【译习】伏行之混沌 The Crawling Chaos

作者：H. P. Lovecraft & Winifred V. Jackson 译者：CaptainSnafu 未经允许，请勿转载 Of the pleasures and pains of opium much has been written. The ecstasies and horrors of De Quincey and the paradis artificiels of Baudelaire are preserved and interpreted with an art which makes them immortal, and the world knows well the beauty, the terror, and the mystery of those obscure realms into which the inspired dreamer is transported. But much as has been told, no man has yet dared intimate the nature of the phantasms thus unfolded to the mind, or hint at the direction of the unheard-of roads along whose ornate and exotic course the partaker of the drug is so irresistibly borne. De Quincey was drawn back into Asia, that teeming land of nebulous shadows whose hideous antiquity is so impressive that “the vast age of the race and name overpowers the sense of youth in the individual”, but farther than that he dared not go. Those who have gone farther seldom returned; and even when they have, they have been either silent or quite mad. I took opium but once—in the year of the plague, when doctors sought to deaden the agonies they could not cure. There was an overdose—my physician was worn out with horror and exertion—and I travelled very far indeed. In the end I returned and lived, but my nights are filled with strange memories, nor have I ever permitted a doctor to give me opium again. 关于鸦片带来的欢愉与痛苦已被描述甚多。德·昆西的狂喜和恐惧以及波德莱尔的人造天堂，都被演绎、留存为艺术，流芳百世，让世人知晓其美妙与恐怖，身临备受启示的造梦者所步入的晦涩国度，体会其中奥秘。但言至于今，仍未有人敢透露这些展露于心的幻象本质，也未有人敢暗示这些前所未闻的道路通向何处，但沿途之绚烂奇异，使药物的享食者都无法抗拒地甘于忍受。德·昆西被引向了亚洲，那片被朦胧阴影所笼罩的熙攘之地，其古老到可畏的历史令人印象深刻，如其所言：“种族和姓名所蕴含的悠古年岁压制着个体年轻的感官”。但那迷幻之境，他也未敢更深入探寻。更进一步者，得返甚少，即使归来，也都沉于静默，或奔向疯狂。我曾尝用过鸦片一次，也是仅有的一次，是在瘟疫时期，医生们试图减轻他们所无法治愈的极度痛苦之时。那是一次过量的给药，我的医师在恐惧和劳累之中精疲力竭，我也在那迷幻之旅中迈步甚远。最终我回到了现实并存活下来，但我的夜晚从此充满了陌异的记忆，而我也未再允许任何医生对我使用鸦片药剂。 The pain and pounding in my head had been quite unendurable when the drug was administered. Of the future I had no heed; to escape, whether by cure, unconsciousness, or death, was all that concerned me. I was partly delirious, so that it is hard to place the exact moment of transition, but I think the effect must have begun shortly before the pounding ceased to be painful. As I have said, there was an overdose; so my reactions were probably far from normal. The sensation of falling, curiously dissociated from the idea of gravity or direction, was paramount; though there was a subsidiary impression of unseen throngs in incalculable profusion, throngs of infinitely diverse nature, but all more or less related to me. Sometimes it seemed less as though I were falling, than as though the universe or the ages were falling past me. Suddenly my pain ceased, and I began to associate the pounding with an external rather than internal force. The falling had ceased also, giving place to a sensation of uneasy, temporary rest; and when I listened closely, I fancied the pounding was that of the vast, inscrutable sea as its sinister, colossal breakers lacerated some desolate shore after a storm of titanic magnitude. Then I opened my eyes. 