這是一次令人意亂情迷的經歷，事後他趕緊把它拋諸腦後，可是此後的好幾個月時間，這次經歷卻不停地在他的夢中出現，而且全是噩夢。薩伊穆特尼維亞前景街有兩英裏長，車水馬龍，人頭攢動。街上售賣各式各樣的貨物，恭候著你去光顧：外套、裙裝、禮服、長袍、長褲、馬褲、男士襯衣、女士襯衣、帽子、鞋子、襪子、圍巾、披肩、馬甲、鬥篷、傘;式樣各異的服裝適應於各種不同的場合——睡覺、遊泳、玩遊戲、出席下午聚會、出席夜間聚會、出席鄉間聚會、旅行、看戲、騎馬、種花、
saio pae had taken him "shopping" during his second week in a-io, though he did not consider cutting his hair—his hair, after all, was part of him—he wanted an urrasti-style suit of clothes and pair of shoes. he had no desire to look any more foreign than he could help looking. the simplicity of his old suit made it positively ostentatious, and his soft, crude desert boots appeared very odd indeed among the iotis fanciful footgear. so at his request pae had taken him to saemtenevia prospect, the elegant retail street of nio esseia, to be fitted by a tailor and a shoemaker.
the whole experience had been so bewildering to him that he put it out of mind as soon as possible, but he had dreams about it for months afterwards, nightmares. saemtenevia prospect was two miles long, and it was a solid mass of people, traffic, and things: things to buy, things for sale. coats, dresses, gowns, robes, trousers, breeches, shirts, blouses, hats, shoes, stockings, scarves, shawls, vests, capes, umbres, clothes to wear while sleeping, while swimming, while ying games, while at an afternoon party, while at an evening party, while at a party in the country, while traveling, while at the theater, while riding horses, gardening, receiving guests, boating, dining, hunting—all different, all in hundreds of different cuts, styles, colors, textures, materials. perfumes, clocks,mps, statues, cosmetics, candles, pictures, cameras, games, vases, sofas, kettles, puzzles, pillows, dolls,ders, hassocks, jewels, carpets, toothpicks, calendars, a babys teething rattle of tinum with a handle of rock crystal, an electrical machine to sharpen pencils, a wrist-watch with diamond numerals; figurines and souvenirs and kickshaws and mementos and gewgaws and bric-a-brac, everything either useless to begin with or ornamented so as to disguise its use; acres of luxuries, acres of excrement. in the first block 射vek had stopped to look at a shaggy, spotted coat, the central disy in a glittering window of clothes and jewelry. the coat costs 8,400 units? he asked in disbelief, for he had recently read in a newspaper that a "living wage" was about 2,000 units a year. "oh, yes, thats real fur, quite rare now that the animals are protected," pae had said. "pretty thing, isnt it? women love furs." and they went on. after one more block 射vek had felt utterly exhausted. he could not look any more. he wanted to hide his eyes.
