美麗新世界 Brave New World 第4章(5)

With eyes for the most part downcast and, if everthey lighted on a fellow creature, at once andfurtively averted, Bernard hastened across the roof.

伯納匆匆走過屋頂，眼睛大體望著地下，偶然見了人也立即悄悄躲開。

He was like a man pursued, but pursued by enemieshe does not wish to see, lest they should seem morehostile even than he had supposed, and he himselfbe made to feel guiltier and even more helplesslyalone.

他像是被敵人追捕，卻不愿意看見追捕者，因為怕他們的樣子比預(yù)想的更可怕。這就把他自己弄得更為內(nèi)疚，更加無可奈何的孤獨。

"That horrible Benito Hoover!" And yet the man had meant well enough.

哪個可怕的本尼托·胡佛戶可那人的用心原本是好的。

Which only made it, in a way, much worse. Those who meant well behaved in the same way asthose who meant badly.

這就使他的處境更糟糕。用心良好的人跟居心不良的人做法竟然完全一樣。

Even Lenina was making him suffer.

就連列寧娜也讓他痛苦。

He remembered those weeks of timid indecision, during which he had looked and longed anddespaired of ever having the courage to ask her.

他記得那幾星期畏怯猶豫的日子，那時他曾經(jīng)希冀、渴望有勇氣問問她，卻又失望了。

Dared he face the risk of being humiliated by a contemptuous refusal?

他有勇氣面對遭到輕蔑拒絕的羞辱嗎?

But if she were to say yes, what rapture!

可她如果竟然同意了，他又會狂喜到什么程度!

Well, now she had said it and he was still wretched–wretched that she should have thought itsuch a perfect afternoon for Obstacle Golf, that she should have trotted away to join HenryFoster, that she should have found him funny for not wanting to talk of their most privateaffairs in public.

好了，她現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)對他明白表態(tài)了，可他仍然難受——因為她居然認為那天下午最好是用來打障礙高爾夫，而且跟亨利·福斯特一溜煙跑掉了。他不愿在公開場合談他倆之間最秘密的私事，她居然覺得好笑。

Wretched, in a word, because she had behaved as any healthy and virtuous English girl oughtto behave and not in some other, abnormal, extraordinary way.

總之，他難受，因為她的行為只像個健康的、有道德的英格蘭姑娘，毫無其他獨特的與眾不同之處。

He opened the door of his lock-up and called to a lounging couple of Delta-Minus attendants tocome and push his machine out on to the roof.

他打開自己的機庫，叫來兩個閑逛著的德爾塔減隨從把他的飛機推到屋頂上去。

The hangars were staffed by a single Bokanovsky Group, and the men were twins, identicallysmall, black and hideous.

機庫的管理員是同一組波坎諾夫斯基化的多生子，一模一樣地矮小、熏黑、猙獰。

Bernard gave his orders in the sharp, rather arrogant and even offensive tone of one whodoes not feel himself too secure in his superiority.

伯納像一個對自己的優(yōu)越性不太有把握的人一樣發(fā)出命令，口氣尖利，帶幾分傲慢，甚至有些氣勢洶洶。

To have dealings with members of the lower castes was always, for Bernard, a mostdistressing experience.

伯納對跟種姓低的人打交道有非常痛苦的經(jīng)驗。

For whatever the cause (and the current gossip about the alcohol in his blood-surrogatemay very likely–for accidents will happen–have been true)

因為不管原因何在，關(guān)于他代血劑里的酒精的流言大有可能是實有其事，因為意外總是會發(fā)生的。

Bernard's physique as hardly better than that of the average Gamma.

伯納的身體并不比一般的伽瑪好。

He stood eight centimetres short of the standard Alpha height and was slender in proportion.

他的個子比標準阿爾法矮了八公分，身體也相應(yīng)單薄了許多。

Contact with members of he lower castes always reminded him painfully of this physicalinadequacy.

跟下級成員的接觸總痛苦地讓他想起自己這種身體缺陷。

"I am I, and wish I wasn't"; his self-consciousness was acute and stressing.

“我是我，卻希望沒有我。”他的自我意識很強烈，很痛苦。

Each time he found himself looking on the level, instead of downward, into a Delta's face, he felthumiliated.

每一次他發(fā)現(xiàn)自己平視著，而不是俯視著一個德爾塔的臉時便不禁感到受了侮辱。

Would the creature treat him with the respect due to his caste?

那家伙會不會以對待我的種姓應(yīng)有的尊重對待我?

The question haunted him. Not without reason.

那問題叫他日夜不安，卻并非沒有道理。

For Gammas, Deltas and Epsilons had been to some extent conditioned to associatecorporeal mass with social superiority.

因為伽瑪們、德爾塔們和愛撲塞隆們經(jīng)過一定程度的條件設(shè)置，總是把社會地位的優(yōu)越性和個子的大小掛鉤的。

Indeed, a faint hypnop.dic prejudice in favour of size was universal.

實際上由于睡眠教育，有利于大個子的偏見普遍存在。