在施用药物时，我头脑中的疼痛和重击轰响令人难以容忍。我不再关心未来，只想逃离这苦难，无论是治愈、昏迷，或是死亡，怎样都好。我已半步谵妄，难以记起这知觉转变的准确时刻，但我认为药效必定发挥得很快，在那些轰响不再带来痛苦之前就已开始。如前所述，这是一次过量的用药，我的不良反应大概远非寻常。那种坠落的感觉最为突出，似乎奇怪地脱离了重力和方向的概念。尽管还有一种次要的印象，我感受到无数未曾见识的事物，无限各异的本质，但全都多或少与我相关。有时候，与其说是我自身在坠落，不如说是整个宇宙或时光从我身边坠落。出乎意料地，我的疼痛戛然而止，我也开始将那轰响与外部而非内部的作用力联系起来。坠落也一并停息，让位于一种不安而短暂的静止。当我仔细聆听，想象着那重击声响源自浩瀚莫测的海洋，在一场翻天覆地的风暴席卷之后，险恶而壮阔的碎浪撕裂着荒芜的滨岸。然后，我便睁开了眼睛。 For a moment my surroundings seemed confused, like a projected image hopelessly out of focus, but gradually I realised my solitary presence in a strange and beautiful room lighted by many windows. Of the exact nature of the apartment I could form no idea, for my thoughts were still far from settled; but I noticed vari-coloured rugs and draperies, elaborately fashioned tables, chairs, ottomans, and divans, and delicate vases and ornaments which conveyed a suggestion of the exotic without being actually alien. These things I noticed, yet they were not long uppermost in my mind. Slowly but inexorably crawling upon my consciousness, and rising above every other impression, came a dizzying fear of the unknown; a fear all the greater because I could not analyse it, and seeming to concern a stealthily approaching menace—not death, but some nameless, unheard-of thing inexpressibly more ghastly and abhorrent. 有那么瞬间我的周遭似乎变得混乱，像是严重失焦的投映影像。但渐渐地，我察觉到自己独自地出现在了一个陌生而华美的房间，它被点缀着许多的窗户，令之通明。我无法辨清这个房间的确切用途，因为我的思绪还远未安稳下来。但我注意到那些多彩的地毯与帷帐、精致时髦的桌椅、脚垫和长沙发，还有精巧玲珑的花瓶和饰品，隐约地散发着异国情调却又不失相容。这些美轮美奂之物使我留意，但并未能长久地占据我的心灵。一种对未知的畏惧使我昏乱，它缓慢却无情地攀升在我的意识之上，凌驾于其它所有的感觉。这种恐惧因为我的无力解析而变得更加强烈，它似乎意味着一种正鬼祟临近的威胁——不是死亡，而是一些无可名状、前所未闻的、更加难以言喻地阴森恐怖且令人憎恶的存在。 Presently I realised that the direct symbol and excitant of my fear was the hideous pounding whose incessant reverberations throbbed maddeningly against my exhausted brain. It seemed to come from a point outside and below the edifice in which I stood, and to associate itself with the most terrifying mental images. I felt that some horrible scene or object lurked beyond the silk-hung walls, and shrank from glancing through the arched, latticed windows that opened so bewilderingly on every hand. Perceiving shutters attached to these windows, I closed them all, averting my eyes from the exterior as I did so. Then, employing a flint and steel which I found on one of the small tables, I lit the many candles reposing about the walls in Arabesque sconces. The added sense of security brought by closed shutters and artificial light calmed my nerves to some degree, but I could not shut out the monotonous pounding. Now that I was calmer, the sound became as