授精室那一幕之后,
all upper-caste London was wild to see this deliciouscreature,
倫敦的上層種姓都迫不及待地想見識一下這位妙人,
who had fallen on his knees before the Director ofHatcheries and Conditioning—or rather the ex-Director,
那野蠻人竟然跑到孵化與條件設(shè)置中心主任——倒不如說是前主任,
for the poor man had resigned immediately afterwards,
因為這可憐的人隨即辭了職,
and never set foot inside the Centre again—had flopped down and called him (the joke wasalmost too good to be true!) "my father."
再也沒有進(jìn)過中,動了——面前,撲通一聲跪倒在地,叫他“爸爸”。(這惡作劇精彩得叫人不敢相信。)
Linda, on the contrary, cut no ice; nobody had the smallest desire to see Linda.
而相反,琳妲卻沒有引起注意,誰也沒有想過要看她。
To say one was a mother—that was past a joke: it was an obscenity.
把人稱做媽媽原本是過分的玩笑,是一種褻瀆。
Moreover, she wasn't a real savage, had been hatched out of a bottle and conditioned like anyone else: so coudn't have really quaint ideas.
何況她跟別人一樣,是從瓶子里孵化出來的,是設(shè)定過條件的人,不是真正的野蠻人,因此她不可能真正引起怪念頭。
Finally—and this was by far the strongest reason for people's not wanting to see poor Linda—there was her appearance.
最后,還有她那副模樣——這才是人們木希望看見可憐的琳妲的最大理由。
Fat; having lost her youth; with bad teeth, and a blotched complexion,
青春不再,肥胖臃腫,一口壞牙,滿臉斑點。
and that figure (Ford!)—you simply couldn't look at her without feeling sick, yes, positivelysick.
還有那身材(福帝呀!)見了她你不能不作嘔,打心眼里作嘔。
So the best people were quite determined not to see Linda.
因此優(yōu)秀的人都決心不見琳妲。
And Linda, for her part, had no desire to see them.
而琳妲自己也從來沒有想過見他們。
The return to civilization was for her the return to soma,
回歸文明意味著回歸唆麻,
was the possibility of lying in bed and taking holiday after holiday,
不但可以躺在床上一天又一天地享受唆麻假日,
without ever having to come back to a headache or a fit of vomiting,
而且醒過來不會頭痛,惡心,想嘔吐。
without ever being made to feel as you always felt after peyotl,
用不著感到像喝了佩瑤特一樣心虛、抬不起頭,
as though you'd done something so shamefully anti-social that you could never hold up yourhead again.
仿佛干了什么反社會的可恥罪行。
Soma played none of these unpleasant tricks.
唆麻不會開這種刻薄的玩笑。
The holiday it gave was perfect and, if the morning after was disagreeable, it was so, notintrinsically,
它所給予的假期是完美的,如果說隨后的早上也不愉快的話,
but only by comparison with the joys of the holiday.
卻并非由于內(nèi)在的感受,只是覺得不如唆麻假日那么快活而已。
The remedy was to make the holiday continuous.
補救的辦法是繼續(xù)度假。
Greedily she clamoured for ever larger, ever more frequent doses.
她不斷貪婪地吵著要求增加唆麻的劑量和次數(shù)。
Dr. Shaw at first demurred; then let her have what she wanted.
蕭醫(yī)生起初反對,后來就按照她的要求給她。
She took as much as twenty grammes a day.
她一天吞下的唆麻竟達(dá)二十克之多。