【译】来自彼世 From Beyond

作者：H. P. Lovecraft 译者：CaptainSnafu 未经允许，请勿转载

Horrible beyond conception was the change which had taken place in my best friend, Crawford Tillinghast. I had not seen him since that day, two months and a half before, when he had told me toward what goal his physical and metaphysical researches were leading; when he had answered my awed and almost frightened remonstrances by driving me from his laboratory and his house in a burst of fanatical rage. I had known that he now remained mostly shut in the attic laboratory with that accursed electrical machine, eating little and excluding even the servants, but I had not thought that a brief period of ten weeks could so alter and disfigure any human creature. It is not pleasant to see a stout man suddenly grown thin, and it is even worse when the baggy skin becomes yellowed or greyed, the eyes sunken, circled, and uncannily glowing, the forehead veined and corrugated, and the hands tremulous and twitching. And if added to this there be a repellent unkemptness; a wild disorder of dress, a bushiness of dark hair white at the roots, and an unchecked growth of pure white beard on a face once clean-shaven, the cumulative effect is quite shocking. But such was the aspect of Crawford Tillinghast on the night his half-coherent message brought me to his door after my weeks of exile; such the spectre that trembled as it admitted me, candle in hand, and glanced furtively over its shoulder as if fearful of unseen things in the ancient, lonely house set back from Benevolent Street. 在我挚友克劳福德·蒂林哈斯特身上发生的可怕变化，简直超乎想象。自两个半月前的那天起，我已未再见过他。在那天他告知了我其在物质与超物质研究上的目标，也是在那天他以暴怒回应我那震惊乃至惶恐的规劝，癫狂地将我逐出其实验室与宅邸。我知道他如今仍终日蛰伏于阁楼的实验室，仅进食少许，甚至把仆从也隔绝在外，几乎将自己跟那些可憎的电能机器禁闭在了一起。然而，让我始料未及的是，如此短暂的十周时光，竟能使一个人类秽变至此。见证一位壮硕之人在忽然间骨瘦形销，并非什么让人愉悦之事，而当看到下述之事，便更是糟心：他那松弛下垂的皮肤变黄发灰；眼眶深陷并被圈上黑影，而眼眸却泛着异光；前额脉络盘缠、皱纹横踞；双手则不停颤抖、抽搐着。如若再加上那让人生厌的不修边幅，所累加出来的效果简直是触目惊心：衣装狂放而紊乱；黑发繁杂丛生，发根却是苍白；曾经刮得干干净净的脸上，纯白的胡须肆意疯长。而这便是克劳福德·蒂林哈斯特在那个夜晚出现在我面前的模样——在我被驱逐的数周后，他用条理不清的信笺将我召至他的门前。当这个手持蜡烛、人鬼莫辨的幽影接待我入屋时，他颤颤巍巍，鬼鬼祟祟地侧头回瞥着，仿佛正畏惧着某种目不可见的存在——而它们，就在这幢深藏于贝尼沃伦街的古老孤宅中。

That Crawford Tillinghast should ever have studied science and philosophy was a mistake. These things should be left to the frigid and impersonal investigator, for they offer two equally tragic alternatives to the man of feeling and action; despair if he fail in his quest, and terrors unutterable and unimaginable if he succeed. Tillinghast had once been the prey of failure, solitary and melancholy; but now I knew, with nauseating fears of my own, that he was the prey of success. I had indeed warned him ten weeks before, when he burst forth with his tale of what he felt himself about to discover. He had been flushed and excited then, talking in a high and unnatural, though always pedantic, voice. 克劳福德·蒂林哈斯特对科学和哲学的研究，从来就是个错误。这些事物理应被留给那些心如冰霜、漠然自若的调研者，因为对于雷厉风行的性情中人，它们能提供的仅是两种非此即彼却同等可悲的选择。他若在探求中落败，他寻得的只有绝望，而若凯旋，等待他的则是无以言表、不可思议之恐惧。蒂林哈斯特曾一度沦为了失败的受害者，变得孤僻且抑郁。但如今，随着一种令我作呕的恐惧，我已知晓他化作了胜利的祭品。在十周之前，当他突然向我讲述他预感会寻得的发现时，我已明确地警告过他。那时他激动得脸红耳赤，说话的嗓音尽管仍如常地故作高深，但也变得高亢而不自然。

