机器停转 The Machine Stops

请你想象——倘若你还能想象——一间小小的房间，六角形，像蜂巢里的一格。没有窗，也没有灯，却满溢着柔和的光。没有通气的孔洞，空气却清新。没有乐器，而就在我沉思开始的这一刻，这房间正被悦耳的乐音震颤着。正中是一把扶手椅，椅旁一张读案——家具仅此而已。扶手椅里坐着一团裹得严严实实的肉——一个女人，约五英尺高，脸白得像菌。这小房间是她的。

Imagine, if you can, a small room, hexagonal in shape, like the cell of a bee. It is lighted neither by window nor by lamp, yet it is filled with a soft radiance. There are no apertures for ventilation, yet the air is fresh. There are no musical instruments, and yet, at the moment that my meditation opens, this room is throbbing with melodious sounds. An armchair is in the centre, by its side a reading-desk — that is all the furniture. And in the armchair there sits a swaddled lump of flesh — a woman, about five feet high, with a face as white as a fungus. It is to her that the little room belongs.

电铃响了。

An electric bell rang.

女人按了一下开关，音乐便寂了。

The woman touched a switch and the music was silent.

「看来得看看是谁，」她想，于是让椅子动起来。椅子和音乐一样，由机械驱动，载着她滚到房间另一侧，铃还在执拗地响。

“I suppose I must see who it is,” she thought, and set her chair in motion. The chair, like the music, was worked by machinery and it rolled her to the other side of the room where the bell still rang importunately.

「谁？」她唤道。声音里带着烦躁——音乐响起之后，她已被打断过许多回。她认识好几千人；在某些方面，人类的交往已大大进步。

“Who is it?” she called. Her voice was irritable, for she had been interrupted often since the music began. She knew several thousand people; in certain directions human intercourse had advanced enormously.

可当她把耳朵凑向听筒，那张白脸便起了笑纹，她说：

But when she listened into the receiver, her white face wrinkled into smiles, and she said:

「好吧。我们谈谈。我把自己隔离开。往后五分钟里，我想不会有什么要紧事——库诺，我可以给你整整五分钟。然后我得去讲『澳大利亚时期的音乐』。」

“Very well. Let us talk, I will isolate myself. I do not expect anything important will happen for the next five minutes — for I can give you fully five minutes, Kuno. Then I must deliver my lecture on ‘Music during the Australian Period’.”

她按了隔离钮，这样别人就不能再跟她说话。接着她按了照明装置，小房间便没入黑暗。

She touched the isolation knob, so that no one else could speak to her. Then she touched the lighting apparatus, and the little room was plunged into darkness.

「快！」她唤道，烦躁又回来了。「快，库诺；我在黑暗里耗着时间。」

“Be quick!” she called, her irritation returning. “Be quick, Kuno; here I am in the dark wasting my time.”

足足过了十五秒，她手里那块圆盘才开始发光。一道淡蓝的光掠过盘面，渐渐暗成紫，随后她看见了儿子的影像——他住在地球的另一面——他也看见了她。

But it was fully fifteen seconds before the round plate that she held in her hands began to glow. A faint blue light shot across it, darkening to purple, and presently she could see the image of her son, who lived on the other side of the earth, and he could see her.

「库诺，你真慢。」

“Kuno, how slow you are.”

他庄重地笑了笑。

He smiled gravely.

「我真觉得你是喜欢磨蹭。」

“I really believe you enjoy dawdling.”

「我先前就找过你，母亲，可你总是忙，或是隔离着。我有一件特别的事要说。」

“I have called you before, mother, but you were always busy or isolated. I have something particular to say.”

「什么事，最亲爱的孩子？快说。为何不走气动邮筒送来？」

“What is it, dearest boy? Be quick. Why could you not send it by pneumatic post?”

「因为这样的话，我宁可亲口说。我想——」

“Because I prefer saying such a thing. I want —”

「怎样？」

“Well?”

「我想你来看我。」

“I want you to come and see me.”

瓦希蒂在蓝盘里看着他的脸。

Vashti watched his face in the blue plate.

「可我看得见你啊！」她叫道。「你还要怎样？」

“But I can see you!” she exclaimed. “What more do you want?”

「我想看见你，不是通过机器，」库诺说。「我想跟你说话，不是通过这令人厌倦的机器。」

“I want to see you not through the Machine,” said Kuno. “I want to speak to you not through the wearisome Machine.”

「哦，别说了！」母亲含糊地吃了一惊。「你不可以讲机器的坏话。」

“Oh, hush!” said his mother, vaguely shocked. “You mustn’t say anything against the Machine.”

「为什么不可以？」

“Why not?”

「不可以就是不可以。」

“One mustn’t.”

「你说话的口气，好像机器是神造的，」对方喊道。「我相信你不快乐的时候会对它祈祷。别忘了，是人造的它。伟大的人，可仍是人。机器是很多，却不是一切。我在这盘子里看见一个像你的东西，却看不见你。我从这电话里听见一个像你的声音，却听不见你。所以我要你来。来看我，好让我们面对面，谈谈我心里的那些希望。」

“You talk as if a god had made the Machine,” cried the other. “I believe that you pray to it when you are unhappy. Men made it, do not forget that. Great men, but men. The Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like you in this plate, but I do not see you. I hear something like you through this telephone, but I do not hear you. That is why I want you to come. Pay me a visit, so that we can meet face to face, and talk about the hopes that are in my mind.”

她回答说，她几乎抽不出时间去拜访。

She replied that she could scarcely spare the time for a visit.

「飞艇从我这儿到你那儿，不过两天。」

“The air-ship barely takes two days to fly between me and you.”

「我不喜欢飞艇。」

“I dislike air-ships.”

「为什么？」

“Why?”

「我不喜欢看见那可憎的褐色土地，还有海，还有天黑时的星。飞艇上我得不到任何观念。」

“I dislike seeing the horrible brown earth, and the sea, and the stars when it is dark. I get no ideas in an air-ship.”

「我在别处也得不到。」

“I do not get them anywhere else.”

「空气能给你什么样的观念？」

“What kind of ideas can the air give you?”

他停了一瞬。

He paused for an instant.

「你可知道四颗大星围成一个长方形，长方形正中有三颗星挤在一起，从这三颗星上又垂下另外三颗？」

“Do you not know four big stars that form an oblong, and three stars close together in the middle of the oblong, and hanging from these stars, three other stars?”

「不知道。我不喜欢星。可它们给了你一个观念？真有意思；说给我听。」

“No, I do not. I dislike the stars. But did they give you an idea? How interesting; tell me.”

「我忽然觉得它们像一个人。」

“I had an idea that they were like a man.”

「我不明白。」

“I do not understand.”

「四颗大星是那人的肩和膝。中间三颗像从前人束的腰带，垂下的三颗像一把剑。」

“The four big stars are the man’s shoulders and his knees. The three stars in the middle are like the belts that men wore once, and the three stars hanging are like a sword.”

「剑？」

“A sword?”

「人带着剑，去杀动物，也杀别人。」

“Men carried swords about with them, to kill animals and other men.”

「在我看来这观念并不很高明，不过确实新颖。你第一次想到是什么时候？」

“It does not strike me as a very good idea, but it is certainly original. When did it come to you first?”

「在飞艇上——」他忽然住了口，她仿佛看见他神色忧伤。她不能确定，因为机器并不传递表情的细微差别。它只给人一个大概的印象——而就一切实用目的而言，这印象已经够好了，瓦希蒂想。那种被一种已遭唾弃的哲学宣称是交往之真正精髓的、不可称量的气色，机器理所当然地忽略了，正如人造水果的制造商忽略了葡萄上那层不可称量的霜粉。某种「够好」的东西，早已为我们这一种族所接受。

“In the air-ship —” He broke off, and she fancied that he looked sad. She could not be sure, for the Machine did not transmit nuances of expression. It only gave a general idea of people — an idea that was good enough for all practical purposes, Vashti thought. The imponderable bloom, declared by a discredited philosophy to be the actual essence of intercourse, was rightly ignored by the Machine, just as the imponderable bloom of the grape was ignored by the manufacturers of artificial fruit. Something “good enough” had long since been accepted by our race.

「真相是，」他接着说，「我想再看看那些星。那些星很古怪。我想看它们，不是从飞艇上，而是从地球表面，像我们的祖先几千年前那样。我想去地面。」

“The truth is,” he continued, “that I want to see these stars again. They are curious stars. I want to see them not from the air-ship, but from the surface of the earth, as our ancestors did, thousands of years ago. I want to visit the surface of the earth.”

她又吃了一惊。

She was shocked again.

「母亲，你一定要来，哪怕只是为了向我解释：到地球表面去，究竟有什么害处。」

“Mother, you must come, if only to explain to me what is the harm of visiting the surface of the earth.”

「没有害处，」她克制着回答。「可也没有好处。地球表面不过是尘与泥，没有好处。地球表面不过是尘与泥，上面已没有生命，你得戴呼吸器，不然外间的寒冷会杀死你。人一到外间的空气里就会立刻死去。」

“No harm,” she replied, controlling herself. “But no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no advantage. The surface of the earth is only dust and mud, no life remains on it, and you would need a respirator, or the cold of the outer air would kill you. One dies immediately in the outer air.”

「我知道；当然我会采取一切预防。」

“I know; of course I shall take all precautions.”

「况且——」

“And besides —”

「怎样？」

“Well?”

她思忖着，小心措辞。儿子脾气古怪，她想劝他打消这次远行。

She considered, and chose her words with care. Her son had a queer temper, and she wished to dissuade him from the expedition.

「这有违时代精神，」她断言。

“It is contrary to the spirit of the age,” she asserted.

「你的意思是，有违机器？」

“Do you mean by that, contrary to the Machine?”

「某种意义上是，可是——」

“In a sense, but —”

蓝盘里他的影像淡了。

His image in the blue plate faded.

「库诺！」

“Kuno!”

他已把自己隔离了。

He had isolated himself.

有一瞬间，瓦希蒂感到孤单。

For a moment Vashti felt lonely.

然后她唤出了光。房间里光华漫溢，布满电钮，这景象使她复苏。四处都是按钮和开关——唤食物的，唤音乐的，唤衣物的。有热水浴钮，一按，一只（仿）大理石盆便从地板升起，满盛温热的、已除去气味的液体。有冷水浴钮。有产生文学的钮。当然还有与朋友通讯的钮。这房间里虽一无所有，却连通着她在这世界上所在乎的一切。

Then she generated the light, and the sight of her room, flooded with radiance and studded with electric buttons, revived her. There were buttons and switches everywhere — buttons to call for food, for music, for clothing. There was the hot-bath button, by pressure of which a basin of (imitation) marble rose out of the floor, filled to the brim with a warm deodorized liquid. There was the cold-bath button. There was the button that produced literature. And there were of course the buttons by which she communicated with her friends. The room, though it contained nothing, was in touch with all that she cared for in the world.

