35 · 伸张正义
Justice Was Done
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The word justice is usually associated with courts of law. We might say that justice has been done when a man’s innocence or guilt has been proved beyond doubt. Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law. Those who seek it undertake an arduous journey and can never be sure that they will find it. Judges, however wise or eminent, are human and can make mistakes.
There are rare instances when justice almost ceases to be an abstract concept. Reward or punishment are meted out quite independent of human interference. At such times, justice acts like a living force. 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.
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". The shop was an old converted house with many large, disused fireplaces and tall, narrow chimneys. Towards midday, a girl heard a muffled cry coming from behind one of the walls. As the cry was repeated several times, she ran to tell the manager who promptly rang up the fire brigade. 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. They located the right chimney by tapping at the walls and listening for the man's cries. After chipping through a wall which was eighteen inches thick, they found that a man had been trapped in the chimney. 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. 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. He had been there for nearly ten hours. Justice had been done even before the man was handed over to the police.
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整篇课文
The word justice is usually associated with courts of law. We might say that justice has been done when a man’s innocence or guilt has been proved beyond doubt. Justice is part of the complex machinery of the law. Those who seek it undertake an arduous journey and can never be sure that they will find it. Judges, however wise or eminent, are human and can make mistakes.
There are rare instances when justice almost ceases to be an abstract concept. Reward or punishment are meted out quite independent of human interference. At such times, justice acts like a living force. 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.
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". The shop was an old converted house with many large, disused fireplaces and tall, narrow chimneys. Towards midday, a girl heard a muffled cry coming from behind one of the walls. As the cry was repeated several times, she ran to tell the manager who promptly rang up the fire brigade. 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. They located the right chimney by tapping at the walls and listening for the man's cries. After chipping through a wall which was eighteen inches thick, they found that a man had been trapped in the chimney. 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. 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. He had been there for nearly ten hours. Justice had been done even before the man was handed over to the police.
提到“公正”，人们通常会联想到法庭。当一个人有罪或无辜已被确凿地证明时，我们也许就会说，公正得到了伸张。公正是法律这套复杂运作体系中的一环。追求公正，往往要经历艰难的过程，却无法保证最终能够如愿。法官无论多么睿智、多么德高望重，终究也是人，也可能犯错。
但也有极少数时候，公正仿佛不再是一个抽象概念：无需人为干预，奖惩便自行降临。在这种时候，公正像是一种鲜活的力量。当我们说某人“活该”时，某种程度上，就是承认一连串特定的情形，让公正自己发挥了作用。
一天上午，一名窃贼在一家大型珠宝店里被发现时，店员们一定很难忍住不说一句“活该”。这家店由一座老房子改建而成，里面有许多废弃的大壁炉，以及高而狭窄的烟囱。快到中午时，一名女店员听见墙后传来闷闷的呼救声。声音接连响了几次，她赶紧跑去告诉经理，经理立即通知消防队。呼救声无疑来自某根烟囱，可烟囱太多，一时无法确定是哪一根。消防员一边敲墙，一边听那人的叫声，终于找准位置。他们凿穿一堵18英寸厚的墙，发现一个男人被困在烟囱里。烟囱窄得让他完全动不了，消防员最后在墙上开出一个大洞，才把他救出来。这个满身漆黑、狼狈不堪的人一出来，就承认自己昨夜想潜入店内行窃，结果卡在烟囱里，已经困了将近十个小时。人还没交给警察，惩罚倒先受过了，公正已经得到了伸张。
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译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第116—118页，2022年2月第3版。