With a clamor of bells that set the swallows soaring, the Festival of Summer came to the city Omelas, bright-towered by the sea.隨著一陣鐘聲響起虚循，燕子被驚動(dòng)飛往高處，奧米勒斯城的夏日歡慶節(jié)開始了，這是一個(gè)白塔映日的海濱城市偷办。
The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags.港口中停泊的船只上飄揚(yáng)著旗幟揩悄。
In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of trees, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved. 游行隊(duì)伍向前移動(dòng)著蝗岖，穿過(guò)街道旁紅頂彩墻的房屋碉输，穿過(guò)長(zhǎng)滿厚厚苔蘚的花園和一條條林蔭大道跟继，穿過(guò)一座座大公園和公共建筑密浑。
Some were decorous: old people in long stiff robes of mauve and grey, grave master workmen, quiet, merry women carrying their babies and chatting as they walked. 一些人端莊得體：其中有穿著紫色和灰色硬長(zhǎng)袍的老者蛙婴，有嚴(yán)肅的工頭，有安靜而快樂(lè)的婦女尔破，她們帶著孩子街图，邊走邊聊。
In other streets the music beat faster, a shimmering of gong and tambourine, and the people went dancing, the procession was a dance. 在其他街道上懒构，音樂(lè)敲擊聲更大餐济，銅鑼喧天，人們跳起舞來(lái)胆剧，整個(gè)游行隊(duì)伍都載歌載舞絮姆。
Children dodged in and out, their high calls rising like the swallows' crossing flights over the music and the singing. 孩子們跑進(jìn)跑出，他們高高的叫喊聲如同燕子的叫聲赞赖，蓋過(guò)了音樂(lè)和歌唱聲滚朵。
All the processions wound towards the north side of the city, where on the great water-meadow called the Green Fields boys and girls, naked in the bright air, with mud-stained feet and ankles and long, lithe arms, exercised their restive horses before the race. 所有的游行隊(duì)伍向著城市的北面蜿蜒而行，在那兒有一個(gè)稱為綠野的海邊草原前域，男孩和女孩光著身子辕近，腳上和腳踝沾滿了污泥，手臂修長(zhǎng)而柔軟匿垄，正在對(duì)那些躁動(dòng)不安的馬進(jìn)行賽前訓(xùn)練移宅。
The horses wear no gear at all but a halter without bit. There manes were braided with streamers of silver, gold, and green. 那些馬沒(méi)有戴馬具，只是被套上了不帶嚼子的韁繩椿疗。馬鬃上綁著一些銀色漏峰，金色和綠色的飾帶。
They flared their nostrils and pranced and boasted to one another; they were vastly excited, the horse being the only animal who has adopted our ceremonies as his own. 它們張著鼻孔届榄，昂首闊步浅乔，彼此炫耀著；它們極度高興，因?yàn)轳R是將人類的慶祝儀式看作自己的儀式的唯一動(dòng)物靖苇。
Far off to the north and west the mountains stood up half encircling Omelas on her bay. 遠(yuǎn)處席噩，群山半包圍著奧米勒斯城北部和西部的海灣。
The air of morning was so clear that the snow still crowning the Eighteen Peaks burned with white-gold fire across the miles of sunlit air, under the dark blue of the sky.
