Previous Story
小杜克还梦见斜坡上美丽的教堂，年老的国王赫洛尔王，梦见一位来自苏洛的老妇人, 梦见妹妹变成一个大姑娘，他们一起飞过新西兰，梦见国王对他的祝福。一觉醒来，洗衣老妇人来向他表示感谢。他虽然想不起来自己梦到了什么，却发现所有的知识都掌握了。
The Shadow
It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people become quite a mahogany brown（深红褐色）, ay, and in the hottest lands they are burnt to Negroes（黑人）.
But now it was only to the hot lands that a learned man had come from the cold; there he thought that he could run about just as when at home, but he soon found out his mistake.
He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors--the window-shutters（百叶窗） and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the whole house slept, or there was no one at home.
The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine must fall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be borne.
The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man and seemed to be a clever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became quite meagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect on it.
It was first towards evening when the sun was down, that they began to freshen up again.
In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on all the balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one be accustomed to be mahogany!
It was lively both up and down the street.
Tailors, and shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the street--chairs and tables were brought forth--and candles burnt--yes, above a thousand lights were burning--and the one talked and the other sung;
and people walked and church-bells rang, and asses went along with a dingle-dingle-dong! for they too had bells on.
The street boys were screaming and hooting（嘲笑）, and shouting and shooting, with devils and detonating（爆炸的） balls--and there came corpse bearers and hood wearers--for there were funerals with psalm and hymn（赞美诗）--and then the din of carriages driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enough down in the street.
Only in that single house, which stood opposite that in which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet some one lived there, for there stood flowers in the balcony--they grew so well in the sun's heat! and that they could not do unless they were watered--and some one must water them--there must be somebody there.
The door opposite was also opened late in the evening, but it was dark within, at least in the front room; further in there was heard the sound of music.
The learned foreigner thought it quite marvellous, but now--it might be that he only imagined it--for he found everything marvellous out there, in the warm lands, if there had only been no sun.
The stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had taken the house opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared to him to be extremely tiresome.
"It is as if some one sat there, and practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. 'I shall master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he plays."
One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony open--the curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought that a strange lustre(光泽) came from the opposite neighbor's house;
all the flowers shone like flames, in the most beautiful colors, and in the midst of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden--it was as if she also shone; the light really hurt his eyes.
He now opened them quite wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was on the floor; he crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the flowers shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever;
the door was ajar（半开的）, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, one could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet it was like a piece of enchantment.
And who lived there? Where was the actual entrance? The whole of the ground-floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always be running through.
One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the room behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should fall on his opposite neighbor's wall.
Yes! there it sat, directly opposite, between the flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger moved, the shadow also moved: for that it always does.
"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said the learned man.
"See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door stands half-open: now the shadow should be cunning（狡猾的）, and go into the room, look about, and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now! Be useful, and do me a service," said he, in jest.
"Have the kindness to step in. Now! Art thou going?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded again. "Well then, go! But don't stay away."
The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony rose also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round.
Yes! if anyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have seen, quite distinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open balcony-door of their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into his own room, and let the long curtain fall down after him.
Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the newspapers.
"What is that?" said he, as he came out into the sunshine. "I have no shadow! So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It is really tiresome!"
This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he knew there was a story about a man without a shadow.
It was known to everybody at home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came there and told his story, they would say that he was imitating it, and that he had no need to do.
He would, therefore, not talk about it at all; and that was wisely thought.
（共1169字）
今日短语
1. run about乱跑
2. find out找到
3. shrink in收缩
4. take effect生效
5. freshen up使焕然一新，使恢复活力
6. up and down上上下下，到处
7. be accustomed to习惯于
8. melt away融化
9. do sb. a service 帮某人一个忙
备注：本专辑为知米阅读提升营配套音频，方便学员循环收听。
对英文原著学习的小伙伴可以关注我们的微信公众号【知米阅读】，加入我们的学习军团，和上万名小伙伴一起阅读英文原著。100天读3-4本英文原著，思想和英语同时进步！
用户评论