“At last we came to the dwelling12 of our chief; a strong and spacious13 house, built with stone in an island of the Nile, which lies, as I was told, under the tropic. ‘Lady,’ said the Arab, ‘you shall rest after your journey a few weeks in this place, where you are to consider yourself as Sovereign. My occupation is war: I have therefore chosen this obscure residence, from which I can issue unexpected, and to which I can retire unpursued. You may now repose14 in security: here are few pleasures, but here is no danger.’ He then led me into the inner apartments, and seating me on the richest couch, bowed to the ground.
“His women, who considered me as a rival, looked on me with malignity15; but being soon informed that I was a great lady detained only for my ransom16, they began to vie with each other in obsequiousness17 and reverence18.
“Being again comforted with new assurances of speedy liberty, I was for some days diverted from impatience19 by the novelty of the place. The turrets20 overlooked the country to a great distance, and afforded a view of many windings21 of the stream. In the day I wandered from one place to another, as the course of the sun varied22 the splendour of the prospect23, and saw many things which I had never seen before. The crocodiles and river-horses are common in this unpeopled region; and I often looked upon them with terror, though I knew they could not hurt me. For some time I expected to see mermaids24 and tritons, which, as Imlac has told me, the European travellers have stationed in the Nile; but no such beings ever appeared, and the Arab, when I inquired after them, laughed at my credulity.
“At night the Arab always attended me to a tower set apart for celestial25 observations, where he endeavoured to teach me the names and courses of the stars. I had no great inclination26 to this study; but an appearance of attention was necessary to please my instructor27, who valued himself for his skill, and in a little while I found some employment requisite28 to beguile29 the tediousness of time, which was to be passed always amidst the same objects. I was weary of looking in the morning on things from which I had turned away weary in the evening: I therefore was at last willing to observe the stars rather than do nothing, but could not always compose my thoughts, and was very often thinking on Nekayah when others imagined me contemplating30 the sky. Soon after, the Arab went upon another expedition, and then my only pleasure was to talk with my maids about the accident by which we were carried away, and the happiness we should all enjoy at the end of our captivity31.”
“There were women in your Arab’s fortress,” said the Princess; “why did you not make them your companions, enjoy their conversation, and partake their diversions? In a place where they found business or amusement, why should you alone sit corroded32 with idle melancholy33? or why could not you bear for a few months that condition to which they were condemned34 for life?”
“The diversions of the women,” answered Pekuah, “were only childish play, by which the mind accustomed to stronger operations could not be kept busy. I could do all which they delighted in doing by powers merely sensitive, while my intellectual faculties35 were flown to Cairo. They ran from room to room, as a bird hops36 from wire to wire in his cage. They danced for the sake of motion, as lambs frisk in a meadow. One sometimes pretended to be hurt that the rest might be alarmed, or hid herself that another might seek her. Part of their time passed in watching the progress of light bodies that floated on the river, and part in marking the various forms into which clouds broke in the sky.
“Their business was only needlework, in which I and my maids sometimes helped them; but you know that the mind will easily straggle from the fingers, nor will you suspect that captivity and absence from Nekayah could receive solace37 from silken flowers.
“Nor was much satisfaction to be hoped from their conversation: for of what could they be expected to talk? They had seen nothing, for they had lived from early youth in that narrow spot: of what they had not seen they could have no knowledge, for they could not read. They had no idea but of the few things that were within their view, and had hardly names for anything but their clothes and their food. As I bore a superior character, I was often called to terminate their quarrels, which I decided38 as equitably39 as I could. If it could have amused me to hear the complaints of each against the rest, I might have been often detained by long stories; but the motives40 of their animosity were so small that I could not listen without interrupting the tale.”
“How,” said Rasselas, “can the Arab, whom you represented as a man of more than common accomplishments41, take any pleasure in his seraglio, when it is filled only with women like these? Are they exquisitely42 beautiful?”
“They do not,” said Pekuah, “want that unaffecting and ignoble43 beauty which may subsist44 without sprightliness45 or sublimity46, without energy of thought or dignity of virtue47. But to a man like the Arab such beauty was only a flower casually48 plucked and carelessly thrown away. Whatever pleasures he might find among them, they were not those of friendship or society. When they were playing about him he looked on them with inattentive superiority; when they vied for his regard he sometimes turned away disgusted. As they had no knowledge, their talk could take nothing from the tediousness of life; as they had no choice, their fondness, or appearance of fondness, excited in him neither pride nor gratitude49. He was not exalted50 in his own esteem51 by the smiles of a woman who saw no other man, nor was much obliged by that regard of which he could never know the sincerity52, and which he might often perceive to be exerted not so much to delight him as to pain a rival. That which he gave, and they received, as love, was only a careless distribution of superfluous53 time, such love as man can bestow54 upon that which he despises, such as has neither hope nor fear, neither joy nor sorrow.”
“You have reason, lady, to think yourself happy,” said Imlac, “that you have been thus easily dismissed. How could a mind, hungry for knowledge, be willing, in an intellectual famine, to lose such a banquet as Pekuah’s conversation?”
