1. For a long time, Henry Bemis had had an ambition: To read a book. Not just the title or the preface, or a page somewhere in the middle. He wanted to read the whole thing, all the way through from beginning to end. A simple ambition perhaps, but in the cluttered life of Henry Bemis, an impossibility. Henry had no time of his own. There was his wife, Agnes who claimed all his time after work. Also, Henry’s eyes were very bad. Poor Henry literally couldn't see his hand in front of his face. So, it looked as though Henry's ambition would never be realized. Then something strange happened.
长久以来，亨利·贝米斯一直有一个志向：读一本书。不只是读一读标题或序言，也并非中间的某一页。他想要从头到尾完整地读完一本书。也许这不算什么难以实现的志向，但在亨利·贝米斯杂乱的生活中，这就是一件不可能实现的事情。亨利完全没有自己的时间。他的妻子艾格尼丝把他下班后的时间安排得满满当当的。而且，亨利的眼睛非常不好。不夸张地说，可怜的亨利把自己的手伸在自己的面前都看不到。因此，看起来亨利的志向永远不会实现。直到有一天，奇怪的事情发生了……
2. Henry was down in the vault of the Eastside Bank & Trust, his workplace, when it happened. He had stolen a few moments to try to read a few pages of the magazine he had bought that morning. He'd made an excuse to his boss, Mr. Carsville, and then, safe inside the vault he had opened his magazine. He had just started reading, when all the noise in the world crashed in upon his ear-drums. The concrete floor was rising up and the ceiling came slanting down toward him, and suddenly all was darkness and quiet and unconsciousness.
当时，亨利正躲在他工作的地方东区信托银行的金库里，试图忙里偷闲看上几页他早晨刚刚买的杂志。他跟他的老板卡斯维尔先生请了会儿假，然后安安稳稳地，在这个金库里打开了他的杂志。他刚刚开始阅读，世界崩塌的噪声便全部砸向了他的耳鼓。水泥地板开始上升，天花板开始朝他的方向倾斜。与此同时，一切都变得昏暗、安静——他失去了知觉。
3. When Henry awoke, he knew that something was very wrong with the Eastside Bank & Trust. The heavy steel door of the vault was twisted and the floor tilted up, while the ceiling had collapsed. Henry got to his feet, and tenderly raised a hand to his eyes. His precious glasses were intact, thank God! He would never have been able to find his way out of the shattered vault without them. He made a mental note to have a spare pair made. He suddenly realized that something momentous had happened, something worse than the boiler blowing up, something worse than gas exploding, something worse than anything that had ever happened before. He felt that way because it was so quiet. There was no whine of sirens, no shouting, no running, just silence.
亨利醒来时知道东区信托银行出了问题。金库沉重的钢制门已扭曲，地板向上倾斜，且天花板已经坍塌。亨利站了起来，轻轻地抬起一只手到自己双眼的位置。感谢上帝，他那副珍贵的眼镜完好无损！没有它，他将永远无法在这支离破碎的金库中找到出去的路。他心里盘算着要再准备一副备用眼镜。他突然意识到有大事发生了，这事比锅炉爆炸还要糟糕，比煤气爆燃还要糟糕，比以前发生过的任何事都要糟糕。他之所以有这种感觉，是因为一切都是如此的安静——没有警报的哀鸣声，没有喊叫声，没有人们奔跑的声音，只有一片寂静。

4. Henry walked across the slanting floor. Slipping and stumbling he made his way to the elevator. There was nobody left. All was quiet. There was no one to say what was to be done about the Eastside Bank & Trust except Henry Bemis, and if he was honest to himself, Henry wasn't worried about the bank. Suddenly, he remembered Agnes. He should be trying to get to Agnes, shouldn't he? She had been a pretty good wife. It wasn't exactly her fault if people didn't have time to read nowadays. It was just that there was the house, and the bank, and the yard. And the television, the television Agnes loved to watch, but would never watch alone. He never had time to read even a newspaper. He was actually thinking about that yesterday.
亨利穿过倾斜的地板，一步一滑、跌跌撞撞地走到电梯处。没有人留了下来。一切都很安静。除了亨利·贝米斯自己，没有人要对东区信托银行究竟发生了什么说点儿什么，而且如果亨利对自己完全坦诚的话，他其实并不为这家银行担心。突然间，他想起了艾格尼丝。他应该试着去到艾格尼丝身边，不是吗？她一直是一位美丽又贤惠的妻子。人们现在没时间阅读，完全不是她的错。错误只能归咎于房子、银行和院子，还有电视，艾格尼丝喜欢看但永远不会独自看的电视。他甚至从来没时间读读报纸。实际上，他昨天刚刚思考过这个问题。
5. Henry had settled into his chair, quietly. He had unfolded the newspaper slowly and carefully, so that Agnes did not notice he was going to be occupied with something else than her. He had glanced at the headlines of the first page. He didn't have time to read the articles on it. He turned to the second page. Then, he flipped through the pages faster, afraid to spend too much time on any one item. Then it came, Agnes' voice. "Henrrreee!" She lightly flicked the paper out of his hands and into the fireplace. Agnes continued, "Henry, tonight is the Jones' bridge night. They'll be here in thirty minutes and I'm not dressed yet, and here you are ... reading." She had emphasized the last word as though it were an unclean act. "Hurry and shave, you know how smooth Jasper Jones' chin always looks, and then straighten up this room. Don't just sit there, Henry, hurrreeee!"
