Fast Reply

[CaptainSnafu]

作者：Clark Ashton Smith
译者：CaptainSnafu
未经允许，禁止转载
注：本文为克苏鲁神话泛体系“终北之地”（又译希柏里尔）系列中的一篇。

(Chapter IX of the Book of Eibon)
Rendered from the Old French manuscript of Gaspard du Nord.
(伊波恩之书第九章)
译自加斯帕德·杜诺德的古法语手稿

Evagh the warlock, dwelling beside the boreal sea, was aware of many strange and untimely portents in mid-summer. Frorely burned the sun above Mhu Thulan from a welkin clear and wannish as ice. At eve the aurora was hung from zenith to earth, like an arras in a high chamber of gods. Wan and rare were the poppies and small the anemones in the cliff-sequestered vales lying behind the house of Evagh; and the fruits in his walled garden were pale of rind and green at the core. Also, he beheld by day the unseasonable flight of great multitudes of fowl, going southward from the hidden isles beyond Mhu Thulan; and by night he heard the distressful clamor of other passing multitudes. And always, in the loud wind and crying surf, he harkened to the weird whisper of voices from realms of perennial winter.
栖居在北海边上的术士伊瓦格察觉到了仲夏日中诸多不合时宜的异象。太阳在穆图兰（Mhu Thulan）冰雪般清澄洁白的苍穹上照耀着寒光。傍晚，极光从天顶垂落大地，犹如诸神圣殿中的帷幔。在伊瓦格的屋舍后，那被悬崖隔绝的山谷中，铺着罕见的淡白罂粟与萎小的银莲。而结在他的围墙花园内的果实皆是表皮淡哑而内核生翠。并且，他在白天看到大量禽鸟反季节地从穆图兰之外的岛屿向南迁徙；在夜晚，他也听见其它路过的兽群那令人懊恼的嘈杂声。在喧嚣的风与哭号着的海浪之中，他能聆听到源自永冬之域的诡异低语。

Now Evagh was troubled by these portents, even as the rude fisher-folk on the shore of the haven below his house were troubled. Being a past-master of all sortilege, and a seer of remote and future things, he made use of his arts in an effort to divine their meaning. But a cloud was upon his eyes through the daytime; and a darkness thwarted him when he sought illumination in dreams. His most cunning horoscopes were put to naught; his familiars were silent or answered him equivocally; and confusion was amid all his geomancies and hydromancies and haruspications. And it seemed to Evagh that an unknown power worked against him, mocking and making impotent in such fashion the sorcery that none had defeated heretofore. And Evagh knew, by certain tokens perceptible to wizards, that the power was an evil power, and its boding was of bale to man.
现在，伊瓦格被这些预兆困扰着，苦恼的程度堪比他屋下避风港岸边的粗野渔民。作为一个精通所有巫术的资深大师，以及能预见遥远及未来之事的先知，他尝试运用自己的造诣来推算这些迹象的含义。然而，有一片云朵在整个白天里都遮盖在他眼睛上方；当他在梦中寻找启迪时，又被一片黑暗阻挡。他最巧妙的占星术徒劳无果；他的妖灵眷属也沉默不语，或者含糊其辞；无论地卜、水卜还是脏卜，结果都是一片混乱。在伊瓦格看来，似乎有一种不知名的力量在与他作对，嘲笑着他那此前无可匹敌的巫术本领，并使之无力。通过某些可被巫师感知得到的迹象，伊瓦格知晓这是一种邪恶的力量，而它所预示的便是人类的灾厄。

Day by day, through the middle summer, the fisher-folk went forth in their coracles of elk-hide and willow, casting their seines. But in the seines they drew dead fishes, blasted as if by fire or extreme cold; and they drew living monsters, such as their eldest captains had never beheld: things triple-headed and tailed and finned with horror; black, shapeless things that turned to a liquid foulness and ran away from the net; or headless things like bloated moons with green, frozen rays about them; or things leprous-eyed and bearded with stiffly-oozing slime.
在整个仲夏里，渔民们日复一日地驾驶着由麋鹿皮和柳条制成的圆舟，向北航行，掷出围网。可是，他们围网中的渔获皆是死物，仿佛被烈火烧毁或被严寒冻坏一般；他们还拖上来了活生生的怪物，就连他们最年长的船长都未曾见识：长着三个脑袋、有尾有鳍的可怖之物；还有黑色而无定形、能化作液态从网中逃逸的邪祟；或者是边上围着冻僵的绿色辐腕的无头之物，如同浮肿的月亮；又或是长着麻风眼和鱼须、渗出着浓稠黏液的异形。

Then, out of the sea-horizoned north, where ships from Cerngoth were wont to ply among the Arctic islands, a galley came drifting with idle oars and aimlessly veering helm. The tide beached it among the boats of the fishermen, which fared no longer to sea but were drawn up on the sands below the cliff-built house of Evagh. And, thronging about the galley in awe and wonder, the fishers beheld its oarsmen still at the oars and its captain at the helm. But the faces and hands of all were stark as bone, and were white as the flesh of leprosy; and the pupils of their open eyes had faded strangely, being indistinguishable now from the whites; and a blankness of horror was within them, like ice in deep pools that are fast frozen to the bottom. And Evagh himself, descending later, also beheld the galley's crew, and pondered much concerning the import of this prodigy.
一艘单层大帆船闲置着它的桨，漫无目的地摇着舵，自海平线之外的北方——森戈夫（Cerngoth）的船只时常穿梭在那边的北极岛屿间，漂流而来。那时渔船已不再出海，被停放在伊瓦格沿壁而筑的屋舍下方的沙滩上，而潮水将这艘泊来之船搁浅在了它们之间。渔民们惊奇地蜂拥在其周围；他们看见划手仍在桨边，而船长也还在舵旁。但所有人的脸和手都僵硬如骨，惨白得就像麻风病人的皮肉一般；他们睁开着的眼睛里，瞳孔已奇异地消散，与眼白别无二致；在这些尸体里，还有着一种恐怖的空白感，就像深潭中迅速冻结着、一直凝固到水底的寒冰。后来，伊瓦格也亲自下来观察了这些船员，并对此异兆的预示之意熟虑深思。

Loath were the fishers to touch the dead men; and they murmured, saying that a doom was upon the sea, and a curse upon all sea-faring things and people. But Evagh, deeming that the bodies would rot in the sun and would breed pestilence, commanded them to build a pile of driftwood about the galley; and when the pile had risen above the bulwarks, hiding from view the dead rowers, he fired it with his own hands.
渔夫们不愿触碰这些死人；他们喁喁细语着，说厄运降临于海上，是对所有航海之事物的诅咒。但伊瓦格认为尸体会在阳光下腐烂，并滋生瘟疫，于是命令他们在船边堆起浮木；当这堆浮木高出船舷，把死去的桨手遮住时，他便亲手点燃了木堆。

High flamed the pile, and smoke ascended black as a storm-cloud, and was borne in windy volumes past the tall towers of Evagh on the cliff. But later, when the fire sank, the bodies of the oarsmen were seen sitting amid the mounded embers; and their arms were still outstretched in the attitude of rowing, and their fingers were clenched; though the oars had now dropped away from them in brands and ashes. And the captain of the galley stood upright still in his place: though the burnt helm had fallen beside him. Naught but the raiment of the marble corpses had been consumed; and they shone white as moon-washed marble above the charrings of wood; and nowhere upon them was there any blackness from the fire.
烈火熊燃，而黑烟滚腾，如暴风雨的乌云，随风卷过伊瓦格那悬崖上的高塔。当大火熄灭后，人们看到桨手们的遗骸被半淹没地坐在灰烬中；它们的手臂还保持着划船的姿势，手指仍紧紧地攥握着，虽然船桨已经从手中掉下，化作了焦木和灰烬。而船长依然笔直地站在自己的位置上，尽管烧毁的船舵已塌落在他身边。除了衣服外，这些大理石般的尸体并未被火焰吞噬掉分毫，身上亦无任何被火焰烧黑之处。而在碳化的焦木上，他们就像月光洗礼下的白玉一般闪耀着烁光。

Deeming this thing an ill miracle, the fishers were all aghast, and they fled swiftly to the uppermost rocks. There remained with Evagh only his two servants, the boy Ratha and the ancient crone Ahilidis, who had both witnessed many of his conjurations and were thus well inured to sights of magic. And, with these two beside him, the sorcerer awaited the cooling of the brands.
渔夫们相信此为不祥的奇迹，皆惊骇不已，并迅速退避到了最高的礁石上。伊瓦格身边只剩下两个仆人，男孩拉塔和老妪阿希莉迪丝，他们都曾目睹过他的许多魔法，因此对魔法的异象早已习以为常。在此两人的陪侍下，巫师等待着焦木冷却。

