登陆注册
5572400000008

第8章

A bag of figrolls lay snugly in Armstrong's satchel. He curled them between his palms at whiles and swallowed them softly. Crumbs adhered to the tissues of his lips. A sweetened boy's breath. Welloff people, proud that their eldest son was in the navy. Vico Road, Dalkey.

-- Pyrrhus, sir? Pyrrhus, a pier.

All laughed. Mirthless high malicious laughter. Armstrong looked round at his classmates, silly glee in profile. In a moment they will laugh more loudly, aware of my lack of rule and of the fees their papas pay.

-- Tell me now, Stephen said, poking the boy's shoulder with the book, what is a pier.

-- A pier, sir, Armstrong said. A thing out in the waves. A kind of bridge. Kingstown pier, sir.

Some laughed again: mirthless but with meaning. Two in the back bench whispered. Yes. They knew: had never learned nor ever been innocent. All. With envy he watched their faces. Edith, Ethel, Gerty, Lily. Their likes: their breaths, too, sweetened with tea and jam, their bracelets tittering in the struggle.

-- Kingstown pier, Stephen said. Yes, a disappointed bridge. The words troubled their gaze.

-- How, sir? Comyn asked. A bridge is across a river.

For Haines's chapbook. No-one here to hear. Tonight deftly amid wild drink and talk, to pierce the polished mail of his mind. What then? A jester at the court of his master, indulged and disesteemed, winning a clement master's praise. Why had they chosen all that part? Not wholly for the smooth caress. For them too history was a tale like any other too often heard, their land a pawnshop.

Had Pyrrhus not fallen by a beldam's hand in Argos or Julius Caesar not been knifed to death? They are not to be thought away. Time has branded them and fettered they are lodged in the room of the infinite possibilities they have ousted. But can those have been possible seeing that they never were? Or was that only possible which came to pass? Weave, weaver of the wind.

-- Tell us a story, sir.

-- Oh, do, sir, a ghoststory.

-- Where do you begin in this? Stephen asked, opening another book.

-- Weep no more, Comyn said.

-- Go on then, Talbot.

-- And the history, sir?

-- After, Stephen said. Go on, Talbot.

A swarthy boy opened a book and propped it nimbly under the breastwork of his satchel. He recited jerks of verse with odd glances at the text:

-- Weep no more, woful shepherd, weep no moreFor Lycidas, your sorrow, is not dead,

Sunk though he be beneath the watery floor...

It must be a movement then, an actuality of the possible as possible. Aristotle's phrase formed itself within the gabbled verses and floated out into the studious silence of the library of Saint Genevieve where he had read, sheltered from the sin of Paris, night by night. By his elbow a delicate Siamese conned a handbook of strategy. Fed and feeding brains about me: under glowlamps, impaled, with faintly beating feelers: and in my mind's darkness a sloth of the underworld, reluctant, shy of brightness, shifting her dragon scaly folds. Thought is the thought of thought. Tranquil brightness. The soul is in a manner all that is: the soul is the form of forms. Tranquillity sudden, vast, candescent: form of forms.

Talbot repeated:

-- Through the dear might of Him that walked the waves,Through the dear might...

-- Turn over, Stephen said quietly. I don't see anything.

-- What, sir? Talbot asked simply, bending forward.

His hand turned the page over. He leaned back and went on again having just remembered. Of him that walked the waves. Here also over these craven hearts his shadow lies and on the scoffer's heart and lips and on mine. It lies upon their eager faces who offered him a coin of the tribute. To Caesar what is Caesar's, to God what is God's. A long look from dark eyes, a riddling sentence to be woven on the church's looms. Ay.

Riddle me, riddle me, randy ro.

My father gave me seeds to sow.

Talbot slid his closed book into his satchel.

-- Have I heard all? Stephen asked.

-- Yes, sir. Hockey at ten, sir.

-- Half day, sir. Thursday.

-- Who can answer a riddle? Stephen asked.

They bundled their books away, pencils clacking, pages rustling. Crowding together they strapped and buckled their satchels, all gabbling gaily:

-- A riddle, sir? Ask me, sir.

-- O, ask me, sir.

-- A hard one, sir.

-- This is the riddle, Stephen said.

The cock crew

The sky was blue:

The bells in heaven

Were striking eleven.

Tis time for this poor soul

To go to heaven.

-- What is that?

-- What, sir?

-- Again, sir. We didn't hear.

Their eyes grew bigger as the lines were repeated. After a silence Cochrane said:

-- What is it, sir? We give it up.

