AS the hot months came round my money gave out. Work was plentiful3 in the numerous factories that throb4 and thunder with machinery5 in Providence6, but such work was not congenial to my temperament7, and would ruin my fingers for violin-playing, as the post-digging job did. Nevertheless I should have availed myself of the opportunity had no alternative appealed to me. But my friend the conductor was a crank who was always producing some new scheme or invention that would assist him financially and augment8 his moderate musician’s salary.
One night he came to my diggings beaming with enthusiasm over a plan to make us both rich. He had invented a new bug powder: our fortunes were made; all we had to do was to let the Providence public know the catastrophe9 that we had ready for these insects. Suburban10 houses in the States are generally made of wood that is specially11 suitable for the bug state. So the population of Rhode Island all have one secret; and on dark nights in hot weather candle gleams and shadowy figures can be seen dodging12 on the windows of the tenements13, as restless folk in their nightshirts smash bugs15 on the wooden walls. I write from experience. They creep down the walls in regiments16, and while you sleep eat your eyelids17; if you wink18 they seek crevices19, dart20 into your ears, and prepare for the next attack! Closing your toes together swiftly at night in bed, you can be sure that you have squashed three or four American bugs. I have carelessly glanced at skeletons which I thought were ancient dead bugs on the walls in the room of my new lodgings21, and then at midnight I have lit the candle, and down the walls were marching battalions22 of old bug-skins! They had smelt23 me, and the regiments on the frontier of my bedstead were already full blown with my blood.
Well, my Swedish friend and I threw our musical instruments aside, and started on the bug powder business, full of hope. I had several musical compositions that I was ambitious to publish on my own account. I felt that Providence bugs had presented the tide in my affairs which I should take at the flood.
With our pockets stuffed with a thousand bills, advertisements bearing testimonials from American presidents and English royalties25 who had stayed in America, my comrade and I tramped along with our hearts singing the excelsior song of happiness. We really lived in a paradise of ignorance and youth. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet” is a true phrase, and happy, though selling bug powder, was equally true of us.
We marched, singing, on the dusty, white track to Narragansett. In the suburban gardens that led to the front doors grew gorgeous flowers. I can still dream that I smell their fragrance26, and see the dancing blossoms in the brilliant sunshine. Strange things darted27 over us, hovered28 near the blooms and moaned like big humble29 bees. They were humming-birds, glittering and flashing their vivid colours, outrivalling the flowers with their brilliant feathery garment. The sky was blue as a girl’s eyes, and nearly as beautiful. We delivered the thousand bills and spent the rest of the day by a river. Wild fowl30 swam across it, and fresh from the eggs, with frightened eyes gleaming, the little ones paddled behind them. For miles the country was strewn with trees and houses, many of them made of wood, and at these especially we left three or four bills and at length disposed of the lot.
When we called on my friend the conductor for a first instalment of twenty dollars for our services we found him out, but after several visits we caught him. He was pleased to hear that we had worked a full week and left five thousand advertisements, but he put off the payment of our wages and borrowed my last five dollars! We haunted him for days; he was seldom home. My comrade and I sweated for miles and miles, seeking him at his various musical engagements; but the man seemed gifted with second sight, for as we knocked at the front entrance he hurried off from the back and vanished. The bug business failed and he moved. Still we demanded our wages by post; for he had left no address, and we hoped that the postal31 authorities would forward our pleading request. At last we found him. The sound of martial32 music came down D—— Street: a military band was leading a funeral procession, of some old soldier I suppose. There at the head of the band he blew solo cornet. We dared not approach him, but in our excitement we waved our hands. He winked33 in a friendly way as he passed on, and the strains of Chopin’s Funeral March faded with our hopes.
Eventually we caught him in a cul-de-sac, got ten dollars out of him and lived on pork and beans for a fortnight. Providence would be indeed stricken without pork and beans. As a rule they are not cooked, or rather baked, at home, but bought in jars, hot from the baker’s oven, ten and twenty-five cents a jar. Crime is scarce in Providence, capital punishment abolished. If a citizen sat down to his meal and discovered no pork and beans, and slew34 the waiter, he would get off on extenuating35 circumstances. Well, to revert36 to the bug powder business, like all my commercial enterprises, it ceased on my receiving the ten dollars, and my employer the bandmaster told me, when I met him a month after, that I had made five dollars more out of the enterprise than he did.
