‘Monnum a Dhea! is it waking the{27} children you want to be after now?’ she asked in a tone all the more acrid4 from its enforced lowness. Then, with a ‘Whist! whist! whist!’ addressed to the baby, she began, gently but rapidly, thumping5 that important personage’s back, so as to hinder it, if possible, from awaking.
Unfortunately the action brought her elbow into sudden sharp contact with the head of the youngest little girl who had nestled close up to her for warmth, and who immediately responded with a loud howl, which in its turn aroused Juggy Kelly, Pete’s niece and the general servant of the establishment, who slept with the chickens in a sort of loft6 overhead, and who, with a vague idea that something was suddenly being required of her, began, half awake, to hist and hoost vigorously, as if she were driving in geese or turkeys to roost.
‘Auch! listen to that creature!’ muttered{28} the mistress of the house in a tone of yet more acrid displeasure—a displeasure only kept low by the fear of awakening7 the rest of the still slumbering8 flock. ‘Bedhe husth! Bedhe husth!’ she called up in a shrill9 whisper in the direction of the offender10. ‘Troth, and I might speak to the chickens themselves and better,’ she added to herself in a mutter of indignation. ‘A fool that Juggy came into the world, and a fool she’ll stop in it as long as the head stays on her! What ails11 me to be letting myself be troubled with her, I wonder? Isn’t one fool enough for a decent woman to have on her hands at the same time?—yes, indeed, and more than enough! ’Tis the right baulyore I am with my easy-going ways, slaving and slaving from morning till night, and getting no thanks, only feeding them that never yet did a day’s work—nor couldn’t either, I believe, though you covered them with gold from head to foot, and pro{29}mised them all Ireland in return for doing it. Whist! whist! whist, I tell you! Will you whist, I say?’ she continued to the baby, who had by this time joined its plaintive12 howls to the other confusion of noises within and without the cabin. ‘Whist this very minute! Arrah, will you hold the tongue of you then, and stop bawling13? What! and will nothing else content ye? There, then, there, then; now be easy, and let me hear no more of you.’ Then, as the baby’s voice sank into a chuckle14 and murmur15 of content, ‘Weary on you, one and all, for torments16! my life’s destroyed amongst you, late and early! Never a day’s peace or quiet upon this earth, God knows!’
‘Dada, my foot’s sore! There’s a big thorn sticking out of the top of it!’ suddenly exclaimed the youngest child but two, a small, red-headed, lively creature called Norah, its father’s chief favourite, who was sleeping{30} in an obscure corner of the cabin along with a brother of about a year older.
‘Arrah, hush17, my dotey! Be easy, now, there’s a good child, and don’t be crossing your mother!’ Pete answered apprehensively18, creeping out of his own bed and feeling his way over in the darkness to where the child’s voice came from. ‘There, there; go to sleep quick, acushla agus, and sure dada will look for the ugly devil of a thorn in the morning and pull it out, never fear,’ he whispered soothingly19, whereupon the child, satisfied by his assurance, put up her little face to be kissed and then settled down again, curling her little legs under her as a small drowsy20 bird curls itself into its own corner of the nest.
‘Man Above! it is the terrible night it is, and no mistake!’ Pete added to himself in a tone of apprehension21, looking round him with a terrified glance as a wilder gust22 than{31} ever swept down the chimney, rattling23 the ill-fitting woodwork, once more filling the cabin with white ashes, and threatening to bring the whole crazy construction about their ears.
‘Wild weather! God save all mariners24 upon the sea, far and near, this night, amen!’ muttered old Durane from his own corner behind the door, the one most out of the draught25, and partially26 protected also by the corrag, or screen of dry branches of furze and alder27. He was only half awake, but the formula was so familiar that it rose unbidden to his lips even in his sleep.
‘True to you, father, the same, amen!’ dutifully responded his son, as he skipped back across the cabin and into his own lair28, pulling the great coat which was his chief covering by night as well as by day close up to his chin.
‘Yerra! you’re the nice pair, the two{32} of you, talking and carrying on in the black heart of the night as if it was the broad middle of the day!’ his wife exclaimed angrily. ‘And I that have not had one taste of sleep yet, and my two arms broke with holding up the child! I take the holy Mother of God to witness that ’tis enough to make any woman curse the hour she was born, let alone the day she ever laid her two eyes upon such a man—not to say he is a man at all, for he isn’t, nor hasn’t the spirit nor the courage nor the sense of a man, only clever at putting upon one that’s too soft and easy ever to say a ‘no’ to him! Yerra! give him his bit and his sup and his bed, and his easy life, and ’tis all he wants. Wurrah deelish! Wurrah deelish! ’tis the queer husband I have, anyhow! God, He knows that, so He does!’
