友情提示:如果本网页打开太慢或显示不完整,请尝试鼠标右键“刷新”本网页!
读书室 返回本书目录 加入书签 我的书架 我的书签 TXT全本下载 『收藏到我的浏览器』

the spirit of place and other essays(地方的精神等)-第12部分

快捷操作: 按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页 按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页 按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部! 如果本书没有阅读完,想下次继续接着阅读,可使用上方 "收藏到我的浏览器" 功能 和 "加入书签" 功能!


spent   violence   of   this   phrase;   with   which   every   serious   Frenchman   will 

reply to opponents; especially in public matters。 But not even the comic 

dramatist is aware of the last state of refuse commonplace that a word of 

this kind represents。         Refuse rhetoric; by the way; rather than Emerson's 

〃fossil poetry;〃 would seem to be the right name for human language as 

some of the processes of the several recent centuries have left it。 

     The     French      comedy;      then;   is   fairly   stuffed    with    thin…S     for   an 

Englishman。         They   are   not   all;   it   is   true;   so   finely   comic   as   〃Il   s'est 

trompe   de   defunte。〃       In   the   report   of   that   dull;   incomparable   sentence 

there   is   enough   humour;   and   subtle   enough;   for   both   the   maker   and   the 

reader;   for   the   author   who   perceives   the   comedy  as   well   as   custom  will 

permit;   and   for   the   reader   who   takes   it   with   the   freshness   of   a   stranger。 

But if   not   so   keen   as   this; the   current   word   of   French   comedy  is   of   the 

same quality of language。            When of the fourteen couples to be married by 

the    mayor;    for   instance;    the   deaf   clerk   has   shuffled     two;   a  looker…on 

pronounces:        〃Il s'est empetre dans les futurs。〃           But for a reader who has 

a full sense of the several languages that exist in English at the service of 

the   several   ways   of   human   life;   there   is;   from   the   mere   terminology   of 

official France; high or lowdaily Francea gratuitous and uncovenanted 

smile to be had。         With this the wit of the report of French literature has 

not   little   to   do。 Nor   is   it   in   itself;   perhaps;   reasonably   comic;   but   the 



                                                  41 


… Page 42…

                              The Spirit of Place and Other Essays 



slightest irony of circumstance makes it so。                A very little of the mockery 

of conditions brings out all the latent absurdity of the 〃sixieme et septieme 

arron…   dissements;〃   in   the   twinkling   of   an   eye。     So   is   it   with   the   mere 

〃domicile;〃 with the aid of but a little of the burlesque of life; the suit at 

law to 〃reintegrer le domicile conjugal〃 becomes as grotesque as a phrase 

can make it。       Even 〃e domicile〃 merelythe word of every shopmanis; 

in   the   unconscious   mouths   of   the   speakers;   always   awaiting   the   lightest 

touch of farce; if only an Englishman hears it; so is the advice of the police 

that you shall 〃circuler〃 in the street; so is the request; posted up; that you 

shall not; in the churches。 

     So   are   the   serious   and   ordinary   phrases;   〃maison   nuptiale;〃   〃maison 

mortuaire;〃       and    the   still  more     serious    〃repos     dominical;〃      〃oraison 

dominicale。〃        There     is  no   majesty    in  such    words。     The    unsuspicious 

gravity with which they are spoken broadcast is not to be wondered at; the 

language offering no relief of contrast; and what is much to the credit of 

the   comic   sensibility   of   literature   is   the   fact   that;   through   this   general 

unconsciousness; the ridicule of a thousand authors of comedy perceives 

the fun; and singles out the familiar thing; and compels that most elaborate 

dulness to amuse us。          US; above all; by virtue of the custom of counter… 

change here set forth。 

     Who      shall   say   whether;     by   operation     of  the   same    exchange;      the 

English poets   that   so   persist in   France  may  not   reveal something   within 

the English languageone would be somewhat loth to think so… …reserved 

to the French reader peculiarly?            Byron to the multitude; Edgar Poe to the 

select?     Then would some of the mysteries of French reading of English 

be   explained   otherwise   than   by   the   plainer   explanation   that   has   hitherto 

satisfied our haughty curiosity。           The taste for rhetoric seemed to account 

for   Byron;   and   the   desire   of   the   rhetorician   to   claim   a   taste   for   poetry 

seemed to account for Poe。            But; after all; PATATRAS!            Who can say? 