当时，亨利正安静地坐在椅子上，缓慢且小心翼翼地打开了报纸，生怕艾格尼丝注意到他要被她以外的东西所占据。他浏览了第一页的头条新闻，没有时间阅读其中的文章。他翻到第二页。然后，他开始以更快的速度翻阅，害怕在任何一项内容上花费太多的时间。艾格尼丝的声音传了过来：“亨利~~！”她轻快地将手中的报纸丢进了壁炉。艾格尼丝继续说道：“亨利，今晚琼斯一家要来咱家打桥牌。还有三十分钟他们就到了，而我还没穿着打扮，你还在这里……看报纸！”她着重强调了“看报纸”三个字，好像这是什么不道德的行为。“快去刮刮胡子，你知道贾斯珀·琼斯的下巴总是看上去有多么光滑，然后把这个房间清理干净。别只是坐在那里，亨利，亨利~~！”
6. Henry was hurrying now, but hurrying too much. In his mind, he saw the fire again, licking across the pages of last night's newspaper. He thought that now, he would have time to read all the newspapers he wanted to, only now there might not be any newspapers anymore. It was terrible to think nothing was left of the world but ruins. Tears of helplessness welled in his eyes as he painfully fought his way over and through the twisted fragments of the city. He was determined to reach his destination, whether it was in ruins or not.
此时的亨利真的非常匆忙，但有些匆忙过头了。他的脑海中再次浮现出壁炉中的火焰正舔食着昨晚那份报纸的画面。他觉得现在他应该有时间去读他想要读的所有报纸，只是现在可能报纸都不复存在了。想到世界上除了废墟什么也没剩下，真是太可怕了。当他痛苦地挣扎着穿越城市的残垣断壁时，无助的泪水浸湿了他的双眼。他决心要到达他的目的地，无论那里是否已变成废墟。
7. He thought of the building when it had been whole. He remembered the many nights he had paused outside its wide and welcoming doors. He thought of the warm nights when the doors had been thrown open and he could see the people inside, see them sitting at the big wooden tables with the stacks of books beside them. He used to think then, what a wonderful thing a public library was, a place where anybody, anybody at all could go in and read. He had been tempted to enter many times, but had never gone in. He had started up the steps once, got almost to the door, but then he remembered Agnes, her questions and shouting, and he had turned away. He was going in now though, almost crawling, his breath coming in stabbing gasps, his hands torn and bleeding. Henry didn't care. He had reached his destination.
他想到了那栋建筑还完好时的样子。他记得许多个夜里，自己在它那宽阔而温馨的门外短暂逗留的场景。他想到了那些温暖的夜晚，那扇门被打开时，他可以看见里面的人，看到他们坐在大木桌旁，他们的旁边就是叠放整齐的书籍。当时他曾经这样想过：公共图书馆是多么奇妙的存在，任何人都可以进去阅读。他曾很多次忍不住要进去，但从未真正进去过。有一次他甚至踏上了台阶，几乎走到了门口，但就在那时想起了艾格尼丝，以及她的问题和喊叫声，于是他转身离开了。但是，他现在要真的进去了，几乎是以爬行的方式，他的呼吸开始变成剧烈的喘息，双手已撕裂并流淌着鲜血。但这些对于亨利并不重要。重要的是，他已经到达了他的目的地。
8. Part of the inscription was still there, P-U-B—C L-I-B-R—-. The rest had been torn away. The place was in shambles. The shelves were overturned, broken, smashed, tilted, their precious contents spilled upon the floor. A lot of the books though, Henry noted, were still intact, still whole, still readable. He literally wallowed in books. He picked one up. The title was "Collected Works of William Shakespeare." Yes, he must read that, sometime. He laid it aside carefully. He picked up another, seized another, and another, and still another. Which to read first ... there were so many. Finally, he stopped gathering books, sat comfortably down on an overturned shelf, and opened a book. Henry Bemis smiled.
图书馆匾额上的部分文字尚存——“公共图---”，其余部分已不知去向。这地方一片混乱。书架倾翻、折断、破碎、倾斜，上面贵重的书籍四散在地板上。亨利注意到，很多书仍然未受到损伤，仍然完整，仍然可以阅读。他完全沉溺于树丛中。他拾起了一本。书的名字叫《威廉·莎士比亚精选集》。是的，他必须改天读读它。他小心地把它放在一旁，然后拾起了另一本，又抓起了另一本，又一本，再一本。首先要读哪一本……选择太多了。最终，他停止了收集书籍，舒服地坐在一个翻倒的书架上，打开了一本书。亨利·贝米斯露出了微笑。
9. Seconds later though, there was a rumbling sound. The shelf he sat on, moved and threw him off balance. The glasses slipped from his nose and fell. He bent down, clawing blindly and found, finally, their smashed remains. A minor destruction compared to the smashing of an entire city you would think, but the only one that greatly affected Henry Bemis. He stared down at the blurred page of the book he wanted to read before him. He began to cry.
几秒钟后，一阵隆隆声响起。他所坐的书架移动了一下，让他失去了平衡。眼镜从他的鼻梁上滑落下来。他弯下腰 ，开始胡乱摸索，终于找到了他那副已经被砸碎的眼镜。你可以想象，与整个城市被摧毁相比，这样小的毁损简直不值一提，但只有它给亨利·贝米斯带来了重大的影响。他低头凝视着他面前这个他要阅读的模糊的书页，然后开始大哭起来。