Heathcliff; and... I was informed that if I would but have the manners to stand aside, my rival, as she will have herself to be, would shoot a shaft into your soul that would fix you for ever, and send my image into eternal oblivion!”
...
“I think you belie her(楊苡譯：我想你是冤枉她了),” said Heathcliff, twisting his chair to face them. “She wishes to be out of my society now, at any rate!”
And he stared hard at the object of discourse(i.e. Isabella), as one might do at a strange repulsive animal: a centipede蜈蚣 from the Indies, for instance, which curiosity leads one to examine in spite of the aversion it raises. The poor thing couldn’t bear that... and, while tears beaded her lashes, bent the strength of her small fingers to loosen the firm clutch of Catherine; and perceiving that as fast as she raised one finger off her arm another closed down... she began to make use of her nails; and their sharpness presently ornamented the detainer’s with crescents of red.
“There’s a tigress!” exclaimed Mrs. Linton, setting her free, and shaking her hand with pain. “Begone, for God’s sake, and hide your vixen face! How foolish to reveal those talons to him. Can’t you fancy the conclusions he’ll draw? Look, Heathcliff! they are instruments that will do execution—you must beware of your eyes.”
“I’d wrench them off her fingers, if they ever menaced me,” he answered, brutally, when the door had closed after her.
...
"(Catherine's word)...I wished to punish her sauciness(i.e. impertinence), that’s all. I like her too well, my dear Heathcliff, to let you absolutely seize and devour her up.”
“And I like her too ill to attempt it,” said he, “except in a very ghoulish fashion. You’d hear of odd things if I lived alone with that mawkish(i.e. sentimental in an exaggerated or false way), waxen face(i.e. Isabella): the most ordinary(i.e. the most ordinary torture that he would inflict on her) would be painting on its white the colours of the rainbow, and turning the blue eyes black, every day or two: they detestably resemble Linton’s.”
“Delectably!” observed Catherine. “They are dove’s eyes—angel’s!”
“She’s her brother’s heir, is she not?” he asked, after a brief silence.
“I should be sorry to think so,” returned his companion. “... Abstract your mind from the subject at present: you are too prone to covet your neighbour’s goods; remember this neighbour’s goods are mine.”
“If they were mine, they would be none the less that(i.e. would also be yours),” said Heathcliff.’
Chapter 11
'One time I passed the old gate... on a journey to Gimmerton. It was... a bright frosty afternoon; the ground bare, and the road hard and dry. I came to a stone where the highway branches off on to the moor at your left hand; a rough sand-pillar, with the letters W. H. cut on its north side, on the east, G., and on the south-west, T. G. It serves as a guide-post to the Grange, the Heights, and village. The sun shone yellow on its grey head, reminding me of summer; and I cannot say why, but all at once a gush of child’s sensations flowed into my heart. Hindley and I held it a favourite spot twenty years before. I gazed long at the weather-worn block; and, stooping down, perceived a hole near the bottom still full of snail-shells and pebbles, which we were fond of storing there with more perishable things(字字有情); and, as fresh as reality, it appeared that I beheld my early playmate seated on the withered turf: his dark, square head bent forward, and his little hand scooping out the earth with a piece of slate(楊苡譯：用一塊瓦掘土). “Poor Hindley!” I exclaimed, involuntarily. I started: my bodily eye was cheated into a momentary belief that the child lifted its face and stared straight into mine! It vanished in a twinkling; but immediately I felt an irresistible yearning to be at the Heights.'
...
“What is it to you?” he(i.e. Heathcliff) growled. “I have a right to kiss her(i.e. Isabella), if she chooses; and you have no right to object. I am not your husband: you needn’t be jealous of me!”
“I’m not jealous of you,” replied the mistress; “I’m jealous for you(古語云「恩怨相爾汝」之謂也。兩人親暱可想)... If you like Isabella, you shall marry her. But do you like her? Tell the truth"
...