                                                 42 


… Page 43…

                              The Spirit of Place and Other Essays 



                                           RAIN 



     Not   excepting   the   falling   starsfor   they  are   far   less   suddenthere   is 

nothing in nature   that so outstrips   our unready eyes   as the familiar   rain。 

The rods that thinly stripe our landscape; long shafts from the clouds; if 

we had but agility to make the arrowy downward journey with them by the 

glancing of our eyes; would be infinitely separate; units; an innumerable 

flight of single things; and the simple movement of intricate points。 

     The long stroke of the raindrop; which is the drop and its path at once; 

being our impression of a shower; shows us how certainly our impression 

is the effect of the lagging; and not of the haste; of our senses。                  What we 

are apt to call our quick impression is rather our sensibly tardy; unprepared; 

surprised;   outrun;   lightly   bewildered   sense   of   things   that   flash   and   fall; 

wink; and are overpast and renewed; while the gentle eyes of man hesitate 

and mingle the beginning with the close。                These inexpert eyes; delicately 

baffled;   detain   for   an   instant   the   image   that   puzzles   them;   and   so   dally 

with   the   bright   progress   of   a   meteor;   and   part   slowly   from   the   slender 

course     of  the   already    fallen   raindrop;    whose     moments      are   not  theirs。 

There     seems     to  be   such   a   difference    of   instants   as  invests    all  swift 

movement with mystery in man's eyes; and causes the past; a moment old; 

to be written; vanishing; upon the skies。 

     The visible world is etched and engraved with the signs and records of 

our   halting   apprehension;   and   the   pause   between   the   distant   woodman's 

stroke     with   the   axe   and   its  sound     upon    our   ears   is  repeated    in  the 

impressions of our clinging   sight。            The   round   wheel   dazzles it;  and the 

stroke     of   the    bird's   wing     shakes     it  off   like   a   captivity     evaded。 

Everywhere the natural haste is impatient of these timid senses; and their 

perception;      outrun    by   the  shower;    shaken     by   the  light;  denied    by   the 

shadow; eluded by the distance; makes the lingering picture that is all our 

art。   One of the most constant causes of all the mystery and beauty of that 

art   is   surely   not   that   we   see   by   flashes;   but   that   nature   flashes   on   our 

meditative eyes。         There  is no need   for  the impressionist   to   make   haste; 

nor would haste avail him; for mobile nature doubles upon him; and plays 



                                                 43 


… Page 44…

                               The Spirit of Place and Other Essays 



with his delays the exquisite game of visibility。 

     Momently         visible    in   a   shower;     invisible     within     the   earth;    the 

ministration   of   water   is   so   manifest   in   the   coming   rain…cloud   that   the 

husbandman is allowed to see the rain of his own land; yet unclaimed in 

the arms of the rainy wind。             It is an eager lien that he binds the shower 

withal; and the grasp of his anxiety is on the coming cloud。                      His sense of 

property takes aim and reckons distance and speed; and even as he shoots 

a    little   ahead     of    the   equally      uncertain      ground…game;         he   knows 

approximately   how   to   hit   the   cloud   of   his   possession。        So   much   is   the 

rain bound to the earth that; unable to compel it; man has yet found a way; 

by    lying    in  wait;    to  put   his   price    upon    it。   The     exhaustible      cloud 

〃outweeps its rain;〃 and only the inexhaustible sun seems to repeat and to 

enforce   his   cumulative   fires   upon   every   span   of   ground;   innumerable。 

The rain is wasted upon the sea; but only by a fantasy can the sun's waste 

be    made    a   reproach     to  the   ocean;    the  desert;    or  the   sealed…up     street。 

Rossetti's 〃vain virtues〃 are the virtues of the rain; falling unfruitfully。 

     Baby   of   the   cloud;   rain   is   carried   long   enough   within   that   troubled 

breast to make all the multitude of days unlike each other。                       Rain; as the 

end of the cloud; divides light and withholds it; in its flight warning away 

the   sun;   and   in   its   final   fall   dismissing   
返回目录 上一页 下一页 回到顶部 0 0
快捷操作: 按键盘上方向键 ← 或 → 可快速上下翻页 按键盘上的 Enter 键可回到本书目录页 按键盘上方向键 ↑ 可回到本页顶部!
温馨提示: 温看小说的同时发表评论,说出自己的看法和其它小伙伴们分享也不错哦!发表书评还可以获得积分和经验奖励,认真写原创书评 被采纳为精评可以获得大量金币、积分和经验奖励哦!