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Pompeii
庞贝
Robert Silverberg
罗伯特·西尔弗伯格
Not very far from Naples, a strange city sleeps under the hot Italian sun. It is the city of Pompeii, and there is no other city quite like it in all the world. Nothing lives in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards, yet every year thousands of people travel from distant countries to visit it.
距那不勒斯不远，一座奇特的城市在意大利炽热的太阳下沉睡，这就是庞贝古城，世界上没有哪一座城市与它雷同。除了蟋蟀、甲壳虫、蜥蜴，这里没有其他生物。不过每年还是有成千上万的人从遥远的国度到此参观。
Pompeii is a dead city. No one has lived there for nearly two thousand years—not since the summer of the year AD 79, to be exact.
庞贝是座死城。确切地说，自从公元79年夏天以来，将近2000年里无人在此居住。
Until that year Pompeii was a prosperous city of 25,000 people. Nearby was the Bay of Naples, an arm of the blue Mediterranean. Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build seaside villas. Farmlands surrounded Pompeii. Rising behind the city was the 4,000-foot Mount Vesuvius, a grass-covered slope where the shepherds of Pompeii took their goats to graze. Pompeii was a busy city and a happy one.
在那年之前，庞贝是一座拥有25000人口的繁荣城市。附近的那不勒斯湾就像是蓝色的地中海的一条长长的臂膀。有钱人从富裕的罗马到这里来建海边别墅。庞贝被农田环绕，其后方是高达4000英尺的维苏威山。山坡上长满了青草，庞贝的牧羊人常把羊群赶到这里放牧。那时的庞贝是座繁忙的城市，也是座欢乐的城市。
It died suddenly, in a terrible rain of fire and ash. The tragedy struck on the 24th of August, AD 79. Mount Vesuvius, which had slept quietly for centuries, erupted with savage violence. Tons of hot ash fell on Pompeii, hiding it from sight. For three days the sun did not break through the clouds of volcanic ash that filled the sky. And when the eruption ended, Pompeii was buried deep. A city had perished.
但它突然间就在烈火和灰尘中消亡了。这场悲剧发生在公元79年8月24日。维苏威山在沉睡了几个世纪后以巨大的威力爆发。成吨炙热的火山灰落向庞贝城，将它淹没。连续三天，阳光都没有穿透天空中火山灰形成的尘雾。火山爆发之后，庞贝被深埋地下，一座城市就这样消失了。