“I seek no revenge on you(i.e. Catherine),” replied Heathcliff, less vehemently. “That’s not the plan. The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don’t turn against him; they crush those beneath them(誠然). You are welcome to torture me to death for your amusement, only allow me to amuse myself a little in the same style, and refrain from insult as much as you are able. Having levelled my palace, don’t erect a hovel茅舍 and complacently admire your own charity in giving me that for a home. If I imagined you really wished me to marry Isabel, I’d cut my throat!"
“Oh, the evil is that I am not jealous, is it?” cried Catherine. “Well, I won’t repeat my offer of a wife(i.e. offering Isabella as his wife): it is as bad as offering Satan a lost soul. Your bliss lies, like his(i.e. Satan), in inflicting misery... Quarrel with Edgar, if you please, Heathcliff, and deceive his sister: you’ll hit on exactly the most efficient method of revenging yourself on me.”
...
“I’ve been so far forbearing with you, sir,” he(i.e. Edgar) said quietly; “not that I was ignorant of your miserable, degraded character, but I felt you were only partly responsible for that; and Catherine wishing to keep up your acquaintance, I acquiesced—foolishly. Your presence is a moral poison that would contaminate the most virtuous: for that cause, and to prevent worse consequences, I shall deny you hereafter admission into this house, and give notice now that I require your instant departure. Three minutes’ delay will render it involuntary and ignominious.”
“Cathy, this lamb of yours threatens like a bull!” he(i.e. Heathcliff) said. “It is in danger of splitting its skull against my knuckles. By God! Mr. Linton, I’m mortally sorry that you are not worth knocking down!”
My master glanced... and signed me to fetch the men: he had no intention of hazarding a personal encounter... but Mrs. Linton, suspecting something, followed; and when I attempted to call them, she pulled me back, slammed the door to, and locked it.
“Fair means!” she said, in answer to her husband’s look of angry surprise. “If you have not courage to attack him, make an apology, or allow yourself to be beaten. It will correct you of feigning more valour than you possess. No, I’ll swallow the key before you shall get it! I’m delightfully rewarded for my kindness to each! After constant indulgence of one’s weak nature, and the other’s bad one, I earn for thanks two samples of blind ingratitude, stupid to absurdity! Edgar, I was defending you and yours; and I wish Heathcliff may flog you sick, for daring to think an evil thought of me!”
...He tried to wrest the key from Catherine’s grasp, and for safety she flung it into the hottest part of the fire... “Oh, heavens! In old days this would win you knighthood!” exclaimed Mrs. Linton. “...Your type is not a lamb, it’s a sucking leveret(在吃奶的小兔子).”
“I wish you joy of the milk-blooded coward, Cathy!” said her friend. “I compliment you on your taste. And that is the slavering, shivering thing you preferred to me! I would not strike him with my fist, but I’d kick him with my foot..."
...(Heathcliff) gave the chair on which Linton rested a push. He’d better have kept his distance: my master quickly sprang erect, and struck him full on the throat a blow that would have levelled a slighter man. It took his breath for a minute; and while he choked, Mr. Linton walked out by the back door into the yard...
“There! you’ve done with coming here,” cried Catherine. “Get away, now; he’ll return with a brace of pistols and half-a-dozen assistants... make haste! I’d rather see Edgar at bay than you.”
“Do you suppose I’m going with that blow burning in my gullet食道?” he thundered. “...If I don’t floor him now, I shall murder him some time; so, as you value his existence, let me get at him!”
“He is not coming,” I interposed, framing a bit of a lie. “There’s the coachman and the two gardeners... Each has a bludgeon; and master will, very likely, be watching from the parlour-windows to see that they fulfil his orders.”
The gardeners and coachman were there... Heathcliff, on the second thoughts, resolved to avoid a struggle against three underlings: he seized the poker, smashed the lock from the inner door, and made his escape as they tramped in.
...
"(Catherine's word) You are aware that I am no way blamable in this matter. What possessed him(i.e. Edgar) to turn listener(i.e. be a eavesdropper)? Heathcliff’s talk was outrageous... but I could soon have diverted him from Isabella... Now all is dashed wrong; by the fool’s craving to hear evil of self(楊苡譯：這傻子拚命想聽人家說他的壞話), that haunts some people like a demon!... I did not care hardly what they did to each other; especially as I felt that, however the scene closed, we should all be driven asunder for nobody knows how long! Well, if I cannot keep Heathcliff for my friend—if Edgar will be mean and jealous, I’ll try to break their hearts by breaking my own. That will be a prompt way of finishing all, when I am pushed to extremity!"