fascinating as it was fearful, and I felt a contradictory desire to seek out its source despite my still powerful shrinking. Opening a portiere at the side of the room nearest the pounding, I beheld a small and richly draped corridor ending in a carven door and large oriel window. To this window I was irresistibly drawn, though my ill-defined apprehensions seemed almost equally bent on holding me back. As I approached it I could see a chaotic whirl of waters in the distance. Then, as I attained it and glanced out on all sides, the stupendous picture of my surroundings burst upon me with full and devastating force. 随即我便意识到，那可怕的砰击声就是我恐惧的直接象征及其激化剂，接连不断的多重混响疯狂地律动，抽打着我已枯竭的大脑。它似乎来自外部的的某个点，在我所伫立的庞然建筑之下，并与最骇人的心灵幻象联结在一起。我感觉有某些恐怖的场景或物件潜藏在吊挂着的丝绸的墙壁之外，畏缩地不敢向那些让人迷乱地在四面八方敞开的拱形格窗瞥去。在发现装配在窗户上的百叶帘后，我尽数将把它们拉下，同时避免目光越出窗外。随后，我使用在其中一个小桌上寻得的燧石和钢块，点亮了许多安置在墙上的阿拉伯纹饰烛台里的蜡烛。紧闭的百叶帘和人造的火光所增添的安全感在一定程度上抚慰了我的神经，但我依然无法阻断那阵单调重复的轰响。如今我更为镇静，那阵声响在令人畏惧的同时，竟也显得对等般地迷人。我感受到一种充满矛盾的渴望要去寻求它的来源，即使我也感到了更加强烈的畏缩。拔开一块挡住房间里最靠近声源那侧的门帘，我看见一条小巧而被堂皇艳丽的帷幕所铺盖的走廊，通往一道雕饰的门户与一扇大型的凸窗。无法抗拒地，我被引向这扇窗户，尽管也有一种模糊的忧虑和恐惧在同等尽力地阻拦着我。 在接近它时，我便看见了远处一个混乱的漩涡。然后，我到达了窗沿并向外环视各方，伴随着一种饱满而震撼的力量，周围壮观的景色在我的视野中迸开。 I beheld such a sight as I had never beheld before, and which no living person can have seen save in the delirium of fever or the inferno of opium. The building stood on a narrow point of land—or what was now a narrow point of land—fully 300 feet above what must lately have been a seething vortex of mad waters. On either side of the house there fell a newly washed-out precipice of red earth, whilst ahead of me the hideous waves were still rolling in frightfully, eating away the land with ghastly monotony and deliberation. Out a mile or more there rose and fell menacing breakers at least fifty feet in height, and on the far horizon ghoulish black clouds of grotesque contour were resting and brooding like unwholesome vultures. The waves were dark and purplish, almost black, and clutched at the yielding red mud of the bank as if with uncouth, greedy hands. I could not but feel that some noxious marine mind had declared a war of extermination upon all the solid ground, perhaps abetted by the angry sky. 我目睹了未曾见过的光景，除非是在热症的谵妄或在鸦片引发的炼狱幻象中，没有任何一个活人能见识到此般景象。这座建筑矗立于陆地的狭小一角——又或者说是仅存的一块狭小陆地上，陆岬在一片如今已是沸腾漩涡的湍流中陡然拔升至少三百英尺。在房屋的两侧是被新近地冲蚀而成的赤壤绝壁，骇人的波涛在我面前滚涌而来，以一种千篇一律又从容不迫的恐怖吞噬着土地。而在一英里或更远之外，澎湃的碎浪以起码五十英尺的潮差起伏奔腾，轮廓畸丑怪诞的乌云更像是不洁的秃鹫，令人毛骨悚然地在地平线上静候、徘徊。浪潮将近漆黑但略带紫色，像是伸出无数粗野并且贪婪的手，紧扼住滩岸上早已屈服的红土。我不禁地感到，仿佛有某种凶恶的海洋意志已向大地宣战，旨意抹除所有坚实的岩土，也许愤怒的天空也在助之为虐。 