酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

The Magic Skin-Part7_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页


silver domes whetted both appetite and curiosity.

Few words were spoken. Neighbors exchanged glances as the Maderia



circulated. Then the first course appeared in all its glory; it would

have done honor to the late Cambaceres, Brillat-Savarin would have



celebrated it. The wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, white and red, were

royally lavished. This first part of the banquet might been compared



in every way to a rendering of some classicaltragedy. The second act

grew a trifle noisier. Every guest had had a fair amount to drink, and



had tried various crus at this pleasure, so that as the remains of the

magnificent first course were removed, tumultuous discussions began; a



pale brow here and there began to flush, sundry noses took a purpler

hue, faces lit up, and eyes sparkled.



While intoxication was only dawning, the conversation did not overstep

the bounds of civility; but banter and bon mots slipped by degrees



from every tongue; and then slander began to rear its little snake's

heard, and spoke in dulcet tones; a few shrewd ones here and there



gave heed to it, hoping to keep their heads. So the second course

found their minds somewhat heated. Every one ate as he spoke, spoke



while he ate, and drank without heeding the quantity of the liquor,

the wine was so biting, the bouquet so fragrant, the example around so



infectious. Taillefer made a point of stimulating his guests, and

plied them with the formidable wines of the Rhone, with fierce Tokay,



and heady old Roussillon.

The champagne, impatiently expected and lavishly poured out, was a



scourge of fiery sparks to these men; released like post-horses from

some mail-coach by a relay; they let their spirits gallop away into



the wilds of argument to which no one listened, began to tell stories

which had no auditors, and repeatedly asked questions to which no



answer was made. Only the loud voice of wassail could be heard, a

voice made up of a hundred confused clamors, which rose and grew like



a crescendo of Rossini's. Insidious toasts, swagger, and challenges

followed.



Each renounced any pride in his own intellectual" target="_blank" title="n.知识分子">intellectualcapacity, in order to

vindicate that of hogsheads, casks, and vats; and each made noise



enough for two. A time came when the footmen smiled, while their

masters all talked at once. A philosopher would have been interested,



doubtless, by the singularity of the thoughts expressed, a politician

would have been amazed by the incongruity of the methods discussed in



the melee of words or doubtfullyluminous paradoxes, where truths,

grotesquely caparisoned, met in conflict across the uproar of brawling



judgments, of arbitrary decisions and folly, much as bullets, shells,

and grapeshot are hurled across a battlefield.



It was at once a volume and a picture. Every philosophy, religion, and

moral code differing so greatly in every latitude, every government,



every great achievement of the human intellect, fell before a scythe

as long as Time's own; and you might have found it hard to decide



whether it was wielded by Gravity intoxicated, or by Inebriation grown

sober and clear-sighted. Borne away by a kind of tempest, their minds,



like the sea raging against the cliffs, seemed ready to shake the laws

which confine the ebb and flow of civilization; unconsciously



fulfilling the will of God, who has suffered evil and good to abide in

nature, and reserved the secret of their continualstrife to Himself.



A frantic travesty of debate ensued, a Walpurgis-revel of intellects.

Between the dreary jests of these children of the Revolution over the



inauguration of a newspaper, and the talk of the joyous gossips at

Gargantua's birth, stretched the gulf that divides the nineteenth



century from the sixteenth. Laughingly they had begun the work of

destruction, and our journalists laughed amid the ruins.






文章总共2页
文章标签:翻译  译文  翻译文  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号