美丽新世界Brave New World 第4章(7)

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　　电话打来时赫姆霍尔兹华生先生正在写作。

　　"Tell him I'm coming at once," he said and hung up the receiver. Then, turning to his secretary, "I'll leave you to put my things away," he went on in the same official and impersonal¹ tone;

　　“告诉他我立刻就来，”他说毕挂上了话筒，然后转身对秘书说，“我的东西就交给你收拾了。”他对她那明媚的微笑不予理会，仍用公事公办的口气说着话，

　　and, ignoring her lustrous² smile, got up and walked briskly to the door.

　　同时站起身子，迅速来到了门边。

　　He was a powerfully built man, deep-chested, broad-shouldered, massive, and yet quick in his movements, springy and agile³.

　　赫姆霍尔兹·华生先生身体壮实，深厚的胸膛，宽阔的肩头，魁梧的个子，可是行动迅速，步履矫捷而富于弹性。

　　美丽新世界.jpg

　　The round strong pillar of his neck supported a beautifully shaped head.

　　脖子像一根结实的圆柱，撑起一个轮廓美丽的头。

　　His hair was dark and curly, his features strongly marked.

　　深色的鬈发，五官棱角分明。的确漂亮非凡，引人注目。

　　In a forcible emphatic⁴ way, he was handsome and looked, as his secretety was never tired of repeating, every centimetre an Alpha Plus.

　　正如他的秘书所不疲倦地重复的：每一公分都是个阿尔法加。

　　By profession he was a lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing) and the intervals⁵ of his educational activities, a working Emotional Engineer.

　　他的职业是情绪工程学院写作系的讲师，业余又从事教育活动，是个在职的情绪工程师。

　　He wrote regularly for The Hourly Radio, composed feely scenarios⁶, and had the happiest knack⁷ for slogans and hypnop.dic rhymes.

　　他定期为《每时广播》写稿，写感官片脚本，而且精通写口号和睡眠教育顺口溜的奥妙。

　　"Able," was the verdict of his superiors. " Perhaps, (and they would shake their heads, would significantly lower their voices) "a little too able."

　　能干，他的上司对他的评价是，“也许，（说到此他们便摇摇头，含义深刻地放低了嗓门）过分能干了一点。”

　　Yes, a little too able; they were right.

　　是的，过分能干了一点，他们没有错。

　　A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defect.

　　智力过高对于赫姆霍尔兹·华生所产生的后果跟生理缺陷对于伯纳·马克思所产生的后果很为相似。

　　Too little bone and brawn⁸ had isolated⁹ Bernard from his fellow men, and the sense of this apartness,

　　骨架太小肌肉太少让伯纳和他的伙伴们疏远了。

　　being, by all the current standards, a mental excess, became in its turn a cause of wider separation.

　　从一切流行标准看来，那种疏远都是心灵所难以承受的，于是他和他们之间疏远得更厉害了。

　　That which had made Helmholtz so uncomfortably aware of being himself and and all alone was too much ability.

　　而使赫姆霍尔兹极不愉快地意识到自己和自己的孤独的则是过分能干。

　　What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals.

　　两人共同的感觉都是孤独。

　　But whereas the physically¹⁰ defective¹¹ Bernard had suffered all his life from the consciousness of being separate, it was only quite recently that, grown aware of his mental excess, Helmholtz Watson had also become aware of his difference from the people who surrounded him.

　　可是有生理缺陷的伯纳感到孤独的痛苦已经有一辈子；而赫姆霍尔兹·华生因为意识到自己过分聪明、跟周围的人的差异却是新近的事。

　　This Escalator-Squash champion, this indefatigable¹² lover (it was said that he had had six hundred and forty different girls in under four years), this admirable committee man and best mixer had realized quite suddenly that sport, women, communal¹³ activities were only, so far as he was concerned, second bests.

　　这位自动扶梯手球冠军，这位不知疲倦的情人（据说他四年不到就有过六百四十个不同的姑娘），这位可敬的委员、交际能手最近才突然明白了一个道理：游戏、女人、社交对他只能算是第二等的好事。

　　Really, and at the bottom, he was interested in something else.

　　实际上（也是根本上）他感到兴趣的是另外一个问题。

　　But in what? In what? That was the problem which Bernard had come to discuss with him–or rather,since it was always Helmholtz who did all the talking, to listen to his friend discussing, yet once more.

　　什么问题？那正是伯纳要来跟他讨论的问题——或者说，要来听他再谈谈的问题，因为谈话的永远是赫姆霍尔兹。

　　Three charming girls from the Bureau of Propaganda by Synthetic¹⁴ Voice waylaid¹⁵ him as he stepped out of the lift.

　　赫姆霍尔兹一跨出电梯便受到三个迷人的姑娘拦路袭击——她们刚踏出了合成声宣传局。

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