Hello，大家好，我是cc，一名刚刚踏出校园的打工人，一个乐于分享生活的成长中过期少女。
今天和大家一起分享一篇最经典的英文短篇小说：世界的最后一夜。
The Last Night of The World
世界的最后一夜
By Ray Bradbury
【本文阅读预计需10分钟】
（一）作者＆故事简介
Ray Bradbury，出生于美国伊利诺斯州一座小镇的Ray Bradbury从小就是个十足的科幻迷。1943年开始成为一名专业的作家，主要以短篇科幻小说著名，他一生对写作对科幻事业的贡献是极其杰出的。
The last night of the world(世间最后一夜)，可以说是一篇极其经典的短篇小说，温柔、温暖且纯粹，是读英文书籍的入门好选择。
在开始阅读之前，不妨先闭上双眼，深呼吸，让心安静下来，问问自己："What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world?" ，如果这是世间的最后一夜，你会做些什么？
（二）原文与译文
"What would you do if you knew this was the last night of the world?"
"What would I do, you mean, seriously?"
"Yes,seriously."
"I don't know — I hadn't thought. She turned the handle of the silver coffee pot toward him and placed the two cups in their saucers.
He poured some coffee. In the background, the two small girls were playing blockson the parlor rug in the light of the green hurricane lamps. There was an easy,clean aromaof brewed coffee in the evening air.
“如果这是世间的最后一夜，你会做些什么呢？”
“你问我会做什么？”
“对呀。”
“我不知道——我从来没有想过。”她将银质咖啡壶的手柄转向他，又将两个杯子放置在碟子上。
他往杯中倒了些咖啡。在他们的后面，绿色灯光照耀下的两个小女孩，正坐在客厅的地毯上玩着积木。夜晚的空气中散发着淡淡的咖啡清香。
"Well,better start thinking about it," he said.
"You don't mean it?" said his wife.
He nodded.
"A war?"
He shook his head.
"Not the hydrogen or atom bomb?"
"No."
"Or germ warfare?"
"None of those at all," he said, stirring his coffee slowly and staring into its black depths. "But just the closing of a book, let's say."
"I don't think I understand."
“所以，开始想想刚刚的问题吧。”他说。
“你不是这个意思？”他的妻子问道。
他点了点头。
“战争？”
他摇摇头。
“不是因为氢弹或原子弹？”
“不是。”
“或者细菌战？”
“不不不，都不是。”他边说边搅动咖啡，凝视着咖啡的黑色深处。“但可以说是一本书的结尾。”
“我还是没明白你的意思。”
"No，nor do I really. It's just a feeling; sometimes it frightens me, sometimes I'mnot frightened at all — but peaceful." He glanced in at the girls and their yellow hair shining in the bright lamplight, and lowered his voice."I didn't say anything to you. It first happened about four nights ago."
"What?"
“其实我也没完全理解。这就好像只是一种感觉，有时候会吓到我，有时又很平静。”他看了一眼小女孩们在灯光照耀下闪闪的金发，刻意压低了嗓音说：“我还没有告诉过你，这第一次发生在四天前。”
“什么？”
"A dream I had. I dreamt that it was all going to be over and a voice said it was；not any kind of voice I can remember, but a voice anyway, and it said things would stop here on Earth. I didn't think too much about it when I awoke the next morning, but then I went to work and the feeling as with me all day. I caught Stan Willis looking out the window in the middle of the afternoon and I said, 'Penny for your thoughts, Stan,' and he said, 'I had a dream last night,' and before he even told me the dream, I knew what it was. I could have told him, but he told me and I listened to him."
“我做过的一个梦。我梦见有一个声音说一切都将结束；其实有很多不同的声音，但我就记住了一种，它说：地球将会消失！我第二天早上醒来时倒是没有多想，但是在我工作时，那种奇怪的感觉一直在我脑中挥之不去。下午的时候我看见Stan Wills正看着窗外，我便和他说‘你在想什么呢，Stan’，他回答道：‘我昨晚做了一个梦’，在他告诉我梦的内容之前，我似乎就已经知道了他梦的是什么，我甚至可以叙述出，但还是听他描述了一遍。”
"It was the same dream?"
"Yes. I told Stan I had dreamed it, too. He didn't seem surprised. He relaxed, infact. Then we started walking through offices, for the hell of it. It wasn't planned. We didn't say, let's walk around. We just walked on our own, and everywhere we saw people looking at their desks or their hands or out the windows and not seeing what was in front of their eyes. I talked to a few of them; so did Stan."
"And all of them had dreamed?"
"All of them. The same dream, with no difference."
"Do you believe in the dream?
"Yes. I've never been more certain."
"And when will it stop? The world, I mean."
“是一样的梦吗？”
“是的。我告诉Stan我也梦到了。他看起来似乎一点也不惊讶，表情甚至十分轻松。然后我们同时很随意地走过办公室。我们并没有提前说好要一起走。我们就只是各走各的，我们到处都看到盯着桌子、手、窗子外发呆的人。我和Stan都和他们进行了交谈。”
“然后发现他们都做了同样的梦？”
“对，所有人！所有人都无一例外地做了同样的梦。”
“那你相信梦境里的事吗？”
“是的，非常相信。”
“所以，什么时候会消失呢？我指的是，世界。”
"Sometime during the night for us, and then, as the night goes on around the world, those advancing portions will go, too. It'll take twenty-four hours for it all to go."
They sat a while not touching their coffee. Then they lifted it slowly and drank, looking at each other.
"Do we deserve this?" she said.
"It's not a matter of deserving, it's just that things didn't work out. I notice youdidn't even argue about this. Why not?"
"I guess I have a reason," she said.
"The same reason everyone at the office had?"
“对我们来说，有时是晚上，然后随着黑夜蔓延到整个世界，那些前进的部分也会消失，整体会花费24小时。”
他们呆坐了一会，然后缓缓地拿起咖啡喝了一小口，看了彼此一眼。
“是我们罪有应得吗？”她问。
“这和罪无关，这只是一个未解的迷。但，你为什么都没有任何争辩或怀疑呢？”
“我想，我也有个充分的理由。”她回答道。
“和办公室里的人一样的理由？”
（三）重点词汇/词组
saucer：茶碟；茶托；碟状物
parlor：1.（私人住房的）起居室，客厅；2.（专营某种商品或业务的）店铺；3.美容院，冷食店
aroma：芳香，香味
germ warfare：细菌战
Penny foryour thoughts：“I will give you a penny foryour thoughts”的缩写，表示：你在想什么呢？
for the hell of it：（美国俚语）仅仅为了取乐、玩玩，漫不经心地，逄场作戏地，随便地
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