双语阅读：影子

英语自学网

　　影子
        　　THE SHADOW
        　　It is in the hot lands that the sun burns, sure enough! there the people
        　　become quite a mahogany brown, ay, and in the HOTTEST lands they are burnt to
        　　Negroes. But now it was only to the HOT lands that a learned man had come from
        　　the cold; there he thought that he could run about just as when at home, but
        　　he soon found out his mistake.
        　　He, and all sensible folks, were obliged to stay within doors--the
        　　window-shutters and doors were closed the whole day; it looked as if the whole
        　　house slept, or there was no one at home.
        　　The narrow street with the high houses, was built so that the sunshine must
        　　fall there from morning till evening--it was really not to be borne.
        　　The learned man from the cold lands--he was a young man, and seemed to be a
        　　clever man--sat in a glowing oven; it took effect on him, he became quite
        　　meagre--even his shadow shrunk in, for the sun had also an effect on it. It
        　　was first towards evening when the sun was down, that they began to freshen up
        　　again.
        　　In the warm lands every window has a balcony, and the people came out on all
        　　the balconies in the street--for one must have air, even if one be accustomed
        　　to be mahogany!* It was lively both up and down the street. Tailors, and
        　　shoemakers, and all the folks, moved out into the street--chairs and tables
        　　were brought forth--and candles burnt--yes, above a thousand lights were
        　　burning--and the one talked and the other sung; and people walked and
        　　church-bells rang, and asses went along with a dingle-dingle-dong! for they
        　　too had bells on. The street boys were screaming and hooting, and shouting and
        　　shooting, with devils and detonating balls--and there came corpse bearers and
        　　hood wearers--for there were funerals with psalm and hymn--and then the din of
        　　carriages driving and company arriving: yes, it was, in truth, lively enough
        　　down in the street. Only in that single house, which stood opposite that in
        　　which the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still; and yet some one lived
        　　there, for there stood flowers in the balcony--they grew so well in the sun's
        　　heat! and that they could not do unless they were watered--and some one must
        　　water them--there must be somebody there. The door opposite was also opened
        　　late in the evening, but it was dark within, at least in the front room;
        　　further in there was heard the sound of music. The learned foreigner thought
        　　it quite marvellous, but now--it might be that he only imagined it--for he
        　　found everything marvellous out there, in the warm lands, if there had only
        　　been no sun. The stranger's landlord said that he didn't know who had taken
            
            

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        　　the house opposite, one saw no person about, and as to the music, it appeared
        　　to him to be extremely tiresome. "It is as if some one sat there, and
        　　practised a piece that he could not master--always the same piece. 'I shall
        　　master it!' says he; but yet he cannot master it, however long he plays."
        　　* The word mahogany can be understood, in Danish, as having two meanings.
        　　In general, it means the reddish-brown wood itself; but in jest, it signifies
        　　"excessively fine," which arose from an anecdote of Nyboder, in Copenhagen,
        　　(the seamen's quarter.) A sailor's wife, who was always proud and fine, in her
        　　way, came to her neighbor, and complained that she had got a splinter in her
        　　finger. "What of?" asked the neighbor's wife. "It is a mahogany splinter,"
        　　said the other. "Mahogany! It cannot be less with you!" exclaimed the
        　　woman--and thence the proverb, "It is so mahogany!"--(that is, so excessively
        　　fine)--is derived.
        　　One night the stranger awoke--he slept with the doors of the balcony open--the
        　　curtain before it was raised by the wind, and he thought that a strange lustre
        　　came from the opposite neighbor's house; all the flowers shone like flames, in
        　　the most beautiful colors, and in the midst of the flowers stood a slender,
        　　graceful maiden--it was as if she also shone; the light really hurt his eyes.
        　　He now opened them quite wide--yes, he was quite awake; with one spring he was
        　　on the floor; he crept gently behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone; the
        　　flowers shone no longer, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever; the
        　　door was ajar, and, far within, the music sounded so soft and delightful, one
        　　could really melt away in sweet thoughts from it. Yet it was like a piece of
        　　enchantment. And who lived there? Where was the actual entrance? The whole of
        　　the ground-floor was a row of shops, and there people could not always be
        　　running through.
        　　One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burnt in the room
        　　behind him; and thus it was quite natural that his shadow should fall on his
        　　opposite neighbor's wall. Yes! there it sat, directly opposite, between the
        　　flowers on the balcony; and when the stranger moved, the shadow also moved:
        　　for that it always does.
        　　"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said the
        　　learned man. "See, how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door stands
        　　half-open: now the shadow should be cunning, and go into the room, look about,
        　　and then come and tell me what it had seen. Come, now! Be useful, and do me a
        　　service," said he, in jest. "Have the kindness to step in. Now! Art thou
            
