Such were the thoughts that passed through thesoul of Flemming, as he lay in utter solitude5 and silence on the rounded summit of one of the mountains of the Furca Pass, and gazed, with tears in his eyes, and ardent6 longing in his heart, up into the blue-swimming heaven overhead, and at the glaciers7 and snowy mountain-peaks around him. Highest and whitest of all, stood the peak of the Jungfrau, which seemed near him, though it rose afar off from the bosom9 of the Lauterbrunner Thal. There it stood, holy and high and pure, the bride of heaven, all veiled and clothed in white, and lifted the thoughts of the beholder10 heavenward. O, he little thought then, as he gazed at it with longing and delight, how soon a form was to arise in his own soul, as holy, and high, and pure as this, and like this point heavenward.
Thus lay the traveller on the mountain summit, reposing11 his weary limbs on the short, brown grass, which more resembled moss12 than grass. He had sent his guide forward, that he might be alone. His soul within him was wild with a fierce and painful delight. The mountain air excited him; the mountain solitudes14 enticed15, yet maddened him. Every peak, every sharp, jagged iceberg16, seemed to pierce him. The silence was awful and sublime17. It was like that in the soul of a dying man, when he hears no more the sounds of earth. He seemed to be laying aside his earthly garments. The heavens were near unto him; but between him and heaven every evil deed he had done arose gigantic, like those mountain-peaks, and breathed an icy breath upon him. O, let not the soul that suffers, dare to look Nature in the face, where she sits majestically18 aloft in the solitude of the mountains; for her face is hard and stern, and looks not in compassion19 upon her weak and erring20 child. It is the countenance21 of an accusing archangel, who summons us to judgment22. In the valley she wears the countenance of a Virgin23 Mother, looking at us with tearful eyes, and a face of pity and love!
But yesterday Flemming had come up the valley of the Saint Gothard Pass, through Amsteg, where the Kerstelenbach comes dashing down the Maderaner Thal, from its snowy cradle overhead. The road is steep, and runs on zigzag24 terraces. The sides of the mountains are barren cliffs; and from their cloud-capped summits, unheard amid the roar of the great torrent25 below, come streams of snowwhite foam26, leaping from rock to rock, like the mountain chamois. As you advance, the scene grows wilder and more desolate27. There is not a tree in sight,--not a human habitation. Clouds, black as midnight, lower upon you from the ravines overhead; and the mountain torrent beneath is but a sheet of foam, and sends up an incessant28 roar. A sudden turn in the road brings you in sight of a lofty bridge, stepping from cliff to cliff with a single stride. A fearful cataract29 howls beneath it, like an evil spirit, and fills the air with mist; and the mountain wind claps its hands and shrieks30 through the narrow pass, Ha! ha!--This is the Devil's Bridge. It leads the traveller across the fearful chasm31, and through a mountain gallery into the broad, green, silent meadow of Andermath.
Even the sunny morning, which followed thisgloomy day, had not chased the desolate impression from the soul of Flemming. His excitement increased as he lost himself more and more among the mountains; and now, as he lay all alone on the summit of the sunny hill, with only glaciers and snowy peaks about him, his soul, as I have said, was wild with a fierce and painful delight.
A human voice broke his reverie. He looked, and beheld32 at a short distance from him, the athletic33 form of a mountain herdsman, who was approaching the spot where he lay. He was a young man, clothed in a rustic34 garb35, and holding a long staff in his hand. When Flemming rose, he stood still, and gazed at him, as if he loved the face of man, even in a stranger, and longed to hear a human voice, though it might speak in an unknown tongue. He answered Flemming's salutation in a rude mountain dialect, and in reply to his questions said;
"I, with two others, have charge of two hundred head of cattle on these mountains. Throughthe two summer months we remain here night and day; for which we receive each a Napoleon."
Flemming gave him half his summer wages. He was glad to do a good deed in secret, and yet so near heaven. The man received it as his due, like a toll-keeper; and soon after departed, leaving the traveller alone. And the traveller went his way down the mountain, as one distraught. He stopped only to pluck one bright blue flower, which bloomed all alone in the vast desert, and looked up at him, as if to say; "O take me with you! leave me not here companionless!"