瓦希蒂下一步是关掉隔离开关，过去三分钟里积压的一切便向她涌来。房间里满是铃声和传话管的嘈杂。新食物怎么样？她能推荐吗？她近来有什么观念？可不可以把自己的观念告诉她？她肯不肯约定一个日期去参观公共育婴所？——就说一个月后的今天吧。

Vashti’s next move was to turn off the isolation switch, and all the accumulations of the last three minutes burst upon her. The room was filled with the noise of bells, and speaking-tubes. What was the new food like? Could she recommend it? Has she had any ideas lately? Might one tell her one’s own ideas? Would she make an engagement to visit the public nurseries at an early date? — say this day month.

对这些问题，她多半带着烦躁回答——在那个加速的时代里，烦躁是一种正在增长的品质。她说新食物糟透了。她说事务太忙，不能去公共育婴所。她说自己并没有观念，只是刚听来一个——四颗星加中间三颗像一个人：她怀疑这里面没有多少东西。然后她切断了通讯，因为该去讲澳大利亚音乐了。

To most of these questions she replied with irritation — a growing quality in that accelerated age. She said that the new food was horrible. That she could not visit the public nurseries through press of engagements. That she had no ideas of her own but had just been told one — that four stars and three in the middle were like a man: she doubted there was much in it. Then she switched off her correspondents, for it was time to deliver her lecture on Australian music.

那种笨拙的公众集会制度早已废弃；瓦希蒂和听众都不离开自己的房间。她坐在扶手椅里讲，他们坐在各自的扶手椅里听她，听得还算清楚，也看得见她，看得还算清楚。她先幽默地讲了前蒙古时代的音乐，接着描述中国征服之后那一场歌曲的大爆发。伊桑索与布里斯班学派的方法虽然遥远而原始，她却觉得（她说）研究它们对今日的音乐家或许有所报偿：它们有新鲜；它们尤其有观念。

The clumsy system of public gatherings had been long since abandoned; neither Vashti nor her audience stirred from their rooms. Seated in her armchair she spoke, while they in their armchairs heard her, fairly well, and saw her, fairly well. She opened with a humorous account of music in the pre-Mongolian epoch, and went on to describe the great outburst of song that followed the Chinese conquest. Remote and primæval as were the methods of I-San-So and the Brisbane school, she yet felt (she said) that study of them might repay the musicians of today: they had freshness; they had, above all, ideas.

她的演讲长十分钟，反响很好。结束之后，她和许多听众又听了一场关于海的演讲；海也能给人观念；那位讲者近来戴了呼吸器去过海边。然后她进食，与许多朋友交谈，洗了个澡，再交谈，然后召唤床。

Her lecture, which lasted ten minutes, was well received, and at its conclusion she and many of her audience listened to a lecture on the sea; there were ideas to be got from the sea; the speaker had donned a respirator and visited it lately. Then she fed, talked to many friends, had a bath, talked again, and summoned her bed.

床不合她的意。太大了，她喜欢小床。抱怨没有用，因为全世界的床都是同一尺寸，若要有另一种尺寸，就得对机器做大规模改动。瓦希蒂把自己隔离起来——这是必要的，因为地下既无白昼也无黑夜——回顾自从上次召唤床以来发生的一切。观念？几乎没有。事件——库诺的邀请算一件事件吗？

The bed was not to her liking. It was too large, and she had a feeling for a small bed. Complaint was useless, for beds were of the same dimension all over the world, and to have had an alternative size would have involved vast alterations in the Machine. Vashti isolated herself — it was necessary, for neither day nor night existed under the ground — and reviewed all that had happened since she had summoned the bed last. Ideas? Scarcely any. Events — was Kuno’s invitation an event?

她身旁，小小的读案上，是乱世遗留下来的一件东西——一本书。这是《机器之书》。里面有应对每一种可能变故的指示。若她热了、冷了、消化不良了、或一个词想不起来，她就去翻这本书，它会告诉她该按哪一个钮。由中央委员会刊行。依照一种日益流行的习惯，它装订得很豪华。

By her side, on the little reading-desk, was a survival from the ages of litter — one book. This was the Book of the Machine. In it were instructions against every possible contingency. If she was hot or cold or dyspeptic or at a loss for a word, she went to the book, and it told her which button to press. The Central Committee published it. In accordance with a growing habit, it was richly bound.

她在床上坐直，虔敬地把它捧在手里。她扫视发光的房间，仿佛有人在看着她。然后，半是羞赧，半是喜悦，她低声念道「哦，机器！哦，机器！」把书举到唇边。她吻它三次，三次低头，三次感到那种顺从的迷醉。仪式做完，她翻到第一千三百六十七页，上面列着飞艇从南半球那座岛——她住在那岛的土下——开往北半球那座岛——她儿子住在那岛的土下——的时刻。

Sitting up in the bed, she took it reverently in her hands. She glanced round the glowing room as if some one might be watching her. Then, half ashamed, half joyful, she murmured “O Machine! O Machine!” and raised the volume to her lips. Thrice she kissed it, thrice inclined her head, thrice she felt the delirium of acquiescence. Her ritual performed, she turned to page 1367, which gave the times of the departure of the air-ships from the island in the southern hemisphere, under whose soil she lived, to the island in the northern hemisphere, whereunder lived her son.

她想：「我没有时间。」

She thought, “I have not the time.”

她把房间弄暗，睡了；醒来，把房间弄亮；她吃东西，与朋友交换观念，听音乐，听演讲；她把房间弄暗，睡了。在她之上，在她之下，在她四周，机器永恒地嗡鸣；她不注意那声音，因为她生下来耳朵里就有它。地球载着她，嗡鸣着穿过寂静疾驰，时而把她转向看不见的太阳，时而转向看不见的星。她醒来，把房间弄亮。

She made the room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light; she ate and exchanged ideas with her friends, and listened to music and attended lectures; she made the room dark and slept. Above her, beneath her, and around her, the Machine hummed eternally; she did not notice the noise, for she had been born with it in her ears. The earth, carrying her, hummed as it sped through silence, turning her now to the invisible sun, now to the invisible stars. She awoke and made the room light.

「库诺！」

“Kuno!”

「你不来，我就不跟你说话，」他答。

“I will not talk to you,” he answered, “until you come.”

「我们上次谈话之后，你去过地球表面了吗？」

“Have you been on the surface of the earth since we spoke last?”

他的影像淡了。

His image faded.

她又去查那本书。她变得非常紧张，靠回椅子里，心怦怦跳。请把她想象成没有牙齿、没有头发。过了一会儿，她把椅子导向墙壁，按下一个不熟悉的钮。墙壁缓缓分开。开口处她看见一条隧道，微微弯曲，尽头看不见。若她去看儿子，旅程便从这里开始。

Again she consulted the book. She became very nervous and lay back in her chair palpitating. Think of her as without teeth or hair. Presently she directed the chair to the wall, and pressed an unfamiliar button. The wall swung apart slowly. Through the opening she saw a tunnel that curved slightly, so that its goal was not visible. Should she go to see her son, here was the beginning of the journey.

她当然完全明白这套交通系统。里面没有什么神秘。她会召唤一辆车，车载着她沿隧道飞驰，直到通往飞艇站的升降机：这套系统已用了许多许多年，远在机器普遍确立之前。她当然也研究过紧接在她自己文明之前的那个文明——那个文明弄错了这套系统的功用，用它把人送到事物那里去，而不是把事物送到人这里来。那些滑稽的往日，人们出去换空气，而不是在房间里换空气！可是——她害怕这条隧道：自从她最后一个孩子出生，她就再没见过它。它弯曲着——却不完全像她记忆中那样；它明亮——却不完全像某位讲者所说的那么明亮。瓦希蒂被直接经验的恐怖抓住了。她缩回房间，墙壁重新合上。

Of course she knew all about the communication-system. There was nothing mysterious in it. She would summon a car and it would fly with her down the tunnel until it reached the lift that communicated with the air-ship station: the system had been in use for many, many years, long before the universal establishment of the Machine. And of course she had studied the civilization that had immediately preceded her own — the civilization that had mistaken the functions of the system, and had used it for bringing people to things, instead of for bringing things to people. Those funny old days, when men went for change of air instead of changing the air in their rooms! And yet — she was frightened of the tunnel: she had not seen it since her last child was born. It curved — but not quite as she remembered; it was brilliant — but not quite as brilliant as a lecturer had suggested. Vashti was seized with the terrors of direct experience. She shrank back into the room, and the wall closed up again.

「库诺，」她说，「我不能来看你。我身体不好。」

“Kuno,” she said, “I cannot come to see you. I am not well.”

立刻，一件巨大的器械从天花板落到她身上，一支温度计被自动放在她心口。她无力地躺着。凉垫抚着她的额。库诺已给她的医生发了电报。

Immediately an enormous apparatus fell on to her out of the ceiling, a thermometer was automatically laid upon her heart. She lay powerless. Cool pads soothed her forehead. Kuno had telegraphed to her doctor.

可见人类的激情仍在机器里跌跌撞撞地上上下下。瓦希蒂喝下医生射进她嘴里的药，器械退回天花板。库诺的声音问她感觉如何。

So the human passions still blundered up and down in the Machine. Vashti drank the medicine that the doctor projected into her mouth, and the machinery retired into the ceiling. The voice of Kuno was heard asking how she felt.

「好些了。」随后带着烦躁：「可你为什么不来看我？」

“Better.” Then with irritation: “But why do you not come to me instead?”

「因为我不能离开这个地方。」

“Because I cannot leave this place.”

「为什么？」

“Why?”

「因为随时都可能发生一件了不起的事。」

“Because, any moment, something tremendous may happen.”

「你已经去过地球表面了吗？」

“Have you been on the surface of the earth yet?”

「还没有。」

“Not yet.”

「那是什么事？」

“Then what is it?”

「我不会通过机器告诉你。」

“I will not tell you through the Machine.”

她恢复了自己的生活。

She resumed her life.

可她想起库诺还是婴儿的时候，他的出生，他被送到公共育婴所，她自己去那里看他，他来看她——直到机器在地球另一面给他分配了一间房间，探望便停止了。「父母，其义务，」《机器之书》说，「止于出生之时。见第四亿二千二百三十二万七千四百八十三页。」不错，可库诺有些特别——其实她所有的孩子都有些特别——而且，毕竟，若他希望，她必须勇敢地踏上旅程。还有「随时都可能发生一件了不起的事」。那是什么意思？一个年轻人的胡说，无疑，可她必须去。她再次按下那个不熟悉的钮，墙壁再次分开，她看见那条弯出视线之外的隧道。她抱紧《机器之书》，站起来，摇摇晃晃走上月台，召唤了车子。她的房间在身后合上：前往北半球的旅程开始了。

But she thought of Kuno as a baby, his birth, his removal to the public nurseries, her own visit to him there, his visits to her — visits which stopped when the Machine had assigned him a room on the other side of the earth. “Parents, duties of,” said the book of the Machine, “cease at the moment of birth. P.422327483.” True, but there was something special about Kuno — indeed there had been something special about all her children — and, after all, she must brave the journey if he desired it. And “something tremendous might happen.” What did that mean? The nonsense of a youthful man, no doubt, but she must go. Again she pressed the unfamiliar button, again the wall swung back, and she saw the tunnel that curved out of sight. Clasping the Book, she rose, tottered on to the platform, and summoned the car. Her room closed behind her: the journey to the northern hemisphere had begun.

当然，这再容易不过。车子驶近，里面的扶手椅和她自己的一模一样。她发了信号，车停了，她摇摇晃晃走进升降机。升降机里还有一位乘客，这是她几个月来第一次面对面看见同类。如今很少有人旅行，因为多亏科学进步，地球到处完全一样。前一个文明曾对迅速交往寄予厚望，结果交往自己打败了自己。北京和什鲁斯伯里一模一样，去北京有什么好处？回来时什鲁斯伯里也会变得和北京一样，何必回来？人很少移动身体；一切不安都集中在灵魂里。

Of course it was perfectly easy. The car approached and in it she found arm-chairs exactly like her own. When she signalled, it stopped, and she tottered into the lift. One other passenger was in the lift, the first fellow creature she had seen face to face for months. Few travelled in these days, for, thanks to the advance of science, the earth was exactly alike all over. Rapid intercourse, from which the previous civilization had hoped so much, had ended by defeating itself. What was the good of going to Pekin when it was just like Shrewsbury? Why return to Shrewsbury when it would all be like Pekin? Men seldom moved their bodies; all unrest was concentrated in the soul.

飞艇服务是前一时代的遗物。它被维持着，因为维持它比停止它或削减它更容易，可如今它已远远超出人口的需要。一艘接一艘的船会从拉伊或基督城的吐口升起（vomitory：古罗马剧场散场通道，此处指通往地面的出口）（我用的是古名），驶入拥挤的天空，停靠在南方的码头——空空如也。这套系统调节得如此精妙，如此不依赖气象，以至于天空无论平静还是多云，都像一只巨大的万花筒，同样的图案周期性地重现。瓦希蒂乘坐的那艘船，有时日落时出发，有时黎明时出发。可每当它飞过兰斯上空，总会与往来于赫尔辛福斯和巴西之间的那艘船为邻；每三次飞越阿尔卑斯，巴勒莫船队便会从它航迹后方横切而过。昼夜、风与风暴、潮汐与地震，再也阻挡不了人。他已驯服了利维坦。一切旧文学，其对自然的赞美，其对自然的恐惧，都听来像孩子的咿呀，虚假不堪。

The air-ship service was a relic from the former age. It was kept up, because it was easier to keep it up than to stop it or to diminish it, but it now far exceeded the wants of the population. Vessel after vessel would rise from the vomitories of Rye or of Christchurch (I use the antique names), would sail into the crowded sky, and would draw up at the wharves of the south — empty. So nicely adjusted was the system, so independent of meteorology, that the sky, whether calm or cloudy, resembled a vast kaleidoscope whereon the same patterns periodically recurred. The ship on which Vashti sailed started now at sunset, now at dawn. But always, as it passed above Rheims, it would neighbour the ship that served between Helsingfors and the Brazils, and, every third time it surmounted the Alps, the fleet of Palermo would cross its track behind. Night and day, wind and storm, tide and earthquake, impeded man no longer. He had harnessed Leviathan. All the old literature, with its praise of Nature, and its fear of Nature, rang false as the prattle of a child.

可当瓦希蒂看见船那巨大的侧面，因暴露于外间空气而染了色，她对直接经验的恐惧又回来了。它不完全像映影机里的飞艇。首先，它有气味——不强烈，也不难闻，可它确实有气味，即使闭着眼她也该知道近旁有一件新事物。然后她得从升降机走到船边，得承受其他乘客的目光。前面那人把《机器之书》掉了——本不是什么大事，可把大家都搅得不安。在房间里，若书掉了，地板会机械地把它抬起来，可通往飞艇的舷梯并未如此准备，那神圣的书卷一动不动地躺着。他们停住了——这事未曾预见——那人并不去捡他的所有物，反而摸摸手臂的肌肉，看它们如何辜负了他。随后竟有人用直接的口说：「我们要迟到了」——于是他们一窝蜂上了船，瓦希蒂踩着书页走了上去。

Yet as Vashti saw the vast flank of the ship, stained with exposure to the outer air, her horror of direct experience returned. It was not quite like the air-ship in the cinematophote. For one thing it smelt — not strongly or unpleasantly, but it did smell, and with her eyes shut she should have known that a new thing was close to her. Then she had to walk to it from the lift, had to submit to glances from the other passengers. The man in front dropped his Book — no great matter, but it disquieted them all. In the rooms, if the Book was dropped, the floor raised it mechanically, but the gangway to the air-ship was not so prepared, and the sacred volume lay motionless. They stopped — the thing was unforeseen — and the man, instead of picking up his property, felt the muscles of his arm to see how they had failed him. Then some one actually said with direct utterance: “We shall be late” — and they trooped on board, Vashti treading on the pages as she did so.

到了里面，她的焦虑加重了。设施陈旧而粗糙。甚至还有一名女乘务员，航程中她得向这人宣布自己的需求。当然，一条旋转平台贯穿船身，可她得从平台走到自己的舱房。有些舱房比别的好，她没有得到最好的。她觉得乘务员不公平，一阵阵怒火震动着她。玻璃阀已经关闭，她回不去了。她看见前厅尽头，她上来时坐的那部升降机正安静地空着上下。那些光亮瓷砖走廊之下，是一层又一层的房间，深深伸入地底，每一间里都坐着一个人，在吃，或在睡，或在生产观念。蜂巢最深处埋着她自己的房间。瓦希蒂害怕了。

Inside, her anxiety increased. The arrangements were old-fashioned and rough. There was even a female attendant, to whom she would have to announce her wants during the voyage. Of course a revolving platform ran the length of the boat, but she was expected to walk from it to her cabin. Some cabins were better than others, and she did not get the best. She thought the attendant had been unfair, and spasms of rage shook her. The glass valves had closed, she could not go back. She saw, at the end of the vestibule, the lift in which she had ascended going quietly up and down, empty. Beneath those corridors of shining tiles were rooms, tier below tier, reaching far into the earth, and in each room there sat a human being, eating, or sleeping, or producing ideas. And buried deep in the hive was her own room. Vashti was afraid.

「哦，机器！」她低语，抚着她的书，便得了安慰。

“O Machine!” she murmured, and caressed her Book, and was comforted.

随后前厅的两侧仿佛融化在一起，像我们梦中所见的通道，升降机消失了，掉落的那本书滑向左边消失了，光亮的瓷砖如水流般奔涌而过，微微一震，飞艇从隧道里驶出，翱翔在热带海洋的水面上。

Then the sides of the vestibule seemed to melt together, as do the passages that we see in dreams, the lift vanished, the Book that had been dropped slid to the left and vanished, polished tiles rushed by like a stream of water, there was a slight jar, and the air-ship, issuing from its tunnel, soared above the waters of a tropical ocean.

是夜。有一瞬间她看见苏门答腊的海岸，浪的磷光镶着边，灯塔为冠，仍在送出那已被人无视的光束。这些也消失了，只有星在扰乱她。星并非静止，而是在她头顶上来回摇晃，从一扇天窗涌入另一扇，仿佛倾斜着的是宇宙而不是飞艇。而在晴夜里常有的那样，它们时而显得有远近层次，时而像在一个平面上；时而一层又一层堆入无穷的诸天，时而又遮蔽了无穷，成了一道永远限制人的视野的屋顶。无论哪一种，都叫人无法忍受。「我们要在黑暗里旅行吗？」乘客们愤怒地喊，那名先前疏忽了的乘务员唤出了光，拉下柔韧金属做的百叶。

It was night. For a moment she saw the coast of Sumatra edged by the phosphorescence of waves, and crowned by lighthouses, still sending forth their disregarded beams. These also vanished, and only the stars distracted her. They were not motionless, but swayed to and fro above her head, thronging out of one skylight into another, as if the universe and not the air-ship was careening. And, as often happens on clear nights, they seemed now to be in perspective, now on a plane; now piled tier beyond tier into the infinite heavens, now concealing infinity, a roof limiting for ever the visions of men. In either case they seemed intolerable. “Are we to travel in the dark?” called the passengers angrily, and the attendant, who had been careless, generated the light, and pulled down the blinds of pliable metal.

飞艇建造的时候，世界上仍残留着直接观看事物的欲望。因此天窗和窗户多得惊人，也因此给那些文明而精致的人带来了相应的不适。即使在瓦希蒂的舱里，一颗星也从百叶的一条缝隙里窥进来；经过几小时不安的睡眠之后，一种不熟悉的光辉打扰了她，那是黎明。

When the air-ships had been built, the desire to look direct at things still lingered in the world. Hence the extraordinary number of skylights and windows, and the proportionate discomfort to those who were civilized and refined. Even in Vashti’s cabin one star peeped through a flaw in the blind, and after a few hours’ uneasy slumber, she was disturbed by an unfamiliar glow, which was the dawn.

