Para. 11 – 12

Houses are like sentinels in the plain, old keepers of the weather watch. There, in a very little while, wood takes on the appearance of great age. All colors wear soon away in the wind and rain, and then the wood is burned gray and the grain appears and the nails turn red with rust. The windowpanes are black and opaque; you imagine there is nothing within, and indeed there are many ghosts, bones given up to the land. They stand here and there against the sky, and you approach them for a longer time than you expect. They belong in the distance; it is their domain.

Once there was a lot of sound in my grandmother's house, a lot of coming and going, feasting and talk. The summers there were full of excitement and reunion. The Kiowas are a summer people; they abide the cold and keep to themselves, but when the season turns and the land becomes warm and vital they cannot hold still; an old love of going returns upon them. The aged visitors who came to my grandmother's house when I was a child were made of lean and leather, and they bore themselves upright. They wore great black hats and bright ample shirts that shook in the wind. They rubbed fat upon their hair and wound their braids with strips of colored cloth. Some of them painted their faces and carried the scars of old and cherished enmities. They were an old council of warlords, come to remind and be reminded of who they were. Their wives and daughters served them well. The women might indulge themselves; gossip was at once the mark and compensation of their servitude. They made loud and elaborate talk among themselves, full of jest and gesture, fright and false alarm. They went abroad in fringed and flowered shawls, bright beadwork and German silver. They were at home in the kitchen, and they prepared meals that were banquets.

106. Paragraph 11 is about the old houses at Rainy Mountain, which the author's grandmother and other Kiowas used to live in, but which are now empty. This paragraph serves as a transition between the depiction of Grandma Aho and the reunion at her house.

107. There, in a very little while, wood takes on the appearance of great age: There, in a very short time, wood will look as if it were very old (because of the wind and rain).

108. The windowpanes are black and opaque… given up to the land.

(1) windowpane: a single piece of glass in a window

(2) opaque: not letting light pass through, not transparent

(3) Explain the implied meaning of the sentence: For an outsider, the old house looks empty; but for someone who knows and cherishes the history of the Kiowas, the house reflects the undying spirit of the Kiowa people, who gave their lives to the land.

109. Paragraphs 11 and 12 describe the reunions that were once held at the grandmother's house when the author was a child. We can see the author accepts change and loss as facts of life. He neither denies nor defies them. Imagination helps him strike a balance between them. So, after depicting his dead grandmother’s old house, he brings to life the joy and activity that once filled it. As a child Momaday took part in those events. By re-creating those scenes, he reminds himself of who he is.

110. Once there was a lot of sound in my grandmother’s house... talk.

(1) The word “once” is used as a transitional device to link up the present and the past.

(2) a lot of coming and going：人来人往

111. The Kiowas are a summer people… returns upon them.

(1) The Kiowas are a summer people: The Kiowas are active in summer, they feel at home in summer

(2) to abide: to put up with

(3) to keep to oneself: to avoid contact with others

(4) vital: full of life and vigor

112. The aged visitors who came… bore themselves upright.

(1) made of lean and leather：精瘦 The word “leather” means animal skin that has been treated to preserve or to be used for making shoes, bags, etc. The author uses the word here because their skin had become as rough and hard as leather due to the over exposure to the sun and wind. Also “lean” and “leather” are placed together for alliteration.

(2) bore themselves upright: carried themselves upright 腰板挺得很直

113. They rubbed fat upon their hair: They used fat as hair lotion.

114. Old and cherished enmities: battles that took place in the past and were remembered fondly by those old warriors

enmity: the bitter attitude or feelings of an enemy or of mutual enemies, hostility, antagonism

115. They were an old council of warlords… of who they were.

(1) council: a group of people called together for consultation, discussion, advice, etc.

(2) warlord: a military leader, especially an unofficial one fighting against a government or king

(3) They held these reunions to remind themselves and other people of who they were, to remember the past.

116. The women might indulge themselves… of their servitude.

(1) On such occasions, the women, who usually served the men at home, could do what they liked to do or what they normally couldn’t do, such as gossiping, making loud and elaborate talk among themselves, joking, etc.

(2) gossip was at once the mark and compensation of their servitude: Gossip revealed their position as servants of men and was also a reward for their servitude.

117. They made loud and elaborate talk among themselves… and false alarm.

(1) jest and gesture: Note the alliteration. jest: a mocking remark; a joke, witticism

(2) fright and false alarm: Alliteration again. The women might be telling ghost stories so that they were frightened, but there was no real danger.

118. They went abroad in fringed and flowered shawls… and German silver.

(1) went abroad: went outside

(2) fringed and flowered shawls: shawls with flower patterns and a timing of threads. Another example of alliteration.

