美麗新世界Brave New World 第7章(2)

Cloaks of turkey feathers fluttered from theirshoulders; huge feather diadems exploded gaudilyround their heads.

肩膀上撲扇著火雞毛，巨大的翎冠在他們頭頂鮮艷地撒開。

With every step they took came the clink and rattleof their silver bracelets, their heavy necklaces of boneand turquoise beads.

銀手鐲、骨項(xiàng)鏈和綠松石珠子隨著每一步運(yùn)動叮當(dāng)作響。

They came on without a word, running quietly intheir deerskin moccasins.

兩個人踏著鹿皮靴一聲不響地跑上前來。

One of them was holding a feather brush; the other carried, in either hand, what looked at adistance like three or four pieces of thick rope. One of the ropes writhed uneasily, and suddenlyLenina saw that they were snakes.

有一個手上拿了一把羽毛撣子，另一個一只手各抓了三四條遠(yuǎn)看像是粗繩的東西，其中一條不舒服地扭動著。列寧娜突然發(fā)現(xiàn)那是蛇。

The men came nearer and nearer; their dark eyes looked at her, but without giving any sign ofrecognition, any smallest sign that they had seen her or were aware of her existence.

兩人越走越近;他們的黑眼睛望見了她，卻沒有絲毫認(rèn)識、看見、或意識到她的存在的表情。

The writhing snake hung limp again with the rest. The men passed.

那扭動的蛇懶懶地垂了下去，跟別的蛇一樣了。兩人走掉了。

"I don't like it," said Lenina. "I don't like it."

“我不喜歡，”列寧娜說，“不喜歡。”

She liked even less what awaited her at the entrance to the pueblo, where their guide had leftthem while he went inside for instructions.

向?qū)О阉麄儌z扔在那兒自己接受指示去了。更叫她不喜歡的東西正在石塘門口等待著她。

The dirt, to start with, the piles of rubbish, the dust, the dogs, the flies.

首先是垃圾堆、灰塵、狗和蒼蠅。

Her face wrinkled up into a grimace of disgust. She held her handkerchief to her nose.

她的臉皺成了一團(tuán)，表現(xiàn)了厭惡，用手絹捂住了嘴。

"But how can they live like this?" she broke out in a voice of indignant incredulity. (It wasn'tpossible.)

“他們這樣怎么能夠過日子?”她憤憤地叫出聲來，難以相信。(太不像話了。)

Bernard shrugged his shoulders philosophically.

伯納帶哲學(xué)意味地聳了聳肩。

"Anyhow," he said, "they've been doing it for the last five or six thousand years.

“可畢竟，在已經(jīng)過去的五六千年里他們就是這樣過的。

So I suppose they must be used to it by now."

因此我估計(jì)他們現(xiàn)在早習(xí)慣了。”

"But cleanliness is next to fordliness," she insisted.

“但是‘清潔衛(wèi)生與福帝為鄰’。”她堅(jiān)持說。

"Yes, and civilization is sterilization,"

“是的，‘文明衛(wèi)生就是消毒殺菌’。”

Bernard went on, concluding on a tone of irony the second hypnop.dic lesson in elementaryhygiene.

伯納接了下去，他用諷刺的口吻重復(fù)著睡眠教育里的衛(wèi)生基礎(chǔ)知識第二課。

"But these people have never heard of Our Ford, and they aren't civilized. So there's no point in…"

“可是這些人從來沒有聽說過我們的福帝，也不文明衛(wèi)生。因此說這話毫無……。”

"Oh!" She gripped his arm. "Look."

“啊!她抓住他的胳臂，“看。”

An almost naked Indian was very slowly climbing down the ladder from the first-floor terraceof a neighboring house–rung after rung, with the tremulous caution of extreme old age.

一個幾乎全裸的印第安人正從附近一幢房子二樓樓梯上非常緩慢地往下爬——一個非常衰老的人，謹(jǐn)慎地一級一級顫巍巍地往下挪。

His face was profoundly wrinkled and black, like a mask of obsidian.

臉很黑，有很深的皺紋，好像個黑曜石的面具。

The toothless mouth had fallen in. At the corners of the lips, and on each side of the chin, a fewlong bristles gleamed almost white against the dark skin.

沒牙的嘴癟了下去。嘴角與下巴兩側(cè)有幾根長胡子，叫黑皮膚一襯，閃著幾乎是白色的光。

The long unbraided hair hung down in grey wisps round his face.

沒有編辮的頭發(fā)披散下來，垂在臉上，呈一絕給的灰白。

His body was bent and emaciated to the bone, almost fleshless.

他全身佝僂，瘦骨嶙峋，幾乎沒有肉。

Very slowly he came down, pausing at each rung before he ventured another step.

他非常緩慢地下著樓梯，每冒險踏出一步都要在梯子橫檔上停一停。

"What's the matter with him?" whispered Lenina. Her eyes were wide with horror andamazement.

“他怎么了?”列寧娜低聲地說，因?yàn)榭植篮腕@訝瞪大了眼睛。

"He's old, that's all," Bernard answered as carelessly as he could.

“他只不過是老了而已。”帕納盡可能滿不在乎地回答。

He too was startled; but he made an effort to seem unmoved.

他也感到震驚，卻竭力裝出無動于衷的樣子。