“What do we know,” he had said, “of the world and the universe about us? Our means of receiving impressions are absurdly few, and our notions of surrounding objects infinitely narrow. We see things only as we are constructed to see them, and can gain no idea of their absolute nature. With five feeble senses we pretend to comprehend the boundlessly complex cosmos, yet other beings with a wider, stronger, or different range of senses might not only see very differently the things we see, but might see and study whole worlds of matter, energy, and life which lie close at hand yet can never be detected with the senses we have. I have always believed that such strange, inaccessible worlds exist at our very elbows, and now I believe I have found a way to break down the barriers. I am not joking. Within twenty-four hours that machine near the table will generate waves acting on unrecognised sense-organs that exist in us as atrophied or rudimentary vestiges. Those waves will open up to us many vistas unknown to man, and several unknown to anything we consider organic life. We shall see that at which dogs howl in the dark, and that at which cats prick up their ears after midnight. We shall see these things, and other things which no breathing creature has yet seen. We shall overleap time, space, and dimensions, and without bodily motion peer to the bottom of creation. “关于我们周围的世界和宇宙，”他说道，“我们又知道些什么呢？我们感知念象的途径少得荒谬，而我们对周围实体的见解也无限地狭隘。我们所看见的，仅是我们的构造所能见的，更无法对它们的纯粹本质存有半分概念。凭借孱弱的五感，我们自诩理解了无边复杂的宇宙，而其他拥有着更宽、更强或另一种层面上的感官之存在，也许不仅看到的事物与我们的所见截然不同，还能观测并研究全部的物质、能量与生命之世界，或许这些世界就近在我们手边，而凭自身拥有的感官，我们却永远无法察觉。我一直便坚信着，陌异而不可及之世界就存在于我们近前。而如今我相信我已找到了一个打破界限的方法。我没有在开玩笑。在二十四小时之内，桌子旁边的那台机器便会生成波动，作用于我们身上某些未被重视、萎退或未成熟的感应器官。而这些波动会向我们揭示许多人类未知的远景，以及数种所有我们认知的有机生命均见所未见的景象。我们将会见证，在午夜过后，当众犬在黑暗中嚎叫，当群猫竖起它们的耳朵，我们将会见证这一切，以及其它没有任何呼吸着的生物所见识过之事物。我们将不经躯体之位移，便越过时间、空间与维度，窥见造化之基底。”

When Tillinghast said these things I remonstrated, for I knew him well enough to be frightened rather than amused; but he was a fanatic, and drove me from the house. Now he was no less a fanatic, but his desire to speak had conquered his resentment, and he had written me imperatively in a hand I could scarcely recognise. As I entered the abode of the friend so suddenly metamorphosed to a shivering gargoyle, I became infected with the terror which seemed stalking in all the shadows. The words and beliefs expressed ten weeks before seemed bodied forth in the darkness beyond the small circle of candle light, and I sickened at the hollow, altered voice of my host. I wished the servants were about, and did not like it when he said they had all left three days previously. It seemed strange that old Gregory, at least, should desert his master without telling as tried a friend as I. It was he who had given me all the information I had of Tillinghast after I was repulsed in rage. 蒂林哈斯特述说这些时，我劝诫过他，因为我对他足够地了解，比起觉得好笑，我更感到害怕。可他是已狂热入迷，将我赶出宅门。如今，他狂热依旧，但他表达的欲望战胜了愤恨，他用我几乎认不出的笔迹给我写了一封命令式的信笺。当我走进这位朋友——这个突然蜕变而成的令人不寒而栗的鬼怪之居所时，我被似乎潜伏在所有阴影中的恐怖所感染。在十周前被表述过的话语与观点，似乎正从烛光小圈之外的黑暗中传出，而宅邸主人那空洞、变调的声音令我厌恶。我希望仆从们陪在身边，而当他声称他们均已在三天前离去时，我并不感到称心。老格雷戈里抛弃了他的主人，至少应当向我这样可靠的朋友通知一声，他却未如此，这似乎有点奇怪；毕竟在我被其主人暴怒地驱逐之后，正是他提供给我关于蒂林哈斯特的一切信息。