飞艇向西疾驰得再快，地球向东转得更快，把瓦希蒂和同伴们又拖回太阳那边。科学能延长黑夜，却只能延长一点点；那些中和地球周日自转的豪望已经消逝，连同那些或许更高的希望一起。与太阳齐驱，甚至超越太阳，曾是前一个文明的目标。为此建造了竞赛用的飞机，速度惊人，由那个时代最伟大的智者驾驶。他们绕着地球一圈又一圈，向西，向西，一圈又一圈，在人类的喝彩中。徒劳。地球向东转得更快，发生了可怕的事故，当时正崭露头角的机器委员会宣布这种追求非法、非机械，以无家可归惩处。

Quick as the ship had sped westwards, the earth had rolled eastwards quicker still, and had dragged back Vashti and her companions towards the sun. Science could prolong the night, but only for a little, and those high hopes of neutralizing the earth’s diurnal revolution had passed, together with hopes that were possibly higher. To “keep pace with the sun,” or even to outstrip it, had been the aim of the civilization preceding this. Racing aeroplanes had been built for the purpose, capable of enormous speed, and steered by the greatest intellects of the epoch. Round the globe they went, round and round, westward, westward, round and round, amidst humanity’s applause. In vain. The globe went eastward quicker still, horrible accidents occurred, and the Committee of the Machine, at the time rising into prominence, declared the pursuit illegal, unmechanical, and punishable by Homelessness.

关于无家可归，后文还要细说。

Of Homelessness more will be said later.

委员会无疑是对的。可那次「战胜太阳」的企图，唤起了我们这一种族对天体——其实是对任何事物——最后一次共同的兴趣。那是人最后一次因想到一种世界之外的力量而凝聚起来。太阳胜利了，却也是它精神统治的终结。黎明、正午、黄昏、黄道的路径，既不触及人的生活，也不触及人的心；科学退入地下，去专心对付那些她有把握解决的问题。

Doubtless the Committee was right. Yet the attempt to “defeat the sun” aroused the last common interest that our race experienced about the heavenly bodies, or indeed about anything. It was the last time that men were compacted by thinking of a power outside the world. The sun had conquered, yet it was the end of his spiritual dominion. Dawn, midday, twilight, the zodiacal path, touched neither men’s lives nor their hearts, and science retreated into the ground, to concentrate herself upon problems that she was certain of solving.

所以当瓦希蒂发现一线玫瑰色的光侵入她的舱房，她很恼火，想去调整百叶。可百叶整个飞了上去，她透过天窗看见小小的粉红云朵，在蓝色的底上摇曳；太阳再升高，光辉便直接进来，如金色的海漫下舱壁。它随飞艇的运动起伏，正如波浪起伏，却又稳步推进，如潮水推进。她若不小心，它就会打在她脸上。一阵恐怖的痉挛震动了她，她按铃叫乘务员。乘务员也吓坏了，却无能为力；修补百叶不是她的职分。她只能建议这位女士换舱，于是瓦希蒂便准备去换。

So when Vashti found her cabin invaded by a rosy finger of light, she was annoyed, and tried to adjust the blind. But the blind flew up altogether, and she saw through the skylight small pink clouds, swaying against a background of blue, and as the sun crept higher, its radiance entered direct, brimming down the wall, like a golden sea. It rose and fell with the air-ship’s motion, just as waves rise and fall, but it advanced steadily, as a tide advances. Unless she was careful, it would strike her face. A spasm of horror shook her and she rang for the attendant. The attendant too was horrified, but she could do nothing; it was not her place to mend the blind. She could only suggest that the lady should change her cabin, which she accordingly prepared to do.

全世界的人几乎完全一样，可飞艇的乘务员，或许由于她职分特殊，变得有一点不像常人。她常常得用直接的言语对乘客说话，这给了她某种粗鲁和举止上的独创。当瓦希蒂一声叫喊躲开日光束，她的行为很野蛮——她伸出手去稳住她。

People were almost exactly alike all over the world, but the attendant of the air-ship, perhaps owing to her exceptional duties, had grown a little out of the common. She had often to address passengers with direct speech, and this had given her a certain roughness and originality of manner. When Vashti swerved away from the sunbeams with a cry, she behaved barbarically — she put out her hand to steady her.

「你怎么敢！」乘客喊道。「你忘了自己的身份！」

“How dare you!” exclaimed the passenger. “You forget yourself!”

那女人慌了，为没有让她摔倒而道歉。人从不彼此触碰。这习俗因机器而过时了。

The woman was confused, and apologized for not having let her fall. People never touched one another. The custom had become obsolete, owing to the Machine.

「我们现在在哪里？」瓦希蒂傲然问。

“Where are we now?” asked Vashti haughtily.

「在亚洲上空，」乘务员说，急于表示礼貌。

“We are over Asia,” said the attendant, anxious to be polite.

「亚洲？」

“Asia?”

「请原谅我这种粗俗的说法。我已习惯用非机械的名字称呼飞过的地方。」

“You must excuse my common way of speaking. I have got into the habit of calling places over which I pass by their unmechanical names.”

「哦，我记得亚洲。蒙古人从那里来。」

“Oh, I remember Asia. The Mongols came from it.”

「在我们下面，露天里，曾立着一座叫西姆拉的城。」

“Beneath us, in the open air, stood a city that was once called Simla.”

「你听说过蒙古人和布里斯班学派吗？」

“Have you ever heard of the Mongols and of the Brisbane school?”

「没有。」

“No.”

「布里斯班也曾立在露天里。」

“Brisbane also stood in the open air.”

「右边那些山——让我指给你看。」她推开一道金属百叶。喜马拉雅主脉显露出来。「那些山曾经叫世界屋脊。」

“Those mountains to the right — let me show you them.” She pushed back a metal blind. The main chain of the Himalayas was revealed. “They were once called the Roof of the World, those mountains.”

「多么愚蠢的名字！」

“What a foolish name!”

「你得记住，在文明破晓之前，它们仿佛是一道触及星辰的无法逾越的墙。人们以为只有神才能存在于它们的峰顶之上。我们进步了多少，多亏了机器！」

“You must remember that, before the dawn of civilization, they seemed to be an impenetrable wall that touched the stars. It was supposed that no one but the gods could exist above their summits. How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!”

「我们进步了多少，多亏了机器！」瓦希蒂说。

“How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!” said Vashti.

「我们进步了多少，多亏了机器！」昨夜掉了书的那位乘客在过道里应和。

“How we have advanced, thanks to the Machine!” echoed the passenger who had dropped his Book the night before, and who was standing in the passage.

「裂缝里那些白的东西——是什么？」

“And that white stuff in the cracks? — what is it?”

「我忘了它的名字。」

“I have forgotten its name.”

「请把窗子遮上。这些山不给我任何观念。」

“Cover the window, please. These mountains give me no ideas.”

喜马拉雅北坡深陷阴影：印度一侧，太阳刚刚得胜。森林已在文学时代被毁，为的是做报纸纸浆，可雪正醒向它们清晨的荣耀，云仍挂在干城章嘉的胸前。平原上看得见城市的废墟，缩小了的河流贴着城墙爬行，河边偶尔有吐口的迹象，标志着今日的城市。整个视野上飞艇疾驰，以令人难以置信的沉着纵横交错，想要逃开低层大气的扰动、穿越世界屋脊时，便若无其事地升高。

The northern aspect of the Himalayas was in deep shadow: on the Indian slope the sun had just prevailed. The forests had been destroyed during the literature epoch for the purpose of making newspaper-pulp, but the snows were awakening to their morning glory, and clouds still hung on the breasts of Kinchinjunga. In the plain were seen the ruins of cities, with diminished rivers creeping by their walls, and by the sides of these were sometimes the signs of vomitories, marking the cities of to-day. Over the whole prospect air-ships rushed, crossing and inter-crossing with incredible aplomb, and rising nonchalantly when they desired to escape the perturbations of the lower atmosphere and to traverse the Roof of the World.

「我们的确进步了，多亏了机器，」乘务员重复道，用金属百叶把喜马拉雅藏了起来。

“We have indeed advanced, thanks to the Machine,” repeated the attendant, and hid the Himalayas behind a metal blind.

白昼沉闷地向前拖。乘客各自坐在舱里，以近乎生理的厌恶避开彼此，一心只想再回到地底。他们大约八到十人，多半是从公共育婴所派出来的年轻男性，去入住各地死者留下的房间。掉了书的那人在回程上。他被派到苏门答腊去繁殖种族。唯有瓦希蒂是凭自己的意志旅行。

The day dragged wearily forward. The passengers sat each in his cabin, avoiding one another with an almost physical repulsion and longing to be once more under the surface of the earth. There were eight or ten of them, mostly young males, sent out from the public nurseries to inhabit the rooms of those who had died in various parts of the earth. The man who had dropped his Book was on the homeward journey. He had been sent to Sumatra for the purpose of propagating the race. Vashti alone was travelling by her private will.

正午她又看了一眼地球。飞艇正在越过另一道山脉，可因为云，她几乎看不见。大块的黑岩在她下方悬浮，模糊地没入灰色。形状荒诞；其中一块像一个俯卧的人。

At midday she took a second glance at the earth. The air-ship was crossing another range of mountains, but she could see little, owing to clouds. Masses of black rock hovered below her, and merged indistinctly into grey. Their shapes were fantastic; one of them resembled a prostrate man.

「这里没有观念，」瓦希蒂低语，用金属百叶把高加索藏了起来。

“No ideas here,” murmured Vashti, and hid the Caucasus behind a metal blind.

傍晚她又看。他们正越过一片金色的海，海里有许多小岛，还有一座半岛。

In the evening she looked again. They were crossing a golden sea, in which lay many small islands and one peninsula.

她重复道：「这里没有观念，」用金属百叶把希腊藏了起来。

She repeated, “No ideas here,” and hid Greece behind a metal blind.

经由前厅，经由升降机，经由管状铁路，经由月台，经由滑动的门——把离去的每一步都倒过来走一遍，瓦希蒂便到了儿子的房间，那房间和她自己的一模一样。她大可以说这次拜访是多余的。按钮，旋钮，放着《机器之书》的读案，温度，空气，照明——一切完全相同。即便库诺本人，她的骨肉，终于近在身旁，那又有什么益处？她教养太好，不会去握他的手。

By a vestibule, by a lift, by a tubular railway, by a platform, by a sliding door — by reversing all the steps of her departure did Vashti arrive at her son’s room, which exactly resembled her own. She might well declare that the visit was superfluous. The buttons, the knobs, the reading-desk with the Book, the temperature, the atmosphere, the illumination — all were exactly the same. And if Kuno himself, flesh of her flesh, stood close beside her at last, what profit was there in that? She was too well-bred to shake him by the hand.

她避开目光，如下说道：

Averting her eyes, she spoke as follows:

「我来了。这是最可怕的旅程，大大延缓了我灵魂的发展。不值得，库诺，不值得。我的时间太宝贵。阳光几乎碰到了我，我还遇见了最粗鲁的人。我只能停几分钟。把你要说的说了，然后我必须回去。」

“Here I am. I have had the most terrible journey and greatly retarded the development of my soul. It is not worth it, Kuno, it is not worth it. My time is too precious. The sunlight almost touched me, and I have met with the rudest people. I can only stop a few minutes. Say what you want to say, and then I must return.”

