The Name of the Island Was Marriage

时间：2015-03-31 06:01:18

（单词翻译:单击）

The Name of the Island Was Marriage
Bruce Beasley
 
 
I
 The name of the island was Island and the name of the Friday 
 was Good. Sunflower roots lay smoked on a bed of moss 
over sea-flattened stones and sealed in a cedar1 box, like a tiny 
 coffin on the china: the unpent 
 
smoke outpuffed its alderwood burn on our cheeks. 
 The constituents2 of a thirty-year marriage 
 
lay before us, like a mis-en-place: 
 ingredients of pleasure, local 
 
and strange. We assembled them as if we had never 
 used them before, like the raw 
 
deer hearts strewn with wildflowers, pearls 
 of herring roe3 scooped4 up on branches of hemlock5. 
 Stinging nettles6, sweet, long-roasted: where, 
 where now was their sting? 
II
 To name an island for the very idea 
of an island: its insularity7, its 
nonnegotiable unfluidity. 
 All pent in by what it is not -- 
 
the restless aqueous -- so its name 
 insisted it was what it was. 
 
The name of the marriage had come to be Angry Teen. 
 The name of the marriage had come to be Did We Fuck Up. 
 
Skunk8 cabbage burst all over from the roadside murk, 
 more xanthic than sunflowers or than noon sun, more 
 
skunk-scent-insistent than skunks9. The decedents 
 of the earliest settlers, said the brochure's typo, still live on the island today. 
 So the dead walk here, all 
 pent in by what they are not. 
III
 The island was Island Island. The god 
 was I AM WHO I AM. As 
in the beginning He made each thing, it seemed 
 to startle Him to realize 
 
it was good, as if good 
 were something else He gave birth by merely 
 
having it in His mind. 
 Glimmers of saltwater poured off the clay and marl 
 
and dry was born. Island lay isolate10, not-wet 
 in the wet. Is land was born. 
 
We smoothed and refrosted the marred 
 crust of what we'd made, and 
 the idea of marriage was reborn, the idea 
 of marring unborn. 
IV
 The chef came to our room to fix the unstoppable furnace. 
 He smelled of sorrel and roasted oysters11 and sage12 as he knelt 
to fiddle13 with the gas-blast. Dolce far niente painted on the wall. 
 The sweet accomplishment14 of nothing. 
 
Only when God began to do, after untimeable stasis, 
 did He find out how good 
 
His pouring-apart of opposites -- sunrip and earth, up-
 tick of skunk cabbage and its stench, and 
 
sunflower root and the dark box it huddled15 in -- might be. 
 Let us divide decedents 
 
from descendent16, motherfather from son. Somewhere, even here, a furious 
 angel struggles in air to aim his chalice 
 
exactly to catch each blood-spurt off the cross. 
 It must be saved. In three days the decedent will live 
 
again and want back His blood. The island's name 
 in some no-longer translatable tongue was said 
 
to be Island, as if island 
 were all that an island could be. The name of the marriage, as if 
 
we made it, by calling it, so 
 was said -- behold17, it startles us still -- to be good.

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1 cedar 3rYz9     
n.雪松，香柏(木)
参考例句：
  • The cedar was about five feet high and very shapely.那棵雪松约有五尺高,风姿优美。
  • She struck the snow from the branches of an old cedar with gray lichen.她把长有灰色地衣的老雪松树枝上的雪打了下来。
2 constituents 63f0b2072b2db2b8525e6eff0c90b33b     
n.选民( constituent的名词复数 )；成分；构成部分；要素
参考例句：
  • She has the full support of her constituents. 她得到本区选民的全力支持。
  • Hydrogen and oxygen are the constituents of water. 氢和氧是水的主要成分。 来自《简明英汉词典》
3 roe LCBzp     
n.鱼卵；獐鹿
参考例句：
  • We will serve smoked cod's roe at the dinner.宴会上我们将上一道熏鳕鱼子。
  • I'll scramble some eggs with roe?我用鱼籽炒几个鸡蛋好吗？
4 scooped a4cb36a9a46ab2830b09e95772d85c96     
v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）
参考例句：
  • They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 hemlock n51y6     
n.毒胡萝卜，铁杉
参考例句：
  • He was condemned to drink a cup of hemlock.判处他喝一杯毒汁。
  • Here is a beech by the side of a hemlock,with three pines at hand.这儿有株山毛榉和一株铁杉长在一起，旁边还有三株松树。
6 nettles 820f41b2406934cd03676362b597a2fe     
n.荨麻( nettle的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • I tingle where I sat in the nettles. 我坐过在荨麻上的那个部位觉得刺痛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • This bleak place overgrown with nettles was the churchyard. 那蔓草丛生的凄凉地方是教堂公墓。 来自辞典例句
7 insularity insularity     
n.心胸狭窄；孤立；偏狭；岛国根性
参考例句：
  • But at least they have started to break out of their old insularity.但是他们至少已经开始打破过去孤立保守的心态。
  • It was a typical case of British chauvinism and insularity.这是典型的英国沙文主义和偏狭心理的事例。
8 skunk xERzE     
n.臭鼬，黄鼠狼；v.使惨败，使得零分；烂醉如泥
参考例句：
  • That was a rotten thing to do, you skunk!那种事做得太缺德了，你这卑鄙的家伙！
  • The skunk gives off an unpleasant smell when attacked.受到攻击时臭鼬会发出一种难闻的气味。
9 skunks 0828a7f0a6238cd46b9be5116e60b73e     
n.臭鼬( skunk的名词复数 )；臭鼬毛皮；卑鄙的人；可恶的人
参考例句：
  • Slim swans and slender skunks swim in the slippery slime. 苗条的天鹅和纤细的臭鼬在滑滑的黏泥上游泳。 来自互联网
  • But not all baby skunks are so lucky. -We're coming down. 但不是所有的臭鼬宝宝都会如此幸运。-我们正在下来。 来自互联网
10 isolate G3Exu     
vt.使孤立，隔离
参考例句：
  • Do not isolate yourself from others.不要把自己孤立起来。
  • We should never isolate ourselves from the masses.我们永远不能脱离群众。
11 oysters 713202a391facaf27aab568d95bdc68f     
牡蛎( oyster的名词复数 )
参考例句：
  • We don't have oysters tonight, but the crayfish are very good. 我们今晚没有牡蛎供应。但小龙虾是非常好。
  • She carried a piping hot grill of oysters and bacon. 她端出一盘滚烫的烤牡蛎和咸肉。
12 sage sCUz2     
n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的
参考例句：
  • I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
  • The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。
13 fiddle GgYzm     
n.小提琴；vi.拉提琴；不停拨弄，乱动
参考例句：
  • She plays the fiddle well.她小提琴拉得好。
  • Don't fiddle with the typewriter.不要摆弄那架打字机了。
14 accomplishment 2Jkyo     
n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能
参考例句：
  • The series of paintings is quite an accomplishment.这一系列的绘画真是了不起的成就。
  • Money will be crucial to the accomplishment of our objectives.要实现我们的目标，钱是至关重要的。
15 huddled 39b87f9ca342d61fe478b5034beb4139     
挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）
参考例句：
  • We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
  • We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。
16 descendent 3e94db0a0fb75a9fd13998b137e375e7     
adj. 下降的, 降落的, 世袭的 n. 后代，子孙 =descendant
参考例句：
  • With no direct descendent, who will succeed to the title? 没有直系后裔，谁来继承爵位呢？
  • He is a descendent of Queen Victoria. 他是维多利亚女王的后代。
17 behold jQKy9     
v.看，注视，看到
参考例句：
  • The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
  • The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

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