(原版)澳大利亚语文第五册 LESSON 40
LESSON 40 MAZEPPA'S RIDE
MAZEPPA'S RIDE
Ⅰ
MAZEPPA , a page of the court of John Casimir, King of Poland ［1］ , offended an aged noble, who resolved to punish him in a cruel and strange way. Hiding his anger, he asked him to his castle, and loaded him, at first, with a thousand marks of friendship. Then on a sudden, he caused his guest to be seized by his people.
These then bound him with ropes of silk on the back of a fiery ［2］ courser ［3］ of the Ukraine ［4］ , which had only lately been captured, and was still as wild as the deer of the forest. This terrible ride is thus described:—"The fierce steed, with bristling mane and eyes of fire, and flanks all covered with foam, dashes into the desert like an arrow from a bow, or the bolt ［5］ from heaven.
They come!—like a storm through the valleys they fly—
Like the storms which up-piled in the mountain-depths lie—
Like the thunderbolt free!
E'er now but a spot on the blue clouded dome ［6］ , Soon they vanish in air like a feather of foam
In the waves of the sea.
They come! Space is wide in the desert so vast! In that boundless horizon which is never o'erpast,
Plunge the twain ［7］ , with a bound!
Their course is a flight; and the woods and the rills ［8］ , And cities and towers, and long rolling hills,
All totter ［9］ around!
Mazeppa breathes hardly and painfully. On every side lies a vast plain, bounded by a dark forest. The sky is black and the air is filled with the dull roar of the angry wind. At each movement made by the captive, the horse increases his pace, and his nostrils dilate ［10］ with rage and terror. Mazeppa seeks to quiet him with his voice, but he trembles at the sound as at the blow of a whip.
Soon his bonds are covered with the blood from his wounded limbs, and his throat is parched ［11］ with a burning thirst. Alas for Mazeppa !
They arrive on the verge of a forest. Here and there trees raise up their heads, over which have passed the storms of many years, and whose massive ［12］ trunks have long withstood the furious winds that come from the Siberian ［13］ deserts.
The trees are thinly scattered, and the spaces between them are filled up with dense thorns and sharp prickly underwood. The horse and his unwilling rider dash into the depths. Alas for Mazeppa!
But horrors thicken. The greedy wolves are on their track. Night, gloomy and dark, falls upon the scene, but the terrible chase never falters ［14］ nor grows slack; and the horse still keeps up his speed. As they escape from the forest day breaks and the baffled ［15］ wolves retire. Yet, alas for Mazeppa!
Soon the sun has finished one-half his course. Although it is a summer noon, it seems to Mazeppa that the air is very cold, perhaps because his blood is frozen in his veins. Earth appears to avoid him, the heavens to roll around him. At each moment he feels that he shall drop to the ground—but no, his bonds have been too firmly tied for that.
His heart fails him, his brain reels ［16］ , and the veins of his forehead swell as though they would burst. The fire in his eyes blinds him to the light of day. The dying suffer no such agony as his! But soon he has a deadness of feeling, even more hard to bear than were his previous pains.
All at once reason returns; where is he? He feels a deadly cold, but is still dizzy. Frightful noises boom in his ears; his sight returns, and he sees the objects around him.
He recognizes ［17］ once more a starry heaven. It seems to him that he hears the dash of waters. This of a truth is no dream, for the wild horse of the Ukraine is swimming a rapid river, whose waves spread over a wide channel. He is mid- way across, and pushing for an unknown shore. The cool waters ease for a time Mazeppa's sufferings, and his limbs derive ［18］ new strength from the refreshing bath."
* * *
［1 ］ Poland: A Central European State at present independent but formerly divided between Russia, Prussia, and Austria.
［2 ］ fiery: Fierce, full of life.
［3 ］ courser: Horse.
［4 ］ Ukraine: The part of Russia bordering the Black Sea.
［5 ］ bolt: Thunderbolt; a shaft of lightning.
［6 ］ dome: The roof of a building shaped like one half of a ball; here the roof is the sky.
［7 ］ twain: Two.
［8 ］ rills: Little streams of water; brooklets.
［9 ］ totter: Shake as if about to fall.
［10 ］ dilate: Swell.
［11 ］ parched: Very dry.
［12 ］ massive: Great, huge.
［13 ］ Siberian: Siberia is the northern part of Russia in Asia.
［14 ］ falters: Stops.
［15 ］ baffled: Beaten.
［16 ］ reels: Becomes dizzy.
［17 ］ recognizes: Sees, knows.
［18 ］ derive: Get, obtain.