(3) silver: Silver usually refers to spoons, forks and other kitchenware made of silver (e.g. As kitchen-maid, it was my job to polish the silver.). But here it means silver jewelry.

Para. 13 - 15

There were frequent prayer meetings, and great nocturnal feasts. When I was a child I played with my cousins outside, where the lamplight fell upon the ground and the singing of the old people rose up around us and carried away into the darkness. There were a lot of good things to eat, a lot of laughter and surprise. And afterwards, when the quiet returned, I lay down with my grandmother and could hear the frogs away by the river and feel the motion of the air.

Now there is a funeral silence in the rooms, the endless wake of some final word. The walls have closed in upon my grandmother's house. When I returned to it in mourning, I saw for the first time in my life how small it was. It was late at night, and there was a white moon, nearly full. I sat for a long time on the stone steps by the kitchen door. From there I could see out across the land; I could see the long row of trees by the creek, the low light upon the rolling plains, and the stars of the Big Dipper. Once I looked at the moon and caught sight of a strange thing. A cricket had perched upon the handrail, only a few inches away from me. My line of vision was such that the creature filled the moon like a fossil. It had gone there, I thought, to live and die, for there, of all places, was its small definition made whole and eternal. A warm wind rose up and purled like the longing within me.

The next morning I awoke at dawn and went out on the dirt road to Rainy Mountain. It was already hot, and the grasshoppers began to fill the air. Still, it was early in the morning, and the birds sang out of the shadows. The long yellow grass on the mountain shone in the bright light, and a scissortail hied above the land. There, where it ought to be, at the end of a long and legendary way, was my grandmother's grave. Here and there on the dark stones were ancestral names. Looking back once, I saw the mountain and came away.

119. nocturnal: of, done, or happening in the night

120. Now there is a funeral silence in the rooms, the endless wake of some final word.

(1) The word “funeral” cannot be replaced with the word “dead”. Dead silence means complete silence, But funeral silence means the kind of silence that characterizes a funeral. Here the author uses it together with the word “wake”, which means watch over or viewing of a corpse before burial（守夜，守灵）and the word “mourning” in the following sentence.

(2) some final word: so the wake is not for his grandmother, who died and was already buried, but for something abstract, maybe the dying culture of the Kiowas.

121. My line of vision was such that the creature filled the moon like a fossil.

(1) Explain the meaning of the sentence: I happened to glance in that direction, and there the cricket was perfectly framed by the full moon as if it were a fossil in it.

(2) Put this sentence into Chinese：我当时的视线正好使我看到那只蟋蟀像块化石镶在满月之中。

122. It had gone there, I thought, to live and die… its small definition made whole and eternal.

(1) The cricket is a small insect with nothing special about it. But if it could go to live and die on the moon, the small meaning of its existence would become larger and eternal.

(2) Put this sentence into Chinese：我猜想，那蟋蟀到那里去生活和死亡，因为只有在那里它的渺小价值才能变得完整和永恒。

(3) Here the author has created an impressive image of the cricket against the moon. With this image Momaday brings his essay to its climax. As readers we will surely ask, “What does the image mean? What does the cricket represent?” Different people may have different interpretations. One may see the cricket as symbolic of the Kiowa culture. The Kiowa culture may seem small in definition, but its significance depends on how you look at this culture, or on the angle from which you view it. Maybe the cricket has a deeper meaning than that. In his essay “Poems of Frederick Goddard Tuckerman” Momaday discusses the symbolic meaning of the cricket in Tuckerman’s poem The Cricket. He says, “The ubiquity of Tuckerman’s cricket is the ubiquity of death. Unlike man, who has severed his existence from primitive nature, the cricket is an integral part of nature. And, like death, it has absolute existence in a dimension incomprehensible to man. Therein lies the validity of the cricket as a symbol of death and of the inevitable frustration of man’s quest to know the meaning of death.” These words may throw light on our interpretation of the image.

123. A warm wind rose up and purled like the longing within me: Longing for what? Nobody knows for sure, except the author himself. The statement is deliberately ambiguous.

124. the dirt road: road made of dirt, earth, not a dirty road

125. There, where it ought to be, at the end of a long and legendary way, was my grandmother’s grave: This sentence echoes the words “I wanted to be at her grave” in Paragraph 2. The end of a long and legendary way means the destination of a journey.

126. Looking back once, I saw the mountain and came away: The last two actions of the narrator are significant. Looking back means remembering the past. Out of his exploration into the past grows an attitude of acceptance and a desire to hold on to cherished memories. Coming away indicates a determination to start afresh from Rainy Mountain with a rich heritage that will continue to have a powerful influence on the life of modern Kiowa people.