Human faces were missing, too. Almost two hundred of the ghetto's inhabitants had left quietly, during the night, when word had gone around that the "New Earth" transport was waiting. Villaneuva had gone, with his family; so had Martin Paz; and Ferguson had gone earlier with all his crew. Today, two weeks later, Cudyk had spent the morning wandering the City. It was a thing he had done often in his first years on the planet, before the restless drive of his youth had seeped1 away, leaving nothing but momentum2, and memory, and a few vestiges3 that reminded him of the man he had been.
He had spent whole days in the City, then, looking into this building and that, talking to the natives, asking questions, observing. He had seen the City as part of a colossal4 jigsaw5 puzzle from which, if you were patient and perceptive6, you might extract the nexus7, the inner pattern that made the essential difference between Niori and men.
For the Niori, like nearly all the intelligent races of the galaxy8, had one survival factor that men had always lacked. There was no word for it in any human language; you could only talk around it in negatives. The Niori did not kill; they did not lie; they did not steal, intrigue9, exploit each other, hate, make war.
For men, "the fittest" had always been the man, or nation, or race, that survived by exterminating10 its rivals. Somehow, the Niori had found another way. There was no word for it. But perhaps you could find it, if you looked long enough.
He had studied their architecture, and pondered long on the arrangement of the City's great hive-buildings: a peculiar11, staggered arrangement which was neither concentric nor radial; which created no endless vistas12, only islands of buildings or lakes of parkland. He had tried to see into that arrangement and through it to the soul of the race, as other scholars had peered into the city-plans of Athens and New York, reading inwardness into one and outwardness into the other.
The method was sterile13. The Niori had no "world-view" in the Spenglerian sense. Their cities expressed only function and a sense of beauty and order.
In those early days, he had said to himself: These people have no cinemas, theaters, churches, art galleries, concert halls, football fields. Let me see what they have instead, and perhaps I will begin to understand them.
He had seen the Niori, sitting in a circle of six or eight, solemnly capping one word with another, around and around. To him, the sequences of words were sense-free and followed no discernable pattern. To the Niori, evidently, they fulfilled some function analagous to those of poetry and group singing.
He had watched them debating in the governing council. There was no rhetoric14 and no heat, even when the issue was important and the opinions widely divergent. He had seen their shops, in which each article was labeled with its cost to the merchant, and the buyer gave as much more as he could afford. It was incredible; but it worked.
He had followed their culture through a thousand other avenues until he wearied of it, having learned nothing more than he knew at the beginning. Afterwards, for twenty years he had not left the Quarter except to transact15 business, or to oversee16 the unloading of merchandise at the spaceport.
Today he had gone once more, feeling an obscure compulsion: perhaps because he knew the day was coming when he would see the City for the last time; perhaps hoping, in that small spark of himself that still allowed itself to hope for anything, that one more visit would show him the miraculous17 key to all that he had misunderstood.
He had learned nothing new, but the morning had not been altogether wasted. It was a clear autumn day, good for walking in so green a city. And paradoxically enough, being the only Earthman on the streets had made him feel less alien than before. He attracted no attention, in a spaceport city: he walked side by side with squat18 Dritik and spidery Oladsa, beings of a hundred different races from as many stars. When he returned to the Quarter, he felt oddly refreshed and calmed.
We have very little left, he thought, except one or two minor19 virtues20 that have no bloodstains on them. Kindliness21, humor, a sense of brotherhood22 ... perhaps if we had stuck to those, and never learned the martial23 virtues, never aspired24 to be noble or glorious, we would have come out all right. Was there ever a turning point? When Carthage was sown with salt, or when Paul founded the Church—or when the first caveman sharpened the end of a stick and used it for murder? If so, it was a long way back, dead and buried, dust and ashes.
We took all that was best in thousands of years of yearning25 and striving for the right, he thought, and we made it into the Inquisition and the Star Chamber26 and the NKVD. We fattened27 our own children for each generation's slaughter28. And yet we are not all evil. Astereos is right: if the other races had been like ourselves, it would have been bearable; or if we ourselves had been creatures of pure darkness, conscienceless, glorying in cruelty—then we could have made war on the Galaxy joyfully29, and if we failed at least there would have been an element of grandeur30 in our failure.
Olaf Stapledon had said this once, he remembered—that there was an artistry in pure, uncontaminated evil, that it was in its own way as real an expression of worship as pure good.
The tragedy of human beings, then, was that they were not wholly tragic31. Jumbled32, piebald parcels of contradictions, angels with asses33' ears.... What was that quotation34 from Bierce? The best thing is not to be born....
Someone brushed by him, and Cudyk looked up. He was at the intersection35 of Ceskoslovensko and Washington; he had come three blocks past his apartment without noticing where he was going.
Chong Yin's was only a few doors to his left; perhaps he had been heading there automatically. But the doors were closed, he saw; seven or eight Chinese were standing36 in the street outside, and as Cudyk watched, Seu Min came down the stairs from the living quarters over the tea room. The other Chinese clustered around him for a moment, and then Seu appeared again. The others slowly began to disperse37.
Cudyk went to meet him. The mayor's face looked strained; there were new, deep folds of skin around his eyes. "What is it, Min?" said Cudyk.
Seu fell in beside him and they walked back up the street. "Chong killed himself about an hour ago," said the Chinese.
How many does that make? Cudyk thought, frozen. Six, I think, in the last two months.
He had not known Chong well—the old man had been a north-country Chinese, not Westernized in the least, who spoke38 only his own language. Now that he thought of it, Cudyk realized that he did not know who Chong's close friends had been, if he had had any. He had always been the same spare, stooped figure in skull-cap and robe, courteous39, unobtrusive, self-contained. He had a family; a wife, rarely seen, and six children.
Somehow Cudyk felt that he would have been less surprised to hear that Moulios had committed suicide, or Moskowitz, or even Seu himself. My mistake, he told himself. I allowed myself to think of Chong as an institution, not as a man.
"Yes," said Cudyk, "of course."
"Let us go and drink it," Seu said. "I'm very tired."
It occurred to Cudyk that he had never heard Seu say that before. They turned the corner at Athenai and climbed the stairs to his apartment. Seu sighed, and dropped heavily into a chair while Cudyk went to get the bottle and glasses.
"Straight, or with water?" he asked.
"Straight, please." Seu tilted41 his glass, swallowed and shuddered42. Cudyk watched him in silence.
Seu, alone in the Quarter, owned a Niori communicator—an elaborate mechanism43 which reproduced sound, vision in three dimensions, odors, modulated44 temperature changes and several other things perceptible only to Niori. There was no restriction45 on their sale, and they were cheap enough, but the Niori broadcasts were as dull or as incomprehensible to men as a Terrestial breakfast program would have been to Niori. Seu used his as a source of Galactic news. Today, Cudyk guessed, the news had been very bad.
"It's Rack, isn't it?" he said finally.
Seu glanced at him and nodded. "Yes, it's Rack. I haven't told anyone else about it yet. The Quarter's in a half-hysterical state as it is. But if you don't mind my talking it out to you—"
"Go ahead," said Cudyk.
"It's worse than anything we expected." Seu took another swallow of the whisky, and made a face. He said, "They've got a hydrogen-lithium bomb."
" ... I was afraid of that."
Seu went on as if he had not heard. "But they're not using it on planets. They're bombing suns, Laszlo."
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
seeped
|
|
| v.（液体）渗( seep的过去式和过去分词 )；渗透；渗出；漏出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
momentum
|
|
| n.动力，冲力，势头；动量 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
vestiges
|
|
| 残余部分( vestige的名词复数 )； 遗迹； 痕迹； 毫不 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
colossal
|
|
| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
jigsaw
|
|
| n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
perceptive
|
|
| adj.知觉的，有洞察力的，感知的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
nexus
|
|
| n.联系；关系 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
galaxy
|
|
| n.星系；银河系；一群(杰出或著名的人物) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
intrigue
|
|
| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
exterminating
|
|
| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
peculiar
|
|
| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
vistas
|
|
| 长条形景色( vista的名词复数 )； 回顾； 展望； （未来可能发生的）一系列情景 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
sterile
|
|
| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
rhetoric
|
|
| n.修辞学，浮夸之言语 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
transact
|
|
| v.处理；做交易；谈判 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
oversee
|
|
| vt.监督，管理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
miraculous
|
|
| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
squat
|
|
| v.蹲坐，蹲下；n.蹲下；adj.矮胖的，粗矮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
minor
|
|
| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
virtues
|
|
| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
kindliness
|
|
| n.厚道，亲切，友好的行为 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
brotherhood
|
|
| n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
martial
|
|
| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
aspired
|
|
| v.渴望，追求( aspire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
yearning
|
|
| a.渴望的；向往的；怀念的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
chamber
|
|
| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
fattened
|
|
| v.喂肥( fatten的过去式和过去分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
slaughter
|
|
| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
joyfully
|
|
| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
grandeur
|
|
| n.伟大，崇高，宏伟，庄严，豪华 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
tragic
|
|
| adj.悲剧的，悲剧性的，悲惨的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
jumbled
|
|
| adj.混乱的；杂乱的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
asses
|
|
| n. 驴，愚蠢的人，臀部 adv. (常用作后置)用于贬损或骂人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
quotation
|
|
| n.引文，引语，语录；报价，牌价，行情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
intersection
|
|
| n.交集，十字路口，交叉点；[计算机] 交集 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
disperse
|
|
| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
spoke
|
|
| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
courteous
|
|
| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
abruptly
|
|
| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
tilted
|
|
| v. 倾斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
shuddered
|
|
| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
mechanism
|
|
| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
modulated
|
|
| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
restriction
|
|
| n.限制，约束 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |