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Chapter 7 Iria
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Her father's ancestors had owned a wide, rich domain1 on the wide, rich island of Way. Claiming no title or court privilege in the days of the kings, through all the dark years after Maharion fell they held their land and people with firm hands, putting their gains back into the land, upholding some sort of justice, and fighting off petty tyrants2. As order and peace returned to the Archipelago under the sway of the wise men of Roke, for a while yet the family and their farms and villages prospered3. That prosperity and the beauty of the meadows and upland pastures and oak-crowned hills made the domain a byword, so that people said, "as fat as a cow of Iria', or, "as lucky as an Irian'. The masters and many tenants4 of the domain added its name to their own, calling themselves Irian. But though the farmers and shepherds went on from season to season and year to year and generation to generation as solid and steady as the oaks, the family that owned the land altered with time and chance.
A quarrel between brothers over their inheritance divided them. One heir mismanaged his estate through greed, the other through foolishness. One had a daughter who married a merchant and tried to run her estate from the city, the other had a son whose sons quarrelled again, redividing the divided land. By the time the girl called Dragonfly was born, the domain of Iria, though still one of the loveliest regions of hill and field and meadow in all Earthsea, was a battleground of feuds5 and litigations. Farmlands went to weeds, farmsteads went unroofed, milking sheds stood unused, and shepherds followed their flocks over the mountain to better pastures. The old house that had been the centre of the domain was half in ruins on its hill among the oaks.
Its owner was one of four men who called themselves Master of Iria. The other three called him Master of Old Iria. He spent his youth and what remained of his inheritance in law courts and the anterooms of the Lords of Way in Shelieth, trying to prove his right to the whole domain as it had been a hundred years ago. He came back unsuccessful and embittered6 and spent his age drinking the hard red wine from his last vineyard and walking his boundaries with a troop of ill-treated, underfed dogs to keep interlopers off his land.
He had married while he was in Shelieth, a woman no one at Iria knew anything about, for she came from some other island, it was said, somewhere in the west, and she never came to Iria, for she died in childbirth there in the city.
When he came home he had a three-year-old daughter with him. He turned her over to the housekeeper7 and forgot about her. When he was drunk sometimes he remembered her. If he could find her, he made her stand by his chair or sit on his knees and listen to all the wrongs that had been done to him and to the house of Iria. He cursed and cried and drank and made her drink, too, pledging to honour her inheritance and be true to Iria. She drank the wine, but she hated the curses and pledges and tears and the slobbered caresses8 that followed them. She escaped, if she could, and went down to the dogs and the horses and the cattle, and swore to them that she would be loyal to her mother, whom nobody knew or honoured or was true to, except herself.
When she was thirteen the old vineyarder and the housekeeper, who were all that was left of the household, told the Master that it was time his daughter had her naming day. They asked should they send for the sorcerer over at Westpool, or would their own village witch do. The Master of Iria fell into a screaming rage. "A village witch? A hex-hag to give Irian's daughter her true name? Or a creeping traitorous10 sorcerous servant of those upstart landgrabbers who stole Westpool from my grandfather? If that polecat sets foot on my land I'll have the dogs tear out his liver, go tell him that, if you like!" And so on. Old Daisy went back to her kitchen and old Coney went back to his vines, and thirteen-year-old Dragonfly ran out of the house and down the hill to the village, hurling11 her father's curses at the dogs, who, crazy with excitement at his shouting, barked and bayed and rushed after her.
"Get back, you black-hearted bitch!" she yelled. "Home, you crawling traitor9!" And the dogs fell silent and went sidling back to the house with their tails down.
Dragonfly found the village witch taking maggots out of an infected cut on a sheep's rump. The witch's use-name was Rose, like a great many women of Way and other islands of the Hardic Archipelago. People who have a secret name that holds their power the way a diamond holds light may well like their public name to be ordinary, common, like other people's names.
Rose was muttering a rote12 spell, but it was her hands and her little short sharp knife that did most of the work. The ewe bore the digging knife patiently, her opaque13, amber14, slotted eyes gazing into silence; only she stamped her small left front foot now and then, and sighed.
