登陆注册
4616000000070

第70章

"My love, my life, my sweet Rima, I know that you will understand me now as you did not before, on that dark night--do you remember it, Rima?--when I held you clasped to my breast in the wood. How it pierced my heart with pain to speak plainly to you as I did on the mountain tonight--to kill the hope that had sustained and brought you so far from home! But now that anguish is over; the shadow has gone out of those beautiful eyes that are looking at me. It is because loving me, knowing now what love is, knowing, too, how much I love you, that you no longer need to speak to any other living being of such things? To tell it, to show it, to me is now enough--is it not so, Rima? How strange it seemed, at first, when you shrank in fear from me! But, afterwards, when you prayed aloud to your mother, opening all the secrets of your heart, I understood it. In that lonely, isolated life in the wood you had heard nothing of love, of its power over the heart, its infinite sweetness; when it came to you at last it was a new, inexplicable thing, and filled you with misgivings and tumultuous thoughts, so that you feared it and hid yourself from its cause.

Such tremors would be felt if it had always been night, with no light except that of the stars and the pale moon, as we saw it a little while ago on the mountain; and, at last, day dawned, and a strange, unheard-of rose and purple flame kindled in the eastern sky, foretelling the coming sun. It would seem beautiful beyond anything that night had shown to you, yet you would tremble and your heart beat fast at that strange sight; you would wish to fly to those who might be able to tell you its meaning, and whether the sweet things it prophesied would ever really come. That is why you wished to find your people, and came to Riolama to seek them; and when you knew--when I cruelly told you--that they would never be found, then you imagined that that strange feeling in your heart must remain a secret for ever, and you could not endure the thought of your loneliness. If you had not fainted so quickly, then I should have told you what I must tell you now.

They are lost, Rima--your people--but I am with you, and know what you feel, even if you have no words to tell it. But what need of words? It shines in your eyes, it burns like a flame in your face; I can feel it in your hands. Do you not also see it in my face--all that I feel for you, the love that makes me happy? For this is love, Rima, the flower and the melody of life, the sweetest thing, the sweet miracle that makes our two souls one."Still resting in my arms, as if glad to rest there, still gazing into my face, it was clear to me that she understood my every word. And then, with no trace of doubt or fear left, I stooped again, until my lips were on hers; and when I drew back once more, hardly knowing which bliss was greatest--kissing her delicate mouth or gazing into her face--she all at once put her arms about my neck and drew herself up until she sat on my knee.

"Abel--shall I call you Abel now--and always?" she spoke, still with her arms round my neck. "Ah, why did you let me come to Riolama? I would come! I made him come--old grandfather, sleeping there: he does not count, but you--you! After you had heard my story, and knew that it was all for nothing! And all Iwished to know was there--in you. Oh, how sweet it is! But a little while ago, what pain! When I stood on the mountain when you talked to me, and I knew that you knew best, and tried and tried not to know. At last I could try no more; they were all dead like mother; I had chased the false water on the savannah.

'Oh, let me die too,' I said, for I could not bear the pain. And afterwards, here in the cave, I was like one asleep, and when Iwoke I did not really wake. It was like morning with the light teasing me to open my eyes and look at it. Not yet, dear light;a little while longer, it is so sweet to lie still. But it would not leave me, and stayed teasing me still, like a small shining green fly; until, because it teased me so, I opened my lids just a little. It was not morning, but the firelight, and I was in your arms, not in my little bed. Your eyes looking, looking into mine. But I could see yours better. I remembered everything then, how you once asked me to look into your eyes. I remembered so many things--oh, so many!""How many things did you remember, Rima?""Listen, Abel, do you ever lie on the dry moss and look straight up into a tree and count a thousand leaves?""No, sweetest, that could not be done, it is so many to count.

Do you know how many a thousand are?"

"Oh, do I not! When a humming-bird flies close to my face and stops still in the air, humming like a bee, and then is gone, in that short time I can count a hundred small round bright feathers on its throat. That is only a hundred; a thousand are more, ten times. Looking up I count a thousand leaves; then stop counting, because there are thousands more behind the first, and thousands more, crowded together so that I cannot count them. Lying in your arms, looking up into your face, it was like that; I could not count the things I remembered. In the wood, when you were there, and before; and long, long ago at Voa, when I was a child with mother.""Tell me some of the things you remembered, Rima.""Yes, one--only one now. When I was a child at Voa mother was very lame--you know that. Whenever we went out, away from the houses, into the forest, walking slowly, slowly, she would sit under a tree while I ran about playing. And every time I came back to her I would find her so pale, so sad, crying--crying.

That was when I would hide and come softly back so that she would not hear me coming. 'Oh, mother, why are you crying? Does your lame foot hurt you?' And one day she took me in her arms and told me truly why she cried."She ceased speaking, but looked at me with a strange new light coming into her eyes.