待客、劃船、用餐、打獵。每一種服裝都有上百種不同的剪裁、式樣、顏色、質地和麵料;香水、鍾錶、照明燈、雕像、化妝品、蠟燭、畫像、相機、運動器具、花瓶、沙發、水壺、智力玩具、枕頭、洋娃娃、過濾器、踏腳墊、珠寶、地毯、牙籤、日曆、水晶把的白金撥浪鼓，電動削筆器、鑲著鑽石數字的腕錶;各式各樣華而不實的小雕像、紀念品和其他小玩意兒，要麽本來就沒有用處，要麽就把用途掩藏在花哨的裝飾之下;此外還有無數的奢華品，無數的廢物。謝維克在第一幢大樓前駐足，眼前是一個閃閃發光的陳列著服裝和珠寶的櫥窗。他看到櫥窗正中央有一件帶有斑點、毛茸茸的外套。“那件大衣要八千四百元?”他難以置信地問道，因為他最近剛在報紙上看到“基本生活工資”是每年兩千元。“哦，沒錯，那是真正的皮草，現在很少見了，因為那種動物現在已經是保護動物了。”帕伊說，“很漂亮，是吧?女人都喜歡皮草。”然後他們繼續往前走。又走過一幢大樓之後，謝維克感覺筋疲力盡。他沒法再看下去了，恨不得掩上自己的眼睛。
這條噩夢般的街道最最怪異的一點在於，在此地銷售的成千上億件東西，沒有一樣是在這裏生產的。它們隻是在這裏售賣。那麽那些車間、那些工廠呢?那些農民、工匠、礦工、織布工、化學家、雕刻匠、染工、設計師、機械師呢?那些辛勤勞作的人們，那些製造了這一切的人們呢?他們都在視野之外，都在別的地方，都躲在牆的背後。所有這些商店裏所有的人要麽是買東西的，要麽就是賣東西了。他們跟那些東西之間除了占有與被占有的關係之外，再沒有任何別的關聯。
and the strangest thing about the nightmare street was that none of the millions of things for sale were made there. they were only sold there. where were the workshops, the factories, where were the farmers, the craftsmen, the miners, the weavers, the chemists, the carvers, the dyers, the designers, the machinists, where were the hands, the people who made? out of sight, somewhere else. behind walls. all the people in all the shops were either buyers or sellers. they had no rtion to the things but that of possession.
他發現，一旦他們給他量過了尺寸之後，他就可以通過電話定購所需的其他東西，於是就決定再也不到那條噩夢般的街道去了。
一個星期後，衣服和鞋子送到了。穿戴停當之後，他站在了臥室的穿衣鏡跟前。灰色長外套、白色襯衣、黑色馬褲、長襪和鋥亮的鞋子，全都是量身定做的，跟他的修長身材及窄腳麵非常配襯。他小心翼翼地撫摩著一隻鞋子的鞋麵，鞋子的用料跟另外那一間屋子裏的椅子上包著的那層東西一樣，都是一種摸上去像皮膚的東西;他最近問過別人那是什麽東西，對方告訴他那是皮——動物的皮，他們稱之為皮革。他皺了皺眉，直起身子，從穿衣鏡前走開，但是他已經很不情願地看了出來，這麽一身打扮的自己跟母親魯拉格前所未有地相像。
saio pae had taken him "shopping" during his second week in a-io, though he did not consider cutting his hair—his hair, after all, was part of him—he wanted an urrasti-style suit of clothes and pair of shoes. he had no desire to look any more foreign than he could help looking. the simplicity of his old suit made it positively ostentatious, and his soft, crude desert boots appeared very odd indeed among the iotis fanciful footgear. so at his request pae had taken him to saemtenevia prospect, the elegant retail street of nio esseia, to be fitted by a tailor and a shoemaker.
the whole experience had been so bewildering to him that he put it out of mind as soon as possible, but he had dreams about it for months afterwards, nightmares. saemtenevia prospect was two miles long, and it was a solid mass of people, traffic, and things: things to buy, things for sale. coats, dresses, gowns, robes, trousers, breeches, shirts, blouses, hats, shoes, stockings, scarves, shawls, vests, capes, umbres, clothes to wear while sleeping, while swimming, while ying games, while at an afternoon party, while at an evening party, while at a party in the country, while traveling, while at the theater, while riding horses, gardening, receiving guests, boating, dining, hunting—all different, all in hundreds of different cuts, styles, colors, textures, materials. perfumes, clocks,mps, statues, cosmetics, candles, pictures, cameras, games, vases, sofas, kettles, puzzles, pillows, dolls,ders, hassocks, jewels, carpets, toothpicks, calendars, a babys teething rattle of tinum with a handle of rock crystal, an electrical machine to sharpen pencils, a wrist-watch with diamond numerals; figurines and souvenirs and kickshaws and mementos and gewgaws and bric-a-brac, everything either useless to begin with or ornamented so as to disguise its use; acres of luxuries, acres of excrement. in the first block 射vek had stopped to look at a shaggy, spotted coat, the central disy in a glittering window of clothes and jewelry. the coat costs 8,400 units? he asked in disbelief, for he had recently read in a newspaper that a "living wage" was about 2,000 units a year. "oh, yes, thats real fur, quite rare now that the animals are protected," pae had said. "pretty thing, isnt it? women love furs." and they went on. after one more block 射vek had felt utterly exhausted. he could not look any more. he wanted to hide his eyes.
