第五章
1、By eight o'clock the light was failing. The loudspeaker in the tower of the Stoke Poges Club Housebegan, in a more than human tenor, to announcethe closing of the courses.
1、八點鐘天色漸漸暗去,斯托克波吉俱樂部大樓高塔上的擴音器開始宣布游戲結(jié)束,那男高音是超越人類的。
Lenina and Henry abandoned their game and walkedback towards the Club.
列寧娜和亨利玩完游戲,回俱樂部去。
From the grounds of the Internal and External Secretion Trust came the lowing of thosethousands of cattle which provided,
內(nèi)外分泌托拉斯的牧場上傳來數(shù)千頭牛的叫聲。
with their hormones and their milk, the raw materials for the great factory at Farnham Royal.
那些牲畜把荷爾蒙和牛奶提供給伐恩漢皇家森林那座巨大的工廠,作為原料。
An incessant buzzing of helicopters filled the twilight.
暮色里塞滿了直升機斷續(xù)的嗡嗡聲。
Every two and a half minutes a bell and the screech of whistles announced the departure ofone of the light monorail trains which carried the lower caste golfers back from their separatecourse to the metropolis.
每隔兩分半鐘就有鈴聲和汽笛宣布一列輕便單軌火車開出,那是運載下層種姓的球客們從各個高爾夫球場回都市去的。
Lenina and Henry climbed into their machine and started off.
列寧娜和亨利上了飛機出發(fā)了。
At eight hundred feet Henry slowed down the helicopter screws, and they hung for a minute ortwo poised above the fading landscape.
亨利在八百公尺高處放慢了直升機螺旋槳,兩人在逐漸暗淡的景物上空懸掛了一兩分鐘。
The forest of Burnham Beeches stretched like a great pool of darkness towards the brightshore of the western sky.
貝恩漢的山毛祥林有如一片濃黑的巨大沼澤,往西天明亮的岸邊伸展。
Crimson at the horizon, the last of the sunset faded, through orange, upwards into yellow anda pale watery green.
地平線上的落日余輝一片鮮紅,往上漸漸轉(zhuǎn)為橘紅,黃,直到淺談的湖綠。
Northwards, beyond and above the trees, the Internal and External Secretions factory glaredwith a fierce electric brilliance from every window of its twenty stories.
往北望去,森林外的天空里,二十層樓的內(nèi)外分泌工廠的窗戶燈光全部亮了,閃耀著熾熱電光的燦爛。
Beneath them lay the buildings of the Golf Club–the huge Lower Caste barracks
往下是高爾夫球俱樂部大樓——亦即低種姓的巨大營房。
and,on the other side of a dividing wall, the smaller houses reserved for Alpha and Betamembers.
隔離墻那邊是保留給阿爾法和比塔們的較小的房舍。
The approaches to the monorail station were black with the ant-like pullulation of lower-casteactivity.
通向單軌火車的路上黑壓壓擠滿了像蟻群一樣的活動的低種姓人。
From under the glass vault a lighted train shot out into the open.
一列火車從玻璃質(zhì)的拱門下燈火通明地開進(jìn)了露天里。
Following its southeasterly course across the dark plain their eyes were drawn to the majesticbuildings of the Slough Crematorium.
兩人的眼睛隨著火車越過了黑暗的平原,被羽蛻火葬場巍峨的大樓吸引了去。
For the safety of night-flying planes, its four tall chimneys were flood-lighted and tipped withcrimson danger signals.It was a landmark.
為了夜間飛行的安全,火葬場四個高煙囪都有輝煌的泛光照耀,頂上還裝有紅色的警燈,警燈同時也是里程符號。
"Why do the smoke-stacks have those things like balconies around them?" enquired Lenina.
“煙囪上為什么有陽臺樣的東西圍繞?”列寧娜問。
"Phosphorus recovery," explained Henry telegraphically. "On their way up the chimney thegases go through four separate treatments.
“磷回收,”亨利簡短地說,“氣體在升上煙囪時要經(jīng)過四道不同的工序。
P2O5 used to go right out of circulation every time they cremated some one. Now they recoverover ninety-eight per cent of it.
過去五氧化二磷都在人體燒化時流失了,現(xiàn)在其中的百分之九十八都能回收。
More than a kilo and a half per adult corpse.
一個成年人的尸體能回收到一公斤半以上。
Which makes the best part of four hundred tons of phosphorus every year from Englandalone."
光是在英格蘭每年回收的磷就多達(dá)四百噸。”
Henry spoke with a happy pride, rejoicing whole-heartedly in the achievement, as though ithad been his own.
亨利得意揚揚地說,為這種成績衷心感到高興,仿佛那是自己的成績。
"Fine to think we can go on being socially useful even after we're dead. Making plants grow."
“想到我們死了之后還能繼續(xù)對社會做貢獻(xiàn),幫助植物生長,那是很愉快的。”
Lenina, meanwhile, had turned her eyes away and was looking perpendicularly downwards at themonorail station.
此時列寧娜已經(jīng)望著別處。她正垂直俯瞰著單軌火車站。
"Fine," she agreed. " But queer that Alphas and Betas won't make any more plants grow thanthose nasty little Gammas and Deltas and Epsilons down there."
“是的,”她同意,“可奇怪的是:阿爾法和比塔們死去之后,為什么不能比低種姓的伽瑪、德爾塔和愛撲塞隆營養(yǎng)更多的樹木呢?”
"All men are physico-chemically equal," said Henry sententiously. " Besides, even Epsilonsperform indispensable services."
“從物理化學(xué)上說,人類是天生平等的,”亨利說話像格言,“而且,即使是愛撲塞隆的貢獻(xiàn)也都必不可少。”