Yet I soon subordinated all my fears to my growing curiosity and fascination. Just what Crawford Tillinghast now wished of me I could only guess, but that he had some stupendous secret or discovery to impart, I could not doubt. Before I had protested at his unnatural pryings into the unthinkable; now that he had evidently succeeded to some degree I almost shared his spirit, terrible though the cost of victory appeared. Up through the dark emptiness of the house I followed the bobbing candle in the hand of this shaking parody on man. The electricity seemed to be turned off, and when I asked my guide he said it was for a definite reason. 然而，我所有的恐惧很快便都臣服在了那渐长的好奇和神迷之下。克劳福德·蒂林哈斯特如今意欲我之何为，我也只能猜测，但我毫不怀疑他必有惊天秘密或发现要告知于我。我曾抗议过他对不可思量之事物的超自然窥探，而现在，他显然在某种程度上成功了，我几乎与他感同身受，尽管胜利的代价看起来很可怕。我跟随这个震颤着的伪人手中那颠簸的烛光，在屋宅黑暗的空无之中穿行。电力似乎已被关停，而当我询问这位向导时，他答道这便有明确的原因。

“It would be too much . . . I would not dare,” he continued to mutter. I especially noted his new habit of muttering, for it was not like him to talk to himself. We entered the laboratory in the attic, and I observed that detestable electrical machine, glowing with a sickly, sinister, violet luminosity. It was connected with a powerful chemical battery, but seemed to be receiving no current; for I recalled that in its experimental stage it had sputtered and purred when in action. In reply to my question Tillinghast mumbled that this permanent glow was not electrical in any sense that I could understand. “这太过了...我不敢，”他继续嘟囔着。我特别注意到他这喃喃自语的新习惯，因这可不像是他会做的事情。我们走进了阁楼的实验室里，然后我看到了那台可恶的电能机器，正散发着一种病态而邪恶的紫光。它与一个大功率的化学电池相连，但似乎并未接收电流；因为我记得它在实验阶段运行时，曾发出过噼啪的颤动声。蒂林哈斯特含糊地回答了我的疑问：这种持久的微光在我所能理解的任何意义上都并非电气。

He now seated me near the machine, so that it was on my right, and turned a switch somewhere below the crowning cluster of glass bulbs. The usual sputtering began, turned to a whine, and terminated in a drone so soft as to suggest a return to silence. Meanwhile the luminosity increased, waned again, then assumed a pale, outré colour or blend of colours which I could neither place nor describe. Tillinghast had been watching me, and noted my puzzled expression. 现在，他让我坐到机器边上，使其位于我的右侧，并拧动了机器顶端的玻璃灯簇下方的一个开关。往常的那种劈啪声开始传出，然后转变成了嘎吱的躁响，最后终止在一阵轻柔得仿佛要回归沉寂的嗡鸣中。与此同时，光度增长，又再次衰减，然后呈现出一种暗哑而荒诞的色泽，或者说，那是一种我辨认不出也无法描述的混合色。蒂林哈斯特一直在注视着我，并注意到了我困惑的神情。