This brings me to another friend, a Sioux Indian, who was married and lived in the next rooms to my own. His wife, a white woman, took in washing and kept him. I used to sit in the evening and listen to his opinion of the States. His whole soul hated the Yankees. I once praised the Americans and their cities. He was down on me in a flash. “I am the true American,” he growled37, “and the day will come when we shall get our country back.” I did not argue the point with him; his old wife kept him, and he showed base ingratitude38 by his opinions. He was educated and well dressed, and revealed to me, by all his conversation, the same kind of spite for the foreigner that I had noticed in the South Seas. Notwithstanding that the States had been peopled by whites so long, still the Yankee was an interloper and the robber of his country. He was not a bad old Indian, and was a friend to me during my stay at his tenement14.
Just before I took his rooms I went to Boston to hear H——, a celebrated39 violinist who was performing there; I was anxious to hear if he was as wonderful as the review notices made him. I do not think I have ever heard such fine playing equalled even. He played Mendelssohn’s concerto40, and swayed the legato strain out till it sang like a rivulet41 of silver song as the deeper notes mellowed42 to a golden strain as perfect in quality as the sunset lyre-bird of Australia. I have heard Sarasate, Ysaye, Joachim and many others, but no one with a better tone and intonation43, except Sarasate, who played like some inspired magician off the concert stage. I heard him play at his villa44 in Biarritz, where I had the pleasure of receiving a gratuitous45 lesson from the celebrated maestro. “No, like this,” he said, as I played one of his own compositions: then he lifted his violin to his chin, and looked out of the villa’s latticed window as he played and rippled46 out a sparkling chain of diamond-pure notes and then literally47 swooned into the adagio48.
I never had the courage to play that particular piece after.
After hearing that violin virtuoso49 at Boston I became enthusiastic and returned to Providence. The fever was on me. Again I determined50 to be the world’s greatest violinist! I almost wept at my wasted life on sea and shore. What might I not have been now, thought I, had I been practising the violin all those thousands of days instead of making sailors and South Sea Island savages51 my comrades? I went to the music stores and purchased the American editions of Petrie’s Studies, and Paganini’s Twenty-four Etudes-Caprices.
In my room, over the old Indian’s, I commenced. At daybreak I jumped each morning off my trestle bed and started practising. At first I tackled the Caprice which is double-stopping throughout. In a week I had got it off. I had long fingers, otherwise I should think it an impossibility. All day I bowed away. My furniture consisted of a music-stand, the Etudes, my bed and me! When I look back and think of my wonderful perseverance52, it seems almost incredible. True and wonderful is the energy and happiness that aspiration53 brings to youth! Day after day I worked away at the studies with almost demon-like fury. Soon my chin had a great scab on it where the violin rested as I ground out the double-stopping sweeps, arpeggios and staccatos. I became thin and haggard-looking. I greedily devoured54 the lives of great violinists, among them Paganini and Ole Bull; also, after long intervals55, pork and beans, as the old Indian below-stairs cooked them. He soon looked upon me as a sad kind of madman. I would gulp56 down the beans, look at his old grandfather clock and rush upstairs, then once more grind away, determined to make up for lost years. I saw the mighty57 crowds at concerts TO BE, applauding my wonderful playing! I was a new Paganini. Ah! how I remember it all. Through excessive playing the corns on my finger-tips became so hard that I could not feel the strings58! My nervous system was soon wrecked59, and my brain became ethereal with dreams—music was the all in all of life. People who did not play the violin were insanely ignorant.
