美国语文第六册 第273期:纽约一个大热天(3)
至于另一个人，在人们从他身边走过时，对身旁的朋友嗓音粗噶地说，
"I can't stand this much longer. My hands tingle as if they had gone to sleep; my heart—"
“我再也受不了了。我的手一阵刺痛，好像睡着了似的;我的心……”
But still the multitude hurried on, passing, repassing, encountering, evading,
可是，很多人依旧急匆匆赶路，经过，再经过，碰上，躲开，
vanishing into shop doors, and emerging from them, dispersing down the side streets, and swarming out of them.
闪身进了商店，接着又从商店门后现身，纷纷钻进小巷，又一窝蜂地涌出来。
It was a scene that possessed the beholder with singular fascination, and in its effect of universal lunacy,
这是对此特别痴迷的人看到的一幕，人们都普遍极蠢，
it might well have seemed the last phase of a world presently to be destroyed.
这个世界似乎处于末日来临前的最后阶段。
They who were in it, but not of it, as they fancied — though there was no reason for this — looked on it amazed,
置身于这个世界的人们，虽然并不属于这个世界，正如他们所幻想的那样——尽管无法予以解释——惊异地打量这个世界，
and at last their own errands being accomplished, and themselves so far cured of the madness of purpose,
最后他们自己的差事也得以完成了，而他们则出于医治躁狂之目的，
they cried with one voice that it was a hideous sight, and strove to take refuge from it in the nearest place where the soda fountain sparkled.
遂异口同声地呼吁，这是可怕的景象，极力躲避到最近的地方，那里到处都可见冷饮柜。
It was a vain desire. At the front door of the apothecary's hung a thermometer,
其实，这是徒劳的愿望而已。在药店门口挂着一支温度计，
and as they entered they heard the next comer cry out with a maniacal pride in the affliction laid upon mankind, "Ninety-seven degrees!"
他们进去时听到下一个来客凭着降临到人类头上的痛苦所导致的癫狂的自豪喊道：“九十七度!”
Behind them, at the door, there poured in a ceaseless stream of people, each pausing at the shrine of heat,
在他们身后的门口，涌进不间断的人流，大家都在炙热的“圣坛”前停下脚步，
before he tossed off the hissing draught that two pale, close-clipped boys served them from either side of the fountain.
在他站在通风口处脱下衣服前，两个面色苍白，说话急促的小伙子从喷泉的两侧迎上前来。
