FOR KATE

She’s buried beneath a silver birch tree, downtowards the old train tracks, her grave marked witha cairn. Not more than a little pile of stones, really. Ididn’t want to draw attention to her resting place,but I couldn’t leave her without remembrance. She’llsleep peacefully there, no one to disturb her, nosounds but birdsong and the rumble¹ of passingtrains.
One for sorrow, two for joy, three for a girl?.?.?.
Three for a girl. I’m stuck on three, I just can’t getany further. My head is thick with sounds, mymouth thick with blood. Three for a girl. I can hearthe magpies—they’re laughing, mocking² me, a raucouscackling. A tiding. Bad tidings. I can see them now,black against the sun. Not the birds, something else.
Someone’s coming. Someone is speaking to me. Nowlook. Now look what you made me do.

1 rumble   

n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说

参考例句：

• I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
• We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定，天要下雨了。

2 mocking   

挖苦； 为消遣而模仿

参考例句：

• He's always mocking my French accent. 他总是嘲笑我的法国口音。
• Her voice was faintly mocking. 她的声音略带一丝嘲弄。