布鲁斯读信狄更斯致《泰晤士报》(1)
Sir,
先生：
I was a witness of the execution at Horsemonger Lane this morning.
我是今天早晨在贩马商巷监狱实施绞刑的一名目睹者。
I went there with the intention of observing the crowd gathered to behold it, and I had excellent opportunities of doing so, at intervals all through the night, and continuously from daybreak until after the spectacle was over.
我去刑场是为了观察聚集围观的人群。我不时有绝佳的观察机会,从黑夜到黎明,从黎明直到这盛大的活动终结。
I do not address you on the subject with any intention of discussing the abstract question of capital punishment, or any of the arguments of its opponents or advocates.
我写信给您,并非意图讨论死刑这个抽象问题,或发起任何反对死刑与支持死刑的争论。
I simply wish to turn this dreadful experience to some account for the general good that the Government might be induced to give its support to a measure making the infliction of capital punishment a private solemnity within the prison walls
我只是希望从这次可怕的经历中,吸取一些对大众有益的教训。他希望政府能听取意见,使极刑处决成为狱墙之内一件私隐肃穆的事
I believe that a sight so inconceivably awful as the wickedness and levity of the immense crowd collected at that execution this morning could be imagined by no man, and could be presented in no heathen land under the sun.
我以为,如此不可思议的可怖场面非常人所能想象，日光之下,即便任何荒蛮的土地上也不该发生这样的事。
The horrors of the gibbet and of the crime which brought the wretched murderers to it faded in my mind before the atrocious bearing, looks, and language of the assembled spectators.
观者如潮,在他们残暴的举止、神情和言语面前,绞刑架的恐怖、以及绞架上卑鄙的凶手所犯下的罪行,都在我心中逐渐褪去。
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