文档介绍：ANTHEM
ANTHEM
by Ayn Rand
1
ANTHEM
PART ONE
It is a sin to write this. It is a sin to think words no others think and
to put them down upon a paper no others are to see. It is base and evil. It
is as if we were speaking alone to no ears but our own. And we know well
that there is no transgression blacker than to do or think alone. We have
broken the laws. The laws say that men may not write unless the Council
of Vocations bid them so. May we be forgiven!
But this is not the only sin upon us. We mitted a greater
crime, and for this crime there is no name. What punishment awaits us if
it be discovered we know not, for no such crime e in the memory
of men and there are no laws to provide for it.
It is dark here. The flame of the candle stands still in the air.
Nothing moves in this tunnel save our hand on the paper. We are alone
here under the earth. It is a fearful word, alone. The laws say that none
among men may be alone, ever and at any time, for this is the great
transgression and the root of all evil. But we have broken many laws.
And now there is nothing here save our one body, and it is strange to see
only two legs stretched on the ground, and on the wall before us the
shadow of our one head.
The walls are cracked and water runs upon them in thin threads
without sound, black and glistening as blood. We stole the candle from
the larder of the Home of the Street Sweepers. We shall be sentenced to
ten years in the Palace of Corrective Detention if it be discovered. But
this matters not. It matters only that the light is precious and we should not
waste it to write when we need it for that work which is our crime.
Nothing matters save the work, our secret, our evil, our precious work.
Still, we must also write, for--may the Council have mercy upon us!--we
wish to speak for once to no ears but our own.
Our name is Equality 7-2521, as it is written on the iron bracelet which
all men wear on their left wrists with their names