Words and Expressions

pack off

finding himself packed off to stay with extremely distant relations ...

pack off (to): to send sb. somewhere, especially you do not want them with you 把...打发走

inconsolable

*He was inconsolable for a while. *

adj. very sad and unable to accept help or comfort
console v.安慰，抚慰

needle

Louisa, his sister, would needle him about this as they walked...

needle v. to deliberately annoy sb. especially by criticizing them continuously. 刺激，故意招惹。antagonize

osmosis

So the days went by, and the weeks went by, and the years went by also. At age of fourteen, by a process osmosis, of dirty jokes, whispered secrets and filthy ballads, Tristran learned of sex.

osmosis n. the gradual process of learning or being influenced by something, as a result of being in close contact with it 耳濡目染，潜移默化

dirty≈filthy

cross

for no one crossed Bridget Forester: she had a tongue that could, the villagers said, blister the paint from a barn door and tear the bark from an oak

这里cross是比得上超得过的意思。另外，形容一个人伶牙俐齿，作者用了blister the paint from a barn door 和 tear the bark from an oak的比喻，接地气，贴近Wall的生活。

spring

in the spring of his years with a spring in his step

又一次见到spring的用法。（见DAY1）

elbows and Adam's apples

He seemed to be composed chiefly of elbows and Adam's apples
elbow手肘是人身体最坚硬的地方之一，Adam's apple指的是human neck，是最脆弱的地方之一。两个完全对立的面组成了17岁的 Tristran，卡在boy 和man的角色之间。

gangling

He was a gangling creature of potential, a barrel of dynamite waiting for someone or something to light his fuse.

gangling adj. (of a person) tall, thin and awkward in their movements 又高又瘦又动作笨拙的

等待被点燃雷管的一桶炸药。作者没说Triatran是尚未开发的璞玉，而是一桶炸药，突出了年青少年体内压抑的“洪荒之力”，和上文呼应，也预示了他的爆发力。

对于遥远冬季气息的描述

Tristran could smell the distant winter on the air--- a mixture of night-mist and crisp drakness and the tang of fallen leaves.

Summary

Triatran was treated unfairly during his growth with his mother seldom talking to him on any subject and his younger sister, Louisa, always needling him. When he was seventeen, struggling with his role of being half a boy and half a man, he fell in love with the prettiest girl in the village named Victoria. Tristran was then a shopboy and no match for Victoria, but he tried hard to win his Heart's Desire. Tristran decided to bring back the fallen star to present it to Victoria, and Victoria promised her hand in marriage as return if Tristran would succeed.

My words

这个部分当中最喜欢的是Guyman对于环境的描述和Tristran对Victoria许下诺言时候的文字。作者善用“通感”和排比。冬季到来前，他说能远远地“闻到”，夜雾、冰冷的黑暗以及落叶的味道。年青少年面对自己心爱的姑娘，许下山盟海誓。
There is nothing I would not do for your kiss, no mountain I would not scale, no river I would not ford, no desert I would not cross.
I would go to Africa, and bring you diamonds the size of cricket balls. I would find the source of the Nile and name it after you.
I would go to America---all the way to San Francisco, the the goldfeilds, and I would not come back until I had your weight in gold. Then I would carry it back here, and lay it at your feet.
I would travel to the distant northlands did you but say the word, and slay the mighty polar bears, and bring you back their heads.

看来撩妹真的得有文化，天文地理顺手拈来才行。最后还来了个反差萌，可能吓到了Victoria，我却结结实实看到了Tristran的质朴和真诚。