“Do you know what that is?” he whispered. “That is ultra-violet.” He chuckled oddly at my surprise. “You thought ultra-violet was invisible, and so it is—but you can see that and many other invisible things now. “你可知何也？”他低语道。“那便是紫外线。”他奇怪地轻笑于我的惊讶。“你以为紫外线是看不见的，的确如此，但你现已可目见于它，以及其它许多不可见之物。”

“Listen to me! The waves from that thing are waking a thousand sleeping senses in us; senses which we inherit from aeons of evolution from the state of detached electrons to the state of organic humanity. I have seen truth, and I intend to shew it to you. Do you wonder how it will seem? I will tell you.” Here Tillinghast seated himself directly opposite me, blowing out his candle and staring hideously into my eyes. “Your existing sense-organs—ears first, I think—will pick up many of the impressions, for they are closely connected with the dormant organs. Then there will be others. You have heard of the pineal gland? I laugh at the shallow endocrinologist, fellow-dupe and fellow-parvenu of the Freudian. That gland is the great sense-organ of organs—I have found out. It is like sight in the end, and transmits visual pictures to the brain. If you are normal, that is the way you ought to get most of it . . . I mean get most of the evidence from beyond.” “听我说！那台机器发出的波动正唤醒着我们体内的上千种感官——它们继承于我们从分离之电子转变到有机人类之形态的万古演化中。我已看见了真理，也意欲展示予你。你好奇它会是怎样的吗？我将告知你。”此时，蒂林哈斯特正对着我坐下，吹灭他的蜡烛，并骇人地盯入我的眼睛。“你现有的感受器官，首先是耳朵，我认为它们会接收到许多感觉，因为其与那些休眠的感受器官密切相连。然后才是其它器官。你听说过松果体吗？我嘲笑那些狭隘的内分泌学家，那些受弗洛伊德愚弄、跟随其学说而发迹的拥趸。那个腺体是最伟大的感应器官，我已经查明此点。到头来，它就如同观测器，将视觉化的图像传递到大脑。如果你是健康的正常人，这理应就是你获取大多数信息的途径......我的意思是，从彼世获取大多数迹象的途径。”

I looked about the immense attic room with the sloping south wall, dimly lit by rays which the every-day eye cannot see. The far corners were all shadows, and the whole place took on a hazy unreality which obscured its nature and invited the imagination to symbolism and phantasm. During the interval that Tillinghast was silent I fancied myself in some vast and incredible temple of long-dead gods; some vague edifice of innumerable black stone columns reaching up from a floor of damp slabs to a cloudy height beyond the range of my vision. The picture was very vivid for a while, but gradually gave way to a more horrible conception; that of utter, absolute solitude in infinite, sightless, soundless space. There seemed to be a void, and nothing more, and I felt a childish fear which prompted me to draw from my hip pocket the revolver I always carried after dark since the night I was held up in East Providence. Then, from the farthermost regions of remoteness, the sound softly glided into existence. It was infinitely faint, subtly vibrant, and unmistakably musical, but held a quality of surpassing wildness which made its impact feel like a delicate torture of my whole body. I felt sensations like those one feels when accidentally scratching ground glass. Simultaneously there developed something like a cold draught, which apparently swept past me from the direction of the distant sound. As I waited breathlessly I perceived that both sound and wind were increasing; the effect being to give me an odd notion of myself as tied to a pair of rails in the path of a gigantic approaching locomotive. I began to speak to Tillinghast, and as I did so all the unusual impressions abruptly vanished. I saw only the man, the glowing machine, and the dim apartment. Tillinghast was grinning repulsively at the revolver which I had almost unconsciously drawn, but from his expression I was sure he had seen and heard as much as I, if not a great deal more. I whispered what I had experienced, and he bade me to remain as quiet and receptive as possible. 我环顾这南墙倾斜的巨大阁楼实验室，它正被寻常之目所不能及的射线朦胧地照亮着，而远处的角落则堆满了阴影。整个房间承载着一种飘渺的虚幻感，遮蔽着自体的本相，并激发起意象与空想的幻觉。在蒂林哈斯特沉默的间歇中，我幻想自己身处某个供奉着陨殁已久的众神之庙宇，其广阔而难以置信。无数黑色石柱林立的巍峨巨筑，其模糊的轮廓从潮湿的厚岩底基上拔地而起，直插我视域外之云天。一时之间，幻景生动而明丽，但逐渐便让位于一种更悚然的构想——我身处无穷无尽、无象无声之空间，感到一种终极而纯粹的孤绝。此处仿佛化作了虚空，此外再无它者。我感到一种如孩童般无力的恐惧，驱使我从胯边的口袋拔出那把转轮手枪——自从那晚在东普罗维登斯被抢劫，我在入夜之后便总会携带着它。随后，从那最遥远的旷绝之域，一阵声响轻柔地滑出。此声无限细弱，微妙地颤动着，清晰地律动成乐；但其蕴涵着一种超凡的荒凉，使这靡靡之音犹如一场精巧的全身折磨。我身同他者意外地刮擦着磨光玻璃之感受。同时，此处逐渐卷起一阵凛冽的穿堂风，似乎自那源远声响的方向从我身边扫过。当我屏息静待，我察觉到声响与寒风皆在增长，这让我突发一个奇怪的念头：我被绑在一副铁轨上，而那正是迫近着的庞然列车所疾驰之道途。我开始与蒂林哈斯特讲话，而一当我开口，一切超常的念象便骤然消亡。我所见的只剩下那个男人、那台发光的机器，以及那昏暗的房间。蒂林哈斯特正狰狞地对着我在无意间抽出转轮手枪咧嘴而笑，但从他的神色可知，我很肯定他曾经的所见所闻与我此次相当，或者远甚于我。我低声述说了我的经历，然后他要求我尽可能地保持安静并竖耳倾听。

“Don’t move,” he cautioned, “for in these rays we are able to be seen as well as to see. I told you the servants left, but I didn’t tell you how. It was that thick-witted housekeeper—she turned on the lights downstairs after I had warned her not to, and the wires picked up sympathetic vibrations. It must have been frightful—I could hear the screams up here in spite of all I was seeing and hearing from another direction, and later it was rather awful to find those empty heaps of clothes around the house. Mrs. Updike’s clothes were close to the front hall switch—that’s how I know she did it. It got them all. But so long as we don’t move we’re fairly safe. Remember we’re dealing with a hideous world in which we are practically helpless. . . . Keep still!” “别动，”他告诫道，“因为在这些光线中，我们可见，亦可被见。我跟你说过仆人们离开了，但没讲过他们是怎么离开的。是那个头脑迟钝的管家，在我警告过她后，她还是打开了楼下的灯，使导线也搭载了同调的共振。那场面一定很可怕，尽管我正在全身心地注视和聆听着异界之事物，可我还是能听见传上此处的尖叫。之后，我发现散落在屋中各处凌乱成堆的衣服，空有其物，而不见其身，那可是相当骇人。厄普代克女士的衣物堆靠近前厅的开关——我便是因此知道她的所为。他们全都被捕获了。但只要我们不动，就完全是安全的。记住，我们正在与一个可憎的世界打着交道，在其中我们几乎是孤立无援......保持静止！”

