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egypt-第20部分

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side。



In a line with the Winter Palace a number of stalls follow one

another。 All those things with which our tourists are wont to array

themselves are on sale there: fans; fly flaps; helmets and blue

spectacles。 And; in thousands; photographs of the ruins。 And there too

are the toys; the souvenirs of the Soudan: old negro knives; panther…

skins and gazelle horns。 Numbers of Indians even are come to this

improvised fair; bringing their stuffs from Rajputana and Cashmere。

And; above all; there are dealers in mummies; offering for sale

mysteriously shaped coffins; mummy…cloths; dead hands; gods; scarabaei

and the thousand and one things that this old soil has yielded for

centuries like an inexhaustible mine。



Along the stalls; keeping in the shade of the houses and the scattered

palms; pass representatives of the plutocracy of the world。 Dressed by

the same costumiers; bedecked in the same plumes; and with faces

reddened by the same sun; the millionaire daughters of Chicago

merchants elbow their sisters of the old nobility。 Pressing amongst

them impudent young Bedouins pester the fair travellers to mount their

saddled donkeys。 And as if they were charged to add to this babel a

note of beauty; the battalions of Mr。 Cook; of both sexes; and always

in a hurry; pass by with long strides。



Beyond the shops; following the line of the quay; there are other

hotels。 Less aggressive; all of them; than the Winter Palace; they

have had the discretion not to raise themselves too high; and to cover

their fronts with white chalk in the Arab fashion; even to conceal

themselves in clusters of palm…trees。



And finally there is the colossal temple of Luxor; looking as out of

place now as the poor obelisk which Egypt gave us as a present; and

which stands to…day in the Place de la Concorde。



Bordering the Nile; it is a colossal grove of stone; about three

hundred yards in length。 In epochs of a magnificence that is now

scarcely conceivable this forest of columns grew high and thick;

rising impetuously at the bidding of Amenophis and the great Ramses。

And how beautiful it must have been even yesterday; dominating in its

superb disarray this surrounding country; vowed for centuries to

neglect and silence!



But to…day; with all these things that men have built around it; you

might say that it no longer exists。



We reach an iron…barred gate and; to enter; have to show our permit to

the guards。 Once inside the immense sanctuary; perhaps we shall find

solitude again。 But; alas; under the profaned columns a crowd of

people passes; with /Baedekers/ in their hands; the same people that

one sees here everywhere; the same world as frequents Nice and the

Riviera。 And; to crown the mockery; the noise of the dynamos pursues

us even here; for the boats of Messrs。 Cook are moored to the bank

close by。



Hundreds of columns; columns which are anterior by many centuries to

those of Greece; and represent; in their na?ve enormity; the first

conceptions of the human brain。 Some are fluted and give the

impression of sheaves of monstrous weeds; others; quite plain and

simple; imitate the stem of the papyrus; and bear by way of capital

its strange flower。 The tourists; like the flies; enter at certain

times of the day; which it suffices to know。 Soon the little bells of

the hotels will call them away and the hour of midday will find me

here alone。 But what in heaven's name will deliver me from the noise

of the dynamos? But look! beyond there; at the bottom of the

sanctuaries; in the part which should be the holy of holies; that

great fresco; now half effaced; but still clearly visible on the wall

how unexpected and arresting it is! An image of Christ! Christ

crowned with the Byzantine aureole。 It has been painted on a coarse

plaster; which seems to have been added by an unskilful hand; and is

wearing off and exposing the hieroglyphs beneath。 。 。 。 This temple;

in fact; almost indestructible by reason of its massiveness; has

passed through the hands of diverse masters。 Its antiquity was already

legendary in the time of Alexander the Great; on whose behalf a chapel

was added to it; and later on; in the first ages of Christianity; a

corner of the ruins was turned into a cathedral。 The tourists begin to

depart; for the lunch bell calls them to the neighbouring /tables

d'hote/; and while I wait till they shall be gone; I occupy myself in

following the bas…reliefs which are displayed for a length of more

than a hundred yards along the base of the walls。 It is one long row

of people moving in their thousands all in the same directionthe

ritual procession of the God Amen。 With the care which characterised

the Egyptians to draw everything from life so as to render it eternal;