...
“I require to be let alone!” exclaimed Catherine, furiously. She rang the bell僕人鐘 till it broke with a twang... It was enough to try the temper of a saint, such senseless, wicked rages! There she lay dashing her head against the arm of the sofa, and grinding her teeth, so that you might fancy she would crash them to splinters! Mr. Linton stood looking at her in sudden compunction內疚 and fear. He told me to fetch some water. She had no breath for speaking. I brought a glass full; and as she would not drink, I sprinkled it on her face. In a few seconds she stretched herself out stiff, and turned up her eyes, while her cheeks, at once blanched and livid, assumed the aspect of death.’
Chapter 12
"...What in the name of all that feels has he to do with books, when I am dying?” She(i.e. Catherine) could not bear the notion which I had put into her head of Mr. Linton’s philosophical resignation(一笑). Tossing about, she increased her feverish bewilderment to madness, and tore the pillow with her teeth; then raising herself up all burning, desired that I would open the window. We were in the middle of winter, the wind blew strong from the north-east, and I objected. Both the expressions flitting over her face, and the changes of her moods, began to alarm me terribly; and brought to my recollection her former illness, and the doctor’s injunction(i.e. warning; order) that she should not be crossed. A minute previously she was violent; now, supported on one arm, and not noticing my refusal to obey her, she seemed to find childish diversion in pulling the feathers from the rents she had just made, and ranging them on the sheet according to their different species: her mind had strayed to other associations.
“That’s a turkey’s,” she murmured to herself; “and this is a wild duck’s; and this is a pigeon’s. Ah, they put pigeons’ feathers in the pillows—no wonder I couldn’t die! Let me take care to throw it on the floor when I lie down. And here is a moor-cock’s公松雞; and this—I should know it among a thousand—it’s a lapwing’s田鳧. Bonny bird; wheeling over our heads in the middle of the moor. It wanted to get to its nest, for the clouds had touched the swells(楊苡譯：因為起雲啦), and it felt rain coming. This feather was picked up from the heath, the bird was not shot: we saw its nest in the winter, full of little skeletons(楊苡譯：我們在冬天看見過它的窩的，滿是小骨頭). Heathcliff set a trap over it, and the old ones dared not come. I made him promise he’d never shoot a lapwing after that, and he didn’t. Yes, here are more! Did he shoot my lapwings, Nelly? Are they red, any of them? Let me look.”
...
“I see in you, Nelly,” she(i.e. Catherine) continued dreamily, “an aged woman: you have grey hair and bent shoulders. This bed is the fairy cave under Penistone Crags, and you are gathering elf-bolts to hurt our heifers(楊苡譯：你正在收集小鬼用的石鏃來傷害我們的小牝牛。案：指Nelly背叛了她，轉為效忠Edgar); pretending, while I am near, that they are only locks of wool. That’s what you’ll come to fifty years hence(i.e. become that aged woman): I know you are not so now. I’m not wandering發昏: you’re mistaken, or else I should believe you really were that withered hag, and I should think I was under Penistone Crags; and I’m conscious it’s night, and there are two candles on the table making the black press(i.e. large cupboard) shine like jet黑玉.”
...
"...I thought I was at home,” she sighed. “I thought I was lying in my chamber at Wuthering Heights... And that wind sounding in the firs by the lattice. Do let me feel it—it comes straight down the moor—do let me have one breath!”
To pacify her I held the casement ajar a few seconds. A cold blast rushed through; I closed it.. She lay still now, her face bathed in tears. Exhaustion of body had entirely subdued her spirit: our fiery Catherine was no better than a wailing child.
...
