I observed in the herbage（草，草本） a number of weatherworn（风雨侵蚀的） stones, evidently shaped with tools. They were broken, covered with moss¹（苔藓） and half sunken in the earth. Some lay prostrate²（俯卧的） , some leaned at various angles, none was vertical³. They were obviously headstones of graves, though the graves themselves no longer existed as either mounds⁴ or Depressions; the years had levelled all. Scattered⁵ here and there, more massive blocks showed where some pompous⁶（自大的） tomb or ambitious monument had once flung its feeble defiance⁷ at oblivion. So old seemed these relics⁸, these vestiges⁹ of vanity and memorials of affection and piety¹⁰, so battered¹¹ and worn and stained -- so neglected, deserted¹², forgotten the place, that I could not help thinking myself the discoverer of the burial-ground of a prehistoric¹³ race of men whose very name was long extinct.

Filled with these reflections, I was for some time heedless of the sequence of my own experiences, but soon I thought, 'How came I hither?' A moment's reflection seemed to make this all clear and explain at the same time, though in a disquieting¹⁴（令人不安的） way, the singular character with which my fancy had invested all that I saw or heard. I was ill. I remembered now that I had been prostrated¹⁵ by a sudden fever, and that my family had told me that in my periods of delirium¹⁶（精神错乱，发狂） I had constantly cried out for liberty and air, and had been held in bed to prevent my escape out-of-doors. Now I had eluded¹⁷ the vigilance of my attendants and had wandered hither to -- to where? I could not conjecture¹⁸（推测，猜想） . Clearly I was at a considerable distance from the city where I dwelt -- the ancient and famous city of Carcosa. 

No signs of human life were anywhere visible nor audible; no rising smoke, no watch-dog's bark, no lowing of cattle, no shouts of children at play-nothing but that dismal¹⁹ burial-place, with its air of mystery and dread²⁰, due to my own disordered brain. Was I not becoming again delirious²¹, there beyond human aid? Was it not indeed all an illusion of my madness? I called aloud the names of my wives and sons, reached out my hands in search of theirs, even as I walked among the crumbling²² stones and in the withered²³ grass.

A noise behind me caused me to turn about. A wild animal -- a lynx -- was approaching. The thought came to me: if I break down here in the desert -- if the fever return and I fail, this beast will be at my throat. I sprang toward it, shouting. It trotted²⁴ tranquilly²⁵ by within a hand's-breadth of me and disappeared behind a rock.