Her voice sounded harsh and strained. Stelio stopped suddenly, as one who finds himself confronted by an unexpected difficulty. His spirit had been roaming over the red and green isle2 of Murano, begemmed with flowers in her present desolate3 poverty, which seemed to blot4 out the memory of the joyous5 time when poets had sung her praises as "a sojourn6 for nymphs and demigods." He had been thinking of the famous gardens where Andrea Navagero, Cardinal7 Bembo, Aretino, Aldo, and their learned followers8, rivaled one another in the elegance9 of their Platonic10 dialogues, lauri sub umbra. He had been thinking of convents, luxurious11 as boudoirs, inhabited by little nuns12 dressed in white camelot and laces, with curls on their temples, and necks uncovered, after the fashion of the ancient honored courtesans, given to secret loves, much sought after by wealthy patricians13, with such euphonious14 names as Ancilla Soranzo, Cipriana Morosini, Zanetta Balbi, Beatrice Falier, Eugenia Muschiera, pious15 instructors16 in the ways of love. His changeful dreams were accompanied by a plaintive17 little air, a forgotten dance measure, in which the faint soul of Murano tinkled18 and whispered.
At this abrupt19 question, the air fled from his memory, all imaginings were dispersed20, the enchantment21 of the old life vanished. His wandering mind was called back, and came with reluctance22. He felt beside him the throbbing23 of a living heart, which he must inevitably24 wound. He looked at his friend.
She was walking beside the canal, calm, with no sign of agitation25, between the green water and the iridescence26 of the rows of delicate vases. Only her slender chin trembled slightly, between her short veil and fur collar.
"Yes, sometimes," he replied, after an instant of hesitation27, recoiling28 from falsehood, and feeling the necessity to elevate their love above ordinary deceptions29 and pretensions31, so that it should remain for him a cause of strength, not of weakness, a free agreement, not a heavy chain.
She pursued her way without wavering, but she had lost all consciousness of movement in the terrible throbbing of her heart, which shook her from head to foot. She saw nothing more: all she was aware of was the nearness of the fascinating water.
"Her voice is unforgettable," Stelio went on, after a pause, having found his courage. "Its power is amazing. From that first evening, I have thought that that singer might be the marvelous instrument for my great work. I wish she would consent to sing the lyric32 parts of my tragedy, the odes that arise from the symphonies and resolve themselves into figures of the dance at the end, between episodes. La Tanagra has consented to dance. I have confidence in your good offices, dear friend, to obtain also the consent of Donatella Arvale. Thus the Dionysiac trinity would be re?stablished in a perfect manner on the new stage, for the joy of mankind."
Even while he spoke33 he realized that his words had a false ring, that his unconscious air contrasted too crudely with the dark shadow on the woman's face. In spite of himself, he had exaggerated his frank tone in speaking of Donatella merely as an instrument of art, a purely34 ideal force to be drawn35 into the circle of his magnificent enterprise. In spite of himself, disturbed by the anxiety in that soul so near his own, he had leaned slightly toward deception30. Certainly what he had said was the exact truth, but his friend had demanded from him another truth. He broke off suddenly, unable to endure the sound of his own words. He felt that at that hour, between the actress and himself, art had no meaning, no vital value. Another force dominated them, more imperious, more disquieting36. The world created by intellect seemed inert37 as the ancient stones on which they trod. The only real and formidable power was the poison running in their human blood. The will of the one said: "It is my will that you shall love and serve me, wholly, mine alone, body and soul." The will of the other said: "It is my will that you shall love and serve me, but while I live I shall renounce38 nothing that may appeal to my wish and fancy." The struggle was bitter and unequal.
As she remained silent, unconsciously hastening her steps, he prepared himself to face the other truth.
"I understand, of course, that that was not what you wished to know."
"You are right: it was not that. Well?"
She turned to him with a sort of convulsive violence that reminded him of her fury one far-off evening, when she had cried madly: "Go! Run! She awaits you!"
At this moment a workman met them, and offered to show them over the neighboring glass factory.
"Yes, let us go in there," said La Foscarina, hurriedly following the workman. Presently they reached the furnace room, and were enveloped39 in its fiery40 breath, as they gazed at an incandescent41 altar, the glow from which dazzled their eyes with a painful glare.
—To disappear, to be swallowed up, to leave no sign!—cried the woman's heart, intoxicated42 with the thought of destruction.—In one second that fire could devour43 me like a dry stick, a bundle of straw.—And she went nearer to the open mouths in which she could see the molten flame, more resplendent than a midsummer sun, rolling around the earthen pots in which the shapeless mass was melting; the workmen, standing44 around, awaited the right moment to approach with iron tubes to shape that mass with the breath from their lips and the instruments of their art.
—O virtue45 of Fire!—thought the Inspirer, turned from his anxiety by the miraculous46 beauty of the element that had become to him as familiar as a brother, since the day he had found the revealing melody.—Ah, that I might give to the life of the creatures that love me the perfection of the forms to which I aspire47! That I might fuse all their weaknesses in some white heat, and make of the product obedient matter in which to impress the commandments of my heroic will and the images of my pure poetry! Why, my friend, why will you not be the divine living statue molded by my spirit, the work of faith and sorrow whereby our lives might surpass even our art? Why are we so near resembling ordinary lovers, who lament48 and curse? When I heard from your lips those admirable words: 'I can do one thing that love alone cannot do,' I believed indeed that you could give me more than love. You must be able always to do those things that love can do, besides those it cannot do, in order to meet my insatiable nature.—
Meanwhile, work was going on about the furnace. At the end of the blow pipes the molten glass swelled49, twisted, became silvery as a little cloud, shone like the moon, cracked, divided into a thousand infinitesimal fragments, glittering and thin as the threads we see at daybreak stretching from tree to tree. The glass-blowers were making harmonious50 vases. The apprentices51 placed a small, pear-shaped mass of burning paste on the spot chosen by the master-workmen; and the pear lengthened52, twisted, transformed itself into a handle, a rim53, a spout54, a foot, or a stem. The glowing heat slowly died out under the instruments, and the half-formed cup was again exposed to the heat, then drawn from it docile55, ductile56, sensitive to the lightest touches that ornamented57 and refined it, conforming it to the model handed down by their ancestors, or to the free invention of a new creator.
Extraordinarily58 light and agile1 were the human gestures that produced these elegant creatures of the fire, of breath and iron; they were like the movements of a silent dance. The figure of La Tanagra appeared to the Inspirer among the perpetual undulations of the flame, like a salamander. Donatella's voice seemed to sing to him the powerful melody.
—To-day, again, I myself have given you the thought of her for a companion—thought La Foscarina—I myself have called her up between us, and evoked59 her shadow when perhaps your thoughts were elsewhere; I have suddenly led her to you, as on that night of delirium60.—
It was true, it was true! From the instant when the singer's name had been spoken on the water by Foscarina, she herself had unconsciously exalted61 the new image in the poet's mind, had nourished it with her jealousy62 and fear, had strengthened and increased it day by day, and had at last illumined it with certainty. More than once she had said to the young man, who perhaps had forgotten: "She awaits you!" More than once she had presented to his imagination that distant, mysterious figure of expectancy63. As on that Dionysian night, when the conflagration64 of Venice had lighted up the two youthful faces with the same reflection, it was now her own passion that illumined them, and they glowed only because she herself had made them.—Certainly, he now possesses that image, and it possesses him. My anguish65 only augments66 his ardor67. It is a joy to him to love her before my despairing eyes!—
"As soon as the vase is shaped, we put it in the furnace room to be tempered," replied one of the men to a query68 from Stelio. "If it were exposed to the air immediately it would crack in a thousand pieces."
They could see the radiant vases, still slaves of the fire, still under its empire, gathered in a receptacle joined to the furnace in which they had been fused.
"They have been there ten hours," said the workman, pointing to his graceful69 family. "Is this our great Foscarina?" he added in an undertone to Stelio. He had recognized her when she had lifted her veil, suffocating70 with the heat.
"One evening, my lady, you made me tremble and weep like a child. Will you allow me, in memory of that evening, which I never shall forget, to offer you a little work from the hands of the poor Seguso?"
"A Seguso, are you?" said the poet, leaning toward the little man, to look at him closer; "are you of the great family of glass-blowers, one of the genuine race?"
"At your service, master."
"A prince, then."
"Yes, a harlequin playing the prince."
"You know all the secrets of the art, eh?"