"(Catherine's word)...As soon as ever I had barred the door, utter blackness overwhelmed me, and I fell on the floor... Before I recovered sufficiently to see and hear, it began to be dawn... I thought as I lay there, with my head against that table leg, and my eyes dimly discerning the grey square of the window, that I was enclosed in the oak-panelled bed at home; and my heart ached with some great grief which, just waking, I could not recollect. I pondered, and worried myself to discover what it could be, and, most strangely, the whole last seven years of my life grew a blank! I did not recall that they had been at all. I was a child; my father was just buried, and my misery arose from the separation that Hindley had ordered between me and Heathcliff. I was laid alone, for the first time... supposing at twelve years old I had been wrenched from the Heights(Note: She was 12 years old when her father died and when she befriended the Lintons, 15 when she accepted Edgar's proposal, 18 when she married Edgar), and every early association, and my all in all, as Heathcliff was at that time, and been converted at a stroke into Mrs. Linton, the lady of Thrushcross Grange, and the wife of a stranger: an exile, and outcast, thenceforth, from what had been my world. You may fancy a glimpse of the abyss where I grovelled(i.e. crawl; abase oneself)!... Oh, I’m burning! I wish I were out of doors! I wish I were a girl again, half savage and hardy, and free; and laughing at injuries, not maddening under them! Why am I so changed? why does my blood rush into a hell of tumult at a few words? I’m sure I should be myself were I once among the heather on those hills. Open the window again wide: fasten it open! Quick, why don’t you move?”
“Because I won’t give you your death of cold,” I answered.
“You won’t give me a chance of life, you mean,” she said sullenly. “However, I’m not helpless yet; I’ll open it myself.”
...before I could hinder her, she crossed the room, walking very uncertainly, threw it back, and bent out, careless of the frosty air that cut about her shoulders as keen as a knife... There was no moon, and everything beneath lay in misty darkness: not a light gleamed from any house, far or near; all had been extinguished long ago: and those at Wuthering Heights were never visible—still she asserted she caught their shining.
“Look!” she cried eagerly, “that’s my room with the candle in it, and the trees swaying before it; and the other candle is in Joseph’s garret閣樓. Joseph sits up late, doesn’t he? He’s waiting till I come home that he may lock the gate. Well, he’ll wait a while yet. It’s a rough journey, and a sad heart to travel it; and we must pass by Gimmerton Kirk(i.e. churchyard) to go that journey! We’ve braved its ghosts often together, and dared each other to stand among the graves and ask them to come. But, Heathcliff, if I dare you now, will you venture? If you do, I’ll keep(i.e. accompany) you. I’ll not lie there by myself: they may bury me twelve feet deep, and throw the church down over me, but I won’t rest till you are with me. I never will!”
She paused, and resumed with a strange smile. “He’s considering—he’d rather I’d come to him! Find a way, then! not through that kirkyard. You are slow! Be content, you always followed me(數句全無理路可言，卻份外動人)!”
...
...he(i.e. Edgar) took his wife in his arms, and looked at her with anguish. At first she gave him no glance of recognition: he was invisible to her abstracted gaze. The delirium was not fixed, however(楊苡譯：不過，精神錯亂也不是固定不變的); having weaned her eyes from contemplating the outer darkness, by degrees she centred her attention on him, and discovered who it was that held her.
“Ah! you are come, are you, Edgar Linton?” she said, with angry animation. “You are one of those things that are ever found when least wanted, and when you are wanted, never! I suppose we shall have plenty of lamentations now—I see we shall—but they can’t keep me from my narrow home out yonder: my resting-place, where I’m bound before spring is over! There it is: not among the Lintons, mind, under the chapel-roof, but in the open air, with a head-stone; and you may please yourself whether you go to them or come to me!”
“Catherine, what have you done?” commenced the master. “Am I nothing to you any more? Do you love that wretch Heath—”
“Hush!” cried Mrs. Linton. “Hush, this moment! You mention that name and I end the matter instantly by a spring from the window! What you touch at present you may have; but my soul will be on that hill-top before you lay hands on me again. I don’t want you, Edgar: I’m past wanting you. Return to your books. I’m glad you possess a consolation, for all you had in me is gone(讀之悽傷).”