The combined shock of the revelation and of the abrupt command gave me a kind of paralysis, and in my terror my mind again opened to the impressions coming from what Tillinghast called“beyond”. I was now in a vortex of sound and motion, with confused pictures before my eyes. I saw the blurred outlines of the room, but from some point in space there seemed to be pouring a seething column of unrecognisable shapes or clouds, penetrating the solid roof at a point ahead and to the right of me. Then I glimpsed the temple-like effect again, but this time the pillars reached up into an aërial ocean of light, which sent down one blinding beam along the path of the cloudy column I had seen before. After that the scene was almost wholly kaleidoscopic, and in the jumble of sights, sounds, and unidentified sense-impressions I felt that I was about to dissolve or in some way lose the solid form. One definite flash I shall always remember. I seemed for an instant to behold a patch of strange night sky filled with shining, revolving spheres, and as it receded I saw that the glowing suns formed a constellation or galaxy of settled shape; this shape being the distorted face of Crawford Tillinghast. At another time I felt the huge animate things brushing past me and occasionally walking or drifting through my supposedly solid body, and thought I saw Tillinghast look at them as though his better trained senses could catch them visually. I recalled what he had said of the pineal gland, and wondered what he saw with this preternatural eye. 面对着被揭示的真相与突如其来的命令，其所带来的震惊杂糅在一起，令我陷入了一种麻痹。我在惊恐之中，心灵再次洞开，诸般念象则又从蒂林哈斯特称作的“彼世”向我袭来。此时我置身于声与动的漩涡之中，而混乱的景象铺展在眼前。我看见房间那模糊的轮廓，然而从空间的某个点，似乎正倾出一根上面翻腾着未知形体或云雾的圆柱，穿透了在我右前方实心屋顶上的某个点。旋即，我便再次瞥见了类似于先前所见的庙宇奇景，但这次那些柱体耸入的是一片深空中的光之海——它沿着云柱搭成的通路，降下一道炫目的光束。此后，眼前的场景几乎是从头到尾地千变万化，而在掺杂了视、听与不明感官的混乱念象中，我感到自己正要消散，或是将以某种方式失去固态的形体。其中有一种飞逝而过却清楚明晰的念象，我总是能记起。我似乎在须臾之间目睹了一小片陌异的夜空，闪耀并旋转着的球体充斥其中，而当这景象远去，我看见那些光辉的太阳构成了一个固定形状的星群或星系；而这个形状正是克劳福德·蒂林哈斯特那扭曲的面容。还有另一次，我感觉有巨大的生命体从我身边轻拂而过，并不时地或漫步或漂移地穿入我那理应是固态的躯体。而且，我觉得我看见了蒂林哈斯特正注视着它们，仿佛他那些更经洗练的感知能够捕抓到它们的视觉影像。我回想起他曾说过的关于松果体的话，便好奇起他用那只超自然的眼眸又看到了什么。

Suddenly I myself became possessed of a kind of augmented sight. Over and above the luminous and shadowy chaos arose a picture which, though vague, held the elements of consistency and permanence. It was indeed somewhat familiar, for the unusual part was superimposed upon the usual terrestrial scene much as a cinema view may be thrown upon the painted curtain of a theatre. I saw the attic laboratory, the electrical machine, and the unsightly form of Tillinghast opposite me; but of all the space unoccupied by familiar material objects not one particle was vacant. Indescribable shapes both alive and otherwise were mixed in disgusting disarray, and close to every known thing were whole worlds of alien, unknown entities. It likewise seemed that all the known things entered into the composition of other unknown things, and vice versa. Foremost among the living objects were great inky, jellyish monstrosities which flabbily quivered in harmony with the vibrations from the machine. They were present in loathsome profusion, and I saw to my horror that they overlapped; that they were semi-fluid and capable of passing through one another and through what we know as solids. These things were never still, but seemed ever floating about with some malignant purpose. Sometimes they appeared to devour one another, the attacker launching itself at its victim and instantaneously obliterating the latter from sight. Shudderingly I felt that I knew what had obliterated the unfortunate servants, and could not exclude the things from my mind as I strove to observe other properties of the newly visible world that lies unseen around us. But Tillinghast had been watching me, and was speaking. 突然间，我具有了某种强化的视觉。在那光与暗的混沌之上，升起了一副不完整的景象，其构成元素却颇具一致性与恒存性。不知为何，它实在让我感到熟悉，因为那不同寻常的部分叠加在那寻常的人间场景之上，就像是投映于戏院里漆白幕布的电影画面。我看见了阁楼实验室、那台电能机器，和我对面的蒂林哈斯特那不堪入目的形体；但在所有并未被我们熟知的物质体所占领的空间里，没有任何微粒可容身之处是空无的。无以名状、或死或生的形影无序地混杂成令人憎恶的乱象；而每一件已知的事物，都毗邻着由陌异、未知的诸多实体所构成的完整世界。就像是所有已知的事物都进入了其它未知事物的构造之中，反之亦然。在那些活生生的实体中，最主要的是一种巨大漆黑的水母型畸怪，伴着机器的振动调谐而松弛地抖动着。它们蜂拥地出现着，多得令人嫌恶，并且，我还惊恐地发现它们竟相互重叠着；它们是半流质的，有能力穿过另一个体以及其它我们认为是固态的实体。这些生物永不静止，仿佛怀着某种险恶的意图，一直到处漂浮。有时它们似乎会吞噬另一个同类，攻击者将自身发射到受害者身上，并在瞬间便将后者从视野中抹除。我战栗不已，觉得自己明白了是什么抹杀了那些不幸的仆人们，而当我努力地观察着这个近在我们周围却在最近才得以目见的新世界及其其它特性时，我也无法将这些生物从内心中排除出去。然而蒂林哈斯特一直在注视着我，并正说着些什么。

