It was a hazy sunrise in August. The denser nocturnal vapours, attacked by the warm beams, were dividing and shrinking into isolated fleeces within hollows and coverts, where they waited till they should be dried away to nothing.那是八月里的一個霧氣朦朧的黎明。夜間產生的濃厚的霧氣，在溫暖陽光的照射下，正在分散開來，縮小成一堆一簇的霧團，掩藏在洼地里，樹林中，它們就聚集在那兒，直到最后消失得一干二凈。

The sun, on account of the mist, had a curious sentient, personal look, demanding the masculine pronoun for its adequate expression. His present aspect, coupled with the lack of all human forms in the scene, explained the old-time heliolatries in a moment. One could feel that a saner religion had never prevailed under the sky. The luminary was a golden-haired, beaming, mild-eyed, God-like creature, gazing down in the vigour and intentness of youth upon an earth that was brimming with interest for him.由于霧氣的緣故，太陽也變得奇怪起來，有了人的面孔，有了人的感覺，要想把它準確地表達清楚，得使用陽性代詞才行。他現在的面目，再加上景物中看不見一個人影，這立刻就對古代的太陽崇拜作出了解釋。你能夠感覺到，普天之下還沒有一種宗教比他更合乎情理的了。這個發光的物體就是一個生靈，長著金色的頭發，目光柔和，神采飛揚，好像上帝一樣，身上充滿了青春的活力，正目不轉睛地注視著大地，仿佛大地上滿是他感到有趣的事物。

His light, a little later, broke through chinks of cottage shutters, throwing stripes like red-hot pokers upon cupboards, chests of drawers, and other furniture within; and awakening harvesters who were not already astir.過了一會兒，他的光線穿過農家小屋百葉窗的縫隙，好像一根根燒紅了的通條，照射在屋內的碗櫥、五斗櫥和其它的家具上；喚醒了還處在睡夢中的收獲莊稼的農工們。

But of all ruddy things that morning the brightest were two broad arms of painted wood, which rose from the margin of a yellow cornfield hard by Marlott village. They, with two others below, formed the revolving Maltese cross of the reaping-machine, which had been brought to the field on the previous evening to be ready for operations this day. The paint with which they were smeared, intensified in hue by the sunlight, imparted to them a look of having been dipped in liquid fire.不過那天早晨，在所有的紅色物體中，最紅的物體要算兩根被漆成紅色的寬木頭支架，它們都被豎在緊靠著馬洛特村的一塊金黃色麥地邊上。加上下面的兩根木頭支架，它們就構成了收割機上可以轉動的馬爾他十字架①，收割機是在昨天被搬運到地頭上的，準備在今天使用。十字架上漆的紅色油漆，讓太陽的光線一照，它的色彩就顯得更加艷麗，讓人看上去覺得十字架好像是被浸泡在紅色的液體火焰里一樣。

The field had already been 'opened'; that is to say, a lane a few feet wide had been hand-cut through the wheat along the whole circumference of the field, for the first passage of the horses and machine.那片麥地已經被“割過了”；也就是說，在這塊麥地的四周，已經有人用手工把麥子割去了一圈，開辟出了一條幾尺寬的小路，好讓開始割麥時馬匹和機器能夠通過。

Two groups, one of men and lads, the other of women, had come down the lane just at the hour when the shadows of the eastern hedge-top struck the west hedge midway, so that the heads of the groups were enjoying sunrise while their feet were still in the dawn. They disappeared from the lane between the two stone posts which flanked the nearest field-gate.麥地里被割出來的小路上已經來了兩撥人，一撥人是男子和男孩子，另一撥人是婦女，他們來的時候，東邊樹籬頂端的影子正好投射到西邊樹籬的腰部，所以兩撥割麥人的腦袋沐浴著朝霞的時候，他們的腳卻還處在黎明里。在附近麥地的柵欄門兩邊，有兩根石頭柱子，割麥子的人就從它們中間走進去不見了。