“Our troops had bivouacked round the fort. Towards daybreak I was not surprised to hear that I was designated to command the escort of a prisoner who was to be sent down at once to Santiago. Of course the prisoner was Gaspar Ruiz’ wife.
“‘I have named you out of regard for your feelings,’ General Robles remarked. ‘Though the woman really ought to be shot for all the harm she has done to the Republic.’
“And as I made a movement of shocked protest, he continued:
“‘Now he is as well as dead, she is of no importance. Nobody will know what to do with her. However, the Government wants her.’ He shrugged5 his shoulders. ‘I suppose he must have buried large quantities of his loot in places that she alone knows of.’
“At dawn I saw her coming up the ridge, guarded by two soldiers, and carrying her child on her arm.
“I walked to meet her.
“‘Is he living yet?’ she asked, confronting me with that white, impassive face he used to look at in an adoring way.
“I bent6 my head, and led her round a clump7 of bushes without a word. His eyes were open. He breathed with difficulty, and uttered her name with a great effort.
“‘Erminia!’
“She knelt at his head. The little girl, unconscious of him, and with her big eyes, looking about, began to chatter8 suddenly, in a joyous9, thin voice. She pointed10 a tiny finger at the rosy11 glow of sunrise behind the black shapes of the peaks. And while that child-talk, incomprehensible and sweet to the ear, lasted, those two, the dying man and the kneeling woman, remained silent, looking into each other’s eyes, listening to the frail12 sound. Then the prattle13 stopped. The child laid its head against its mother’s breast and was still.
“‘It was for you,’ he began. ‘Forgive.’ His voice failed him. Presently I heard a mutter, and caught the pitiful words: ‘Not strong enough.’
“She looked at him with an extraordinary intensity14. He tried to smile, and in a humble15 tone, ‘Forgive me,’ he repeated. ‘Leaving you...’
“She bent down, dry-eyed, and in a steady voice: ‘On all the earth I have loved nothing but you, Gaspar,’ she said.
“His head made a movement. His eyes revived. ‘At last! ‘he sighed out. Then, anxiously, ‘But is this true... is this true?’
“‘As true as that there is no mercy and justice in this world,’ she answered him passionately16. She stooped over his face. He tried to raise his head, but it fell back, and when she kissed his lips he was already dead. His glazed17 eyes stared at the sky, on which pink clouds floated very high. But I noticed the eyelids18 of the child, pressed to its mother’s breast, droop19 and close slowly. She had gone to sleep.
“The widow of Gaspar Ruiz, the strong man, allowed me to lead her away without shedding a tear.
“For travelling we had arranged for her a side-saddle very much like a chair, with a board swung beneath to rest her feet on. And the first day she rode without uttering a word, and hardly for one moment turning her eyes away from the little girl, whom she held on her knees. At our first camp I saw her during the night walking about, rocking the child in her arms and gazing down at it by the light of the moon. After we had started on our second day’s march she asked me how soon we should come to the first village of the inhabited country.
“I said we should be there about noon.
“‘And will there be women there?’ she inquired.
“I told her that it was a large village. ‘There will be men and women there, senora,’ I said, ‘whose hearts shall be made glad by the news that all the unrest and war is over now.’
“‘Yes, it is all over now,’ she repeated. Then, after a time: ‘senor officer, what will your Government do with me?’
“‘I do not know, senora,’ I said. ‘They will treat you well, no doubt. We republicans are not savages20, and take no vengeance21 on women.’
“She gave me a look at the word ‘republicans’ which I imagined full of undying hate. But an hour or so afterwards, as we drew up to let the baggage mules22 go first along a narrow path skirting a precipice24, she looked at me with such a white, troubled face that I felt a great pity for her.
“‘Senor officer,’ she said, ‘I am weak, I tremble. It is an insensate fear.’ And indeed her lips did tremble, while she tried to smile glancing at the beginning of the narrow path which was not so dangerous after all. ‘I am afraid I shall drop the child. Gaspar saved your life, you remember.... Take her from me.’
“I took the child out of her extended arms. ‘Shut your eyes, senora, and trust to your mule23,’ I recommended.
