狄更斯哪部作品好 狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第34章Part1

狄更斯双语小说:《董贝父子》第34章Part1  

In an ugly and dark room
an old woman
ugly and dark too
sat listening to the wind and rain
and crouching over a meagre fire. More constant to the last-named occupation than the first
she never changed her attitude
unless
when any stray drops of rain fell hissing on the smouldering embers
to raise her head with an awakened attention to the whistling and pattering outside
and gradually to let it fall again lower and lower and lower as she sunk into a brooding state of thought
in which the noises of the night were as indistinctly regarded as is the monotonous rolling of a sea by one who sits in contemplation on its shore.
There was no light in the room save that which the fire afforded. Glaring sullenly from time to time like the eye of a fierce beast half asleep
it revealed no objects that needed to be jealous of a better display. A heap of rags
a heap of bones
a wretched bed
o or three mutilated chairs or stools
the black walls and blacker ceiling
were all its winking brightness shone upon. As the old woman
with a gigantic and distorted image of herself thrown half upon the wall behind her
half upon the roof above
sat bending over the few loose bricks within which it was pent
on the damp hearth of the chimney - for there was no stove - she looked as if she were watching at some witch's altar for a favourable token; and but that the movement of her chattering jaws and trembling chin was too frequent and too fast for the slow flickering of the fire
it would have seemed an illusion wrought by the light
as it came and went
upon a face as motionless as the form to which it belonged.
If Florence could have stood within the room and looked upon the original of the shadow thrown upon the wall and roof as it cowered thus over the fire
a glance might have sufficed to recall the figure of Good Mrs Brown; noithstanding that her childish recollection of that terrible old woman was as grotesque and exaggerated a presentment of the truth
perhaps
as the shadow on the wall. But Florence was not there to look on; and Good Mrs Brown remained unrecognised
and sat staring at her fire
unobserved.
Attracted by a louder sputtering than usual
as the rain came hissing down the chimney in a little stream
the old woman raised her head
impatiently
to listen afresh. And this time she did not drop it again; for there was a hand upon the door
and a footstep in the room.
'Who's that?' she said
looking over her shoulder.
'One who brings you news
was the answer
in a woman's voice.
'News? Where from?'
'From abroad.'