【有声英语文学名著】英国病人 16

Then there is blackness.

 

He doesn’t know whether to move, whether she will whisper to the man fucking her about the other person in the room. A naked thief. A naked assassin. Should he move—his hands out to break a neck—towards the couple on the bed? 

 

He hears the man’s lovemaking continue, hears the silence of the woman—no whisper—hears her thinking, her eyes aimed towards him in the darkness.

He hears the car turning and waits for another moment of light. The face that emerges out of the dark is still an arrow upon him. The light moves from her face down onto the body of the general, over the carpet, and then touches and slides over Caravaggio once more. He can no longer see her. He shakes his head, then mimes¹ the cutting of his throat. The camera is in his hands for her to understand. Then he is in darkness again. He hears a moan of pleasure now from her towards her lover, and he is aware it is her agreement with him. No words, no hint of irony², just a contract with him, the morse of understanding, so he knows he can now move safely to the verandah and drop out into the night. 

1 mimes   

n.指手画脚( mime的名词复数 )；做手势；哑剧；哑剧演员v.指手画脚地表演，用哑剧的形式表演( mime的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Hanks so scrupulously, heroically mimes the wasting wought by the disease. 汉克斯咬紧牙关，一丝不苟地模仿艾滋病造成的虚弱。 来自互联网
• On an airplane, fellow passengers mimicked her every movement -- like mimes on a street. 在飞机上，有乘客模拟她的每个动作—就像街头模拟表演。 来自互联网

2 irony   

n.反语，冷嘲；具有讽刺意味的事，嘲弄

参考例句：

• She said to him with slight irony.她略带嘲讽地对他说。
• In her voice we could sense a certain tinge of irony.从她的声音里我们可以感到某种讥讽的意味。