“She did so, and with her pallor and her wasted thin face she looked deathlike. At a turn of the path, where a great crag of purple porphyry closes the view of the lowlands, I saw her open her eyes. I rode just behind her holding the little girl with my right arm. ‘The child is all right,’ I cried encouragingly.
“‘Yes,’ she answered faintly; and then, to my intense terror, I saw her stand up on the footrest, staring horribly, and throw herself forward into the chasm25 on our right.
“I cannot describe to you the sudden and abject26 fear that came over me at that dreadful sight. It was a dread27 of the abyss, the dread of the crags which seemed to nod upon me. My head swam. I pressed the child to my side and sat my horse as still as a statue. I was speechless and cold all over. Her mule staggered, sidling close to the rock, and then went on. My horse only pricked28 up his ears with a slight snort. My heart stood still, and from the depths of the precipice the stones rattling29 in the bed of the furious stream made me almost insane with their sound.
“Next moment we were round the turn and on a broad and grassy30 slope. And then I yelled. My men came running back to me in great alarm. It seems that at first I did nothing but shout, ‘She has given the child into my hands! She has given the child into my hands!’ The escort thought I had gone mad.”
General Santierra ceased and got up from the table. “And that is all, senores,” he concluded, with a courteous31 glance at his rising guests.
“But what became of the child, General?” we asked.
“Ah, the child, the child.”
He walked to one of the windows opening on his beautiful garden, the refuge of his old days. Its fame was great in the land. Keeping us back with a raised arm, he called out, “Erminia, Erminia!” and waited. Then his cautioning arm dropped, and we crowded to the windows.
From a clump of trees a woman had come upon the broad walk bordered with flowers. We could hear the rustle32 of her starched33 petticoats and observed the ample spread of her old-fashioned black silk skirt. She looked up, and seeing all these eyes staring at her, stopped, frowned, smiled, shook her finger at the General, who was laughing boisterously34, and drawing the black lace on her head so as to partly conceal35 her haughty36 profile, passed out of our sight, walking with stiff dignity.
“You have beheld37 the guardian38 angel of the old man—and her to whom you owe all that is seemly and comfortable in my hospitality. Somehow, senores, though the flame of love has been kindled39 early in my breast, I have never married. And because of that perhaps the sparks of the sacred fire are not yet extinct here.” He struck his broad chest. “Still alive, still alive,” he said, with serio-comic emphasis. “But I shall not marry now. She is General Santierra’s adopted daughter and heiress.”
One of our fellow-guests, a young naval40 officer, described her afterwards as a “short, stout41, old girl of forty or thereabouts.” We had all noticed that her hair was turning grey, and that she had very fine black eyes.
“And,” General Santierra continued, “neither would she ever hear of marrying any one. A real calamity42! Good, patient, devoted43 to the old man. A simple soul. But I would not advise any of you to ask for her hand, for if she took yours into hers it would be only to crush your bones. Ah! she does not jest on that subject. And she is the own daughter of her father, the strong man who perished through his own strength: the strength of his body, of his simplicity—of his love!”
《Heart of Darkness黑暗的心》
《Heart of Darkness黑暗的心》
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1
poncho
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| n.斗篷，雨衣 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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hovering
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| 鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫 | |
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shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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clump
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| n.树丛，草丛；vi.用沉重的脚步行走 | |
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chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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9
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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passionately
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| ad.热烈地，激烈地 | |
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glazed
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| 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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eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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savages
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| 未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 ) | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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precipice
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| n.悬崖，危急的处境 | |
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chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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abject
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| adj.极可怜的，卑屈的 | |
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dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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28
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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29
rattling
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| adj. 格格作响的, 活泼的, 很好的 adv. 极其, 很, 非常 动词rattle的现在分词 | |
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grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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rustle
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| v.沙沙作响；偷盗(牛、马等)；n.沙沙声声 | |
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starched
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| adj.浆硬的，硬挺的，拘泥刻板的v.把（衣服、床单等）浆一浆( starch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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boisterously
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| adv.喧闹地，吵闹地 | |
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conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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haughty
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| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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guardian
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| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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39
kindled
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| （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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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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42
calamity
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| n.灾害，祸患，不幸事件 | |
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43
devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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