looking up at the roof; but out in the sunshine, God lay.

"--dear Lord!"
"Dear Lord."

"Our children's children, Lord, shall rise and call thee blessed."
"Our children's children, Lord."--I said to God, "The grapes are crying!"

God said, "Still! I hear them"--"shall call thee blessed."
"Shall call thee blessed."

"Pour forth more wine upon us, Lord."
"More wine."

"More wine."
"More wine!"

"Wine!!"
"Wine!!"

"Wine!!!"
"Dear Lord!"

Then men and women sat down and the feast went on. And mothers poured out
wine and fed their little children with it, and men held up the cup to

women's lips and cried, "Beloved! drink," and women filled their lovers'
flagons and held them up; and yet the feast went on.

And after a while I looked, and I saw the curtain that hung behind the
house moving.

I said to God, "Is it a wind?"
God said, "A wind."

And it seemed to me, that against the curtain I saw pressed the forms of
men and women. And after a while the feasters saw it move, and they

whispered, one to another. Then some rose and gathered the most worn-out
cups, and into them they put what was left at the bottom of other vessels.

Mothers whispered to their children, "Do not drink all, save a little drop
when you have drunk." And when they had collected all the dregs they

slipped the cups out under the bottom of the curtain without lifting it.
After a while the curtain left off moving.

I said to God, "How is it so quiet?"
He said, "They have gone away to drink it."

I said, "They drink it--their own!"
God said, "It comes from this side of the curtain, and they are very

thirsty."
Then the feast went on, and after a while I saw a small, white hand slipped

in below the curtain's edge along the floor; and it motioned towards the
wine jars.

And I said to God, "Why is that hand so bloodless?"
And God said, "It is a wine-pressed hand."

And men saw it and started to their feet; and women cried, and ran to the
great wine jars, and threw their arms around them, and cried, "Ours, our

own, our beloved!" and twined their long hair about them.
I said to God, "Why are they frightened of that one small hand?"

God answered, "Because it is so white."
And men ran in a great company towards the curtain, and struggled there. I

heard them strike upon the floor. And when they moved away the curtain
hung smooth and still; and there was a small stain upon the floor.

I said to God, "Why do they not wash it out?"
God said, "They cannot."

And they took small stones and put them down along the edge of the curtain
to keep it down. Then the men and women sat down again at the tables.

And I said to God, "Will those stones keep it down?"
God said, "What think you?"

I said, "If the wind blew?"
God said, "If the wind blew?"

And the feast went on.
And suddenly I cried to God, "If one should rise among them, even of

themselves, and start up from the table and should cast away his cup, and
cry, 'My brothers and my sisters, stay! what is it that we drink?'--and

with his sword should cut in two the curtain, and holding wide the
fragments, cry, 'Brothers, sisters, see! it is not wine, not wine! not

wine! My brothers, oh, my sisters!' and he should overturn the--"
God said, "Be still!--, see there."

I looked: before the banquet-house, among the grass, I saw a row of
mounds, flowers covered them, and gilded marble stood at their heads. I

asked God what they were.
He answered, "They are the graves of those who rose up at the feast and

cried."
And I asked God how they came there.

He said, "The men of the banquet-house rose and cast them down backwards."
I said, "Who buried them?"

God said, "The men who cast them down."
I said, "How came it that they threw them down, and then set marble over

them?"
God said, "Because the bones cried out, they covered them."

And among the grass and weeds I saw an unburied body lying; and I asked God
why it was.

God said, "Because it was thrown down only yesterday. In a little while,
when the flesh shall have fallen from its bones, they will bury it also,

and plant flowers over it."
And still the feast went on.

Men and women sat at the tables quaffing great bowls. Some rose, and threw
their arms about each other, and danced and sang. They pledged each other

in the wine, and kissed each other's blood-red lips.
Higher and higher grew the revels.

Men, when they had drunk till they could no longer, threw what was left in
their glasses up to the roof, and let it fall back in cascades. Women dyed

their children's garments in the wine, and fed them on it till their tiny
mouths were red. Sometimes, as the dancers whirled, they overturned a

vessel, and their garments were bespattered. Children sat upon the floor
with great bowls of wine, and swam rose-leaves on it, for boats. They put

their hands in the wine and blew large red bubbles.
And higher and higher grew the revels, and wilder the dancing, and louder

and louder the singing. But here and there among the revellers were those
who did not revel. I saw that at the tables here and there were men who

sat with their elbows on the board and hands shading their eyes; they
looked into the wine-cup beneath them, and did not drink. And when one

touched them lightly on the shoulder, bidding them to rise and dance and
sing, they started, and then looked down, and sat there watching the wine

in the cup, but they did not move.
And here and there I saw a woman sit apart. The others danced and sang and

fed their children, but she sat silent with her head aside as though she
listened. Her little children plucked her gown; she did not see them; she

was listening to some sound, but she did not stir.
The revels grew higher. Men drank till they could drink no longer, and lay

their heads upon the table sleeping heavily. Women who could dance no more
leaned back on the benches with their heads against their lovers'

shoulders. Little children, sick with wine, lay down upon the edges of
their mothers' robes. Sometimes, a man rose suddenly, and as he staggered

struck the tables and overthrew the benches; some leaned upon the
balustrades sick unto death. Here and there one rose who staggered to the

wine jars and lay down beside them. He turned the wine tap, but sleep
overcame him as he lay there, and the wine ran out.

Slowly the thin, red stream ran across the white marbled floor; it reached
the stone steps; slowly, slowly, slowly it trickled down, from step to

step, from step to step: then it sank into the earth. A thin white smoke
rose up from it.