            

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        　　going?" and then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded again. "Well
        　　then, go! But don't stay away."
        　　The stranger rose, and his shadow on the opposite neighbor's balcony rose
        　　also; the stranger turned round and the shadow also turned round. Yes! if
        　　anyone had paid particular attention to it, they would have seen, quite
        　　distinctly, that the shadow went in through the half-open balcony-door of
        　　their opposite neighbor, just as the stranger went into his own room, and let
        　　the long curtain fall down after him.
        　　Next morning, the learned man went out to drink coffee and read the
        　　newspapers.
        　　"What is that?" said he, as he came out into the sunshine. "I have no shadow!
        　　So then, it has actually gone last night, and not come again. It is really
        　　tiresome!"
        　　This annoyed him: not so much because the shadow was gone, but because he knew
        　　there was a story about a man without a shadow.* It was known to everybody at
        　　home, in the cold lands; and if the learned man now came there and told his
        　　story, they would say that he was imitating it, and that he had no need to do.
        　　He would, therefore, not talk about it at all; and that was wisely thought.
        　　*Peter Schlemihl, the shadowless man.
        　　In the evening he went out again on the balcony. He had placed the light
        　　directly behind him, for he knew that the shadow would always have its master
        　　for a screen, but he could not entice it. He made himself little; he made
        　　himself great: but no shadow came again. He said, "Hem! hem!" but it was of no
        　　use.
        　　It was vexatious; but in the warm lands everything grows so quickly; and after
        　　the lapse of eight days he observed, to his great joy, that a new shadow came
        　　in the sunshine. In the course of three weeks he had a very fair shadow,
        　　which, when he set out for his home in the northern lands, grew more and more
        　　in the journey, so that at last it was so long and so large, that it was more
        　　than sufficient.
        　　The learned man then came home, and he wrote books about what was true in the
        　　world, and about what was good and what was beautiful; and there passed days
        　　and years--yes! many years passed away.
        　　One evening, as he was sitting in his room, there was a gentle knocking at the
        　　door.
        　　"Come in!" said he; but no one came in; so he opened the door, and there stood
        　　before him such an extremely lean man, that he felt quite strange. As to the
        　　rest, the man was very finely dressed--he must be a gentleman.
        　　"Whom have I the honor of speaking?" asked the learned man.
        　　"Yes! I thought as much," said the fine man. "I thought you would not know
            
            