Recovering at length from the stupor into which this unnatural spectacle had thrown me, I realised that my actual physical danger was acute. Even whilst I gazed the bank had lost many feet, and it could not be long before the house would fall undermined into the awful pit of lashing waves. Accordingly I hastened to the opposite side of the edifice, and finding a door, emerged at once, locking it after me with a curious key which had hung inside. I now beheld more of the strange region about me, and marked a singular division which seemed to exist in the hostile ocean and firmament. On each side of the jutting promontory different conditions held sway. At my left as I faced inland was a gently heaving sea with great green waves rolling peacefully in under a brightly shining sun. Something about that sun’s nature and position made me shudder, but I could not then tell, and cannot tell now, what it was. At my right also was the sea, but it was blue, calm, and only gently undulating, while the sky above it was darker and the washed-out bank more nearly white than reddish. 从这非自然奇观所冲击而来的恍惚中恢复，我终于意识到自己的处境是多么危险和急迫。在我注视那早就流失严重的坡岸同时，房屋下塌并堕入怒涛汹涌的深坑的时刻也已迫在眉睫。因此我连忙冲往建筑的另一端，在霎那间找到一扇显现在眼前的门，随后用挂在门内侧的古怪钥匙将它紧锁在身后。此时我看到附近有一个更为陌生的地区，似乎是存在于充满敌意的海洋和天空中被分隔出的独特界域。与先前截然不同的景色，在隆起的岬角两侧分庭抗礼。当我面对着内陆时，在我左侧的是一汪和缓渐进的起伏之海，热情的碧浪在明亮的太阳下绵延翻滚。那个太阳有着某种令我不寒而栗的特质，可我道不出个所以然，彼时不可，此刻亦不能。在我的右侧也是海洋，但它显得蔚蓝、冷静，只有平稳的波动。同时它上方的天空更为阴暗，而被冲蚀的海岸将近发白，只略存微红。 I now turned my attention to the land, and found occasion for fresh surprise; for the vegetation resembled nothing I had ever seen or read about. It was apparently tropical or at least sub-tropical—a conclusion borne out by the intense heat of the air. Sometimes I thought I could trace strange analogies with the flora of my native land, fancying that the well-known plants and shrubs might assume such forms under a radical change of climate; but the gigantic and omnipresent palm trees were plainly foreign. The house I had just left was very small—hardly more than a cottage—but its material was evidently marble, and its architecture was weird and composite, involving a quaint fusion of Western and Eastern forms. At the corners were Corinthian columns, but the red tile roof was like that of a Chinese pagoda. From the door inland there stretched a path of singularly white sand, about four feet wide, and lined on either side with stately palms and unidentifiable flowering shrubs and plants. It lay toward the side of the promontory where the sea was blue and the bank rather whitish. Down this path I felt impelled to flee, as if pursued by some malignant spirit from the pounding ocean. At first it was slightly uphill, then I reached a gentle crest. Behind me I saw the scene I had left; the entire point with the cottage and the black water, with the green sea on one side and the blue sea on the other, and a curse unnamed and unnamable lowering over all. I never saw it again, and often wonder. . . . After this last look I strode ahead and surveyed the inland panorama before me. 我将注意力转向陆地，并发现了新的惊奇。这里的一些植被与我见闻过的任何植物均不吻合，但从空气的灼热可以推断它们是热带或亚热带植物。有时候我觉得能探查出一些不同寻常的相似之处，将它们与故乡的本土植物群做出奇特的类比，假想着某些众所周知的花草和灌木可能会在气候的极端转变下异化成此般形态。