60. 准备回家（讲解）

点击右上角订阅，不错过每周更新！免费原创内容不易，如果你喜欢我们的节目，欢迎在专辑评论留下五星好评，您的支持是更新的最大动力！

I had loosened the golden muffler that he always wore. I had moistened his temples, and had given him some water to drink. And now I did not dare ask him any more questions. He looked at me very gravely, and put his arms around my neck. I felt his heart beating like the heart of a dying bird, shot with someone's rifle . . .

"I am glad that you have found what was the matter with your engine," he said. "Now you can go back home--"

"How do you know about that?"

I was just coming to tell him that my work had been successful, beyond anything that I had dared to hope.

He made no answer to my question, but he added:

"I, too, am going back home today . . ."

Then, sadly--

"It is much farther . . . It is much more difficult . . ."

I realized clearly that something extraordinary was happening. I was holding him close in my arms as if he were a little child; and yet it seemed to me that he was rushing headlong toward an abyss from which I could do nothing to restrain him . . .

His look was very serious, like some one lost far away.

"I have your sheep. And I have the sheep's box. And I have the muzzle . . ."

And he gave me a sad smile.

I waited a long time. I could see that he was reviving little by little.

"Dear little man," I said to him, "you are afraid . . ."

He was afraid, there was no doubt about that. But he laughed lightly.

"I shall be much more afraid this evening . . ."

Once again I felt myself frozen by the sense of something irreparable. And I knew that I could not bear the thought of never hearing that laughter any more. For me, it was like a spring of fresh water in the desert.

语言点

- muffler：n. 围巾（旧） / 消音器
- muffle：v. 裹住，减弱
- moisten：v. 弄湿
- gravely：adv. 严重地，严肃地；例：John’s grandma is gravely ill. 小强的奶奶病得很重。
- rifle：n. 步枪 / v. 快速翻查；例：Thieves had broken in and rifled the house. 窃贼破门而入，把屋子翻了一遍。
- headlong：adv. 头朝前地，莽撞地；例：Don’t rush headlong into marriage. 不要草率结婚。
- abyss：n. 深渊
- restrain：v. 阻止，抑制；例：Restrain yourself! 你克制一下！
- revive：v. 康复，恢复；例：The flowers were revived by fresh water. 这些花浇了淡水以后就活过来了。
- irreparable：adj. 不可弥补的，无法挽回的；例：irreparable damage/harm 永久伤害