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        　　me. I have got so much body. I have even got flesh and clothes. You certainly
        　　never thought of seeing me so well off. Do you not know your old shadow? You
        　　certainly thought I should never more return. Things have gone on well with me
        　　since I was last with you. I have, in all respects, become very well off.
        　　Shall I purchase my freedom from service? If so, I can do it"; and then he
        　　rattled a whole bunch of valuable seals that hung to his watch, and he stuck
        　　his hand in the thick gold chain he wore around his neck--nay! how all his
        　　fingers glittered with diamond rings; and then all were pure gems.
        　　"Nay; I cannot recover from my surprise!" said the learned man. "What is the
        　　meaning of all this?"
        　　"Something common, is it not," said the shadow. "But you yourself do not
        　　belong to the common order; and I, as you know well, have from a child
        　　followed in your footsteps. As soon as you found I was capable to go out alone
        　　in the world, I went my own way. I am in the most brilliant circumstances, but
        　　there came a sort of desire over me to see you once more before you die; you
        　　will die, I suppose? I also wished to see this land again--for you know we
        　　always love our native land. I know you have got another shadow again; have I
        　　anything to pay to it or you? If so, you will oblige me by saying what it is."
        　　"Nay, is it really thou?" said the learned man. "It is most remarkable: I
        　　never imagined that one's old shadow could come again as a man."
        　　"Tell me what I have to pay," said the shadow; "for I don't like to be in any
        　　sort of debt."
        　　"How canst thou talk so?" said the learned man. "What debt is there to talk
        　　about? Make thyself as free as anyone else. I am extremely glad to hear of thy
        　　good fortune: sit down, old friend, and tell me a little how it has gone with
        　　thee, and what thou hast seen at our opposite neighbor's there--in the warm
        　　lands."
        　　"Yes, I will tell you all about it," said the shadow, and sat down: "but then
        　　you must also promise me, that, wherever you may meet me, you will never say
        　　to anyone here in the town that I have been your shadow. I intend to get
        　　betrothed, for I can provide for more than one family."
        　　"Be quite at thy ease about that," said the learned man; "I shall not say to
        　　anyone who thou actually art: here is my hand--I promise it, and a man's bond
        　　is his word."
        　　"A word is a shadow," said the shadow, "and as such it must speak."
        　　It was really quite astonishing how much of a man it was. It was dressed
            
            

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        　　entirely in black, and of the very finest cloth; it had patent leather boots,
        　　and a hat that could be folded together, so that it was bare crown and brim;
        　　not to speak of what we already know it had--seals, gold neck-chain, and
        　　diamond rings; yes, the shadow was well-dressed, and it was just that which
        　　made it quite a man.
        　　"Now I shall tell you my adventures," said the shadow; and then he sat, with
        　　the polished boots, as heavily as he could, on the arm of the learned man's
        　　new shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet. Now this was perhaps from
        　　arrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept itself so still and quiet, that
        　　it might hear all that passed: it wished to know how it could get free, and
        　　work its way up, so as to become its own master.
        　　"Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?" said the shadow. "It
        　　was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was there for three
        　　weeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived three thousand years,
        　　and read all that was composed and written; that is what I say, and it is
        　　right. I have seen everything and I know everything!"
        　　"Poesy!" cried the learned man. "Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse in
        　　large cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her--a single short moment, but sleep
        　　came into my eyes! She stood on the balcony and shone as the Aurora Borealis
        　　shines. Go on, go on--thou wert on the balcony, and went through the doorway,
        　　and then--"
        　　"Then I was in the antechamber," said the shadow. "You always sat and looked
        　　over to the antechamber. There was no light; there was a sort of twilight, but
        　　the one door stood open directly opposite the other through a long row of
        　　rooms and saloons, and there it was lighted up. I should have been completely
        　　killed if I had gone over to the maiden; but I was circumspect, I took time to
        　　think, and that one must always do."
        　　"And what didst thou then see?" asked the learned man.
        　　"I saw everything, and I shall tell all to you: but--it is no pride on my
        　　part--as a free man, and with the knowledge I have, not to speak of my
        　　position in life, my excellent circumstances--I certainly wish that you would
        　　say YOU* to me!"
        　　* It is the custom in Denmark for intimate acquaintances to use the
        　　second person singular, "Du," (thou) when speaking to each other. When a
        　　friendship is formed between men, they generally affirm it, when occasion
        　　offers, either in public or private, by drinking to each other and exclaiming,
        　　"thy health," at the same time striking their glasses together. This is called
            
            

