I will be good, it says. Please let me out. I will be good! They never answer.
我一定不淘气，他(她)说道。请放我出去。我一定好好的,不淘气!他们从不回答。
The child used to scream for help at night, and cry a good deal, but now it only makes a kind of whining, eh-haa, eh-haa, and it speaks less and less often.
孩子过去晚上总是尖声呼救，大声地哭，而且哭很久。但现在只发出一种哎--啊，哎--啊的哀鸣声，话也说得越来越少了。
It ls so thin there are no calves to its legs; its belly protrudes; it lives on a half-bowl of corn meal and grease a day.
他(她)瘦极了，瘦到腿肚子都没有，肚子却鼓着，一天就靠半碗玉米粉和一点动物油维持生命。
It is naked. Its buttocks and thighs are a mass of festered sores, as it sits in its own excrement continually.
他(她)赤身裸体，臀部和股部是一大串化脓的疮，因为他(她)老坐在自己的屎尿里。
They all know it is there, all the people of Omelas.Some of them have come to see it, others are content merely to know it is there.
所有的奥米勒斯人都知道他(她)在那儿。有些人还去看过他(她)还有些人则觉得没必要亲自去看，知道他(她)在那儿就够了。
They all know that it has to be there. Some of them understand why, and some do not,
大家都明白他(她)必须呆在那儿。至于他(她)为什么必须呆在那儿，这原因就只有一部分才明白，有些人并不知晓。
but they all understand that their happiness, the beauty of their city, the tenderness of their friendships, the health of their children, the wisdom of their scholars,
但所有的人都清楚一个道理：他们的幸福生活，他们城市的美景，他们之间的亲爱和睦的关系，他们的孩子的健康成长，他们的学者们的智慧，
the skill of their makers, even the abundance of their harvest and the kindly weathers of their skies, depend wholly on this child's abominable misery.
他们的工人的技艺，甚至连他们那片天地里的风调雨顺、五谷丰登的繁荣景象，这一切全都有赖于那孩子所受的苦难。
This is usually explained to children when they are between eight and twelve, whenever they seem capable of understanding;
奥米勒斯人等他们的孩子长到八至十二岁，能懂事明理的时候便把这一道理讲给他们听。
and most of those who come to see the child are young people, though often enough an adult comes, or comes back, to see the child.
去地窖里看那孩子的多半是青年人，不过还有一个成年人更经常去看那孩子。