Quickly the brands darkened; but smoke arose from them still throughout the noon and afternoon; and still they were over-hot for human treading when the hour drew toward sunset. So Evagh bade his servants to fetch water in urns from the sea and cast it upon the ashes and charrings. And after the smoke and the hissing had died, he went forward and approached the pale corpses. Nearing them, he was aware of a great coldness, such as would emanate from trans-Arctic ice; and the coldness began to ache in his hands and ears, and smote sharply through the mantle of fur. Going still closer, he touched one of the bodies with his forefinger-tip; and the finger, though lightly pressed and quickly withdrawn, was seared as if by flame.
很快，烧红的焦炭暗了下去。但它们升起的浓烟仍弥漫于整个中午和下午。而且直到日落时分，焦炭的余温对于踩踏其上的人们而言依然过热。于是，伊瓦格吩咐他的仆从以瓮取海水，泼向灰烬与焦炭。在烟雾和嘶嘶声消散后，他向前走去，靠近那些苍白的尸骸。在它们附近，他察觉到一种严峻的寒冷，仿佛散发自北极以外的冰；并且，这种寒冷开始使他的双手和耳朵发疼，并锋锐地透入了他的毛皮斗篷。他继续靠得更近，用指尖触碰其中一具尸骸；尽管只是轻轻地一戳，他的手指便立即缩回。它被烧焦了，如受火灼。

Evagh was much amazed: for the condition of the corpses was a thing unknown to him heretofore; and in all his science of wizardry there was naught to enlighten him. He bethought him that a spell had been laid upon the dead: an ensorcelling such as the wan polar demons might weave, or the chill witches of the moon might devise in their caverns of snow. And he deemed it well to retire for the time, lest the spell should now take effect upon others than the dead.
伊瓦格大感惊诧，因为此般的尸体状况前所未见，并且他掌握的所有巫术知识，也未能启发他半点头绪。他想，可能有人在死者身上施了咒：就像是苍白的极地恶魔所编织的魔法，或者是寒月女巫会在她们的雪洞中构造的法术。他认为最好暂且退下，以免魔咒对死者以外的其他人生效。

Returning to his house ere night, he burned at each door and window the gums that are most offensive to the northern demons; and at each angle where a spirit might enter, he posted one of his own familiars to guard against all intrusion. Afterwards, while Ratha and Ahilidis slept, he perused with sedulous care the writings of Pnom, in which are collated many powerful exorcisms. But ever and anon, as he read again, for his comfort, the old rubrics, he remembered ominously the saying of the prophet Lith, which no man had understood: "There is One that inhabits the place of utter cold, and One that respireth where none other may draw breath. In the days to come He shall issue forth among the isles and cities of men, and shall bring with Him as a white doom the wind that slumbereth in his dwelling."
当晚，在返回屋舍时，他在每扇门窗上焚烧了树胶，这是对北地恶魔最为进击的手段。并在灵体可能侵入的每一处角落，都安置了一只妖灵眷属以作守卫。后来，当拉塔和阿希莉迪丝入睡时，他聚精会神地研读着普诺姆（Pnom）那些整理了许多强力驱魔术的手稿。但在他为了安心而再读一遍时，他不时就会不祥地想起先知里斯（Lith）那无人理解的古老警语：“他栖身于极寒之地，呼吸于无可喘息之所。在将临之日，他当为苍白之噩运，携同沉眠其居处之魔风，涌现于人类的岛屿及城市。”

Though a fire burned in the chamber, piled with fat pine and terebinth, it seemed that a deadly chill began to invade the air toward midnight. Then, as Evagh turned uneasily from the parchments of Pnom, and saw that the fires blazed high as if in no need of replenishment, he heard the sudden turmoil of a great wind full of sea-birds eerily shrieking, and the cries of land-fowl driven on helpless wings, and over all a high laughter of diabolic voices. Madly from the north the wind beat upon his square-based towers; and birds were cast like blown leaves of autumn against the stout-paned windows; and devils seemed to tear and strain at the granite walls. Though the room's door was shut and the windows were tight-closed, an icy gust went round and round, circling the table where Evagh sat, snatching the broad parchments of Pnom from beneath his fingers, and plucking at the lamp-flame.
尽管房间里烧着一堆松木和松脂，似乎有一股致命的寒意开始侵入午夜的空气。然后，伊瓦格不安地从普诺姆的羊皮纸手稿中抽身，转头看见熊熊高燃的火焰，似乎无须补充燃料。他突然听到一阵飓风的骚动，充斥着海鸟可怕的尖叫，以及陆禽一边无助地拍打着翅膀一边发出的哀鸣，而凌驾在这一切之上的，是一阵恶魔般的高声哄笑。北风癫狂地轰击着他那从方形底基拔起的塔楼；而飞鸟如同秋天的落叶，被席卷而去，砸在结实的窗格上；风中的邪祟则似乎想要撕裂并推倒花岗岩的墙壁。尽管房门和窗户都被紧紧关上，一阵冰冷的狂风仍盘旋而入，萦绕在伊瓦格所坐的桌椅边上，拨动着灯焰，并试图将那宽厚的羊皮纸手稿从普诺姆手中夺去。

Vainly, with numbing thoughts, he strove to recall that counter-charm which is most effective against the spirits of the boreal quarter. Then, strangely, it seemed that the wind fell, leaving a mighty stillness about the house. The chill gust was gone from the room, the lamp and the fire burned steadily, and something of warmth returned slowly into the half-frozen marrow of Evagh.
他徒劳地绞尽着懵钝的头脑，思索着抗击北地恶灵最有力的咒语。然而，狂风似乎奇怪地沉降了下来，在房屋各处留下了一种赫然的静止。冷风业已离开房间，灯焰与炉火也在平稳地燃烧着，而温暖重新缓慢地回流到了伊瓦格那将近冻结的骨髓中。

Soon he was made aware of a light shining beyond his chamber windows, as if a belated moon had now risen above the rocks. But Evagh knew that the moon was at that time a thin crescent, declining with eventide. It seemed that the light shone from the north, pale and frigid as fire of ice; and going to the window he beheld a great beam that traversed all the sea, coming as if from the hidden pole. In that light the rocks were paler than marble, and the sands were whiter than sea-salt, and the huts of the fishermen were as white tombs. The walled garden of Evagh was full of the beam, and all the green had departed from its foliage and its blossoms were like flowers of snow. And the beam fell bleakly on the lower walls of his house, but left still in shadow the wall of that upper chamber from which he looked.
少顷，他便察觉到了房间的窗户外亮着一种轻微的耀光，仿佛姗姗来迟的月亮终于从礁石上升起。但伊瓦格知道，在彼时彼刻，那轮纤薄的新月正随着日暮落下而衰暗。光亮苍白而清冷，似乎照自北方的冰焰。他走到窗前，注视着一道跨越整个海面的巨大光束，仿佛从隐秘的极点射来。在那光芒之中，礁石和沙砾显得比大理石与海盐更加苍白，而渔民的屋舍恍如白色的坟墓。伊瓦格的围墙花园则被光束所盈贯，所有的绿意都已被驱离于枝叶，绽放之物也白似雪花。光束荒凉地落在楼阁下层的墙壁之上，却仍将上层的房间留在阴影之中——伊瓦格便正是于此目睹了这一切。

He thought that the beam poured from a pale cloud that had mounted above the sea-line, or else from a white peak that had lifted skyward in the night; but of this he was uncertain. Watching, he saw that it rose higher in the heavens but climbed not upon his walls. Pondering in vain the significance of the mystery, he seemed to hear in the air about him a sweet and wizard voice. And, speaking in a tongue that he knew not, the voice uttered a rune of slumber. And Evagh could not resist the rune, and upon him fell such a numbness of sleep as overcomes the outworn watcher in a place of snow.
他认为光束倾泻自一朵凌驾在海平线上的苍白之云，或自一座在夜晚朝着天空抬升的皓白山峰。但他并不能肯定。眺望着，他看见那光束攀升于天际，却未爬上他的高墙。正当他徒劳地琢磨着此秘景的奥义时，似乎在身边的空气中听见了一把甜美而超然的嗓音。那声音用他所不知的语言念出了一个让人昏昏欲睡的咒语，而伊瓦格无力抵抗。这名疲惫不堪的雪国守望者被攻取了知觉，陷入沉眠之中。