Dragonfly peered close at Rose's work. Rose brought out a maggot, dropped it, spat15 on it, and probed again. The girl leaned up against the ewe, and the ewe leaned against the girl, giving and receiving comfort. Rose extracted, dropped, and spat on the last maggot, and said, "Just hand me that bucket now." She bathed the sore with salt water. The ewe sighed deeply and suddenly walked out of the yard, heading for home. She had had enough of medicine. "Bucky!" Rose shouted. A grubby child appeared from under a bush where he had been asleep and trailed after the ewe, of whom he was nominally16 in charge although she was older, larger, better fed, and probably wiser than he was.
"They said you should give me my name," said Dragonfly. "Father fell to raging. So that's that."
The witch said nothing. She knew the girl was right. Once the Master of Iria said he would or would not allow a thing he never changed his mind, priding himself on his intransigence17, since only weak men said a thing and then unsaid it.
"Why can't I give myself my own true name?" Dragonfly asked, while Rose washed the knife and her hands in the salt water.
"Can't be done,"
"Why not? Why does it have to be a witch or a sorcerer? What do you do?"
"Well," Rose said, and dumped out the salt water on the bare dirt of the small front yard of her house, which, like most witches' houses, stood somewhat apart from the village. "Well," she said, straightening up and looking about vaguely18 as if for an answer, or a ewe, or a towel. "You have to know something about the power, see," she said at last, and looked at Dragonfly with one eye. Her other eye looked a little off to the side. Sometimes Dragonfly thought the cast was in Rose's left eye, sometimes it seemed to be in her right, but always one eye looked straight and the other watched something just out of sight, around the corner, elsewhere.
"Which power?"
"The one," Rose said. As suddenly as the ewe had walked off, she went into her house. Dragonfly followed her, but only to the door. Nobody entered a witch's house uninvited.
"You said I had it," the girl said into the reeking19 gloom of the one-roomed hut.
"I said you have a strength in you, a great one," the witch said from the darkness. "And you know it too. What you are to do I don't know, nor do you. That's to find. But there's no such power as to name yourself."
"Why not? What's more yourself than your own true name?"
A long silence.
The witch emerged with a soapstone drop-spindle and a ball of greasy20 wool. She sat down on the bench beside her door and set the spindle turning. She had spun21 a yard of grey-brown yarn22 before she answered.
"My name's myself. True. But what's a name, then? It's what another calls me. If there was no other, only me, what would I want a name for?"
"But," said Dragonfly and stopped, caught by the argument. After a while she said, "So a name has to be a gift?"
Rose nodded.
"Give me my name, Rose," the girl said.
"Your dad says not."
"I say to."
"He's the Master here."
"He can keep me poor and stupid and worthless, but he can't keep me nameless!"
The witch sighed, like the ewe, uneasy and constrained23.
"Tonight," Dragonfly said. "At our spring, under Iria Hill. What he doesn't know won't hurt him." Her voice was half-coaxing, half-savage.
"You ought to have your proper name day, your feast and dancing, like any young 'un," the witch said. "It's at daybreak a name should be given. And then there ought to be music and feasting and all. Not sneaking24 about at night and no one knowing..."
"I'll know. How do you know what name to say, Rose? Does the water tell you?"
The witch shook her iron-grey head once. "I can't tell you." Her 'can't' did not mean 'won't'. Dragonfly waited. "It's the power, like I said. It comes just so." Rose stopped her spinning and looked up with one eye at a cloud in the west; the other looked a little northward25 of the sky. "You're there in the water, together, you and the child. You take away the child-name. People may go on using that name for a use-name, but it's not her name, nor ever was. So now she's not a child, and she has no name. So then you wait. You open your mind up, like. Like opening the doors of a house to the wind. So it comes. Your tongue speaks it, the name. Your breath makes it. You give it to that child, the breath, the name. You can't think of it. You let it come to you. It must come through you to her it belongs to. That's the power, the way it works. It's all like that. It's not a thing you do. You have to know how to let it do. That's all the mastery."
"Mages can do more than that," the girl said.
"Nobody can do more than that," said Rose.
Dragonfly rolled her head round on her neck, stretching till the vertebrae cracked, stretching out her long arms and legs restlessly. "Will you?" she said.
