First of all, the physical changes and transitions of the journey are strange and wonderful enough. In the afternoon one gets on the train and with a sense of disbelief and wonder sees the familiar faces, shapes, and structures of his native town recede2 out of the last fierce clasp of life and vision. Then, all through the waning3 afternoon, the train is toiling4 down around the mountain curves and passes. The great shapes of the hills, embrowned and glowing with the molten hues5 of autumn, are all about him: the towering summits, wild and lonely, full of joy and strangeness and their haunting premonitions of oncoming winter soar above him, the gulches6, gorges7, gaps, and wild ravines, fall sheer and suddenly away with a dizzy terrifying steepness, and all the time the great train toils9 slowly down from the mountain summits with the sinuous10 turnings of an enormous snake. And from the very toiling slowness of the train, together with the terrific stillness and nearness of the marvellous hills, a relation is established, an emotion evoked11, which it is impossible to define, but which, in all its strange and poignant12 mingling13 of wild sorrow and joy, grief for the world that one is losing, swelling15 triumph at the thought of the strange new world that one will find, is instantly familiar, and has been felt by every one.
The train toils slowly round the mountain grades, the short and powerful blasts of its squat16 funnel17 sound harsh and metallic18 against the sides of rocky cuts. One looks out the window and sees cut, bank, and gorge8 slide slowly past, the old rock wet and gleaming with the water of some buried mountain spring. The train goes slowly over the perilous19 and dizzy height of a wooden trestle; far below, the traveller can see and hear the clean foaming20 clamours of rock-bright mountain water; beside the track, before his little hut, a switchman stands looking at the train with the slow wondering gaze of the mountaineer. The little shack21 in which he lives is stuck to the very edge of the track above the steep and perilous ravine. His wife, a slattern with a hank of tight-drawn hair, a snuff-stick in her mouth, and the same gaunt, slow wondering stare her husband has, stands in the doorway22 of the shack, holding a dirty little baby in her arms.
It is all so strange, so near, so far, so terrible, beautiful, and instantly familiar, that it seems to the traveller that he must have known these people for ever, that he must now stretch forth23 his hand to them from the windows and the rich and sumptuous24 luxury of the Pullman car, that he must speak to them. And it seems to him that all the strange and bitter miracle of life — how, why, or in what way, he does not know — is in that instant greeting and farewell; for once seen, and lost the moment that he sees it, it is his for ever and he can never forget it. And then the slow toiling train has passed these lives and faces and is gone, and there is something in his heart he cannot say.
At length the train has breached25 the last great wall of the soaring ranges, has made its slow and sinuous descent around the powerful bends and cork-screws of the shining rails (which now he sees above him seven times) and towards dark, the lowland country has been reached. The sun goes down behind the train a tremendous globe of orange and pollen26, the soaring ranges melt swiftly into shapes of smoky and enchanted27 purple, night comes — great-starred and velvet-breasted night — and now the train takes up its level pounding rhythm across the piedmont swell14 and convolution of the mighty28 State.
Towards nine o’clock at night there is a pause to switch cars and change engines at a junction29 town. The traveller, with the same feeling of wild unrest, wonder, nameless excitement and wordless expectancy30, leaves the train, walks back and forth upon the platform, rushes into the little station luncheon31 room or out into the streets to buy cigarettes, a sandwich — really just to feel this moment’s contact with another town. He sees vast flares33 and steamings of gigantic locomotives on the rails, the seamed, blackened, lonely faces of the engineers in the cabs of their great engines, and a little later he is rushing again across the rude, mysterious visage of the powerful, dark, and lonely earth of old Catawba.
Toward midnight there is another pause at a larger town — the last stop in Catawba — again the feeling of wild unrest and nameless joy and sorrow. The traveller gets out, walks up and down the platform, sees the vast slow flare32 and steaming of the mighty engine, rushes into the station, and looks into the faces of all the people passing with the same sense of instant familiarity, greeting, and farewell — that lonely, strange, and poignantly34 wordless feeling that Americans know so well. Then he is in the Pullman again, the last outposts of the town have slipped away from him and the great train which all through the afternoon has travelled eastward35 from the mountains half across the mighty State, is now for the first time pointed36 northward37, worldward, towards the secret borders of Virginia, towards the great world cities of his hope, the fable38 of his childhood legendry, and the wild and secret hunger of his heart, his spirit and his life.
Already the little town from which he came in the great hills, the faces of his kinsmen39 and his friends, their most familiar voices, the shapes of things he knew seem far and strange as dreams, lost at the bottom of the million-visaged sea-depth of dark time, the strange and bitter miracle of life. He cannot think that he has ever lived there in the far lost hills, or ever left them, and all his life seems stranger than the dream of time, and the great train moves on across the immense and lonely visage of America, making its great monotone that is the sound of silence and for ever. And in the train, and in ten thousand little towns, the sleepers40 sleep upon the earth.