早晨的天空如此晴朗贤壁，碧藍(lán)的天空下悼枢，覆蓋著十八山峰的積雪猶如燃燒的白金色火焰，穿過(guò)陽(yáng)光照射天空脾拆。
There was just enough wind to make the banners that marked the racecourse snap and flutter now and then. 正好有足夠的風(fēng)力使得標(biāo)記跑道的橫幅隨風(fēng)飄揚(yáng)著并時(shí)而發(fā)出噼啪聲馒索。
In the silence of the broad green meadows one could hear the music winding through the city streets, farther and nearer and ever approaching, a cheerful faint sweetness of the air that from time to time trembled and gathered together and broke out into the great joyous clanging of the bells. 在靜寂遼闊的綠色草原上，人們可以聽到音樂(lè)聲蜿蜒穿過(guò)城市街道名船，時(shí)遠(yuǎn)時(shí)近绰上，猶如陣陣令人振奮的香風(fēng)撲面而來(lái)。音樂(lè)聲時(shí)而顫抖包帚，時(shí)而匯集渔期，混入了歡快的鐘聲中。
Joyous! How is one to tell about joy? How describe the citizens of Omelas? 歡快渴邦！人們是如何描述歡快的呢疯趟？奧米勒斯的市民是如何描述它的呢？
They were not simple folk, you see, though they were happy. But we do not say the words of cheer much any more. All smiles have become archaic.你是知道的谋梭，奧米勒斯城的市民不是一群頭腦簡(jiǎn)單的人信峻，盡管他們很幸福。但是我們?cè)僖膊惶峥鞓?lè)之類的話了瓮床，所有的歡笑都已經(jīng)變得過(guò)時(shí)了盹舞。
Given a description such as this one tends to make certain assumptions. Given a description such as this one tends to look next for the King, mounted on a splendid stallion and surrounded by his noble knights, or perhaps in a golden litter borne by great-muscled slaves. 聽到這樣的描述，人們往往會(huì)作出一些推斷隘庄；聽到這樣的描述踢步，人們接下來(lái)往往會(huì)尋找一位騎著種馬，由一群貴族騎士護(hù)衛(wèi)或由力氣大的奴隸用金轎子抬著的國(guó)王丑掺。
But there was no king. They did not use swords, or keep slaves. They were not barbarians. I do not know the rules and laws of their society, but I suspect that they were singularly few. 但這兒沒(méi)有國(guó)王获印。他們既不舞劍，也不養(yǎng)奴隸街州。他們不是野蠻人兼丰。我不了解他們社會(huì)的規(guī)則和法律，但我推測(cè)他們的規(guī)則很少唆缴。
As they did without monarchy and slavery, so they also got on without the stock exchange, the advertisement, the secret police, and the bomb.
因?yàn)樗麄兗炔粚?shí)行君主政治鳍征，也沒(méi)有奴隸制，因此他們也沒(méi)有證券交易所面徽，廣告艳丛，秘密警察和炸彈。
Yet I repeat that these were not simpr folk, not dulcet shephrs, noble savages, bland utopians. They were not less complex than us. 但我重申一下，這些人并不是頭腦簡(jiǎn)單的人氮双，他們不是溫厚善良的牧羊人旺聚，不是自詡高貴的野蠻人，也不是平淡乏味的空想家眶蕉。他們的頭腦并不比我們的簡(jiǎn)單。
The troubr is that we have a bad habit, encouraged by pedants and sophisticates, of considering happiness as something rather stupid. 問(wèn)題是我們有一個(gè)壞習(xí)慣唧躲，這種習(xí)慣被一些學(xué)究和老成的人所推崇造挽，那就是認(rèn)為幸福是一種愚蠢的東西。
Only pain is intellectual, only evil interesting. This is the treason of the artist: a refusal to admit the banality of evil and the terrible boredom of pain.只有痛苦才能使人變得聰明弄痹，只有邪惡才能引發(fā)人的興趣饭入。藝術(shù)家的叛逆就是拒絕承認(rèn)邪惡的陳腐和痛苦的無(wú)聊。
If you can't lick 'em, join 'em. If it hurts, repeat it. But to praise despair is to condemn delight, to embrace violence is to lose hold of everything else. 如果不能戰(zhàn)勝他們肛真，就加入進(jìn)來(lái)吧谐丢。如果它傷害人，就再被它傷害一次吧蚓让。但是贊賞絕望就是譴責(zé)快樂(lè)乾忱，接受暴力就失去了對(duì)其他一切事物的控制。
We have almost lost hold; we can no longer describe a happy man, nor make any celebration of joy. How can I tell you about the people of Omelas?我們幾乎失去了一切历极，再也不能描述一個(gè)快樂(lè)的人了窄瘟，也不能有任何慶祝歡樂(lè)的活動(dòng)了。我該如何向你講述奧米勒斯城的人呢趟卸？
They were not naive and happy children-- though their children were, in fact, happy. They were mature, intelligent, passionate adults whose lives were not wretched. 他們不是天真快樂(lè)的孩子——即使他們的孩子實(shí)際上很快樂(lè)蹄葱。他們是成熟、機(jī)智而富有激情的成年人锄列，生活過(guò)得還不錯(cuò)图云。
