Justine 淑女的眼泪 Chapter 25

This harangue ¹... this terrible order, I felt, left me no shifts, but would I not have been guilty had I failed to employ the means my heart prompted in me? my situation left me this last resource: I fall at Dom Severino's feet, I employ all a despairing soul's eloquence ² to supplicate ³ him not to take advantage of my state or abuse it; the bitterest tears spring from my eyes and inundate ⁴ his knees, all I Imagine to be of the strongest, all I believe the most pathetic, I try everything with this man.... Great God! what was the use? could I have not known that tears merely enhance the object of a libertine ⁶'s coveting ⁷? how was I able to doubt that everything I attempted in my efforts to sway those savages ⁸ had the unique effect of arousing them.... "Take the bitch," said Severino in a rage, "seize her, Clement ⁹, let her be naked in a minute, and let her learn that it is not in persons like ourselves that compassion ¹⁰ stifles ¹¹ Nature." My resistance had animated ¹² Clement, he was foaming ¹³ at the mouth: he took hold of me, his arm shook nervously ¹⁴; interspersing ¹⁵ his actions with appalling ¹⁶ blasphemies ¹⁷, he had my clothing torn away in a trice., ,"A lovely creature," came from the superior, who ran his fingers over my flanks, "may God blast me if I've ever seen one better made; friends," the monk ¹⁸ pursued, "let's put order into our procedures; you know our formula for welcoming newcomers: she might be exposed to the entire ceremony, don't you think? Let's omit nothing; and let's have the eight other women stand around us to supply our wants and to excite them.", ,A circle is formed immediately, I am placed in its center and there, for more than two hours, I am inspected, considered, handled by those four monks ¹⁹, who, one after the other, pronounce either encomiums or criticisms., , ,"Let's to it," says Severino, whose prodigiously ²⁵ exalted ²⁶ desires will brook ²⁷ no further restraint and who in this dreadful state gives the impression of a tiger about to devour ²⁸ its prey ²⁹, "let each of us advance to take his favorite pleasure." And placing me upon a couch in the posture ³⁰ expected by his execrable projects and causing me to be held by two of his monks, the infamous ³¹ man attempts to satisfy himself in that criminal and perverse ³² fashion which makes us to resemble none but the sex we do not possess while degrading the one we have; but either the shameless creature is too strongly proportioned, or Nature revolts in me at the mere ⁵ suspicion of these pleasures; Severino cannot overcome the obstacles; he presents himself, and he is repulsed ³³ immediately.... He spreads, he presses, thrusts, tears, all his efforts are in vain; in his fury the monster lashes ³⁴ out against the altar at which he cannot speak his prayers; he strikes it, he pinches it, he bites it; these brutalities are succeeded by renewed challenges; the chastened flesh yields, the gate cedes ³⁵, the ram ³⁶ bursts through; terrible screams rise from my throat; the entire mass is swifty engulfed ³⁷, and darting ³⁸ its venom ³⁹ the next moment, robbed then of its strength, the snake gives ground before the movements I make to expel it, and Severino weeps with rage. Never in my life have I suffered so much., ,Clement steps forward; he is armed with a cat-o'-nine-tails; his perfidious ⁴⁰ designs glitter in his eyes., ,The minister of propaganda delivered his usual harangue.宣传部长一如既往发表了他的长篇大论 。,I am afraid my eloquence did not avail against the facts.恐怕我的雄辩也无补于事实了。