A ‘Sea of Bodies’: How a Festive Night in Seoul Turned Deadly
It was supposed to be a festive evening, throngs of raucous youngsters dressed as zombies, princesses and super heroes converging on one of Seoul’s most popular nightlife districts for their first restriction-free Halloween celebration since the pandemic began.
这本该是一个欢乐的夜晚，大群爱热闹的年轻人聚集在首尔最受欢迎的夜生活区之一，打扮成殭尸、公主和超级英雄，参加自新冠大流行开始以来首次不受限制的万圣节庆祝活动。
Late Saturday evening, they crowded into bars and nightclubs pumping out the latest K-pop hits and spilled out into the tight alleys that wind through the city’s Itaewon neighborhood. They snacked on the Greek, Turkish, Italian and other international foods for which the diverse district is known.
周六晚，他们涌向大声播放韩国最新流行歌曲的酒吧和夜总会，挤进首尔梨泰院弯弯曲曲的狭窄小巷，在这个以多元化著称的地方品尝希腊、土耳其、意大利和世界其他地方的美食。
As the night grew more frenetic and the mass of revelers swelled, many of them crammed into an alleyway barely 11 feet wide, in a bottleneck of human traffic that made it difficult to breathe and move. There were few police officers around, and from within the crowd came calls to “push, push” and a big shove, according to witnesses. Then, they began to fall, a tangle of too many bodies, compressed into too small of a space.
随着夜晚的活动变得越来越疯狂，狂欢者的人数越来越多，许多人挤在一条三米多宽的小巷里，形成一个人流瓶颈，里面的人呼吸困难、动弹不得。据目击者说，当时周围几乎没有警察，人群中传来了「推，推」的喊声，接着就是很大的推搡。然后，人们开始倒下，太多身体一个接一个地被压缩在太小的空间里。
Zen Ogren, 32, found herself stuck in a packed and sweltering club alongside the narrow alleyway, a thoroughfare connecting a strip of bars to a busy subway station and a popular spot for taking photographs. Outside the club’s door, people were yelling, “Please don’t come out, people are dying,” she said. Security guards urged the crowds to not jostle, but many pushed forward, stepping on top of those who had fallen.
32岁的泽恩·奥格伦发现自己被困在狭窄小巷边一个拥挤闷热的酒吧里。小巷连接着一片酒吧和一个繁忙的地铁站，也是一个热门的拍照地点。她说，酒吧门外有人大喊，「请不要去外面，外面死人了。」安保人员呼吁人群不要推搡，但许多人继续向前推，踩在倒下者的身上。
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packed · 异常拥挤的；挤满人的 extremely full of people，相当于crowded ，比如说：The restaurant was packed. 餐馆里坐满了客人。The show played to packed houses (= large audiences).演出场场观众爆满。
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sweltering热得难受的:extremely hot and uncomfortable，比如说：•sweltering August days热得要命的八月天
In the end, more than 150 people, most of them in their 20s and 30s, died, crushed under the surge of the crowd.
结果是，150多人在汹涌的人群中被踩踏致死，死者大部分是二三十岁的人。
The tragedy — one of South Korea’s worst peacetime disasters — and questions about the authorities’ responsibility to manage the crowd, has marred the image of South Korea, a thriving technology and pop-culture powerhouse that is chronically prone to man-made disasters. It has also added to political woes of the country’s beleaguered president, Yoon Suk Yeol, already suffering low approval ratings with a growing number of people out on the street demanding his resignation.
这是韩国和平时期发生的最严重灾难之一，这场悲剧以及当局在人群管理上的责任问题损害了韩国的形象，虽然韩国有繁荣的技术行业，有大量的流行文化输出，但也经常发生人为灾难。这场灾难也加剧了尹锡悦总统的政治困境，他的支持率已经很低，越来越多的人正在走上街头要求他辞职。
As the sun set on Itaewon on Sunday evening, a mournful and subdued atmosphere suffused the neighborhood. The police closed the streets to traffic in the area, where shuttered bars and restaurants put up signs of condolences. On the sidewalks, impromptu memorials of flowers and liquor formed makeshift shrines to the victims.
周日晚，太阳落山后的梨泰院街道上充满悲痛压抑的气氛。警方禁止车辆进入，关闭的酒吧和餐馆贴出哀悼的标示。人行道上，人们用鲜花和酒水搭起纪念逝者的临时祭坛。
Seo Kun, 27, a student from China, was in the crush of the crowd near the front. Around her, she said, people shouted, “I’m dying.” The woman next to her went silent and stopped breathing.
27岁的中国留学生徐坤（音）当时在拥挤的人群中靠近前面的地方。她说，她周围有人大喊「我快挤死了」。她旁边有个女子没有了声音，停止了呼吸。
Ms. Seo planned to stay in South Korea after completing graduate school, but she has changed her mind. “I want to go home,” she said. “I want to stay with my parents.”
徐坤原打算研究生毕业后留在韩国，但她改变了想法。我想回家，她说。我想和父母在一起。」
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