The Waves(海浪)
Virginia Woolf
The sun had not yet risen. The sea was indistinguishable
from the sky, except that the sea was slightly creased as if a
cloth had wrinkles in it. Gradually as the sky whitened a dark line
lay on the horizon dividing the sea from the sky and the grey cloth
became barred with thick strokes moving, one after another, beneath
the surface, following each other, pursuing each other,
perpetually.
As they neared the shore each bar rose, heaped itself, broke
and swept a thin veil of white water across the sand. The wave
paused, and then drew out again, sighing like a sleeper whose
breath comes and goes unconsciously. Gradually the dark bar on the
horizon became clear as if the sediment in an old wine-bottle had
sunk and left the glass green. Behind it, too, the sky cleared as
if the white sediment…