第 76 节
作者:这就是结局      更新:2021-02-20 15:59      字数:9322
  excludes the stars?  Dark; bright one! the hateful eyes glare
  beside the mother and the child!
  All that day Viola was distracted by a thousand thoughts and
  terrors; which fled as she examined them to settle back the
  darklier。  She remembered that; as she had once said to Glyndon;
  her very childhood had been haunted with strange forebodings;
  that she was ordained for some preternatural doom。  She
  remembered that; as she had told him this; sitting by the seas
  that slumbered in the arms of the Bay of Naples; he; too; had
  acknowledged the same forebodings; and a mysterious sympathy had
  appeared to unite their fates。  She remembered; above all; that;
  comparing their entangled thoughts; both had then said; that with
  the first sight of Zanoni the foreboding; the instinct; had
  spoken to their hearts more audibly than before; whispering that
  〃with HIM was connected the secret of the unconjectured life。〃
  And now; when Glyndon and Viola met again; the haunting fears of
  childhood; thus referred to; woke from their enchanted sleep。
  With Glyndon's terror she felt a sympathy; against which her
  reason and her love struggled in vain。  And still; when she
  turned her looks upon her child; it watched her with that steady;
  earnest eye; and its lips moved as if it sought to speak to her;
  but no sound came。  The infant refused to sleep。  Whenever she
  gazed upon its face; still those wakeful; watchful eyes!and in
  their earnestness; there spoke something of pain; of upbraiding;
  of accusation。  They chilled her as she looked。  Unable to
  endure; of herself; this sudden and complete revulsion of all the
  feelings which had hitherto made up her life; she formed the
  resolution natural to her land and creed; she sent for the priest
  who had habitually attended her at Venice; and to him she
  confessed; with passionate sobs and intense terror; the doubts
  that had broken upon her。  The good father; a worthy and pious
  man; but with little education and less sense; one who held (as
  many of the lower Italians do to this day) even a poet to be a
  sort of sorcerer; seemed to shut the gates of hope upon her
  heart。  His remonstrances were urgent; for his horror was
  unfeigned。  He joined with Glyndon in imploring her to fly; if
  she felt the smallest doubt that her husband's pursuits were of
  the nature which the Roman Church had benevolently burned so many
  scholars for adopting。  And even the little that Viola could
  communicate seemed; to the ignorant ascetic; irrefragable proof
  of sorcery and witchcraft; he had; indeed; previously heard some
  of the strange rumours which followed the path of Zanoni; and was
  therefore prepared to believe the worst; the worthy Bartolomeo
  would have made no bones of sending Watt to the stake; had he
  heard him speak of the steam…engine。  But Viola; as untutored as
  himself; was terrified by his rough and vehement eloquence;
  terrified; for by that penetration which Catholic priests;
  however dull; generally acquire; in their vast experience of the
  human heart hourly exposed to their probe; Bartolomeo spoke less
  of danger to herself than to her child。  〃Sorcerers;〃 said he;
  〃have ever sought the most to decoy and seduce the souls of the
  young;nay; the infant;〃 and therewith he entered into a long
  catalogue of legendary fables; which he quoted as historical
  facts。  All at which an English woman would have smiled; appalled
  the tender but superstitious Neapolitan; and when the priest left
  her; with solemn rebukes and grave accusations of a dereliction
  of her duties to her child; if she hesitated to fly with it from
  an abode polluted by the darker powers and unhallowed arts;
  Viola; still clinging to the image of Zanoni; sank into a passive
  lethargy which held her very reason in suspense。
  The hours passed:  night came on; the house was hushed; and
  Viola; slowly awakened from the numbness and torpor which had
  usurped her faculties; tossed to and fro on her couch; restless
  and perturbed。  The stillness became intolerable; yet more
  intolerable the sound that alone broke it; the voice of the
  clock; knelling moment after moment to its grave。  The moments;
  at last; seemed themselves to find voice;to gain shape。  She
  thought she beheld them springing; wan and fairy…like; from the
  womb of darkness; and ere they fell again; extinguished; into
  that womb; their grave; their low small voices murmured; 〃Woman;
  we report to eternity all that is done in time!  What shall we