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        　　drinking "Duus": they are then, "Duus Brodre," (thou brothers) and ever
        　　afterwards use the pronoun "thou," to each other, it being regarded as more
        　　familiar than "De," (you). Father and mother, sister and brother say thou to
        　　one another--without regard to age or rank. Master and mistress say thou to
        　　their servants the superior to the inferior. But servants and inferiors do not
        　　use the same term to their masters, or superiors--nor is it ever used when
        　　speaking to a stranger, or anyone with whom they are but slightly acquainted
        　　--they then say as in English--you.
        　　"I beg your pardon," said the learned man; "it is an old habit with me. YOU
        　　are perfectly right, and I shall remember it; but now you must tell me all YOU
        　　saw!"
        　　"Everything!" said the shadow. "For I saw everything, and I know everything!"
        　　"How did it look in the furthest saloon?" asked the learned man. "Was it there
        　　as in the fresh woods? Was it there as in a holy
        　　church? Were the saloons like the starlit firmament when we stand on the high
        　　mountains?"
        　　"Everything was there!" said the shadow. "I did not go quite in, I remained in
        　　the foremost room, in the twilight, but I stood there quite well; I saw
        　　everything, and I know everything! I have been in the antechamber at the court
        　　of Poesy."
        　　"But WHAT DID you see? Did all the gods of the olden times pass through the
        　　large saloons? Did the old heroes combat there? Did sweet children play there,
        　　and relate their dreams?"
        　　"I tell you I was there, and you can conceive that I saw everything there was
        　　to be seen. Had you come over there, you would not have been a man; but I
        　　became so! And besides, I learned to know my inward nature, my innate
        　　qualities, the relationship I had with Poesy. At the time I was with you, I
        　　thought not of that, but always--you know it well--when the sun rose, and when
        　　the sun went down, I became so strangely great; in the moonlight I was very
        　　near being more distinct than yourself; at that time I did not understand my
        　　nature; it was revealed to me in the antechamber! I became a man! I came out
        　　matured; but you were no longer in the warm lands; as a man I was ashamed to
        　　go as I did. I was in want of boots, of clothes, of the whole human varnish
        　　that makes a man perceptible. I took my way--I tell it to you, but you will
        　　not put it in any book--I took my way to the cake woman--I hid myself behind
        　　her; the woman didn't think how much she concealed. I went out first in the
        　　evening; I ran about the streets in the moonlight; I made myself long up the
            
            

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        　　walls--it tickles the back so delightfully! I ran up, and ran down, peeped
        　　into the highest windows, into the saloons, and on the roofs, I peeped in
        　　where no one could peep, and I saw what no one else saw, what no one else
        　　should see! This is, in fact, a base world! I would not be a man if it were
        　　not now once accepted and regarded as something to be so! I saw the most
        　　unimaginable things with the women, with the men, with parents, and with the
        　　sweet, matchless children; I saw," said the shadow, "what no human being must
        　　know, but what they would all so willingly know--what is bad in their
        　　neighbor. Had I written a newspaper, it would have been read! But I wrote
        　　direct to the persons themselves, and there was consternation in all the
        　　towns where I came. They were so afraid of me, and yet they were so
        　　excessively fond of me. The professors made a professor of me; the tailors
        　　gave me new clothes--I am well furnished; the master of the mint struck new
        　　coin for me, and the women said I was so handsome! And so I became the man I
        　　am. And I now bid you farewell. Here is my card--I live on the sunny side of
        　　the street, and am always at home in rainy weather!" And so away went the
        　　shadow. "That was most extraordinary!" said the learned man. Years and days
        　　passed away, then the shadow came again. "How goes it?" said the shadow.
        　　"Alas!" said the learned man. "I write about the true, and the good, and the
        　　beautiful, but no one cares to hear such things; I am quite desperate, for I
        　　take it so much to heart!"
        　　"But I don't!" said the shadow. "I become fat, and it is that one wants to
        　　become! You do not understand the world. You will become ill by it. You must
        　　travel! I shall make a tour this summer; will you go with me? I should like to
        　　have a travelling companion! Will you go with me, as shadow? It will be a
        　　great pleasure for me to have you with me; I shall pay the travelling
        　　expenses!"
        　　"Nay, this is too much!" said the learned man.
        　　"It is just as one takes it!" said the shadow. "It will do you much good to
        　　travel! Will you be my shadow? You shall have everything free on the journey!"
        　　"Nay, that is too bad!" said the learned man.
        　　"But it is just so with the world!" said the shadow, "and so it will be!" and
        　　away it went again.
        　　The learned man was not at all in the most enviable state; grief and torment
        　　followed him, and what he said about the true, and the good, and the
        　　beautiful, was, to most persons, like roses for a cow! He was quite ill at
            
