棉花文学网

手机浏览器扫描二维码访问

第17部分(第1页)

is done; she leant out of the window; gave one low whistle; and descended the shattered and bloodstained staircase; now strewn with the litter of waste–paper baskets; treaties; despatches; seals; sealing wax; etc。; and so entered the courtyard。 There; in the shadow of a giant fig tree; waited an old gipsy on a donkey。 He led another by the bridle。 Orlando swung her leg over it; and thus; attended by a lean dog; riding a donkey; in pany of a gipsy; the Ambassador of Great Britain at the Court of the Sultan left Constantinople。

They rode for several days and nights and met with a variety of adventures; some at the hands of men; some at the hands of nature; in all of which Orlando acquitted herself with courage。 Within a week they reached the high ground outside Broussa; which was then the chief camping ground of the gipsy tribe to which Orlando had allied herself。 Often she had looked at those mountains from her balcony at the Embassy; often had longed to be there; and to find oneself where one has longed to be always; to a reflective mind; gives food for thought。 For some time; however; she was too well pleased with the change to spoil it by thinking。 The pleasure of having no documents to seal or sign; no flourishes to make; no calls to pay; was enough。 The gipsies followed the grass; when it was grazed down; on they moved again。 She washed in streams if she washed at all; no boxes; red; blue; or green; were presented to her; there was not a key; let alone a golden key; in the whole camp; as for ‘visiting’; the word was unknown。 She milked the goats; she collected brushwood; she stole a hen’s egg now and then; but always put a coin or a pearl in place of it; she herded cattle; she stripped vines; she trod the grape; she filled the goat–skin and drank from it; and when she remembered how; at about this time of day; she should have been making the motions of drinking and smoking over an empty coffee–cup and a pipe which lacked tobacco; she laughed aloud; cut herself another hunch of bread; and begged for a puff from old Rustum’s pipe; filled though it was with cow dung。

The gipsies; with whom it is obvious that she must have been in secret munication before the revolution; seem to have looked upon her as one of themselves (which is always the highest pliment a people can pay); and her dark hair and dark plexion bore out the belief that she was; by birth; one of them and had been snatched by an English Duke from a nut tree when she was a baby and taken to that barbarous land where people live in houses because they are too feeble and diseased to stand the open air。 Thus; though in many ways inferior to them; they were willing to help her to bee more like them; taught her their arts of cheese–making and basket–weaving; their science of stealing and bird–snaring; and were even prepared to consider letting her marry among them。

But Orlando had contracted in England some of the customs or diseases (whatever you choose to consider them) which cannot; it seems; be expelled。 One evening; when they were all sitting round the camp fire and the sunset was blazing over the Thessalian hills; Orlando exclaimed:

‘How good to eat!’

(The gipsies have no word for ‘beautiful’。 This is the nearest。)

All the young men and women burst out laughing uproariously。 The sky good to eat; indeed! The elders; however; who had seen more of foreigners than they had; became suspicious。 They noticed that Orlando often sat for whole hours doing nothing whatever; except look here and then there; they would e upon her on some hill–top staring straight in front of her; no matter whether the goats were grazing or straying。 They began to suspect that she had other beliefs than their own; and the older men and women thought it probable that she had fallen into the clutches of the vilest and cruellest among all the Gods; which is Nature。 Nor were they far wrong。 The English disease; a love of Nature; was inborn in her; and here; where Nature was so much larger and more powerful than in England; she fell into its hands as she had never done before。 The malady is too well known; and has been; alas; too often described to need describing afresh; save very briefly。 There were mountains; there were valleys; there were streams。 She climbed the mountains; roamed the valleys; sat on the banks of the streams。 She likened the hills to ramparts; to the breasts of doves; and the flanks of kine。 She pared the flowers to enamel and the turf to Turkey rugs worn thin。 Trees were withered hags; and sheep were grey boulders。 Everything; in fact; was something else。 She found the tarn on the mountain–top and almost threw herself in to seek the wisdom she thought lay hid there; and when; from the mountain–top; she beheld far off; across the Sea of Marmara; the plains of Greece; and made out (her eyes were admirable) the Acropolis with a white streak or two; which must; she thought; be the Parthenon; her soul expanded with her eyeballs; and she prayed that she might share the majesty of the hills; know the serenity of the plains; etc。 etc。; as all such believers do。 Then; looking down; the red hyacinth; the purple iris wrought her to cry out in ecstasy at the goodness; the beauty of nature; raising her eyes again; she beheld the eagle soaring; and imagined its raptures and made them her own。 Returning home; she saluted each star; each peak; and each watch–fire as if they signalled to her alone; and at last; when she flung herself upon her mat in the gipsies’ tent; she could not help bursting out again; How good to eat! How good to eat! (For it is a curious fact that though human beings have such imperfect means of munication; that they can only say ‘good to eat’ when they mean ‘beautiful’ and the other way about; they will yet endure ridicule and misunderstanding rather than keep any experience to themselves。) All the young gipsies laughed。 But Rustum el Sadi; the old man who had brought Orlando out of Constantinople on his donkey; sat silent。 He had a nose like a scimitar; his cheeks were furrowed as if from the age–long descent of iron hail; he was brown and keen–eyed; and as he sat tugging at his hookah he observed Orlando narrowly。 He had the deepest suspicion that her God was Nature。 One day he found her in tears。 Interpreting this to mean that her God had punished her; he told her that he was not surprised。 He showed her the fingers of his left hand; withered by the frost; he showed her his right foot; crushed where a rock had fallen。 This; he said; was what her God did to men。 When she said; ‘But so beautiful’; using the English word; he shook his head; and when she repeated it he was angry。 He saw that she did not believe what he believed; and that was enough; wise and ancient as he was; to enrage him。