Walking stiffly at dawn, he rose up from the floor where he had lain, and witnessed a strange marvel. For, lo, in the harbour there towered an iceberg such as no vessel had yet sighted in all its sea-faring to the north, and no legend had told of among the dim Hyperborean isles. It filled the broad haven from shore to shore, and sheered up to a height immeasurable with piled escarpments and tiered precipices; and its pinnacles hung like towers in the zenith above the house of Evagh. It was higher than the dread mountain Achoravomas, which belches rivers of flame and liquid stone that pour unquenched through Tscho Vulpanomi to the austral main. It was steeper than the mountain Yarak, which marks the site of the boreal pole; and from it there fell a wan glittering on sea and land. Deathly and terrible was the glittering, and Evagh knew that this was the light he had beheld in the darkness.
黎明时分，他终于从所躺的地板上站起，僵硬地行走着，并目睹了一个怪异的奇迹：一座冰山耸立在海港里。所有船舶都从未在北向的航线中见识过它，而终北群岛上也未曾有过关于它的传说。这座冰山横跨两岸地填满了整个宽广的港湾，陡然撑起层层堆叠的悬崖绝壁，直插天云，莫测高深。它的尖峰则如天顶之塔，悬在伊瓦格的楼阁上空。远处高耸的阿克拉沃马斯山（Achoravomas）仍在源源不灭地喷涌出熔岩火流——它们穿过茨寇·乌尔帕诺米（Tscho Vulpanomi），流入南部的汪洋。而这座冰山比可怕的阿克拉沃马斯山还要高，比至北极点的标志——雅拉克山（Yarak）还要陡峭。一阵惨白的耀光正从冰山洒落在海面和陆地上，这些闪烁的光芒如死亡般可怖。伊瓦格知道，这就是他在黑暗中看到的那道光。

Scarce could he draw breath in the cold that was on the air; and the light of the huge iceberg seared his eyeballs with an exceeding froreness. Yet he perceived an odd thing, that the rays of the glittering fell indirectly and to either side of his house; and the lower chambers, where Ratha and Ahilidis slept, were no longer touched by the beam as in the night; and upon all his house there was naught but the early sun and the morning shadows.
他几乎无法在寒冷的空气中呼吸。巨大冰山射出的光芒以极度的冰寒冻伤了他的眼球。但他还是察觉到了一件怪事：闪耀的光线曲折地落向了他楼阁的两侧，不再如昨夜般光临于拉塔和阿希利迪斯所歇息的下层房间。而照上他楼阁的，除了初生的阳光与晨影，再无它物。

On the shore below he saw the charrings of the beached galley, and amid them the white corpses incombustible by fire. And along the sands and rocks, the fisher-folk were lying or standing upright in still, rigid postures, as if they had come forth from their hiding-places to behold the pale beam and had been smitten by a magic sleep. And the whole harbour-shore, and the garden of Evagh, even to the front threshold of his house, was like a place where frost has fallen thickly over all.
在下方的海岸上，他看到了停靠在岸边的帆船残骸，以及其中那些无法燃烧的白色尸体。沿着沙滩和礁石群，渔民们或躺倒或直立，均以一种僵硬的姿势静止着。仿佛他们从藏身之处走出，目睹了那道苍白的光柱，便被魔幻般的沉眠所侵袭。整个港湾海岸和伊瓦格的花园，甚至直到他楼阁的门槛前，都像被浓霜裹覆着一般。

Again he remembered the saying of Lith; and with much foreboding he descended to the ground story. There, at the northern windows, the boy Ratha and the hag Ahilidis were leaning with faces turned to the light. Stiffly they stood, with wide-open eyes, and a pale terror was in their regard, and upon them was the white death of the galley's crew. And, nearing them, the sorcerer was stayed by the terrible chillness that smote upon him from their bodies.
他又一次想起了里斯的警语；于是，他怀着不祥的预感，下到地面的楼层。男孩拉塔和老妪阿希莉迪丝正倚在北面的窗户边，脸庞转向光芒的所在。他们僵硬地伫立着，双目圆睁，眼神中充盈着黯然的恐惧，而他们身上，爬满了帆船船员身上的那种白色的死亡。当伊瓦格靠近他们时，他们身上散发出的可怕寒气让这名术士止步不前。

He would have fled from the house, knowing his magic wholly ineffectual against this thing. But it came to him that death was in the direct falling of the rays from the iceberg, and, leaving the house, he must perforce enter that fatal light. And it came to him also that he alone, of all who dwelt on that shore, had been exempted from the death. He could not surmise the reason of his exemption; but in the end he deemed it best to remain patiently and without fear, waiting whatever should befall.
他本该逃离楼阁，因为他知道自己的魔法对此完全无效。但他突然想到，那冰山直射的光线当中，蕴含的正是死亡。离开房子，他就必然会进入那道致命的光线。他还想起，住在那片海岸上的所有人中，只有他免于一死。他推测不出自己被豁免的缘故，但最终，他认为最好的办法就是耐心且无畏地静候任何不幸之降临。

Returning to his chamber he busied himself with various conjurations. But his familiars had gone away in the night, forsaking the angles at which he had posted them; and no spirit either human or demoniacal made reply to his questions. And not in any way known to wizards could he learn aught of the iceberg or divine the least inkling of its secret.
回到房间后，他忙着施展各种魔法。但是，他之前所部署在角落的妖灵眷属们，都已在夜里离开；也没有任何人类或恶魔的灵魂回应他的问询。任何的巫师伎俩均对此冰山无以获悉，也无法卜知出关于其秘密最细微的暗示。

Presently, as he laboured with his useless cantrips, he felt on his face the breathing of a wind that was not air but a subtler and rarer element cold as the moon's ether. His own breath forsook him with agonies unspeakable, and he fell down on the floor in a sort of swoon that was near to death. In the swoon he was doubtfully aware of voices uttering unfamiliar spells. Invisible fingers touched him with icy pangs; and about him came and went a bleak radiance, like a tide that flows and ebbs and flows again. Intolerable was the radiance to all his senses; but it brightened slowly, with briefer ebbings; and in time his eyes and his flesh were tempered to endure it. Full upon him now was the light of the iceberg through his northern windows; and it seemed that a great Eye regarded him in the light. He would have risen to confront the Eye; but his swoon held him like a palsy.
随即，正当他为那些无用的咒法而操劳时，他感受到一股吹息落在脸上，而风中的并非空气，却是一种更为微妙且稀有、冷如月之以太的元素。他所呼吸的空气已离他而去，代以无以言喻的痛苦。他跌倒在地板上，陷入一种濒临死亡的昏晕。此间，他隐约地察觉到了一把嗓音正念诵着陌生的咒语。还有看不见的手指触摸着他，冰冷而刺痛。在他周围，来回流转着阴冷的游光，宛如起落不止的潮汐。他的所有感官都无法忍耐此般的炫光。它却冉冉生辉，衰退的期间愈发简短。逐渐，他的眼睛与皮肉都忍受着适应了它。如今，冰山投出的光芒已透过北边的窗户，全然洒照在伊瓦格的身上。而在这道光芒之中，似乎有一只硕大的眼睛凝视着他。他本想站起，直面这只眼睛，可他依然昏晕，如同瘫痪。

After that, he slept again for a period. Waking, he found in all his limbs their wonted strength and quickness. The strange light was still upon him, filling all his chamber; and peering out he witnessed a new marvel. For, lo, his garden and the rocks and sea-sands below it were visible no longer. In their stead were level spaces of ice about his house, and tall ice-pinnacles that rose like towers from the broad battlements of a fortress. Beyond the verges of the ice he beheld a sea that lay remotely and far beneath; and beyond the sea the low looming of a dim shore.
此后，他再次沉眠了一段时间。醒来后，他发现所熟悉的力量与灵敏都重归四肢。那道诡异的光亮仍照在他身上，充盈着整个房间。他向外凝望，见证了一个新的奇迹：他不再能看见他的花园和下方的礁石与海滩。取代它们的是屋舍周围的平坦冰面，以及高耸林立的冰峰，如同从堡垒的广阔城垛上拔起的塔楼。在寒冰的边缘之外，他看到了遥远的大海，离他所在之处甚低。而越过大海，则是一道若隐若现的晦暗滨岸。

Terror came to Evagh now, for he recognized in all this the workings of a sorcery plenipotent and beyond the power of all mortal wizards. For plain it was that his high house of granite stood no longer on the coast of Mhu Thulan, but was based now on some upper crag of the iceberg. Trembling, he knelt then and prayed to the Old Ones, who dwell secretly in subterrene caverns, or abide under the sea or in the supermundane spaces. And even as he prayed, he heard a loud knocking at the door of his house.
此时一阵恐惧向伊瓦格袭来，因为他意识到，这一切都是一种全能之巫术的所为，它超越了所有凡间巫师的力量。他那高大的楼阁已不再矗立于穆图兰海岸，而是坐落在了冰山上层的峭壁上。他颤抖着，跪下，然后祈求于那些秘密栖身在地下洞穴、海底或超凡空间的旧日支配者。而正当他祈祷时，他听见从自己的屋门传来一阵响亮的敲打声。

In much fear and wonder he descended and flung wide the portals. Before him were two men, or creatures who had the likeness of men. Both were strange of visage and bright-skinned, and they wore for mantles such rune-woven stuffs as wizards wear. The runes were uncouth and alien; but when the man bespoke him he understood something of their speech, which was in a dialect of the Hyperborean isles.
在万分的畏惧与惊疑中，他下楼并猛地推开了大门。在他面前的是两个人，或者说是与人相似的生物。二人皆容貌怪异，肤色明亮，披挂着巫师的符文织物一类的斗篷。这些符文粗犷且陌异；但当他们与他说话，伊瓦格便对他们的语言有了些许了解，那是一种终北群岛的方言。