Inspired, I extemporised melodies as I bowed and toiled60 away during the night hours: the day was not sufficient. The doors of the next tenement would suddenly bang, and strange tappings sound on the walls. I opened the window at midnight. I thought my double-stopping assuredly entranced the neighbours. It was hot weather, their windows were open too. In my imagination I thought I was playing to crowded houses. I heard the applause. Do you think I exaggerate? Believe me, I could never write down the depth, the magnificence, of those enthusiastic dreams. Only those who have felt as I felt, and were once inspired with ambition as I was inspired, will know exactly all that I felt, and all that I dreamed.
One day ten solemn-looking American citizens appeared outside the door of the Indian’s tenement; they wanted to see me. My name was called. I laid the violin down. I had no friends. Had my brother arrived? Strange thoughts flitted through my brain. Had people come as a special convoy61 to praise my extraordinarily62 fine playing? I opened the door and, white-faced and tremulous, I stared at a grey-bearded, solemn-looking old man who acted as spokesman. He presented me with a round robin. Fierce faces were looking over his shoulders! Two or three hundred signatures were there, the landlord’s signature looked the boldest! I was either to stop playing the violin or give up the premises63 and move at once. This was a terrible blow to me. I should lose a day’s practice if I had to tramp about looking for another room. I hated the world. Men were hard and mercenary. Only violinists and musicians had souls. I looked at my violin; it was my dear, abused comrade, and I clung to its reputation more than ever. No mother on earth ever leaned over her child with thoughts that outdid the tenderness of mine as I leaned over my tiny, responsive comrade, silent in its coffin-shaped bed. The dead child of my musical aspirations64 it seemed to me, for they were gone, and my mighty ambition lay a dead failure. Oh, you aspirants65, you musicians and poets of this world, all you who love art for art’s sake, for you, and you alone, I write this. You will understand; you are my brothers. I can wish you more success, but no greater happiness than the delirium66, the ecstatic joy that was mine when I sought to become the world’s greatest violinist.
I became melancholy67: my incessant68 practice and irregular meals had, for the time being, destroyed my nerves. I thought of my schooldays and my life at sea, and longed for my boyhood’s days in the Australian bush. I remembered the kingly stockman and his wife, and the surrounding bush loneliness; the leafy gum clumps69 and the parrots roosting in them; and the hours when I sat on the dead log by the scented70 wattles in the hollows and watched the fleets of cockatoos like tiny canoes fade away in the sunset. I heard in dreams the laughter of the romping71 bush children as I raced them down the scrub-covered slopes, and I longed for those ambitionless days to come again.
MEMORIES
I can still see the forest trees
All waving in the dusk,
And o’er the mountains far away
Where home the parrots flock,
The drover with his stock.
The old bush homestead by the sea
Still stands, the front door swings
As on the tall, gaunt, dead gum-tree
There, by the door, the stockman sits
And smokes; as on her rug
His pale wife sits just by and knits—
And as I stand and, dreaming, gaze,
The years have taken wing,
And from my heart out of old days
Comes this sad song I sing.
That garden where those children ran,
Raced me, laughed, screamed with joy,
Is overgrown—and I, a man,
Have overgrown the boy.
I know the redwood’s forest height
Of branches thrilled with words,
Songs of soft, bright-winged birds—
Has blazed to ash in homestead fires
Of cities o’er the plains;
Of all those woods and sweet desires
Sweet Ellen, curled hair and brown eyes,
I loved her pretty ways;
And as I dream sad heart-mists rise
From those wild boyhood days.
My love was half a passion then,
That pure love God earth gave—
It comes in after years to men
For someone in a grave.
And heard the night-birds’ screams—
As thro’ the scrub the dingo crept—
Has rotted into dreams.
Now thro’ the hills the echoes fly
Of hearts o’er shining rails—
The night express fast thundering by
That brings the English mails!