「我已被威胁以无家可归，」库诺说。

“I have been threatened with Homelessness,” said Kuno.

她这才看他。

She looked at him now.

「我已被威胁以无家可归，这样的事我不能通过机器告诉你。」

“I have been threatened with Homelessness, and I could not tell you such a thing through the Machine.”

无家可归便是死。受罚者被暴露在空气中，空气杀死他。

Homelessness means death. The victim is exposed to the air, which kills him.

「我们上次谈话之后，我已经到外面去过了。那件了不起的事已经发生，他们发现了我。」

“I have been outside since I spoke to you last. The tremendous thing has happened, and they have discovered me.”

「可你为什么不该到外面去？」她喊道，「到地球表面去，完全合法，完全机械。我近来听过一场关于海的演讲；那并没有人反对；人只需召唤呼吸器，领一张外出许可证。有精神追求的人不会做这种事，我也求过你不要做，可法律上并无异议。」

“But why shouldn’t you go outside?” she exclaimed. “It is perfectly legal, perfectly mechanical, to visit the surface of the earth. I have lately been to a lecture on the sea; there is no objection to that; one simply summons a respirator and gets an Egression-permit. It is not the kind of thing that spiritually minded people do, and I begged you not to do it, but there is no legal objection to it.”

「我没有领外出许可证。」

“I did not get an Egression-permit.”

「那你怎么出去的？」

“Then how did you get out?”

「我找到了自己的一条路。」

“I found out a way of my own.”

这话对她毫无意义，他只得再说一遍。

The phrase conveyed no meaning to her, and he had to repeat it.

「你自己的一条路？」她低声说。「可那是错的。」

“A way of your own?” she whispered. “But that would be wrong.”

「为什么？」

“Why?”

这问题使她震惊到了极点。

The question shocked her beyond measure.

「你开始崇拜机器了，」他冷冷地说。「你觉得我找到自己的一条路是不敬。委员会威胁我以无家可归时，想的正是这个。」

“You are beginning to worship the Machine,” he said coldly. “You think it irreligious of me to have found out a way of my own. It was just what the Committee thought, when they threatened me with Homelessness.”

听到这里她发了怒。「我什么也不崇拜！」她喊道。「我是最先进的。我不觉得你不敬，因为宗教已经不存在了。从前所有的恐惧和迷信，都已被机器摧毁。我只是说，找到你自己的一条路是——况且，并没有新的出路。」

At this she grew angry. “I worship nothing!” she cried. “I am most advanced. I don’t think you irreligious, for there is no such thing as religion left. All the fear and the superstition that existed once have been destroyed by the Machine. I only meant that to find out a way of your own was — Besides, there is no new way out.”

「大家总是这样以为。」

“So it is always supposed.”

「除了经由吐口——而吐口必须有外出许可证——人不可能出去。《机器之书》是这么说的。」

“Except through the vomitories, for which one must have an Egression-permit, it is impossible to get out. The Book says so.”

「那么，《机器之书》错了，因为我用自己的脚出去过。」

“Well, the Book’s wrong, for I have been out on my feet.”

因为库诺具有某种体力。

For Kuno was possessed of a certain physical strength.

到了那些日子，肌肉发达已是一种过失。每个婴儿出生时都要检查，凡预示会有过分力气的，一律销毁。人道主义者或许会抗议，可让一个运动员活着，并不是真正的仁慈；他永远不会快乐于机器召唤他去过的那种生活；他会渴望可以攀爬的树，可以沐浴的河，可以用来测量自己身体的草地和山丘。人必须适应他的环境，不是吗？在世界的黎明，我们的弱者必须被弃于塔吉特斯山上；在它的黄昏，我们的强者将受安乐死，好让机器进步，好让机器进步，好让机器永恒地进步。

By these days it was a demerit to be muscular. Each infant was examined at birth, and all who promised undue strength were destroyed. Humanitarians may protest, but it would have been no true kindness to let an athlete live; he would never have been happy in that state of life to which the Machine had called him; he would have yearned for trees to climb, rivers to bathe in, meadows and hills against which he might measure his body. Man must be adapted to his surroundings, must he not? In the dawn of the world our weakly must be exposed on Mount Taygetus, in its twilight our strong will suffer euthanasia, that the Machine may progress, that the Machine may progress, that the Machine may progress eternally.

「你知道我们已失去了空间感。我们说『空间已被消灭』，可我们消灭的不是空间，而是对空间的感觉。我们失去了自己的一部分。我决心把它找回来，于是开始在房间外的铁路月台上走来走去。走来走去，直到疲倦，如此便重新捉住了『近』与『远』的意义。『近』是我能用自己的脚很快走到的地方，不是火车或飞艇能很快把我送到的地方。『远』是我不能用自己的脚很快走到的地方；吐口是『远』的，尽管我召唤火车三十八秒就能到。人是尺度。这是我的第一课。人的脚是距离的尺度，人的手是所有的尺度，人的身体是一切可爱的、可欲的、强壮的事物的尺度。然后我走得更远：就在那时我第一次召唤你，而你不肯来。

“You know that we have lost the sense of space. We say ‘space is annihilated,’ but we have annihilated not space, but the sense thereof. We have lost a part of ourselves. I determined to recover it, and I began by walking up and down the platform of the railway outside my room. Up and down, until I was tired, and so did recapture the meaning of ‘Near’ and ‘Far.’ ‘Near’ is a place to which I can get quickly on my feet, not a place to which the train or the air-ship will take me quickly. ‘Far’ is a place to which I cannot get quickly on my feet; the vomitory is ‘far,’ though I could be there in thirty-eight seconds by summoning the train. Man is the measure. That was my first lesson. Man’s feet are the measure for distance, his hands are the measure for ownership, his body is the measure for all that is lovable and desirable and strong. Then I went further: it was then that I called to you for the first time, and you would not come.

「这座城，如你所知，建在地球表面之下很深的地方，只有吐口伸出去。我在自己房间外的月台上走完之后，乘升降机到下一层月台，也走了一遍，如此一层一层，直到最顶层，再上面便是土地。所有月台都一模一样，我走访它们所得到的，不过是发展了我的空间感和我的肌肉。我想我本该以此为满足——这已不是小事——可我走着，想着，忽然想到：我们的城市是在人仍呼吸外间空气的日子里建造的，那时给工人留过通风井。我满脑子都是那些通风井。它们是否已被机器近来演化出的所有食物管、药物管、音乐管摧毁了？还是仍有痕迹残留？有一件事是确定的。若我能在什么地方遇见它们，必是在最顶层的铁路隧道里。别处所有空间都已各有归属。

“This city, as you know, is built deep beneath the surface of the earth, with only the vomitories protruding. Having paced the platform outside my own room, I took the lift to the next platform and paced that also, and so with each in turn, until I came to the topmost, above which begins the earth. All the platforms were exactly alike, and all that I gained by visiting them was to develop my sense of space and my muscles. I think I should have been content with this — it is not a little thing — but as I walked and brooded, it occurred to me that our cities had been built in the days when men still breathed the outer air, and that there had been ventilation shafts for the workmen. I could think of nothing but these ventilation shafts. Had they been destroyed by all the food-tubes and medicine-tubes and music-tubes that the Machine has evolved lately? Or did traces of them remain? One thing was certain. If I came upon them anywhere, it would be in the railway-tunnels of the topmost story. Everywhere else, all space was accounted for.

「我把故事讲得很快，可别以为我不是懦夫，也别以为你的回答从不使我沮丧。沿着铁路隧道走，不是正当的事，不是机械的事，不是体面的事。我怕的不是踩上带电的铁轨被杀死。我怕的是远为无形的东西——做机器所未曾设想的事。然后我对自己说：『人是尺度』，我便去了，去了许多次之后，我找到一个开口。

“I am telling my story quickly, but don’t think that I was not a coward or that your answers never depressed me. It is not the proper thing, it is not mechanical, it is not decent to walk along a railway-tunnel. I did not fear that I might tread upon a live rail and be killed. I feared something far more intangible — doing what was not contemplated by the Machine. Then I said to myself, ‘Man is the measure,’ and I went, and after many visits I found an opening.

「隧道当然是亮着的。一切都是光，人造的光；黑暗是例外。所以当我看见瓷砖里一个黑色的缺口，我知道那是例外，便欢喜了。我伸进手臂——起初也只能伸进这么多——在里面一圈圈挥舞，如醉如痴。我又松开一块砖，把头伸进去，对着黑暗喊：『我来了，我终将做成这件事，』我的声音在无尽的通道里回响。我仿佛听见那些死去的工人的灵魂——他们每晚回到星光下，回到妻子身边——以及所有曾生活在露天里的世代，在向我喊回来：『你终将做成，你来了。』」

“The tunnels, of course, were lighted. Everything is light, artificial light; darkness is the exception. So when I saw a black gap in the tiles, I knew that it was an exception, and rejoiced. I put in my arm — I could put in no more at first — and waved it round and round in ecstasy. I loosened another tile, and put in my head, and shouted into the darkness: ‘I am coming, I shall do it yet,’ and my voice reverberated down endless passages. I seemed to hear the spirits of those dead workmen who had returned each evening to the starlight and to their wives, and all the generations who had lived in the open air called back to me, ‘You will do it yet, you are coming.’”

他停住了。尽管他荒唐，他最后的话却打动了她。因为库诺近来请求做父亲，委员会拒绝了他。他不是机器愿意传下去的那一类。

He paused, and, absurd as he was, his last words moved her. For Kuno had lately asked to be a father, and his request had been refused by the Committee. His was not a type that the Machine desired to hand on.

「随后一列火车经过。它擦着我驶过，可我把头和手臂都塞进了那个洞。一天做这么多已经够了，于是我爬回月台，乘升降机下去，召唤了床。啊，怎样的梦！我又召唤你，你又拒绝了。」

“Then a train passed. It brushed by me, but I thrust my head and arms into the hole. I had done enough for one day, so I crawled back to the platform, went down in the lift, and summoned my bed. Ah what dreams! And again I called you, and again you refused.”

她摇头说：

She shook her head and said:

「别。别谈这些可怕的事。你使我难过。你在把文明扔掉。」

“Don’t. Don’t talk of these terrible things. You make me miserable. You are throwing civilization away.”

