So, likewise, all she had learned of the Hebrews was gone; now a legend, now a saying would come back to her, some proverb or a piece of ritual, but like a bar from a tune5 one has forgotten. But everything she felt, everything she had known of great Samson remained with her. One learns things and one lives things. The things written in the head fade out and die, but the words on the heart bite deeper and deeper.... She could remember every kiss he had given, the immense madness he had evoked6.... O God, was it possible that she, so calm now, so respected, so wise, had once shaken like a leaf at his voice? Her knees had trembled; her heart had fought in her breast like a caged bird; her throat had gone dry....
Before she met him, she knew him by repute, a huge, turbulent man of immense strength, who had often been in trouble with the Philistine authorities.... In the tribal7 troubles, some years before, his name had been very prominent. He had married a Philistine girl in Timnath, and there had been a riot at the wedding, over a question of dowry, or something of the kind, and some of the girl's Philistine relations had been killed. A sort of vendetta8 had arisen and Samson had declared war against the nation. He had proceeded to burn the corn stacked in the fields; there was a strange rumor9 that he had captured an immensity of foxes and, tying burning brands to their tails, had loosed them among the harvest.
Then, of course, from a family quarrel it had become a national affair and Samson was proscribed10. Prodigious11 stories were told of his strength and valor12, of his defeating patrols single-handed, and refuging on the rocks of Etom. The Hebrews were asked to give him up to authority, and brought him to Lehi bound. But there he burst his cords, such immense strength had he, and escaped after slaying14 twenty men in a hand-to-hand fight. Then he had become a bandit of the hills on whose head a price was set.
Around him a romance grew, as will about all mountain chiefs, to which Samson lived up most gallantly15. Careless of disguise, careless of danger, he had come, with his great red beard and his hair floating to his hips16, into Gaza itself once, to see a woman. The watchmen were told, and the city gates were locked while they searched for him, but he crashed through the gates with his terrific shoulders and made his way to Hebron. It was said he carried parts of the ironwork with him to make weapons.
All this had happened years before, and all the border warfare17 was over, and Samson was no longer a proscribed bandit but a great man of the Hebrews, leaping suddenly into fame and holding fame and power as such men will. He no longer raided harvests and kine, nor came to Gaza secretly, but now he walked like a conqueror18. It was said that it irked him that everything was so peaceful and quiet, and he regretted the old roaming days. To the Hebrews he was a great figure, a champion.
Delilah had never understood how they made a champion out of this guerilla fighter, but when she saw him for the first time she understood. He came to thank her for the interest she had taken in his race.
"You have been good to my people," his voice thundered. "I thank you."
Herself, a tall woman, had to look up like a child to him, and herself, no small woman, felt a reed beside that vast muscular bulk. She had two impressions of him, his immense masculine quality, and his tremendously arrogant19 manner. For everything Philistine he seemed to hold a tremendous contempt. He had beaten the Philistines20, and physically21 he thought little enough of them.
It seemed a little flaunting22 to her, at first, that great cape13 of red hair, of which he was so very proud, so very careful. In a smaller man it would have been effeminate, but in him it was a trait of virility23, like a lion's mane. Beside him his followers24, his clansmen, seemed so frail25, so puny26. No wonder they watched him with those adoring eyes. No wonder they exhibited him, so proud they were.
To Delilah, it was a wonder and an irritation27 that she should be so moved, so thrown off her axis28 mentally and emotionally by the presence of this great hairy man. All her senses were jangled suddenly. One part of her, the Philistine lady, smiled in a little patronizing contempt for the unconcealed boastfulness of his words, for his insulting glance at the passers-by.
But another, a strange Delilah clamored:
"No matter what he says, let him speak on. My heart opens at his voice.... Let him contemn29 all men with his arrogant eye, but let him not contemn me!"
The Philistine lady had a little disgust for the way he laid his hand on the heads and the shoulders of his followers, pawing them clumsily. But the new Delilah clamored:
"If he lays his hand on me, I shall faint to the ground and die!" And a burning shame rose in her, and her face reddened. And she said to herself, "God! God! I have suddenly gone mad!"
All her culture, her tradition, all the fine conventions of her life, seemed suddenly to vanish, become nothing, before this immense male. All the men of her life, friends, her young false lover, relatives seemed like puppets beside him—their shaven faces, their polished speech, their carefulness of dress and demeanor30. The rufous giant had appeared, and "Away," he seemed to have cried, and they had whirled off, like blown feathers.
If she were troubled, he was troubled too. The directness of him read her perturbation. A great desire rose in the turbulent hillsman to be near her, to know her body and soul. He was accustomed to women, to love women, but never had he known a woman such as this—a beautiful groomed31 lady who possessed32 all that was a wonder to him, riches and foreign breeding and a strange, sweet culture. His wife of Timneth had been only a country girl, and his sweethearts of the hills had been tribeswomen, agile33, angry as cats, like some hard, harsh fruit, and the women he had known in Gaza were venal34 women, for every man. But this was a great lady—and she loved him. A great pride, and a great wonder, and desire rose in him. He was stupefied as she.