  report of thee; O guardian of a new…born soul?〃  She became
  sensible that her fancies had brought a sort of partial delirium;
  that she was in a state between sleep and waking; when suddenly
  one thought became more predominant than the rest。  The chamber
  which; in that and every house they had inhabited; even that in
  the Greek isles; Zanoni had set apart to a solitude on which none
  might intrude; the threshold of which even Viola's step was
  forbid to cross; and never; hitherto; in that sweet repose of
  confidence which belongs to contented love; had she even felt the
  curious desire to disobey;now; that chamber drew her towards
  it。  Perhaps THERE might be found a somewhat to solve the riddle;
  to dispel or confirm the doubt:  that thought grew and deepened
  in its intenseness; it fastened on her as with a palpable and
  irresistible grasp; it seemed to raise her limbs without her
  will。
  And now; through the chamber; along the galleries thou glidest; O
  lovely shape! sleep…walking; yet awake。  The moon shines on thee
  as thou glidest by; casement after casement; white…robed and
  wandering spirit!thine arms crossed upon thy bosom; thine eyes
  fixed and open; with a calm unfearing awe。  Mother; it is thy
  child that leads thee on!  The fairy moments go before thee; thou
  hearest still the clock…knell tolling them to their graves
  behind。  On; gliding on; thou hast gained the door; no lock bars
  thee; no magic spell drives thee back。  Daughter of the dust;
  thou standest alone with night in the chamber where; pale and
  numberless; the hosts of space have gathered round the seer!
  CHAPTER 6。VII。
  Des Erdenlebens
  Schweres Traumbild sinkt; und sinkt; und sinkt。
  〃Das Ideal und das Lebens。〃
  (The Dream Shape of the heavy earthly life sinks; and sinks; and
  sinks。)
  She stood within the chamber; and gazed around her; no signs by
  which an inquisitor of old could have detected the scholar of the
  Black Art were visible。  No crucibles and caldrons; no brass…
  bound volumes and ciphered girdles; no skulls and cross…bones。
  Quietly streamed the broad moonlight through the desolate chamber
  with its bare; white walls。  A few bunches of withered herbs; a
  few antique vessels of bronze; placed carelessly on a wooden
  form; were all which that curious gaze could identify with the
  pursuits of the absent owner。  The magic; if it existed; dwelt in
  the artificer; and the materials; to other hands; were but herbs
  and bronze。  So is it ever with thy works and wonders; O Genius;
  Seeker of the Stars!  Words themselves are the common property
  of all men; yet; from words themselves; Thou Architect of
  Immortalities; pilest up temples that shall outlive the Pyramids;
  and the very leaf of the Papyrus becomes a Shinar; stately with
  towers; round which the Deluge of Ages; shall roar in vain!
  But in that solitude has the Presence that there had invoked its
  wonders left no enchantment of its own?  It seemed so; for as
  Viola stood in the chamber; she became sensible that some
  mysterious change was at work within herself。  Her blood coursed
  rapidly; and with a sensation of delight; through her veins;she
  felt as if chains were falling from her limbs; as if cloud after
  cloud was rolling from her gaze。  All the confused thoughts which
  had moved through her trance settled and centred themselves in
  one intense desire to see the Absent One;to be with him。  The
  monads that make up space and air seemed charged with a spiritual
  attraction;to become a medium through which her spirit could
  pass from its clay; and confer with the spirit to which the
  unutterable desire compelled it。  A faintness seized her; she
  tottered to the seat on which the vessels and herbs were placed;
  and; as she bent down; she saw in one of the vessels a small vase
  of crystal。  By a mechanical and involuntary impulse; her hand
  seized the vase; she opened it; and the volatile essence it
  contained sparkled up; and spread through the room a powerful and
  delicious fragrance。  She inhaled the odour; she laved her
  temples with the liquid; and suddenly her life seemed to spring
  up from the previous faintness;to spring; to soar; to float; to
  dilate upon the wings of a bird。  The room vanished from her
  eyes。  Away; away; over lands and seas and space on the rushing
  desire flies the disprisoned mind!
  Upon a stratum; not of this world; stood the world…born shapes of
  the sons of Science; upon an embryo world; upon a crude; wan;
  attenuated mass of matter