The book-bag(Maugham)(2)

And like the dope-fiend who cannot move from place to place without taking with him a plentiful supply of his deadly balm I never venture far without a sufficiency of reading matter. Books are so necessary to me that when in a railway train I have become aware that fellow-travellers have come away without a single one I have been seized with a veritable dismay. But when I am starting on a long journey the problem is formidable. I have learnt my lesson. Once, imprisoned by illness for three months in a hill-town in Java, I came to the end of all the books I had brought with me, and knowing no Dutch was obliged to buy the schoolbooks from which intelligent Javanese, I suppose, acquired knowledge of French and German. So I read again after five-and-twenty years the frigid plays of Goethe, the fables of La Fontaine, and the tragedies of the tender and exact Racine. I have the greatest admiration for Racine, but I admit that to read his plays one after the other requires a certain effort in a person who is suffering from colitis. Since then I have made a point of travelling with the largest sack made for carrying soiled linen and filling it to the brim with books to suit every possible occasion and every mood. It weighs a ton and strong porters reel under its weight. Custom-house officials look at it askance, but recoil from it with consternation when I give them my word that it contains nothing but books. Its inconvenience is that the particular work I suddenly hanker to read is always at the bottom and it is impossible for me to get it without emptying the book-bag’s entire contents upon the floor. Except for this, however, I should perhaps never have heard the singular history of Olive Hardy.

1. dope-fiend 瘾君子

2. balm 安慰 

3. come away 离开

4. be seized with 被影响

5. veritable dismay 彻底绝望

6. learn my lesson 吸取教训

7. frigid 冰冷

8. fable 寓言

9. colitis 结肠炎

10. make a point of 重视

11. soiled linen 脏亚麻布

12. porter 搬运工

13. reel 踉跄

14. custom-house 海关

15. askance 斜视

16. recoil 畏缩

17. consternation 惊愕

18. my word 我的保证

19. hanker 渴望

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