            

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        　　last.
        　　"You really look like a shadow!" said his friends to him; and the learned man
        　　trembled, for he thought of it.
        　　"You must go to a watering-place!" said the shadow, who came and visited him.
        　　"There is nothing else for it! I will take you with me for old acquaintance'
        　　sake; I will pay the travelling expenses, and you write the descriptions--and
        　　if they are a little amusing for me on the way! I will go to a
        　　watering-place--my beard does not grow out as it ought--that is also a
        　　sickness--and one must have a beard! Now you be wise and accept the offer; we
        　　shall travel as comrades!"
        　　And so they travelled; the shadow was master, and the master was the shadow;
        　　they drove with each other, they rode and walked together, side by side,
        　　before and behind, just as the sun was; the shadow always took care to keep
        　　itself in the master's place. Now the learned man didn't think much about
        　　that; he was a very kind-hearted man, and particularly mild and friendly, and
        　　so he said one day to the shadow: "As we have now become companions, and in
        　　this way have grown up together from childhood, shall we not drink 'thou'
        　　together, it is more familiar?"
        　　"You are right," said the shadow, who was now the proper master. "It is said
        　　in a very straight-forward and well-meant manner. You, as a learned man,
        　　certainly know how strange nature is. Some persons cannot bear to touch grey
        　　paper, or they become ill; others shiver in every limb if one rub a pane of
        　　glass with a nail: I have just such a feeling on hearing you say thou to me; I
        　　feel myself as if pressed to the earth in my first situation with you. You see
        　　that it is a feeling; that it is not pride: I cannot allow you to say THOU to
        　　me, but I will willingly say THOU to you, so it is half done!"
        　　So the shadow said THOU to its former master.
        　　"This is rather too bad," thought he, "that I must say YOU and he say THOU,"
        　　but he was now obliged to put up with it.
        　　So they came to a watering-place where there were many strangers, and amongst
        　　them was a princess, who was troubled with seeing too well; and that was so
        　　alarming!
        　　She directly observed that the stranger who had just come was quite a
        　　different sort of person to all the others; "He has come here in order to get
        　　his beard to grow, they say, but I see the real cause, he cannot cast a
        　　shadow."
        　　She had become inquisitive; and so she entered into conversation directly with
        　　the strange gentleman, on their promenades. As the daughter of a king, she
        　　needed not to stand upon trifles, so she said, "Your complaint is, that you
            
            

