评论
打印
Broadway! Was it possible? The change was absolutely appalling! In place of the roaring thoroughfare that I had known, this silent, moss-grown desolation. Great buildings had fallen into ruin. The place was soundless. Not a vehicle moved. There were no wires overhead—no sound of life or movement except, here and there, there passed slowly to and fro human figures dressed in the same asbestos clothes as my acquaintance, with the same hairless faces, and the same look of infinite age upon them.
百老汇！这怎么可能？这变化也太让人吃惊了！我记得以前这是一条车水马龙的通衢大道，可现在却成了沉寂无声、长满青苔、一片荒凉的地方。那些大楼都倒塌了，成为堆堆瓦砾。整个地方鸦雀无声。没有一辆在移动的车子。头顶上方的电线也都不见了——没有任何生命的迹象和会动的东西。只有三三两两来回慢慢走动、穿着和我刚认识的那个人一样的石棉衣服的一些人影，一个个脸上也都没有毛发，都显出同样一种经历过无穷岁月的样子。
Good heavens! And was this the era of the conquest that I had hoped to see? I had always taken for granted that humanity was destined to move forward. This picture of desolation rendered me almost speechless.
我的天哪！难道这就是我朝思暮想、期盼能见到的人类征服一切以后的新时代？我一直以为，人类总是会不断向前进步。可是现在眼前这幅荒凉的图景使我简直哑口无言了。
I gasped out a question.
我喘着气问了一个问题。
"Where are the streetcars and the motors?"
“请问那些电车和汽车到哪里去了？”
"Oh, done away with long ago," he said.
“哦，早就打发掉了，”他说。
"But how do you get about?"
“那你们怎么出行呢？”
"We don't," he answered. "Why should we? It's just the same being here as being anywhere else."
“我们不出行，”他回答说，“我们为什么要出行？在这里和在其他地方没有什么区别。”
A thousand questions surged into my mind at once. I asked one of the simplest.
这时，我脑中一下涌起千百个问题。我先问了个最简单的。
"But how do you get back and forth to your work?"
“那你们怎么上下班工作呢？”
"Work!" he said. "There isn't any work."
“工作！”他说，“工作已经不存在了。”
I looked at him a moment open-mouthed.
我张大了嘴朝他看了一会儿。