O miracle! But I wish I could describe it better. I wish I could convince you. Omelas sounds in my words like a city in a fairy tale, long ago and far away, once upon a time. 簡(jiǎn)直就是奇跡！但我希望能把它描述得更好些邻邮。我希望我能說(shuō)服你竣况，我口中的奧米勒斯城聽起來(lái)就像很久以前存在于童話故事中的一個(gè)遙遠(yuǎn)的城市。
Perhaps it would be best if you imagined it as your own fancy bids, assuming it will rise the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all. 如果你可以發(fā)揮自己的想象力去想象一下它的樣子是最好不過(guò)的饶囚。因?yàn)槲业拿枋霾⒉荒芊纤凶x者的口味帕翻。
For instance, how about technology? I think there would be no cars or helicopters in and above the streets; this follows from the fact that the people of Omelas are happy people. 比如那的科技是什么樣子的？我認(rèn)為街道上沒(méi)有來(lái)往的汽車萝风，空中沒(méi)有盤旋的直升飛機(jī)嘀掸，因?yàn)閵W米勒斯城的人們是幸福快樂(lè)的
Happiness is based on a just discrimination of what is necessary, what is neither necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. 幸腹娑瑁基于這樣的基礎(chǔ)之上睬塌，即分辨出什么是必需之物，什么是既不必需也無(wú)危害之物，以及什么是有害之物揩晴。
In the middle category, however-- that of the unnecessary but undestructive, that of comfort, luxury, exuberance, etc.- they could perfectly well have central heating, subway trains, washing machines, and all kinds of marvelous devices not yet invented There, floating sources, fuelless power, a cure for the common cold. 然而勋陪，在第二類中——那些既不必需也無(wú)危害之物，那些給人以舒服硫兰、奢侈诅愚、活力等的享受之物——他們完全可以擁有供暖系統(tǒng)、地鐵劫映、洗衣機(jī)和其它各種各樣尚未問(wèn)世的了不起的發(fā)明违孝，如流動(dòng)光源、無(wú)燃料動(dòng)力和治療普通感冒的方法泳赋。
Or they could have none of that: it doesn't matter. As you like it. One thing I know there is none of in Omelas is guilt. 或者他們可能沒(méi)有這些東西：但是并不重要雌桑。你按照自己的意愿想象就好。我認(rèn)為奧米勒斯城有一樣?xùn)|西確實(shí)沒(méi)有祖今，那就是犯罪校坑。
But what else should there be? I thought at first there were no drugs, but that is puritanical. 但是那還應(yīng)該有什么其他的東西呢？我認(rèn)為首先是沒(méi)有毒品千诬，但那樣的生活又顯得太清教徒式了耍目。
For those who like it, the faint insistent sweetness of drooz may perfume the ways of the city, drooz which first brings a great lightness and brilliance to the mind and limbs, and then after some hours a dreamy languor, and wonderful visions at last of the very arcane and inmost secrets of the Universe, as well as exciting the pleasure of sex beyond all belief; and it is not habit-forming. 對(duì)于那些喜歡它的人，城市的街道上彌漫著“德魯斯”那淡淡而持續(xù)的香味大渤，“德魯斯”首先使頭腦變得十分聰明制妄，使四肢變得十分輕巧，然后數(shù)小時(shí)內(nèi)使人處于夢(mèng)幻般的慵懶狀態(tài)泵三，最終給人帶來(lái)關(guān)于宇宙奧秘的奇妙景象和難以置信的性交快感耕捞，而且它不易使人上癮。
For more modest tastes I think there ought to be beer. What else, what else belongs in the joyous city? The sense of victory, surely, the celebration of courage. 對(duì)于口味沒(méi)那么重的烫幕，我認(rèn)為應(yīng)該提供啤酒俺抽。還有什么呢？還有什么是屬于這個(gè)歡樂(lè)的城市的呢较曼？勝利的感覺磷斧，當(dāng)然還有對(duì)勇氣的慶祝。
But as we did without clergy, let us do without soldiers. 但是既然我們不需要神職人員捷犹，那么我們也不需要士兵弛饭。
The joy built upon successful slaughter is not the right kind of joy: it will not do; it is fearful and it is trivial. 建立在成功的殺戮的基礎(chǔ)上的歡樂(lè)不是真正的歡樂(lè)：這種快樂(lè)要不得，它是恐怖的萍歉，是微不足道的侣颂。
A boundless and generous contentment, a magnanimous triumph felt not against some outer enemy but in communion with the finest and fairest in the souls of all men everywhere and the splendor of the world's summer: this is what swells the hearts of the people of Omelas, and the victory they celebrate is that of life.奧米勒斯人的內(nèi)心擁有巨大的滿足感和勝利感，這些勝利不是擊敗外敵的勝利枪孩，而是世界上心靈的美好與夏日的壯麗產(chǎn)生共鳴的勝利憔晒，他們慶祝的是人生的勝利藻肄。
I really don't think many of them need to take drooz. 說(shuō)實(shí)話，我認(rèn)為他們中的許多人不需要服用“德魯斯”拒担。
Most of the processions have reached the Green Fields by now. A marvelous smell of cooking goes forth from the red and blue tents of the provisioners. 現(xiàn)在嘹屯，大部分的游行隊(duì)伍已經(jīng)抵達(dá)了綠野草坪。炊事班的紅色和藍(lán)色帳篷里散發(fā)出烹飪的絕妙味道从撼。
The faces of small children are amiably sticky; in the benign grey beard of a man a couple of crumbs of rich pastry are entangled. 小孩子可愛的臉蛋上由于吃東西弄的黏黏的州弟，一位慈祥的老人的白胡子上黏著油酥點(diǎn)心的幾片碎屑。
The youths and girls have mounted their horses and are beginning to group around the starting line of the course. 小伙子和姑娘們已經(jīng)騎上了馬低零，聚集在賽道的起跑線附近呆馁。
An old woman, small, fat, and laughing, is passing out flowers from a basket, and tall young men wear her flowers in their shining hair. 一位老婦人，長(zhǎng)得又矮又胖毁兆，放聲大笑，從籃子里取出花發(fā)給他們阴挣，高個(gè)子的年輕人將花戴在閃閃發(fā)亮的頭發(fā)上气堕。
A child of nine or ten sits at the edge of the crowd, alone, playing on a wooden flute. 一個(gè)九十歲樣子的孩子獨(dú)自坐在人群邊上，吹奏著木笛畔咧。
People pause to listen, and they smile, but they do not speak to them, for he never ceases playing and never sees them, his dark eyes wholly rapt in the sweet, thin magic of the tune. 人們停下來(lái)聽著茎芭，露出微笑，但是沒(méi)有跟那個(gè)孩子說(shuō)話誓沸，因?yàn)樗恢辈煌５卮底嗝纷瑥膩?lái)不看他們，他那雙烏黑的眼睛全神貫注于美妙動(dòng)聽的旋律上拜隧。
He finishes, and slowly lowers his hands holding the wooden flute. 他吹完了宿百，緩慢放下了握著木笛的雙手。
As if that little private silence were the signal, all at once a trumpet sounds from the pavilion near the starting line: imperious, melancholy, piercing. 笛聲一停洪添，場(chǎng)上頓時(shí)出現(xiàn)了片刻寂靜垦页，這仿佛是一個(gè)信號(hào)，緊接著從起跑線附近的亭子里穿出了傲慢干奢、憂郁痊焊、刺耳的號(hào)聲。
The horses rear on their slender legs, and some of them neigh in answer. 馬兒揚(yáng)起瘦長(zhǎng)的前腿忿峻，有一些還嘶鳴著作為回應(yīng)薄啥。
Sober-faced, the young riders stroke the horses' necks and soothe them, whispering, “Quiet, quiet, there my beauty, my hope... ” 鎮(zhèn)靜的年輕賽馬者撫摸著馬的脖子，輕聲細(xì)語(yǔ)的安慰它們：“乖逛尚，乖垄惧，我的美人，我的希望……”
They begin to form in rank along the starting line. The crowds along the racecourse are like a field of grass and flowers in the wind. The Festival of Summer has begun. 它們開始沿著起跑線排成一行黑低。賽馬跑道沿線的人群就像風(fēng)中的花草赘艳。夏慶節(jié)開始了酌毡。
Do you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing. 你相信嗎？你相信這個(gè)節(jié)日蕾管，這個(gè)城市和其中的快樂(lè)嗎枷踏？不？接下來(lái)再讓我向你描述一件事情掰曾。
In a basement under one of the beautiful public buildings of Omelas, or perhaps in the cellar of one of its spacious private homes, there is a room. 在奧米勒斯城一座漂亮的公共建筑物的地下室里面旭蠕，或許是在一座寬敞的私人住宅的地窖里面，有一個(gè)房間旷坦。
It has one locked door, and no window. A little light seeps in dustily between cracks in the boards, secondhand from a cobwebbed window somewhere across the cellar. 只有一個(gè)緊鎖著的門掏熬，沒(méi)有窗戶。一絲充滿塵埃的光線從墻板上的縫隙里穿進(jìn)來(lái)秒梅，間接來(lái)自地窖某處結(jié)滿蜘蛛網(wǎng)的一個(gè)小窗戶旗芬。
In one corner of the little room a couple of mops, with stiff, clotted, foul-smelling heads, stand near a rusty bucket. The floor is dirt, a little damp to the touch, as cellar dirt usually is. 在這個(gè)小房間的一個(gè)角落里，有幾把拖把立在一個(gè)生銹的桶旁捆蜀，拖布硬硬的疮丛，結(jié)成了塊，臭烘烘的辆它。地是泥土地誊薄，碰上去有些潮濕，地窖里的土通常都是這樣的锰茉。
The room is about three paces long and two wide: a mere broom closet or disused tool room. 這個(gè)房間有三步長(zhǎng)兩步寬：就是一個(gè)雜物室或者是被棄用的工具間呢蔫。
In the room a child is sitting. It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. 這個(gè)房間里坐著一個(gè)孩子。分不清是男孩還是女孩飒筑，看上去有六歲左右片吊，但實(shí)際上快十歲了。它有些弱智协屡。
Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect. 或許是天生有缺陷定鸟，或許是由于恐懼，營(yíng)養(yǎng)不良和被忽視而變得愚鈍著瓶。
It picks its nose and occasionally fumbles vaguely with its toes or genitals, as it sits hunched in the corner farthest from the bucket and the two mops. 它縮頭弓身地坐在離桶和兩把拖把最遠(yuǎn)的角落里联予，摳著鼻子，偶爾無(wú)意識(shí)地摸著腳趾或生殖器材原。
It is afraid of the mops. It finds them horrible. It shuts its eyes, but it knows the mops are still standing there; and the door is locked; and nobody will come. 它害怕拖把沸久，覺得它們很可怕。它閉上眼睛余蟹，但它知道拖把仍然豎立在那兒卷胯；門鎖著；沒(méi)人來(lái)威酒。
The door is always locked; and nobody will come. The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes, except that sometimes-the child has no understanding of time or interval-sometimes the door rattles terribly and opens, and a person, or several people, are there. 門一直鎖著窑睁，沒(méi)有來(lái)過(guò)挺峡，除非有時(shí)——這個(gè)孩子不知道時(shí)間和時(shí)間間隔——有時(shí)門嘎吱作響，開了担钮，會(huì)進(jìn)來(lái)一個(gè)人或者幾個(gè)人橱赠。
One of them may come in and kick the child to make it stand up. The others never come close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eyes. 其中一個(gè)人可能會(huì)進(jìn)來(lái)，踢一下這個(gè)孩子箫津，讓它站起來(lái)狭姨；其他人從不接近，而是用驚恐而厭惡的眼神向里面窺視著苏遥。
The food bowl and the water jug are hastily filled, the door is locked, the eyes disappear. 盛事物的碗和盛水的罐子被匆匆裝滿饼拍，然后門被鎖上，人們紛紛離開田炭。
The people at the door never say anything, but the child, who has not always lived in the tool room, and can remember sunlight and its mother's voice, sometimes speaks.
站在門口的人從來(lái)不說(shuō)什么話师抄，但是這個(gè)孩子不是一直住在工具間的，它記得陽(yáng)光及母親的聲音教硫，有時(shí)會(huì)說(shuō)話司澎。
“I will be good,” it says. “Please let me out. I will be good!” They never answer. The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whinning, “eh-haa,eh-haa,” and it speaks less and less often. “我會(huì)好好表現(xiàn)的，”它說(shuō)：：“請(qǐng)放我出去吧栋豫。我會(huì)好好表現(xiàn)的⊙枋猓”他們從來(lái)不作回答丧鸯。孩子過(guò)去會(huì)在夜里大聲尖叫著救命，哭得很厲害的嫩絮，但現(xiàn)在只能發(fā)出“哎——啊丛肢，哎——啊”的嗚咽聲，而且話也說(shuō)得越來(lái)越少了剿干。
It is so thin there are no claves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day. It is naked. 它瘦得腿上沒(méi)有小腿肚蜂怎，肚子凸出來(lái)；它一天吃半碗玉米和一點(diǎn)動(dòng)物油置尔。
It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually. 它赤身裸體杠步，屁股和大腿都長(zhǎng)滿了潰爛的瘡，因?yàn)?它經(jīng)常坐在自己的糞便里榜轿。
They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas. Some of them have come to see it; others are content merely to know it is there. 奧米勒斯人知道它待在那兒幽歼。這些人來(lái)看過(guò)它，有些人只要知道它在那就夠了谬盐。
They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not, but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of scholars, the skill of their masters, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery.
他們都知道它不得不待在那甸私。有些人知道原因，有些人不知道飞傀，但是他們都明白他們的幸福皇型、城市的美好诬烹、溫情的友誼、孩子的健康弃鸦、學(xué)者的智慧绞吁，工匠的技能，甚至豐收和風(fēng)調(diào)雨順全部都取決于這個(gè)孩子所遭受的無(wú)盡的痛苦寡键。
This is
