Clive sat in the theatre of Dionysus. The stage was empty, as it had been for many centuries, the audi-torium empty; the sun had set though the Acropolis behind still radiated heat. He saw barren plains running down to the sea, Salamis, Aegina, mountains, all blended in a violet evening. Here dwelt his gods—Pallas Athene in the first place: he might if he chose imagine her shrine untouched, and her statue catch-ing the last of the glow. She understood all men, though mother-less and a virgin. He had been coming to thank her for years because she had lifted him out of the mire.
But he saw only dying light and a dead land. He uttered no prayer, believed in no deity, and knew that the past was devoid of meaning like the present, and a refuge for cowards.
Well, he had written to Maurice at last. His letter was journey-ing down to the sea. Where one sterility touched another, it would embark and voyage past Sunium and Cythera, would land and embark, would land again. Maurice would get it as he was starting for his work. "Against my will I have become normal. I cannot help it." The words had been written.
He descended the theatre wearily. Who could help anything? Not only in sex, but in all things men have moved blindly, have evolved out of slime to dissolve into it when this accident of con-
sequences is over.
sighed the actors
in this very place two thousand years before. Even that remark, though further from vanity than most, was vain.
克莱夫坐在狄奥尼索斯剧场（译注：狄奥尼索斯剧场是最早形式的希腊剧场，坐落于雅典卫城南侧。4世纪后，剧场冷落，后停止使用，并开始损毁。1765年人们重新发现了这个剧场，19世纪末在考古学家和希腊式建筑权威德普菲尔德的指导下按其原貌进行了重大修复。）里。多少个世纪以来，舞台是空荡荡的，观众席也空无一人。太阳已经落下，背后的卫城却还发散着热气。他眺望着向海边倾斜的光秃秃的平原，萨拉米斯（萨拉米斯，希腊拉阿蒂卡州岛屿，位于爱琴海萨罗尼克湾内）、埃伊纳（译注：埃伊纳，希腊萨罗尼克群岛中最大的岛屿。埃伊纳岛的全盛时期在公元前5世纪。东面的山顶上有一座保存完好的神庙，建于公元前5世纪，以祭奉阿帕伊亚神-古代埃伊纳人的神）、群山，统统与淡紫色黄昏融为一体。他的神祗们就住在这里——首先是雅典娜·波利亚斯（译注：在希腊宗教里，雅典娜是城市的保护女神，雅典因而得名。从君主政体向民主政体过渡的时期，作为城市女神的雅典娜·波利亚斯在雅典出现了。赫西奥德在《神谱》里记述说，她没有母亲,是从宙斯的前额中跳出来的。帕台农神庙殿堂内的雅典娜女神像是用金子和象牙制作的。）。倘若愿意的话，他可以想象雅典娜的神庙完好如初，她的雕像在落日余晖下熠熠发光。尽管没有母亲，又是个处女，她对所有的男人了如指掌。多年来，克莱夫不断地渴望到此向她表示谢忱，因为她将他从泥潭中拖了出来。
然而他只看见了渐渐消失的光和死灭了的大地。他不曾祷告，对任何神祗都没有信仰。他知道过去就跟现在一样毫无意义，并为懦夫提供了避难所。
他终于给莫瑞斯写了信。他这封信将要渡海，经过陆地与海洋接触之处，被装上了船，绕过苏钮姆岬与基西拉（译注：基西拉是伊奥尼亚群岛中最靠东南的岛屿），登陆后又被装上船，再度登陆。莫瑞斯上班的时候就会收到这封信。“我不由自主地变得正常了。我一点儿办法也没有。”他终于把这话写出来了。
他有气无力地走下剧场。不论是谁，又有什么办法呢？不仅在性方面，毋宁说是在各方面，人们都是盲目地踱过来的。他们脱离泥淖逐渐演变成人，及至偶然的连锁结束，就又消融到泥淖中去。两千年前，刚好就在此处，演员们感叹道：“最好是根本就没出生。（译注：原文为希腊文）”就连这句言词都是空洞的，尽管比起大多数台词来，它与虚荣相距甚远。