A moment later a man's head appeared to rise out of the ground a short distance away. He was ascending¹ the farther slope of a low hill whose crest² was hardly to be distinguished³ from the general level. His whole figure soon came into view against the background of grey cloud. He was half naked, half clad（穿着） in skins. His hair was unkempt（蓬乱的） , his beard long and ragged⁴. In one hand he carried a bow and arrow; the other held a blazing torch with a long trail of black smoke. He walked slowly and with caution, as if he feared falling into some open grave concealed⁶ by the tall grass. This strange apparition⁷（幽灵，幻影） surprised but did not alarm, and taking such a course as to intercept⁸ him I met him almost face to face, accosting⁹ him with the familiar salutation,
'God keep you.'

He gave no heed¹⁰, nor did he arrest his pace.

'Good stranger,' I continued, 'I am ill and lost. Direct me, I beseech¹¹（恳求） you, to Carcosa.'

The man broke into a barbarous（野蛮的） chant in an unknown tongue, passing on and away.

An owl⁵ on the branch of a decayed tree hooted¹² dismally¹³ and was answered by another in the distance. Looking upward, I saw through a sudden rift¹⁴ in the clouds Aldebaran and the Hyades! In all this there was a hint of night -- the lynx, the man with the torch, the owl. Yet I saw -- I saw even the stars in absence of the darkness. I saw, but was apparently¹⁵ not seen nor heard. Under what awful spell did I exist?

I seated myself at the root of a great tree, seriously to consider what it were best to do. That I was mad I could no longer doubt, yet recognized a ground of doubt in the conviction. Of fever I had no trace. I had, withal, a sense of exhilaration and vigour¹⁶ altogether unknown to me -- a feeling of mental and physical exaltation. My senses seemed all alert; I could feel the air as a ponderous¹⁷（笨重的） substance; I could hear the silence.

A great root of the giant tree against whose trunk I leaned as I sat held enclosed in its grasp a slab¹⁸ of stone, a part of which protruded¹⁹ into a recess²⁰ formed by another root. The stone was thus partly protected from the weather, though greatly decomposed²¹（已腐烂的） . Its edges were worn round, its corners eaten away, its surface deeply furrowed²² and scaled. Glittering particles of mica²³ were visible in the earth about it-vestiges（痕迹） of its decomposition²⁴. This stone had apparently marked the grave out of which the tree had sprung ages ago. The tree's exacting²⁵ roots had robbed the grave and made the stone a prisoner.