但那些巨大的、无处不在的棕榈树则显然源自外乡。我方才离开的房屋其实很小，只能勉强与乡舍相比，但它的材质却是实打实的大理石，构筑风格奇异而复合，蕴含着东西方样式的奇趣交融。支撑在房屋角落的是科林斯式圆柱，但红瓦屋顶就像中国的佛塔。一条宽约四英尺的小径从门外向内陆延展，通往岬角有着湛蓝海面和发白滩岸的那边。这条道路由洁白异常的沙石铺就，两边排列着庄严的棕榈树，还有无法明辨的开花植丛与灌木。我有一种冲动想要沿着小径逃离这里，仿佛被来自那发出轰响的海洋的恶毒精魂所追赶着一般。最初，它一路上沿，到达一个平缓的坡顶，能看到我留在身后的整片风景。我看见了那间屋舍和黑暗的激流，看见蔚蓝和碧绿的海洋各据一方，以及一种无名且无可名的诅咒阴沉着覆盖一切。我未再见过它，并时常想起它…… 在这最后一瞥之后，我阔步前行，去探查眼前的内陆全貌。 The path, as I have intimated, ran along the right-hand shore as one went inland. Ahead and to the left I now viewed a magnificent valley comprising thousands of acres, and covered with a swaying growth of tropical grass higher than my head. Almost at the limit of vision was a colossal palm tree which seemed to fascinate and beckon me. By this time wonder and escape from the imperilled peninsula had largely dissipated my fear, but as I paused and sank fatigued to the path, idly digging with my hands into the warm, whitish-golden sand, a new and acute sense of danger seized me. Some terror in the swishing tall grass seemed added to that of the diabolically pounding sea, and I started up crying aloud and disjointedly, “Tiger? Tiger? Is it Tiger? Beast? Beast? Is it a Beast that I am afraid of?” My mind wandered back to an ancient and classical story of tigers which I had read; I strove to recall the author, but had difficulty. Then in the midst of my fear I remembered that the tale was by Rudyard Kipling; nor did the grotesqueness of deeming him an ancient author occur to me. I wished for the volume containing this story, and had almost started back toward the doomed cottage to procure it when my better sense and the lure of the palm prevented me. 如我所言，这条小路沿着右岸向内陆延伸。在我前方和左侧我看见一座数千英亩的宏伟山谷，能没过我头部的热带草丛漫山遍野地随风摇曳。在视野的将尽之处，一颗巨大的棕榈树令我神迷，仿佛在召唤着我。这一次，我的好奇心作祟，加上自己已逃离了那危险的半岛，这些都显著地驱散了我的畏惧。但当我深陷疲惫地停下脚步，躺在路上，闲散地将手掌插入那温暖且白得发亮的沙砾的时候，一种全新而急迫的危险感攫住了我。在那发出嗖嗖声的高大草丛中， 某种恐怖似乎与海洋的轰击声叠加、共鸣，我开始结结巴巴地大声呼喊，“老...老虎？是老虎吗？野兽？是野兽吗？是野兽在令我畏惧吗”。我的内心回溯起读过的一篇关于老虎的古代经典故事，努力地想要记起它的作者，但并不容易。在恐惧之中，我终于想起是鲁德亚德·吉卜林，也因为恐惧，我没有察觉到将他认成是古代作者是多么的荒谬可笑。我希冀得到一本包含这个故事的书册，几乎要启程回到那劫数难逃的屋舍中寻得它，与此同时，我更清醒的理智以及那颗棕榈树对我的吸引阻止了我。 Whether or not I could have resisted the backward beckoning without the counter-fascination of the vast palm tree, I do not know. This attraction was now dominant, and I left the path and crawled on hands and knees down the valley’s slope despite my fear of the grass and of the serpents it might contain. I resolved to fight for life and reason as long as possible against all menaces of sea or land, though I sometimes feared defeat as the maddening swish of the uncanny grasses joined the still audible and irritating pounding of the distant breakers. I would frequently pause and put my hands to my ears for relief, but could never quite shut out the detestable sound. It was, as it seemed to me, only after ages that I finally dragged myself to the beckoning palm tree and lay quiet beneath its protecting shade. 