原文选自American Short Stories of Today。在美国，弗雷德里克·布朗（Fredric Brown）以其推理小说和科幻小说名扬美国。这个寓言故事古怪有趣、发人深省的故事。
Walter B. Jehovah, for whose name I make no apology since it really was his name, had been a solipsist all his life. A solipsist, in case you don't happen to know the word, is one who believes that he himself is the only thing that really exists, that other people and the universe in general exist only in his imagination, and that if he quit imagining them they would cease to exist.
沃尔特·B·耶和华——我并不因为他的名字而道歉，因为这确实是他的名字——一生都是唯我论者。如果你们不知道这个词的话，唯我论者是这样一个人，他相信他自己是唯一真正存在的东西，其他人和整个宇宙只存在于他的想象中，如果他停止想象，他们就会停止存在。
One day Walter B. Jehovah became a practising solipsist. Within a week his wife had run away with another man, he'd lost his job as a shipping clerk and he had broken his leg chasing a black cat to keep it from crossing his path. He decided, in his bed at the hospital, to end it all. Looking out the window, staring up at the stars, he wished them out of existence, and they weren't there any more. Then he wished all other people out of existence and the hospital became strangely quiet even for a hospital. Next, the world, and he found himself suspended in a void. He got rid of his body quite as easily and then took the final step of willing himself out of existence.
有一天，沃尔特·B·耶和华成为一名实践唯我论者。不到一个星期，他的妻子就和另一个男人私奔了。他丢掉了船务工作，为了不让一只黑猫从他面前经过，他还在追赶黑猫时摔断了腿。躺在医院的病床上，他决定结束这一切。望向窗外，看着天上的星星，他希望星星消失，但它们已经不在了。然后他希望所有的人都消失，医院变得出奇地安静，即使作为医院也是如此。接下来是世界，他发现自己悬浮在虚空中，轻而易举地摆脱了自己的身体，然后迈出了最后一步，让自己不存在。
Nothing happened.
Strange, he thought, can there be a limit to solipsism?
“Yes, ” a voice said.
“Who are you? ” Walter B. Jehovah asked.
什么也没有发生。
奇怪的是，他想，唯我论会有极限吗?
“是的。”一个声音说。
“你是谁? ”沃尔特·b·耶和华问。
“I am the one who created the universe which you have just willed the solipsist out of existence. And now that you have taken my place -- There was a deep sigh. I can finally cease my own existence, find oblivion, and let you take over. But how can I cease to exist? That's what I'm trying to do, you know. ”“Yes, I know,”said the voice. You must do it the same way I did. Create a universe. Wait until somebody in it really believes what you believed and wills it out of existence. Then you can retire and let him take over. Good-bye now.
“是我创造了这个宇宙，而你刚刚用意志创造了唯我论的不复存在。现在你取代了我的位置——人们深深地叹了口气。我终于可以停止我自己的存在，找到遗忘，然后让你接管”。“可是，我怎么能不存在呢?”这就是我想做的，你知道的。“是的，我知道。”那声音说。你必须像我那样做。创造一个宇宙。等到其中的某个人真的相信你所相信的，并通过遗嘱让它不复存在。然后你可以退休，让他接手。再见。
And the voice was gone. Walter B. Jehovah was alone in the void and there was only one thing he could do. He created the heaven and the earth. It took him seven days.
那个声音消失了。耶和华独自一人在虚空中，他只能做一件事。他花了7天时间创造了天地。
