I turned and looked over the land through which my way must lie. It seemed a wide desert, with a patch of a different colour in the distance that might be a forest. Sign of presence, human or animal, was none—smoke or dust or shadow of cultivation3. Not a cloud floated in the clear heaven; no thinnest haze4 curtained any segment of its circling rim5.
I descended6, and set out for the imaginable forest: something alive might be there; on this side of it could not well be anything!
When I reached the plain, I found it, as far as my sight could go, of rock, here flat and channeled, there humped and pinnacled—evidently the wide bed of a vanished river, scored by innumerable water-runs, without a trace of moisture in them. Some of the channels bore a dry moss7, and some of the rocks a few lichens8 almost as hard as themselves. The air, once “filled with pleasant noise of waters,” was silent as death. It took me the whole day to reach the patch,—which I found indeed a forest—but not a rudiment9 of brook10 or runnel had I crossed! Yet through the glowing noon I seemed haunted by an aural11 mirage12, hearing so plainly the voice of many waters that I could hardly believe the opposing testimony13 of my eyes.
The sun was approaching the horizon when I left the river-bed, and entered the forest. Sunk below the tree-tops, and sending his rays between their pillar-like boles, he revealed a world of blessed shadows waiting to receive me. I had expected a pine-wood, but here were trees of many sorts, some with strong resemblances to trees I knew, others with marvellous differences from any I had ever seen. I threw myself beneath the boughs14 of what seemed a eucalyptus16 in blossom: its flowers had a hard calyx much resembling a skull17, the top of which rose like a lid to let the froth-like bloom-brain overfoam its cup. From beneath the shadow of its falchion-leaves my eyes went wandering into deep after deep of the forest.
Soon, however, its doors and windows began to close, shutting up aisle18 and corridor and roomier glade19. The night was about me, and instant and sharp the cold. Again what a night I found it! How shall I make my reader share with me its wild ghostiness?
The tree under which I lay rose high before it branched, but the boughs of it bent20 so low that they seemed ready to shut me in as I leaned against the smooth stem, and let my eyes wander through the brief twilight21 of the vanishing forest. Presently, to my listless roving gaze, the varied22 outlines of the clumpy foliage23 began to assume or imitate—say rather SUGGEST other shapes than their own. A light wind began to blow; it set the boughs of a neighbour tree rocking, and all their branches aswing, every twig24 and every leaf blending its individual motion with the sway of its branch and the rock of its bough15. Among its leafy shapes was a pack of wolves that struggled to break from a wizard’s leash25: greyhounds would not have strained so savagely26! I watched them with an interest that grew as the wind gathered force, and their motions life.
Another mass of foliage, larger and more compact, presented my fancy with a group of horses’ heads and forequarters projecting caparisoned from their stalls. Their necks kept moving up and down, with an impatience27 that augmented28 as the growing wind broke their vertical29 rhythm with a wilder swaying from side to side. What heads they were! how gaunt, how strange!—several of them bare skulls—one with the skin tight on its bones! One had lost the under jaw30 and hung low, looking unutterably weary—but now and then hove high as if to ease the bit. Above them, at the end of a branch, floated erect31 the form of a woman, waving her arms in imperious gesture. The definiteness of these and other leaf masses first surprised and then discomposed me: what if they should overpower my brain with seeming reality? But the twilight became darkness; the wind ceased; every shape was shut up in the night; I fell asleep.
It was still dark when I began to be aware of a far-off, confused, rushing noise, mingled32 with faint cries. It grew and grew until a tumult33 as of gathering34 multitudes filled the wood. On all sides at once the sounds drew nearer; the spot where I lay seemed the centre of a commotion35 that extended throughout the forest. I scarce moved hand or foot lest I should betray my presence to hostile things.
