古墓之谜 28

Twenty-seven,BEGINNING OF A JOURNEY,“Bismillahi ar rahman ar rahim. That is the Arab phrase used before starting out on a journey. Ehbien, we too start on a journey. A journey into the past. A journey into the strange places of thehuman soul.”,I don’t think that up till that moment I’d ever felt any of the so-called “glamour of the East. ”,Frankly ¹, what had struck me was the mess everywhere. But suddenly, with M.?Poirot’s words, aqueer sort of vision seemed to grow up before my eyes. I thought of words like Samarkand andIspahan—and of merchants with long beards—and kneeling camels—and staggering porterscarrying great bales on their backs held by a rope round the forehead—and women with henna-stained hair and tattooed ² faces kneeling by the Tigris and washing clothes, and I heard their queerwailing chants and the far-off groaning ³ of the waterwheel.,They were mostly things I’d seen and heard and thought nothing much of. But now,somehow they seemed different — like a piece of fusty old stuff you take into the light andsuddenly see the rich colours of an old embroidery ⁴. .?.?.,And I looked at everyone as though, in a sort of way, I were seeing them for the first time—and for the last time—which sounds stupid, but it was what I felt all the same.,Mr.?Mercado was twisting his fingers nervously ⁶ — his queer light eyes with their dilatedpupils were staring at Poirot. Mrs.?Mercado was looking at her husband. She had a strangewatchful look like a tigress waiting to spring. Dr.?Leidner seemed to have shrunk in some curiousfashion. This last blow had just crumpled ⁷ him up. You might almost say he wasn’t in the room atall. He was somewhere far away in a place of his own. Mr.?Coleman was looking straight atPoirot. His mouth was slightly open and his eyes protruded ⁸. He looked almost idiotic ⁹. Mr.?Emmottwas looking down at his feet and I couldn’t see his face properly. Mr.?Reiter looked bewildered.,His mouth was pushed out in a pout ¹⁰ and that made him look more like a nice clean pig than ever.,Miss?Reilly was looking steadily ¹¹ out of the window. I don’t know what she was thinking orfeeling. Then I looked at Mr.?Carey, and somehow his face hurt me and I looked away. There wewere, all of us. And somehow I felt that when M.?Poirot had finished we’d all be somewhere quitedifferent. .?.?.,It was a queer feeling. .?.?.,Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说 ，我不反对改革 。,He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上
。 来自《简明英汉词典》