"We serve the One whose coming was foretold by the prophet Lith," they said. "From spaces beyond the limits of the north he hath come in his floating citadel, the ice-mountain Yikilth, to voyage the mundane oceans and to blast with a chill spendour the puny peoples of humankind. He hath spared us alone amid the inhabitants of the broad isle Thulask, and hath taken us to go with him in his sea-faring upon Yikilth. He hath tempered our flesh to the rigour of his abode, and hath made respirable for us the air in which no mortal man may draw breath. Thee also he hath spared and hath acclimated by his spells to the coldness and the thin ether that go everywhere with Yikilth. Hail, O Evagh, whom we know for a great wizard by this token: since only the mightiest of warlocks are thus chosen and exempted."
“吾等侍奉于先知里斯所预言之到临者，”他们说道：“祂已御驾着浮游的城堡——冰山伊基尔斯（Yikilth），从超越终北极限之空间，航渡凡世诸洋，以凌冽之荣光摧折人类之羸民。在广袤的图拉斯克岛（Thulask）的居民中，祂唯独赦免于吾等，并携我们在伊基尔斯上加入祂的航行。祂调节我们的肉身以经受祂领地的严酷，使我们得以吐纳于凡人所无法呼吸之空气。祂亦赦免了你，并以咒法使你适应那随伊基尔斯而行的严寒与稀薄的以太。欢迎你，伊瓦格，我们已知晓你是一名伟大的巫师，因为只有最强大的术士方可被选中与豁除。”

Sorely astonished was Evagh; but seeing that he had now to deal with men who were as himself, he questioned closely the two magicians of Thulask. They were named Dooni and Ux Loddhan, and were wise in the lore of the elder gods. The name of the One that they served was Rlim Shaikorth, and he dwelt in the highest summit of the ice-mountain. They told Evagh nothing of the nature or properties of Rlim Shaikorth; and concerning their own service to this being they avowed only that it consisted of such worship as is given to a god, together with the repudiation of all bonds that had linked them heretofore to mankind. And they told Evagh that he was to go with them before Rlim Shaikorth, and perform the due rite of obeisance, and accept the bond of final alienage.
伊瓦格震惊无比，但他明白现在不得不与这些和自己一样的人打交道，于是便仔细询问了两位图拉斯克的法师。他们名叫杜尼（Dooni）和乌斯·洛丹（Ux Loddhan），精通旧神的学识。他们所侍奉的存在名为鲁林姆·赛科斯（Rlim Shaikorth），栖居于冰山的至高峰。他们没有告诉伊瓦格任何关于鲁林姆·赛科斯的本性或特质；而关于他们自己对这位存在的侍奉，他们也只宣称那包含着对神灵的崇拜，以及对一切使自身关联于人类的纽带之断绝。他们还告诉伊瓦格，他要和他们一起到鲁林姆·赛科斯面前，施行应有的顶礼仪式，并接受最终异化之契约。

So Evagh went with Dooni and Ux Loddhan and was led by them to a great pinnacle of ice that rose unmeltable into the wan sun, beetling above all its fellows on the flat top of the berg. The pinnacle was hollow, and climbing therein by stairs of ice, they came at last to the chamber of Rlim Shaikorth, which was a circular dome with a round block at the center, forming a dais. And on the dais was that being whose advent prophet Lith had foretold obscurely.
伊瓦格便与杜尼、乌斯·洛丹同行，并在他们的带领下，来到了一座巨大的冰峰。这座冰峰在熹微的阳光下巍然耸立，凌驾在平顶所有的冰峰之上。冰峰是中空的，他们沿着其中冰筑的阶梯往上爬，最终到达了鲁林姆·赛科斯的殿堂。那是一个穹状的构造物，中央有一块圆形的凸起，形成一个祭台。而祭台之上的，便是先知里斯曾晦涩地预言了其之问世的那个存在。

At sight of this entity, the pulses of Evagh were stilled for an instant by terror; and, following quickly upon the terror, his gorge rose within him through excess of loathing. In all the world there was naught that could be likened for its foulness to Rlim Shaikorth. Something he had of the semblance of a fat white worm; but his bulk was beyond that of the sea-elephant. His half-coiled tail was thick as the middle folds of his body; and his front reared upward from the dais in the form of a white round disk, and upon it were imprinted vaguely the lineaments of a visage belonging neither to beast of the earth nor ocean-creature. And amid the visage a mouth curved uncleanly from side to side of the disk, opening and shutting incessantly on a pale and tongueless and toothless maw. The eye-sockets of Rlim Shaikorth were close together between his shallow nostrils; and the sockets were eyeless, but in them appeared from moment to moment globules of a blood-coloured matter having the form of eyeballs; and ever the globules broke and dripped down before the dais. And from the ice-floor of the dome there ascended two masses like stalagmites, purple and dark as frozen gore, which had been made by the ceaseless dripping of the globules.
目视着这个实体的存在，伊瓦格的脉搏因恐惧而停止了一瞬；紧接着便因过度的嫌厌而涌起憎恶之情，盖过了恐惧。鲁林姆·赛科斯之污秽，寰宇间也无可比拟。他的外观有如一条肥硕的白色蠕虫，但其躯体比海象更为庞大。他那半卷的尾巴与它身躯中间的褶皱等粗；呈白色圆盘状的首端从祭台向上挺立，上面模糊地浮现出了面孔的轮廓，而这副面孔既不属于陆地野兽，也不属于海洋生物。一张不停地一张一合的大嘴，横在他的脸面中间，从圆面两端裂出一道下流的弧线，直通那无舌无齿的苍白咽喉。鲁林姆·赛科斯的眼窝紧紧相靠，竟在他那平浅的鼻孔之间；眼窝中并未眼眸，却不断瞬变出眼球状的血色液珠——它们不断破碎着，从祭台前滴下，落在穹殿那冰覆的地板上，凝固着堆砌出两块石笋状的聚合体，如同冻结的淤血般暗紫。

Dooni and Ux Loddhan prostrated themselves before the being, and Evagh deemed it well to follow their example. Lying prone on the ice, he heard the red drops falling with a splash as of heavy tears; and then, in the dome above him, it seemed that a voice spoke; and the voice was like the sound of some hidden cataract in a glacier hollow with caverns.
杜尼和乌斯·洛丹伏拜在那个存在面前，而伊瓦格也认为应当效仿他们。他俯身于冰面上，听见那赤红的液滴像倾盘的泪水般飞溅而下；随后，在他上方的穹顶中，似乎有一把声音在说话，像是深藏于中空的冰川内的瀑布所传出声响。

"Behold, O Evagh," said the voice. "I have preserved thee from the doom of thy fellow-men, and have made thee as they that inhabit the bourn of coldness, and they that inhale the airless void. Wisdom ineffable shall be thine, and mastery beyond the conquest of mortals, if thou wilt but worship me and become my thrall. With me thou shalt voyage amid the kingdoms of the north, and shalt pass among the green southern islands, and see the white falling of death upon them in the light from Yikilth. Our coming shall bring eternal frost on their gardens, and shall set upon their people's flesh the seal of that gulf whose rigor paleth one by one the most ardent stars, and putteth rime at the core of suns. All this thou shalt witness, being as one of the lords of death, supernal and immortal; and in the end thou shalt return with me to that world beyond the uttermost pole, in which is mine abiding empire. For I am he whose coming even the gods may not oppose."
“看吧，伊瓦格！”那把声音说道。“吾已从彼之同胞的噩运中护尔周全，亦将尔塑为寒冰之领域的栖身者、无气之虚空的吐纳者。若尔愿崇拜于吾，作吾之奴仆，尔将获得不可言喻的智慧，以及凡人所无法超越的造诣。尔将同吾航行于北方列国之间，也将越过葱绿的南部群岛，目睹白色之死亡在伊基尔斯的凛光中降临于世人。吾等之到临将永恒冰霜带至他们的庭园，在他们人民的肉体刻上那道深渊的印记。而那严酷的深渊将使最炽热的星辰一颗接着一颗地褪色，并将白霜灌入太阳的核心。尔将见证这一切，作为死亡领主的一员，超凡且不朽。而最终，尔将同吾回归那极点之外的世界，吾所栖居的国度之中。因吾即是那众神也无法阻止的到临者。”

Now, seeing that he was without choice in the matter, Evagh professed himself willing to yield worship and service to the pale worm. Beneath the instruction of Dooni and Ux Loddhan, he performed the sevenfold rite that is scarce suitable for narration here, and swore the threefold vow of unspeakable alienation.
如此一来，伊瓦格知道自己在此事上别无选择，便表示愿意向那苍白之蠕虫献上崇拜与侍奉。在杜尼和乌斯·洛丹的指示下，他举行了不宜在此叙述的七重仪式，并立下了那难以言说之异化的三重誓约。