The moon at length approached the forest, and came slowly into it: with her first gleam the noises increased to a deafening36 uproar37, and I began to see dim shapes about me. As she ascended38 and grew brighter, the noises became yet louder, and the shapes clearer. A furious battle was raging around me. Wild cries and roars of rage, shock of onset39, struggle prolonged, all mingled with words articulate, surged in my ears. Curses and credos, snarls40 and sneers41, laughter and mockery, sacred names and howls of hate, came huddling42 in chaotic43 interpenetration. Skeletons and phantoms44 fought in maddest confusion. Swords swept through the phantoms: they only shivered. Maces crashed on the skeletons, shattering them hideously45: not one fell or ceased to fight, so long as a single joint46 held two bones together. Bones of men and horses lay scattered47 and heaped; grinding and crunching48 them under foot fought the skeletons. Everywhere charged the bone-gaunt white steeds; everywhere on foot or on wind-blown misty49 battle-horses, raged and ravened51 and raved52 the indestructible spectres; weapons and hoofs53 clashed and crushed; while skeleton jaws54 and phantom-throats swelled55 the deafening tumult with the war-cry of every opinion, bad or good, that had bred strife56, injustice57, cruelty in any world. The holiest words went with the most hating blow. Lie-distorted truths flew hurtling in the wind of javelins58 and bones. Every moment some one would turn against his comrades, and fight more wildly than before, THE TRUTH! THE TRUTH! still his cry. One I noted59 who wheeled ever in a circle, and smote60 on all sides. Wearied out, a pair would sit for a minute side by side, then rise and renew the fierce combat. None stooped to comfort the fallen, or stepped wide to spare him.
The moon shone till the sun rose, and all the night long I had glimpses of a woman moving at her will above the strife-tormented multitude, now on this front now on that, one outstretched arm urging the fight, the other pressed against her side. “Ye are men: slay61 one another!” she shouted. I saw her dead eyes and her dark spot, and recalled what I had seen the night before.
Such was the battle of the dead, which I saw and heard as I lay under the tree.
Just before sunrise, a breeze went through the forest, and a voice cried, “Let the dead bury their dead!” At the word the contending thousands dropped noiseless, and when the sun looked in, he saw never a bone, but here and there a withered62 branch.
I rose and resumed my journey, through as quiet a wood as ever grew out of the quiet earth. For the wind of the morning had ceased when the sun appeared, and the trees were silent. Not a bird sang, not a squirrel, mouse, or weasel showed itself, not a belated moth63 flew athwart my path. But as I went I kept watch over myself, nor dared let my eyes rest on any forest-shape. All the time I seemed to hear faint sounds of mattock and spade and hurtling bones: any moment my eyes might open on things I would not see! Daylight prudence64 muttered that perhaps, to appear, ten thousand phantoms awaited only my consenting fancy.
In the middle of the afternoon I came out of the wood—to find before me a second net of dry water-courses. I thought at first that I had wandered from my attempted line, and reversed my direction; but I soon saw it was not so, and concluded presently that I had come to another branch of the same river-bed. I began at once to cross it, and was in the bottom of a wide channel when the sun set.
I sat down to await the moon, and growing sleepy, stretched myself on the moss. The moment my head was down, I heard the sounds of rushing streams—all sorts of sweet watery65 noises. The veiled melody of the molten music sang me into a dreamless sleep, and when I woke the sun was already up, and the wrinkled country widely visible. Covered with shadows it lay striped and mottled like the skin of some wild animal. As the sun rose the shadows diminished, and it seemed as if the rocks were re-absorbing the darkness that had oozed66 out of them during the night.
Hitherto I had loved my Arab mare67 and my books more, I fear, than live man or woman; now at length my soul was athirst for a human presence, and I longed even after those inhabitants of this alien world whom the raven50 had so vaguely68 described as nearest my sort. With heavy yet hoping heart, and mind haunted by a doubt whether I was going in any direction at all, I kept wearily travelling “north-west and by south.”
