Plurk paste

2014.06.23&24



(2)

Once the foreigner woke in the night. He slept with the door open which led to the balcony; the wind had raised the curtain before it, and there appeared a wonderful brightness over all in the balcony of the opposite house. The flowers seemed like flames of the most gorgeous colors, and among the flowers stood a beautiful slender maiden. It was to him as if light streamed from her, and dazzled his eyes; but then he had only just opened them, as he awoke from his sleep. With one spring he was out of bed, and crept softly behind the curtain. But she was gone—the brightness had disappeared; the flowers no longer appeared like flames, although still as beautiful as ever. The door stood ajar, and from an inner room sounded music so sweet and so lovely, that it produced the most enchanting thoughts, and acted on the senses with magic power.

Who could live there? Where was the real entrance? for, both in the street and in the lane at the side, the whole ground floor was a continuation of shops; and people could not always be passing through them. One evening the foreigner sat in the balcony. A light was burning in his own room, just behind him. It was quite natural, therefore, that his shadow should fall on the wall of the opposite house; so that, as he sat amongst the flowers on his balcony, when he moved, his shadow moved also.

“I think my shadow is the only living thing to be seen opposite,” said the learned man; “see how pleasantly it sits among the flowers. The door is only ajar; the shadow ought to be clever enough to step in and look about him, and then to come back and tell me what he has seen. You could make yourself useful in this way,” said he, jokingly; “be so good as to step in now, will you?” and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded in return.

“Now go, but don’t stay away altogether.”

Then the foreigner stood up, and the shadow on the opposite balcony stood up also; the foreigner turned round, the shadow turned; and if any one had observed, they might have seen it go straight into the half-opened door of the opposite balcony, as the learned man re-entered his own room, and let the curtain fall. The next morning he went out to take his coffee and read the newspapers.

“How is this?” he exclaimed, as he stood in the sunshine. “I have lost my shadow. So it really did go away yesterday evening, and it has not returned. This is very annoying.”And it certainly did vex him, not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he knew there was a story of a man without a shadow. All the people at home, in his country, knew this story; and when he returned, and related his own adventures, they would say it was only an imitation; and he had no desire for such things to be said of him. So he decided not to speak of it at all, which was a very sensible determination.





〈二〉

　　有一次這名異鄉人在夜裡醒來，他睡在敞開的陽台門旁邊，風捲起了門簾，對面房子的陽台閃爍著燦亮光芒，絢麗火焰般的嫣紅色之間站立著一位窈窕女子，光芒彷彿從女子身上流瀉而出，令他炫目不已。然而接下來他卻只是從夢中甦醒，於是便睜開了雙眼。他翻身一躍，躡手躡腳來到門簾前方，女子不見芳蹤──光芒也消逝了，花朵雖然一如往昔地盛開但不再閃爍著火燄。陽台門微微開啟，從房間裡傳來甜美曼妙的旋律，讓這一幕幕如夢似幻地上演。

　　誰會住在哪裡？哪邊是真正的入口？街上及巷弄這側的一樓是綿延不絕的店家，人們很難穿越過去。某個傍晚這位外國人坐在陽台，他身後的房間燈火通明。他的影子自然而然投射在對面房子的牆壁上，因此他移動身體坐進自己陽台的花叢間，影子也跟移動。

　　「我看我的影子是對面唯一的活人吧。」學者說道，「瞧影子坐在花叢裡有多開心。它應該聰明到可以進那扇半開的門裡面晃晃，再回來告訴我看到了什麼。你可以藉此展現你的用處。」他開玩笑地說，「現在踏進去，如何？」他對影子點點頭，影子也點頭回應他。

　　「那麼去吧，別離太遠啊！」

　　接著他站起來，身在對面陽台的影子也站起來，他轉身，它也轉身，任何人如果仔細觀看會發覺，影子筆直前往對面陽台內那扇半開啟的門，學者卻是轉身回自己房內，拉下了門簾，直到隔天早晨他出門取咖啡跟報紙。

　　「怎麼回事？」他站在陽光底下驚叫，「我的影子不見了。所以它昨夜真的溜進去沒回來了嗎，真是討厭啊。」影子跑了這點確實讓他煩惱，因為他知道失去影子者的下場。所有在家鄉的人都知道這個傳說，假如此趟旅行就這樣子回國，可想見被故鄉的人議論自己仿效傳說云云，他才不想。所以說不去談論這件事才是明智的決定。










＊＊＊＊＊＊貓の廢話＊＊＊＊＊＊
本当に疲れました、でも嬉しいね
英語ゆっくり進步する

這是第二段五百多字，也是破了之前說一天一兩百字的習慣，不過我想故事比較容易破例而已。所以說這是補昨天跟今天的分量ˊwˋ