This difference of opinion disturbed Orlando; who had been perfectly happy until now。 She began to think; was Nature beautiful or cruel; and then she asked herself what this beauty was; whether it was in things themselves; or only in herself; so she went on to the nature of reality; which led her to truth; which in its turn led to Love; Friendship; Poetry (as in the days on the high mound at home); which meditations; since she could impart no word of them; made her long; as she had never longed before; for pen and ink。

‘Oh! if only I could write!’ she cried (for she had the odd conceit of those who write that words written are shared)。 She had no ink; and but little paper。 But she made ink from berries and wine; and finding a few margins and blank spaces in the manuscript of ‘The Oak Tree’; managed by writing a kind of shorthand; to describe the scenery in a long; blank version poem; and to carry on a dialogue with herself about this Beauty and Truth concisely enough。 This kept her extremely happy for hours on end。 But the gipsies became suspicious。 First; they noticed that she was less adept than before at milking and cheese–making; next; she often hesitated before replying; and once a gipsy boy who had been asleep; woke in a terror feeling her eyes upon him。 Sometimes this constraint would be felt by the whole tribe; numbering some dozens of grown men and women。 It sprang from the sense they had (and their senses are very sharp and much in advance of their vocabulary) that whatever they were doing crumbled like ashes in their hands。 An old woman making a basket; a boy skinning a sheep; would be singing or crooning contentedly at their work; when Orlando would e into the camp; fling herself down by the fire and gaze into the flames。 She need not even look at them; and yet they felt; here is someone who doubts; (we make a rough–and–ready translation from the gipsy language) here is someone who does not do the thing for the sake of doing; nor looks for looking’s sake; here is someone who believes neither in sheep–skin nor basket; but sees (here they looked apprehensively about the tent) something else。 Then a vague but most unpleasant feeling would begin to work in the boy and in the old woman。 They broke their withys; they cut their fingers。 A great rage filled them。 They wished Orlando would leave the tent and never e near them again。 Yet she was of a cheerful and willing disposition; they owned; and one of her pearls was enough to buy the finest herd of goats in Broussa。

Slowly; she began to feel that there was some difference between her and the gipsies which made her hesitate sometimes to marry and settle down among them for ever。 At first she tried to account for it by saying that she came of an ancient and civilized race; whereas these gipsies were an ignorant people; not much better than savages。 One night when they were questioning her about England she could not help with some pride describing the house where she was born; how it had 365 bedrooms and had been in the possession of her family for four or five hundred years。 Her ancestors were earls; or even dukes; she added。 At this she noticed again that the gipsies were uneasy; but not angry as before when she had praised the beauty of nature。 Now they were courteous; but concerned as people of fine breeding are when a stranger has been made to reveal his low birth or poverty。 Rustum followed her out of the tent alone and said that she need not mind if her father were a Duke; and possessed all the bedrooms and furniture that she described。 They would none of them think the worse of her for that。 Then she was seized with a shame that she had never felt before。 It was clear that Rustum and the other gipsies thought a descent of four or five hundred years only the meanest possible。 Their own families went back at least two or three thousand years。 To the gipsy whose ancestors had built the Pyramids centuries before Christ was born; the genealogy of Howards and Plantages was no better and no worse than that of the Smiths and the Joneses: both were negligible。 Moreover; where the shepherd boy had a lineage of such antiquity; there was nothing specially memorable or desirable in ancient birth; vagabonds and beggars all shared it。 And then; though he was too courteous to speak openly; it was clear that the gipsy thought that there was no more vulgar ambition than to possess bedrooms by the hundred (they were on top of a hill as they spoke; it was night; the mountains rose around them) when

