第一章（第7/8页）

In 1916 Herbert Chatterley was killed, so Clifford became heir. He was terrified even of this. His importance as son of Sir Geoffrey, and child of Wragby, was so ingrained in him, he could never escape it. And yet he knew that this too, in the eyes of the vast seething world, was ridiculous. Now he was heir and responsible for Wragby. Was that not terrible? and also splendid and at the same time, perhaps, purely absurd? Sir Geoffrey would have none of the absurdity. He was pale and tense, withdrawn into himself, and obstinately determined to save his country and his own position, let it be Lloyd George or who it might. So cut off he was, so divorced from the England that was really England, so utterly incapable, that he even thought well of Horatio Bottomley. Sir Geoffrey stood for England and Lloyd George as his forebears had stood for England and St. George: and he never knew there was a difference. So Sir Geoffrey felled timber and stood for Lloyd George and England, England and Lloyd George.

1916年，赫伯特·查泰莱阵亡，于是克利福德成为继承人。他甚至因此而感到害怕。他深知作为杰弗里爵士的子嗣、拉格比的少主，有着多么重要的意义，他无法回避自己所需肩负的责任。他也清楚这些在广大的处于水深火热中的人们看来，是多么地不着边际。现在他已经成为继承人，要对拉格比负责。这难道不会使人心生畏惧么？充分体验到满足感的同时，当事人同时也会觉得荒谬透顶。但杰弗里爵士却丝毫感觉不到任何荒谬的意味。他面色苍白，总是一副紧张兮兮的神情，一门心思决心拯救他的国家，保住自己的贵族地位。至于在位的究竟是劳埃德·乔治，或是别的什么人，对他而言毫无干系。身处与世隔绝的境地，他跟当今的现实英国社会完全脱节，因此根本就是心有余而力不足，这位爵爷甚至对霍雷肖·博顿利（注：1860-1933，英国金融家，政治骗子，内阁成员）评价颇高。杰弗里爵士支持英国及劳埃德·乔治，与他的先辈拥护祖国和圣乔治（注：260-303，罗马骑兵军官，死后被英格兰等欧洲国家奉为保护圣徒）别无二致，他从来搞不清其中有什么差异。因此，他伐倒自家的树木，为的只是支持劳埃德·乔治与英国，英国与劳埃德·乔治。

And he wanted Clifford to marry and produce an heir. Clifford felt his father was a hopeless anachronism. But wherein was he himself any further ahead, except in a wincing sense of the ridiculousness of everything, and the paramount ridiculousness of his own position? For willy-nilly he took his baronetcy and Wragby with the last seriousness.

他希望克利福德早日成家，传宗接代。而在克利福德眼中，父亲是个不可救药的脱离时代的老顽固。但他自己除了对一切事物的荒谬，尤其是自己处境的极端荒谬怀有畏缩之意外，并没有什么地方强过父亲。被迫也好，自愿也罢，他最终还是郑重其事地接受了准男爵爵位以及拉格比的财产。

The gay excitement had gone out of the war...dead. Too much death and horror. A man needed support and comfort. A man needed to have an anchor in the safe world. A man needed a wife.

战争初期的狂热已经烟消云散，灰飞烟灭。死亡人数不断攀升，血色恐惧肆意弥漫。男人们需要支持和抚慰。需要在战火未曾波及的所在，找到可以依赖的支点。需要个知疼知热的妻子。

The Chatterleys, two brothers and a sister, had lived curiously isolated, shut in with one another at Wragby, in spite of all their connexions. A sense of isolation intensified the family tie, a sense of the weakness of their position, a sense of defencelessness, in spite of, or because of, the title and the land. They were cut off from those industrial Midlands in which they passed their lives. And they were cut off from their own class by the brooding, obstinate, shut-up nature of Sir Geoffrey, their father, whom they ridiculed, but whom they were so sensitive about.

查泰莱三兄妹虽认识的人不少，但在拉格比却过着奇怪的、与世隔绝的生活，把自己封锁起来。内心的孤独将亲情的纽带系得更紧，虽然他们拥有爵位和土地，但或许正因为此，才会忧心地位不保，感到莫名的无助。虽然生活在工业化的米德兰地区，但他们却与外部世界阻隔开来。他们甚至与同阶层的人们也不相往来，这都拜其父杰弗里爵士所赐，他那阴郁倔强、沉默寡言的性格让人敬而远之。虽然兄妹三人总是将父亲作为奚落的对象，但心里却又很在意他。

The three had said they would all live together always. But now Herbert was dead, and Sir Geoffrey wanted Clifford to marry. Sir Geoffrey barely mentioned it: he spoke very little. But his silent, brooding insistence that it should be so was hard for Clifford to bear up against.

他们甚至承诺过彼此永不分离。但如今，赫伯特已不在人世，杰弗里爵士希望克利福德成家立室。他极少提及此事，因为本来就鲜于言辞。但他总是默不作声，郁郁寡欢，却又固执己见，使得克利福德根本无力反抗。