“I am inclined to believe,” answered Pekuah, “that he was for some time in suspense55; for, notwithstanding his promise, whenever I proposed to despatch56 a messenger to Cairo he found some excuse for delay. While I was detained in his house he made many incursions into the neighbouring countries, and perhaps he would have refused to discharge me had his plunder57 been equal to his wishes. He returned always courteous58, related his adventures, delighted to hear my observations, and endeavoured to advance my acquaintance with the stars. When I importuned59 him to send away my letters, he soothed60 me with professions of honour and sincerity; and when I could be no longer decently denied, put his troop again in motion, and left me to govern in his absence. I was much afflicted61 by this studied procrastination62, and was sometimes afraid that I should be forgotten; that you would leave Cairo, and I must end my days in an island of the Nile.
“I grew at last hopeless and dejected, and cared so little to entertain him, that he for a while more frequently talked with my maids. That he should fall in love with them or with me, might have been equally fatal, and I was not much pleased with the growing friendship. My anxiety was not long, for, as I recovered some degree of cheerfulness, he returned to me, and I could not forbear to despise my former uneasiness.
“He still delayed to send for my ransom, and would perhaps never have determined63 had not your agent found his way to him. The gold, which he would not fetch, he could not reject when it was offered. He hastened to prepare for our journey hither, like a man delivered from the pain of an intestine64 conflict. I took leave of my companions in the house, who dismissed me with cold indifference65.”
Nekayah having heard her favourite’s relation, rose and embraced her, and Rasselas gave her a hundred ounces of gold, which she presented to the Arab for the fifty that were promised.
点击收听单词发音
1 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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2 sullenness | |
n. 愠怒, 沉闷, 情绪消沉 | |
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3 resentment | |
n.怨愤,忿恨 | |
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4 fatigue | |
n.疲劳,劳累 | |
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5 solicitude | |
n.焦虑 | |
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6 animated | |
adj.生气勃勃的,活跃的,愉快的 | |
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7 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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8 tractable | |
adj.易驾驭的;温顺的 | |
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9 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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10 soothes | |
v.安慰( soothe的第三人称单数 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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11 covetous | |
adj.贪婪的,贪心的 | |
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12 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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13 spacious | |
adj.广阔的,宽敞的 | |
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14 repose | |
v.(使)休息;n.安息 | |
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15 malignity | |
n.极度的恶意,恶毒;(病的)恶性 | |
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16 ransom | |
n.赎金,赎身;v.赎回,解救 | |
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17 obsequiousness | |
媚骨 | |
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18 reverence | |
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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19 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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20 turrets | |
(六角)转台( turret的名词复数 ); (战舰和坦克等上的)转动炮塔; (摄影机等上的)镜头转台; (旧时攻城用的)塔车 | |
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21 windings | |
(道路、河流等)蜿蜒的,弯曲的( winding的名词复数 ); 缠绕( wind的现在分词 ); 卷绕; 转动(把手) | |
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22 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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23 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
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24 mermaids | |
n.(传说中的)美人鱼( mermaid的名词复数 ) | |
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25 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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26 inclination | |
n.倾斜;点头;弯腰;斜坡;倾度;倾向;爱好 | |
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27 instructor | |
n.指导者,教员,教练 | |
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28 requisite | |
adj.需要的,必不可少的;n.必需品 | |
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29 beguile | |
vt.欺骗,消遣 | |
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30 contemplating | |
深思,细想,仔细考虑( contemplate的现在分词 ); 注视,凝视; 考虑接受(发生某事的可能性); 深思熟虑,沉思,苦思冥想 | |
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31 captivity | |
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚 | |
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32 corroded | |
已被腐蚀的 | |
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33 melancholy | |
n.忧郁,愁思;adj.令人感伤(沮丧)的,忧郁的 | |
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34 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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35 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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36 hops | |
跳上[下]( hop的第三人称单数 ); 单足蹦跳; 齐足(或双足)跳行; 摘葎草花 | |
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37 solace | |
n.安慰;v.使快乐;vt.安慰(物),缓和 | |
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38 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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39 equitably | |
公平地 | |
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40 motives | |
n.动机,目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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41 accomplishments | |
n.造诣;完成( accomplishment的名词复数 );技能;成绩;成就 | |
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42 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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43 ignoble | |
adj.不光彩的,卑鄙的;可耻的 | |
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44 subsist | |
vi.生存,存在,供养 | |
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45 sprightliness | |
n.愉快,快活 | |
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46 sublimity | |
崇高,庄严,气质高尚 | |
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47 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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48 casually | |
adv.漠不关心地,无动于衷地,不负责任地 | |
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49 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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50 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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51 esteem | |
n.尊敬,尊重;vt.尊重,敬重;把…看作 | |
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52 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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53 superfluous | |
adj.过多的,过剩的,多余的 | |
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54 bestow | |
v.把…赠与,把…授予;花费 | |
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55 suspense | |
n.(对可能发生的事)紧张感,担心,挂虑 | |
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56 despatch | |
n./v.(dispatch)派遣;发送;n.急件;新闻报道 | |
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57 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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58 courteous | |
adj.彬彬有礼的,客气的 | |
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59 importuned | |
v.纠缠,向(某人)不断要求( importune的过去式和过去分词 );(妓女)拉(客) | |
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60 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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61 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62 procrastination | |
n.拖延,耽搁 | |
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63 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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64 intestine | |
adj.内部的;国内的;n.肠 | |
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65 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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