After some time, Rose nodded once.
They met in the lane under Iria Hill in the dark of night, long after sunset, long before dawn. Rose made a dim glow of werelight so that they could find their way through the marshy26 ground around the spring without falling in a sinkhole among the reeds. In the cold darkness under a few stars and the black curve of the hill, they stripped and waded27 into the shallow water, their feet sinking deep in velvet28 mud. The witch touched the girl's hand, saying, "I take your name, child. You are no child. You have no name."
It was utterly29 still.
In a whisper the witch said, "Woman, be named. You are Irian."
For a moment longer they held still; then the night wind blew across their naked shoulders, and shivering, they waded out, dried themselves as well as they could, struggled barefoot and wretched through the sharp-edged reeds and tangling30 roots, and found their way back to the lane. And there Dragonfly spoke31 in a ragged32, raging whisper: 'How could you name me that!"
The witch said nothing.
"It isn't right. It isn't my true name! I thought my name would make me be me. But this makes it worse. You got it wrong. You're only a witch. You did it wrong. It's his name. He can have it. He's so proud of it, his stupid domain, his stupid grandfather. I don't want it. I won't have it. It isn't me. I still don't know who I am. I'm not Irian!" She fell silent abruptly33, having spoken the name.
The witch still said nothing. They walked along in the darkness side by side. At last, in a placating34, frightened voice, Rose said, "It came so ..."
"If you ever tell it to anyone I'll kill you," Dragonfly said.
At that, the witch stopped walking. She hissed35 like a cat. "Tell anyone?"
Dragonfly stopped too. She said after a moment, "I'm sorry. But I feel like - I feel like you betrayed me."
"I spoke your true name. It's not what I thought it would be. And I don't feel easy about it. As if I'd left something unfinished. But it is your name. If it betrays you, then that's the truth of it." Rose hesitated and then spoke less angrily, more coldly: 'If you want the power to betray me, Irian, I'll give you that. My name is Etaudis."
The wind had come up again. They were both shivering, their teeth chattering36. They stood face to face in the black lane, hardly able to see where the other was. Dragonfly put out her groping hand and met the witch's hand. They put their arms round each other in a fierce, long embrace. Then they hurried on, the witch to her hut near the village, the heiress of Iria up the hill to her ruinous house, where all the dogs, who had let her go without much fuss, received her back with a clamour and racket of barking that woke everybody for a half-mile round except the Master, sodden37 drunk by his cold hearth38.


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 domain ys8xC     
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围
参考例句:
  • This information should be in the public domain.这一消息应该为公众所知。
  • This question comes into the domain of philosophy.这一问题属于哲学范畴。
2 tyrants b6c058541e716c67268f3d018da01b5e     
专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 ); 暴君似的人; (古希腊的)僭主; 严酷的事物
参考例句:
  • The country was ruled by a succession of tyrants. 这个国家接连遭受暴君的统治。
  • The people suffered under foreign tyrants. 人民在异族暴君的统治下受苦受难。
3 prospered ce2c414688e59180b21f9ecc7d882425     
成功,兴旺( prosper的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The organization certainly prospered under his stewardship. 不可否认,这个组织在他的管理下兴旺了起来。
  • Mr. Black prospered from his wise investments. 布莱克先生由于巧妙的投资赚了不少钱。
4 tenants 05662236fc7e630999509804dd634b69     
n.房客( tenant的名词复数 );佃户;占用者;占有者
参考例句:
  • A number of tenants have been evicted for not paying the rent. 许多房客因不付房租被赶了出来。