Thereafter, for many days and nights, he sailed with Rlim Shaikorth adown the coast of Mhu Thulan. Strange was the manner of that voyaging, for it seemed that the great iceberg was guided by the sorcery of the worm, prevailing ever against wind and tide. And always, by night or day, like the beams of a deathly beacon, the chill splendour smote afar from Yikilth. Proud galleys were overtaken as they fled southward, and their crews were blasted at the oars; and often ships were caught and embedded in the new bastions of ice that formed daily around the base of that ever-growing mountain.
此后的许多个日日夜夜，他随同鲁林姆·赛科斯沿着穆图兰海岸航行。此次航行的方式很是怪异，因为那座巨大的冰山似乎受到那条蠕虫的巫术所指引，在与风浪的角逐中行若无阻。无论白天还是黑夜，寒冷的光辉总是像死亡灯塔的光束般，从伊基尔斯远远地迸射而出。雄伟壮观的大帆船在向南逃窜的途中被追越，船员们则在桨边受到霜流冲震而凋亡；时常都有船只在那不断生长之冰山的脚下被捕获，被嵌入附近那些每天都在形成的新生冰垒之中。

The fair Hyperborean ports, busy with maritime traffic, were stilled by the passing of Rlim Shaikorth. Idle were their streets and wharves, idle was the shipping in their harbours, when the pale light had come and gone. Far inland fell the rays, bringing to the fields and gardens a blight of trans-Arctic winter; and forests were frozen and the beasts that roamed them were turned as if into marble, so that men who came long afterward to that region found the elk and bear and mammoth still standing in all the postures of life. But, dwelling upon Yikilth, the sorcerer Evagh was immune to the icy death; and, sitting in his house or walking abroad on the berg, he was aware of no sharper cold than that which abides in summer shadows.
那些终北之地上的美丽港口，以及它们繁盛的海上交通，都已因鲁林姆·赛科斯的穿行而静止。那苍白的光芒到来而又离去，停滞下来的便有它们的街道与码头，以及海港中已是纹丝不动的船舶。光束降临在遥远的内陆，将北极以外的寒冬之荒芜，捎至田地与花园；森林被冻结，而漫步其中的野兽皆僵死如白玉，以致许久以后造访于此的人类会发现驼鹿、熊与猛犸均仍以存活般的姿态伫立在原地。而栖身于伊基尔斯的术士伊瓦格，则免疫了凛冽的凋亡。他坐在自己的屋阁中，或巡游于冰山上，都能感受到那夏日阴影中最为锋锐刺骨的冰寒。

Now, beside Dooni and Ux Loddhan, the sorcerers of Thulask, there were five other wizards that went with Evagh on that voyage, having been chosen by Rlim Shaikorth. They too had been tempered to the coldness by Yikilth, and their houses had been transported to the berg by unknown enchantment. They were outlandish and uncouth men, called Polarians, from islands nearer the pole than broad Thulask; and Evagh could understand little of their ways; and their sorcery was foreign to him, and their speech was unintelligible; nor was it known to the Thulaskians.
如今，除了图拉斯克的术士杜尼和乌斯·洛丹之外，还有五名巫师被鲁林姆·赛科斯选中，与伊瓦格一同出航。他们也已被伊基尔斯重塑得适配严寒，其屋阁也被不知名的魔法传送到了冰山上。他们皆是异乡的陌生人，称作极地之民，来自比辽阔的图拉斯克更北、离地极更近的岛屿。伊瓦格对他们的习俗几乎一无所知，而他们的巫术和语言也是陌生而难以理解，对图拉斯克人而言，亦是如此。

Daily the eight wizards found on their tables all the provender necessary for human sustenance; though they knew not the agency by which it was supplied. All were united in the worship of the white worm; and all, it seemed, were content in a measure with their lot, and were fain of that unearthly lore and dominion which the worm had promised them. But Evagh was uneasy at heart, and rebelled in secret against his thralldom to Rlim Shaikorth; and he beheld with revulsion the doom that went forth eternally from Yikilth upon lovely cities and fruitful ocean-shores. Ruthfully he saw the blasting of flower-girdled Cerngoth, and the boreal stillness that descended on the thronged streets of Leqquan, and the frost that seared with sudden whiteness the garths and orchards of the sea-fronting valley of Aguil. And sorrow was in his heart for the fishing-coracles and the biremes of trade and warfare that floated manless after they had met Yikilth.
八名巫师每天都能在自己的桌子上找到人类赖以生存的一切必需品，尽管他们不知这些是通过什么供给。所有人都聚在一起，对那白色蠕虫顶礼膜拜，似乎都在某种程度上对自己的处境感到满足，并欣然向往着白色蠕虫许诺给他们的异世学识与凡世统治。伊瓦格却心怀不安，暗中反抗着鲁林姆·赛科斯对他的束缚；他嫌恶地注视着伊基尔斯永恒散发的噩运袭向迷人的城市与富饶的海岸。他哀怜地目睹了繁花簇拥的森戈夫（Cerngoth）的毁灭、笼罩在勒克匡（Leqquan）熙攘街道上那极寒的寂静，以及使阿圭尔（Aguil）临海山谷的庭院和果林骤然凋零的白霜。他的心为那些渔船、双层桨座的商船或战舰而悲恸——它们在遇到伊基尔斯之后便已无人生还，只是漫无目的地漂浮着。

Ever southward sailed the great iceberg, bearing its lethal winter to lands where the summer sun rode high. And Evagh kept his own counsel, and followed in all ways the custom of Dooni and Ux Loddhan and the others. At intervals that were regulated by the motions of the circumpolar stars, the eight wizards climbed to that lofty chamber in which Rlim Shaikorth abode perpetually, half-coiled on his dais of ice. There, in a ritual whose cadences corresponded to the falling of those eye-like tears that were wept by the worm, and with genuflections timed to the yawning and shutting of his mouth, they yielded to Rlim Shaikorth the required adoration. Sometimes the worm was silent, and sometimes he bespoke them, renewing vaguely the promises he had made. And Evagh learned from the others that the worm slept for a period at each darkening of the moon; and only at that time did the sanguine tears suspend their falling, and the mouth forbear its alternate closing and gaping.
巨大的冰山不歇地南行，承载着那致命的严冬，驶向盛夏骄阳所高照的土地。伊瓦格隐瞒了自己的想法，并处处遵循杜尼、乌斯·洛丹和其他人的习惯。八位巫师会根据周极星的运行规律，每隔一段时间便登上鲁林姆·赛科斯的高殿——祂半蜷着盘踞在坚冰祭台上，终生栖居于此。在那里，他们以一种呼应着蠕虫落下眼状泪滴的节律，在仪式中配合着虫口张合的时机跪拜，向鲁林姆·赛科斯献上必须的崇敬。蠕虫时而缄口不言，时而含糊不清地重申着自己许下的承诺。伊瓦格从其他人那里得知，每逢月黑之时，蠕虫都会沉睡一段时间；只有在这个时候，血红的眼泪才会停止滴落，而嘴巴那些交替的张合也会被克制住。

At the third repetition of the rites of worship, it came to pass that only seven wizards climbed to the tower. Evagh, counting their number, perceived that the missing man was one of the five outlanders. Afterwards, he questioned Dooni and Ux Loddhan regarding this matter, and made signs of inquiry to the four northrons; but it seemed that the fate of the absent warlock was a thing mysterious to them all. Nothing was seen or heard of him from that time; and Evagh, pondering long and deeply, was somewhat disquieted. For, during the ceremony in the tower chamber, it had seemed to him that the worm was grosser of bulk and girth than on any prior occasion.
在重复举行第三次祭拜仪式时，只有七个巫师登上了塔楼。伊瓦格清点了他们的人数，发现失踪的是五个外乡人之一。随后，他就此事询问了杜尼和乌斯·洛丹，并以手势向其余四个北民探查，但似乎那名失踪术士的命运对他们而言皆为莫测之神秘。从那以后，再无他的踪影或消息；伊瓦格沉思良久，略感不安，因为在那高殿中的祭典上，他觉得那只蠕虫的躯体与围长似乎比以往任何时候都要硕大。

Covertly he asked what manner of nutriment was required by Rlim Shaikorth. Concerning this, there was much dubiety and dispute: for Ux Loddhan maintained that the worm fed on nothing less unique than the hearts of white Arctic bears; while Dooni swore that his rightful nourishment was the liver of whales. But, to their knowledge, the worm had not eaten during their sojourn upon Yikilth; and both averred that the intervals between his times of feeding were longer than those of any terrestrial creature, being computable not in hours or days but in whole years.
他私下地提出疑问：鲁林姆·赛科斯何以汲养？关于此问，有着重重疑点与争论。乌斯·洛丹断言其独以北极白熊之心为食；杜尼则发誓其食物当为鲸鱼之肝脏。但据他们所知，这只蠕虫在他们逗留于伊基尔斯的期间内未曾进食；两人都宣称，此蠕虫的进食间隔比任何地球上的生灵都要长久，并非以小时或天数计算，而是以年作衡量。

