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Over the years they had had many similar meals. The starter1 was a chilled pea soup, its oddity just enough to hold the attention; that unexpected cold, spreading in waves over teeth and tongue. At that moment, the blunt2 end of his spoon connected softly with the table. The evening light skewed down from the high-up windows and glittered off a hundred knives poised to cut.3 Maybe she was thinking how quickly the summer would go from now on. He feared that she would leave him and said so too often when they were alone. She looked down at her napkin, then up; in that second, when no eyes met, it seemed perfectly right that words should be things you have to digest. Why had she had to say it? He imagined all the conversations in the room pouring from their unknown protagonists as though from the excised stomach of a hulking and battlescarred crocodile, an eighteen-footer dragged straight from the Cretaceous.4 When the triumphant fisherman tipped up that membranous sac, out would gush an uncontrollable bilge of fluorescent green goo:5 he watched it swilling across the restaurant’s parquet, chuckled as the tray-poised waiters skidded on their windmilling hams, so many Michael Flatleys.6 As the reeking ooze receded, the diners became aware of diverse objects beached between their corroded chair legs:7 asymmetrically polished stones, the barbstripped calami of ibis or other broad-quilled waders, one rifled musket’s intact silver flintlock, a small girl’s hand, an acid-dinted comb.8
多年来他们吃过不少顿类似的饭。开胃菜是一碗冷豌豆汤,奇怪得足以引人注意;那突如其来的寒意,一阵一阵地袭过唇齿。那一刻,他手中勺子把手的钝端轻轻地搭在桌上。透过高高的窗户,傍晚的霞光歪斜着洒落下来,一百来把作势待切的刀具闪烁发亮。也许她正在想,从现在起,夏天很快就要结束了。他担心她会离开自己,在俩人独处时,也常这么说过。她低头看着餐巾,然后又抬起头来;在双方尚未对视的那一秒,你就必须把所有话都咽下去,似乎这才是最正确的做法。为什么她非得说出来呢?他想象着房间里陌生男女在激烈争执,像一条带着恶战伤痕的大鳄鱼——从白垩纪穿越来的巨型怪兽——被剖开肚子,涌出了种种对白。得胜的渔人把胃囊翻了个面,从膜里迸射出一股不可遏制的绿色黏液,如舱底积水般泛着荧光,冲刷着饭店的拼花地板,他看着端盘子的服务生们脚底打滑,踏着蹩脚的舞步打着旋儿,活像一群翻版的迈克尔·弗莱利,不禁暗自发笑。腐臭的烂泥逐渐退去,留下一地杂物,用餐的二人方才注意到,在满是污垢的椅腿间,有打磨得不均匀的宝石,或其他涉禽的大秃羽杆子,来复枪上完好无损的银色燧发机,小女孩的一只手,还有一把被酸液腐蚀得坑坑洼洼的梳子。
1. starter: (一餐的)第一道菜,(主菜之前的)开胃小吃。
2. blunt: 钝的,钝圆末端。
3. evening light: 即evening twilight,日落、黃昏时分的霞光;skew: 使偏斜,使歪斜;high-up: 在高处(的),离地面高(的);glitter: 使……闪光;poised:做好准备的,准备就绪的。
4. protagonist: 主角;excised:(尤指体内长出的有害部分)被切除的;hulking:庞大笨重的,笨拙的;eig hte e n -footer: 指有18英尺(约5.4米)高的人或物;the Cretaceous: 白垩纪。
5. tip up: 将(容器)颠倒过来,使(容器)底朝天;membranous: 膜状的;sac:(动物或植物的)囊(状似小袋,通常充满液体或气体);gush:(液体)涌,喷;bilge:船只舱底的污水;fluorescent: 荧光的;goo: 黏性物质。
6. swill: 冲洗,灌洗;parquet: 镶木地板,拼花地板;chuckle: 轻声笑,暗笑;skid: 打滑,滑行;windmilling:(似风车般)转动的,旋转的;ham: 蹩脚演员,表演过火的演员;Michael Flatley: 迈克尔·弗莱利(1958— ),美国著名踢踏舞者及编舞家,代表作有《大河之舞》、《王者之舞》和《火焰之舞》等。
多年来他们吃过不少顿类似的饭。开胃菜是一碗冷豌豆汤,奇怪得足以引人注意;那突如其来的寒意,一阵一阵地袭过唇齿。那一刻,他手中勺子把手的钝端轻轻地搭在桌上。透过高高的窗户,傍晚的霞光歪斜着洒落下来,一百来把作势待切的刀具闪烁发亮。也许她正在想,从现在起,夏天很快就要结束了。他担心她会离开自己,在俩人独处时,也常这么说过。她低头看着餐巾,然后又抬起头来;在双方尚未对视的那一秒,你就必须把所有话都咽下去,似乎这才是最正确的做法。为什么她非得说出来呢?他想象着房间里陌生男女在激烈争执,像一条带着恶战伤痕的大鳄鱼——从白垩纪穿越来的巨型怪兽——被剖开肚子,涌出了种种对白。得胜的渔人把胃囊翻了个面,从膜里迸射出一股不可遏制的绿色黏液,如舱底积水般泛着荧光,冲刷着饭店的拼花地板,他看着端盘子的服务生们脚底打滑,踏着蹩脚的舞步打着旋儿,活像一群翻版的迈克尔·弗莱利,不禁暗自发笑。腐臭的烂泥逐渐退去,留下一地杂物,用餐的二人方才注意到,在满是污垢的椅腿间,有打磨得不均匀的宝石,或其他涉禽的大秃羽杆子,来复枪上完好无损的银色燧发机,小女孩的一只手,还有一把被酸液腐蚀得坑坑洼洼的梳子。
1. starter: (一餐的)第一道菜,(主菜之前的)开胃小吃。
2. blunt: 钝的,钝圆末端。
3. evening light: 即evening twilight,日落、黃昏时分的霞光;skew: 使偏斜,使歪斜;high-up: 在高处(的),离地面高(的);glitter: 使……闪光;poised:做好准备的,准备就绪的。
4. protagonist: 主角;excised:(尤指体内长出的有害部分)被切除的;hulking:庞大笨重的,笨拙的;eig hte e n -footer: 指有18英尺(约5.4米)高的人或物;the Cretaceous: 白垩纪。
5. tip up: 将(容器)颠倒过来,使(容器)底朝天;membranous: 膜状的;sac:(动物或植物的)囊(状似小袋,通常充满液体或气体);gush:(液体)涌,喷;bilge:船只舱底的污水;fluorescent: 荧光的;goo: 黏性物质。
6. swill: 冲洗,灌洗;parquet: 镶木地板,拼花地板;chuckle: 轻声笑,暗笑;skid: 打滑,滑行;windmilling:(似风车般)转动的,旋转的;ham: 蹩脚演员,表演过火的演员;Michael Flatley: 迈克尔·弗莱利(1958— ),美国著名踢踏舞者及编舞家,代表作有《大河之舞》、《王者之舞》和《火焰之舞》等。