The stars were fading one by one from the grey heavens, and night slowly receding1 before the approach of morn, when a dark group stood motionless before Ione's door. High and slender torches, made paler by the unmellowed dawn, cast their light over various countenances28, hushed for the moment in one solemn and intent expression. And now there arose a slow and dismal29 music, which accorded sadly with the rite3, and floated far along the desolate30 and breathless streets; while a chorus of female voices (the Praeficae so often cited by the Roman poets), accompanying the Tibicen and the Mysian flute31, woke the following strain:
On the last pilgrimage on earth that now
Awaits thee, wanderer to Cocytus, come!
Darkly we woo, and weeping we invite—
Death is thy host—his banquet asks thy soul,
Thy garlands hang within the House of Night,
And the black stream alone shall fill thy bowl.
No more for thee the laughter and the song,
The Argive daughters' at their labours long;
The false AEolides upheaving slow,
O'er the eternal hill, the eternal stone;
And green Callirrhoe's monster-headed son—
These shalt thou see, dim shadowed through the dark,
Lo! where thou stand'st, pale-gazing on the bark,
That waits our rite to bear thee trembling o'er!
Amidst the Unburied for its latest home;
O'er the grey sky the torch impatient shines—
As the hymn42 died away, the group parted in twain; and placed upon a couch, spread with a purple pall43, the corpse of Apaecides was carried forth, with the feet foremost. The designator, or marshal of the sombre ceremonial, accompanied by his torch-bearers, clad in black, gave the signal, and the procession moved dreadly on.
First went the musicians, playing a slow march—the solemnity of the lower instruments broken by many a louder and wilder burst of the funeral trumpet44: next followed the hired mourners, chanting their dirges45 to the dead; and the female voices were mingled46 with those of boys, whose tender years made still more striking the contrast of life and death—the fresh leaf and the withered47 one. But the players, the buffoons48, the archimimus (whose duty it was to personate the dead)—these, the customary attendants at ordinary funerals, were banished49 from a funeral attended with so many terrible associations.
The priests of Isis came next in their snowy garments, barefooted, and supporting sheaves of corn; while before the corpse were carried the images of the deceased and his many Athenian forefathers50. And behind the bier followed, amidst her women, the sole surviving relative of the dead—her head bare, her locks disheveled, her face paler than marble, but composed and still, save ever and anon, as some tender thought—awakened by the music, flashed upon the dark lethargy of woe, she covered that countenance27 with her hands, and sobbed51 unseen; for hers were not the noisy sorrow, the shrill52 lament21, the ungoverned gesture, which characterized those who honored less faithfully. In that age, as in all, the channel of deep grief flowed hushed and still.
And so the procession swept on, till it had traversed the streets, passed the city gate, and gained the Place of Tombs without the wall, which the traveler yet beholds54.
Raised in the form of an altar—of unpolished pine, amidst whose interstices were placed preparations of combustible55 matter—stood the funeral pyre; and around it drooped56 the dark and gloomy cypresses57 so consecrated by song to the tomb.
As soon as the bier was placed upon the pile, the attendants parting on either side, Ione passed up to the couch, and stood before the unconscious clay for some moments motionless and silent. The features of the dead had been composed from the first agonized58 expression of violent death. Hushed for ever the terror and the doubt, the contest of passion, the awe59 of religion, the struggle of the past and present, the hope and the horror of the future!—of all that racked and desolated60 the breast of that young aspirant61 to the Holy of Life, what trace was visible in the awful serenity62 of that impenetrable brow and unbreathing lip? The sister gazed, and not a sound was heard amidst the crowd; there was something terrible, yet softening63, also, in the silence; and when it broke, it broke sudden and abrupt—it broke, with a loud and passionate64 cry—the vent9 of long-smothered despair.
'My brother! my brother!' cried the poor orphan65, falling upon the couch; 'thou whom the worm on thy path feared not—what enemy couldst thou provoke? Oh, is it in truth come to this? Awake! awake! We grew together! Are we thus torn asunder66? Thou art not dead—thou sleepest. Awake! awake!'
