Samuel Johnson -- The Pyramids 汉译

    Of the wall it is very easy to assign the motive. It secured a wealthy and timorous nation from the incursions of barbarians, whose unskilfulness in arts made it easier for them to supply their wants by rapine than by industry, and who, from time to time, poured in upon the habitations of peaceful commerce, as vultures descend upon domestick fowl. Their celerity and fierceness, made the wall necessary, and their ignorance made it efficacious.
    But, for the pyramids, no reason has ever been given adequate to the cost and labour of the work. The narrowness of the chambers proves that it could afford no retreat from enemies, and treasures might have been reposited, at far less expense, with equal security. It seems to have been erected only in compliance with that hunger of imagination, which preys incessantly upon life, and must be always appeased by some employment. Those who have already all that they can enjoy, must enlarge their desires. He that has built for use, till use is supplied, must begin to build for vanity, and extend his plan to the utmost power of human performance, that he may not be soon reduced to form another wish.
    I consider this mighty structure, as a monument of the insufficiency of human enjoyments. A king, whose power is unlimited, and whose treasures surmount all real and imaginary wants, is compelled to solace, by the erection of a pyramid, the satiety of dominion and tastelessness of pleasures, and to amuse the tediousness of declining life, by seeing thousands labouring without end, and one stone, for no purpose, laid upon another. Whoever thou art, that, not content with a moderate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest that command or riches can feed the appetite of novelty, with perpetual gratifications, survey the pyramids, and confess thy folly!

杨自伍 译:

金字塔
塞缪尔·约翰逊
 
    说起中国的长城，要确定修建的动机，那可十分容易。长城确保一个富饶谦和的民族平平安安，以防化外之民的入侵。外夷不谙技艺，所以他们通过掠夺而非勤劳来满足需要，因为这样来得便当一些。他们不时地蜂拥而来，闯入和和气气，你来我往的居家之地，如同兀鹫捕食家禽一般。他们速来速去，生性凶悍，因此修建长城乃必要之举；他们蒙昧无知，因此长城御敌果然见效。
    但是说到金字塔，这项壮举劳民伤财，迄今尚未有人充分说明理由。各处俱为一隅之地，结果无法提供躲避来敌的退路，而要存储财富，本可费资减半而又同样安全。似乎耸立金字塔无非是迁就了想象力的饥渴，它一刻不停地消磨着生命，一定是要加以利用，才能解渴。有些人已经拥有了能够享受的一切，他们的贪欲一定是有增无减。凡为实用而大兴土木者，一俟物尽其用，一定又为虚荣而大兴土木，扩展宏图，极尽人力之能事，直至不可能旋即立下另一个心愿。
    我以为这座雄伟建筑物乃是人的享受不知足的历史见证。一国帝王，权力无限，而且财富超过了所有现实的和想像的需要，于是只得建造一座金字塔，借以慰解那种对独霸而不雅的享乐的贪婪；坐观千人万众终日辛劳遥遥无期，石头一块块垒筑，漫无目的，借以排遣单调的风烛残年。无论你是什么人，倘若不满足于中常的生活条件，想象着金碧辉煌的幸福，梦想专权或钱财能够以不断的满足来填饱追求新异的嗜欲，且看金字塔，坦白你的愚蠢吧！