Chapter 60

I awoke once during the night. I pushed the canopy¹ asideand looked out. The moon was a sharply defined crescent andthe sky was perfectly² clear. The stars shone with such fierce,contained brilliance³ that it seemed absurd to call the night dark.
The sea lay quietly, bathed in a shy, light-footed light, adancing play of black and silver that extended without limits allabout me. The volume of things was confounding – the volumeof air above me, the volume of water around and beneath me.
I was half-moved, half-terrified. I felt like the sage⁴ Markandeya,who fell out of Vishnu's mouth while Vishnu was sleeping andso beheld⁵ the entire universe, everything that there is. Beforethe sage could die of fright, Vishnu awoke and took him backinto his mouth. For the first time I noticed – as I would noticerepeatedly during my ordeal⁶, between one throe of agony andthe next – that my suffering was taking place in a grandsetting. I saw my suffering for what it was, finite andinsignificant, and I was still. My suffering did not fit anywhere,I realized. And I could accept this. It was all right. (It wasdaylight that brought my protest: "No! No! No! My sufferingdoes matter. I want to live! I can't help but mix my life withthat of the universe. Life is a peephole, a single tiny entry ontoa vastness – how can I not dwell on this brief, cramped⁷ viewI have of things? This peephole is all I've got!") I mumbledwords of Muslim prayer and went back to sleep.

1 canopy   

n.天篷，遮篷

参考例句：

• The trees formed a leafy canopy above their heads.树木在他们头顶上空形成了一个枝叶茂盛的遮篷。
• They lay down under a canopy of stars.他们躺在繁星点点的天幕下。

2 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

3 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

4 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

5 beheld   

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

参考例句：

• His eyes had never beheld such opulence. 他从未见过这样的财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soul beheld its features in the mirror of the passing moment. 灵魂在逝去的瞬间的镜子中看到了自己的模样。 来自英汉文学 - 红字

6 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

7 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作