The Muranese made a mysterious gesture which seemed to call up all the deep ancestral knowledge of which he affirmed himself the last heir.
La Foscarina had not spoken, fearing to trust her voice, but now all her affable grace rose above her sadness and accepted the gift while compensating73 the giver.
The vase held by the little bent74 man that had created it was like a miraculous flower blooming on a twisted shrub75. It was a thing of beauty, mysterious as natural things are mysterious; it held the life of a human breath in its hollow; its transparence equaled that of sky and water; its purple rim was like a floating seaweed; no one could have told the reason why it was so beautiful; and its value was either slight or beyond price, according to the eyes that looked at it.
La Foscarina chose to take it with her, without having it packed, as one carries a flower.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
agile
|
|
| adj.敏捷的，灵活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
isle
|
|
| n.小岛，岛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
desolate
|
|
| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
blot
|
|
| vt.弄脏（用吸墨纸）吸干；n.污点，污渍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
joyous
|
|
| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
sojourn
|
|
| v./n.旅居，寄居；逗留 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
cardinal
|
|
| n.(天主教的)红衣主教；adj.首要的，基本的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
followers
|
|
| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
elegance
|
|
| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
platonic
|
|
| adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
nuns
|
|
| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
patricians
|
|
| n.（古罗马的）统治阶层成员( patrician的名词复数 )；贵族，显贵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
euphonious
|
|
| adj.好听的，悦耳的，和谐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
pious
|
|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
instructors
|
|
| 指导者，教师( instructor的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
plaintive
|
|
| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
tinkled
|
|
| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
abrupt
|
|
| adj.突然的，意外的；唐突的，鲁莽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
dispersed
|
|
| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
enchantment
|
|
| n.迷惑，妖术，魅力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
reluctance
|
|
| n.厌恶，讨厌，勉强，不情愿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
throbbing
|
|
| a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
inevitably
|
|
| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
agitation
|
|
| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
iridescence
|
|
| n.彩虹色；放光彩；晕色；晕彩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
hesitation
|
|
| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
recoiling
|
|
| v.畏缩( recoil的现在分词 )；退缩；报应；返回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
deceptions
|
|
| 欺骗( deception的名词复数 )； 骗术，诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
deception
|
|
| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
pretensions
|
|
| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
lyric
|
|
| n.抒情诗，歌词；adj.抒情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
purely
|
|
| adv.纯粹地，完全地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
disquieting
|
|
| adj.令人不安的，令人不平静的v.使不安，使忧虑，使烦恼( disquiet的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
inert
|
|
| adj.无活动能力的，惰性的；迟钝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
renounce
|
|
| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
enveloped
|
|
| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
incandescent
|
|
| adj.遇热发光的， 白炽的，感情强烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
intoxicated
|
|
| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
devour
|
|
| v.吞没；贪婪地注视或谛听，贪读；使着迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
miraculous
|
|
| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
aspire
|
|
| vi.(to，after)渴望，追求，有志于 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
lament
|
|
| n.悲叹，悔恨，恸哭；v.哀悼，悔恨，悲叹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
swelled
|
|
| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
harmonious
|
|
| adj.和睦的，调和的，和谐的，协调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
apprentices
|
|
| 学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
lengthened
|
|
| （时间或空间）延长，伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
rim
|
|
| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
spout
|
|
| v.喷出，涌出；滔滔不绝地讲；n.喷管；水柱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
docile
|
|
| adj.驯服的，易控制的，容易教的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
ductile
|
|
| adj.易延展的，柔软的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
ornamented
|
|
| adj.花式字体的v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
extraordinarily
|
|
| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
evoked
|
|
| [医]诱发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
delirium
|
|
| n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
expectancy
|
|
| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
conflagration
|
|
| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
anguish
|
|
| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
augments
|
|
| 增加，提高，扩大( augment的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
ardor
|
|
| n.热情，狂热 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
query
|
|
| n.疑问，问号，质问；vt.询问，表示怀疑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
graceful
|
|
| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
suffocating
|
|
| a.使人窒息的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
ingenuous
|
|
| adj.纯朴的，单纯的；天真的；坦率的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
deign
|
|
| v. 屈尊, 惠允 ( 做某事) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
compensating
|
|
| 补偿，补助，修正 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
shrub
|
|
| n.灌木，灌木丛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |