a-fable-for-tomorrow

TextAThere wasonce atown in the heartof Americawhere alllife seemedto liveinharmony withits surroundings.The townlay in the midstof acheckerboard ofprosperousfarms,with fieldsof grainand hillsidesof orchardswhere,in spring,whiteclouds ofbloom driftedabove thegreen fields.In autumn,oak andmaple andbirch setupa blazeof colorthat flamedand flickeredacross abackdrop ofpines.Then foxesbarkedin thehills anddeer silentlycrossed the fields,half hiddeninthemists of the fallmornings.从前在美国中心有一个小镇，那里的万物看上去都与其四周的环境融洽相处小镇的四周是像棋盘交错的生意盎然的农庄，还有一块块的田地和一座座遍布山坡的果园春天来了，白色的鲜花云彩般地漂浮在田野上；秋天到了，橡树、枫树和桦树色彩斑斓，在一片松树林间火焰般地燃烧与跳跃小山上狐狸吠叫，田野间小鹿静静地跃过，所有的一切都在秋天清晨的薄雾中半隐半现Along theroads,laurel,viburnum andalder,great fernsand wildflowersdelightedthe travelerseye throughmuch of the year.Even inwinter theroadsides wereplacesof beauty,where countlessbirds cameto feedon theberries andon theseed headsofthe driedweeds risingabove thesnow.The countrysidewas,in fact,famous fortheabundance andvariety ofits birdlife,and whenthe floodof migrantswas pouringthroughin springand fallpeople traveledfrom greatdistances toobserve them.Others cameto fishthe streams,which flowedclear andcold outof thehills andcontainedshady poolswhere troutlay.So ithad beenfrom thedays manyyears agowhenthe firstsettlers raisedtheir houses,sank theirwells,and builttheir barns.在路的两旁，一年中许多时候，月桂树、荚莲、梢木、蕨类植物和各样的野花都能让过往的行人赏心悦目即使是冬天，路边的景色依旧是美不胜收，那里无数的小鸟来觅取浆果莓和露在雪地上的枯枝上的种子事实上，这乡村正是由于鸟类的数量和种类之繁多而出名的在候鸟群潮涌而来的春秋季节，人们从大老远的地方慕名前来欣赏还有的人来这里的小溪垂钓清冽的溪水从山中流出，溪水中有许多鳍鱼藏身的背阴的水潭所以，从许多年前开始，第一批居住者就在这里盖房挖井，搭起了自己的谷仓Then a strange blightcrept overthe areaand everythingbegan tochange.Someevil spellhad settledon thecommunity:mysterious maladiesswept theflocks ofchickens;the cattleand sheepsickened anddied.Everywhere wasa shadowof death.The farmersspoke ofmuch illnessamong theirfamilies.In thetown thedoctors hadbecomemore andmore puzzledby newkinds ofsickness appearingamong theirpatients.There hadbeen severalsudden andunexplained deaths,not onlyamongadults buteven amongchildren,who wouldbe strickensuddenly whileat playand diewithina fewhours.后来，一种奇怪的摧毁力悄然袭击了这个地区，所有的一切都开始变了某种邪恶的符影农夫们谈论着家中的许多疾病;镇上的医生也越来越因病人中出现的新的病症而感到咒笼罩了这个社区神秘的疾病攻击了鸡群，牛、羊也纷纷病死，到处都有一层死亡的阴迷惑在成人和孩子中发生了好几起突发的不明其由的死亡，那些孩子在玩耍中突然病倒,几小时后就死去了There wasastrangestillness.The birds,for example-where hadthey goneManypeople spokeof them,puzzled anddisturbed.The feedingstations inthebackyards weredeserted.The fewbirds seenanywhere weremoribund;they trembledviolentlyand couldnot fly.It wasa springwithout voices.On themornings thathad oncethrobbedwith thedawn chorusof robins,catbirds,doves,jays,wrens,and scoresofother birdvoices therewas nowno sound;only silencelay overthe fieldsand woodsandmarsh.这里是一派奇怪的寂静就说鸟儿们吧一它们都去哪儿了？许多人说起鸟儿的时候都充满了迷惑与不安他们后院的饲养站已经没有鸟儿光顾了随处能见到的几只鸟都奄奄一息他们猛烈地颤抖，却飞不起来这是一个无声的春天曾经是震动着画眉鸟、猫鸟、鸽子、槿鸟、欧鹏和许多鸟儿的黎明合唱声的清晨如今却寂然无声田野间、树林中和沼泽地里也是一片寂静On thefarms thehens brooded,but nochicks hatched.The farmerscomplained thattheywere unableto raiseany pigs-the litterswere smalland theyoung survivedonly afewdays.The appletrees werecoming intobloom butno beesdroned amongtheblossoms,so therewas nopollination and there wouldbe nofruit.在农庄，母鸡下蛋却孵不出小鸡农夫们抱怨无法养猪，因为刚生下的猪崽太小了，小猪也只能活几天的功夫苹果树开花了，可是没有蜜蜂在花丛中嗡嗡地采蜜，没有蜜蜂的授粉，也就没有任何果子The roadsides,once soattractive,were nowlined withbrowned andwitheredvegetation asthough sweptby fire.These,too,were silent,deserted byall livingthings.Even thestreams werenow lifeless.Anglers nolonger visitedthem,for allthe fishhaddied.曾经是如此迷人的路旁如今却铺着黑黑的枯干的草木，仿佛是被一场大火烧过一般那里也是一片寂静，因为所有的生物都遗弃了它即使是溪流中也没有了生命因为所有的鱼都已经死了，垂钓者也就不再来了In thegutters underthe eavesand betweenthe shinglesoftheroofs,a whitegranularpowder stillshowed a few patches;some weeksbefore ithad fallenlike snowupon theroofsand thelawns,thefieldsand streams.在屋檐下的天沟里，屋顶的木瓦之间仍旧可见几片白色的粒状的粉末几个星期之前，它像白雪一样洒在了屋顶上、草地上、田野里和溪流里No witchcraft,no enemyaction hadsilenced therebirth ofnew lifein thisstrickenworld.The peoplehad doneit themselves.在这个遭受袭击的地球上，没有巫术，也没有敌人的行动抑制了新生命的复苏；这一切都是人自身造成的Since themid-1940fs,over500basic chemicalshave beencreated foruse inkillinginsects,weeds,rodents,and otherorganisms describedinthemodern vernacularas“pests andthey aresold underthousand differentbrand names.自20世纪40年代中期起,人们制造了500多种基本的化学药品来杀死在现代语言中被称作“害虫”的昆虫、杂草、啮齿动物和其他的生物体，以几千种的品牌名称来出售它们These sprays,dusts,and aerosolsare nowapplied almostuniversally tofarms,gardens,forests,and homes-nonselective chemicalsthat havethe powerto killeveryinsect,the“goocT andthe“bad Jto stillthe songof birdsandtheleaping offish inthestreams,to coatthe leaveswith adeadly film,and tolinger onin soil-all thisthoughthe intendedtarget maybe onlyafewweeds orinsects.Can anyonebelieve itispossible tolay downsuch abarrage ofpoisons onthe surfaceoftheearth withoutmakingit unfitfor alllife这些液体喷剂、粉末和雾状喷剂现在几乎普遍使用于农庄、花园、森林和家庭非选择性的化学药品能杀死每只昆虫（不管是“好”的还是“坏”的），能使鸟儿不再歌唱，溪流中的鱼儿不再跳跃，能在树叶上覆盖一层致命的薄膜，并能存留在土地中而造成这一切的预定的目标可能仅仅是一些杂草和昆虫难道真的有人认为，我们在地球的表面撒下如此多的毒药，同时还能使它继续成为一个任何生命都能存活的地方吗This towndoes notactually exist,but itmight easilyhave athousand counterpartsinAmerica orelsewhere inthe world.I knowof nocommunity thathas experiencedallthe misfortunesI describe.Yet everyone ofthese disastershas actuallyhappenedsomewhere,and manyreal communitieshave alreadysuffered asubstantial numberofthem.A grimspecter hascrept uponus almostunnoticed,and thisimaginedtragedy mayeasily becomea starkreality weall shallknow.这个小镇事实上并不存在，但是在美国或地球的别的地方我们能轻易地找到一千个与它对应的地方我知道没有一个社区经历了我所描述的所有不幸，但是其中的每一个灾难都已经在某个地方发生了，许多社区已经遭受了相当多的灾难一个冷酷的幽灵几乎是在不经意间已悄悄向我们走来了，而这个想像的悲剧也许很容易就成为一个我们都应该知道的严酷的事实。