The sound of her piercing voice aroused the sympathy of the mourners, and they broke into loud and rude lament. This startled, this recalled Ione; she looked up hastily and confusedly, as if for the first time sensible of the presence of those around.
'Ah!' she murmured with a shiver, 'we are not then alone!' With that, after a brief pause, she rose; and her pale and beautiful countenance was again composed and rigid67. With fond and trembling hands, she unclosed the lids of the deceased; but when the dull glazed68 eye, no longer beaming with love and life, met hers, she shrieked69 aloud, as if she had seen a spectre. Once more recovering herself she kissed again and again the lids, the lips, the brow; and with mechanic and unconscious hand, received from the high priest of her brother's temple the funeral torch.
The sudden burst of music, the sudden song of the mourners announced the birth of the sanctifying flame.
HYMN TO THE WIND
I
On thy couch of cloud reclined,
Wake, O soft and sacred Wind!
Soft and sacred will we name thee,
Whosoe'er the sire that claim thee—
Whether old Auster's dusky child,
Or the loud son of Eurus wild;
Or his who o'er the darkling deeps,
Still shalt thou seem as dear to us
As flowery-crowned Zephyrus,
Trembling, he hastes his nymph to woo.
II
Lo! our silver censers swinging,
Perfumes o'er thy path are flinging—
Ne'er o'er Tempe's breathless valleys,
Or the Rose-isle's moonlit sea,
Lo! around our vases sending
Myrrh and nard with cassia blending:
Paving air with odorous meet,
For thy silver-sandall'd feet!
III
August and everlasting75 air!
The source of all that breathe and be,
From the mute clay before thee bear
The seeds it took from thee!
Wild wind!—awake, awake!
Thine own, O solemn Fire!
O Air, thine own retake!
IV
It comes! it comes! Lo! it sweeps,
The light on the holy pile!
It rises! its wings interweave
With the flames—how they howl and heave!
Toss'd, whirl'd to and fro,
How the flame-serpents glow!
Rushing higher and higher,
On—on, fearful Fire!
Thy giant limbs twined
With the arms of the Wind!
Lo! the elements meet on the throne
V
Swing, swing the censer round—
From the clasp of thy mortal coil,
From the prison where clay confined thee,
The hands of the flame unbind thee!
O Soul! thou art free—all free!
As the winds in their ceaseless chase,
When they rush o'er their airy sea,
Thou mayst speed through the realms of space,
And thy steps evermore shall rove
Where, far from the loath'd Cocytus,
The loved and the lost invite us.
Thou art slave to the earth no more!
O soul, thou art freed!—and we?—
Ah! when shall our toil be o'er?
Ah! when shall we rest with thee?
And now high and far into the dawning skies broke the fragrant87 fire; it flushed luminously88 across the gloomy cypresses—it shot above the massive walls of the neighboring city; and the early fisherman started to behold53 the blaze reddening on the waves of the creeping sea.
But Ione sat down apart and alone, and, leaning her face upon her hands, saw not the flame, nor heard the lamentation of the music: she felt only one sense of loneliness—she had not yet arrived to that hallowing sense of comfort, when we know that we are not alone—that the dead are with us!
The breeze rapidly aided the effect of the combustibles placed within the pile. By degrees the flame wavered, lowered, dimmed, and slowly, by fits and unequal starts, died away—emblem89 of life itself; where, just before, all was restlessness and flame, now lay the dull and smouldering ashes.
The last sparks were extinguished by the attendants—the embers were collected. Steeped in the rarest wine and the costliest90 odorous, the remains were placed in a silver urn40, which was solemnly stored in one of the neighboring sepulchres beside the road; and they placed within it the vial full of tears, and the small coin which poetry still consecrated to the grim boatman. And the sepulchre was covered with flowers and chaplets, and incense91 kindled92 on the altar, and the tomb hung round with many lamps.
But the next day, when the priest returned with fresh offerings to the tomb, he found that to the relics93 of heathen superstition94 some unknown hands had added a green palm-branch. He suffered it to remain, unknowing that it was the sepulchral95 emblem of Christianity.
When the above ceremonies were over, one of the Praeficae three times sprinkled the mourners from the purifying branch of laurel, uttering the last word, 'Ilicet!'—Depart!—and the rite was done.
But first they paused to utter—weepingly and many times—the affecting farewell, 'Salve Eternum!' And as Ione yet lingered, they woke the parting strain.
SALVE ETERNUM
I
Farewell! O soul departed!
Farewell! O sacred urn!
To earth the mourners turn.
To the dim and dreary shore,
Thou art gone our steps before!
And thou dost but a while precede us,
Salve—salve!
Loved urn, and thou solemn cell,
Mute ashes!—farewell, farewell!
Salve—salve!
II
Ilicet—ire licet—
Ah, vainly would we part!
Thy tomb is the faithful heart.
About evermore we bear thee;
For who from the heart can tear thee?
Vainly we sprinkle o'er us
And vainly bright before us
The lustral fire shall beam.
For where is the charm expelling
Our griefs are thy funeral feast,
And Memory thy mourning priest.
Salve—salve!
III
Ilicet—ire licet!
Wherever the air shall bear it;
The elements take their own—
The shadows receive thy spirit.
As thou glid'st by the Gloomy River!
If love may in life be brief,
Salve—salve!
In the hall which our feasts illume,
The rose for an hour may bloom;
But the cypress that decks the tomb—
The cypress is green for ever!
Salve—salve!
点击收听单词发音
1 receding | |
v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 );向后倾斜;自原处后退或避开别人的注视;尤指问题 | |
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2 rites | |
仪式,典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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3 rite | |
n.典礼,惯例,习俗 | |
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4 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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5 corpse | |
n.尸体,死尸 | |
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6 accusation | |
n.控告,指责,谴责 | |
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7 betrothed | |
n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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8 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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9 vent | |
n.通风口,排放口;开衩;vt.表达,发泄 | |
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10 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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11 nay | |
adv.不;n.反对票,投反对票者 | |
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12 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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13 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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14 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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15 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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16 consecrated | |
adj.神圣的,被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 );奉献 | |
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17 festive | |
adj.欢宴的,节日的 | |
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18 strew | |
vt.撒;使散落;撒在…上,散布于 | |
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19 cypress | |
n.柏树 | |
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20 lamentation | |
n.悲叹,哀悼 | |
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21 lament | |
n.悲叹,悔恨,恸哭;v.哀悼,悔恨,悲叹 | |
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22 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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23 interpretation | |
n.解释,说明,描述;艺术处理 | |
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24 poetically | |
adv.有诗意地,用韵文 | |
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25 aurora | |
n.极光 | |
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26 fable | |
n.寓言;童话;神话 | |
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27 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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28 countenances | |
n.面容( countenance的名词复数 );表情;镇静;道义支持 | |
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29 dismal | |
adj.阴沉的,凄凉的,令人忧郁的,差劲的 | |
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30 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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31 flute | |
n.长笛;v.吹笛 | |
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32 dirge | |
n.哀乐,挽歌,庄重悲哀的乐曲 | |
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33 bough | |
n.大树枝,主枝 | |
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34 adorn | |
vt.使美化,装饰 | |
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35 jocund | |
adj.快乐的,高兴的 | |
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36 swooping | |
俯冲,猛冲( swoop的现在分词 ) | |
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37 parching | |
adj.烘烤似的,焦干似的v.(使)焦干, (使)干透( parch的现在分词 );使(某人)极口渴 | |
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38 dreary | |
adj.令人沮丧的,沉闷的,单调乏味的 | |
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39 phantom | |
n.幻影,虚位,幽灵;adj.错觉的,幻影的,幽灵的 | |
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40 urn | |
n.(有座脚的)瓮;坟墓;骨灰瓮 | |
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41 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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42 hymn | |
n.赞美诗,圣歌,颂歌 | |
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43 pall | |
v.覆盖,使平淡无味;n.柩衣,棺罩;棺材;帷幕 | |
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44 trumpet | |
n.喇叭,喇叭声;v.吹喇叭,吹嘘 | |
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45 dirges | |
n.挽歌( dirge的名词复数 );忧伤的歌,哀歌 | |
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46 mingled | |
