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● drew back：向后撤退。火势太大，救火人员都不敢再走上前去了。
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● smolder：焚化（火不冒出来的）。长椅本已着火，抢救出来后，没有搬多远，现在它自己烧起来了。brave（动词）：冒，犯，敢去碰。
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The fire chief, village druggist disguised in a helmet, came up to comfort her and apologize, “It’s a pity, Mrs. James, we couldn’t save anything to speak of. The way the draft carried the flame you’d have thought that house was built to be burned. Excuse me, ma’am, I guess you’re feeling bad enough.”
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● druggist：卖药的，药剂师。乡间守望相助，救火会亦为村民所组成。disguised：化装。helmet：（铜）盔。
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● to speak of：值得一提的（东西）。draft：气流，风。The way也是一个group conjunction，这里的意思好像是From the way：从火随风走这种情势看来，你会以为那屋子是造来专给火烧的。
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She had no idea what words he expected from her, so she pointed toward the fire, as much as to say, What is there to say? But he thought she was indicating the settee, now smoking like a Christmas pudding, and he felt guilty about it.
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“I know,” he said humbly. “I thought we sure had it out far enough.”
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● idea后有一介词of省去：她不知道他期待她怎样答复。
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● What is there to say?前后引号省去：还有什么可说的呢？这句话并没有说出来，可是从她的姿势看来，效果上是等于说了（as much as to say）。
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● Christmas pudding：圣诞布丁。面粉、鸡蛋、牛脂、葡萄干、梅干等调制而成，食时热气蒸腾。guilty：自责，内疚（自觉救火不力）。
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● sure当副词用。I thought we had…用过去式：“我起初还以为……”，现在才知道那张长椅子搬出来得还不够远。
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“Throw it back into the fire.” She heard her own harsh, unkempt voice and she hadn’t meant to offend the druggist-fireman, who backed off hurriedly, disconcerted by her ferocity; it was just that she could not help voicing exactly what was in her mind…because she had decided to throw into the fiery furnace every shred of her life that she could lay hands on.
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● harsh：粗声粗气的。unkempt：随便的，不检点的。offend：得罪。backed off：向后走开。disconcerted：弄得很窘。ferocity：凶狠之状。
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● it was just that：句子这样开头往往用来说明上文“事实只是这样”。could not help：不得不。voice当动词用，解作“表达出来，形诸语言”，这里是动名词。
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● furnace：炉，是暗喻（metaphor），指焚烧中的房子。shred原意是极细的布条。生命里的“一丝一缕”，她都要掷到火里去，那张长椅子也不必说了。that she could lay hands on：定语从句，“凡是她的手所拿得到的”。
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But the house burned brightly enough, as fine a fire as hell.
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It was hell, nor more nor less. It tore at her eye-balls, and looking at it was more than looking because it had already begun to devour her.
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● 照基督教传说，地狱里不断地烧着火。一个在基督教传统里长大的人，看见大火，很容易联想起地狱（hell）。
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● nor more nor less：不多也不少，正是（地狱）。
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● tore at本意为“使劲地拉”。屋子大火，刺激她的眼睛，好像要抓破她的眼球似的。looking at it：对它看。more than looking：不止是看而已。大火不单对她的“视觉”发生作用，她的整个身心都受到影响：它已经开始把她吞下去。
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The clawing flame fingers began to encircle her heart. What did they want? Could they release the dream that had been walled up in her? A dream as soft-feathered and surely molded as a thrush, but lifeless now, head battered and wings shredded from beating against the walls of defeat. This dream of life, giving and taking and of loving—poor love—was dead. She had failed; and the heart was a tomb and the flame fingers could probe and claw to no purpose—forever. That was it. She had forgotten. Hell was a flame forever; that was the whole point. Eternal fire.
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● clawing：用爪来抓的。女主人面对大火，火光刺目，热浪袭人，加以思潮起伏，百感交集，此身似已为大火吞去。本段又云：烈焰嚣张，伸指欲抓，开始向其方寸之间围玫。是则非但身外火势逼近，而且心中焦灼如焚，亦不堪熬炼矣。
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● 这些火焰的手指要些什么东西呢？它们能不能将“砌”（walled up）在她心头的一个梦“释放”（release）出来呢？A dream之下并无finite verb，句子不完全，只是用以说明上一句的the dream。她的梦像一只小鸟（thrush：画眉），羽毛柔软，形体宛然（surely molded：她的梦不是空虚的，而有确定的塑造成的形体的）。现在这只小鸟是死了，因为想破壁而出，自己给撞死的。battered和shredded都是过去分词“头破翅裂”。围着那只小鸟的墙是什么墙呢？是“失败之墙”。她一生多故，累遭挫折，好梦难圆，情思郁结——梦想之鸟，难破失败之墙，终于梦碎鸟死，生机奄然矣。
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● 次句说明“梦”之内容：“生命之梦——施与受”。照语法结构，taking后最好接comma，可是接了comma之后，dream of life和dream of loving硬是成对立之局。作者之意不然，of loving既似与of life对立，又似附属于of life之下，而和giving and taking相平行。此时小说中主角心头本不甚清楚，此种句法似更能代表当时之心境。
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● she had failed：她的生命是失败了。probe：探察（尤其指用尖锐的外科仪器以探察伤口）。to no purpose：没有结果。“她的心已经像一座坟，探察它撕抓它也得不到什么结果了。”
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