我不知道如果没有那颗巨大的棕榈树所给予的反制力，我是否能抗拒住那股想要返回的诱惑。它的引力在当前占据了上风，使我偏离小径，无视了草丛中的恐怖以及可能有蛇藏匿其中的忧虑，手脚并用地爬下峡谷的山坡。我下定决心要为生存和理智而战，只要还有能对抗海洋或大陆所有威胁的可能，尽管间或我也会害怕失败，在那些不知名的草植发出令人发狂的嗖嗖声，加入远处海浪传来扰人心神的砰响之时。我得频繁地停下，用双手捂盖耳朵以求缓解，但未曾阻绝这可憎的噪音。对我而言，似乎是在很久很久之后，我才终于拖着自己的身躯到达那颗召唤着我的棕榈树，恬静地躺在了它的庇荫之下。 There now ensued a series of incidents which transported me to the opposite extremes of ecstasy and horror; incidents which I tremble to recall and dare not seek to interpret. No sooner had I crawled beneath the overhanging foliage of the palm, than there dropped from its branches a young child of such beauty as I never beheld before. Though ragged and dusty, this being bore the features of a faun or demigod, and seemed almost to diffuse a radiance in the dense shadow of the tree. It smiled and extended its hand, but before I could arise and speak I heard in the upper air the exquisite melody of singing; notes high and low blent with a sublime and ethereal harmoniousness. The sun had by this time sunk below the horizon, and in the twilight I saw that an aureola of lambent light encircled the child’s head. Then in a tone of silver it addressed me: “It is the end. They have come down through the gloaming from the stars. Now all is over, and beyond the Arinurian streams we shall dwell blissfully in Teloe.”As the child spoke, I beheld a soft radiance through the leaves of the palm tree, and rising greeted a pair whom I knew to be the chief singers among those I had heard. A god and goddess they must have been, for such beauty is not mortal; and they took my hands, saying, “Come, child, you have heard the voices, and all is well. In Teloe beyond the Milky Way and the Arinurian streams are cities all of amber and chalcedony. And upon their domes of many facets glisten the images of strange and beautiful stars. Under the ivory bridges of Teloe flow rivers of liquid gold bearing pleasure-barges bound for blossomy Cytharion of the Seven Suns. And in Teloe and Cytharion abide only youth, beauty, and pleasure, nor are any sounds heard, save of laughter, song, and the lute. Only the gods dwell in Teloe of the golden rivers, but among them shalt thou dwell.” 这一连串继而发生的事故将我同时送达了狂喜与恐惧两个截然相反的极端，我光是回忆就会战栗，更遑论寻求解释。我刚一爬到棕榈树垂吊着的枝叶底下，一个空前秀丽的幼童就从树枝上掉落下来。尽管衣衫褴褛、遍身尘土，这个生物负有着牧神（Faun）或半神的特征，并似乎在稠密的树影下弥散着光茫。祂微笑着伸出一只手，但在我起身和说话之前，我听见了在高空中传来歌唱的精美旋律，高低起伏的音符以一种崇高而缥缈的和谐相互交织。这时的太阳已没入地平线，在暮光中我看到幽亮的光轮环绕在那孩童的头上。随后祂用银铃般的声音向我开口：“这便是终结。它们已穿过夕幕，自星辰降临。如今一切将尽，我们将越过艾因努尔之溪（Arinurian streams），幸福地栖居提洛（Teloe）神土。”在孩童说话之际，我透过棕榈树的叶子看到了柔和的光芒，其中有一对男女向我招手。我知道祂们便是所闻之颂乐的领唱，我也知道祂们必是一对神明，因祂们的美丽绝非凡间所有。祂们牵着我的手，说道：“来吧，孩子，你已聆听圣音，一切皆好。在银河与艾因努尔溪之外的提洛，全由琥珀和玛瑙筑造的城市林立。而在这些多棱宫殿的穹顶之上，闪耀着奇美星辰的壮景。提洛的象牙桥下，流淌着液体黄金的河流承载游船航向繁花盛开的七阳之地塞塔瑞昂（Cytharion）。在提洛和塞塔瑞昂，只有青春、美丽和快乐始终不渝，除了笑声、歌声和诗琴声，再也听不到其他噪响。