混合,混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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47 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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48 buffoons | |
n.愚蠢的人( buffoon的名词复数 );傻瓜;逗乐小丑;滑稽的人 | |
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49 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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50 forefathers | |
n.祖先,先人;祖先,祖宗( forefather的名词复数 );列祖列宗;前人 | |
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51 sobbed | |
哭泣,啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 ); 哭诉,呜咽地说 | |
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52 shrill | |
adj.尖声的;刺耳的;v尖叫 | |
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53 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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54 beholds | |
v.看,注视( behold的第三人称单数 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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55 combustible | |
a. 易燃的,可燃的; n. 易燃物,可燃物 | |
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56 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57 cypresses | |
n.柏属植物,柏树( cypress的名词复数 ) | |
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58 agonized | |
v.使(极度)痛苦,折磨( agonize的过去式和过去分词 );苦斗;苦苦思索;感到极度痛苦 | |
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59 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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60 desolated | |
adj.荒凉的,荒废的 | |
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61 aspirant | |
n.热望者;adj.渴望的 | |
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62 serenity | |
n.宁静,沉着,晴朗 | |
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63 softening | |
变软,软化 | |
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64 passionate | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,激昂的,易动情的,易怒的,性情暴躁的 | |
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65 orphan | |
n.孤儿;adj.无父母的 | |
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66 asunder | |
adj.分离的,化为碎片 | |
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67 rigid | |
adj.严格的,死板的;刚硬的,僵硬的 | |
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68 glazed | |
adj.光滑的,像玻璃的;上过釉的;呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式);上釉于,上光;(目光)变得呆滞无神 | |
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69 shrieked | |
v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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70 bleak | |
adj.(天气)阴冷的;凄凉的;暗淡的 | |
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71 starry | |
adj.星光照耀的, 闪亮的 | |
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72 alleys | |
胡同,小巷( alley的名词复数 ); 小径 | |
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73 cedarn | |
杉的,杉木制的 | |
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74 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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75 everlasting | |
adj.永恒的,持久的,无止境的 | |
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76 aspire | |
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于 | |
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77 invoke | |
v.求助于(神、法律);恳求,乞求 | |
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78 darts | |
n.掷飞镖游戏;飞镖( dart的名词复数 );急驰,飞奔v.投掷,投射( dart的第三人称单数 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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79 reclaim | |
v.要求归还,收回;开垦 | |
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80 strings | |
n.弦 | |
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81 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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82 fetter | |
n./vt.脚镣,束缚 | |
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83 sluggard | |
n.懒人;adj.懒惰的 | |
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84 glide | |
n./v.溜,滑行;(时间)消逝 | |
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85 glades | |
n.林中空地( glade的名词复数 ) | |
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86 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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87 fragrant | |
adj.芬香的,馥郁的,愉快的 | |
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88 luminously | |
发光的; 明亮的; 清楚的; 辉赫 | |
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89 emblem | |
n.象征,标志;徽章 | |
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90 costliest | |
adj.昂贵的( costly的最高级 );代价高的;引起困难的;造成损失的 | |
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91 incense | |
v.激怒;n.香,焚香时的烟,香气 | |
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92 kindled | |
(使某物)燃烧,着火( kindle的过去式和过去分词 ); 激起(感情等); 发亮,放光 | |
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93 relics | |
[pl.]n.遗物,遗迹,遗产;遗体,尸骸 | |
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94 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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95 sepulchral | |
adj.坟墓的,阴深的 | |
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96 bereaved | |
adj.刚刚丧失亲人的v.使失去(希望、生命等)( bereave的过去式和过去分词);(尤指死亡)使丧失(亲人、朋友等);使孤寂;抢走(财物) | |
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97 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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98 cleansing | |
n. 净化(垃圾) adj. 清洁用的 动词cleanse的现在分词 | |
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99 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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100 hearth | |
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面 | |
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101 soothe | |
v.安慰;使平静;使减轻;缓和;奉承 | |
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102 fixed | |
adj.固定的,不变的,准备好的;(计算机)固定的 | |
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