Still the iceberg followed its course, ever vaster and more prodigious beneath the heightening sun; and again, at the star-appointed time, which was the forenoon of every third day, the sorcerers convened in the presence of Rlim Shaikorth. To the perturbation of all, their number was now but six; and the lost warlock was another of the outlanders. And the worm had greatened still more in size; and the increase was visible as a thickening of his whole body from head to tail.
在高升的太阳照射下，冰山仍旧依循着航线前行，并变得愈发宽阔且庞大；在星辰运转的命定之机——每隔三天的正午时分，巫师们再次在鲁林姆·赛科斯的面前聚首。令所有人不安的是，他们现在只余下六人；遗失的正是另一位外乡人。而那只蠕虫的体型增长得更大，从头到尾整副身躯都肉眼可见地变粗了。

Deeming these circumstances an ill augury, the six made fearful supplication to the worm in their various tongues, and implored him to tell them the fate of their absent fellows. And the worm answered; and his speech was intelligible to Evagh and Ux Loddhan and Dooni and the three northrons, each thinking that he had been addressed in his native language.
六人相信这是一种不祥之兆，于是用各自的语言心怀忧虑地向蠕虫祈求，恳请祂吐露缺席同伴之命运。蠕虫作出了回应。伊瓦格、乌斯·洛丹、杜尼和三个北地人都能听懂祂的话语，而每个人都以为祂是在用自己的母语说话。

"This matter is a mystery concerning which ye shall all receive enlightenment in turn. Know this: the two that have vanished are still present; and they and ye also shall share even as I have promised in the ultramundane lore and empery of Rlim Shaikorth."
“此事关乎奥秘，尔等皆将依次受启。知悉此谛：彼二遗者仍存；彼者与尔等皆将平分吾之应允——鲁林姆·赛科斯之超凡学识与至高统治。”

Afterwards, when they had descended from the tower, Evagh and the two Thulaskians debated the interpretation of this answer. Evagh maintained that the import was sinister, for truly their missing companions were present only in the worm's belly; but the others argued that these men had undergone a more mystical translation and were now elevated beyond human sight and hearing. Forthwith they began to make ready with prayer and austerity, in expectation of some sublime apotheosis which would come to them in due turn. But Evagh was still fearful; and he could not trust the equivocal pledges of the worm; and doubt remained with him.
之后，当他们从塔上下来时，伊瓦格和两个图拉斯克人就对此回应的诠释展开了辩论。伊瓦格主张其意味险恶，他们失踪的同伴定然只会在蠕虫的腹内；其他人则认为，那两人经历了更为神妙的转化与升阶，已超越了人类视听的感知。于是，他们开始为祈祷和苦修作准备，期盼着某种崇高的神化会在适当的时机降临其身。然而伊瓦格依旧畏惧不已；他无法相信蠕虫那模棱两可的保证，心中仍留有疑虑。

Seeking to assuage his doubt and peradventure to find some trace of the lost Polarians, he made search of the mighty berg, on whose battlements his own house and the houses of the other warlocks were perched like the tiny huts of fishers on ocean-cliffs. In this quest the others would not accompany him, fearing to incur the worm's displeasure. From verge to verge of Yikilth he roamed unhindered, as if on some broad plateau with peaks and horns; and he climbed perilously on the upper scarps, and went down into deep crevasses and caverns where the sun failed and there was no other light than the strange luster of that unearthly ice. Embedded here in the walls, as if in the stone of nether strata, he saw dwellings such as men had never built, and vessels that might belong to other ages or worlds; but nowhere could he detect the presence of any living creature; and no spirit or shadow gave response to the necromatic evocations which he uttered oftentimes as he went along the chasms and chambers.
伊瓦格不确定能否寻得遗失的极地民之踪迹，为了缓和这种疑虑，他在这座宏大的冰山展开了搜索。而它的宏大，使术士们沿着冰山卫墙坐落的屋阁，都像是海崖上微不足道的渔夫小屋。此次探险中，并无他人与伊瓦格同行，因他们均惧怕会招致蠕虫的不悦。从边缘到边缘，他畅通无阻地漫步在伊基尔斯，如履点缀着峰角的开阔高原。他登上险峻的峭壁，探入深邃的冰隙与洞窟——此处日华式微，除却寒冰泛出的异泽，别无光芒。在此，他看见了那些凡人从未造出的居所，以及可能属于另外的时代或世界的船舰。它们嵌入冰墙，仿佛深埋在冥界的岩层中。然而，他却察觉不到任何生命的存在。即使他一路在深渊与洞穴中频繁吟诵着招魂秘咒，也没有任何精魂或幽灵响应他的召唤。

So Evagh was still apprehensive of the worm's treachery; and he resolved to remain awake on the night preceding the next celebration of the rites of worship; and at eve of that night he assured himself that the other wizards were all housed in their separate mansions, to the number of five. And, having ascertained this, he set himself to watch without remission the entrance of Rlim Shaikorth's tower, which was plainly visible from his own windows.
伊瓦格仍旧为蠕虫的背信而忧虑不已，于是他决定在下一次崇拜仪式的前一晚保持清醒。而在那天的傍晚，他确认了其他五名巫师都独处于各自的宅邸之后，他便目不转睛地从自己的窗户守望着鲁林姆·赛科斯那明晰可见的高塔入口。

Weird and chill was the shining of the berg in the darkness; for a light as of frozen stars was effulgent at all times from the ice. A moon that was little past the full arose early on the orient seas. But Evagh, holding vigil at his window till midnight, saw that no visible form emerged from the tall tower, and none entered it. At midnight there came upon him a sudden drowsiness, such as would be felt by one who had drunk some opiate wine; and he could not sustain his vigil any longer but slept deeply and unbrokenly throughout the remainder of the night.
在黑暗中，冰山的耀光诡异而寒冷。那道仿佛来自冰冻星球的光束，始终从坚冰里迸射着璀璨的寒芒。刚过满月期的月亮，在东方的海上初升。尽管伊瓦格在窗前持续地监视着，但直至午夜，都未见任何从高塔显现或出入其中之形体。就在此时，一阵突如其来的困意袭来。就如同饮用了鸦片酒那般，他再也无法保持警戒，在连贯的沉睡中度过了残余的夜晚。

On the following day there were but four sorcerers who gathered in the ice-dome and gave hommage to Rlim Shaikorth. And Evagh saw that two more of the outlanders, men of bulk and stature dwarfish beyond their fellows, were now missing.
翌日，聚集在冰穹内向鲁林姆·赛科斯致敬的，有且仅有四名术士。伊瓦格发现，如今，又有两名外乡人——那两名体格与身型比其同伴们更为矮小的外乡人，下落不明。

One by one thereafter, on nights preceding the ceremony of worship, the companions of Evagh vanished. The last Polarian was next to go; and it came to pass that only Evagh and Ux Loddhan and Dooni went to the tower; and then Evagh and Ux Loddhan went alone. And terror mounted daily in Evagh, for he felt that his own time drew near; and he would have hurled himself into the sea from the high ramparts of Yikilth, if Ux Loddhan, who perceived his intention, had not warned him that no man could depart therefrom and live again in solar warmth and terrene air, having been habituated to the coldness and thin ether. And Ux Loddhan, it seemed, was wholly oblivious to his doom, and was fain to impute an esoteric significance to the ever-growing bulk of the white worm and the vanishing of the wizards.
在每一次祭拜仪式的前夜，伊瓦格的同伴们接连消失。接下来的一次，最后一个极地民也不见踪影，只有伊瓦格、乌斯·洛丹和杜尼前往了塔楼；再后来，独余伊瓦和乌斯·洛丹。伊瓦格的恐惧与日俱增，因为他感觉自己的时日将至；如果不是乌斯·洛丹察觉出了他的意图，警告他说没人能够脱离伊基尔斯并重新生存于太阳的温暖和凡间的空气中——因为他已经习惯了寒冷和稀薄的以太，伊瓦格本已从高大的冰山壁垒上跃下，逃遁入海。而乌斯·洛丹似乎对自己的厄运全然不知，还热衷于为白色蠕虫的不断壮大和巫师们的接连消失赋予晦涩玄妙的奥义。

So, at that time when the moon had waned and darkened wholly, it occurred that Evagh climbed before Rlim Shaikorth with infinite trepidation and loath, laggard steps. And, entering the dome with downcast eyes, he found himself to be the sole worshipper.
于是，在月亮彻底暗淡无光之时，伊瓦格怀着无限的惶恐与不愿，拖着迟疑的步伐爬上阶梯，来到鲁林姆·赛科斯面前。他眉目低垂地走进穹殿，竟发现自己已成唯一的礼拜者。

