美麗新世界Brave New World 第13章(3)

The bell rang, and the Savage, who was impatientlyhoping that Helmholtz would come that afternoon,

鈴聲響了，野蠻人跳了起來，向門邊走去——他已經等得不耐煩。赫姆霍爾茲原說那天下午來的,

for having at last made up his mind to talk toHelmholtz about Lenina, he could not bear topostpone his confidences a moment longer,

他終于決心跟他談談列寧娜的事了，早已迫不及待要想傾吐心里的話了。

jumped up and ran to the door."I had a premonition it was you, Helmholtz," he shouted as heopened.

“我早預感到是你來了，赫姆霍爾茲。”他一邊開門一邊叫道。

On the threshold, in a white acetate-satin sailor suit,and with a round white cap rakishly tiltedover her left ear, stood Lenina.

站在門口的卻是列寧娜，一身白色黏膠綢水手裝，左耳邊俏皮地斜扣了一頂白色圓帽。

"Oh!" said the Savage, as though some one had struck him a heavy blow.

“啊!”野蠻人叫了出來，仿佛有人狠狠給了他一拳。

Half a gramme had been enough to make Lenina forget her fears and her embarrassments.

半克唆麻已足以讓列寧娜忘了害怕和羞澀。

"Hullo, John," she said, smiling, and walked past him into the room.

“晦，約翰。”她微笑著說著擦過他身邊，進了房間。

Automatically he closed the door and followed her. Lenina sat down. There was a long silence.

野蠻人機械地關上門，跟在她身后。列寧娜坐了下來。長時間的沉默。

"You don't seem very glad to see me, John," she said at last.

“你見了我好像不太高興似的，約翰?”她終于說道。

"Not glad?" The Savage looked at her reproachfully;

“不高興?”野蠻人不以為然地望著她，

then suddenly fell on his knees before her and, taking Lenina's hand, reverently kissed it.

突然在她面前跪了下來，抓住她的手，衷心崇拜地吻著。

"Not glad? Oh, if you only knew," he whispered and, venturing to raise his eyes to her face,

“不高興?啊，但愿你能明白我的心。”他低聲說，鼓足了勇氣抬起頭望著她的臉。

"Admired Lenina,"he went on, "indeed the top of admiration, worth what's dearest in theworld."

“我崇拜的列寧娜，”他說了下去，“你是我最崇拜的人，抵得世上最珍貴的東西。”

She smiled at him with a luscious tenderness. "Oh, you so perfect" (she was leaning towardshim with parted lips),

她帶著艷麗的溫柔對他微笑了。“啊，你是那么十全十美。”他說。(她微微張開嘴唇，向他靠了過去。)

"so perfect and so peerless are created" (nearer and nearer) "of every creature's best." Stillnearer.

“你無生就那么沒法挑剔、舉世無雙。”他說。(嘴唇越來越向他靠近了。)“是世間一切生靈的魁首。”嘴唇更靠近了。

The Savage suddenly scrambled to his feet. "That's why," he said speaking with averted face,

野蠻人突然跳了起來。“因此我打算，”他把臉轉開了，

I wanted to do something first ... I mean, to show I was worthy of you. Not that I could everreally be that.

要先完成一件事……來證明我配得上你——并不是說我真有資格，

But at any rate to show I wasn't absolutely un-worthy. I wanted to do something.

只是想表明我并非絕對配不上你。我要想先辦一件事。