点击收听单词发音
1 swarmed | |
密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 ); 云集; 成群地移动; 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
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2 devouring | |
吞没( devour的现在分词 ); 耗尽; 津津有味地看; 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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3 cultivation | |
n.耕作,培养,栽培(法),养成 | |
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4 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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5 rim | |
n.(圆物的)边,轮缘;边界 | |
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6 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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7 moss | |
n.苔,藓,地衣 | |
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8 lichens | |
n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 ) | |
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9 rudiment | |
n.初步;初级;基本原理 | |
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10 brook | |
n.小河,溪;v.忍受,容让 | |
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11 aural | |
adj.听觉的,听力的 | |
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12 mirage | |
n.海市蜃楼,幻景 | |
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13 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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14 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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15 bough | |
n.大树枝,主枝 | |
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16 eucalyptus | |
n.桉树,桉属植物 | |
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17 skull | |
n.头骨;颅骨 | |
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18 aisle | |
n.(教堂、教室、戏院等里的)过道,通道 | |
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19 glade | |
n.林间空地,一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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20 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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21 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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22 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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23 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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24 twig | |
n.小树枝,嫩枝;v.理解 | |
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25 leash | |
n.牵狗的皮带,束缚;v.用皮带系住 | |
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26 savagely | |
adv. 野蛮地,残酷地 | |
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27 impatience | |
n.不耐烦,急躁 | |
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28 Augmented | |
adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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29 vertical | |
adj.垂直的,顶点的,纵向的;n.垂直物,垂直的位置 | |
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30 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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31 erect | |
n./v.树立,建立,使竖立;adj.直立的,垂直的 | |
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32 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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33 tumult | |
n.喧哗;激动,混乱;吵闹 | |
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34 gathering | |
n.集会,聚会,聚集 | |
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35 commotion | |
n.骚动,动乱 | |
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36 deafening | |
adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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37 uproar | |
n.骚动,喧嚣,鼎沸 | |
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38 ascended | |
v.上升,攀登( ascend的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 onset | |
n.进攻,袭击,开始,突然开始 | |
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40 snarls | |
n.(动物的)龇牙低吼( snarl的名词复数 );愤怒叫嚷(声);咆哮(声);疼痛叫声v.(指狗)吠,嗥叫, (人)咆哮( snarl的第三人称单数 );咆哮着说,厉声地说 | |
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41 sneers | |
讥笑的表情(言语)( sneer的名词复数 ) | |
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42 huddling | |
n. 杂乱一团, 混乱, 拥挤 v. 推挤, 乱堆, 草率了事 | |
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43 chaotic | |
adj.混沌的,一片混乱的,一团糟的 | |
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44 phantoms | |
n.鬼怪,幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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45 hideously | |
adv.可怕地,非常讨厌地 | |
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46 joint | |
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
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47 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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48 crunching | |
v.嘎吱嘎吱地咬嚼( crunch的现在分词 );嘎吱作响;(快速大量地)处理信息;数字捣弄 | |
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49 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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50 raven | |
n.渡鸟,乌鸦;adj.乌亮的 | |
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51 ravened | |
v.掠夺(raven的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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52 raved | |
v.胡言乱语( rave的过去式和过去分词 );愤怒地说;咆哮;痴心地说 | |
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53 hoofs | |
n.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的名词复数 )v.(兽的)蹄,马蹄( hoof的第三人称单数 ) | |
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54 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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55 swelled | |
增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 ); 肿胀; (使)凸出; 充满(激情) | |
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56 strife | |
n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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57 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
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58 javelins | |
n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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59 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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60 smote | |
v.猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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61 slay | |
v.杀死,宰杀,杀戮 | |
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62 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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63 moth | |
n.蛾,蛀虫 | |
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64 prudence | |
n.谨慎,精明,节俭 | |
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65 watery | |
adj.有水的,水汪汪的;湿的,湿润的 | |
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66 oozed | |
v.(浓液等)慢慢地冒出,渗出( ooze的过去式和过去分词 );使(液体)缓缓流出;(浓液)渗出,慢慢流出 | |
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67 mare | |
n.母马,母驴 | |
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68 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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