A palsy of fear was upon him as he made obeisance; and scarcely he dared to lift his eyes and regard the worm. But even as he began to perform the customary genuflections, he became aware that the red tears of Rlim Shaikorth no longer fell on the purple stalagmites; nor was there any sound such as the worm was wont to make by the perpetual opening and shutting of his mouth. And venturing at last to look upward, Evagh beheld the abhorrently swollen mass of the monster, whose thickness was such as to overhang the dais' rim; and he saw that the mouth and eye-holes of Rlim Shaikorth were closed as if in slumber; and thereupon he recalled how the wizards of Thulask had told him that the worm slept for an interval at the darkening of each moon; which was a thing he had forgotten temporarily in his extreme dread and apprehension.
当他行礼时，一阵因恐惧而生的颤抖爬满全身，而他几乎不敢抬眼望向那条蠕虫。当他开始那惯例的跪拜时，他察觉到鲁林姆·赛科斯的红泪已不再滴落到紫色的冰柱上，也没有听见蠕虫那永远张合着的嘴巴所发出的声响。最后，伊瓦格冒险地朝上张望，只见怪物那令人憎恶的肿胀身躯，粗厚得甚至溢出了祭台的边缘；他还看到，鲁林姆·赛科斯的口器与眼孔都紧闭着，就像在沉睡一般；随即，他便记起了一件在极度恐惧和忧虑中暂时忘却的事情：图拉斯克的巫师曾告诉他，每当月黑之际，蠕虫都会沉眠一段时间。

Now was Evagh sorely bewildered, for the rites he had learned from his fellows could be fittingly performed only while the tears of Rlim Shaikorth fell down and his mouth gaped and closed and gaped again in measured alternation. And none had instructed him as to what rites were proper and suitable during the slumber of the worm. And, being in much doubt, he said softly: "Wakest thou, O Rlim Shaikorth?"
此时，伊瓦格万分困惑。因为他从同伴那里学会的仪式，只当鲁林姆·赛科斯的红泪滴落、大嘴节律地交替张合时，方可被适切地施行。也从未有人指引过他，何为施行于蠕虫沉睡期间的适当仪式。他心怀疑惑，柔声问道：“您醒着吗？伟大的鲁林姆·赛科斯？”

In reply, he seemed to hear a multitude of voices that issued obscurely from out the pale, tumid mass before him. The sound of the voices was weirdly muffled, but among them he distinguished the accents of Dooni and Ux Loddhan; and there was a thick muttering of outlandish words which Evagh knew for the speech of the five Polarians; and beneath this he caught, or seemed to catch, innumerable undertones that were not the voices of men or beasts, nor such sounds as would be emitted by earthly demons. And the voices rose and clamoured, like those of a throng of prisoners in some profound oubliette.
作为回应，他似乎听见从眼前那苍白、肿胀的团块传出了一阵含糊且嘈杂的嗓音。那复合的声响沉闷得诡异，但他还是在其中分辨出了杜尼与乌斯·洛丹的口音；他还听见一阵浑厚的嘟囔，正是由伊瓦格从那五位极地民口中认识的异乡言语所组成。在此之下，他察觉到了——或者说，仿佛是察觉到了无数的低语声，它们绝不发自任何人类、野兽甚至此方世界的恶魔。随后，这些嗓音愈发响亮且喧嚣，如同众多被困于地下深处的密牢之囚徒所迫发的呼喊。

Anon, as he listened in horror ineffable, the voice of Dooni became articulate above the others; and the manifold clamour and muttering ceased, as if a multitude were hushed to hear its own spokesman. And Evagh heard the tones of Dooni, saying:
他倾听着，感到一种难以言喻的恐惧。旋即，杜尼的嗓音变得清晰起来，盖过其它声音，而纷乱的喧哗与呢喃也都戛然而止，如同民众为了聆听自己的代言人而噤声一般。然后，伊瓦格听见了杜尼的讲话：

"The worm sleepeth, but we whom the worm hath devoured are awake. Direly has he deceived us, for he came to our houses in the night, devouring us bodily one by one as we slept under the enchantment he had wrought. He has eaten our souls even as our bodies, and verily we are part of Rlim Shaikorth, but exist only as in a dark and noisome dungeon; and while the worm wakes we have no separate or conscious being, but are merged wholly in the ultraterrestrial being of Rlim Shaikorth.
“蠕虫业已入眠，而吾等受其吞噬者已醒。他严重地欺骗了我们：他在夜里来到我们的屋阁，当我们在他编织的妖术下沉睡，他便一个接一个地吞噬我们的肉身。我们确实成为了鲁林姆·赛科斯的一部分，却仅仅存在于一座令人嫌恶的黑暗地牢里；一旦蠕虫苏醒，我们便不再是独立或清醒的存在，而被浑然地融进鲁林姆·赛科斯之异世存在。”

"Hear then, O Evagh, the truth we have learned from our oneness with the worm. He has saved us from the white doom and has taken us upon Yikilth for this reason, because we alone of all mankind, who are sorcerers of high attainment and mastery, may endure the lethal ice-change and become breathers of the airless void, and thus, in the end, be made suitable for the provender of such as Rlim Shaikorth.
“伊瓦格，请听我们在与蠕虫的合一中所领悟的真相。他将我们从白色的厄运中拯救，并带至伊基尔斯，就是为此原由。因为在所有人类中，只有我们这些造诣高深且精湛的巫师，方可忍受致命的寒冰转化，成为无气虚空之吐纳者，从而最终被改造为鲁林姆·赛科斯的食粮。”

"Great and terrible is the worm, and the place wherefrom he cometh and whereto he returneth is not to be dreamt of by living men. And the worm is omniscient, save that he knows not the waking of them he has devoured, and their awareness during his slumber. But the worm, though ancient beyond the antiquity of worlds, is not immortal and is vulnerable in one particular. Whosoever learneth the time and means of his vulnerability and hath heart for this undertaking, may slay him easily. And the time for the deed is during his term of sleep. Therefore we adjure thee now by the faith of the Old Ones to draw the sword thou wearest beneath thy mantle and plunge it in the side of Rlim Shaikorth: for such is the means of his slaying.
“蠕虫强大而可怕，它的来处与归处皆非生者所能臆想。除却受其吞噬者的苏醒以及他们在它沉睡时的意识，蠕虫无所不知。然而，尽管蠕虫古老得超越了世界的历史，却并非永生不灭。它有一个弱点，知晓其脆弱时机与克敌方法的有心之人，便能轻而易举地屠戮他。而下手的时机就在其入睡之际。因此，我们现在以对旧日支配者的忠诚起誓，请拔出你斗篷下的配剑，刺入鲁林姆·赛科斯的身侧——这便是杀伐蠕虫之法。”

"Thus alone, O Evagh, shall the going forth of the pale death be ended; and only thus shall we, thy fellow-sorcerers, obtain release from our blind thralldom and incarceration; and with us many that the worm hath betrayed and eaten in former ages and upon distant worlds. And only by the doing of this thing shalt thou escape the wan and loathly mouth of the worm, nor abide henceforward as a doubtful ghost among other ghosts in the evil blackness of his belly. But know, however, that he who slayeth Rlim Shaikorth must necessarily perish in the slaying."
"伊瓦格，唯此，苍白之死灭才会终结；也仅此，吾等——你的术士伙伴们，方能从我们视而不见的奴役与监禁中得到解脱；在过去的岁月里，在遥远的大千世界中，蠕虫经已背弃并吞食过许多人。只有如此，你才能逃过那可怕的蠕虫巨口，才不会化作一个玄虚的鬼魂，与其它鬼魂一同，从此容身于他胃囊里的邪恶黑暗之中。但请知悉，屠戮鲁林姆·赛科斯之人必将毙命于此杀伐之举。"

Evagh, being wholly astounded, made question of Dooni and was answered readily concerning all that he asked. And often-times the voice of Ux Loddhan replied to him; and sometimes there were unintelligible murmurs as outcries from certain others of those foully enmewed phantoms. Much did Evagh learn of the worm's origin and essence; and he was told the secret of Yikilth, and the manner wherein Yikilth had floated down from trans-Arctic gulfs to voyage the seas of Earth. Ever, as he listened, his abhorrence greatened: though deeds of dark sorcery and conjured devils had long indurated his flesh and soul, making him callous to more than common horrors. But of that which he learned it were ill to speak now.
伊瓦格身心震骇，连忙向杜尼发问，而对方也迅速地悉数回答。乌斯·洛丹的声音也经常回应着他；偶尔还有其他一些难以理解的咕哝声，那是其他被囚禁的幽魂所发出的呼号。伊瓦格获悉了许多关于蠕虫之起源与本质的学识；还被告知了伊基尔斯的秘密，以及这座冰山自北极之外的鸿渊飘浮着降临世间并航越地球诸洋之门径。他听着，心中的痛恨愈发深重：虽然黑巫术的行径与召唤的魔鬼早已麻木了他的肉与灵，使他能对非同寻常的恐怖无动于衷。但关于他此时所了解到的可憎之物，光是说出来都会感到不适。

At length there was silence in the dome; for the worm slept soundly, and Evagh had no longer any will to question the ghost of Dooni; and they that were imprisoned with Dooni seemed to wait and watch in a stillness of death.
最终，穹殿里只剩下一片静默；蠕虫酣然沉眠，伊瓦格再无问询杜尼之幽魂的意愿；而与杜尼一同受困的众者，似乎也正等候、观望于这片死寂中。

