The Black Cat
Edgar Allan Poe 1FOR the most wild, yet most homely narrative which I am about to pen, I neither expect nor solicit belief. Mad indeed would I be to expect it, in a ca where my very ns reject their own evidence. Yet, mad am I not -- and very surely do I not dream. But to-morrow I die, and to-day I would unburthen my soul. My immediate purpo is to place before the world, plainly, succinctly, and without comment, a ries of mere houhold events. In their conquences, the events have terrified -- have tortured -- have destroyed me. Yet I will not attempt to expound them. To me, they have prented little but Horror -- to many they will em less terrible than barroques. Hereafter, perhaps, some intellect may be found which will reduce my phantasm to the common-place -- some intellect more calm, more logical, and far less excitable than my own, which will perceive, in the circumstances I detail with awe, nothing more than an ordinary succession of very natural caus and effects.
2From my infancy I was noted for the docility and humanity of my disposition. My tenderness of heart was even so conspicuous as to make me the jest of my companions. I was especially fond of animals, and was indulged by my parents with a great variety of pets. With the I spent most of my time, and never was so happy as when feeding and caressing them. This peculiarity of character grew with my growth, and, in my manhood, I derived from it one of my principal sources of pleasure. To tho who ha
ve cherished an affection for a faithful and sagacious dog, I need hardly be at the trouble of explaining the nature or the intensity of the gratification thus derivable. There is something in the unlfish and lf-
黑猫
埃德加·爱伦·坡homely adj.平凡的；朴素的
unburthen vt. 使……安生succinctly adv.简洁地
expound vt.解释；阐述baroque n.巴洛克作品，这里指「奇谈」phantasm n.幻象；幻觉
succession n.继承顺序，自然演替
docility n.温驯
humanity n.仁爱；人道disposition n.性情；性格；气质
conspicuous adj.显眼的jest n.笑话；笑柄
caress vt.爱抚；抚摸sagacious adj.聪明的；精
明的
gratification n.满足；满意derivable adj.可引出的；可诱导的
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sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.
3I married early, and was happy to find in my wife a disposition not uncongenial with my own. Obrving my partiality for domestic pets, she lost no opportunity of procuring tho of the most agreeable kind. We had birds, gold-fish, a fine dog, rabbits, a small monkey, and a cat.
4This latter was a remarkably large and beautiful animal, entirely black, and sagacious to an astonishing degree. In speaking of his intelligence, my wife, who at heart was not a little tinctured with superstition, made frequent allusion to the ancient popular notion, which regarded all black cats as witches in disgui. Not that she was ever rious upon this point -- and I mention the matter at all for no better reason than that it happens, just now, to be remembered.
5Pluto -- this was the cat's name -- was my favorite pet and playmate. I alone fed him, and he attend
ed me wherever I went about the hou. It was even with difficulty that I could prevent him from following me through the streets.
6Our friendship lasted, in this manner, for veral years, during which my general temperament and character -- through the instrumentality of the Fiend Intemperance -- had (I blush to confess it) experienced a radical alteration for the wor. I grew, day by day, more moody, more irritable, more regardless of the feelings of others. I suffered mylf to u intemperate language to my wife. At length, I even offered her personal violence. My pets, of cour, were made to feel the change in my disposition. I not only neglected, but ill-ud them. For Pluto, however, I still retained sufficient regard to paltry n.微不足道的；毫无价值的
gossamer adj.轻而薄的；虚无飘渺的uncongenial adj.志趣不相投的
tincture vt. 使……染上颜色
allusion n. 影射；暗指attend vt.陪伴；伴随
the Fiend Intemperance 恶魔的放纵
moody adj.喜怒无常的；情绪多变的
irritable adj.易怒的；急躁的
intemperate adj.无节制的；放纵的
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restrain me from maltreating him, as I made no scruple of maltreating the rabbits, the monkey, or even the dog, when by accident, or through affection, they came in my way. But my dia grew upon me -- for what dia is like Alcohol! -- and at length even Pluto, who was now becoming old, and conquently somewhat peevish -- even Pluto began to experience the effects of my ill temper. 7One night, returning home, much intoxicated, from one of my haunts about town, I fancied that the cat avoided my prence. I ized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth. The fury of a demon instantly possd me. I knew mylf no longer. My original soul emed, at once, to take its flight from my body; and a more than fiendish malevolence, gin-nurtured, thrilled every fibre of my frame. I took from my waistcoat-pocket a pen-knife, opened it, grasped the poor beast by the throat, and deliberately cut one of its eyes from the socket! I blush, I burn, I shudder, while I pen the damnable atrocity. 8When reason returned with the morning -- when I had slept off the fumes of the night's debauch -- I experienced a ntiment half of
horror, half of remor, for the crime of which I had been guilty; but it was, at best, a feeble and equivocal feeling, and the soul remained untouched. I again plunged into excess, and soon drowned in wine all memory of the deed.