“You see them? You see them? You see the things that float and flop about you and through you every moment of your life? You see the creatures that form what men call the pure air and the blue sky? Have I not succeeded in breaking down the barrier; have I not shewn you worlds that no other living men have seen?” I heard him scream through the horrible chaos, and looked at the wild face thrust so offensively close to mine. His eyes were pits of flame, and they glared at me with what I now saw was overwhelming hatred. The machine droned detestably. “你看见它们了？你看见它们了吗？你看见了那些在你生命中每一瞬间都漂浮、悬垂在你周围、都透过着你体内的东西吗？你看见那些构成了人类口中的纯净空气和蔚蓝天空的生物了吗？难道我没有成功突破那道屏障吗？难道我没有向你展示从未被其他生者目睹过的大千世界吗？”我听见他那贯穿了恐怖混沌的呐喊，并看着他猛地将那张失控的脸伸到我面前——近得几乎无礼。他的双目如同烈火熊燃之深渊，刺眼地怒瞪着我，在我此刻看来，其中还带有一种势不可挡的憎恨。而那台机器，仍在令人作呕地嗡嗡作响。

“You think those floundering things wiped out the servants? Fool, they are harmless! But the servants are gone, aren’t they? You tried to stop me; you discouraged me when I needed every drop of encouragement I could get; you were afraid of the cosmic truth, you damned coward, but now I’ve got you! What swept up the servants? What made them scream so loud? . . . Don’t know, eh? You’ll know soon enough! Look at me—listen to what I say—do you suppose there are really any such things as time and magnitude? Do you fancy there are such things as form or matter? I tell you, I have struck depths that your little brain can’t picture! I have seen beyond the bounds of infinity and drawn down daemons from the stars. . . . I have harnessed the shadows that stride from world to world to sow death and madness. . . . Space belongs to me, do you hear? Things are hunting me now—the things that devour and dissolve—but I know how to elude them. It is you they will get, as they got the servants. Stirring, dear sir? I told you it was dangerous to move. I have saved you so far by telling you to keep still—saved you to see more sights and to listen to me. If you had moved, they would have been at you long ago. Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you. They didn’t hurt the servants—it was seeing that made the poor devils scream so. My pets are not pretty, for they come out of places where aesthetic standards are—very different. Disintegration is quite painless, I assure you—but I want you to see them. I almost saw them, but I knew how to stop. You are not curious? I always knew you were no scientist! Trembling, eh? Trembling with anxiety to see the ultimate things I have discovered? Why don’t you move, then? Tired? Well, don’t worry, my friend, for they are coming. . . . Look! Look, curse you, look! . . . It’s just over your left shoulder. . . .” “你以为是那些扑腾着的生物抹杀了那些仆人吗？