Yet often I go back again
To where the homestead stands;
I gaze in eyes thro’ mists of pain
And clasp old shadow hands;
Kiss Ellen, Bertha and Lurline:
Those pretty children three
May some day read these lines of mine
And all remember me.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
bug
|
|
| n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
robin
|
|
| n.知更鸟，红襟鸟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
plentiful
|
|
| adj.富裕的，丰富的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
throb
|
|
| v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
machinery
|
|
| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
temperament
|
|
| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
augment
|
|
| vt.(使)增大，增加，增长，扩张 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
catastrophe
|
|
| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
suburban
|
|
| adj.城郊的，在郊区的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
specially
|
|
| adv.特定地；特殊地；明确地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
dodging
|
|
| n.避开，闪过，音调改变v.闪躲( dodge的现在分词 )；回避 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
tenements
|
|
| n.房屋，住户，租房子( tenement的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
tenement
|
|
| n.公寓；房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
bugs
|
|
| adj.疯狂的，发疯的n.窃听器( bug的名词复数 )；病菌；虫子；[计算机]（制作软件程序所产生的意料不到的）错误 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
regiments
|
|
| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
eyelids
|
|
| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
wink
|
|
| n.眨眼，使眼色，瞬间；v.眨眼，使眼色，闪烁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
crevices
|
|
| n.（尤指岩石的）裂缝，缺口( crevice的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
dart
|
|
| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
lodgings
|
|
| n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
battalions
|
|
| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
smelt
|
|
| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
blessing
|
|
| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
royalties
|
|
| 特许权使用费 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
fragrance
|
|
| n.芬芳，香味，香气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
darted
|
|
| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
hovered
|
|
| 鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
humble
|
|
| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
fowl
|
|
| n.家禽，鸡，禽肉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
postal
|
|
| adj.邮政的，邮局的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
martial
|
|
| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
winked
|
|
| v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 )；递眼色（表示友好或高兴等）；（指光）闪烁；闪亮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
slew
|
|
| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
extenuating
|
|
| adj.使减轻的，情有可原的v.（用偏袒的辩解或借口）减轻( extenuate的现在分词 )；低估，藐视 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
revert
|
|
| v.恢复，复归，回到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
growled
|
|
| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
ingratitude
|
|
| n.忘恩负义 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
celebrated
|
|
| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
concerto
|
|
| n.协奏曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
rivulet
|
|
| n.小溪，小河 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
mellowed
|
|
| （使）成熟( mellow的过去式和过去分词 )； 使色彩更加柔和，使酒更加醇香 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
intonation
|
|
| n.语调，声调；发声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
villa
|
|
| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
gratuitous
|
|
| adj.无偿的，免费的；无缘无故的，不必要的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
rippled
|
|
| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
adagio
|
|
| adj.缓慢的；n.柔板；慢板；adv.缓慢地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
virtuoso
|
|
| n.精于某种艺术或乐器的专家，行家里手 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
determined
|
|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
savages
|
|
| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
perseverance
|
|
| n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
aspiration
|
|
| n.志向，志趣抱负；渴望；(语)送气音；吸出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
devoured
|
|
| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
intervals
|
|
| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
gulp
|
|
| vt.吞咽，大口地吸（气）；vi.哽住；n.吞咽 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
strings
|
|
| n.弦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
wrecked
|
|
| adj.失事的，遇难的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
toiled
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
convoy
|
|
| vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
extraordinarily
|
|
| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
premises
|
|
| n.建筑物，房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
aspirations
|
|
| 强烈的愿望( aspiration的名词复数 )； 志向； 发送气音； 发 h 音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
aspirants
|
|
| n.有志向或渴望获得…的人( aspirant的名词复数 )v.渴望的，有抱负的，追求名誉或地位的( aspirant的第三人称单数 )；有志向或渴望获得…的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
delirium
|
|
| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
clumps
|
|
| n.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的名词复数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声v.（树、灌木、植物等的）丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 )；（土、泥等）团；块；笨重的脚步声 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
scented
|
|
| adj.有香味的；洒香水的；有气味的v.嗅到(scent的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
romping
|
|
| adj.嬉戏喧闹的，乱蹦乱闹的v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的现在分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
scents
|
|
| n.香水( scent的名词复数 )；气味；（动物的）臭迹；（尤指狗的）嗅觉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
musk
|
|
| n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
crimson
|
|
| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
magpie
|
|
| n.喜欢收藏物品的人，喜鹊，饶舌者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
tug
|
|
| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
laden
|
|
| adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
shanty
|
|
| n.小屋，棚屋；船工号子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |