How The Steel Was Tempered

钢铁是怎样炼成的

This is the frontier — two posts facing one another in silent hostility, each standing for a world of its own. One of them is planed and polished and painted black and white like a police box, and topped by a single-headed eagle nailed in place with sturdy spikes. Wings outspread, claws gripping the striped pole, hooked beak outstretched, the bird of prey stares with malicious eyes at the cast-iron shield with the sickle-and-hammer emblem on the opposite pole — a sturdy, round, rough-hewn oak post planted firmly in the ground. The two poles stand six paces apart on level ground, yet there is a deep gulf between them and the two worlds they stand for. To try to cross this no man's land means risking one's life.

国境线——就是两根柱子。它们面对面地竖在那里，默默地互相敌视，象征着两个世界。一根柱子刨得很光滑，像警察岗亭那样漆着黑白相间的线条。柱顶上面牢牢地钉着一只独头鹰。这只嗜食兽尸的恶鸟展开双翼，似乎正用利爪抓住这根漆着线条的界桩;同时，它又伸出贪婪的钩嘴，不怀好意地瞪着对面的铁牌。对面六步以外竖着另一根柱子。这是一根削去了皮的粗大圆形柞木柱，深深埋在地里。柱顶上是一块铸着锤子和镰刀的铁牌。虽然这两根界桩都竖在一块平地上，但是两个世界之间却隔着一道万丈深渊，不冒生命危险就想越过这六步的距离是不可能的。

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