待客、劃船、用餐、打獵。每一種服裝都有上百種不同的剪裁、式樣、顏色、質地和麵料;香水、鍾錶、照明燈、雕像、化妝品、蠟燭、畫像、相機、運動器具、花瓶、沙發、水壺、智力玩具、枕頭、洋娃娃、過濾器、踏腳墊、珠寶、地毯、牙籤、日曆、水晶把的白金撥浪鼓，電動削筆器、鑲著鑽石數字的腕錶;各式各樣華而不實的小雕像、紀念品和其他小玩意兒，要麽本來就沒有用處，要麽就把用途掩藏在花哨的裝飾之下;此外還有無數的奢華品，無數的廢物。謝維克在第一幢大樓前駐足，眼前是一個閃閃發光的陳列著服裝和珠寶的櫥窗。他看到櫥窗正中央有一件帶有斑點、毛茸茸的外套。“那件大衣要八千四百元?”他難以置信地問道，因為他最近剛在報紙上看到“基本生活工資”是每年兩千元。“哦，沒錯，那是真正的皮草，現在很少見了，因為那種動物現在已經是保護動物了。”帕伊說，“很漂亮，是吧?女人都喜歡皮草。”然後他們繼續往前走。又走過一幢大樓之後，謝維克感覺筋疲力盡。他沒法再看下去了，恨不得掩上自己的眼睛。
這條噩夢般的街道最最怪異的一點在於，在此地銷售的成千上億件東西，沒有一樣是在這裏生產的。它們隻是在這裏售賣。那麽那些車間、那些工廠呢?那些農民、工匠、礦工、織布工、化學家、雕刻匠、染工、設計師、機械師呢?那些辛勤勞作的人們，那些製造了這一切的人們呢?他們都在視野之外，都在別的地方，都躲在牆的背後。所有這些商店裏所有的人要麽是買東西的，要麽就是賣東西了。他們跟那些東西之間除了占有與被占有的關係之外，再沒有任何別的關聯。
and the strangest thing about the nightmare street was that none of the millions of things for sale were made there. they were only sold there. where were the workshops, the factories, where were the farmers, the craftsmen, the miners, the weavers, the chemists, the carvers, the dyers, the designers, the machinists, where were the hands, the people who made? out of sight, somewhere else. behind walls. all the people in all the shops were either buyers or sellers. they had no rtion to the things but that of possession.
他發現，一旦他們給他量過了尺寸之後，他就可以通過電話定購所需的其他東西，於是就決定再也不到那條噩夢般的街道去了。
一個星期後，衣服和鞋子送到了。穿戴停當之後，他站在了臥室的穿衣鏡跟前。灰色長外套、白色襯衣、黑色馬褲、長襪和鋥亮的鞋子，全都是量身定做的，跟他的修長身材及窄腳麵非常配襯。他小心翼翼地撫摩著一隻鞋子的鞋麵，鞋子的用料跟另外那一間屋子裏的椅子上包著的那層東西一樣，都是一種摸上去像皮膚的東西;他最近問過別人那是什麽東西，對方告訴他那是皮——動物的皮，他們稱之為皮革。他皺了皺眉，直起身子，從穿衣鏡前走開，但是他已經很不情願地看了出來，這麽一身打扮的自己跟母親魯拉格前所未有地相像。