美丽新世界Brave New World 第5章(1)

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　　第五章

　　1、By eight o'clock the light was failing. The loud speaker in the tower of the Stoke Poges Club House began, in a more than human tenor¹, to announce the closing of the courses.

　　1、八点钟天色渐渐暗去，斯托克波吉俱乐部大楼高塔上的扩音器开始宣布游戏结束，那男高音是超越人类的。

　　Lenina and Henry abandoned their game and walked back towards the Club.

　　列宁娜和亨利玩完游戏，回俱乐部去。

　　From the grounds of the Internal and External Secretion² Trust came the lowing of those thousands of cattle which provided,

　　内外分泌托拉斯的牧场上传来数千头牛的叫声。

　　with their hormones³ and their milk, the raw materials for the great factory at Farnham Royal.

　　那些牲畜把荷尔蒙和牛奶提供给伐恩汉皇家森林那座巨大的工厂，作为原料。

　　An incessant⁴ buzzing of helicopters filled the twilight⁵.

　　暮色里塞满了直升机断续的嗡嗡声。

　　Every two and a half minutes a bell and the screech⁶ of whistles announced the departure of one of the light monorail trains which carried the lower caste golfers back from their separate course to the metropolis⁷.

　　每隔两分半钟就有铃声和汽笛宣布一列轻便单轨火车开出，那是运载下层种姓的球客们从各个高尔夫球场回都市去的。

　　Lenina and Henry climbed into their machine and started off.

　　列宁娜和亨利上了飞机出发了。

　　At eight hundred feet Henry slowed down the helicopter screws, and they hung for a minute or two poised⁸ above the fading landscape.

　　亨利在八百公尺高处放慢了直升机螺旋桨，两人在逐渐暗淡的景物上空悬挂了一两分钟。

　　The forest of Burnham Beeches⁹ stretched like a great pool of darkness towards the bright shore of the western sky.

　　贝恩汉的山毛祥林有如一片浓黑的巨大沼泽，往西天明亮的岸边伸展。

　　Crimson¹⁰ at the horizon, the last of the sunset faded, through orange, upwards¹¹ into yellow and a pale watery¹² green.

　　地平线上的落日余辉一片鲜红，往上渐渐转为橘红，黄，直到浅谈的湖绿。

　　Northwards, beyond and above the trees, the Internal and External Secretions¹³ factory glared with a fierce electric brilliance¹⁴ from every window of its twenty stories.

　　往北望去，森林外的天空里，二十层楼的内外分泌工厂的窗户灯光全部亮了，闪耀着炽热电光的灿烂。

　　Beneath them lay the buildings of the Golf Club–the huge Lower Caste barracks

　　往下是高尔夫球俱乐部大楼——亦即低种姓的巨大营房。

　　and,on the other side of a dividing wall, the smaller houses reserved for Alpha and Beta members.

　　隔离墙那边是保留给阿尔法和比塔们的较小的房舍。

　　The approaches to the monorail station were black with the ant-like pullulation of lower-caste activity.

　　通向单轨火车的路上黑压压挤满了像蚁群一样的活动的低种姓人。

　　From under the glass vault¹⁵ a lighted train shot out into the open.

　　一列火车从玻璃质的拱门下灯火通明地开进了露天里。

　　Following its southeasterly course across the dark plain their eyes were drawn¹⁶ to the majestic¹⁷ buildings of the Slough¹⁸ Crematorium.

　　两人的眼睛随着火车越过了黑暗的平原，被羽蜕火葬场巍峨的大楼吸引了去。

　　For the safety of night-flying planes, its four tall chimneys were flood-lighted and tipped with crimson danger signals.It was a landmark¹⁹.

　　为了夜间飞行的安全，火葬场四个高烟囱都有辉煌的泛光照耀，顶上还装有红色的警灯，警灯同时也是里程符号。

　　"Why do the smoke-stacks have those things like balconies around them?" enquired²⁰ Lenina.

　　“烟囱上为什么有阳台样的东西围绕？”列宁娜问。

　　"Phosphorus recovery," explained Henry telegraphically. "On their way up the chimney the gases go through four separate treatments.

　　“磷回收，”亨利简短地说，“气体在升上烟囱时要经过四道不同的工序。

　　P2O5 used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated²¹ some one. Now they recover over ninety-eight per cent of it.

　　过去五氧化二磷都在人体烧化时流失了，现在其中的百分之九十八都能回收。

　　More than a kilo and a half per adult corpse²².

　　一个成年人的尸体能回收到一公斤半以上。

　　Which makes the best part of four hundred tons of phosphorus every year from England alone."

　　光是在英格兰每年回收的磷就多达四百吨。”

　　Henry spoke²³ with a happy pride, rejoicing whole-heartedly in the achievement, as though it had been his own.

　　亨利得意扬扬地说，为这种成绩衷心感到高兴，仿佛那是自己的成绩。

　　"Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead. Making plants grow."

　　“想到我们死了之后还能继续对社会做贡献，帮助植物生长，那是很愉快的。”

　　Lenina, meanwhile, had turned her eyes away and was looking perpendicularly²⁴ downwards²⁵ at the monorail station.

　　此时列宁娜已经望着别处。她正垂直俯瞰着单轨火车站。

　　"Fine," she agreed. " But queer that Alphas and Betas won't make any more plants grow than those nasty little Gammas and Deltas²⁶ and Epsilons down there."

　　“是的，”她同意，“可奇怪的是：阿尔法和比塔们死去之后，为什么不能比低种姓的伽玛、德尔塔和爱扑塞隆营养更多的树木呢？”

　　"All men are physico-chemically equal," said Henry sententiously. " Besides, even Epsilons perform indispensable services."

　　“从物理化学上说，人类是天生平等的，”亨利说话像格言，“而且，即使是爱扑塞隆的贡献也都必不可少。”

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