  • Tenants are jointly and severally liable for payment of the rent. 租金由承租人共同且分别承担。
5 feuds 7bdb739907464aa302e14a39815b23c0     
n.长期不和,世仇( feud的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • Quarrels and feuds between tribes became incessant. 部落间的争吵、反目成仇的事件接连不断。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史
  • There were feuds in the palace, no one can deny. 宫里也有斗争,这是无可否认的。 来自辞典例句
6 embittered b7cde2d2c1d30e5d74d84b950e34a8a0     
v.使怨恨,激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • These injustices embittered her even more. 不公平使她更加受苦。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The artist was embittered by public neglect. 大众的忽视于那位艺术家更加难受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 housekeeper 6q2zxl     
n.管理家务的主妇,女管家
参考例句:
  • A spotless stove told us that his mother is a diligent housekeeper.炉子清洁无瑕就表明他母亲是个勤劳的主妇。
  • She is an economical housekeeper and feeds her family cheaply.她节约持家,一家人吃得很省。
8 caresses 300460a787072f68f3ae582060ed388a     
爱抚,抚摸( caress的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • A breeze caresses the cheeks. 微风拂面。
  • Hetty was not sufficiently familiar with caresses or outward demonstrations of fondness. 海蒂不习惯于拥抱之类过于外露地表现自己的感情。
9 traitor GqByW     
n.叛徒,卖国贼
参考例句:
  • The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
  • He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。
10 traitorous 938beb8f257e13202e2f1107668c59b0     
adj. 叛国的, 不忠的, 背信弃义的
参考例句:
  • All traitorous persons and cliques came to no good end. 所有的叛徒及叛徒集团都没好下场。
  • Most of the time I keep such traitorous thoughts to myself. 这种叛逆思想我不大向别人暴露。
11 hurling bd3cda2040d4df0d320fd392f72b7dc3     
n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的现在分词 );大声叫骂
参考例句:
  • The boat rocked wildly, hurling him into the water. 这艘船剧烈地晃动,把他甩到水中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Fancy hurling away a good chance like that, the silly girl! 想想她竟然把这样一个好机会白白丢掉了,真是个傻姑娘! 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 rote PXnxF     
n.死记硬背,生搬硬套
参考例句:
  • Learning by rote is discouraged in this school.这所学校不鼓励死记硬背的学习方式。
  • He recited the poem by rote.他强记背诵了这首诗。
13 opaque jvhy1     
adj.不透光的;不反光的,不传导的;晦涩的
参考例句:
  • The windows are of opaque glass.这些窗户装着不透明玻璃。
  • Their intentions remained opaque.他们的意图仍然令人费解。
14 amber LzazBn     
n.琥珀;琥珀色;adj.琥珀制的
参考例句:
  • Would you like an amber necklace for your birthday?你过生日想要一条琥珀项链吗?
  • This is a piece of little amber stones.这是一块小小的琥珀化石。
15 spat pFdzJ     
n.口角,掌击;v.发出呼噜呼噜声
参考例句:
  • Her parents always have spats.她的父母经常有些小的口角。
  • There is only a spat between the brother and sister.那只是兄妹间的小吵小闹。
16 nominally a449bd0900819694017a87f9891f2cff     
在名义上,表面地; 应名儿
参考例句:
  • Dad, nominally a Methodist, entered Churches only for weddings and funerals. 爸名义上是卫理公会教徒,可只去教堂参加婚礼和葬礼。
  • The company could not indicate a person even nominally responsible for staff training. 该公司甚至不能指出一个名义上负责职员培训的人。
17 intransigence B4Ixs     
n.妥协的态度;强硬
参考例句:
  • He often appeared angry and frustrated by the intransigence of both sides.他似乎常常为双方各不相让而生气沮丧。
  • Yet for North Korea,intransigence is the norm.不过对朝鲜来说,决不妥协是其一贯作风。
18 vaguely BfuzOy     
adv.含糊地,暖昧地
参考例句:
  • He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
  • He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面,对一切都视而不见。
19 reeking 31102d5a8b9377cf0b0942c887792736     
v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的现在分词 );散发臭气;发出难闻的气味 (of sth);明显带有(令人不快或生疑的跡象)
参考例句:
  • I won't have you reeking with sweat in my bed! 我就不许你混身臭汗,臭烘烘的上我的炕! 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
  • This is a novel reeking with sentimentalism. 这是一本充满着感伤主义的小说。 来自辞典例句
20 greasy a64yV     
adj. 多脂的,油脂的
参考例句:
  • He bought a heavy-duty cleanser to clean his greasy oven.昨天他买了强力清洁剂来清洗油污的炉子。