I was silent; I could not breathe; but God called me to come further.
And after I had travelled for a while I came where on seven hills lay the

ruins of a mighty banquet-house larger and stronger than the one which I
had seen standing.

I said to God, "What did the men who built it here?"
God said, "They feasted."

I said, "On what?"
God said, "On wine."

And I looked; and it seemed to me that behind the ruins lay still a large
circular hollow within the earth where a foot of the wine-press had stood.

I said to God, "How came it that this large house fell?"
God said, "Because the earth was sodden."

He called me to come further.
And at last we came upon a hill where blue waters played, and white marble

lay upon the earth. I said to God, "What was here once?"
God said, "A pleasure house."

I looked, and at my feet great pillars lay. I cried aloud for joy to God,
"The marble blossoms!"

God said, "Ay, 'twas a fairy house. There has not been one like to it, nor
ever shall be. The pillars and the porticoes blossomed; and the wine cups

were as gathered flowers: on this side all the curtain was broidered with
fair designs, the stitching was of gold."

I said to God, "How came it that it fell?"
God said, "On the side of the wine-press it was dark."

And as we travelled, we came where lay a mighty ridge of sand, and a dark
river ran there; and there rose two vast mounds.

I said to God, "They are very mighty."
God said, "Ay, exceeding great."

And I listened.
God asked me what I was listening to.

And I said, "A sound of weeping, and I hear the sound of strokes, but I
cannot tell whence it comes."

God said, "It is the echo of the wine-press lingering still among the
coping-stones upon the mounds. A banquet-house stood here."

And he called me to come further.
Upon a barren hill-side, where the soil was arid, God called me to stand

still. And I looked around.
God said, "There was a feasting-house here once upon a time."

I said to God, "I see no mark of any!"
God said, "There was not left one stone upon another that has not been

thrown down." And I looked round; and on the hill-side was a lonely grave.
I said to God, "What lies there?"

He said, "A vine truss, bruised in the wine-press!"
And at the head of the grave stood a cross, and on its foot lay a crown of

thorns.
And as I turned to go, I looked backward. The wine-press and the banquet-

house were gone; but the grave yet stood.
And when I came to the edge of a long ridge there opened out before me a

wide plain of sand. And when I looked downward I saw great stones lie
shattered; and the desert sand had half covered them over.

I said to God, "There is writing on them, but I cannot read it."
And God blew aside the desert sand, and I read the writing: "Weighed in

the balance, and found--" but the last word was wanting.
And I said to God, "It was a banquet-house?"

God said, "Ay, a banquet-house."
I said, "There was a wine-press here?"

God said, "There was a wine-press."
I asked no further question. I was very weary; I shaded my eyes with my

hand, and looked through the pink evening light.
Far off, across the sand, I saw two figures standing. With wings upfolded

high above their heads, and stern faces set, neither man nor beast, they
looked out across the desert sand, watching, watching, watching! I did not

ask God what they were, for I knew what the answer would be.
And, further and yet further, in the evening light, I looked with my shaded

eyes.
Far off, where the sands were thick and heavy, I saw a solitary pillar

standing: the crown had fallen, and the sand had buried it. On the broken
pillar sat a grey owl-of-the-desert, with folded wings; and in the evening

light I saw the desert fox creep past it, trailing his brush across the
sand.

Further, yet further, as I looked across the desert, I saw the sand
gathered into heaps as though it covered something.

I cried to God, "Oh, I am so weary."
God said, "You have seen only one half of Hell."

I said, "I cannot see more, I am afraid of Hell. In my own narrow little
path I dare not walk because I think that one has dug a pitfall for me; and

if I put my hand to take a fruit I draw it back again because I think it
has been kissed already. If I look out across the plains, the mounds are

burial heaps; and when I pass among the stones I hear them crying aloud.
When I see men dancing I hear the time beaten in with sobs; and their wine

is living! Oh, I cannot bear Hell!"
God said, "Where will you go?"

• sunshine [´sʌnʃain] n.日光，阳光 (初中英语单词)
• marble [´mɑ:bəl] n.大理石 a.大理石的 (初中英语单词)
• yesterday [´jestədi] n.&ad.昨天；前不久 (初中英语单词)
• lightly [´laitli] ad.轻微地，稍微 (初中英语单词)
• sleeping [´sli:piŋ] n.&a.睡着(的) (初中英语单词)
• stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
• barren [´bærən] a.贫瘠的；不生育的 (初中英语单词)
• lonely [´ləunli] a.孤独的；无人烟的 (初中英语单词)
• backward [´bækwəd] ad.向后 a.向后的 (初中英语单词)
• writing [´raitiŋ] n.书写；写作；书法 (初中英语单词)
• standing [´stændiŋ] n.持续 a.直立的 (初中英语单词)
• beaten [´bi:tn] beat 的过去分词 (初中英语单词)
• mighty [´maiti] a.强有力的 ad.很 (高中英语单词)
• downward [´daunwəd] a.下降的，向下的 (高中英语单词)
• solitary [´sɔlitəri] a.独居的；孤独的 (高中英语单词)
• overturn [,əuvə´tə:n] v.打翻；颠覆 (英语四级单词)
• exceeding [ik´si:diŋ] a.超越的，非常的 (英语四级单词)
• whence [wens] ad.从何处；从那里 (英语四级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)
• overthrew [,əuvə´θru:] voerthrow的过去式 (英语六级单词)
• weeping [´wi:piŋ] a.&n.哭泣(的) (英语六级单词)