"I am doing no good here in Switzerland," I wrote. "Would you mind if I went east? I want to see something of the world outside Europe. I have a fancy I may find something to do beyond there. Of course, it will cost rather more than my present allowance. I will do my best to economize7. Don't bother if it bothers you—I've been bother enough to you...."
He replied still more compactly. "By all means. I will send you some circular notes, Poste Restante, Rome. That will be on your way. Good wishes to you, Stephen. I'm glad you want to go east instead of just staying in Switzerland."
I sit here now and wonder, little son, what he thought, what he supposed, what he understood.
I loved my father, and I began to perceive he loved me wonderfully. I can imagine no man I would have sooner had for a priest than him; all priestcraft lays hands if it can, and with an excellent wisdom, upon the titles and dignity of fatherhood; and yet here am I left to guessing—I do not know whether my father ever worshipped, whether he ever prayed with his heart bared to God. There are times when the inexpressiveness of life comes near to overwhelming me, when it seems to me we are all asleep or entranced, and but a little way above the still cows who stand munching8 slowly in a field. Why couldn't we and why didn't we talk together?... We fear bathos too much, are shyly decent to the pitch of mania9. We have neither the courage of our bodies nor of our souls....
I went almost immediately to Rome. I stayed in Rome some days, getting together an outfit10, and incidentally seeing that greater city of the dead in whose embrace the modern city lies. I was now becoming interested in things outside my grooves11, though my grooves were still there, deep and receptive, and I went about the place at last almost eagerly, tracing the outlines of that great departed city on whose colossal12 bones the churches and palaces of the middle ages cluster like weeds in the spaces and ruins of a magnificent garden. I found myself one day in the Forum13, thinking of that imperialism14 that had built the Basilica of Julius Cæsar, and comparing its cramped15 vestiges16 with that vaster second administrative17 effort which has left the world the monstrous18 arches of Constantine. I sat down over against these last among the ruins of the Vestals' House, and mused19 on that later reconstruction20 when the Empire, with its science aborted21 and its literature and philosophy shrivelled to nothing, its social fabric22 ruined by the extravagances of financial adventure and its honor and patriotism23 altogether dead, united itself, in a desperate effort to continue, with all that was most bickeringly intolerant and destructive in Christianity—only to achieve one common vast decay. All Europe to this day is little more than the sequel to that failure. It is the Roman Empire in disintegration24. The very churches whose domes25 rise to the northward26 of the ancient remains27 are built of looted stones and look like parasitic28 and fungoid growths, and the tourists stream through those spaces day by day, stare at the marble fragments, the arches, the fallen carvings29 and rich capitals, with nothing greater in their minds and nothing clearer....
I discovered I was putting all this into the form of a letter to Mary. I was writing to her in my mind, as many people talk to themselves. And I remember that I wandered upon the Palatine Hill musing30 over the idea of writing a long letter to her, a long continuous letter to her, a sort of diary of impressions and ideas, that somewhen, years ahead, I might be able to put into her hands.
One does not carry out such an idea into reality; it is so much easier to leave the letter imagined and unwritten if there lives but little hope of its delivery; yet for many years I kept up an impalpable correspondence in my thoughts, a stream of expression to which no answer came—until at last the habits of public writing and the gathering31 interests of a new rôle in life diverted it to other ends.
点击收听单词发音
1 tainted | |
adj.腐坏的;污染的;沾污的;感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 );使污染;败坏;被污染,腐坏,败坏 | |
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2 tangled | |
adj. 纠缠的,紊乱的 动词tangle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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3 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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4 fraught | |
adj.充满…的,伴有(危险等)的;忧虑的 | |
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5 scrawled | |
乱涂,潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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6 bombast | |
n.高调,夸大之辞 | |
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7 economize | |
v.节约,节省 | |
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8 munching | |
v.用力咀嚼(某物),大嚼( munch的现在分词 ) | |
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9 mania | |
n.疯狂;躁狂症,狂热,癖好 | |
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10 outfit | |
n.(为特殊用途的)全套装备,全套服装 | |
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11 grooves | |
n.沟( groove的名词复数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 );槽;老一套;(某种)音乐节奏 | |
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12 colossal | |
adj.异常的,庞大的 | |
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13 forum | |
n.论坛,讨论会 | |
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14 imperialism | |
n.帝国主义,帝国主义政策 | |
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15 cramped | |
a.狭窄的 | |
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16 vestiges | |
残余部分( vestige的名词复数 ); 遗迹; 痕迹; 毫不 | |
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17 administrative | |
adj.行政的,管理的 | |
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18 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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19 mused | |
v.沉思,冥想( muse的过去式和过去分词 );沉思自语说(某事) | |
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20 reconstruction | |
n.重建,再现,复原 | |
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21 aborted | |
adj.流产的,失败的v.(使)流产( abort的过去式和过去分词 );(使)(某事物)中止;(因故障等而)(使)(飞机、宇宙飞船、导弹等)中断飞行;(使)(飞行任务等)中途失败 | |
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22 fabric | |
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织 | |
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23 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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24 disintegration | |
n.分散,解体 | |
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25 domes | |
n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 );像圆屋顶一样的东西;圆顶体育场 | |
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26 northward | |
adv.向北;n.北方的地区 | |
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27 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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28 parasitic | |
adj.寄生的 | |
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29 carvings | |
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物 | |
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30 musing | |
n. 沉思,冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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31 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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