Ere long he reached the magnificent glacier8 of the Rhone; a frozen cataract, more than two thousand feet in height, and many miles broad at its base. It fills the whole valley between two mountains, running back to their summits. At the base it is arched, like a dome36; and above, jagged and rough, and resembles a mass of gigantic crystals, of a pale emerald tint37, mingled38 with white. A snowy crust covers its surface; but at every rent and crevice39 the pale green ice shines clear in thesun. Its shape is that of a glove, lying with the palm downwards40, and the fingers crooked41 and close together. It is a gauntlet of ice, which, centuries ago, Winter, the King of these mountains, threw down in defiance42 to the Sun; and year by year the Sun strives in vain to lift it from the ground on the point of his glittering spear. A feeling of wonder and delight came over the soul of Flemming when he beheld it, and he shouted and cried aloud;
"How wonderful! how glorious!"
After lingering a few hours in the cold, desolate valley, he climbed in the afternoon the steep Mayen-Wand, on the Grimsel, passed the Lake of the Dead, with its ink-black waters; and through the melting snow, and over slippery stepping-stones in the beds of numberless shallow brooks43, descended44 to the Grimsel Hospital, where he passed the night, and thought it the most lone13 and desolate spot, that man ever slept in.
On the morrow, he rose with the day; and the rising sun found him already standing45 on the rusticbridge, which hangs over the verge46 of the Falls of the Aar at Handeck, where the river pitches down a precipice47 into a narrow and fearful abyss, shut in by perpendicular48 cliffs. At right angles with it comes the beautiful Aerlenbach; and halfway49 down the double cascade50 mingles51 into one. Thus he pursued his way down the Hasli Thal into the Bernese Oberland, restless, impatient, he knew not why, stopping seldom, and never long, and then rushing forward again, like the rushing river whose steps he followed, and in whose ice-cold waters ever and anon he bathed his wrists, to cool the fever in his blood; for the noonday sun was hot.
His heart dilated52 in the dilating53 valley, that grew broader and greener at every step. The sight of human faces and human dwellings54 soothed55 him; and through the fields of summer grain, in the broad meadows of Imgrund, he walked with a heart that ached no more, but trembled only, as our eyelids56 when we have done weeping. As he climbed the opposite hill, which hems57 in this romanticvalley, and, like a heavy yoke58, chafes59 the neck of the Aar, he believed the ancient tradition, which says, that once the valley was a lake. From the summit of the hill he looked southward upon a beautiful landscape of gardens, and fields of grain, and woodlands, and meadows, and the ancient castle of Resti, looking down upon Meyringen. And now all around him were the singing of birds, and grateful shadows of the leafy trees; and sheeted waterfalls dropping from the woodland cliffs, seen only, but unheard, the fluted60 columns breaking into mist, and fretted61 with frequent spires62 and ornaments63 of foam, and not unlike the towers of a Gothic church inverted64. There, in one white sheet of foam, the Riechenbach pours down into its deep beaker, into which the sun never shines. Face to face it beholds65 the Alpbach falling from the opposite hill, "like a downward smoke." When Flemming saw the innumerable runnels, sliding down the mountain-side, and leaping, all life and gladness, he would fain have clasped them in his arms and been their playmate, and revelled66 withthem in their freedom and delight. Yet he was weary with the day's journey, and entered the village of Meyringen, embowered in cherry-trees, which were then laden67 with fruit, more like a way-worn traveller than an enthusiastic poet. As he went up the tavern68 steps he said in his heart, with the Italian Aretino; "He who has not been at a tavern, knows not what a paradise it is. O holy tavern! O miraculous69 tavern! holy, because no carking cares are there, nor weariness, nor pain; and miraculous, because of the spits, which of themselves turn round and round! Of a truth all courtesy and good manners come from taverns70, so full of bows, and Signor, sì! and Signor, nò!"
But even in the tavern he could not rest long. The same evening at sunset he was floating on the lake of Brienz, in an open boat, close under the cascade of the Giessbach, hearing the peasants sing the Ranz des Vaches. He slept that night at the other extremity71 of the lake, in a large house, which, like Saint Peter's at Joppa, stood by the water's side. The next day he wasted inwriting letters, musing72 in this green nest, and paddling about the lake again; and in the evening went across the beautiful meadows to Interlachen, where many things happened to him, and detained him long.