「可我已经把空间感找回来了，人一旦找回它就不能安息。我决心钻进那个洞，爬上那口井。于是我锻炼手臂。一天又一天，我做着可笑的动作，直到肌肉酸痛，我能用手吊着，把床上的枕头伸直举上许多分钟。然后我召唤了呼吸器，出发了。

“But I had got back the sense of space and a man cannot rest then. I determined to get in at the hole and climb the shaft. And so I exercised my arms. Day after day I went through ridiculous movements, until my flesh ached, and I could hang by my hands and hold the pillow of my bed outstretched for many minutes. Then I summoned a respirator, and started.

「起初很容易。灰浆不知怎的已经朽了，我很快又推进几块砖，跟着爬进黑暗，死者的灵魂安慰着我。我不知道我说的是什么意思。我只是说出我的感觉。我第一次感到，已有一种抗议被投向了腐朽，死者安慰着我，正如我也在安慰未出生的人。我感到人类存在着，并且它不穿衣服也存在着。我怎么可能解释这个？它是赤裸的，人类仿佛是赤裸的，所有这些管子、按钮和机械，既不随我们来到世上，也不会随我们出去，我们在这里的时候它们也并不至关紧要。我若强壮，就会撕掉身上每一件衣服，不裹着任何东西走进外间的空气。可这不是为我的，或许也不是为我这一代的。我爬着，带着呼吸器、卫生衣服和饮食锭！这样总比完全没有好。

“It was easy at first. The mortar had somehow rotted, and I soon pushed some more tiles in, and clambered after them into the darkness, and the spirits of the dead comforted me. I don’t know what I mean by that. I just say what I felt. I felt, for the first time, that a protest had been lodged against corruption, and that even as the dead were comforting me, so I was comforting the unborn. I felt that humanity existed, and that it existed without clothes. How can I possibly explain this? It was naked, humanity seemed naked, and all these tubes and buttons and machineries neither came into the world with us, nor will they follow us out, nor do they matter supremely while we are here. Had I been strong, I would have torn off every garment I had, and gone out into the outer air unswaddled. But this is not for me, nor perhaps for my generation. I climbed with my respirator and my hygienic clothes and my dietetic tabloids! Better thus than not at all.

「有一架梯子，某种原始金属做的。铁路的光照在最低的几级上，我看见它从井底的瓦砾里笔直向上。或许我们的祖先在建造时每天要在上面上下十几回。我爬着，粗糙的边缘割穿了手套，手便出了血。光帮了我一会儿，随后是黑暗，更糟的是寂静，如剑一般刺穿我的耳朵。机器在嗡鸣！你知道吗？它的嗡鸣渗进我们的血液，甚至可能引导我们的思想。谁知道呢！我正在超出它的力量。然后我想：『这寂静意味着我在做错事。』可我在寂静里听见了声音，它们再次使我坚强。」他笑了。「我需要它们。下一刻我的头撞上了什么东西。」

“There was a ladder, made of some primæval metal. The light from the railway fell upon its lowest rungs, and I saw that it led straight upwards out of the rubble at the bottom of the shaft. Perhaps our ancestors ran up and down it a dozen times daily, in their building. As I climbed, the rough edges cut through my gloves so that my hands bled. The light helped me for a little, and then came darkness and, worse still, silence which pierced my ears like a sword. The Machine hums! Did you know that? Its hum penetrates our blood, and may even guide our thoughts. Who knows! I was getting beyond its power. Then I thought: ‘This silence means that I am doing wrong.’ But I heard voices in the silence, and again they strengthened me.” He laughed. “I had need of them. The next moment I cracked my head against something.”

她叹了口气。

She sighed.

「我碰到了那些把我们与外间空气隔开的气动塞子中的一个。你在飞艇上或许注意过它们。漆黑，脚踩在看不见的梯级上，手割破了；我说不清自己是怎么熬过这一段的，可那些声音仍安慰着我，我摸索着扣件。那塞子，我猜想，直径大约八英尺。我把手伸过它，能伸多远伸多远。它光滑极了。我摸到了差不多中心。没有完全到中心，因为我的手臂太短。然后那声音说：『跳。值得。中心也许有一个把手，你也许能抓住它，如此便以你自己的路来到我们这里。若没有把手，你摔下去粉身碎骨——仍然值得：你仍将以你自己的路来到我们这里。』于是我跳了。有一个把手，而且——」

“I had reached one of those pneumatic stoppers that defend us from the outer air. You may have noticed them on the air-ship. Pitch dark, my feet on the rungs of an invisible ladder, my hands cut; I cannot explain how I lived through this part, but the voices still comforted me, and I felt for fastenings. The stopper, I suppose, was about eight feet across. I passed my hand over it as far as I could reach. It was perfectly smooth. I felt it almost to the centre. Not quite to the centre, for my arm was too short. Then the voice said: ‘Jump. It is worth it. There may be a handle in the centre, and you may catch hold of it and so come to us your own way. And if there is no handle, so that you may fall and are dashed to pieces — it is still worth it: you will still come to us your own way.’ So I jumped. There was a handle, and —”

他停住了。母亲眼里聚起了泪。她知道他是注定的。他今日不死，明日也必死。这世界上没有这样一个人的位置。怜悯里混着厌恶。她为自己生了这样一个儿子而羞愧，她向来是那么体面、那么充满观念。他真是那个她教过如何使用制动器和按钮、给过他《机器之书》第一课的小男孩吗？那毁了他上唇的毛发，就表明他正在退回某种野蛮的类型。对于返祖，机器不能有怜悯。

He paused. Tears gathered in his mother’s eyes. She knew that he was fated. If he did not die to-day he would die to-morrow. There was not room for such a person in the world. And with her pity disgust mingled. She was ashamed at having borne such a son, she who had always been so respectable and so full of ideas. Was he really the little boy to whom she had taught the use of his stops and buttons, and to whom she had given his first lessons in the Book? The very hair that disfigured his lip showed that he was reverting to some savage type. On atavism the Machine can have no mercy.

「有一个把手，我抓住了。我恍惚地悬在黑暗之上，听见这些机件的嗡鸣，如同垂死之梦里最后的耳语。我曾在乎的一切事物，我曾通过管子与之说话的一切人，都显得无限渺小。同时那把手转了起来。我的重量使什么东西动了，我慢慢旋转，然后——

“There was a handle, and I did catch it. I hung tranced over the darkness and heard the hum of these workings as the last whisper in a dying dream. All the things I had cared about and all the people I had spoken to through tubes appeared infinitely little. Meanwhile the handle revolved. My weight had set something in motion and I span slowly, and then —

「我无法描述。我脸朝着阳光躺着。血从鼻子和耳朵涌出，我听见巨大的轰鸣。那塞子，连同攀着它的我，就那样被从地里吹了出去，我们在下面制造的空气正通过这个孔泄入上面的空气。它像喷泉一样喷涌。我爬回到它身边——因为上层的空气伤人——仿佛从边缘大口啜饮。我的呼吸器飞到了天知道什么地方，衣服撕破了。我只是把嘴唇贴着那个洞躺着，啜着，直到血止住。你想象不出有什么如此奇异。草里这个洼——我一会儿再讲它——阳光照进去，并不刺眼，而是穿过大理石纹样的云——那平静，那满不在乎，那空间感，还有拂过我脸颊的、我们人造空气的轰鸣喷泉！不久我发现了我的呼吸器，在头顶高处的气流里上下跳动，再高处是许多飞艇。可从没有人从飞艇里往外看，再说他们也无法把我捞上去。我就这样搁浅了。阳光沿井筒照下一点，照出梯子最上面一级，可想够到它是无望的。我要么会被泄出的气再抛上去，要么会掉进去死掉。我只能躺在草上，啜了又啜，不时向四周瞥一眼。

“I cannot describe it. I was lying with my face to the sunshine. Blood poured from my nose and ears and I heard a tremendous roaring. The stopper, with me clinging to it, had simply been blown out of the earth, and the air that we make down here was escaping through the vent into the air above. It burst up like a fountain. I crawled back to it — for the upper air hurts — and, as it were, I took great sips from the edge. My respirator had flown goodness knows where, my clothes were torn. I just lay with my lips close to the hole, and I sipped until the bleeding stopped. You can imagine nothing so curious. This hollow in the grass — I will speak of it in a minute, — the sun shining into it, not brilliantly but through marbled clouds, — the peace, the nonchalance, the sense of space, and, brushing my cheek, the roaring fountain of our artificial air! Soon I spied my respirator, bobbing up and down in the current high above my head, and higher still were many air-ships. But no one ever looks out of air-ships, and in any case they could not have picked me up. There I was, stranded. The sun shone a little way down the shaft, and revealed the topmost rung of the ladder, but it was hopeless trying to reach it. I should either have been tossed up again by the escape, or else have fallen in, and died. I could only lie on the grass, sipping and sipping, and from time to time glancing around me.

「我知道自己在韦塞克斯，因为出发前我特意去听过一场关于这个题目的演讲。韦塞克斯就在我们此刻谈话的这间房间之上。它曾经是一个重要的国家。它的国王据有从安德列德森林到康沃尔的全部南岸，万斯堤在北面护着他们，越过高地。那位讲者只关心韦塞克斯的兴起，所以我不知道它作为国际强权维持了多久，知道了也帮不了我。说实话，这一段里我除了笑什么也做不了。我就在那儿，身边一个气动塞子，头顶一个跳动的呼吸器，我们三个一起被囚在一个长满草、边缘围着蕨的洼里。」

“I knew that I was in Wessex, for I had taken care to go to a lecture on the subject before starting. Wessex lies above the room in which we are talking now. It was once an important state. Its kings held all the southern coast from the Andredswald to Cornwall, while the Wansdyke protected them on the north, running over the high ground. The lecturer was only concerned with the rise of Wessex, so I do not know how long it remained an international power, nor would the knowledge have assisted me. To tell the truth I could do nothing but laugh, during this part. There was I, with a pneumatic stopper by my side and a respirator bobbing over my head, imprisoned, all three of us, in a grass-grown hollow that was edged with fern.”

然后他又严肃起来。

Then he grew grave again.

「幸好那是一个洼。因为空气开始落回里面，像水注满一只碗那样把它注满。我能够爬动了。不久我站了起来。我呼吸着一种混合物，每当我试图爬上边坡，那伤人的空气便占了上风。这还不算太坏。我没有丢掉饮食锭，仍荒唐地快活着；至于机器，我把它忘得一干二净。我此刻唯一的目标是到达顶上蕨所在的地方，去看那边无论什么东西。

“Lucky for me that it was a hollow. For the air began to fall back into it and to fill it as water fills a bowl. I could crawl about. Presently I stood. I breathed a mixture, in which the air that hurts predominated whenever I tried to climb the sides. This was not so bad. I had not lost my tabloids and remained ridiculously cheerful, and as for the Machine, I forgot about it altogether. My one aim now was to get to the top, where the ferns were, and to view whatever objects lay beyond.

