chapter 69

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木已成舟，沃尔顿船长决定抱憾而归；此时弗兰肯斯坦的死期也快到了，临死前他仍旧惦记着“怪物”，希望能将他毁灭...

-chapter 69-

“Yet I cannot ask you to renounce your country and friends to fulfil

this task; and now that you are returning to England, you will have

little chance of meeting with him.  But the consideration of these

points, and the well balancing of what you may esteem your duties, I

leave to you; my judgment and ideas are already disturbed by the near

approach of death.  I dare not ask you to do what I think right, for I

may still be misled by passion.

“That he should live to be an instrument of mischief disturbs me; in

other respects, this hour, when I momentarily expect my release, is the

only happy one which I have enjoyed for several years.  The forms of

the beloved dead flit before me, and I hasten to their arms.  Farewell,

Walton!  Seek happiness in tranquillity and avoid ambition, even if it

be only the apparently innocent one of distinguishing yourself in

science and discoveries.  Yet why do I say this?  I have myself been

blasted in these hopes, yet another may succeed.”

His voice became fainter as he spoke, and at length, exhausted by his

effort, he sank into silence.  About half an hour afterwards he

attempted again to speak but was unable; he pressed my hand feebly, and

his eyes closed for ever, while the irradiation of a gentle smile passed

away from his lips.

Margaret, what comment can I make on the untimely extinction of this

glorious spirit?  What can I say that will enable you to understand the

depth of my sorrow?  All that I should express would be inadequate and

feeble.  My tears flow; my mind is overshadowed by a cloud of

disappointment.  But I journey towards England, and I may there find

consolation.

I am interrupted.  What do these sounds portend?  It is midnight; the

breeze blows fairly, and the watch on deck scarcely stir.  Again there

is a sound as of a human voice, but hoarser; it comes from the cabin

where the remains of Frankenstein still lie.  I must arise and examine.

Good night, my sister.

Great God! what a scene has just taken place! I am yet dizzy with the

remembrance of it. I hardly know whether I shall have the power to detail

it; yet the tale which I have recorded would be incomplete without this

final and wonderful catastrophe.

I entered the cabin where lay the remains of my ill-fated and admirable

friend. Over him hung a form which I cannot find words to

describe—gigantic in stature, yet uncouth and distorted in its

proportions. As he hung over the coffin, his face was concealed by long

locks of ragged hair; but one vast hand was extended, in colour and

apparent texture like that of a mummy. When he heard the sound of my

approach, he ceased to utter exclamations of grief and horror and sprung

towards the window. Never did I behold a vision so horrible as his face, of

such loathsome yet appalling hideousness. I shut my eyes involuntarily and

endeavoured to recollect what were my duties with regard to this destroyer.

I called on him to stay.

He paused, looking on me with wonder, and again turning towards the

lifeless form of his creator, he seemed to forget my presence, and

every feature and gesture seemed instigated by the wildest rage of some

uncontrollable passion.

“That is also my victim!” he exclaimed. “In his murder my

crimes are consummated; the miserable series of my being is wound to its

close! Oh, Frankenstein! Generous and self-devoted being! What does it

avail that I now ask thee to pardon me? I, who irretrievably destroyed thee

by destroying all thou lovedst. Alas! He is cold, he cannot answer

me.”

His voice seemed suffocated, and my first impulses, which had suggested to

me the duty of obeying the dying request of my friend in destroying his

enemy, were now suspended by a mixture of curiosity and compassion. I

approached this tremendous being; I dared not again raise my eyes to his

face, there was something so scaring and unearthly in his ugliness. I

attempted to speak, but the words died away on my lips. The monster

continued to utter wild and incoherent self-reproaches. At length I

gathered resolution to address him in a pause of the tempest of his passion.

“Your repentance,” I said, “is now superfluous. If you

had listened to the voice of conscience and heeded the stings of remorse

before you had urged your diabolical vengeance to this extremity,

Frankenstein would yet have lived.”

“And do you dream?” said the dæmon.  “Do you think that I was then

dead to agony and remorse?  He,” he continued, pointing to the corpse,

“he suffered not in the consummation of the deed. Oh!  Not the

ten-thousandth portion of the anguish that was mine during the

lingering detail of its execution.  A frightful selfishness hurried me

on, while my heart was poisoned with remorse.  Think you that the

groans of Clerval were music to my ears?  My heart was fashioned to be

susceptible of love and sympathy, and when wrenched by misery to vice

and hatred, it did not endure the violence of the change without

torture such as you cannot even imagine.

“After the murder of Clerval I returned to Switzerland, heart-broken

and overcome.  I pitied Frankenstein; my pity amounted to horror; I

abhorred myself.  But when I discovered that he, the author at once of

my existence and of its unspeakable torments, dared to hope for

happiness, that while he accumulated wretchedness and despair upon me

he sought his own enjoyment in feelings and passions from the

indulgence of which I was for ever barred, then impotent envy and bitter

indignation filled me with an insatiable thirst for vengeance.  I

recollected my threat and resolved that it should be accomplished.  I

knew that I was preparing for myself a deadly torture, but I was the

slave, not the master, of an impulse which I detested yet could not

disobey.  Yet when she died!  Nay, then I was not miserable.  I had

cast off all feeling, subdued all anguish, to riot in the excess of my

despair.  Evil thenceforth became my good.  Urged thus far, I had no

choice but to adapt my nature to an element which I had willingly

chosen.  The completion of my demoniacal design became an insatiable

passion.  And now it is ended; there is my last victim!”

（1098）

今日短语

1. make comment on 对...作出评价

2. be  dizzy with 对...晕眩 

3. with regard to 关于；就…

4. die away （声音）逐渐消失

5. amount to 发展成

6. cast off 摆脱，抛弃

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