音频下载[点击右键另存为][00:00.00]Passage 12. Night

[00:04.02]Night has fallen over the country.

[00:08.07]Through the trees rises the red moon and the stars are scarcely seen.

[00:13.76]In the vast shadow of night, the coolness and the dews descend.

[00:19.01]I sit at the open window to enjoy them; and hear only the voice of the summer wind.

[00:26.23]Like black hulks, the shadows of the great trees ride at anchor on the billowy sea of grass.

[00:34.55]I cannot see the red and blue flowers, but I know that they are there.

[00:40.13]Far away in the meadow gleams the silver Charles.

[00:44.61]The tramp of horses' hoofs sounds from the wooden bridge.

[00:49.43]Then all is still save the continuous wind or the sound of the neighboring sea.

[00:56.22]The village clock strikes; and I feel that I am not alone.

[01:01.24]How different it is in the city!

[01:04.31]It is late, and the crowd is gone.

[01:07.04]You step out upon the balcony, and lie in the very bosom of the cool,

[01:12.95]dewy night as if you folded her garments about you.

[01:16.89]Beneath lies the public walk with trees, like a fathomless, black gulf.

[01:22.91]The lamps are still burning up and down the long street.

[01:28.05]People go by with grotesque shadows, now foreshortened,

[01:33.19]and now lengthening away into the darkness and vanishing,

[01:37.02]while a new one springs up behind the walker,

[01:40.41]and seems to pass him revolving like the sail of a windmill.

[01:45.23]The iron gates of the park shut with a jangling clang.

[01:50.26]There are footsteps and loud voices; —a tumult; —a drunken brawl; —an alarm of fire; —then silence again.

[01:59.56]And now at length the city is asleep, and we can see the night.

[02:05.24]The belated moon looks over the roofs, and finds no one to welcome her.

[02:11.38]The moonlight is broken.

[02:13.56]It lies here and there in the squares and the opening of the streets

[02:19.04]—angular like blocks of white marble.