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        　　cannot cast a shadow?"
        　　"Your Royal Highness must be improving considerably," said the shadow, "I know
        　　your complaint is, that you see too clearly, but it has decreased, you are
        　　cured. I just happen to have a very unusual shadow! Do you not see that person
        　　who always goes with me? Other persons have a common shadow, but I do not like
        　　what is common to all. We give our servants finer cloth for their livery than
        　　we ourselves use, and so I had my shadow trimmed up into a man: yes, you see I
        　　have even given him a shadow. It is somewhat expensive, but I like to have
        　　something for myself!"
        　　"What!" thought the princess. "Should I really be cured! These baths are the
        　　first in the world! In our time water has wonderful powers. But I shall not
        　　leave the place, for it now begins to be amusing here. I am extremely fond of
        　　that stranger: would that his beard should not grow, for in that case he will
        　　leave us!"
        　　In the evening, the princess and the shadow danced together in the large
        　　ball-room. She was light, but he was still lighter; she had never had such a
        　　partner in the dance. She told him from what land she came, and he knew that
        　　land; he had been there, but then she was not at home; he had peeped in at the
        　　window, above and below--he had seen both the one and the other, and so he
        　　could answer the princess, and make insinuations, so that she was quite
        　　astonished; he must be the wisest man in the whole world! She felt such
        　　respect for what he knew! So that when they again danced together she fell in
        　　love with him; and that the shadow could remark, for she almost pierced him
        　　through with her eyes. So they danced once more together; and she was about to
        　　declare herself, but she was discreet; she thought of her country and kingdom,
        　　and of the many persons she would have to reign over.
        　　"He is a wise man," said she to herself--"It is well; and he dances
        　　delightfully--that is also good; but has he solid knowledge? That is just as
        　　important! He must be examined."
        　　So she began, by degrees, to question him about the most difficult things she
        　　could think of, and which she herself could not have answered; so that the
        　　shadow made a strange face.
        　　"You cannot answer these questions?" said the princess.
        　　"They belong to my childhood's learning," said the shadow. "I really believe
        　　my shadow, by the door there, can answer them!"
        　　"Your shadow!" said the princess. "That would indeed be marvellous!"
        　　"I will not say for a certainty that he can," said the shadow, "but I think
            
            

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        　　so; he has now followed me for so many years, and listened to my
        　　conversation--I should think it possible. But your royal highness will permit
        　　me to observe, that he is so proud of passing himself off for a man, that when
        　　he is to be in a proper humor--and he must be so to answer well--he must be
        　　treated quite like a man."
        　　"Oh! I like that!" said the princess.
        　　So she went to the learned man by the door, and she spoke to him about the sun
        　　and the moon, and about persons out of and in the world, and he answered with
        　　wisdom and prudence.
        　　"What a man that must be who has so wise a shadow!" thought she. "It will be a
        　　real blessing to my people and kingdom if I choose him for my consort--I will
        　　do it!"
        　　They were soon agreed, both the princess and the shadow; but no one was to
        　　know about it before she arrived in her own kingdom.
        　　"No one--not even my shadow!" said the shadow, and he had his own thoughts
        　　about it!
        　　Now they were in the country where the princess reigned when she was at home.
        　　"Listen, my good friend," said the shadow to the learned man. "I have now
        　　become as happy and mighty as anyone can be; I will, therefore, do something
        　　particular for thee! Thou shalt always live with me in the palace, drive with
        　　me in my royal carriage, and have ten thousand pounds a year; but then thou
        　　must submit to be called SHADOW by all and everyone; thou must not say that
        　　thou hast ever been a man; and once a year, when I sit on the balcony in the
        　　sunshine, thou must lie at my feet, as a shadow shall do! I must tell thee: I
        　　am going to marry the king's daughter, and the nuptials are to take place this
        　　evening!"
        　　"Nay, this is going too far!" said the learned man. "I will not have it; I
        　　will not do it! It is to deceive the whole country and the princess too! I
        　　will tell everything! That I am a man, and that thou art a shadow--thou art
        　　only dressed up!"
        　　"There is no one who will believe it!" said the shadow. "Be reasonable, or I
        　　will call the guard!"
        　　"I will go directly to the princess!" said the learned man.
        　　"But I will go first!" said the shadow. "And thou wilt go to prison!" and
        　　that he was obliged to do--for the sentinels obeyed him whom they knew the
        　　king's daughter was to marry.
        　　"You tremble!" said the princess, as the shadow came into her chamber. "Has
        　　anything happened? You must not be unwell this evening, now that we are to
        　　have our nuptials celebrated."
        　　"I have lived to see the most cruel thing that anyone can live to see!" said