Lesson 35

The word justice is usually associated with courts of law.
“正义”这个词通常与法院联系在一起。
We might say that justice has been done when a man’s innocence or guilt has been proved beyond doubt.
我们也许会说，当一个人的清白或罪行已被毫无疑问地证实，正义就得到了伸张。
Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law.
正义是法律这一复杂机制的一部分。
Those who seek it undertake an arduous journey and can never be sure that they will find it.
那些寻找它的人进行着一段艰苦的旅程，并且永远无法确定他们是否能找到它。
Judges, however wise or eminent, are human and can make mistakes.
法官，无论多么聪明或卓越，也是人，也会犯错误。
There are rare instances when justice almost ceases to be an abstract concept.
在极少数情况下，正义几乎不再是一个抽象的概念。
Reward or punishment are meted out quite independent of human interference.
奖励或惩罚的执行完全独立于人类的干预。
At such times, justice acts like a living force.
在这些时刻，正义就像一种生命力量。
When we use a phrase like ‘it serves him right’, we are, in part, admitting that a certain set of circumstances has enabled justice to act of its own accord.
当我们使用像“他活该”这样的短语时，我们在某种程度上承认，一套特定的环境已经使正义得以自发地伸张。
When a thief was caught on the premises of a large jewellery store one morning, the shop assistants must have found it impossible to resist the temptation to say ‘it serves him right’.
当一名小偷某天上午在一家大型珠宝店被抓获时，店员们一定觉得无法抗拒说出“他活该”的这种诱惑。
The shop was an old converted house with many large, disused fireplaces and tall, narrow chimneys.
这家商店曾是一栋改建的老房子，里面有许多巨大的、废弃的壁炉和高大狭窄的烟囱。
Towards midday, a girl heard a muffled cry coming from behind one of the walls.
接近中午时分，一个女孩听到从其中一面墙后面传出一声低沉的哭喊。
As the cry was repeated several times, she ran to tell the manager who promptly rang up the fire brigade.
当喊叫声重复了几次后，她跑去告诉经理，经理立即拨打了消防队电话。
The cry had certainly come from one of the chimneys, but as there were so many of them, the fire fighters could not be certain which one it was.
这声尖叫确实是从其中一个烟囱里传出来的，但由于烟囱太多，消防员无法确定是哪一个。
They located the right chimney by tapping at the walls and listening for the man’s cries.
他们通过敲击墙壁并倾听那个男人的呼喊声，定位了那个正确的烟囱。
After chipping through a wall which was eighteen inches thick, they found that a man had been trapped in the chimney.
在凿穿一面18英寸厚的墙后，他们发现一个男人被困在了烟囱里。
As it was extremely narrow, the man was unable to move, but the fire fighters were eventually able to free him by cutting a huge hole in the wall.
由于地方非常狭窄，那个男人无法动弹，但消防员们最终通过在墙上切开一个大洞成功将他解救了出来。
The sorry-looking, blackened figure that emerged, admitted at once that he had tried to break into the shop during the night but had got stuck in the chimney.
那个浮现出来的、样子可怜且被熏黑的身影立刻承认，他曾试图在夜间闯入这家商店，但被卡在了烟囱里。
He had been there for nearly ten hours.
他已经在那里待了将近十个小时。
Justice had been done even before the man was handed over to the police.
甚至在那个男人被移交给警方之前，正义就已经得到了伸张。