9In the meantime the cat slowly recovered. The socket of the lost eye prented, it is true, a frightful appearance, but he no longer appeared to suffer any pain. He went about the hou as usual, but, as might be expected, fled in extreme terror at my approach. I had so much of my old heart left, as to be at first grieved by this evident dislike on the part of a creature which had once so loved me. But this feeling soon gave place to irritation. And then came, as if to my final maltreat vt.虐待
scruple n. 顾忌；良心上的不安
Pluto这个名字有什么含义？
peevish adj.脾气坏的intoxicated adj. 醉醺醺的
fury n.狂怒；暴怒demon n.恶魔malevolence n.恶意
gin-nurtured adj.酒性大发的
thrill vt.使……激动damnable adj.极坏的atrocity n.暴行；凶残fume n.愤怒；烦恼debauch n.放纵，这里意
为「罪孽」
ntiment n.情绪；多愁善感
remor adj. 悔恨；自责feeble adj.虚弱的；衰弱的equivocal adj.模糊的grieve vt.使……伤心
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and irrevocable overthrow, the spirit of PERVERSENESS. Of this spirit philosophy takes no account. Yet I am not more sure that my soul lives, than I am that perverness is one of the primitive impuls of the human heart -- one of the indivisible primary faculties, or ntiments, which give direction to the character of Man. Who has not, a hundred times, found himlf committing a vile or a silly action, for no other reason than becau he knows he should not? Have we not a perpetual inclination, in the teeth of our best judgment, to violate that which is Law, merely becau we understand it to be such? This spirit of perverness, I say, came to my final overthrow. It was this unfathomable longing of the soul to vex itlf -- to offer violence to its own nature -- to do wrong for t
he wrong's sake only -- that urged me to continue and finally to consummate the injury I had inflicted upon the unoffending brute. One morning, in cool blood, I slipped a noo about its neck and hung it to the limb of a tree; -- hung it with the tears streaming from my eyes, and with the bitterest remor at my heart; -- hung it becau I knew that it had loved me, and becau I felt it had given me no reason of offence; -- hung it becau I knew that in so doing I was committing a sin -- a deadly sin that would so jeopardize my immortal soul as to place it -- if such a thing were possible -- even beyond the reach of the infinite mercy of the Most Merciful and Most Terrible God.
10On the night of the day on which this cruel deed was done, I was aroud from sleep by the cry of fire. The curtains of my bed were in flames. The whole hou was blazing. It was with great difficulty that my wife, a rvant, and mylf, made our escape from the conflagration. The destruction was complete. My entire worldly wealth was swallowed up, and I resigned mylf thenceforward to irrevocable adj. 不可改变
的；不能挽回的
overthrow n.征服；打倒perverness n. 邪恶
vile adj.恶劣的，这里活用作名词「恶事」perpetual adj.永恒的；永
久性
inclination n. 倾向；爱好unfathomable adj.高深莫
测的，难以了解的
vex vt. 使……烦恼；使……苦恼consummate vt.使……完
成
noo n. 套索jeopardize vt.危机；损害conflagration n.大火resign onelf to 听从；顺
从
thenceforward adv.从那以后
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despair.
11 I am above the weakness of eking to establish a quence of
cau and effect, between the disaster and the atrocity. But I am detailing a chain of facts -- and wish not to leave even a possible link imperfect. On the day succeeding the fire, I visited the ruins. The walls, with one exception, had fallen in. This exception was found in a compartment wall, not very thick, which stood about the middle of the hou, and against which had rested the head of my bed. The plastering had here, in great measure, resisted the action of the fire -- a fact which I attributed to its having been recently spread. About this wall a den crowd were collected, and many persons emed to be examining a particular portion of it with very minute and eager attention. The words "strange!" "singular!" and other similar expressions, excited my curiosity. I approached and saw, as if graven
in bas relief upon the white surface, the figure of a gigantic cat. The impression was given with an accuracy truly marvellous. There was a rope about the animal's neck. 12 When I first beheld this apparition -- for I could scarcely regard
it as less -- my wonder and my terror were extreme. But at length reflection came to my aid. The cat, I remembered, had been hung in
a garden adjacent to the hou. Upon the alarm of fire, this garden had been immediately filled by the crowd -- by some one of whom
the animal must have been cut from the tree and thrown, through an open window, into my chamber. This had probably been done with
the view of arousing me from sleep. The falling of other walls had compresd the victim of my cruelty into the substance of the
freshly-spread plaster; the lime of which, with the flames, and the ammonia from the carcass , had then accomplished the portraiture as
I saw it.
plastering n. 石膏工艺
grave vi. 雕刻
bas relief 基线浮雕
gigantic adj. 巨大的；庞大
的
behold vt. 看到；注释
at length 终于
adjacent adj. 相邻的；
邻近的
compress vt. 压缩；压紧
ammonia n. 氨气
carcass n. （动物的）尸体