红色之翼  重生后,真少爷回村带妻女发家致富  五胡烽火录  唯爱成神  上门姐夫楚天舒乔诗媛最新更新章节免费阅读  双子变变变  销售人员职业教程  拍遍全网糊咖醉姐终于火了陈醉周望全集免费阅读  现在,发现你的优势  要塞-中世纪领主  在中国做事(全文阅读) - 黄夏君  战锤:这不是草原争霸吗?  梨园往事  女性经理人打造术:跟王熙凤学管理  蹉跎岁月女人花  演讲论辩技巧  从八百只麻雀开始肝成神明  冷血悍将  冥仙未世  血色使命  

热门小说推荐
原神网吧:从温迪变温蒂开始

原神网吧:从温迪变温蒂开始

关于原神网吧从温迪变温蒂开始苏离,性别男,爱好女。穿越提瓦特,获得系统,成为黑科技网吧老板。穿越第一天我要保护提瓦特,弥补众生遗憾穿越第二天我要保护我的提瓦特,弥补我在乎的众生的遗憾穿越第三天我不吃牛肉!想要弥补遗憾?行啊,答应我两个条件…什么?不答应?!那巴巴托斯,你也不想特瓦林失控被消灭吧?荧,你也不想错过有关空的线索吧?甘雨,你也不想你小时候的糗事被别人知道吧?摩拉克斯,你也不想若陀龙王彻底与璃月为敌吧?歌尘浪市真君,你也不想归终看到你因为她仙逝而消沉这么多年的模样吧?八重神子,你也不想拥有狐斋宫记忆的花散里消失吧?神里绫华,你也不想你偷偷用茶叶的形状占卜恋爱运势的秘密被人发现吧?雷电影,你也不想雷电真看到一团糟的稻妻吧?大慈树王,你也不想禁忌知识重新降临提瓦特吧?芙宁娜,你也不想坚持五百年的计划失败吧?火神冰神在我们大鳝人苏老板的神秘微笑之下,七神委曲求全,众生尽皆折服。七神众生苏老板!请你做个人吧!!!...

从木叶开始无限分裂

从木叶开始无限分裂

湿骨林,三大圣地之一,佑介作为转生者来到了这个世界,然而穿越而来的他,不是植物人,不是红眼病,更不是白内障,而是一条鼻涕虫蛞蝓仙人我居然分裂出了一个有着独立意识的个体,那么你应该是我的孩子了。佑介神特么你的孩子,老子一点也不想当鼻涕虫!如果您喜欢从木叶开始无限分裂,别忘记分享给朋友...

仙魔之逍遥人世间

仙魔之逍遥人世间

雪夜身处死人堆,心中仇深似海,陌陆亲朋人稀少,凭记寻人又学艺,学成下山引波澜,风云突变险象生,知己朋友共患难,谜之身世添愁绪,辗转流年似水情!神神神,神仙,妖妖妖,妖魔,神仙妖魔无所不能,下凡入尘世,不知情故,情深缘浅,缘浅情深,千帆过尽,管他神与魔,我心亦逍遥。墨清岚冷若冰霜,心如磐石,如梅亦如竹。云梦熙狡猾如狐,心思缜密,如鬼亦如魅。月黎璃聪明伪善,心毒善变,如罂亦如蛇。轩辕涧温文尔雅,心思细腻,如溪亦如水。云梦希云汐善良可爱,敏感却坚强。配角崇明雪如晴白宇航夜无忧等。如果您喜欢仙魔之逍遥人世间,别忘记分享给朋友...

影视穿越从四合院开始

影视穿越从四合院开始

又一位加入穿越大军的中年的故事如果您喜欢影视穿越从四合院开始,别忘记分享给朋友...

美漫里的忍者之神

美漫里的忍者之神

雷神我可以召唤闪电。罗格我会雷遁。绿巨人我力大无穷,刀枪不入。罗格我会须佐能乎。绯红女巫我可以制造幻觉。罗格月读跟别天神了解一下。格鲁特我是格鲁特。罗格我会木遁,还有顶上化佛。这是一个立志成为忍者之神的忍者,在漫威世界搞风搞雨的故事。如果您喜欢美漫里的忍者之神,别忘记分享给朋友...

重生校园女特工

重生校园女特工

重生前的洛离懦弱,学渣,小可怜。重生后的洛离高冷,学神,不好惹。别人眼中的洛离一夜之间打遍全校无敌手的大姐大。夙翊眼中的洛离我老婆,以上。洛离自己没爹没妈没兄弟姐妹,但我是人生赢家。你...

每日热搜小说推荐