美麗新世界Brave New World 第7章(3)

"Old?" she repeated. "But the Director's old; lots ofpeople are old; they're not like that."

“老了?”她重復道，“可是主任也老了，許多人都老了，卻都不像那樣。”

"That's because we don't allow them to be like that.We preserve them from diseases. We keep theirinternal secretions artificially balanced at a youthfulequilibrium.

“那是因為我們不讓他們像那樣。我們給他們保健，不讓他們生病，人工維持他們的內(nèi)分泌，使內(nèi)分泌平衡，像年輕人一樣。

We don't permit their magnesium-calcium ratio to fall below what it was at thirty.

我們不讓他們的鎂鈣比值降低到三十歲時以下。

We give them transfusion of young blood. We keep their metabolism permanentlystimulated.

我們給他們輸進年輕人的血液，保證他們的新陳代謝永遠活躍。

So, of course, they don't look like that. Partly," he added, "because most of them die longbefore they reach this old creature's age.

因此他們就不會老。還有，”他又說，“這兒大部分人還沒有活到這位老人的年齡就死了。

Youth almost unimpaired till sixty, and then, crack! the end."

很年輕，幾乎毫發(fā)無損，然后，突然就完了。”

But Lenina was not listening. She was watching the old man.

可是列寧娜已經(jīng)不再聽他的。她在看著那老頭。

Slowly, slowly he came down. His feet touched the ground. He turned.

老頭非常緩慢地往下爬著，腳踩到了地上，轉過了身子。

In their deep-sunken orbits his eyes were still extraordinarily bright. They looked at her for along moment expressionlessly, without surprise, as though she had not been there at all. Thenslowly, with bent back the old man hobbled past them and was gone.

他那深陷在眼窩里的眼睛異常明亮，沒有表情地望了她許久，并不驚訝，好像她根本不在那兒，然后才慢慢躬著身子從他們身邊擦過，趔趔趄趄走掉了。

"But it's terrible," Lenina whispered. "It's awful. We ought not to have come here."

“可這很可怕，”列寧娜低聲說，“很可怕。我們不該來的。”

She felt in her pocket for her soma–only to discover that, by some unprecedented oversight,she had left the bottle down at the rest-house.

她到口袋里去摸唆麻，卻發(fā)現(xiàn)由于從來沒有過的粗心把唆麻瓶忘在賓館里了。

Bernard's pockets were also empty.

伯納的口袋里也是空的。

Lenina was left to face the horrors of Malpais unaided. They came crowding in on her thick andfast.

列寧娜只好孤苦無靠地面對馬爾佩斯的種種恐怖，而恐怖也確實接踵而至。

The spectacle of two young women giving breast to their babies made her blush and turn awayher face.

兩個年輕的婦女給孩子喂奶臊得她轉過了臉。

She had never seen anything so indecent in her life.

她一輩子也沒有見過這么猥褻的事。

And what made it worse was that, instead of tactfully ignoring it, Bernard proceeded to makeopen comments on this revoltingly viviparous scene.

更糟糕的是，伯納對這令人作嘔的胎生場面不但不是巧妙地置之不理，反倒公開發(fā)表起了意見。

Ashamed, now that the effects of the soma had worn off, of the weakness he had displayedthat morning in the hotel, he went out of his way to show himself strong and unorthodox.

唆麻效力已經(jīng)過去，他已為早上在賓館的軟弱表現(xiàn)感到羞恥，便一反常態(tài)，表現(xiàn)起自己的堅強與非正統(tǒng)來。

"What a wonderfully intimate relationship," he said, deliberately outrageous.

“這種親密關系多么美妙呀，”他故意叫人難堪地說，

"And what an intensity of feeling it must generate!

“它會激發(fā)出多么深厚的感情呀!

I often think one may have missed something in not having had a mother.

我常常在想，我們因為沒有母親可能失去了什么，

And perhaps you've missed something in not being a mother, Lenina.

而你因為沒有做過母親也可能失去了一些東西，列寧娜。

Imagine yourself sitting there with a little baby of your own. …"

想象你自己坐在那兒喂著自己的嬰兒吧……。”

"Bernard! How can you?" The passage of an old woman with ophthalmia and a disease of theskin distracted her from her indignation.

“伯納!你怎么能這樣?”一個患結膜炎和皮膚病的老年婦女吸引了她的注意，岔開了她的義憤。

"Let's go away," she begged. "I don't like it."

“咱們走吧，”她求他，“我不喜歡這兒。”

But at this moment their guide came back and, beckoning them to follow, led the way down thenarrow street between the houses.

但是這時他們的向?qū)б呀?jīng)回來。他招呼他們跟在身后，帶著他們沿著房屋之間的狹窄街道走去，

They rounded a corner. A dead dog was lying on a rubbish heap; a woman with a goitre waslooking for lice in the hair of a small girl.

繞過了一個街角。一條死狗躺在垃圾堆上;一個長著瘤子的婦女正在一個小姑娘的頭發(fā)里捉虱子。

Their guide halted at the foot of a ladder, raised his hand perpendicularly, then darted ithorizontally forward.

向?qū)г谝患芴葑优赃呁Ｗ×?，用手垂直一舉，然后向水平方向一揮。

They did what he mutely commanded–climbed the ladder and walked through the doorway,to which it gave access, into a long narrow room, rather dark and smelling of smoke and cookedgrease and long-worn, long-unwashed clothes.

他們按照他的無言指示做——爬上了梯子，穿過了梯子通向的門，進了一個狹長的房間。房間相當暗，發(fā)出煙味、煮過的油膩味、穿了很久沒洗的衣服味。