They looked at each other, each reading the other's thought, until their throats became dry, and all words were just trivial sounds, meaning nothing. Dumb and wondrous35 he was, and she dumb and bowing with shame. How they parted was to her a mystery, but that their hands touched, and at the touch all her bone and flesh seemed to go liquid, and her knees trembled as with an immensity of fear. And nothing seemed stable in the world but his great hot hand, that trembled too....
Bowed with shame she was, troubled, blind in purpose, all the familiar things of her house and lands were now unfamiliar36, unimportant. The long day dragged, and in her heart was a storm, like a hot wind from the desert. She refuged in her inner rooms, in the coolness of her inner rooms, but that brought no relief, and restlessly she must come out again. The Asian sun crept slowly from east to west, but Delilah remained in a dull maze37. "Am I ill?" she asked. "Am I stricken with some strange disease?" But no. "I am insane," she thought. "I must put it out of my head. I must n't think." Slowly, slowly the day wheeled by; but out of her head it would not go. And her face went white and slowly she whispered to herself: "I am a bad woman. I never knew before. Oh, shame, shame and woe38! I am an evil woman!"
The Asian sun dropped into the hissing39 sea, and came the soft Syrian dusk, and the swift coolth of the night. The heat of mind and body went with the heat of the day. There remained only a deep longing40, that seemed to be a nostalgia41 of the infinite. Without, the night was blue, there was only a little wind among the apple-trees, and all the flowers had closed until dawn should come, but the birds were unsilent and the earth itself was restless, now spring was here.
The night wind cooled her sweet brow and ruffled42 the dark perfumed hair at her temples. The cool night wind, like cool water. Then arose in Delilah a desire for it, and she wandered out among the vines and apple-trees, touching43 them, as she passed, in sympathy, for it seemed to her that they must share her yearning44. Though all was darkness, yet all was not rest. Somewhere the sheep were grazing, and she could imagine the gods of the nearer East walking the earth, the passionate45, seeking gods, the ever-young ones; they walked beside her, their slim, brown, beautiful bodies, their liquid eyes. All the longing of the night came to her lips in a little song—an air, and faltering46, unthought words.
"Is some one there? Who is there? Who?" But she knew well who was there.
"Who is it? Who is it?"
She saw the great bulk in the blue night, like a giant, like some great giant of the earth.
"It is I—Samson."
"What—how—" Words would not come to her. Nor would words mean anything. "Why—"
She put out her hands—she knew not for what reason, perhaps to thrust him away—her slim white hands in the dusk. He seized them. Once again she throbbed49 from head to foot, and her knees became weak, and all of her melted. And she fell forward, will having left her, on the great bearded chest.
"I am dying," she murmured. "O my God, I die!"
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1
labors
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| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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philistine
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| n.庸俗的人；adj.市侩的，庸俗的 | |
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grandee
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| n.贵族；大公 | |
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tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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6
evoked
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| [医]诱发的 | |
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tribal
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| adj.部族的，种族的 | |
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8
vendetta
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| n.世仇，宿怨 | |
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9
rumor
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| n.谣言，谣传，传说 | |
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10
proscribed
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| v.正式宣布（某事物）有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11
prodigious
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| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
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valor
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| n.勇气，英勇 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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14
slaying
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| 杀戮。 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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16
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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arrogant
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的 | |
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philistines
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| n.市侩，庸人( philistine的名词复数 )；庸夫俗子 | |
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21
physically
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| adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律 | |
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22
flaunting
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| adj.招摇的，扬扬得意的，夸耀的v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的现在分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
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23
virility
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| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
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24
followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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25
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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puny
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| adj.微不足道的，弱小的 | |
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27
irritation
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| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
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28
axis
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| n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线 | |
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29
contemn
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| v.蔑视 | |
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demeanor
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| n.行为；风度 | |
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31
groomed
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| v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的过去式和过去分词 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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32
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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agile
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| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
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venal
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| adj.唯利是图的，贪脏枉法的 | |
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wondrous
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| adj.令人惊奇的，奇妙的；adv.惊人地；异乎寻常地；令人惊叹地 | |
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36
unfamiliar
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| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
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37
maze
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| n.迷宫，八阵图，混乱，迷惑 | |
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38
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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39
hissing
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| n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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40
longing
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| n.（for）渴望 | |
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41
nostalgia
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| n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧 | |
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42
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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43
touching
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| adj.动人的，使人感伤的 | |
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44
yearning
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| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
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45
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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46
faltering
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| 犹豫的，支吾的，蹒跚的 | |
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47
throbbing
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| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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48
rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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49
throbbed
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| 抽痛( throb的过去式和过去分词 )； （心脏、脉搏等）跳动 | |
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