Long years were to pass ere I looked back upon that day and realised its significance. At the time, and for a long time afterward6, I was to think of it only as a frolic. But still later, in the slough7 of brain-fag and intellectual weariness, I was to remember and know the craving8 for the anodyne9 that resides in alcohol.
In the meantime, after this one relapse at Benicia, I went on with my abstemiousness11, primarily because I didn't want to drink. And next, I was abstemious10 because my way led among books and students where no drinking was. Had I been out on the adventure-path, I should as a matter of course have been drinking. For that is the pity of the adventure-path, which is one of John Barleycorn's favourite stamping grounds.
I completed the first half of my freshman12 year, and in January of 1897 took up my courses for the second half. But the pressure from lack of money, plus a conviction that the university was not giving me all that I wanted in the time I could spare for it, forced me to leave. I was not very disappointed. For two years I had studied, and in those two years, what was far more valuable, I had done a prodigious13 amount of reading. Then, too, my grammar had improved. It is true, I had not yet learned that I must say "It is I"; but I no longer was guilty of a double negative in writing, though still prone14 to that error in excited speech.
I decided15 immediately to embark16 on my career. I had four preferences: first, music; second, poetry; third, the writing of philosophic17, economic, and political essays; and, fourth, and last, and least, fiction writing. I resolutely18 cut out music as impossible, settled down in my bedroom, and tackled my second, third, and fourth choices simultaneously19. Heavens, how I wrote! Never was there a creative fever such as mine from which the patient escaped fatal results. The way I worked was enough to soften20 my brain and send me to a mad-house. I wrote, I wrote everything—ponderous essays, scientific and sociological short stories, humorous verse, verse of all sorts from triolets and sonnets21 to blank verse tragedy and elephantine epics22 in Spenserian stanzas23. On occasion I composed steadily24, day after day, for fifteen hours a day. At times I forgot to eat, or refused to tear myself away from my passionate25 outpouring in order to eat.
And then there was the matter of typewriting. My brother-in-law owned a machine which he used in the day-time. In the night I was free to use it. That machine was a wonder. I could weep now as I recollect26 my wrestlings with it. It must have been a first model in the year one of the typewriter era. Its alphabet was all capitals. It was informed with an evil spirit. It obeyed no known laws of physics, and overthrew27 the hoary28 axiom that like things performed to like things produce like results. I'll swear that machine never did the same thing in the same way twice. Again and again it demonstrated that unlike actions produce like results.
How my back used to ache with it! Prior to that experience, my back had been good for every violent strain put upon it in a none too gentle career. But that typewriter proved to me that I had a pipe-stem for a back. Also, it made me doubt my shoulders. They ached as with rheumatism29 after every bout5. The keys of that machine had to be hit so hard that to one outside the house it sounded like distant thunder or some one breaking up the furniture. I had to hit the keys so hard that I strained my first fingers to the elbows, while the ends of my fingers were blisters30 burst and blistered31 again. Had it been my machine I'd have operated it with a carpenter's hammer.
The worst of it was that I was actually typing my manuscripts at the same time I was trying to master that machine. It was a feat32 of physical endurance and a brain storm combined to type a thousand words, and I was composing thousands of words every day which just had to be typed for the waiting editors.
Oh, between the writing and the typewriting I was well a-weary. I had brain and nerve fag, and body fag as well, and yet the thought of drink never suggested itself. I was living too high to stand in need of an anodyne. All my waking hours, except those with that infernal typewriter, were spent in a creative heaven. And along with this I had no desire for drink because I still believed in many things—in the love of all men and women in the matter of man and woman love; in fatherhood; in human justice; in art—in the whole host of fond illusions that keep the world turning around.
But the waiting editors elected to keep on waiting. My manuscripts made amazing round-trip records between the Pacific and the Atlantic. It might have been the weirdness34 of the typewriting that prevented the editors from accepting at least one little offering of mine. I don't know, and goodness knows the stuff I wrote was as weird33 as its typing. I sold my hard-bought school books for ridiculous sums to second-hand35 bookmen. I borrowed small sums of money wherever I could, and suffered my old father to feed me with the meagre returns of his failing strength.
It didn't last long, only a few weeks, when I had to surrender and go to work. Yet I was unaware36 of any need for the drink anodyne. I was not disappointed. My career was retarded37, that was all. Perhaps I did need further preparation. I had learned enough from the books to realise that I had only touched the hem38 of knowledge's garment. I still lived on the heights. My waking hours, and most of the hours I should have used for sleep, were spent with the books.
点击收听单词发音
1 salmon | |
n.鲑,大马哈鱼,橙红色的 | |
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2 beset | |
v.镶嵌;困扰,包围 | |
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3 recuperated | |
v.恢复(健康、体力等),复原( recuperate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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4 scruples | |
n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 );顾虑,顾忌v.感到于心不安,有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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5 bout | |
n.侵袭,发作;一次(阵,回);拳击等比赛 | |
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6 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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7 slough | |
v.蜕皮,脱落,抛弃 | |
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8 craving | |
n.渴望,热望 | |
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9 anodyne | |
n.解除痛苦的东西,止痛剂 | |
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10 abstemious | |
adj.有节制的,节俭的 | |
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11 abstemiousness | |
n.适中,有节制 | |
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12 freshman | |
n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女) | |
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13 prodigious | |
adj.惊人的,奇妙的;异常的;巨大的;庞大的 | |
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14 prone | |
adj.(to)易于…的,很可能…的;俯卧的 | |
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15 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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16 embark | |
vi.乘船,着手,从事,上飞机 | |
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17 philosophic | |
adj.哲学的,贤明的 | |
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18 resolutely | |
adj.坚决地,果断地 | |
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19 simultaneously | |
adv.同时发生地,同时进行地 | |
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20 soften | |
v.(使)变柔软;(使)变柔和 | |
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21 sonnets | |
n.十四行诗( sonnet的名词复数 ) | |
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22 epics | |
n.叙事诗( epic的名词复数 );壮举;惊人之举;史诗般的电影(或书籍) | |
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23 stanzas | |
节,段( stanza的名词复数 ) | |
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24 steadily | |
adv.稳定地;不变地;持续地 | |
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25 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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26 recollect | |
v.回忆,想起,记起,忆起,记得 | |
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27 overthrew | |
overthrow的过去式 | |
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28 hoary | |
adj.古老的;鬓发斑白的 | |
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29 rheumatism | |
n.风湿病 | |
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30 blisters | |
n.水疱( blister的名词复数 );水肿;气泡 | |
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31 blistered | |
adj.水疮状的,泡状的v.(使)起水泡( blister的过去式和过去分词 );(使表皮等)涨破,爆裂 | |
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32 feat | |
n.功绩;武艺,技艺;adj.灵巧的,漂亮的,合适的 | |
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33 weird | |
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的 | |
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34 weirdness | |
n.古怪,离奇,不可思议 | |
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35 second-hand | |
adj.用过的,旧的,二手的 | |
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36 unaware | |
a.不知道的,未意识到的 | |
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37 retarded | |
a.智力迟钝的,智力发育迟缓的 | |
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38 hem | |
n.贴边,镶边;vt.缝贴边;(in)包围,限制 | |
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