Stephen, his throat itching, answered:

-- The fox burying his grandmother under a hollybush.

He stood up and gave a shout of nervous laughter to which their cries echoed dismay.

A stick struck the door and a voice in the corridor called:

-- Hockey!

They broke asunder, sidling out of their benches, leaping them. Quickly they were gone and from the lumberroom came the rattle of sticks and clamour of their boots and tongues.

Sargent who alone had lingered came forward slowly, showing an open copybook. His tangled hair and scraggy neck gave witness of unreadiness and through his misty glasses weak eyes looked up pleading. On his cheek, dull and bloodless, a soft stain of ink lay, dateshaped, recent and damp as a snail's bed.

He held out his copybook. The word Sums was written on the headline. Beneath were sloping figures and at the foot a crooked signature with blind loops and a blot. Cyril Sargent: his name and seal.

-- Mr Deasy told me to write them out all again, he said, and show them to you, sir.

Stephen touched the edges of the book. Futility.

-- Do you understand how to do them now? he asked.

-- Numbers eleven to fifteen, Sargent answered. Mr Deasy said I was to copy them off the board, sir.

-- Can you do them yourself? Stephen asked.

-- No, sir.

同类推荐
  • 幸福从心开始

    幸福从心开始

    本书收录了数十篇经典的英语美文,内容涉及生活、爱情、理想、亲情等方面,从不同的角度帮助你找到打开幸福大门的钥匙。书中选用的文章体裁多样,有语句优美的散文,像一道道清泉沁润你的心田;有感人至深的叙事文,让你领略人生的风景;也有世界权威研究中心的研究成果报告,让你的生活更加科学。
  • 那些光影飞华的魅惑(每天读一点英文)

    那些光影飞华的魅惑(每天读一点英文)

    《那些光影飞华的魅惑》由我的美丽日记、我的健康我做主、时尚达人、勇闯天涯、摩登时代等篇目组成,让你在体味时尚、逐赶潮流中,不知不觉提升英语能力。
  • 每天太阳照常升起

    每天太阳照常升起

    在英语的学习中享受阅读的最大乐趣,这是当下国人学习英语的新需求,即英语的学习重点已经不仅在词汇或语感本身,更要求能在知识上得到更新、思想上得到提升;不单纯地为考试或实用出发,也强调在文化的涵养与素质的提高方面下工夫。本书精心筛选了数十篇富有生命色彩的经典名篇,涵盖勇气与智慧、坚强与决心、爱与宽恕、积极与乐观等方面内容,旨在提高读者朋友英语语言能力的基础上,提高大家的入文修养,扩大知识面,全面提升其自身的综合素质。
  • 美妙的新世界(纯爱·双语馆)

    美妙的新世界(纯爱·双语馆)

    本书是赫胥黎所著,二十世纪最经典的反乌托邦文学之一。本书描写了在工业高度发达的未来社会里,取消胎生实行人工生殖,把人类分成十多个种姓,分等级分层次,低等为高等服务。对人们实行潜意识教育,满足人类的一切欲望,同时割断过去,封杀所有过去的产物--书籍建筑等等。人们按照自己的种姓过着“幸福”的生活,而这种没有亲情、爱情的精神世界既空虚,又迷乱。
  • 我的第一本英语口语书

    我的第一本英语口语书

    本书从大家在学习英语口语中遇到的根本问题着手,着重引导大家如何使用正确的方法来学习英语口语,告诉大家口语到底应该学什么,帮大家把基础打好,以便于后续的自学。不要怯:日常生活中老外说话也没有那么复杂,绝大多数情况下都是使用简单的词汇、基础的表达句型,并非像“谢耳朵”那样使用一些复杂的句型和生僻的词汇。不要懒:英语口语是综合性最强的,是要经过大量的积累配合大量的练习才能提高,做一百套英语练习题,不如开口来一段实地交流。英语口语,会说才是硬道理!
热门推荐
  • 真龙虎九仙经

    真龙虎九仙经

    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。
  • 感恩的心(大全集)

    感恩的心(大全集)

    一直以来,感恩在人们心中是感谢“恩人”的意思。其实,“感恩”不一定要感谢大恩大德,“感恩”是一种生活态度,一种善于发现美并欣赏美的道德情操。感恩的态度可以使我们把注意力集中在我们想要的东西上。我们如果满足自己的生活,并对上天充满感恩之心,那么好东西就会源源不绝。我们会越来越占据生活的天时地利人和,会越来越接近梦想。同时我们会施予别人更多的爱心,我们也会生活得越来越幸福,你会发现一切都在良性循环着。
  • 希冀影

