Animal farm（80）

CHAPTER 8

A few days later，when the terror caused by the executions【n. 死刑；实行；完成】 had died down，some of the animals remembered—or thought they remembered—that the Sixth Commandment decreed “No animal shall kill any other animal. ” And though no one cared to mention it in the hearing of the pigs or the dogs，it was felt that the killings which had taken place did not square with this.  Clovet asked Benjamin to read her the Sixth Commandment， and when Benjamin，as usual，said that he refused to meddle in such matters，She fetched Muriel. Muriel read the commandment for her. It ran：“No animal shall kill any other animal without cause.”  Somehow or other，the last two words had slipped out of the animals’ memory.  But they saw now that the Commandment had not been violated；for clearly there was good reason for killing the traitors who had leagued themselves with Snowball.

几天后，当处决引起的恐慌平息下来时，一些动物想起了——或者自以为记得——第六诫中规定“任何动物不得杀害其他动物”。虽然谁也不愿意在猪和狗听见的时候提起这件事，但大家觉得，已经发生的杀戮与这一点并不相符。克拉弗让本杰明给她读一下第六条诫律，当本杰明像往常一样说他不愿管这类事情时，她叫来了穆丽尔。穆丽尔给她读了这条戒律。上面写着:“任何动物不得无故杀害其他动物。不知怎么回事，最后两个字从动物们的记忆中溜走了。但他们现在看到，这条戒律并没有被违反，因为显然有充分的理由杀死那些与斯诺鲍结盟的叛徒。