2-75

 

75.

The Tower of London. With Willy and Kate. August 2014.

The reason for our visit was an art installation. Across the dry moat were spread tens ofthousands of bright red ceramic¹ poppies. Ultimately, the plan was for 888,246 of these poppies tobe spread there, one for each Commonwealth² soldier who’d died in the Great War. The hundredthanniversary of the war’s start was being marked all over Europe.

Apart from its extraordinary beauty, the art installation was a different way of visualizingwar’s carnage — indeed, of visualizing³ death itself. I felt stricken. All those lives. All thosefamilies.

It didn’t help that this visit to the Tower was also three weeks before the anniversary ofMummy’s death, or that I always connected her to the Great War, because her birthday, July 1, thestart of the Battle of the Somme, was the war’s bloodiest⁴ day, the bloodiest day in the history ofthe British Army.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow…

All these things were converging⁵ in my heart and mind outside the Tower as someone steppedforward, handed me a poppy and told me to place it. (The artists behind the installation wantedevery poppy to be placed by a living person; thousands of volunteers had pitched in thus far.)Willy and Kate were also handed poppies and told to place them on any spot of their choosing.

After we’d finished, all three of us stood back, lost in our private thoughts.

I believe it was just then that the constable⁶ of the Tower appeared, greeted us, told us about thepoppy, how it had come to be the British symbol of war. It was the only thing that bloomed onthose blood-soaked battlefields, said the constable, who was none other than…General Dannatt.

The man who’d sent me back to war.

Truly, everything was converging.

He asked if we’d like a quick tour of the Tower.

Course, we said.

We walked up and down the Tower’s steep stairs, peered into its dark corners, and soon foundourselves before a case of thick glass.

Inside were dazzling jewels, including…the Crown.

Holy shit. The Crown.

The one that had been placed upon Granny’s head at her 1953 coronation.

For a moment I thought it was also the same crown that sat on Gan-Gan’s coffin⁷ as it wentthrough the streets. It looked the same, but someone pointed⁸ out several key differences.

Ah, yes. So this was Granny’s crown, and hers alone, and now I remembered her telling mehow unbelievably heavy it had been the first time they set it upon her head.

It looked heavy. It also looked magical. The more we stared, the brighter it got—was thatpossible? And the glow was seemingly internal. The jewels did their part, but the crown seemed topossess some inner energy source, something beyond the sum of its parts, its jeweled band, itsgolden fleurs-de-lis, its crisscrossing arches and gleaming cross. And of course its ermine base.

You couldn’t help but feel that a ghost, encountered late at night inside the Tower, might have asimilar glow. I moved my eyes slowly, appreciatively, from the bottom to the top. The crown wasa wonder, a transcendent and evocative piece of art, not unlike the poppies, but all I could think inthat moment was how tragic⁹ that it should remain locked up in this Tower.

Yet another prisoner.

Seems a waste, I said to Willy and Kate, to which, I recall, they said nothing.

Maybe they were looking at that band of ermine, remembering my wedding remarks.

Maybe not.

 

1 ceramic   

n.制陶业，陶器，陶瓷工艺

参考例句：

• The order for ceramic tiles has been booked in.瓷砖的订单已登记下来了。
• Some ceramic works of art are shown in this exhibition.这次展览会上展出了一些陶瓷艺术品。

2 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

3 visualizing   

肉眼观察

参考例句：

• Nevertheless, the Bohr model is still useful for visualizing the structure of an atom. 然而，玻尔模型仍有利于使原子结构形象化。
• Try to strengthen this energy field by visualizing the ball growing stronger. 通过想象能量球变得更强壮设法加强这能量场。

4 bloodiest   

adj.血污的( bloody的最高级 )；流血的；屠杀的；残忍的

参考例句：

• The Russians were going to suffer their bloodiest defeat of all before Berlin. 俄国人在柏林城下要遭到他们的最惨重的失败。 来自辞典例句
• It was perhaps the bloodiest hour in the history of warfare. 这也许是战争史上血腥味最浓的1个小时。 来自互联网

5 converging   

adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集

参考例句：

• Plants had gradually evolved along diverging and converging pathways. 植物是沿着趋异和趋同两种途径逐渐演化的。 来自辞典例句
• This very slowly converging series was known to Leibniz in 1674. 这个收敛很慢的级数是莱布尼茨在1674年得到的。 来自辞典例句

6 constable   

n.(英国)警察，警官

参考例句：

• The constable conducted the suspect to the police station.警官把嫌疑犯带到派出所。
• The constable kept his temper,and would not be provoked.那警察压制着自己的怒气，不肯冒起火来。

7 coffin   

n.棺材，灵柩

参考例句：

• When one's coffin is covered,all discussion about him can be settled.盖棺论定。
• The coffin was placed in the grave.那口棺材已安放到坟墓里去了。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 tragic   

adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的

参考例句：

• The effect of the pollution on the beaches is absolutely tragic.污染海滩后果可悲。
• Charles was a man doomed to tragic issues.查理是个注定不得善终的人。