He had told Cersei he intended to take the measure of the city. That was not entirely a lie. Tyrion Lannister was not pleased by much of what he saw. The streets of King's Landing had always been teeming and raucous and noisy, but now they reeked of danger in a way that he did not recall from past visits. A naked corpse sprawled in the gutter near the Street of Looms, being torn at by a pack of feral dogs, yet no one seemed to care. Watchmen were much in evidence, moving in pairs through the alleys in their gold cloaks and shirts of black ringmail, iron cudgels never far from their hands. The markets were crowded with ragged men selling their household goods for any price they could get... and conspicuously empty of farmers selling food. What little produce he did see was three times as costly as it had been a year ago. One peddler was hawking rats roasted on a skewer. "Fresh rats," he cried loudly, "fresh rats." Doubtless fresh rats were to be preferred to old stale rotten rats. The frightening thing was, the rats looked more appetizing than most of what the butchers were selling. On the Street of Flour, Tyrion saw guards at every other shop door. When times grew lean, even bakers found sellswords cheaper than bread, he reflected.
他对瑟曦说打算熟悉一下城里的情形，并不全然是撒谎。提利昂·兰尼斯特一点也不喜欢眼前的景象：君临的街道向来是熙来攘往，人马喧腾，但此刻却充满了他从未见过的危险。纺织街边，一具尸体躺卧水沟，全身赤裸，正被一群野狗撕咬，却无人在意。两两成对的金袍卫士随处可见，他们穿着黑环甲，在大街小巷巡逻，铁棍从不离手。市集里满是衣着破烂，变卖家产的人，有人肯出价他们就卖……却几乎没有卖肉菜的农夫，少数几个摆出食物的摊位要价竟高达一年前的三倍。有个小贩沿街叫卖串在肉叉上的烤老鼠。“新鲜老鼠哪！”他高声喊着，“新鲜老鼠哪！”新鲜的老鼠当然比腐烂的老鼠要可口，可令人心惊的是，那些老鼠看起来竟比屠夫卖的肉更诱人。到了面粉街，提利昂只见家家店门都有守卫站岗，他不禁心想：看来在非常时期，花钱雇佣兵都比面包来得便宜。

There is no food coming in, is there? he said to Vylarr.
“莫非没粮食运进城？”他对维拉尔说。
Little enough, the captain admitted. "With the war in the riverlands and Lord Renly raising rebels in Highgarden, the roads are closed to south and west."
“少得可怜，”侍卫队长承认，“河间地区战事连连，蓝礼大人又在高庭兴兵作乱，西、南两条大路都被封锁了。”