THE VASE OF CLAY By Jean Aicard chapter 1

 Jean had inherited from his father a little field close beside the sea. Round this field the branches of the pine trees murmured a response to the plashing of the waves. Beneath the pines the soil was red, and the crimson¹ shade of the earth mingling² with the blue waves of the bay gave them a pensive³ violet hue⁴, most of all in the quiet evening hours dear to reveries and dreams.

 

In this field grew roses and raspberries. The pretty girls of the neighborhood came to Jean’s home to buy these fruits and flowers, so like their own lips and cheeks. The roses, the lips, and the berries had all the same youth, had all the same beauty.

 

Jean lived happily beside the sea, at the foot of the hills, beneath an olive tree planted near his door, which in all seasons threw a lance-like blue shadow upon his white wall.

 

Near the olive tree was a well, the water of which was so cold and pure that the girls of the region, with their cheeks like roses and their lips like raspberries, came thither⁵ night and morning with their jugs⁶. Upon their heads, covered with pads, they carried their jugs, round and slender as themselves, supporting them with their beautiful bare arms, raised aloft like living handles.

 

Jean observed all these things, and admired them, and blessed his life.

 

As he was only twenty years old, he fondly loved one of the charming girls who drew water from his well, who ate his raspberries and breathed the fragrance⁷ of his roses.

 

He told this younger girl that she was as pure and fresh as the water, as delicious as the raspberries and as sweet as the roses.

 

Then the young girl smiled.

 

He told it her again, and she made a face at him.

 

He sang her the same song, and she married a sailor who carried her far away beyond the sea.

 

Jean wept bitterly, but he still admired beautiful things, and still blessed his life. Sometimes he thought that the frailty⁸ of what is beautiful and the brevity of what is good adds value to the beauty and goodness of all things.

1 crimson   

n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色

参考例句：

• She went crimson with embarrassment.她羞得满脸通红。
• Maple leaves have turned crimson.枫叶已经红了。

2 mingling   

adj.混合的

参考例句：

• There was a spring of bitterness mingling with that fountain of sweets. 在这个甜蜜的源泉中间，已经掺和进苦涩的山水了。
• The mingling of inconsequence belongs to us all. 这场矛盾混和物是我们大家所共有的。

3 pensive   

a.沉思的,哀思的,忧沉的

参考例句：

• He looked suddenly sombre,pensive.他突然看起来很阴郁，一副忧虑的样子。
• He became so pensive that she didn't like to break into his thought.他陷入沉思之中,她不想打断他的思路。

4 hue   

n.色度；色调；样子

参考例句：

• The diamond shone with every hue under the sun.金刚石在阳光下放出五颜六色的光芒。
• The same hue will look different in different light.同一颜色在不同的光线下看起来会有所不同。

5 thither   

adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的

参考例句：

• He wandered hither and thither looking for a playmate.他逛来逛去找玩伴。
• He tramped hither and thither.他到处流浪。

6 jugs   

（有柄及小口的）水壶( jug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Two china jugs held steaming gravy. 两个瓷罐子装着热气腾腾的肉卤。
• Jugs-Big wall lingo for Jumars or any other type of ascenders. 大岩壁术语，祝玛式上升器或其它种类的上升器。

7 fragrance   

n.芬芳，香味，香气

参考例句：

• The apple blossoms filled the air with their fragrance.苹果花使空气充满香味。
• The fragrance of lavender filled the room.房间里充满了薰衣草的香味。

8 frailty   

n.脆弱；意志薄弱

参考例句：

• Despite increasing physical frailty,he continued to write stories.尽管身体越来越虛弱，他仍然继续写小说。
• He paused and suddenly all the frailty and fatigue showed.他顿住了，虚弱与疲惫一下子显露出来。