只有神明居住在金河国度提洛，而你将栖身于众神之中。” As I listened, enchanted, I suddenly became aware of a change in my surroundings. The palm tree, so lately overshadowing my exhausted form, was now some distance to my left and considerably below me. I was obviously floating in the atmosphere; companioned not only by the strange child and the radiant pair, but by a constantly increasing throng of half-luminous, vine-crowned youths and maidens with wind-blown hair and joyful countenance. We slowly ascended together, as if borne on a fragrant breeze which blew not from the earth but from the golden nebulae, and the child whispered in my ear that I must look always upward to the pathways of light, and never backward to the sphere I had just left. The youths and maidens now chaunted mellifluous choriambics to the accompaniment of lutes, and I felt enveloped in a peace and happiness more profound than any I had in life imagined, when the intrusion of a single sound altered my destiny and shattered my soul. Through the ravishing strains of the singers and the lutanists, as if in mocking, daemoniac concord, throbbed from gulfs below the damnable, the detestable pounding of that hideous ocean. And as those black breakers beat their message into my ears I forgot the words of the child and looked back, down upon the doomed scene from which I thought I had escaped. 当我陶醉的倾听着，我突然察觉到身边环境的一些改变。那颗不久前在我精疲力竭的躯体蒙上阴影的棕榈树，现在就位于我左手边的一段距离外，而且还在我下方的甚远处。我显然是正漂浮在了空中，陪同着我的除了那奇异的孩童和荣光四射的男女，还有一群不断增加着的少男少女，祂们身披微光，头戴藤冠，喜颜悦色，发丝随风飘扬。我们一起缓慢地上升着，就如乘着一阵吹自金色星云而非地球的芬芳微风。那名孩童在我耳边轻语，说我必须一直朝上凝望光明之路，绝不可回头看向我们所离开的星球。此时，少男少女们在琵琶的伴奏下吟唱着婉转流畅的咏叹调，我感觉被缭绕在一片远超于我生平所拥有或幻想过的宁静和幸福之中。亦是此刻，一个改变我命运、撕碎我灵魂的声音却骤然侵闯。它贯穿了歌者与琵琶手们引人入胜的旋律，混合着如同嘲笑的恶魔协奏，在那受诅咒般嫌恶的海洋的可憎砰响之下，自深渊中律动。这些黑暗的浪潮将指示拍入我的脑海，令我遗忘那圣童的言语并向后回望，俯瞰着我认为自己已经逃离的劫难之地。 Down through the aether I saw the accursed earth turning, ever turning, with angry and tempestuous seas gnawing at wild desolate shores and dashing foam against the tottering towers of deserted cities. And under a ghastly moon there gleamed sights I can never describe, sights I can never forget; deserts of corpse-like clay and jungles of ruin and decadence where once stretched the populous plains and villages of my native land, and maelstroms of frothing ocean where once rose the mighty temples of my forefathers. Around the northern pole steamed a morass of noisome growths and miasmal vapours, hissing before the onslaught of the ever-mounting waves that curled and fretted from the shuddering deep. Then a rending report clave the night, and athwart the desert of deserts appeared a smoking rift. Still the black ocean foamed and gnawed, eating away the desert on either side as the rift in the centre widened and widened. 透过以太，我看到被诅咒的地球在转动，不停地转动，愤怒而狂暴的大海啃噬着荒凉的海岸，将泡沫冲向废弃城市的颤巍高塔。在惨白的月亮下，隐约闪现着我永远无法描述与忘怀的景象：陶土残骸铺就的沙漠，残垣断壁构成的丛林，还有那片倾颓之地，曾遍布着人烟稠密的平原和属于我故乡的村庄，而那翻腾着白沫的海洋漩涡里，则曾经耸立着我祖先们的宏伟庙宇。污秽赘生的恶臭泥淖环绕在北极周围蒸腾着瘴气，在从震颤着的海底深渊曲卷而来、愈涌愈烈的波涛奔袭面前发出嘶嘶悲鸣。随后，一声撕裂的巨响划破夜幕，沙漠中敞开一道横跨其浩瀚荒芜的生烟地堑。黑色的海洋仍在咆哮着，啃噬着，在沙漠中心的裂缝不断扩大的同时，也在将其两边蚕食殆尽。 There was now no land left but the desert, and still the fuming ocean ate and ate. All at once I thought even the pounding sea seemed afraid of something, afraid of dark gods of the inner earth that are greater than the evil god of waters, but even if it was it could not turn back; and the desert had suffered too much from those nightmare waves to help them now. So the ocean ate the last of the land and poured into the smoking gulf, thereby giving up all it had ever conquered. From the new-flooded lands it flowed again, uncovering death and decay; and from its ancient and immemorial bed it trickled loathsomely, uncovering nighted secrets of the years when Time was young and the gods unborn. Above the waves rose weedy, remembered spires. The moon laid pale lilies of light on dead London, and Paris stood up from its damp grave to be sanctified with star-dust. Then rose spires and monoliths that were weedy but not remembered; terrible spires and monoliths of lands that men never knew were lands. 现在，除却荒漠，陆地已经荡然无存，而愤怒的海洋仍在侵食着。倏然间，我想到就连轰响着的海洋也似乎在畏惧着什么，惧怕着深藏于地球内部的黑暗诸神——祂们比司掌水体的邪神更为强大，但即使如此，它也无法回头。而沙漠已在梦魇般的巨浪中遭受了太多磨难，无法再助祂们力挽狂澜。于是，海洋吞噬了最后的一点陆地，并将海水灌注进那滚滚生烟的裂隙之中，从而缴出它所曾征服过的一切。洪水再次从被新近淹没的大陆上流逝，展露出死亡和衰败。而那亘古得无从追溯的岩床中可恨的涓涓细流，揭示出自时光初现而神明尚未诞生之际便埋藏于黑夜的秘密。在波涛之上，升起了杂草丛生但曾被记起的尖塔。月亮用光影在死寂的伦敦上挥洒下苍白的百合，巴黎的幽魂在它潮湿的坟墓上站起以接受星尘的圣祝。然后，升起的是一些同为杂草丛生却从未被记起的尖塔与独石碑，而这些骇人之物则纪念着那些从未被人类知晓为陆地的陆地。 There was not any pounding now, but only the unearthly roaring and hissing of waters tumbling into the rift. The smoke of that rift had changed to steam, and almost hid the world as it grew denser and denser. It seared my face and hands, and when I looked to see how it affected my companions I found they had all disappeared. Then very suddenly it ended, and I knew no more till I awaked upon a bed of convalescence. As the cloud of steam from the Plutonic gulf finally concealed the entire surface from my sight, all the firmament shrieked at a sudden agony of mad reverberations which shook the trembling aether. In one delirious flash and burst it happened; one blinding, deafening holocaust of fire, smoke, and thunder that dissolved the wan moon as it sped outward to the void. 所有轰响业已停歇，只剩下流水滚落裂缝时发出的吊诡可畏的咆哮和嘶鸣。裂隙的烟雾已转变为蒸汽，愈发稠密，几乎能遮蔽世界。蒸汽灼伤了我的脸和双手，而当我想看看它对我的同伴们会有何影响时，却发现祂们都已消失不见。遽然间，幻象走向终结，直至我从康复床上醒来，我对后事都一无所知。那冥狱深渊喷薄出的蒸腾汽雾终于把整个地表从我视野中隐去，而苍穹迫发出突如其来的痛苦尖啸，癫狂的回响冲击着震颤的太虚。在狂乱中的一刹间，烈焰、浓烟和雷霆构成了一场眩目刺眼、震耳欲聋的浩劫，而苍白的月球在溶解中飞速地没入虚无。 And when the smoke cleared away, and I sought to look upon the earth, I beheld against the background of cold, humorous stars only the dying sun and the pale mournful planets searching for their sister. 当烟雾散去，我试图俯瞰大地，却看见在冷笑着的繁星背景之下，只有垂死的太阳与苍白悲恸的行星在寻找它们的姐妹。