Then bitter sorrow, loneliness and joy come swelling to his throat — quenchless41 hunger rises from the adyts of his life and conquers him, and with wild wordless fury horsed upon his life, he comes at length, in dark mid-watches of the night, up to the borders of the old earth of Virginia.
Who has seen fury riding in the mountains? Who has known fury striding in the storm? Who has been mad with fury in his youth, given no rest or peace or certitude by fury, driven on across the earth by fury, until the great vine of the heart was broke, the sinews wrenched42, the little tenement43 of bone, blood, marrow44, brain, and feeling in which great fury raged, was twisted, wrung45, depleted46, worn out, and exhausted47 by the fury which it could not lose or put away? Who has known fury, how it came?
How have we breathed him, drunk him, eaten fury to the core, until we have him in us now and cannot lose him anywhere we go? It is a strange and subtle worm that will be for ever feeding at our heart. It is a madness working in our brain, a hunger growing from the food it feeds upon, a devil moving in the conduits of our blood, it is a spirit wild and dark and uncontrollable forever swelling in our soul, and it is in the saddle now, horsed upon our lives, rowelling the spurs of its insatiate desire into our naked and defenceless sides, our owner, master, and the mad and cruel tyrant48 who goads49 us on for ever down the blind and brutal50 tunnel of kaleidoscopic51 days at the end of which is nothing but the blind mouth of the pit and darkness and no more.
Then, then, will fury leave us, he will cease from those red channels of our life he has so often run, another sort of worm will work at that great vine, whereat he fed. Then, then, indeed, he must give over, fold his camp, retreat; there is no place for madness in a dead man’s brain, no place for hunger in a dead man’s flesh, and in a dead man’s heart there is a place for no desire.
At what place of velvet-breasted night long, long ago, and in what leafy darkened street of mountain summer, hearing the footsteps of approaching lovers in the night, the man’s voice, low, hushed, casual, confiding52, suddenly the low rich welling of a woman’s laughter, tender and sensual in the dark, going, receding53, fading, and then the million-noted silence of the night again? In what ancient light of fading day in a late summer; what wordless passion then of sorrow, joy, and ecstasy54 — was he betrayed to fury when it came?
Or in the black dark of some forgotten winter’s morning, child of the storm and brother to the dark, alone and wild and secret in the night as he leaned down against the wind’s strong wall towards Niggertown, blocking his folded papers as he went, and shooting them terrifically in the wind’s wild blast against the shack-walls of the jungle-sleeping blacks, himself alone awake, wild, secret, free and stormy as the wild wind’s blast, giving it howl for howl and yell for yell, with madness, and a demon’s savage55 and exultant56 joy, up-welling in his throat! Oh, was he then, on such a night, betrayed to fury — was it then, on such a night, that fury came?
He never knew; it may have been a rock, a stone, a leaf, the moths57 of golden light as warm and moving in a place of magic green, it may have been the storm-wind howling in the barren trees, the ancient fading light of day in some forgotten summer, the huge unfolding mystery of undulant, oncoming night.
Oh, it might have been all this in the April and moist lilac darkness of some forgotten morning as he saw the clean line of the East cleave58 into morning at the mountain’s ridge59. It may have been the first light, bird-song, an end to labour and the sweet ache and pure fatigue60 of the lightened shoulder as he came home at morning hearing the single lonely hoof61, the jinking bottles, and the wheel upon the street again, and smelled the early morning breakfast smells, the smoking wheat cakes, and the pungent62 sausages, the steaks, biscuits, grits63, and fried green apples, and the brains and eggs. It may have been the coil of pungent smoke upcurling from his father’s chimney, the clean sweet gardens and the peach-bloom, apples, crinkled lettuce64 wet with dew, bloom and cherry bloom down-drifting in their magic snow within his father’s orchard65, and his father’s giant figure awake now and astir, and moving in his house!
Oh, ever to wake at morning knowing he was there! To feel the fire-full chimney-throat roar up a-tremble with the blast of his terrific fires, to hear the first fire crackling in the kitchen range, to hear the sounds of morning in the house, the smells of breakfast and the feeling of security never to be changed! Oh, to hear him prowling like a wakened lion below, the stertorous66 hoarse67 frenzy68 of his furious breath; to hear the ominous69 muttering mounting to faint howls as with infuriated relish70 he prepared the roaring invective71 of the morning’s tirade72, to hear him muttering as the coal went rattling73 out upon the fire, to hear him growling74 as savagely75 the flame shot up the trembling chimney-throat, to hear him muttering back and forth now like a raging beast, finally to hear his giant stride racing76 through the house prepared now, storming to the charge, and the well-remembered howl of his awakened77 fury as springing to the door-way of the back-room stairs he flung it open, yelling at them to awake.
Was it in such a way, one time as he awoke, and heard below his father’s lion-ramp of morning that fury came? He never knew, no more than one could weave the great web of his life back through the brutal chaos78 of ten thousand furious days, unwind the great vexed79 pattern of his life to silence, peace, and certitude in the magic land of new beginnings, no return.
