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第4节

egypt-第4节

小说: egypt 字数: 每页4000字

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〃Bestir yourselves before it is too late。 Defend yourselves against

this disintegrating invasionnot by force; be it understood; not by

inhospitality or ill…humourbut by disdaining this Occidental

rubbish; this last year's frippery by which you are inundated。 Try to

preserve not only your traditions and your admirable Arab language;

but also the grace and mystery that used to characterise your town;

the refined luxury of your dwelling…houses。 It is not a question now

of a poet's fancy; your national dignity is at stake。 You are

/Orientals/I pronounce respectfully that word; which implies a whole

past of early civilisation; of unmingled greatnessbut in a few

years; unless you are on your guard; you will have become mere

Levantine brokers; exclusively preoccupied with the price of land and

the rise in cotton。〃







CHAPTER III



THE MOSQUES OF CAIRO



They are almost innumerable; more than 3000; and this great town;

which covers some twelve miles of plain; might well be called a city

of mosques。 (I speak; of course; of the ancient Cairo; of the Cairo of

the Arabs。 The new Cairo; the Cairo of sham elegance and of 〃Semiramis

Hotels;〃 does not deserve to be mentioned except with a smile。)



A city of mosques; then; as I was saying。 They follow one another

along the streets; sometimes two; three; four in a row; leaning one

against the other; so that their confines become merged。 On all sides

their minarets shoot up into the air; those minarets embellished with

arabesques; carved and complicated with the most changing fancy。 They

have their little balconies; their rows of little columns; they are so

fashioned that the daylight shows through them。 Some are far away in

the distance; others quite close; pointing straight into the sky above

our heads。 No matter where one looksas far as the eye can seestill

there are others; all of the same familiar colour; a brown turning

into rose。 The most ancient of them; those of the old easy…tempered

times; bristle with shafts of wood; placed there as resting…places for

the great free birds of the air; and vultures and ravens may always be

seen perched there; contemplating the horizon of the sands; the line

of the yellow solitudes。



Three thousand mosques! Their great straight walls; a little severe

perhaps; and scarcely pierced by their tiny ogive windows; rise above

the height of the neighbouring houses。 These walls are of the same

brown colour as the minarets; except that they are painted with

horizontal stripes of an old red; which has been faded by the sun; and

they are crowned invariably with a series of trefoils; after the

fashion of battlements; but trefoils which in every case are different

and surprising。



Before the mosques; which are raised like altars; there is always a

flight of steps with a balustrade of white marble。 From the door one

gets a glimpse of the calm interior in deep shadow。 Once inside there

are corridors; astonishingly lofty; sonorous and enveloped in a kind

of half gloom; immediately on entering one experiences a sense of

coolness and pervading peace; they prepare you as it were; and you

begin to be filled with a spirit of devotion; and instinctively to

speak low。 In the narrow street outside there was the clamorous uproar

of an Oriental crowd; cries of sellers; and the noise of humble old…

world trading; men and beasts jostled you; there seemed a scarcity of

air beneath those so numerous overhanging mushrabiyas。 But here

suddenly there is silence; broken only by the vague murmur of prayers

and the sweet songs of birds; there is silence too; and the sense of

open space; in the holy garden enclosed within high walls; and again

in the sanctuary; resplendent in its quiet and restful magnificence。

Few people as a rule frequent the mosques; except of course at the

hours of the five services of the day。 In a few chosen corners;

particularly cool and shady; some greybeards isolate themselves to

read from morning till night the holy books and to ponder the thought

of approaching death: they may be seen there in their white turbans;

with their white beards and grave faces。 And there may be; too; some

few poor homeless outcasts; who are come to seek the hospitality of

Allah; and sleep; careless of the morrow; stretched to their full

length on mats。



The peculiar charm of the gardens of the mosques; which are often very

extensive; is that they are so jealously enclosed within their high

wallscrowned always with stone trefoilswhich completely shut out

the hubbub of the outer world。 Palm…trees; which have grown there for

some hundred years perhaps; rise from the ground; either separately or

in superb clusters; and temper the light of the always hot sun on the

rose…trees and the flowering hibiscus。 There is no noise in the

gardens; any more than in the cloisters; for people walk there in

sandals and with measured tread。 And there are Edens; too; for the

birds; who live and sing therein in complete security; even during the

services; attracted by the little troughs which the imams fill for

their benefit each morning with water from the Nile。



As for the mosque itself it is rarely closed on all sides as are those

in the countries of the more sombre Islam of the north。 Here in Egypt

since there is no real winter and scarcely ever any rainone of the

sides of the mosque is left completely open to the garden; and the

sanctuary is separated from the verdure and the roses only by a simple

colonnade。 Thus the faithful grouped beneath the palm…trees can pray

there equally as well as in the interior of the mosque; since they can

see; between the arches; the holy Mihrab。'*'



'*' The Mihrab is a kind of portico indicating the direction of Mecca。

    It is placed at the end of each mosque; as the altar is in our

    churches; and the faithful are supposed to face it when they pray。



Oh! this sanctuary seen from the silent garden; this sanctuary in

which the pale gold gleams on the old ceiling of cedarwood; and

mosaics of mother…of…pearl shine on the walls as if they were

embroideries of silver that had been hung there。



There is no faience as in the mosques of Turkey or of Iran。 Here it is

the triumph of patient mosaic。 Mother…of…pearl of all colours; all

kinds of marble and of porphyry; cut into myriads of little pieces;

precise and equal; and put together again to form the Arab designs;

which; never borrowing from the human form; nor indeed from the form

of any animal; recall rather those infinitely varied crystals that may

be seen under the microscope in a flake of snow。 It is always the

Mihrab which is decorated with the most elaborate richness; generally

little columns of lapis lazuli; intensely blue; rise in relief from

it; framing mosaics so delicate that they look like brocades of fine

lace。 In the old ceilings of cedarwood; where the singing birds of the

neighbourhood have their nests; the golds mingle with some most

exquisite colourings; which time has taken care to soften and to blend

together。 And here and there very fine and long consoles of sculptured

wood seem to fall; as it were; from the beams and hang upon the walls

like stalactites; and these consoles; too; in past times; have been

carefully coloured and gilded。 As for the columns; always dissimilar;

some of amaranth…coloured marble; others of dark green; others again

of red porphyry; with capitals of every conceivable style; they are

come from far; from the night of the ages; from the religious

struggles of an earlier time and testify to the prodigious past which

this valley of the Nile; narrow as it is; and encompassed by the

desert; has known。 They were formerly perhaps in the temples of the

pagans; or have known the strange faces of the gods of Egypt and of

ancient Greece and Rome; they have been in the churches of the early

Christians; or have seen the statues of tortured martyrs; and the

images of the transfigured Christ; crowned with the Byzantine aureole。

They have been present at battles; at the downfall of kingdoms; at

hecatombs; at sacrileges; and now brought together promiscuously in

these mosques; they behold on the walls of the sanctuary simply the

thousand little designs; ideally pure; of that Islam which wishes that

men when they pray should conceive Allah as immaterial; a Spirit

without form and without feature。



Each one of these mosques has its sainted dead; whose name it bears;

and who sleeps by its side; in an adjoining mortuary kiosk; some

priest rendered admirable by his virtues; or perhaps a khedive of

earlier times; or a soldier; or a martyr。 And the mausoleum; which

communicates with the sanctuary by means of a long passage; sometimes

open; sometimes covered with gratings; is surmounted always by a

special kind of cupola; a very high and curious cupola; which raises

itself into the sky like some gigantic dervish hat。 Above the Arab

town; and even in the sand of the neighbour

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