VI The jeweler merits little praise

 The jeweler merits little praise,

Who loves but what he sees with eye,

And it were a discourteous¹ phrase

To say our Lord would make a lie,

Who surely pledged thy soul to raise,

Though fate should cause thy flesh to die.

Thou dost twist His words in crooked² ways

Believing only what is nigh;

This is but pride and bigotry³,

That a good man may ill assume,

To hold no matter trustworthy

Till like a judge he hear and doom⁴.

"Whate'er thy doom, dost thou complain

As man should speak to God most high?

Thou wouldst gladly dwell in this domain⁵;

'T were best, methinks, for leave to apply.

Even so, perchance, thou pleadest in vain.

Across this water thou wouldst fly,—

To other end thou must attain⁶.

Thy corpse⁷ to clay comes verily,—

In Paradise 't was ruined by

Our forefather⁸. Now in the womb

Of dreary⁹ death each man must lie,

Ere God on this bank gives his doom."

"Doom me not, sweet, to my old fears

And pain again wherein I pine.

My pearl that, long, long lost, appears,

Shall I again forego, in fine?

Meet it, and miss it through more years?

Thou hast hurt me with that threat of thine.

For what serves treasure but for tears,

One must so soon his bliss¹⁰ resign?

I reck not how my days decline,

Though far from earth my soul seek room,

Parted from that dear pearl of mine.

Save endless dole¹¹ what is man's doom?"

"No doom save pain and soul's distress¹²?"

She answered: "Wherefore thinkst thou so?

For pain of parting with the less,

Man often lets the greater go.

'T were better thou thy fate shouldst bless,

And love thy God, through weal and woe¹³;

For anger wins not happiness;

Who must, shall bear; bend thy pride low;

For though thou mayst dance to and fro,

Struggle and shriek¹⁴, and fret¹⁵ and fume¹⁶,

When thou canst stir not, swift nor slow,

At last, thou must endure His doom."

"Let God doom as He doth ordain¹⁷;

He will not turn one foot aside;

Thy good deeds mount up but in vain,

Thou must in sorrow ever bide¹⁸;

Stint¹⁹ of thy strife²⁰, cease to complain,

Seek His compassion²¹ safe and wide,

Thy prayer His pity may obtain,

Till Mercy all her might have tried.

Thy anguish²² He will heal and hide,

And lightly lift away thy gloom;

For, be thou sore or satisfied,

All is for Him to deal and doom."

 

1 discourteous   

adj.不恭的，不敬的

参考例句：

• I was offended by his discourteous reply.他无礼的回答使我很生气。
• It was discourteous of you to arrive late.你迟到了，真没礼貌。

2 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

3 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

4 doom   

n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定

参考例句：

• The report on our economic situation is full of doom and gloom.这份关于我们经济状况的报告充满了令人绝望和沮丧的调子。
• The dictator met his doom after ten years of rule.独裁者统治了十年终于完蛋了。

5 domain   

n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围

参考例句：

• This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
• This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。

6 attain   

vt.达到，获得，完成

参考例句：

• I used the scientific method to attain this end. 我用科学的方法来达到这一目的。
• His painstaking to attain his goal in life is praiseworthy. 他为实现人生目标所下的苦功是值得称赞的。

7 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

8 forefather   

n.祖先；前辈

参考例句：

• What we are doing today is something never dreamed of by our forefather.我们今天正在做的是我们祖先所不敢想的。
• These are the customs of forefather hand down to us.这些都是先辈传给你们的习俗。

9 dreary   

adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的

参考例句：

• They live such dreary lives.他们的生活如此乏味。
• She was tired of hearing the same dreary tale of drunkenness and violence.她听够了那些关于酗酒和暴力的乏味故事。

10 bliss   

n.狂喜，福佑，天赐的福

参考例句：

• It's sheer bliss to be able to spend the day in bed.整天都可以躺在床上真是幸福。
• He's in bliss that he's won the Nobel Prize.他非常高兴，因为获得了诺贝尔奖金。

11 dole   

n.救济，（失业）救济金；vt.（out）发放，发给

参考例句：

• It's not easy living on the dole.靠领取失业救济金生活并不容易。
• Many families are living on the dole since the strike.罢工以来，许多家庭靠失业救济金度日。

12 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

13 woe   

n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌

参考例句：

• Our two peoples are brothers sharing weal and woe.我们两国人民是患难与共的兄弟。
• A man is well or woe as he thinks himself so.自认祸是祸，自认福是福。

14 shriek   

v./n.尖叫，叫喊

参考例句：

• Suddenly he began to shriek loudly.突然他开始大声尖叫起来。
• People sometimes shriek because of terror,anger,or pain.人们有时会因为恐惧，气愤或疼痛而尖叫。

15 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.

16 fume   

n.(usu pl.)(浓烈或难闻的)烟，气，汽

参考例句：

• The pressure of fume in chimney increases slowly from top to bottom.烟道内压力自上而下逐渐增加，底层住户的排烟最为不利。
• Your harsh words put her in a fume.你那些难听的话使她生气了。

17 ordain   

vi.颁发命令；vt.命令，授以圣职，注定，任命

参考例句：

• The church's ruling body voted to ordain women as priests.该教会的管理机构投票通过接纳女性为牧师。
• The essence of management refers to its internal inevitable ordain quality,and is also called ultimate attribute.管理的本质是指管理自身内在的必然的规定性，即根本属性。

18 bide   

v.忍耐；等候；住

参考例句：

• We'll have to bide our time until the rain stops.我们必须等到雨停。
• Bide here for a while. 请在这儿等一会儿。

19 stint   

v.节省，限制，停止；n.舍不得化，节约，限制；连续不断的一段时间从事某件事

参考例句：

• He lavished money on his children without stint.他在孩子们身上花钱毫不吝惜。
• We hope that you will not stint your criticism.我们希望您不吝指教。

20 strife   

n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争

参考例句：

• We do not intend to be drawn into the internal strife.我们不想卷入内乱之中。
• Money is a major cause of strife in many marriages.金钱是造成很多婚姻不和的一个主要原因。

21 compassion   

n.同情，怜悯

参考例句：

• He could not help having compassion for the poor creature.他情不自禁地怜悯起那个可怜的人来。
• Her heart was filled with compassion for the motherless children.她对于没有母亲的孩子们充满了怜悯心。

22 anguish   

n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼

参考例句：

• She cried out for anguish at parting.分手时，她由于痛苦而失声大哭。
• The unspeakable anguish wrung his heart.难言的痛苦折磨着他的心。