Chapter 13
'...No mother could have nursed an only child more devotedly than Edgar tended her(i.e. Catherine)... his health and strength were being sacrificed to preserve a mere ruin of humanity...
'The first time she left her chamber was at the commencement of the following March. Mr. Linton had put on her pillow, in the morning, a handful of golden crocuses藏紅花; her eye, long stranger to any gleam of pleasure, caught them in waking, and shone delighted as she gathered them eagerly together.
“These are the earliest flowers at the Heights,” she exclaimed. “...Edgar, is there not a south wind, and is not the snow almost gone?”
“The snow is quite gone down here, darling,” replied her husband; “and I only see two white spots on the whole range of moors...”
...
'(Nelly’s narration)...Any relic of the dead is precious, if they were valued living.'
'(Isabella's letter to Nelly) ...I want to ask... How did you contrive to preserve the common sympathies of human nature when you resided here(i.e. Wuthering Heights)?'
...
“Joseph will show you Heathcliff’s chamber,” said he(i.e. Hindley)... “Be so good as to turn your lock, and draw your bolt—don’t omit it!”
“(Isabella's word) ...But why, Mr. Earnshaw?” I(i.e. Isabella) did not relish the notion of deliberately fastening myself in with Heathcliff.
“Look here!” he replied, pulling from his waistcoat a curiously-constructed pistol, having a double-edged spring knife attached to the barrel. “That’s a great tempter to a desperate man, is it not? I cannot resist going up with this every night, and trying his door. If once I find it open he’s done for; I do it invariably, even though the minute before I have been recalling a hundred reasons that should make me refrain: it is some devil that urges me to thwart my own schemes by killing him. You fight against that devil for love as long as you may; when the time comes, not all the angels in heaven shall save him!”
I surveyed the weapon inquisitively. A hideous notion struck me: how powerful I should be possessing such an instrument! I took it from his hand... He looked astonished at the expression my face assumed during a brief second: it was not horror, it was covetousness. He snatched the pistol back, jealously; shut the knife, and returned it to its concealment.
...
“What has Heathcliff done to you?” I asked. “In what has he wronged you... Wouldn’t it be wiser to bid him quit the house?”
“No!” thundered Earnshaw; “should he offer to leave me, he’s a dead man: persuade him to attempt it, and you are a murderess! Am I to lose all, without a chance of retrieval? Is Hareton to be a beggar? Oh, damnation! I will have it back; and I’ll have his gold too; and then his blood; and hell shall have his soul!"
Chapter 14
“(Nelly's word) ...she’ll(i.e. Catherine) never be like she was, but her life is spared; and if you really have a regard for her, you’ll shun crossing her way again... and the person(i.e. Edgar) who is compelled... to be her companion, will only sustain his affection hereafter by the remembrance of what she once was, by common humanity, and a sense of duty!”
“That is quite possible,” remarked Heathcliff, forcing himself to seem calm: “quite possible that your master should have nothing but common humanity and a sense of duty to fall back upon(諷刺口吻如聞)..."
...
“(Heathcliff's word) I was a fool to fancy for a moment that she valued Edgar Linton’s attachment more than mine. If he loved with all the powers of his puny being, he couldn’t love as much in eighty years as I could in a day. And Catherine has a heart as deep as I have: the sea could be as readily contained in that horse-trough as her whole affection be monopolised by him... It is not in him to be loved like me: how can she love in him what he has not?”
...
“(Heathcliff's word) ...She(i.e. Isabella) degenerates into a mere slut!... However, she’ll suit this house so much the better for not being over nice(一笑，夠mean), and I’ll take care she does not disgrace me by rambling abroad.”
...