"Why did she cry, my love?"

同类推荐
  • 率庵梵琮禅师语录

    率庵梵琮禅师语录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Padre Ignacio

    Padre Ignacio

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Hero Tales From American History

    Hero Tales From American History

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • The Pupil

    The Pupil

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • La Constantin

    La Constantin

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 波段之王

    波段之王

    本书笔者一直以来都在倡导中长线操作和波段操作。当市场处于单边牛市的时候,我们应该进行中长线操作,但是,在市场没有给我们提供这种机会的时期,我们最好跟随市场,进行波段操作。波段操作是一种最灵活、最安全、最高效的投资方式。有没有一种方法,能够专门捕捉那种快速上涨的波段牛股呢?答案是肯定的。本书就专门介绍了八种捕捉波段牛股的具体方法,读者只要能够精读此书,一定会获得很大的收获。
  • 微表情心理学

    微表情心理学

    什么每次谈判,你小心翼翼、如履薄冰,却仍在不知不觉中被人看穿?为什么每次约会,你都无法走进TA的大脑、弄清TA在想什么,最终不欢而散?为什么你明明很努力却得不到应有的赏识和回报,而那个比你“懒惰”的人却能步步高升?为什么你总是不知道自己为什么这样,或者为什么那样?《微表情心理学:读心识人准到骨子里》要告诉你的,就是关于这些“为什么”的真相,以及如何运用这些真相,使事业更成功,使人生更幸福。《微表情心理学:读心识人准到骨子里》关键词:微表情。全书由七章组成,作者结合自己二十多年的咨询经验,从身体和情感的关系角度,全面解析了身体语言背后的微妙心理,让你在商场、职场、情场无往不利!
  • 愿我活过二十五岁

    愿我活过二十五岁

    我是芦苇,没有根,风走到哪里,我就跟到哪里。
  • 牟梨曼陀罗咒经

    牟梨曼陀罗咒经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生未来之传承

    重生未来之传承

    钟绮灵倒下的时候带着深深地不甘,她觉得以后自己要奋起,只为自己而活!可是,当她醒了之后,一切都不一样了。幸好有个随身空间陪着她一起面对这一切。但是谁来告诉她,为什么这个面瘫非要跟她一起传承生命?--情节虚构,请勿模仿
  • 达夫游记

    达夫游记

    郁达夫的一生,始终在路上。为了生计,他的屐痕遍及北京、安徽、江苏、浙江、福建、广东等地。所到之处,他尽情领略,把“灵感赋予了每一朵浪花、每一片绿叶、每一块唬岩、每一株小草,让大自然的一切具有性格和情味”(刘海粟语)。 本书精选郁达夫的游记、风景散文二十九篇。这些作品,写山水名胜、描景色风物,既有丰富的地理、历史、自然知识,又注入个人的遭遇和情怀;语言不事雕琢,章法不受限制,才华横溢,不拘一格,风流倜傥,涉笔成趣。读达夫游记,他的性格,嗜好,思想,信仰,以及生活习惯等等,无不活泼地显现在我们的眼前。 郁达夫的游记散文和散文中的风景描写在中国现代散文史上占据独一无二的地位。
  • 娆荼

    娆荼

    那年雨夜荒街,他一纸休书,将她葬送。血仇得报,为何会下那么大的雨?他不知,会笑的女人要是死了,这世上总是多些寂寞。如今烟花柳巷,她沾染风尘,在灼灼花影中笑靥明媚。像迎送花香的风,送他一场桃花雾。他说,你像一位故人。她笑,杀人当诛心。
  • 天上下起了七彩雨:你不知道的自然地理

    天上下起了七彩雨:你不知道的自然地理

    本书以妙趣横生的语言,生动地再现了这个世界隐藏的地理秘密,告诉我们其中蕴涵的科学道理。主要内容包括:地球是怎样诞生的、地球运动的原动力、追寻地球的年龄等。
  • 麦莎

    麦莎

    唐伟没有再搭腔。他回头看了一眼,豆豆还躺在座椅上昏睡,怀里依然紧紧抱着那只她最爱最爱的颜色鲜艳的绿色章鱼。唐伟想,这次她不仅第一次看到了真的马,真的牛,还看到了真的强盗,想必一定会很高兴很高兴。以前,在童话书里看到强盗的时候,她总是要问强盗是什么样的,今天她终于知道了。当然,她以后还会知道更多她不知道的但这个世界上却会有的东西。
  • 一朝霸主:唯爱媚娘

    一朝霸主:唯爱媚娘

    当你爱的人,和别人约会的时候,你什么感受?皇室后宫,万千佳丽,一入宫门深似海。在这里,要如何守护你爱的人?要如何能让他知道,你只爱她一人……