美麗新世界 Brave New World 第6章(1)

Chapter Six

第六章

Odd, odd, odd, was Lenina's verdict on Bernard Marx.

古怪，古怪，太古怪，這是列寧娜對伯納·馬克思所下的斷語。

So odd, indeed, that in the course of the succeeding weeks she had wondered more than once whether she shouldn't change her mind about the New Mexico holiday, and go instead to the North Pole with Benito Hoover.

太古怪，以后的幾個星期，她曾不止一次地考慮要不要改變跟他到墨西哥去旅游的打算，而跟本尼托·胡佛一起到北極去。

The trouble was that she knew the North Pole, had been there with George Edzel only last summer, and what was more, found it pretty grim.

問題是她已經(jīng)去過北極，去年夏天才跟喬治·埃澤爾去過，而且覺得那兒相當難受。

Nothing to do, and the hotel too hopelessly old-fashioned–no television laid on in the bedrooms, no scent organ, only the most putrid synthetic music, and not more than twenty-five Escalator-Squash Courts for over two hundred guests.

無事可做。旅館又老式得要命。寢室里沒有配備電視，沒有香味樂器，只有最討厭的合成音樂，兩千多客人只有二十五個自動扶梯手球場。

No, decidedly she couldn't face the North Pole again.

不行，她絕對不能再到北極去玩。

Added to which, she had only been to America once before. And even then, how inadequately!

何況她還只去過美國一次，去得多么糟糕!

A cheap week-end in New York–had it been with Jean-Jacques Habibullah or Bokanovsky Jones? She couldn't remember.

只在紐約過了一個廉價的周末，是跟讓·雅克·哈比布拉還是跟波坎諾夫斯基·瓊斯去的她已經(jīng)不記得了，

Anyhow, it was of absolutely no importance.

可那畢竟一點也不重要。

The prospect of flying West again, and for a whole week, was very inviting.

再到西方去整整過一個禮拜，對她還是很有吸引力的。

Moreover, for at least three days of that week they would be in the Savage Reservation.

何況其中至少可以有三天在野蠻人保留地度過

Not more than half a dozen people in the whole Centre had ever been inside a Savage Reservation.

——那地方在整個胎孕中心只有六七個人去過。

As an Alpha-Plus psychologist, Bernard was one of the few men she knew entitled to a permit.For Lenina, the opportunity was unique.

她知道伯納是個阿爾法加，心理學(xué)家，是少數(shù)幾個有被批準資格的人之一。 對她說來，那是個罕見的機會。

And yet, so unique also was Bernard's oddness that she had hesitated to take it, had actually thought of risking the Pole again with funny old Benito.

而伯納的古怪也罕見，要接受伯納，她感到猶豫，實際上她還考慮過冒一冒險，跟有趣的老本尼托再去一趟北極。

At least Benito was normal. Whereas Bernard …

本尼托至少是正常的，而伯納卻……

"Alcohol in his blood-surrogate," was Fanny's explanation of every eccentricity.

范尼對每一種怪脾氣的解釋都是：“代血劑里的酒精。”

But Henry, with whom, one evening when they were in bed together, Lenina had rather anxiously discussed her new lover, Henry had compared poor Bernard to a rhinoceros.

但是有天晚上列寧娜跟亨利一起在床上很焦急地談起了她那新情人時，亨利卻把可憐的伯納比做一頭犀牛。

"You can't teach a rhinoceros tricks," he had explained in his brief and vigorous style. "Some men are almost rhinoceroses; they don't respond properly to conditioning.

“你可沒有法子教犀牛玩花樣，”他以他那簡短有力的風(fēng)格解釋，‘有些人簡直跟犀牛差不多，對于條件設(shè)置不能正常反應(yīng)。

Poor Devils! Bernard's one of them. Luckily for him, he's pretty good at his job.

可憐的怪物!伯納就是一個。幸好他業(yè)務(wù)還挺律，否則主任早開除他了。

Otherwise the Director would never have kept him. However," he added consolingly, "I think he's pretty harmless."

不過，”他安慰說，“我覺得他倒無傷大雅。”

Pretty harmless, perhaps; but also pretty disquieting.

無傷大雅，也許，可也叫人很不放心。

That mania, to start with, for doing things in private. Which meant, in practice, not doing anything at all.

首先，他那老干私事的怪癖，實際上就是游手好閑。

For what was there that one could do in private.

一個人私下能夠有什么可干?

(Apart, of course, from going to bed: but one couldn't do that all the time.) Yes, what was there? Precious little.

(當然，除了上床之外，可人總不能老上床的，)而床上能干什么?沒有多少可干的。

The first afternoon they went out together was particularly fine.

他們倆第一次出去那天天氣特別好。

Lenina had suggested a swim at Toquay Country Club followed by dinner at the Oxford Union. But Bernard thought there would be too much of a crowd.

列寧娜建議去牛津聯(lián)合會去吃飯，然后到托開鄉(xiāng)村俱樂部游泳，可是伯納嫌人多。

Then what about a round of Electro-magnetic Golf at St. Andrew's? But again, no: Bernard considered that Electro-magnetic Golf was a waste of time.

那么到圣安德魯司去打電磁高爾夫呢?仍然不同意。玩電磁高爾夫總不能認為是浪費時間吧!

"Then what's time for?" asked Lenina in some astonishment.

“那么時間是拿來干什么的呢?”列寧娜多少有些驚訝地問。

Apparently, for going walks in the Lake District; for that was what he now proposed.

那顯然是到湖區(qū)去散步了。因為那就是他現(xiàn)在提出的建議。

Land on the top of Skiddaw and walk for a couple of hours in the heather. "Alone with you, Lenina."

在斯基朵的盡頭上岸，到石南叢里去轉(zhuǎn)一兩個小時。“跟你單獨在一起，列寧娜。”

"But, Bernard, we shall be alone all night."

“但是，伯納，我們整個晚上都要單獨在一起的。”