这是一次令人意乱情迷的经历，事后他赶紧把它抛诸脑后，可是此后的好几个月时间，这次经历却不停地在他的梦中出现，而且全是噩梦。萨伊穆特尼维亚前景街有两英里长，车水马龙，人头攒动。街上售卖各式各样的货物，恭候着你去光顾：外套、裙装、礼服、长袍、长裤、马裤、男士衬衣、女士衬衣、帽子、鞋子、袜子、围巾、披肩、马甲、斗篷、伞;式样各异的服装适应于各种不同的场合——睡觉、游泳、玩游戏、出席下午聚会、出席夜间聚会、出席乡间聚会、旅行、看戏、骑马、种花、
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, umbrellas, clothes to wear while sleeping, while swimming, while playing 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, lamps, statues, cosmetics, candles, pictures, cameras, games, vases, sofas, kettles, puzzles, pillows, dolls, colanders, hassocks, jewels, carpets, toothpicks, calendars, a baby's teething rattle of platinum 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 Shevek had stopped to look at a shaggy, spotted coat, the central display 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, that's real fur, quite rare now that the animals are protected," Pae had said. "Pretty thing, isn't it? Women love furs." And they went on. After one more block Shevek had felt utterly exhausted. He could not look any more. He wanted to hide his eyes.
待客、划船、用餐、打猎。每一种服装都有上百种不同的剪裁、式样、颜色、质地和面料;香水、钟表、照明灯、雕像、化妆品、蜡烛、画像、相机、运动器具、花瓶、沙发、水壶、智力玩具、枕头、洋娃娃、过滤器、踏脚垫、珠宝、地毯、牙签、日历、水晶把的白金拨浪鼓，电动削笔器、镶着钻石数字的腕表;各式各样华而不实的小雕像、纪念品和其他小玩意儿，要么本来就没有用处，要么就把用途掩藏在花哨的装饰之下;此外还有无数的奢华品，无数的废物。谢维克在第一幢大楼前驻足，眼前是一个闪闪发光的陈列着服装和珠宝的橱窗。他看到橱窗正中央有一件带有斑点、毛茸茸的外套。“那件大衣要八千四百元?”他难以置信地问道，因为他最近刚在报纸上看到“基本生活工资”是每年两千元。“哦，没错，那是真正的皮草，现在很少见了，因为那种动物现在已经是保护动物了。”帕伊说，“很漂亮，是吧?女人都喜欢皮草。”然后他们继续往前走。又走过一幢大楼之后，谢维克感觉筋疲力尽。他没法再看下去了，恨不得掩上自己的眼睛。
这条噩梦般的街道最最怪异的一点在于，在此地销售的成千上亿件东西，没有一样是在这里生产的。它们只是在这里售卖。那么那些车间、那些工厂呢?那些农民、工匠、矿工、织布工、化学家、雕刻匠、染工、设计师、机械师呢?那些辛勤劳作的人们，那些制造了这一切的人们呢?他们都在视野之外，都在别的地方，都躲在墙的背后。所有这些商店里所有的人要么是买东西的，要么就是卖东西了。他们跟那些东西之间除了占有与被占有的关系之外，再没有任何别的关联。
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 relation to the things but that of possession.
他发现，一旦他们给他量过了尺寸之后，他就可以通过电话定购所需的其他东西，于是就决定再也不到那条噩梦般的街道去了。
一个星期后，衣服和鞋子送到了。穿戴停当之后，他站在了卧室的穿衣镜跟前。灰色长外套、白色衬衣、黑色马裤、长袜和锃亮的鞋子，全都是量身定做的，跟他的修长身材及窄脚面非常配衬。他小心翼翼地抚摩着一只鞋子的鞋面，鞋子的用料跟另外那一间屋子里的椅子上包着的那层东西一样，都是一种摸上去像皮肤的东西;他最近问过别人那是什么东西，对方告诉他那是皮——动物的皮，他们称之为皮革。他皱了皱眉，直起身子，从穿衣镜前走开，但是他已经很不情愿地看了出来，这么一身打扮的自己跟母亲鲁拉格前所未有地相像。
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