He never knew if fury had lain dormant80 all those years, had worked secret, silent, like a madness in the blood. But later it would seem to him that fury had first filled his life, exploded, conquered, and possessed81 him, that he first felt it, saw it, knew the dark illimitable madness of its power, one night years later on a train across Virginia.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
panorama
|
|
| n.全景，全景画，全景摄影，全景照片[装置] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
recede
|
|
| vi.退(去)，渐渐远去；向后倾斜，缩进 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
waning
|
|
| adj.（月亮）渐亏的，逐渐减弱或变小的n.月亏v.衰落( wane的现在分词 )；（月）亏；变小；变暗淡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
toiling
|
|
| 长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的现在分词 )； 艰难缓慢地移动，跋涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
hues
|
|
| 色彩( hue的名词复数 )； 色调； 信仰； 观点 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
gulches
|
|
| n.峡谷( gulch的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
7
gorges
|
|
| n.山峡，峡谷( gorge的名词复数 )；咽喉v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的第三人称单数 )；作呕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
gorge
|
|
| n.咽喉，胃，暴食，山峡；v.塞饱，狼吞虎咽地吃 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
toils
|
|
| 网 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
sinuous
|
|
| adj.蜿蜒的，迂回的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
evoked
|
|
| [医]诱发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
poignant
|
|
| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
mingling
|
|
| adj.混合的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
swell
|
|
| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
swelling
|
|
| n.肿胀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
squat
|
|
| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
funnel
|
|
| n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
metallic
|
|
| adj.金属的；金属制的；含金属的；产金属的；像金属的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
perilous
|
|
| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
foaming
|
|
| adj.布满泡沫的；发泡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
shack
|
|
| adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
doorway
|
|
| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
sumptuous
|
|
| adj.豪华的，奢侈的，华丽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
breached
|
|
| 攻破( breach的现在分词 )； 破坏，违反 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
pollen
|
|
| n.[植]花粉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
enchanted
|
|
| adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
mighty
|
|
| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
junction
|
|
| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
expectancy
|
|
| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
luncheon
|
|
| n.午宴，午餐，便宴 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
flare
|
|
| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
flares
|
|
| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
poignantly
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
eastward
|
|
| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
pointed
|
|
| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
northward
|
|
| adv.向北；n.北方的地区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
fable
|
|
| n.寓言；童话；神话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
kinsmen
|
|
| n.家属，亲属( kinsman的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
sleepers
|
|
| n.卧铺（通常以复数形式出现）；卧车( sleeper的名词复数 )；轨枕；睡觉（呈某种状态）的人；小耳环 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
quenchless
|
|
| 不可熄灭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
wrenched
|
|
| v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的过去式和过去分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
tenement
|
|
| n.公寓；房屋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
marrow
|
|
| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
wrung
|
|
| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
depleted
|
|
| adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
tyrant
|
|
| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
goads
|
|
| n.赶牲口的尖棒( goad的名词复数 )v.刺激( goad的第三人称单数 )；激励；（用尖棒）驱赶；驱使（或怂恿、刺激）某人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
brutal
|
|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
kaleidoscopic
|
|
| adj.千变万化的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
confiding
|
|
| adj.相信人的，易于相信的v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的现在分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
receding
|
|
| v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
ecstasy
|
|
| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
exultant
|
|
| adj.欢腾的，狂欢的，大喜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
moths
|
|
| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
cleave
|
|
| v．(clave；cleaved)粘着，粘住；坚持；依恋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
ridge
|
|
| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
fatigue
|
|
| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
hoof
|
|
| n.(马，牛等的)蹄 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
pungent
|
|
| adj.（气味、味道）刺激性的，辛辣的；尖锐的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
grits
|
|
| n.粗磨粉；粗面粉；粗燕麦粉；粗玉米粉；细石子，砂粒等( grit的名词复数 )；勇气和毅力v.以沙砾覆盖（某物），撒沙砾于( grit的第三人称单数 )；咬紧牙关 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
lettuce
|
|
| n.莴苣；生菜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
orchard
|
|
| n.果园，果园里的全部果树，(美俚)棒球场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
stertorous
|
|
| adj.打鼾的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
hoarse
|
|
| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
frenzy
|
|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
ominous
|
|
| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
relish
|
|
| n.滋味，享受，爱好，调味品；vt.加调味料，享受，品味；vi.有滋味 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
invective
|
|
| n.痛骂，恶意抨击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
tirade
|
|
| n.冗长的攻击性演说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
rattling
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
growling
|
|
| n.吠声, 咆哮声 v.怒吠, 咆哮, 吼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
savagely
|
|
| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
racing
|
|
| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
awakened
|
|
| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
chaos
|
|
| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
vexed
|
|
| adj.争论不休的；（指问题等）棘手的；争论不休的问题；烦恼的v.使烦恼( vex的过去式和过去分词 )；使苦恼；使生气；详细讨论 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
dormant
|
|
| adj.暂停活动的；休眠的；潜伏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
possessed
|
|
| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |