評論
打印
I will be good, it says. Please let me out. I will be good! They never answer.
我一定不淘氣，他(她)說道。請放我出去。我一定好好的,不淘氣!他們從不回答。
The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, eh-haa, eh-haa, and it speaks less and less often.
孩子過去晚上總是尖聲呼救，大聲地哭，而且哭很久。但現在只發出一種哎--啊，哎--啊的哀鳴聲，話也說得越來越少了。
It ls so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day.
他(她)瘦極了，瘦到腿肚子都沒有，肚子卻鼓著，一天就靠半碗玉米粉和一點動物油維持生命。
It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.
他(她)赤身裸體，臀部和股部是一大串化膿的瘡，因為他(她)老坐在自己的屎尿里。
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.
所有的奧米勒斯人都知道他(她)在那兒。有些人還去看過他(她)還有些人則覺得沒必要親自去看，知道他(她)在那兒就夠了。
They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not,
大家都明白他(她)必須呆在那兒。至于他(她)為什么必須呆在那兒，這原因就只有一部分才明白，有些人并不知曉。
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 their scholars,
但所有的人都清楚一個道理：他們的幸福生活，他們城市的美景，他們之間的親愛和睦的關系，他們的孩子的健康成長，他們的學者們的智慧，
the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery.
他們的工人的技藝，甚至連他們那片天地里的風調雨順、五谷豐登的繁榮景象，這一切全都有賴于那孩子所受的苦難。
This is usually explained to children when they are between eight and twelve, whenever they seem capable of understanding;
奧米勒斯人等他們的孩子長到八至十二歲，能懂事明理的時候便把這一道理講給他們聽。
and most of those who come to see the child are young people, though often enough an adult comes, or comes back, to see the child.
去地窖里看那孩子的多半是青年人，不過還有一個成年人更經常去看那孩子。
