美丽新世界Brave New World 第17章(2)

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　　他走到保险箱前。

　　"There was a man called Cardinal¹ Newman," he said. "A cardinal,"

　　“有个人叫纽曼主教，”他说，“是个红衣主教，”

　　he exclaimed parenthetically, "was a kind of Arch-Community-Songster."

　　他解释道，“也就是社区首席歌唱家一流的人物。”

　　I Pandulph, of fair Milan, cardinal. I've read about them in Shakespeare.

　　哦，美丽的米兰的潘杜尔夫，红衣主教，我在莎士比亚里面读到过。

　　Of course you have. Well, as I was saying, there was a man called Cardinal Newman. Ah, here's the book.

　　你当然读到过。好了，我刚才说到，有个人叫纽曼红衣主教。啊，就是这本书。

　　He pulled it out. And while I'm about it I'll take this one too.

　　他抽了出来。我要谈纽曼的书，也想谈谈这一本书，

　　It's by a man called Maine de Biran. He was a philosopher, if you know what that was.

　　是一个叫麦因.德.毕兰的人写的。他是个哲学家——你要是知道什么是哲学家的话。

　　"A man who dreams of fewer things than there are in heaven and earth," said the Savage² promptly³.

　　“就是能梦想出许多东西的人，梦想的东西比天地间的事物还多。”野蛮人立即回答。

　　Quite so. I'll read you one of the things he did dream of in a moment.

　　说得很对，我马上就给你念一段他确实梦想出的东西。

　　Meanwhile,listen to what this old Arch-Community-Songster said.

　　现在你听一听这位古时候的首席歌唱家的话。

　　He opened the book at the place marked by a slip of paper and began to read.

　　他在夹了一张纸条的地方翻开，读了起来，

　　We are not our own any more than what we possess is our own.

　　我们并不比我们所占有的东西更能够支配自己。

　　We did not make ourselves, we cannot be supreme⁴ over ourselves.

　　我们并没有创造出自己，也无法超越自己。

　　We are not our own masters. We are God's property.

　　我们不是自己的主人，而是上帝的财富。

　　Is it not our happiness thus to view the matter?

　　这样来看问题难道不是我们的一种幸福吗？

　　Is it any happiness or any comfort, to consider that we are our own? It may be thought so by the young and prosperous.

　　认为自己能够支配自己能得到幸福吗，能得到安慰吗？少年得志的人可能这样想，

　　These may think it a great thing to have everything, as they suppose, their own way–to depend on no one–to have to think of nothing out of sight,

　　以为能使一切事物按他们的想法及方式做很了不起，不必依靠任何人。对视野以外的东西一律不予考虑，

　　to be without the irksomeness of continual acknowledgment, continual prayer, continual reference of what they do to the will of another.

　　不必因为总需要感谢别人，征求别人的意见，总需要祈祷而烦恼。

　　But as time goes on, they, as all men, will find that independence was not made for man–that it is an unnatural⁵ state–will do for a while,

　　可惜随着时光的流逝，这些少年得志的人也必然会跟别人一样发现，人未必是天生独立的——独立状态并不是自然状态。独立在一定时间内也许可能，

　　but will not carry us on safely to the end, Mustapha Mond paused,

　　却无法使我们平安到达目的地,穆斯塔法.蒙德停了停，

　　put down the first book and, picking up the other, turned over the pages.

　　放下第一本书，拿起了第二本翻着。

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