美女，还是老虎？

在极为遥远的古代，有一位半开化的国王。尽管受到遥远拉丁邻邦先进文明的一定熏陶和启发，他的思想依然宏大、华丽而不受拘束，这正符合他身上那一半未开化的本性。

In the very olden time there lived a semi-barbaric king, whose ideas, though somewhat polished and sharpened by the progressiveness of distant Latin neighbors, were still large, florid, and untrammeled, as became the half of him which was barbaric.

他是一个想象力极其丰富的人，同时又拥有不可抗拒的无上权威，只要他愿意，就能随心所欲地把各种幻想变为现实。他极爱自言自语、独自定夺，一旦他和自己达成一致，事情就这么办成了。

He was a man of exuberant fancy, and, withal, of an authority so irresistible that, at his will, he turned his varied fancies into facts. He was greatly given to self-communing, and, when he and himself agreed upon anything, the thing was done.

当他的内政与朝纲运转顺畅、各司其职时，他性情温和亲切；而一旦出现微小的差错，某些天体偏离了轨道，他反而更加温和、更加亲切，因为没有什么比拨乱反正、铲平坎坷更能让他心满意足了。

When every member of his domestic and political systems moved smoothly in its appointed course, his nature was bland and genial; but, whenever there was a little hitch, and some of his orbs got out of their orbits, he was blander and more genial still, for nothing pleased him so much as to make the crooked straight and crush down uneven places.

使他的野蛮本性半开化所借用的观念之一，便是公共竞技场。在那里，通过展现人与兽的勇猛，臣民的思想得到了陶冶与升华。

Among the borrowed notions by which his barbarism had become semified was that of the public arena, in which, by exhibitions of manly and beastly valor, the minds of his subjects were refined and cultured.

但即便在这里，那种丰富而野蛮的幻想也展露无遗。

But even here the exuberant and barbaric fancy asserted itself.

国王的竞技场并非为了让百姓有机会聆听垂死角斗士的狂呼，也不是为了让他们观看宗教观点与饥饿利齿之间不可避免的冲突结局，而是为了以更适合的方式，拓展并激发民众的精神活力。

The arena of the king was built, not to give the people an opportunity of hearing the rhapsodies of dying gladiators, nor to enable them to view the inevitable conclusion of a conflict between religious opinions and hungry jaws, but for purposes far better adapted to widen and develop the mental energies of the people.

这座巨大的圆形剧场环绕着层层看台，拥有神秘的地窖和隐秘的通道，它是一具实现因果报应的工具，在这里，罪行受到惩罚，美德获得奖赏，一切全凭公正无私、不可收买的机运来裁决。

This vast amphitheater, with its encircling galleries, its mysterious vaults, and its unseen passages, was an agent of poetic justice, in which crime was punished, or virtue rewarded, by the decrees of an impartial and incorruptible chance.

当某位臣民被指控犯下了足以引起国王兴趣的重大罪行时，官方就会发出公告：在指定的日子，被告的命运将在国王的竞技场中裁决。这座建筑当之无愧于它的名字，因为尽管其形制和规划借自远方，其宗旨却完全源自这位君主的大脑——他从头到脚都透着帝王之气，除了迎合自己喜好的传统之外，绝不墨守任何陈规；凡是吸纳的人类思想与行为形式，他都会嫁接上自己野蛮理想主义的丰茂枝桠。

When a subject was accused of a crime of sufficient importance to interest the king, public notice was given that on an appointed day the fate of the accused person would be decided in the king’s arena, a structure which well deserved its name, for, although its form and plan were borrowed from afar, its purpose emanated solely from the brain of this man, who, every barleycorn a king, knew no tradition to which he owed more allegiance than pleased his fancy, and who ingrafted on every adopted form of human thought and action the rich growth of his barbaric idealism.

当所有民众在看台上聚集就座，国王由宫廷随从簇拥着，高坐在竞技场一侧威严的宝座上时，他便给出一个信号。他身下方的一扇门随之打开，被控告的臣民便迈步走入圆形剧场。

When all the people had assembled in the galleries, and the king, surrounded by his court, sat high up on his throne of royal state on one side of the arena, he gave a signal, a door beneath him opened, and the accused subject stepped out into the amphitheater.

正对着他、在封闭场地的另一侧，有两扇一模一样、并排而设的门。受审者的职责与特权，就是径直走到这两扇门前，打开其中的一扇。

Directly opposite him, on the other side of the inclosed space, were two doors, exactly alike and side by side. It was the duty and the privilege of the person on trial to walk directly to these doors and open one of them.

他可以随意打开任何一扇；他不受任何指引或影响，唯有前面提到的那公正无私、不可收买的机运在起作用。

He could open either door he pleased; he was subject to no guidance or influence but that of the aforementioned impartial and incorruptible chance.

如果他打开其中一扇，就会从中走出一只饥饿的老虎，那是所能捕获到的最凶猛、最残忍的猛兽，它会立刻扑向他，将他撕成碎片，以此作为对他罪行的惩罚。

If he opened the one, there came out of it a hungry tiger, the fiercest and most cruel that could be procured, which immediately sprang upon him and tore him to pieces as a punishment for his guilt.

罪犯的案子一旦以此方式裁决，哀怨沉重的铁钟便被敲响，布置在竞技场外缘的雇来送葬的人发出震天哀号，而庞大的观众群则低着头、满怀沮丧，缓缓踏上回家的路，深深哀悼如此年轻俊美、或如此年长受敬的人竟遭此厄运。

The moment that the case of the criminal was thus decided, doleful iron bells were clanged, great wails went up from the hired mourners posted on the outer rim of the arena, and the vast audience, with bowed heads and downcast hearts, wended slowly their homeward way, mourning greatly that one so young and fair, or so old and respected, should have merited so dire a fate.

然而，如果被告打开了另一扇门，就会从里面走出一名女子，那是陛下在他美丽的臣民中所能挑选出的、在年龄与地位上最相配的佳人；作为对他无罪的奖赏，他将立刻与这位女子完婚。

But, if the accused person opened the other door, there came forth from it a lady, the most suitable to his years and station that his majesty could select among his fair subjects, and to this lady he was immediately married, as a reward of his innocence.