Ah, well, everything comes to an end, even the longest up-climb. So, after much sweat and effort and crossness, Hepburn and Hannele emerged on to the rounded bluff1 where the road wound out of that hideous2 great valley cleft3 into upper regions. So they emerged more on the level, out of the trees as out of something horrible, on to a naked, great bank of rock and grass.
‘Thank the Lord!’ said Hannele.
So they trudged4 on round the bluff, and then in front of them saw what is always, always wonderful, one of those shallow, upper valleys, naked, where the first waters are rocked. A flat, shallow, utterly5 desolate6 valley, wide as a wide bowl under the sky, with rock slopes and grey stone-slides and precipices7 all round, and the zig-zag of snow-stripes and ice-roots descending8, and then rivers, streams and rivers rushing from many points downwards9, down out of the ice-roots and the snow-dagger-points, waters rushing in newly-liberated frenzy10 downwards, down in waterfalls and cascades11 and threads, down into the wide, shallow bed of the valley, strewn with rocks and stones innumerable, and not a tree, not a visible bush.
Only, of course, two hotels or restaurant places. But these no more than low, sprawling12, peasant-looking places lost among the stones, with stones on their roofs so that they seemed just a part of the valley bed. There was the valley, dotted with rock and rolled-down stone, and these two house-places, and woven with innumerable new waters, and one hoarse13 stone-tracked river in the desert, and the thin road-track winding14 along the desolate flat, past first one house, then the other, over one stream, then another, on to the far rock-face above which the glacier15 seemed to loll like some awful great tongue put out.
‘Ah, it is wonderful!’ he said, as if to himself.
And she looked quickly at his face, saw the queer, blank, sphinx-look with which he gazed out beyond himself. His eyes were black and set, and he seemed so motionless, as if he were eternal facing these upper facts.
She thrilled with triumph. She felt he was overcome.
‘It IS wonderful,’ she said.
‘Wonderful. And forever wonderful,’ he said.
‘Ah, in WINTER— ’ she cried.
His face changed, and he looked at her.
‘In winter you couldn’t get up here,’ he said.
They went on. Up the slopes cattle were feeding: came that isolated16 tong-tong-tong of cow-bells, dropping like the slow clink of ice on the arrested air. The sound always woke in him a primeval, almost hopeless melancholy17. Always made him feel navré. He looked round. There was no tree, no bush, only great grey rocks and pale boulders18 scattered19 in place of trees and bushes. But yes, clinging on one side like a dark, close beard were the alpenrose shrubs20.
‘In May,’ he said, ‘that side there must be all pink with alpenroses.’
‘I MUST come. I MUST come!’ she cried.
There were tourists dotted along the road: and two tiny low carts drawn21 by silky, long-eared mules22. These carts went right down to meet the motor-cars, and to bring up provisions for the Glacier Hotel: for there was still another big hotel ahead. Hepburn was happy in that upper valley, that first rocking cradle of early water. He liked to see the great fangs23 and slashes24 of ice and snow thrust down into the rock, as if the ice had bitten into the flesh of the earth. And from the fang-tips the hoarse water crying its birth-cry, rushing down.
By the turfy road and under the rocks were many flowers: wonderful harebells, big and cold and dark, almost black, and seeming like purple-dark ice: then little tufts of tiny pale-blue bells, as if some fairy frog had been blowing spume-bubbles out of the ice: then the bishops-crosier of the stiff, bigger, hairy mountain-bell: then many stars of pale-lavender gentian, touched with earth colour: and then monkshood, yellow, primrose25 yellow monkshood and sudden places full of dark monkshood. That dark-blue, black-blue, terrible colour of the strange rich monkshood made Hepburn look and look and look again. How did the ice come by that lustrous26 blue-purple intense darkness? — and by that royal poison? — that laughing-snake gorgeousness of much monkshood.
1 bluff | |
v.虚张声势,用假象骗人;n.虚张声势,欺骗 | |
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2 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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3 cleft | |
n.裂缝;adj.裂开的 | |
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4 trudged | |
vt.& vi.跋涉,吃力地走(trudge的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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5 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
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6 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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7 precipices | |
n.悬崖,峭壁( precipice的名词复数 ) | |
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8 descending | |
n. 下行 adj. 下降的 | |
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9 downwards | |
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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10 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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11 cascades | |
倾泻( cascade的名词复数 ); 小瀑布(尤指一连串瀑布中的一支); 瀑布状物; 倾泻(或涌出)的东西 | |
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12 sprawling | |
adj.蔓生的,不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 );蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
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13 hoarse | |
adj.嘶哑的,沙哑的 | |
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14 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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15 glacier | |
n.冰川,冰河 | |
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16 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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17 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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18 boulders | |
n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 );巨砾;(受水或天气侵蚀而成的)巨石;漂砾 | |
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19 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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20 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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21 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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22 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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23 fangs | |
n.(尤指狗和狼的)长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 );(蛇的)毒牙;罐座 | |
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24 slashes | |
n.(用刀等)砍( slash的名词复数 );(长而窄的)伤口;斜杠;撒尿v.挥砍( slash的第三人称单数 );鞭打;割破;削减 | |
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25 primrose | |
n.樱草,最佳部分, | |
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26 lustrous | |
adj.有光泽的;光辉的 | |
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