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