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第5章

the garden of allah-第5章

小说: the garden of allah 字数: 每页4000字

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sounds; sensations were like the story of a life to Domini just then;
were more; were like the whole of life; always dull noise; strange;
flitting; pale faces; and an unknown region that remained perpeturally
invisible; and that must surely be ugly or terrible。

The train stopped frequently at lonely little stations。 Domini looked
out; letting down the window for a moment。 At each station she saw a
tiny house with a peaked roof; a wooden railing dividing the platform
from the country road; mud; grass bending beneath the weight of water…
drops; and tall; dripping; shaggy eucalyptus trees。 Sometimes the
station…master's children peered at the train with curious eyes; and
depressed…looking Arabs; carefully wrapped up; their mouths and chins
covered by folds of linen; got in and out slowly。

Once Domini saw two women; in thin; floating white dresses and
spangled veils; hurrying by like ghosts in the dark。 Heavy silver
ornaments jangled on their ankles; above their black slippers splashed
with mud。 Their sombre eyes stared out from circles of Kohl; and; with
stained; claret…coloured hands; whose nails were bright red; they
clasped their light and bridal raiment to their prominent breasts。
They were escorted by a gigantic man; almost black; with a zigzag scar
across the left side of his face; who wore a shining brown burnous
over a grey woollen jacket。 He pushed the two women into the train as
if he were pushing bales; and got in after them; showing enormous bare
legs; with calves that stuck out like lumps of iron。

The darkness began to fade; and presently; as the grey light grew
slowly stronger; the rain ceased; and it was possible to see through
the glass of the carriage window。

The country began to discover itself; as if timidly; to Domini's eyes。
She had recently noticed that the train was going very slowly; and she
could now see why。 They were mounting a steep incline。 The rich; damp
earth of the plains beyond Robertville; with its rank grass; its moist
ploughland and groves of eucalyptus; was already left behind。 The
train was crawling in a cup of the hills; grey; sterile and abandoned;
without roads or houses; without a single tree。 Small; grey…green
bushes flourished here and there on tiny humps of earth; but they
seemed rather to emphasise than to diminish the aspect of poverty
presented by the soil; over which the dawn; rising from the wet arms
of night; shed a cold and reticent illumination。 By a gash in the
rounded hills; where the earth was brownish yellow; a flock of goats
with flapping ears tripped slowly; followed by two Arab boys in rags。
One of the boys was playing upon a pipe coverd with red arabesques。
Domini heard two or three bars of the melody。 They were ineffably wild
and bird…like; very clear and sweet。 They seemed to her to match
exactly the pure and ascetic light cast by the dawn over these bare;
grey hills; and they stirred her abruptly from the depressed lassitude
in which the dreary chances of recent travel had drowned her。 She
began; with a certain faint excitement; to realise that these low;
round…backed hills were Africa; that she was leaving behind the sea;
so many of whose waves swept along European shores; that somewhere;
beyond the broken and near horizon line toward which the train was
creeping; lay the great desert; her destination; with its pale sands
and desolate cities; its sunburnt tribes of workers; its robbers;
warriors and priests; its ethereal mysteries of mirage; its tragic
splendours of colour; of tempest and of heat。 A sense of a wider world
than the compressed world into which physical fatigue had decoyed her
woke in her brain and heart。 The little Arab; playing carelessly upon
his pipe with the red arabesques; was soon invisible among his goats
beside the dry water…course that was probably the limit of his
journeying; but Domini felt that like a musician at the head of a
procession he had played her bravely forward into the dawn and Africa。

At Ah…Souf Domini changed into another train and had the carriage to
herself。 The recruits had reached their destination。 Hers was a longer
pilgramage and still towards the sun。 She could not afterwards
remember what she thought about during this part of her journey。
Subsequent events so coloured all her memories of Africa that every
fold of its sun…dried soil was endowed in her mind with the
significance of a living thing。 Every palm beside a well; every
stunted vine and clambering flower upon an /auberge/ wall; every form
of hill and silhouette of shadow; became in her heart intense with the
beauty and the pathos she used; as a child; to think must lie beyond
the sunset。

And so she forgot。

A strange sense of leaving all things behind had stolen over her。 She
was really fatigued by travel and by want of sleep; but she did not
know it。 Lying back in her seat; with her head against the dirty white
covering of the shaking carriage; she watched the great change that
was coming over the land。

It seemed as if God were putting forth His hand to withdraw gradually
all things of His creation; all the furniture He had put into the
great Palace of the world; as if He meant to leave it empty and
utterly naked。

So Domini thought。

First He took the rich and shaggy grass; and all the little flowers
that bloomed modestly in it。 Then He drew away the orange groves; the
oleander and the apricot trees; the faithful eucalyptus with its pale
stems and tressy foliage; the sweet waters that fertilised the soil;
making it soft and brown where the plough seamed it into furrows; the
tufted plants and giant reeds that crowd where water is。 And still; as
the train ran on; His gifts were fewer。 At last even the palms were
gone; and the Barbary fig displayed no longer among the crumbling
boulders its tortured strength; and the pale and fantastic evolutions
of its unnatural foliage。 Stones lay everywhere upon the pale yellow
or grey…brown earth。 Crystals glittered in the sun like shallow
jewels; and far away; under clouds that were dark and feathery;
appeared hard and relentless mountains; which looked as if they were
made of iron carved into horrible and jagged shapes。 Where they fell
into ravines they became black。 Their swelling bosses and flanks;
sharp sometimes as the spines of animals; were steel coloured。 Their
summits were purple; deepening where the clouds came down to ebony。

Journeying towards these terrible fastnesses were caravans on which
Domini looked with a heavy and lethargic interest。 Many Kabyles;
fairer than she was; moved slowly on foot towards their rock villages。

Over the withered earth they went towards the distant mountains and
the clouds。 The sun was hidden。 The wind continued to rise。 Sand found
its way in through the carriage windows。 The mountains; as Domini saw
them more clearly; looked more gloomy; more unearthly。 There was
something unnatural in their hard outlines; in the rigid mystery of
their innumerable clefts。 That all these people should be journeying
towards them was pathetic; and grieved the imagination。

The wind seemed so cold; now the sun was hidden; that she had drawn
both the windows up and thrown a rug over her。 She put her feet up on
the opposite seat; and half closed her eyes。 But she still turned them
towards the glass on her left; and watched。 It seemed to her quite
impossible that this shaking and slowly moving train had any
destination。 The desolation of the country had become so absolute that
she could not conceive of anything but still greater desolation lying
beyond。 She had no feeling that she was merely traversing a tract of
sterility。 Her sensation was that she had passed the boundary of the
world God had created; and come into some other place; upon which He
had never looked and of which He had no knowledge。

Abruptly she felt as if her father had entered into some such region
when he forced his way out of his religion。 And in this region he had
died。 She had stood on the verge of it by his deathbed。 Now she was in
it。

There were no Arabs journeying now。 No tents huddled among the low
bushes。 The last sign of vegetation was obliterated。 The earth rose
and fell in a series of hu

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