“(Heathcliff's word) ...I can hardly regard her in the light of a rational creature, so obstinately has she persisted in forming a fabulous notion of my character and acting on the false impressions she cherished... and the senseless incapability of discerning that I was in earnest when I gave her my opinion of her infatuation and herself. It was a marvellous effort of perspicacity(i.e. shrewdness) to discover that I did not love her. I believed, at one time, no lessons could teach her that! And yet it is poorly learnt; for this morning she announced, as a piece of appalling intelligence, that I had actually succeeded in making her hate me! A positive labour of Hercules, I assure you! If it be achieved, I have cause to return thanks. Can I trust your assertion, Isabella? Are you sure you hate me? If I let you alone for half a day, won’t you come sighing and wheedling to me again? I daresay she would rather I had seemed all tenderness before you: it wounds her vanity to have the truth exposed. But I don’t care who knows that the passion was wholly on one side: and I never told her a lie about it. She cannot accuse me of showing one bit of deceitful softness. The first thing she saw me do, on coming out of the Grange, was to hang up her little dog; and when she pleaded for it, the first words I uttered were a wish that I had the hanging of every being belonging to her, except one: possibly she took that exception for herself(笑). But no brutality disgusted her: I suppose she has an innate admiration of it, if only her precious person were secure from injury! Now, was it not the depth of absurdity—of genuine idiocy, for that pitiful, slavish, mean-minded brach母狗 to dream that I could love her? Tell your master, Nelly, that I never, in all my life, met with such an abject(i.e. self-abasing) thing as she is. She even disgraces the name of Linton; and I’ve sometimes relented, from pure lack of invention, in my experiments on what she could endure, and still creep shamefully cringing back!...(按：如此一段當眾「罵妻」獨白，也算得上近代小說中的經典了)"
...
“(Heathcliff's word) ...And take a good look at that countenance: she’s near the point which would suit me(楊苡譯：好好瞧瞧那張臉吧：她已經快要達到配得上我的地步了).”
...
“(Heathcliff's muttering) I have no pity! I have no pity! The more the worms writhe, the more I yearn to crush out their entrails! It is a moral teething(楊苡譯：這是一種精神上的出牙); and I grind with greater energy in proportion to the increase of pain.”
...
history is dree(i.e. tedious; incessant)... and dreary... But never mind! I’ll extract wholesome medicines from Mrs. Dean’s bitter herbs(i.e. her bitter story).'
Chapter 15
'Mrs. Linton sat in a loose white dress... Her appearance was altered... but when she was calm, there seemed unearthly beauty in the change. The flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and melancholy softness; they no longer gave the impression of looking at the objects around her: they appeared always to gaze beyond, and far beyond—you would have said out of this world... and the peculiar expression arising from her mental state... I know... refuted more tangible proofs of convalescence, and stamped her as one doomed to decay.
...
Gimmerton chapel bells were still ringing; and the full, mellow flow of the beck(i.e. stream) in the valley came soothingly on the ear. It was a sweet substitute for the yet absent murmur of the summer foliage, which drowned that music about the Grange when the trees were in leaf. At Wuthering Heights it always sounded on quiet days following a great thaw or a season of steady rain(全書脈搏，在此類段落中皆隱約可聞；「一切景語皆情語」，信焉). And of Wuthering Heights Catherine was thinking as she listened: that is, if she thought or listened at all; but she had the vague, distant look I mentioned before, which expressed no recognition of material things either by ear or eye.
...
He(i.e. Heathcliff) did not hit the right room directly... but he found it out ere I could reach the door, and in a stride or two was at her side, and had her grasped in his arms.
He neither spoke nor loosed his hold for some five minutes, during which period he bestowed more kisses than ever he gave in his life before, I daresay: but then my mistress had kissed him first, and I plainly saw that he could hardly bear, for downright agony, to look into her face! The same conviction had stricken him as me, from the instant he beheld her, that there was no prospect of ultimate recovery there—she was fated, sure to die.
...And now he stared at her so earnestly that I thought the very intensity of his gaze would bring tears into his eyes; but they burned with anguish: they did not melt.
“What now?” said Catherine, leaning back, and returning his look with a suddenly clouded brow: her humour was a mere vane風信標 for constantly varying caprices. “You and Edgar have broken my heart... And you both come to bewail the deed to me, as if you were the people to be pitied! I shall not pity you, not I. You have killed me—and thriven on it... How strong you are! How many years do you mean to live after I am gone?”
Heathcliff had knelt on one knee to embrace her; he attempted to rise, but she seized his hair, and kept him down.