点击收听单词发音
1 longing | |
n.(for)渴望 | |
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2 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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3 onward | |
adj.向前的,前进的;adv.向前,前进,在先 | |
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4 eternity | |
n.不朽,来世;永恒,无穷 | |
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5 solitude | |
n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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6 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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7 glaciers | |
冰河,冰川( glacier的名词复数 ) | |
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8 glacier | |
n.冰川,冰河 | |
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9 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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10 beholder | |
n.观看者,旁观者 | |
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11 reposing | |
v.将(手臂等)靠在某人(某物)上( repose的现在分词 ) | |
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12 moss | |
n.苔,藓,地衣 | |
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13 lone | |
adj.孤寂的,单独的;唯一的 | |
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14 solitudes | |
n.独居( solitude的名词复数 );孤独;荒僻的地方;人迹罕至的地方 | |
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15 enticed | |
诱惑,怂恿( entice的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 iceberg | |
n.冰山,流冰,冷冰冰的人 | |
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17 sublime | |
adj.崇高的,伟大的;极度的,不顾后果的 | |
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18 majestically | |
雄伟地; 庄重地; 威严地; 崇高地 | |
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19 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
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20 erring | |
做错事的,错误的 | |
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21 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
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22 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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23 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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24 zigzag | |
n.曲折,之字形;adj.曲折的,锯齿形的;adv.曲折地,成锯齿形地;vt.使曲折;vi.曲折前行 | |
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25 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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26 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
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27 desolate | |
adj.荒凉的,荒芜的;孤独的,凄凉的;v.使荒芜,使孤寂 | |
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28 incessant | |
adj.不停的,连续的 | |
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29 cataract | |
n.大瀑布,奔流,洪水,白内障 | |
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30 shrieks | |
n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31 chasm | |
n.深坑,断层,裂口,大分岐,利害冲突 | |
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32 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 | |
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33 athletic | |
adj.擅长运动的,强健的;活跃的,体格健壮的 | |
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34 rustic | |
adj.乡村的,有乡村特色的;n.乡下人,乡巴佬 | |
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35 garb | |
n.服装,装束 | |
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36 dome | |
n.圆屋顶,拱顶 | |
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37 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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38 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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39 crevice | |
n.(岩石、墙等)裂缝;缺口 | |
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40 downwards | |
adj./adv.向下的(地),下行的(地) | |
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41 crooked | |
adj.弯曲的;不诚实的,狡猾的,不正当的 | |
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42 defiance | |
n.挑战,挑衅,蔑视,违抗 | |
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43 brooks | |
n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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44 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
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45 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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46 verge | |
n.边,边缘;v.接近,濒临 | |
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47 precipice | |
n.悬崖,危急的处境 | |
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48 perpendicular | |
adj.垂直的,直立的;n.垂直线,垂直的位置 | |
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49 halfway | |
adj.中途的,不彻底的,部分的;adv.半路地,在中途,在半途 | |
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50 cascade | |
n.小瀑布,喷流;层叠;vi.成瀑布落下 | |
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51 mingles | |
混合,混入( mingle的第三人称单数 ); 混进,与…交往[联系] | |
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52 dilated | |
adj.加宽的,扩大的v.(使某物)扩大,膨胀,张大( dilate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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53 dilating | |
v.(使某物)扩大,膨胀,张大( dilate的现在分词 ) | |
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54 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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55 soothed | |
v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 );抚慰;使舒服;减轻痛苦 | |
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56 eyelids | |
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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57 hems | |
布的褶边,贴边( hem的名词复数 ); 短促的咳嗽 | |
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58 yoke | |
n.轭;支配;v.给...上轭,连接,使成配偶 | |
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59 chafes | |
v.擦热(尤指皮肤)( chafe的第三人称单数 );擦痛;发怒;惹怒 | |
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60 fluted | |
a.有凹槽的 | |
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61 fretted | |
焦躁的,附有弦马的,腐蚀的 | |
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62 spires | |
n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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63 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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64 inverted | |
adj.反向的,倒转的v.使倒置,使反转( invert的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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65 beholds | |
v.看,注视( behold的第三人称单数 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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66 revelled | |
v.作乐( revel的过去式和过去分词 );狂欢;着迷;陶醉 | |
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67 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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68 tavern | |
n.小旅馆,客栈;小酒店 | |
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69 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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70 taverns | |
n.小旅馆,客栈,酒馆( tavern的名词复数 ) | |
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71 extremity | |
n.末端,尽头;尽力;终极;极度 | |
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72 musing | |
n. 沉思,冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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