愚人，它们是无害的！但那些仆人还是消失了，不是吗？你曾尝试阻止我；你在我需要任何一丁点鼓励的时候却让我气馁；你害怕宇宙的真相，你这个天煞的懦夫，但我现在逮到你了！是什么抹除那些仆人？是什么让他们惊叫得如此聒噪？......不知道？嗯？你很快就会知道了！看着我，听着我说的话，你假定真的存在诸如时间和量级这样的事物？你认为这里真有形体与物质此般的存在吗？我告诉你，我达到的深度是你那萎小的脑子所无法想象的！我超越了无限之界限而张望，招致了来自星辰的恶魔......我驾驭着跨越各个世界的阴影，播下死亡与疯狂的种子...... 空间为我所有，你听见了吗？如今，有东西正狩猎着我——它们将吞噬并消解猎物——但我知道如何避开它们。它们逮到的将会是你，正如它们逮到那些仆人那样。想动是吗，亲爱的先生？我告诉过你任何动弹都是危险的。到目前为止我都在救你，我告诉了你要保持静止——我救了你，让你可以看见更多景象并聆听于我。如果你动了的话，早就成为它们的目标了。别担心，它们不会伤害你。它们并没有伤害仆人们，那些可怜鬼是因为目睹了它们才如此惊叫。我的宠儿们并不美丽，因为它们来自审美标准迥然不同的地方。消解是无痛的，我向你保证。但我希望你见到它们。我也曾几乎要看见它们，但我知道如何停下。你不好奇吗？我一直就知道你不是当科学家的料！颤抖吗？嗯？带着忧虑颤抖着去目睹我发现的终极之存在吗？你为何又不动了呢？累了？好吧，别担心，因为它们正在来临......看！看，你妈的，看啊！......就在你左肩上方......”

What remains to be told is very brief, and may be familiar to you from the newspaper accounts. The police heard a shot in the old Tillinghast house and found us there—Tillinghast dead and me unconscious. They arrested me because the revolver was in my hand, but released me in three hours, after they found it was apoplexy which had finished Tillinghast and saw that my shot had been directed at the noxious machine which now lay hopelessly shattered on the laboratory floor. I did not tell very much of what I had seen, for I feared the coroner would be sceptical; but from the evasive outline I did give, the doctor told me that I had undoubtedly been hypnotised by the vindictive and homicidal madman. 剩下要叙述的内容便十分简短，你们或许已从报纸上的报道熟知了这些。警察听见了老蒂林哈斯特府内传来的一声枪响，并在屋内寻到了我们——蒂林哈斯特身死，而我昏迷不醒。他们逮捕了我，因为那把转轮手枪就在我的手上。但在他们发现蒂林哈斯特死于卒中，并查明我那次射击指向的是那台碎落于地的险恶机器后，我在三小时内便被释放了。因为害怕验尸官起疑心，我并没有讲述太多我的所见。但听闻我那模棱两可的略述后，医生告诉我，我毋庸置疑地是被那怀恨在心的嗜杀狂徒所催眠。

I wish I could believe that doctor. It would help my shaky nerves if I could dismiss what I now have to think of the air and the sky about and above me. I never feel alone or comfortable, and a hideous sense of pursuit sometimes comes chillingly on me when I am weary. What prevents me from believing the doctor is this one simple fact—that the police never found the bodies of those servants whom they say Crawford Tillinghast murdered. 我希望我能相信那个医生。如果我能不去理会那些我现在不得不想象到的、存在于我周围和头顶的空气和天空，那将会有益于我那战栗着的神经。我从未感到单独或舒适，有时，一种可怕的被追逐感会在我疲惫之际降临，令我毛骨悚然。让我无法相信医生之言的，是一个简单的事实：警方从未找到他们所说的被克劳福德·蒂林哈斯特谋杀的仆人的尸体。