1. 至于他的良好的名声和他在世间的地位,或许还有他的生命,予取予夺都在你的掌握之中。
So far as concerns the overthrow or preservation of his fair fame and his earthly state, and perchance his life, he is in thy hands.
2. 予取予夺的解释
2. 或许是出于某种难以解释的原因——这在当时和今天都是有的——某些人苦求不得的,别人却可予取予夺,或许是因为海丝特确实填补了原先的一项空白
Or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then, as now, sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might seek in vain; or because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant
3. 或许是出于对这位如此命苦的女人的怜悯;或许是出于对平淡无奇的事情也要故弄玄虚的少见多怪;或许是出于某种难以解释的原因——这在当时和今天都是有的——某些人苦求不得的、别人却可予取予夺、或许是因为海丝特确实填补了原先的一项空白;不管是什么原因吧,反正求她做针线的活路源源不断,只要她乐意于多少钟点,总有很不错的收入。
She possessed an art that sufficed, even in a land that afforded comparatively little scope for its exercise, to supply food for her thriving infant and herself.
4. 或许是出于对这位如此命苦的女人的怜悯;或许是出于对平淡无奇的事情也要故弄玄虚的少见多怪;或许是出于某种难以解释的原因——这在当时和今天都是有的——某些人苦求不得的、别人却可予取予夺、或许是因为海丝特确实填补了原先的一项空白;不管是什么原因吧,反正求她做针线的活路源源不断,只要她乐意于多少钟点,总有很不错的收入。
Whether from commiseration for a woman of so miserable a destiny; or from the morbid curiosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or worthless things; or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then, as now, sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might seek in vain; or because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant; it is certain that she had ready and fairly requited employment for as many hours as she saw fit to occupy with her needle.