The common base of all the Semitic creeds, winners or losers, was the ever present idea of world-worthless, renunciation, poverty; and the atmosphere of this invention stifled the minds of the desert pitilessly. A first knowledge of their sense of the purity of rarefaction was given me in early years, when we had ridden far out over the rolling plains of North Syria to a ruin of the Roman period which the Arabs believed was made by a prince of the border as a desert-palace for his queen. The clay of its building was said to have been kneaded for greater richness, not with water, but with the precious essential oils of flowers. My guides, sniffling the air like dogs, led me from crumbling room to room, saying, 'This is jessamine, this violet, this rose'. But at last Dahoum drew me:'Come an... ( 查看原文 ) Blood was always on our hands; we were licensed to it. Wounding and killing seemed ephemeral pains, so very brief and sore was life with us. With the sorrow of living so great, the sorrow of punishment had to be pitiless. We lived for the day and died for it. When there was reason and desire to punish we wrote our lesson with gun or whip immediately in the sullen flesh of the sufferer, and the case was beyond appeal. The desert did not afford the refined slow penalties of courts and gaols. Of course our rewards and pleasures were as suddenly sweeping as our troubles; but, to me in particular, they bulked less large. Bedouin ways were hard even for those brought up to them, and for strangers terrible: a death in life. When the march or labour ended I had no energy to record sensation, nor ... ( 查看原文 ) We had the accustomed calm run to Jidda, in the delightful Red Sea climate, never too hot while the ship was moving. By day we lay in shadow, and for great part of the glorious nights we would tramp up and down the wet decks under the stars in the steaming breath of the southern wind. But when at last we anchored in the outer habour, off the white town hung between the blazing sky and its reflection in the mirage which swept and rolled over the white lagoon, then the heat of Arabia came out like a drawn sword and struck us speechless. it was mid-day; and the noon sun in the East, like moonlight, put to sleep the colours. There were only lights and shadows, the white houses and black gaps of streets: in front, the pallid lustre of the haze shimmering upon the inner harbour: behind, the dazz... ( 查看原文 ) 如果他们怀疑我们想驱使他们，那么他们不是死犟到底，就是掉头而去。如果我们理解他们，肯花时间，不怕麻烦，使我们要做的事情能对他们产生吸引力，那么他们就会为了我们的快乐而甘愿受苦，在所不惜。至于结果是否与所付出的努力相当，就谁也不知道了。英国人习惯回报大于付出，不可能像酋长那样，为了回报极少的结果而每天耗费许多时间、精力和心机。阿拉伯人处理事情的方式简单明了，他们的思维活动也很有逻辑，和我们一样，没有什么费解或者不同的。如果我们能和他们相容相处，按他们的规则行事，他们就会追随我们。遗憾的是，我们常常在开始时这样做了，但很快就怒气冲冲地中断，把他们抛到一边，为了其实是我们自己的过失而责怪他们。这种苛刻的责难就像一个将军指责他的部队差劲，实际上是自己的预见失当。这样的自我承认往往是虚伪的，是出于假谦虚，为的是显示我们虽然错了，但是我们至少还够聪明，知道自己犯了错。 ( 查看原文 ) 我的骆驼正以每小时近三十英里的速度跑着，突然一个失足跌翻在地，就像被斧头砍倒的竹竿一样。我从驼鞍上猛地飞了出去，在空中画了一道长长的弧线，然后重重摔到地上。刹那间我仿佛失去了知觉，没了力气，动弹不得。我躺在地上，闭着眼睛等土耳其人来杀我，可嘴里却在不停喃喃一首忘了一半的诗。也许是我骑着骆驼奔驰下山的时候，那骆驼飞跑的步伐使这首诗回到了我的记忆中： 为了主，我虽然远离了你所有的鲜花 但我选择了人间那悲伤的玫瑰 这就是为什么 在我的双脚上有累累伤痕 蒙住我双眼的是如雨泪水 与此同时，我脑子的另一半却在琢磨着：当士兵和骆驼的洪流汹涌而来的时候，被踏成碎片的我会是什么个样子？ ( 查看原文 ) I loved you, so I drew these tides of men into my hands and wrote my will across the sky in stars To earn your Freedom, the seven-pillared worthy house, that your eyes might be shining for me When we came. Death seemed my servant on the road, till we were near and saw you waiting: When you smiled, and in sorrowful envy he outran me and took you apart: Into his quietness. Love, the way-weary, groped to your body, our brief wage ours for the moment Before earth's soft hand explored your shape, and the blind worms grew fat upon Your substance. Men prayed me that I set our work, the inviolate house, as a memory of you. But for fit monument I shattered it, unfinished: and now The little things creep out to patch themselves hovels in the marred shadow Of your gift. ... ( 查看原文 ) 本书所叙述的不是阿拉伯人建国运动的史实，而是置身其间的我。描述的是日常生活、悲惨的事件、卑微的小人物。本书既没有让世人警惕的教训，也没有让人震撼的内幕。书中全是些芝麻琐事，部分原因是微不足道的小人物有朝一日也会创造历史，另一个原因则是回忆战时与我同甘共苦的同胞，令我极感快慰。我们相处甚欢，因为置身于广袤的天地间，共享野风、阳光，以及我们戮力以赴的目标。每天清晨我们都会为即将成形的新世界而同感振奋，为无法言喻但有待奋斗争取的理念而激动不已。我们在枪林弹雨中出生入死，不曾贪生怕死。然而当我们达成目标、新世界已具维形时，老一辈的人又站出来，夺走我们的胜利，将这新世界重塑成他们所熟知的旧模样。 ( 查看原文 ) "All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible." 「所有人都做夢，但是卻不盡相同。那些晚上做夢的人白天醒來，會發現這些夢是虛無的。但是那些白天做夢的人卻是非常危險的，因為他們會行動起來，讓自己的夢變成現實。」 ( 查看原文 ) This craving made me profoundly suspect my truthfulness to myself. Only too good an actor could so impress his favourable opinion. Here were the Arabs believing me, Allenby and Clayton trusting me, my bodyguard dying for me: and I began to wonder if all established reputations were founded, like mine, on fraud. ( 查看原文 ) The praise-wages of my acting had now to be accepted. Any protestation of the truth from me was called modesty, self depreciation; and charming—for men were always fond to believe a romantic tale. It irritated me, this silly confusion of shyness, which was conduct, with modesty, which was a point of view. I was not modest, but ashamed of my awkwardness, of my physical envelope, and of my solitary unlikeness which made me no companion, but an acquaintance, complete, angular, uncomfortable, as a crystal. ( 查看原文 )