CHAPTER 7

 I had thought all that was over.

 

I remember my struggles to recover my peace.

 

I remember how very late one night I went up to the promenade¹ deck to smoke a cigar before turning in. It was a warm moonlight night. The broad low waves of ebony water that went seething² past below, foamed³ luminous⁴ and were streaked⁵ and starred with phosphorescence. The recumbent moon, past its full and sinking westward⁶, seemed bigger than I had ever seen it before, and the roundness of the watery⁷ globe was manifest about the edge of the sky. One had that sense so rare on land, so common in the night at sea, of the world as a conceivable sphere, and of interstellar space as of something clear and close at hand.

 

There came back to me again that feeling I had lost for a time in Germany of being not myself but Man consciously on his little planet communing with God.

 

But my spirit was saying all the time, "I am still in my pit, in my pit. After all I am still in my pit."

 

And then there broke the answer on my mind, that all our lives we must struggle out of our pits, that to struggle out of our pit is this life, there is no individual life but that, and that there comes no escape here, no end to that effort, until the release of death. Continually or frequently we may taste salvation⁸, but never may we achieve it while we are things of substance. Each moment in our lives we come to the test and are lost again or saved again. To be assured of one's security is to forget and fall away.

 

And standing⁹ at the rail with these thoughts in my mind, suddenly I prayed....

 

I remember how the engine-throbs beat through me like the beating of a heart, and that far below, among the dim lights that came up from the emigrants¹⁰ in the steerage, there was a tinkling¹¹ music as I prayed and a man's voice singing a plaintive¹² air in some strange Slavonic tongue.

 

That voice of the invisible singer and the spirit of the unknown song-maker and the serenity¹³ of the sky, they were all, I perceived, no more and no less than things in myself that I did not understand. They were out beyond the range of understanding. And yet they fell into the completest harmony that night with all that I seemed to understand....

1 promenade   

n./v.散步

参考例句：

• People came out in smarter clothes to promenade along the front.人们穿上更加时髦漂亮的衣服，沿着海滨散步。
• We took a promenade along the canal after Sunday dinner.星期天晚饭后我们沿着运河散步。

2 seething   

沸腾的，火热的

参考例句：

• The stadium was a seething cauldron of emotion. 体育场内群情沸腾。
• The meeting hall was seething at once. 会场上顿时沸腾起来了。

3 foamed   

泡沫的

参考例句：

• The beer foamed up and overflowed the glass. 啤酒冒着泡沫，溢出了玻璃杯。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The man foamed and stormed. 那人大发脾气，暴跳如雷。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 luminous   

adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的

参考例句：

• There are luminous knobs on all the doors in my house.我家所有门上都安有夜光把手。
• Most clocks and watches in this shop are in luminous paint.这家商店出售的大多数钟表都涂了发光漆。

5 streaked   

adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹

参考例句：

• The children streaked off as fast as they could. 孩子们拔脚飞跑 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• His face was pale and streaked with dirt. 他脸色苍白，脸上有一道道的污痕。 来自辞典例句

6 westward   

n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西

参考例句：

• We live on the westward slope of the hill.我们住在这座山的西山坡。
• Explore westward or wherever.向西或到什么别的地方去勘探。

7 watery   

adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的

参考例句：

• In his watery eyes there is an expression of distrust.他那含泪的眼睛流露出惊惶失措的神情。
• Her eyes became watery because of the smoke.因为烟熏，她的双眼变得泪汪汪的。

8 salvation   

n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困

参考例句：

• Salvation lay in political reform.解救办法在于政治改革。
• Christians hope and pray for salvation.基督教徒希望并祈祷灵魂得救。

9 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

10 emigrants   

n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• At last the emigrants got to their new home. 移民们终于到达了他们的新家。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• 'Truly, a decree for selling the property of emigrants.' “有那么回事，是出售外逃人员财产的法令。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

11 tinkling   

n.丁当作响声

参考例句：

• I could hear bells tinkling in the distance. 我能听到远处叮当铃响。
• To talk to him was like listening to the tinkling of a worn-out musical-box. 跟他说话，犹如听一架老掉牙的八音盒子丁冬响。 来自英汉文学

12 plaintive   

adj.可怜的，伤心的

参考例句：

• Her voice was small and plaintive.她的声音微弱而哀伤。
• Somewhere in the audience an old woman's voice began plaintive wail.观众席里，一位老太太伤心地哭起来。

13 serenity   

n.宁静，沉着，晴朗

参考例句：

• Her face,though sad,still evoked a feeling of serenity.她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。
• She escaped to the comparative serenity of the kitchen.她逃到相对安静的厨房里。