【正文】 r necessary nor destructive, and what is destructive. In the middle category, however—that of the unnecessary but undestructive, that of fort, luxury, exuberance, etc.—they could perfectly well have central heating, subway trains, washing machines, and all kinds of marvelous devices not yet invented here, floating lightsources, fuelless power, a cure for the mon cold. Or they could have none of that。 and it is not habitforming. 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. But as we did without clergy, let us do without soldiers. The joy built upon successful slaughter is not the right kind of joy。 it is fearful and it is trivial. A boundless and generous contentment, a magnanimous triumph felt not against some outer enemy but in munion 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. I really don’t think many of them need to take drooz. 歡樂!究竟怎樣才叫歡樂?該怎樣描述奧米勒斯城的市民的歡樂情形呢?說起來，他們并不是一些頭腦簡單的人，盡管他們過得很快活。聽到這樣的描述，人們可能會作出一些想當然的推斷；聽到這樣的描述，人們也許就會意想到那君臨天下的國王，騎在一匹高頭大馬上，身邊簇擁著一群威武的騎士，或是踞坐在一乘由一隊健壯如牛的奴隸抬著的金轎上。奧米勒斯人不用劍，也不養(yǎng)奴隸。我不知道他們的社會有些什么條令和法規(guī)，但我猜想他們的條規(guī)一定很少。不過，我再次說明，這些人并不是頭腦簡單的原始人，不是溫厚善良的牧羊人，不是出身高貴的野蠻人，也不是溫文有禮的烏托邦主義者。我們的社會的弊病在于，由于一些賣弄學問的人和深諳世故的人的推波助瀾，我們養(yǎng)成了一種惡習，認為歡樂是一種無聊乏味的東西，只有痛苦才能啟迪人的智慧，只有邪惡才能激發(fā)人的興趣。倘若你無法戰(zhàn)勝這些，不如干脆與之同流合污；倘若你受到打擊覺得痛苦，不如重施一次打擊，以減輕痛苦。我們已幾乎失去一切，再也不知如何去描述一個快樂的人了，也無法舉行什么快樂的活動。他們是成熟的、智慧的、充滿激情的成年人，而且過著不錯的生活。倘若讀者有足夠的想象力的話，最好還是自己去想象奧米勒斯城的情形吧。比如，奧米勒斯城的科技發(fā)展狀況如何?我認為那兒的街道上不會有汽車奔馳，空中不會有飛機盤旋?？鞓沸腋５幕A是能分辨什么是生活必需之物，什么是既不必需又無危害之物，以及什么是有害之物。不過，在第二類物品中——那些雖不必需但卻無害的物品，即那些給人帶來舒適享受的奢侈品中——他們卻完全可能擁有中央空調、地鐵火車、洗衣機以及其他各種各樣尚未發(fā)明出來的東西，如流動光源、無燃料動力、治療傷風感冒的秘方等等。就由你自己去想象吧。除此以外還有些什么呢?我想，首先是他們沒有毒品，但那樣他們的生活又顯得太像苦行僧了。服了這種麻醉品后最初的反應是四肢變得十分輕靈，頭腦變得十分靈活；過幾個小時以后，便昏昏沉沉地進入一種夢境，并產生各種各樣奇妙的幻覺，使人得以窺視宇宙間最玄妙、隱藏最深的奧秘；另外，它還能極大的增強性交的快感。對于那些認為其烈性太強的人，我想應該為他們提供啤酒。但既然我們已經排除了教士，我們也理應排除武士。那種歡樂是要不得的，是可怕的，也是不值得的。他們所慶祝的勝利是人生的勝利。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 provisionary. The faces of small children are amiably sticky。炊事隊的紅藍雙色帳篷里散發(fā)出美妙的食品香味。參加賽馬的青年男女騎手都已騎馬來到起跑線上等候著。一個大約九到十歲的小孩獨自坐在邊上吹奏一支木笛。He finishes, and slowly lowers his hands holding the wooden if that little private silence were the signal, all at once a trumpet sounds from the pavilion near the starting line: imperious, melancholy, piercing. The horses rear on their slender legs, and some of them neigh in answer. Soberfaced, the young riders stroke the horses’ necks and soothe them, whispering, “Quiet, quiet, there my beauty, my hope....” 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 you believe? Do you accept the festival, the city, the joy? No? Then let me describe one more thing. 吹奏完畢，他徐徐地放下握笛子的雙手。那些在等候的馬一聽號聲，便人立而起，有的還發(fā)出嘶叫聲。聚集在賽馬跑道沿線的人群東倒西歪，宛如原野上的一片花草迎風起伏著。你相信了嗎?上面描述的這種節(jié)慶，這個城市以及歡樂景象，你都覺得可信了嗎?不可信?那么，請讓我再講述一件事情吧。 and the door is locked。 and nobody ever es, 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. One of them may e in and kick the child to make it stand up. The others never e close, but peer in at it with frightened, disgusted eyes. The food bowl and the water jug are hastily filled, the door is locked, the eyes disappear. 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. “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 whining, “ehhaa, ehhaa,” and it speaks less and less often. It is so thin there are no calves to its legs。 it lives on a halfbowl of corn meal and grease a day. It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own ex