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Green Mansions-Part38_W.H.Hudson(1841-1922)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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about a hundred and fifty feet from the earth. What a distance

to fall, through burning leaves and smoke, like a white bird shot



dead with a poisoned arrow, swift and straight into that sea of

flame below! How cruel imagination was to turn that desolate



ash-heap, in spite of feathery foliage and embroidery of

creepers, into roaring leaping flames again--to bring those dead



savages back, men, women, and children--even the little ones I

had played with--to set them yelling around me: "Burn! burn!"



Oh, no, this damnable spot must not be her last resting-place!

If the fire had not utterly consumed her, bones as well as sweet



tender flesh, shrivelling her like a frail white-winged moth into

the finest white ashes, mixed inseparably with the ashes of stems



and leaves innumerable, then whatever remained of her must be

conveyed elsewhere to be with me, to mingle with my ashes at



last.

Having resolved to sift and examine the entire heap, I at once



set about my task. If she had climbed into the central highest

branch, and had fallen straight, then she would have dropped into



the flames not far from the roots; and so to begin I made a path

to the trunk, and when darkness overtook me I had worked all



round the tree, in a width of three to four yards, without

discovering any remains. At noon on the following day I found



the skeleton, or, at all events, the larger bones, rendered so

fragile by the fierce heat they had been subjected to, that they



fell to pieces when handled. But I was careful--how careful!--to

save these last sacred relics, all that was now left of



Rima!--kissing each white fragment as I lifted it, and gathering

them all in my old frayed cloak, spread out to receive them. And



when I had recovered them all, even to the smallest, I took my

treasure home.



Another storm had shaken my soul, and had been succeeded by a

second calm, which was more complete and promised to be more



enduring than the first. But it was no lethargic calm; my brain

was more active than ever; and by and by it found a work for my



hands to do, of such a character as to distinguish me from all

other forest hermits, fugitives from their fellows, in that



savage land. The calcined bones I had rescued were kept in one

of the big, rudely shaped, half-burnt earthen jars which Nuflo



had used for storing grain and other food-stuff. It was of a

wood-ash colour; and after I had given up my search for the



peculiar fine clay he had used in its manufacture--for it had

been in my mind to make a more shapely funeral urn myself--I set



to work to ornament its surface. A portion of each day was given

to this artistic labour; and when the surface was covered with a



pattern of thorny stems, and a trailing creeper with curving leaf

and twining tendril, and pendent bud and blossom, I gave it



colour. Purples and black only were used, obtained from the

juices of some deeply coloured berries; and when a tint, or



shade, or line failed to satisfy me I erased it, to do it again;

and this so often that I never completed my work. I might, in



the proudlymodest spirit of the old sculptors, have inscribed on

the vase the words: Abel was doing this. For was not my ideal



beautiful like theirs, and the best that my art could do only an

imperfect copy--a rude sketch? A serpent was represented wound



round the lower portion of the jar, dull-hued, with a chain of

irregular black spots or blotches extending along its body; and



if any person had curiously examined these spots he would have

discovered that every other one was a rudely shaped letter, and



that the letters, by being properly divided, made the following

words:



Sin vos y siu dios y mi.

Words that to some might seem wild, even insane in their



extravagance, sung by some ancient forgotten poet; or possibly

the motto of some love-sick knight-errant, whose passion was



consumed to ashes long centuries ago. But not wild nor insane to

me, dwelling alone on a vast stony plain in everlastingtwilight,



where there was no motion, nor any sound; but all things, even

trees, ferns, and grasses, were stone. And in that place I had



sat for many a thousand years, drawn up and motionless, with




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