  • You loathe the smell of greasy food when you are seasick.当你晕船时,你会厌恶油腻的气味。
21 spun kvjwT     
v.纺,杜撰,急转身
参考例句:
  • His grandmother spun him a yarn at the fire.他奶奶在火炉边给他讲故事。
  • Her skilful fingers spun the wool out to a fine thread.她那灵巧的手指把羊毛纺成了细毛线。
22 yarn LMpzM     
n.纱,纱线,纺线;奇闻漫谈,旅行轶事
参考例句:
  • I stopped to have a yarn with him.我停下来跟他聊天。
  • The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
23 constrained YvbzqU     
adj.束缚的,节制的
参考例句:
  • The evidence was so compelling that he felt constrained to accept it. 证据是那样的令人折服,他觉得不得不接受。
  • I feel constrained to write and ask for your forgiveness. 我不得不写信请你原谅。
24 sneaking iibzMu     
a.秘密的,不公开的
参考例句:
  • She had always had a sneaking affection for him. 以前她一直暗暗倾心于他。
  • She ducked the interviewers by sneaking out the back door. 她从后门偷偷溜走,躲开采访者。
25 northward YHexe     
adv.向北;n.北方的地区
参考例句:
  • He pointed his boat northward.他将船驶向北方。
  • I would have a chance to head northward quickly.我就很快有机会去北方了。
26 marshy YBZx8     
adj.沼泽的
参考例句:
  • In August 1935,we began our march across the marshy grassland. 1935年8月,我们开始过草地。
  • The surrounding land is low and marshy. 周围的地低洼而多沼泽。
27 waded e8d8bc55cdc9612ad0bc65820a4ceac6     
(从水、泥等)蹚,走过,跋( wade的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • She tucked up her skirt and waded into the river. 她撩起裙子蹚水走进河里。
  • He waded into the water to push the boat out. 他蹚进水里把船推出来。
28 velvet 5gqyO     
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的
参考例句:
  • This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
  • The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。
29 utterly ZfpzM1     
adv.完全地,绝对地
参考例句:
  • Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民,把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
  • I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。
30 tangling 06e2d6380988bb94672d6dde48f3ec3c     
(使)缠结, (使)乱作一团( tangle的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • During match with football, sportsman is like tangling on the football field. 足球比赛时,运动员似在足球场上混战。
  • Furthermore the built in cable rewind prevents tangling and prolongs cable life. 此外,在防止缠绕电缆退建,延长电缆使用寿命。
31 spoke XryyC     
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
参考例句:
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
32 ragged KC0y8     
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的
参考例句:
  • A ragged shout went up from the small crowd.这一小群人发出了刺耳的喊叫。
  • Ragged clothing infers poverty.破衣烂衫意味着贫穷。
33 abruptly iINyJ     
adv.突然地,出其不意地
参考例句:
  • He gestured abruptly for Virginia to get in the car.他粗鲁地示意弗吉尼亚上车。
  • I was abruptly notified that a half-hour speech was expected of me.我突然被通知要讲半个小时的话。
34 placating 9105b064dea8efdf14de6a293f45c31d     
v.安抚,抚慰,使平静( placate的现在分词 )
参考例句:
  • She pulled her face into a placating and childlike expression. 于是她装出一副稚气的想要和解的样子来。 来自飘(部分)
  • Uncle Peter's voice came as from a far distance, plaintive, placating. 彼得大叔这时说话了,他的声音犹如自一个遥远的地方起来,既带有哀愁又给人以安慰。 来自飘(部分)
35 hissed 2299e1729bbc7f56fc2559e409d6e8a7     
发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 ); 发嘘声表示反对
参考例句:
  • Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过?
  • The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。
36 chattering chattering     
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式
参考例句:
  • The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
  • I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。
37 sodden FwPwm     
adj.浑身湿透的;v.使浸透;使呆头呆脑
参考例句:
  • We stripped off our sodden clothes.我们扒下了湿透的衣服。
  • The cardboard was sodden and fell apart in his hands.纸板潮得都发酥了,手一捏就碎。
38 hearth n5by9     
n.壁炉炉床,壁炉地面
参考例句:
  • She came and sat in a chair before the hearth.她走过来,在炉子前面的椅子上坐下。
  • She comes to the hearth,and switches on the electric light there.她走到壁炉那里,打开电灯。


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