there are represented here the smallest details of a day of festival

three or four thousand years ago。 And how like it is to a holiday of

the people of to…day! Along the route of the procession are ranged

jugglers and sellers of drinks and fruits; and negro acrobats who walk

on their hands and twist themselves into all kinds of contortions。 But

the procession itself was evidently of a magnificence such as we no

longer know。 The number of musicians and priests; of corporations; of

emblems and banners; is quite bewildering。 The God Amen himself came

by water; on the river; in his golden barge with its raised prow;

followed by the barques of all the other gods and goddesses of his

heaven。 The reddish stone; carved with minute care; tells me all this;

as it has already told it to so many dead generations; so that I seem

almost to see it。



And now everybody has gone: the colonnades are empty and the noise of

the dynamos has ceased。 Midday approaches with its torpor。 The whole

temple seems to be ablaze with rays; and I watch the clear…cut shadows

cast by this forest of stone gradually shortening on the ground。 The

sun; which just now shone; all smiles and gaiety; upon the quay of the

new town amid the uproar of the stall…keepers; the donkey drivers and

the cosmopolitan passengers; casts here a sullen; impassive and

consuming fire。 And meanwhile the shadows shortenand just as they do

every day; beneath this sky which is never overcast; just as they have

done for five and thirty centuries; these columns; these friezes and

this temple itself; like a mysterious and solemn sundial; record

patiently on the ground the slow passing of the hours。 Verily for us;

the ephemerae of thought; this unbroken continuity of the sun of Egypt

has more of melancholy even than the changing; overcast skies of our

climate。



And now; at last; the temple is restored to solitude and all noise in

the neighbourhood has ceased。



An avenue bordered by very high columns; of which the capitals are in

the form of the full…blown flowers of the papyrus; leads me to a place

shut in and almost terrible; where is massed an assembly of colossi。

Two; who; if they were standing; would be quite ten yards in height;

are seated on thrones on either side of the entrance。 The others;

ranged on the three sides of the courtyard; stand upright behind

colonnades; but look as if they were about to issue thence and to

stride rapidly towards me。 Some broken and battered; have lost their

faces and preserve only their intimidating attitude。 Those that remain

intactwhite faces beneath their Sphinx's headgearopen their eyes

wide and smile。



This was formerly the principal entrance; and the office of these

colossi was to welcome the multitudes。 But now the gates of honour

flanked by obelisks of red granite; are obstructed by a litter of

enormous ruins。 And the courtyard has become a place voluntarily

closed; where nothing of the outside world is any longer to be seen。

In moments of silence; one can abstract oneself from all the

neighbouring modern things; and forget the hour; the day; the century

even; in the midst of these gigantic figures; whose smile disdains the

flight of ages。 The granites within which we are immuredand in such

terrible companyshut out everything save the point of an old

neighbouring minaret which shows now against the blue of the sky: a

humble graft of Islam which grew here amongst the ruins some centuries

ago; when the ruins themselves had already subsisted for three

thousand yearsa little mosque built on a mass of debris; which it

new protects with its inviolability。 How many treasures and relics and

documents are hidden and guarded by this mosque of the peristyle! For

none would dare to dig in the ground within its sacred walls。



Gradually the silence of the temple becomes profound。 And if the

shortened shadows betray the hour of noon; there is nothing to tell to

what millennium that hour belongs。 The silences and middays like to

this; which have passed before the eyes of these giants ambushed in

their colonnadeswho could count them?



High above us; lost in the incandescent blue; soar the birds of prey

and they were there in the times of the Pharaohs; displaying in the

air identical plumages; uttering the same cries。 The beasts and

plants; in the course of time; have varied less than men; and remain

unchanged in the smallest details。



Each of the colossi around mestanding there proudly with one leg

advanced as if for a march; heavy and sure; which nothing should

withstandgrasps passionately in his clenched fist; at the end of the

muscular arm; a kind of buckled cross; which in Egypt was the symbol

of eternal life。 And this is what the decision of their movement

symbolises: confident all of them in this poor bauble which they hold

in their hand; they cross with a triumphant step the threshold of

death。 。 。 。 〃Eternal Life〃the thought of immortalityhow the human

soul has been obsessed by it; particularly in the periods marked by

its greatest strivings! The tame submission to the belief that the

rottenness of the grave is the end of all is characteristic of ages of

decad
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