    希冀影

    一群青年人在一场聚会中集体消失,当天露希回到了她的高中,见到了读书时期的自己。后来在得知太爷病危的消息时,她赶回了老家,在太爷去世那晚见到了他最后一面,弥补了十年前的遗憾。当晚她在阁楼发现了一张老照片,照片中出现了聚会中消失的其他六人。他们怎么会出现在露希太爷家中的照片上?他们和露希的家族有什么联系?他们几人究竟去了哪里?他们都经历了什么?
  • 何处可栖凰

    何处可栖凰

    古卿凰总是做一个梦——关于她跟一个男人搞对象的梦。后来她才发现,那不是梦,是记忆。古卿凰的爹娘总有一个理想——想要个正常闺女的理想。后来他们才发现,那不是理想,是幻想。不做姑娘做儿郎?好,许你男装十五年。不爱红装爱戎装?成,如你所愿战沙场。可是你说什么?不想成亲?当爹的苦口婆心好言相劝:“三千公子,总有良配。”作女的打定主意死不服软:“非彼如玉,不可栖凰。”是可忍,孰不可忍!作为老爹的太上皇觉得无需再忍!真龙不发威,你当我是个假的太上皇!“主子,太上皇下旨:只要是个男的,不管什么身份,能把您拐到手他就赐婚!”“真的?”古卿凰笑了,冲院子里那人招手喊道:“走了和尚,跟我回家!”
  • 穿越之灵月皇后(完结)

    穿越之灵月皇后(完结)

    她,一个平凡无知的少女。他,一个雄心勃勃的帝王。他,一个不问世事的王爷。他,一个忠心耿耿的将军。然而,他们之间会发生怎样的爱恨纠葛?最后她又会情归何处?穿越比翼双飞燕,转首已是百年身。愿与君随生死别,相望共享明月圆。欢迎大家加入《穿越之灵月皇后》群:66739311,验证请输入书名。-------------------------友情链接:《天使之泪:熙恋雪》http://m.wkkk.net/a/107951/《反穿之灵雪公主》发表时会通知各位的。本书已解禁,像尽快看到全文的请加群:66739311
  • 篮坛荣耀

    篮坛荣耀

    他,球场的主宰,球场的霸主,却因队友的背叛在美国初中篮球生涯的最后一场比赛中惨败,得知真相后决定回国,做一个普普通通的高中生。热爱篮球,忠于篮球的他难道就真的甘心平凡的度过高中三年吗?将他一直坚持的梦抛开丢弃?不,他不会,他要重起只属于他的荣耀!
  • 重生之复仇谋妃

    重生之复仇谋妃

    一朝嫁祸,她,沦为下堂妻,被陷害惨死!当年幼的孩子死在她面前那一刻,她立誓,若有来生她绝不会让这些残害她的人好过!一朝重生,她步步为略,棋棋带毒。可当她满心复仇之时,那个俊美的男人出现,说愿意给她一世恩宠……
  • 毒医凰后惑君心

    毒医凰后惑君心

    现代女化身古代女,波澜不惊的凤眸再次睁开,潋滟的风华,一袭红衣,傲绝天下,谁与争锋。一支玉笛,一曲音杀,她强势回归,只因当初的一纸承诺。他是一渊之皇,噬血残忍,狠厉无情,却在见她的第一眼,卸下一身狂傲,化身成为绕指柔。世人都说白诗羽冷心无情腹黑狡诈,他却说:“她只是没有遇见我”。当强者碰撞上强者,是否会掀起别样的风云,亦或者是携手共看浮生轻若云。
  • 别拿“80后”说事

    别拿“80后”说事

    滚滚红尘中我们只是不希望随波逐流,在你们看来,我们这一代真的那么一无是处吗?请不要谈“80后”色变,也请不要把“80后”妖魔化。只有我们自己,才最了解自己。我们不能选择出生时间,当然如果有时空隧道我们还是可以考虑一下!我们爱穿暴走鞋,用“火星体”,崇拜周杰伦,喜欢韩流,招谁惹谁了?!你有你的信仰我们有我们的自由。谁说鱼和熊掌不可兼得,充分的秀出自我,而且顺应社会发展的趋势,这就叫——双赢。
  • 完结碎笔

    完结碎笔

    多年以后,这腔热血恐怕早已被生活带去了温度,平淡无奇,熟练锋芒。美好的青春啊,怎少得了无尽的幻想,不知将它们写下,会不会让血液感受到那时的余热?或澎湃激昂,或平静温和,到头来也只是多愁善感在呼唤着。