1705003987
1705003988
● 以后发生些什么可怕的事，当事人自己都说不清楚呢。这事在第三句方才说明，现在先看第一二句。
1705003989
1705003990
● 他们到了山区高处，见到冰雪之后，只是觉得奇寒难忍，狂风难当，此外景色还和下面差不多：高处山坡在毫无暖气的日光底下，隐隐约约地晶晶发光，他们的眼睛睁不大开，看不清楚，可是前面的确有这么一块地方，似乎伸了手就摸得到的（palpably there），有形有体（substance），宛然可睹，分明是大地的一部分。一阵轻烟似的雪风过处，灰色的岩石便露了出来，还有前人以手堆植用以山行标路的石堆（cairns），也看得见了。这些都是大地尽处的前哨（outposts），前哨外面，便是一片碧空，看了心中也曾觉得安慰。
1705003991
1705003992
● 注意这两句的动词时态：had glistened和had given（过去完成式）是表示“过去”的事，接着第三句从But now起，就是叙述眼前的事了。
1705003993
1705003994
● cataract：瀑布。gale：大风（gust是突然发作随时可停的疾风，故常用复数gusts。gale则是劲吹不已的大风）。
1705003995
1705003996
● 现在忽然大块雪团袭来，风势既猛，水气又多结成冰雪，故竟予人以坚硬（solid）的感觉。日光照处，冷光耀目，特别可怕；然云团低洼罅隙（hollows and rifts）之处，则又深暗作浓灰乌黑之色。
1705003997
1705003998
● 云团的碎片（Tatters）先到，John在前，首当其冲，只见前面丝丝碎云，像飞箭似的，射过他拱首隆背（hunched）模糊的身形，然后大块云团，表面银光闪闪，其凹处黝暗，复如岩洞，挟生杀之威，如雪崖崩落（avalanche），御风而至，当头落下。
1705003999
1705004000
● 这种惊心动魄的奇丽景色，不过是几秒钟的事，John即为当头罩住，先是身形不清，继则全身掩没（go under），消失不见。我要换口气的工夫都没有，招呼Tommy也来不及了，我们两人立刻都被罩住。
1705004001
1705004002
No beauty then. Nothing but wind and our hunched selves. The very rock we stood on lost substance. Air, earth, all reality, was turned into this gray force. I had felt fear like a blade when the cloud charged against us; now in the gray my feelings like my body grew numb.
1705004003
1705004004
● No beauty then呼应上段的terrifying beauty。
1705004005
1705004006
● lost substance：化为虚无（脚头站不住了）。
1705004007
1705004008
● blade：利刃。charged：突袭。云团初来袭击时，我觉得恐惧万状，心头刺痛；现在置身云团之中，周身既然僵化，感觉亦复麻木。
1705004009
1705004010
“Time to move!” Tommy yelled.
1705004011
1705004012
In ten steps we had lost the trail, so we had to work cautiously over unknown ledges. Visibility, we figured, was ten feet, though it was hard to get our eyes open enough to see at all. We kept the wind square on our backs. It pummeled our bodies and spirits with solid blows, and I felt the life slowly going out of me as a man might who is being beaten by rubber truncheons.
1705004013
1705004014
● lost the trail：走出山径之外，找不到路了。因此只好小心翼翼地在不知深浅高低的石壁边缘上爬行。“爬行”原文是work，走路成了“做工”了，其用心与费力可想而知。
1705004015
1705004016
● figured：估计。Visibility：可视度。十尺以外即不能辨物。
1705004017
1705004018
● square（副词）：恰当。
1705004019
1705004020
● pummeled：（用拳）打。as a man might后面省去feel等字。一个人背上给橡皮棍子（truncheons）不断地打着，会慢慢地给打死的，现在我觉得我的三魂六魄慢慢地都给打得跑掉了。
1705004021
1705004022
But before we quite knew it, the slope dipped steeply downward. Tommy took a little sliding step, then both feet went together. He sprawled out on his side and slid off feet first, flashing his grin at me and saying something I couldn’t hear. At once he vanished in the white below.
1705004023
1705004024
I crawled from rock to rock after him, and realized that I was holding now to a steep wall. Tommy had gone.
1705004025
1705004026
● dipped：倾斜。steeply：险峻地。
1705004027
1705004028
● took a little sliding step：向前滑了一下。
1705004029
1705004030
● sprawled out：四肢没有着落地（跌下）。on his side：侧着身子。feet first：脚朝下。flashing his grin at me：猛地朝我惨笑了一下。
1705004031
1705004032
From then on my memory grows less clear. There are isolated pictures, such as my sudden awareness of the torn whitened flesh of my hands—hardly mine any more, for all feeling had gone from them. And I remember finally the first vague sense of darkness coming on. I had felt forever lost there among the gray rock shapes, as though my small human mechanism had been locked up in everlasting ice; but the fear had grown numb and cold like my body. Now suddenly night meant death itself, as sure as the eastward roll of the mountain.
1705004033
1705004034
I started downward at last. I gave up Tommy—abandoned him to wind and night.
1705004035
1705004036
● From then on：从那时候开始。
[
上一页 ]
[ :1.705003987e+09 ]
[
下一页 ]