「我冲上斜坡。新空气对我仍然太苦，我滚了回来，只在片刻间看见了某种灰色的东西。太阳变得很微弱，我记起它在天蝎座——那场演讲我也听过。若太阳在天蝎座，而你在韦塞克斯，那就意味着你必须尽快，不然天会太黑。（这是我从演讲里得到的第一点有用的信息，我料想也会是最后一点。）它使我拼命去呼吸新空气，从我的气塘里尽量往外走。洼注得那么慢。有时我觉得喷泉的力气小了。我的呼吸器仿佛在更近地面处跳舞；轰鸣在减弱。」

“I rushed the slope. The new air was still too bitter for me and I came rolling back, after a momentary vision of something grey. The sun grew very feeble, and I remembered that he was in Scorpio — I had been to a lecture on that too. If the sun is in Scorpio, and you are in Wessex, it means that you must be as quick as you can, or it will get too dark. (This is the first bit of useful information I have ever got from a lecture, and I expect it will be the last.) It made me try frantically to breathe the new air, and to advance as far as I dared out of my pond. The hollow filled so slowly. At times I thought that the fountain played with less vigour. My respirator seemed to dance nearer the earth; the roar was decreasing.”

他停住了。

He broke off.

「我觉得这并不能使你感兴趣。其余的会使你更不感兴趣。里面没有观念，我后悔麻烦你来。我们太不一样了，母亲。」

“I don’t think this is interesting you. The rest will interest you even less. There are no ideas in it, and I wish that I had not troubled you to come. We are too different, mother.”

她叫他继续。

She told him to continue.

「等到我爬上堤岸，已是傍晚。这时太阳几乎已从天上滑走，我看不清楚。你刚刚越过世界屋脊，不会想听我看见的那些小丘——低矮的、没有颜色的小丘。可对我来说它们是活的，覆盖它们的草皮是一层皮肤，底下肌肉在起伏，我感到那些山丘曾以无法计量的力量召唤过往昔的人，而人曾爱过它们。现在它们睡了——或许永远睡了。它们在梦里与人类交谈。幸福的是唤醒韦塞克斯山丘的男人，幸福的是唤醒它们的女人。因为它们虽睡，却永不死亡。」

“It was evening before I climbed the bank. The sun had very nearly slipped out of the sky by this time, and I could not get a good view. You, who have just crossed the Roof of the World, will not want to hear an account of the little hills that I saw — low colourless hills. But to me they were living and the turf that covered them was a skin, under which their muscles rippled, and I felt that those hills had called with incalculable force to men in the past, and that men had loved them. Now they sleep — perhaps for ever. They commune with humanity in dreams. Happy the man, happy the woman, who awakes the hills of Wessex. For though they sleep, they will never die.”

他的声音热烈地扬了起来。

His voice rose passionately.

「你们难道看不见，你们所有这些讲者难道看不见，正在死去的是我们，而在这下面唯一真正活着的是机器？我们创造了机器，好让它执行我们的意志，可我们现在已不能使它执行我们的意志。它剥夺了我们的空间感和触觉，它模糊了每一种人际关系，把爱缩小成肉欲之举，它麻痹了我们的身体和意志，现在又强迫我们崇拜它。机器在发展——却不是沿着我们的路线。机器在前进——却不是朝向我们的目标。我们只作为奔流在它动脉里的血球而存在，若它能没有我们而运转，它就会让我们死去。哦，我没有药方——或者说，至少只有一个——一遍又一遍地告诉人们，我看见了韦塞克斯的山丘，如同阿尔弗雷德击败丹麦人时看见它们那样。

“Cannot you see, cannot all you lecturers see, that it is we that are dying, and that down here the only thing that really lives is the Machine? We created the Machine, to do our will, but we cannot make it do our will now. It has robbed us of the sense of space and of the sense of touch, it has blurred every human relation and narrowed down love to a carnal act, it has paralysed our bodies and our wills, and now it compels us to worship it. The Machine develops — but not on our lines. The Machine proceeds — but not to our goal. We only exist as the blood corpuscles that course through its arteries, and if it could work without us, it would let us die. Oh, I have no remedy — or, at least, only one — to tell men again and again that I have seen the hills of Wessex as Ælfrid saw them when he overthrew the Danes.

「于是太阳落了。我忘了提，我的山和其他山之间有一带雾，颜色像珍珠。」

“So the sun set. I forgot to mention that a belt of mist lay between my hill and other hills, and that it was the colour of pearl.”

他第二次停住了。

He broke off for the second time.

「说下去，」母亲疲倦地说。

“Go on,” said his mother wearily.

他摇头。

He shook his head.

「说下去。你现在说什么也不能使我苦恼了。我已经硬了。」

“Go on. Nothing that you say can distress me now. I am hardened.”

「我本想把其余的告诉你，可我不能：我知道我不能：再见。」

“I had meant to tell you the rest, but I cannot: I know that I cannot: good-bye.”

瓦希蒂站着，拿不定主意。她全部神经都因他的亵渎而刺痛。可她也好奇。

Vashti stood irresolute. All her nerves were tingling with his blasphemies. But she was also inquisitive.

「这不公平，」她抱怨。「你把我从世界的另一边召来听你的故事，我就要听到。告诉我——尽量简短，因为这是灾难性的浪费时间——告诉我你是怎样回到文明的。」

“This is unfair,” she complained. “You have called me across the world to hear your story, and hear it I will. Tell me — as briefly as possible, for this is a disastrous waste of time — tell me how you returned to civilization.”

「哦——那个！」他吃了一惊。「你想听文明。当然。我讲到呼吸器掉下来了吗？」

“Oh — that!” he said, starting. “You would like to hear about civilization. Certainly. Had I got to where my respirator fell down?”

「没有——可我现在什么都明白了。你戴上呼吸器，设法沿地球表面走到一个吐口，在那里你的行为被报告给了中央委员会。」

“No — but I understand everything now. You put on your respirator, and managed to walk along the surface of the earth to a vomitory, and there your conduct was reported to the Central Committee.”

「绝不是。」

“By no means.”

他把手拂过额，仿佛要驱散某种强烈的印象。然后，重新拾起叙述，他又热了起来。

He passed his hand over his forehead, as if dispelling some strong impression. Then, resuming his narrative, he warmed to it again.

「我的呼吸器大约在日落时掉下来。我提过喷泉似乎弱了，是不是？」

“My respirator fell about sunset. I had mentioned that the fountain seemed feebler, had I not?”

「是的。」

“Yes.”

「大约日落时，它让呼吸器掉了下来。如我所说，我已把机器忘得一干二净，当时也没怎么注意，正忙着别的事。我有我的气塘，外间的凛冽变得无法忍受时，我可以浸进去，只要不起风把它吹散，它或许能维持许多天。直到太迟了，我才明白泄气停止意味着什么。你看——隧道里的缺口已经被补上了；修补装置；修补装置，在追我。

“About sunset, it let the respirator fall. As I said, I had entirely forgotten about the Machine, and I paid no great attention at the time, being occupied with other things. I had my pool of air, into which I could dip when the outer keenness became intolerable, and which would possibly remain for days, provided that no wind sprang up to disperse it. Not until it was too late did I realize what the stoppage of the escape implied. You see — the gap in the tunnel had been mended; the Mending Apparatus; the Mending Apparatus, was after me.

「我还有过另一个警告，可我忽略了。夜里的天空比白天更清澈，月亮大约在太阳后面半个天空处，不时相当明亮地照进洼里。我在我惯常的位置——两种大气的交界上——忽然觉得看见有什么暗的东西移过洼底，没入井筒。愚昧之中，我跑了下去。我俯身去听，觉得听见深处有轻微的刮擦声。

“One other warning I had, but I neglected it. The sky at night was clearer than it had been in the day, and the moon, which was about half the sky behind the sun, shone into the dell at moments quite brightly. I was in my usual place — on the boundary between the two atmospheres — when I thought I saw something dark move across the bottom of the dell, and vanish into the shaft. In my folly, I ran down. I bent over and listened, and I thought I heard a faint scraping noise in the depths.

「到这时——可已经太迟了——我警觉了。我决心戴上呼吸器，径直走出洼去。可我的呼吸器已经没了。我清清楚楚知道它掉在哪里——在塞子和开口之间——甚至能摸到它在草皮上留下的痕迹。它没了，我意识到有某种邪恶的东西在运作，我最好逃到另一种空气里去，若必须死，就死在奔向那带珍珠色云的路上。我始终没有起步。从井筒里——太可怕了。一条虫，一条长长的白虫，从井筒里爬了出来，在月光下的草上滑行。

“At this — but it was too late — I took alarm. I determined to put on my respirator and to walk right out of the dell. But my respirator had gone. I knew exactly where it had fallen — between the stopper and the aperture — and I could even feel the mark that it had made in the turf. It had gone, and I realized that something evil was at work, and I had better escape to the other air, and, if I must die, die running towards the cloud that had been the colour of a pearl. I never started. Out of the shaft — it is too horrible. A worm, a long white worm, had crawled out of the shaft and was gliding over the moonlit grass.

「我尖叫。我做了所有不该做的事，我去踩那东西而不是逃走，它立刻卷上了脚踝。然后我们搏斗。那虫让我在洼里到处跑，可我跑着，它就沿腿往上挪。『救命！』我喊。（那一段太可怕。它属于你永远不会知道的那部分。）『救命！』我喊。（我们为什么不能在沉默中受苦？）『救命！』我喊。然后我的双脚被缠在一起，我倒下了，被拖离亲爱的蕨和活着的山丘，经过那巨大的金属塞子（这一段我可以告诉你），我想若再抓住那把手，它或许能再救我一次。它也被缠住了，它也是。哦，整个洼里都是这些东西。它们在四面搜寻，它们在剥光它，另外一些白色的吻从洞口探出来，需要时便上来。凡能移动的它们都带上——灌木，一捆捆蕨，一切，我们纠缠着一起下到地狱。塞子在我们身后合上之前，我最后看见的是某些星，我感到我这种人住在天上。因为我确实搏斗了，搏斗到最后，只是头撞上梯子才使我安静。我在这房间里醒来。虫子消失了。我被人造空气、人造光、人造平静包围着，朋友们从传话管里喊我，问我近来可曾遇见什么新观念。」

“I screamed. I did everything that I should not have done, I stamped upon the creature instead of flying from it, and it at once curled round the ankle. Then we fought. The worm let me run all over the dell, but edged up my leg as I ran. ‘Help!’ I cried. (That part is too awful. It belongs to the part that you will never know.) ‘Help!’ I cried. (Why cannot we suffer in silence?) ‘Help!’ I cried. Then my feet were wound together, I fell, I was dragged away from the dear ferns and the living hills, and past the great metal stopper (I can tell you this part), and I thought it might save me again if I caught hold of the handle. It also was enwrapped, it also. Oh, the whole dell was full of the things. They were searching it in all directions, they were denuding it, and the white snouts of others peeped out of the hole, ready if needed. Everything that could be moved they brought — brushwood, bundles of fern, everything, and down we all went intertwined into hell. The last things that I saw, ere the stopper closed after us, were certain stars, and I felt that a man of my sort lived in the sky. For I did fight, I fought till the very end, and it was only my head hitting against the ladder that quieted me. I woke up in this room. The worms had vanished. I was surrounded by artificial air, artificial light, artificial peace, and my friends were calling to me down speaking-tubes to know whether I had come across any new ideas lately.”

