【有声英语文学名著】英国病人 03

There are stories the man recites quietly into the room which slip from level to level like a hawk¹.( He wakes in the painted arbour that surrounds him with its spilling flowers, arms of great trees.) He remembers picnics, a woman who kissed parts of his body that now are burned into the colour of aubergine. 

 

(I have spent weeks in the desert, forgetting to look at the moon, he says, as a married man may spend days never looking into the face of his wife. These are not sins of omission² but signs of preoccupation. )

 

His eyes lock onto the young woman’s face. (If she moves her head, his stare will travel alongside her into the wall. )She leans forward. How were you burned? (It is late afternoon. His hands play with a piece of sheet, the back of his fingers caressing³ it. )

I fell burning into the desert. He begins.

They found my body and made me a boat of sticks and dragged me across the desert. We were in the Sand Sea, now and then crossing dry riverbeds. Nomads⁴, you see. Bedouin. I flew down and the sand itself caught fire. They saw me stand up naked out of it. The leather helmet on my head in flames. They strapped⁵ me onto a cradle, a carcass boat, and feet thudded along as they ran with me.( I had broken the spareness of the desert. )

The Bedouin knew about fire. They knew about planes that since 1939 had been falling out of the sky. Some of their tools and utensils⁶ were made from the metal of crashed planes and tanks. It was the time of the war in heaven. (They could recognize the drone of a wounded plane, they knew how to pick their way through such shipwrecks⁷. A small bolt from a cockpit became jewellery.) I was perhaps the first one to stand up alive out of a burning machine. (A man whose head was on fire.) They didn’t know my name. I didn’t know their tribe. 

 

Who are you? 

 

I don’t know. You keep asking me. 

 

You said you were English. 

1 hawk   

n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员

参考例句：

• The hawk swooped down on the rabbit and killed it.鹰猛地朝兔子扑下来,并把它杀死。
• The hawk snatched the chicken and flew away.老鹰叼了小鸡就飞走了。

2 omission   

n.省略，删节；遗漏或省略的事物，冗长

参考例句：

• The omission of the girls was unfair.把女孩排除在外是不公平的。
• The omission of this chapter from the third edition was a gross oversight.第三版漏印这一章是个大疏忽。

3 caressing   

爱抚的，表现爱情的，亲切的

参考例句：

• The spring wind is gentle and caressing. 春风和畅。
• He sat silent still caressing Tartar, who slobbered with exceeding affection. 他不声不响地坐在那里，不断抚摸着鞑靼，它由于获得超常的爱抚而不淌口水。

4 nomads   

n.游牧部落的一员( nomad的名词复数 )；流浪者；游牧生活；流浪生活

参考例句：

• For ten years she dwelled among the nomads of North America. 她在北美游牧民中生活了十年。
• Nomads have inhabited this region for thousands of years. 游牧民族在这地区居住已有数千年了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 strapped   

adj.用皮带捆住的，用皮带装饰的；身无分文的；缺钱；手头紧v.用皮带捆扎(strap的过去式和过去分词)；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• Make sure that the child is strapped tightly into the buggy. 一定要把孩子牢牢地拴在婴儿车上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The soldiers' great coats were strapped on their packs. 战士们的厚大衣扎捆在背包上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 utensils   

器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物

参考例句：

• Formerly most of our household utensils were made of brass. 以前我们家庭用的器皿多数是用黄铜做的。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。

7 shipwrecks   

海难，船只失事( shipwreck的名词复数 )； 沉船

参考例句：

• Shipwrecks are apropos of nothing. 船只失事总是来得出人意料。
• There are many shipwrecks in these waters. 在这些海域多海难事件。