? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 《Tales of mystery and imagination》

【美】Edgar Allan Poe 著

THE TELL-TALE HEART

TURE!——nervous——very,very dreadfully nervous I had been and am ;but why will you say that I am mad?The disease had sharpened my senses——not destroyed——not dulled them.Above all was the sence of hearing things in hell.How ,then,am I mad?Hearken!and observe how healthily——how calmly I can tell you the whole story.

It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain;but once conceived,it haunted me day and night.Object there was none. Passion there was none. I loved? the old man.He had never wronged me.He had never given me insult.For his gold I had no desire.I think it was his eyes!yes,it was this !One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture——a pale blue eye,with a film over it.Whenever it fell upon me,my blood ran cold;and so by degrees——very gradually——I made up my mind to take the life of the old man,and thus rid myself of the eye for ever.

Now this is the point.You fancy me mad.Madmen know nothing.But you should have seen me.You should have seen how wisely I proceeded——with what caution——with what foresight——with what dissimulation I went to work!I was never kinder to the old man than during the whole week before I killed him.And every night,about midnight,I turned the latch of his door and qpened it——oh,so gently! a dark lantern,all closed,closed,so that no light shone out,and then I thrust in my head.Oh,you would have laughed to see how cunningly I thrust it in!I moved it slowly——very,very slowly,so that I might not disturb the old man's sleep.It took me an hour to place my whole head within the opening so far that I could see him as he lay upon his bed.Ha!——would amadman have been so wise as this?And then,when my head was well in the room,I undid the lantern cautiously ——oh,so cautiously——cautiously(for the hinges creaked)——I undid it just so much that a single thin ray upon the vulture eye.小伙伴們先到這里了，有喜歡的朋友可以點個贊啊。