To all this, Pete the submissive made no reply, only rolled himself up into a ball, trying to get his feet out of the piercing draught,{33} a performance which, despite the shortness of his legs, he utterly29 failed to accomplish. By degrees the scolding voice died away for mere30 lack of anything to feed upon; the baby, too, slept; little red-headed Norah crept closer and closer to her brother, pushing him against another sister who lay just beyond, till the three became an indistinguishable mass of small mottled arms and legs. The old man had relapsed into the placid31 dreamless slumbers32 of old age. Up in the chicken-loft poor, much-abused Juggy Kelly lay, her troubles and stupidities alike forgotten, one fat arm, utterly bare of covering, hanging outside the thin coverlet, her mouth wide open, and deep snores heaving her capacious chest.
Thus, despite the blasts which unceasingly shook it, all the inmates33 of the cabin little by little fell asleep. In other cabins scattered34 over the face of the island the in{34}habitants, too, slept, notwithstanding the storm, till, towards daybreak, the wind itself—sweeping over and over, and round and round its unprotected top; playing mad pranks35 along the steep perpendicular36 cliffs; rushing vociferously37 through the narrow fluted38 channels and fissures39, in at one end, out at the other; loosening the thin flakes40 of limestone41 and dropping them with a hollow or tinkling42 clatter43 upon the next ledge—producing, in short, every variety of sound of which that not very responsive musical instrument was capable—was the only thing left awake and astir upon Inishmaan.
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收听单词发音
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1
sputtering
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| n.反应溅射法；飞溅；阴极真空喷镀；喷射v.唾沫飞溅( sputter的现在分词 )；发劈啪声；喷出；飞溅出 | |
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2
undesirable
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| adj.不受欢迎的，不良的，不合意的，讨厌的；n.不受欢迎的人，不良分子 | |
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3
wrath
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| n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒 | |
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4
acrid
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| adj.辛辣的，尖刻的，刻薄的 | |
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5
thumping
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| adj.重大的，巨大的；重击的；尺码大的；极好的adv.极端地；非常地v.重击(thump的现在分词)；狠打；怦怦地跳；全力支持 | |
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6
loft
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| n.阁楼，顶楼 | |
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7
awakening
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| n.觉醒，醒悟 adj.觉醒中的；唤醒的 | |
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8
slumbering
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的现在分词形式） | |
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9
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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10
offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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11
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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12
plaintive
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| adj.可怜的，伤心的 | |
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13
bawling
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| v.大叫，大喊( bawl的现在分词 )；放声大哭；大声叫出；叫卖（货物） | |
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14
chuckle
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| vi.／n.轻声笑，咯咯笑 | |
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15
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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16
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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17
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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18
apprehensively
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| adv.担心地 | |
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19
soothingly
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| adv.抚慰地，安慰地；镇痛地 | |
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20
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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21
apprehension
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| n.理解，领悟；逮捕，拘捕；忧虑 | |
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22
gust
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| n.阵风，突然一阵（雨、烟等），（感情的）迸发 | |
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23
rattling
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| 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 | |
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24
mariners
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| 海员，水手（mariner的复数形式） | |
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25
draught
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| n.拉，牵引，拖；一网（饮，吸，阵)；顿服药量，通风；v.起草，设计 | |
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26
partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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27
alder
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| n.赤杨树 | |
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28
lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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29
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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30
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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31
placid
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| adj.安静的，平和的 | |
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32
slumbers
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| 睡眠，安眠( slumber的名词复数 ) | |
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33
inmates
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| n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 ) | |
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34
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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35
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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36
perpendicular
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| adj.垂直的，直立的；n.垂直线，垂直的位置 | |
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37
vociferously
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| adv.喊叫地，吵闹地 | |
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38
fluted
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| a.有凹槽的 | |
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39
fissures
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| n.狭长裂缝或裂隙( fissure的名词复数 )；裂伤；分歧；分裂v.裂开( fissure的第三人称单数 ) | |
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40
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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41
limestone
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| n.石灰石 | |
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42
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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43
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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