“I wish I could hold you,” she continued, bitterly, “till we were both dead! I shouldn’t care what you suffered. I care nothing for your sufferings. Why shouldn’t you suffer? I do! Will you forget me? Will you be happy when I am in the earth? Will you say twenty years hence... I loved her long ago... but it is past. I’ve loved many others since: my children are dearer to me than she was; and, at death, I shall not rejoice that I am going to her: I shall be sorry that I must leave them!’ Will you say so, Heathcliff?”
“Don’t torture me till I’m as mad as yourself,” cried he, wrenching his head free, and grinding his teeth.
The two, to a cool spectator, made a strange and fearful picture. Well might Catherine deem that heaven would be a land of exile to her, unless with her mortal body she cast away her moral character also. Her present countenance had a wild vindictiveness in its white cheek, and a bloodless lip and scintillating閃爍的 eye; and she retained in her closed fingers a portion of the locks(i.e. Heathcliff’s hair) she had been grasping. As to her companion... so inadequate was his stock of gentleness to the requirements of her condition, that on his letting go I saw four distinct impressions left blue in the colourless skin.
...
“(Catherine's word) the thing that irks me most is this shattered prison, after all. I’m tired of being enclosed here. I’m wearying to escape into that glorious world, and to be always there: not seeing it dimly through tears, and yearning for it through the walls of an aching heart: but really with it, and in it(詩語). Nelly, you think you are better and more fortunate than I... you are sorry for me—very soon that will be altered. I shall be sorry for you. I shall be incomparably beyond and above you all... I wonder(i.e. wonder why) he won’t be near me... Do come to me, Heathcliff."
In her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the arm of the chair. At that earnest appeal he turned to her... His eyes, wide and wet, at last flashed fiercely on her; his breast heaved convulsively. An instant they held asunder, and then how they met I hardly saw, but Catherine made a spring, and he caught her, and they were locked in an embrace from which I thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact, to my eyes, she seemed directly insensible(i.e. faint directly). He flung himself into the nearest seat, and on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted, he gnashed咬牙切齒 at me, and foamed like a mad dog, and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. I did not feel as if I were in the company of a creature of my own species: it appeared that he would not understand, though I spoke to him; so I stood off, and held my tongue, in great perplexity.
...
“You teach me now how cruel you’ve been—cruel and false... Why did you betray your own heart, Cathy? I have not one word of comfort. You deserve this. You have killed yourself. Yes, you may kiss me... and wring out my kisses and tears: they’ll blight you—they’ll damn you. You loved me—then what right had you to leave me?... for the poor fancy you felt for Linton? Because misery and degradation, and death, and nothing that God or Satan could inflict would have parted us, you, of your own will, did it. I have not broken your heart—you have broken it; and in breaking it, you have broken mine. So much the worse for me that I am strong... What kind of living will it be when you—oh, God! would you like to live with your soul in the grave?”
“Let me alone. Let me alone,” sobbed Catherine. “If I’ve done wrong, I’m dying for it. It is enough! You left me too: but I won’t upbraid you! I forgive you. Forgive me!”
“It is hard to forgive, and to look at those eyes, and feel those wasted hands,” he answered. “Kiss me again; and don’t let me see your eyes! I forgive what you have done to me. I love my murderer—but yours! How can I?”
...
I grew very uncomfortable, meanwhile; for the afternoon wore fast away... and I could distinguish, by the shine of the western sun up the valley, a concourse(i.e. crowd) thickening outside Gimmerton chapel porch.
“Service is over,” I announced. “My master will be here in half an hour.”
...
“I must go, Cathy,” said Heathcliff, seeking to extricate himself from his companion’s arms... she clung fast, gasping: there was mad resolution in her face.
“No!” she shrieked. “Oh, don’t, don’t go. It is the last time! Edgar will not hurt us. Heathcliff, I shall die! I shall die(讀之惻傷)!”
...
I wrung my hands, and cried out; and Mr. Linton hastened his step at the noise. In the midst of my agitation, I was sincerely glad to observe that Catherine’s arms had fallen relaxed, and her head hung down.’
