评论
打印
Sometimes also a man or woman much older falls silent for a day or two, and then leaves home.
也有的时候，某个年纪大得多的成年男女去看了那孩子之后会沉默一两天，然后便离家出走。
These people go out into the street, and walk down the street alone. They keep walking, and walk straight out of the city of Omelas, through the beautiful gates.
这些人走到街上，独个儿一路走去。他们一直往前走，穿过漂亮的城门径直走出奥米勒斯城。
They keep walking across the farmlands of Omelas. Each one goes alone, youth or girl, man or woman.
出城之后，他们穿越奥米勒斯的田野继续向前走。每个人，无论是男青年还是女青年，无论是成年男子还是成年女子，都是一人独行。
Night falls; the traveler must pass down village streets, between the houses with yellow-lit windows, and on out into the darkness of the fields.
夜幕降临了，他们还得沿着村镇的街道，穿过街道两边窗户亮着萤光的房屋，继续往前走，走进一片黑暗的旷野之中。
Each alone, they go west or north, towards the mountains. They go on. They leave Omelas, they walk ahead into the darkness, and they do not come back.
每个人都是单独地向西或向北，朝深山里走去。他们一直向前走。他们离开奥米勒斯城，头也不回地向黑暗中走去。
The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all.
他们要去的地方是一个对我们大多数人来说比奥米勒斯城更难想象的地方。我根本无法描述那个地方。也许根本就不存在那样一个地方。
It is possible that it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas.
但那些离开奥米勒斯城的人似乎知道他们要去的是一个什么样的地方。
(from The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction)
(摘自《诺顿短篇小说集》)
