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Salammbo-Part5_Gustave Flaubert(1821-1880)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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faces and songs? We kept them at Drepanum to sweep out our stables. I

have embraced them amid assaults, beneath falling ceilings, and while



the catapult was still vibrating!--But she, Spendius, she!--"

The slave interrupted him:



"If she were not Hanno's daughter--"

"No!" cried Matho. "She has nothing in common with the daughters of



other men! Have you seen her great eyes beneath her great eyebrows,

like suns beneath triumphal arches? Think: when she appeared all the



torches grew pale. Her naked breast shone here and there through the

diamonds of her necklace; behind her you perceived as it were the



odour of a temple, and her whole being emitted something that was

sweeter than wine and more terrible than death. She walked, however,



and then she stopped."

He remained gaping with his head cast down and his eyeballs fixed.



"But I want her! I need her! I am dying for her! I am transported with

frenzied joy at the thought of clasping her in my arms, and yet I hate



her, Spendius! I should like to beat her! What is to be done? I have a

mind to sell myself and become her slave! YOU have been that! You were



able to get sight of her; speak to me of her! Every night she ascends

to the terrace of her palace, does she not? Ah! the stones must quiver



beneath her sandals, and the stars bend down to see her!"

He fell back in a perfect frenzy, with a rattling in his throat like a



wounded bull.

Then Matho sang: "He pursued into the forest the femalemonster, whose



tail undulated over the dead leaves like a silver brook." And with

lingering tones he imitated Salammbo's voice, while his outspread



hands were held like two light hands on the strings of a lyre.

To all the consolations offered by Spendius, he repeated the same



words; their nights were spent in these wailings and exhortations.

Matho sought to drown his thoughts in wine. After his fits of



drunkenness he was more melancholy still. He tried to divert himself

at huckle-bones, and lost the gold plates of his necklace one by one.



He had himself taken to the servants of the Goddess; but he came down

the hill sobbing, like one returning from a funeral.



Spendius, on the contrary, became more bold and gay. He was to be seen

in the leafy taverns discoursing in the midst of the soldiers. He



mended old cuirasses. He juggled with daggers. He went and gathered

herbs in the fields for the sick. He was facetious, dexterous, full of



invention and talk; the Barbarians grew accustomed to his services,

and he came to be loved by them.



However, they were awaiting an ambassador from Carthage to bring them

mules laden with baskets of gold; and ever beginning the same



calculation over again, they would trace figures with their fingers in

the sand. Every one was arranging his life beforehand; they would have



concubines, slaves, lands; others intended to bury their treasure, or

risk it on a vessel. But their tempers were provoked by want of



employment; there were constant disputes between horse-soldiers and

foot-soldiers, Barbarians and Greeks, while there was a never-ending



din of shrillfemale voices.

Every day men came flocking in nearly naked, and with grass on their



heads to protect them from the sun; they were the debtors of the rich

Carthaginians and had been forced to till the lands of the latter, but



had escaped. Libyans came pouring in with peasants ruined by the

taxes, outlaws, and malefactors. Then the horde of traders, all the



dealers in wine and oil, who were furious at not being paid, laid the

blame upon the Republic. Spendius declaimed against it. Soon the



provisions ran low; and there was talk of advancing in a body upon

Carthage, and calling in the Romans.



One evening, at supper-time, dull cracked sounds were heard

approaching, and something red appeared in the distance among the



undulations of the soil.

It was a large purplelitter, adorned with ostrich feathers at the



corners. Chains of crystal and garlands of pearls beat against the

closed hangings. It was followed by camels sounding the great bells



that hung at their breasts, and having around them horsemen clad from

shoulder to heel in armour of golden scales.



They halted three hundred paces from the camp to take their round

bucklers, broad swords, and Boeotian helmets out of the cases which



they carried behind their saddles. Some remained with the camels,

while the others resumed their march. At last the ensigns of the



Republic appeared, that is to say, staves of blue wood terminated in

horses' heads or fir cones. The Barbarians all rose with applause; the






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