Then, being a man of much hardihood and resolution, Evagh delayed no more but drew from its ivory sheath the short but well-tempered sword of bronze which he carried always at his baldric. Approaching the dais closely, he plunged the blade in the over-swelling mass of Rlim Shaikorth. The blade entered easily with a slicing and tearing motion, as if he had stabbed a monstrous bladder, and was not stayed even by the broad pommel; and the whole right hand of Evagh was drawn after it into the wound.
随后，伊瓦格——这个坚毅果敢之人，未再耽搁片刻。他从一直挂在肩带上的象牙剑鞘中抽出了那把精良的青铜短剑，走近祭台，将剑猛插进鲁林姆·赛科斯那过度肿胀的肉山里。剑刃轻而易举地穿刺而入，切割并撕裂着，仿佛扎进了一个巨大的液囊，甚至连宽大的剑柄也没被卡住，连同伊瓦格的整只右手也跟着没入了伤口。

He perceived no quiver or stirring of the worm, but out of the wound there gushed a sudden torrent of black liquescent matter, swiftening and deepening irresistibly till the sword was caught from Evagh's grasp as if in a mill-race. Hotter far than blood, and smoking with strange steam-like vapors, the liquid poured over his arms and splashed his raiment as it fell. Quickly the ice was a-wash about his feet; but still the fluid welled as if from some inexhaustible spring of foulness; and it spread everywhere in pools and runlets that came together.
他没有察觉到蠕虫丝毫的颤抖或动弹，但从伤口处突然迸出一股黑色的液态物质。涌流无法抑制地越发湍急、深暗，直到伊瓦格的剑像陷入了磨粉机的快速运转中那般，从他的手中被夺去。这股液体比鲜血还要炽热，冒着诡异的蒸汽，倾泻于他的双臂并在下落中飞溅到其衣服上。很快，他脚下的冰层便被淹没；但流体依旧不断涌出，仿佛来自某座永不枯竭的污浊之泉；它四处蔓延着，汇聚成了水潭和溪流。

Evagh would have fled then; but the sable liquid, mounting and flowing, was above his ankles when he neared the stair-head; and it rushed adown the stairway before him like a cataract in some steeply pitching cavern. Hotter and hotter it grew, boiling, bubbling; while the current strengthened, and clutched at him and drew him like malignant hands. He feared to essay the downward stairs; nor was there any place now in all the dome where he could climb for refuge. He turned, striving against the tide for bare foothold, and saw dimly through the reeking vapours the throned mass of Rlim Shaikorth. The gash had widened prodigiously, and a stream surged from it like the waters of a broken weir, billowing outward around the dais; and yet, as if in further proof of the worm's unearthly nature, his bulk was in no wise diminished thereby. And still the black liquid came in an evil flood; and it rose swirling about the knees of Evagh; and the vapours seemed to take the forms of a myriad press of phantoms, wreathing obscurely together and dividing once more as they went past him. Then, as he tottered and grew giddy on the stair-head, he was swept away and was hurled to his death on the ice-steps far below.
伊瓦格本想逃跑，可当他接近阶梯的顶口时，那升涨、涌流着的漆黑液体已没过了他的脚踝，并沿着他面前的阶梯猛冲直下，形如一道险陡溶洞中的瀑布。液体变得越发酷热，沸腾着，起泡着；同时，水流也更加汹涌，仿佛伸出一双双恶毒的手，紧握、拉扯着他。他不敢尝试去通过那向下的阶梯，但如今穹殿里也没有任何地方可供他登高避险。他奋力抵抗着浪潮，寻求着立足之地。而透过蒸汽，他隐约地看见了宝座上鲁林姆·赛科斯的肉山。那道深入的伤口经已豁然扩开，如同缺堤之堰，水流则从中激迸而出，在祭台周围向外翻腾；不仅如此，仿佛是为了进一步证明蠕虫的非凡本质，他的躯体还丝毫没有缩小。黑色的液体依然不断地涌现成邪恶的洪流，涡旋着升涨到了伊瓦格的膝盖处。蒸汽似乎呈现出了无数幽魂的虚影，若隐若现地相互萦绕，又在穿过他时再次分离。旋即，就当他在阶梯顶口前摇摇欲坠、头昏目眩之时，他便被席卷而去，摔向下方远处的冰阶上，堕入死亡。

That day, on the sea to eastward of middle Hyperborea, the crews of certain merchant galleys beheld an unheard-of thing. For, lo, as they sped north, returning from far ocean-isles with a wind that aided their oars, they sighted in the late forenoon a monstrous iceberg whose pinnacles and crags loomed high as mountains. The berg shone in part with a weird light; and from its loftiest pinnacle poured an ink-black torrent; and all the ice-cliffs and buttresses beneath were a-stream with rapids and cascades and sheeted falls of the same blackness, that fumed like boiling water as they plunged oceanward; and the sea around the iceberg was clouded and streaked for a wide interval as if with the dark fluid of the cuttlefish.
那天，在终北大陆中部东方的海面上，几艘商船的船员们目击了一件闻所未闻之事。当他们从遥远的海岛乘风划桨，快速地向北返航时，他们在午后观察到了一座巨大的冰山，其尖峰与峭壁赫然耸现，岿巍如山。冰山的某个部分照耀出一道诡异的光芒；从冰山最高耸的顶峰上，则涌出一股墨黑色的洪流；冰山下的所有冰崖与扶壁上都奔涌着同样漆黑的激流与瀑布，它们就如同沸腾之水，冒着热气向大海跌去；而冰山周围云雾缭绕，海面上相间着宽广的条纹，仿佛是被墨鱼的黑色汁液所侵染一般。

The mariners feared to sail closer; but, full of awe and marvelling, they stayed their oars and lay watching the berg; and the wind dropped, so that their galleys drifted within view of it all that day. They saw that the berg dwindled swiftly, melting as though some unknown fire consumed it; and the air took on a strange warmth, and the water about their ships grew tepid. Crag by crag the ice was runneled and eaten away; and huge portions fell off with a mighty splashing; and the highest pinnacle collapsed; but still the blackness poured out as from an unfathomable fountain. The mariners thought, at whiles, that they beheld houses running seaward amid the loosened fragments; but of this they were uncertain because of those ever-mounting vapours. By sunset-time the berg had diminished to a mass no larger than a common floe; yet still the welling blackness overstreamed it; and it sank low in the wave; and the weird light was quenched altogether. Thereafter, the night being moonless, it was lost to vision; and a gale rose, blowing strongly from the south; and at dawn the sea was void of any remnant.
海员们不敢驶近，而是满怀着敬畏与惊奇，停止了划桨，注视着冰山。海风也渐渐平息，以至于他们的帆船在那一整天里都漂泊在它的光景之下。他们看见那座冰山迅速地缩小、融化着，如同某种未知的火焰正吞噬着它。空气承载着一种奇怪的温暖，而他们船边的海水也变得微热。一座又一座的寒冰峭壁被消融出河溪，又被流水所侵蚀。巨大的山体伴着滂沱的水花坠落入海，就连那座最高的顶峰也一并崩塌。但那黑色的涌流仍不停歇，仿佛源自一座无底的喷泉。有时候，海员们认为自己看见了有房屋混在冰山的碎片之中，一同流奔大海，但由于那些始终笼罩其上的蒸汽，他们也无法确定自己的所见。到了日落时分，冰山已缩至不过一座寻常浮冰的大小，在海浪中沉降着。而那些黑色的液体仍不断地涌流其上。那道诡异的光辉也已彻底熄灭。接下来的那个夜晚，不见月明，也不再能看见它。而后一阵风暴骤起，自南方强袭而来。再当拂晓，海上已无冰山的残迹。

Concerning the matters related above, many and various legends have gone forth throughout Mhu Thulan and all the extreme Hyperboreal kingdoms and archipelagoes, even to the southmost isle of Oszhtror. The truth is not in such tales: for no man has known the truth heretofore. But I, the sorcerer Eibon, calling up through my necromancy the wave-wandering spectre of Evagh, have learned from him the veritable history of the worm's advent. And I have written it down in my volume with such omissions as are needful for the sparing of mortal weakness and sanity. And men will read this record, together with much more of the elder lore, in days long after the coming and melting of the great glacier.
关于上述事件，整个穆图兰以及所有终北之地的王国和群岛，甚至是最南端的奥斯兹特尔岛（Oszhtror），都流传着许多各种各样的传说。真相并不存在于这些传说中：因为迄今从未有人知道真相。但我，术士伊波恩（Eibon），通过我的死灵法术召唤了伊瓦格在海浪上游荡的幽灵，从他口中得知了蠕虫之到临的真实历史。我将它写进我的书卷中，但为了不伤害凡人的软弱和理智，我还是省略了一些必要的内容。在大冰川到来和融化之后漫长的岁月里，人们将会读到这段记录，以及更多的古老传说。