他的故事到此结束。讨论是不可能的，瓦希蒂转身要走。

Here his story ended. Discussion of it was impossible, and Vashti turned to go.

「这会以无家可归告终，」她平静地说。

“It will end in Homelessness,” she said quietly.

「我但愿如此，」库诺回道。

“I wish it would,” retorted Kuno.

「机器已经最仁慈了。」

“The Machine has been most merciful.”

「我更要上帝的仁慈。」

“I prefer the mercy of God.”

「你那句迷信的话，是说你能在外间的空气里活下去？」

“By that superstitious phrase, do you mean that you could live in the outer air?”

「是的。」

“Yes.”

「你看见过吐口周围那些骨头吗？大反叛之后被推出去的那些人的骨头？」

“Have you ever seen, round the vomitories, the bones of those who were extruded after the Great Rebellion?”

「看见过。」

“Yes.”

「它们被留在他们死去的地方，好让我们受教。有几个爬走了，可他们也死了——谁能怀疑呢？我们今日的无家可归者也会如此。地球表面不再能维持生命。」

“They were left where they perished for our edification. A few crawled away, but they perished, too — who can doubt it? And so with the Homeless of our own day. The surface of the earth supports life no longer.”

「是吗。」

“Indeed.”

「蕨和一点草或许还能活，可所有更高的形态都已灭亡。有飞艇侦察到它们吗？」

“Ferns and a little grass may survive, but all higher forms have perished. Has any air-ship detected them?”

「没有。」

“No.”

「有讲者论述过它们吗？」

“Has any lecturer dealt with them?”

「没有。」

“No.”

「那你何以如此固执？」

“Then why this obstinacy?”

「因为我看见过它们，」他爆发了。

“Because I have seen them,” he exploded.

「看见过什么？」

“Seen what?”

「因为我在暮色里看见过她——因为我呼救时她来帮我——因为她也被那些虫子缠住，比我幸运，被一条虫刺穿了咽喉，死了。」

“Because I have seen her in the twilight — because she came to my help when I called — because she, too, was entangled by the worms, and, luckier than I, was killed by one of them piercing her throat.”

他疯了。瓦希蒂离去，在随后的祸乱中，她再也没有见过他的脸。

He was mad. Vashti departed, nor, in the troubles that followed, did she ever see his face again.

库诺那次越轨之后的几年里，机器里发生了两件重要的发展。表面上它们是革命性的，可两件事里人的心智都预先被准备好了，它们不过是把已经潜伏的倾向表达出来。

During the years that followed Kuno’s escapade, two important developments took place in the Machine. On the surface they were revolutionary, but in either case men’s minds had been prepared beforehand, and they did but express tendencies that were latent already.

第一件是废除呼吸器。

The first of these was the abolition of respirators.

先进的思想家，如瓦希蒂，向来认为到地球表面去是愚蠢的。飞艇或许必要，可仅仅为了好奇出去，坐地面机动车爬上一两英里，有什么好处？这习惯粗俗，或许还略微不妥：它不生产观念，与真正要紧的习惯毫无关联。于是呼吸器被废除了，连带地面机动车当然也废除了；除了少数讲者抱怨被剥夺了接近题材的途径，这项发展被安静地接受了。那些仍想知道地球是什么样子的人，毕竟只需听听留声机，或看看映影机。连讲者们也默许了，当他们发现一场关于海的演讲，用已经就同一题目发表过的其他演讲汇编而成，刺激性丝毫未减。「当心第一手的观念！」他们中最先进的一位喊道。「第一手的观念并不真正存在。它们不过是爱与恐惧所产生的生理印象，在这粗鄙的基础上，谁能建立起一种哲学？让你的观念是二手的，若可能，十手的，因为那样它们就远远离开了那个扰乱的因素——直接观察。不要去了解我这个题目的任何事情——法国大革命。去了解的，应是我认为恩尼卡蒙以为尤里森以为古奇以为何勇以为齐伯星以为小泉八云以为卡莱尔以为米拉波关于法国大革命所说的话。经由这十个伟大心灵的媒介，巴黎所流的血和凡尔赛被打破的窗子，将被澄清为一个观念，你可以最有益地把它用在日常生活里。但务必使中间环节又多又杂，因为在历史中，一个权威的存在是为了抵消另一个。尤里森必须抵消何勇和恩尼卡蒙的怀疑，我自己必须抵消古奇的急躁。听我讲的你们，比我自己更有资格判断法国大革命。你们的后代会比你们更有资格，因为他们将了解你们以为我以为的，链上又将加上一环。而到了时候」——他的声音扬起——「将有一代人超越了事实，超越了印象，一代绝对无色的人，一代

Advanced thinkers, like Vashti, had always held it foolish to visit the surface of the earth. Air-ships might be necessary, but what was the good of going out for mere curiosity and crawling along for a mile or two in a terrestrial motor? The habit was vulgar and perhaps faintly improper: it was unproductive of ideas, and had no connection with the habits that really mattered. So respirators were abolished, and with them, of course, the terrestrial motors, and except for a few lecturers, who complained that they were debarred access to their subject-matter, the development was accepted quietly. Those who still wanted to know what the earth was like had after all only to listen to some gramophone, or to look into some cinematophote. And even the lecturers acquiesced when they found that a lecture on the sea was none the less stimulating when compiled out of other lectures that had already been delivered on the same subject. “Beware of first-hand ideas!” exclaimed one of the most advanced of them. “First-hand ideas do not really exist. They are but the physical impressions produced by love and fear, and on this gross foundation who could erect a philosophy? Let your ideas be second-hand, and if possible tenth-hand, for then they will be far removed from that disturbing element — direct observation. Do not learn anything about this subject of mine — the French Revolution. Learn instead what I think that Enicharmon thought Urizen thought Gutch thought Ho-Yung thought Chi-Bo-Sing thought Lafcadio Hearn thought Carlyle thought Mirabeau said about the French Revolution. Through the medium of these ten great minds, the blood that was shed at Paris and the windows that were broken at Versailles will be clarified to an idea which you may employ most profitably in your daily lives. But be sure that the intermediates are many and varied, for in history one authority exists to counteract another. Urizen must counteract the scepticism of Ho-Yung and Enicharmon, I must myself counteract the impetuosity of Gutch. You who listen to me are in a better position to judge about the French Revolution than I am. Your descendants will be even in a better position than you, for they will learn what you think I think, and yet another intermediate will be added to the chain. And in time” — his voice rose — “there will come a generation that had got beyond facts, beyond impressions, a generation absolutely colourless, a generation

如撒拉弗般纯洁
不受个性沾染

‘seraphically free
From taint of personality,’

他们看见法国大革命，将不是它实际发生的样子，也不是他们希望它发生的样子，而是它若发生在机器的日子里本会有的样子。」

which will see the French Revolution not as it happened, nor as they would like it to have happened, but as it would have happened, had it taken place in the days of the Machine.”

这场演讲赢得了巨大的掌声，它不过是把人心里已经潜伏的一种感觉说了出来——一种必须无视地面事实、废除呼吸器实为收获的感觉。甚至有人建议连飞艇也废除。这件事没有做成，因为飞艇不知怎的已经自行进入了机器的系统。可年复一年，它们被用得更少，被有思想的人提及得也更少。

Tremendous applause greeted this lecture, which did but voice a feeling already latent in the minds of men — a feeling that terrestrial facts must be ignored, and that the abolition of respirators was a positive gain. It was even suggested that air-ships should be abolished too. This was not done, because air-ships had somehow worked themselves into the Machine’s system. But year by year they were used less, and mentioned less by thoughtful men.

第二件重大发展是宗教的重建。

The second great development was the re-establishment of religion.

这一点，在那场著名的演讲里也已说出。结语的虔敬语气谁也不会听错，它在每个人心里唤起了回应的回声。那些长久默默崇拜的人，如今开始说话。他们描述抚着《机器之书》时袭来的奇异安宁，描述从中重复某些数字的快乐——无论那些数字对外耳传达了多么少的意义——描述按下一个按钮的迷醉，无论那按钮多么不重要，或按响一个电铃，无论多么多余。

This, too, had been voiced in the celebrated lecture. No one could mistake the reverent tone in which the peroration had concluded, and it awakened a responsive echo in the heart of each. Those who had long worshipped silently, now began to talk. They described the strange feeling of peace that came over them when they handled the Book of the Machine, the pleasure that it was to repeat certain numerals out of it, however little meaning those numerals conveyed to the outward ear, the ecstasy of touching a button, however unimportant, or of ringing an electric bell, however superfluously.

「机器，」他们喊道，「给我们吃，给我们穿，给我们住；我们通过它彼此说话，通过它彼此看见，我们在它里面得着我们的存在。机器是观念的朋友，迷信的敌人：机器全能，永恒；机器是有福的。」不久这段宣谕便印在了《机器之书》的首页，在随后的版本里，仪式膨胀成一套复杂的赞美与祈祷。人们小心避开「宗教」这个词，理论上机器仍是人的创造和人的工具。可实际上，除了少数倒退者，人人都把它当神明来崇拜。崇拜也并不统一。一个信徒主要被蓝色视盘打动，他通过它看见其他信徒；另一个被修补装置打动，有罪的库诺曾把它比作虫子；另一个被升降机打动，另一个被《机器之书》打动。各人向这个或那个祈祷，求它在机器整体面前为他代求。迫害——那也存在着。它没有爆发，原因下文再述。可它是潜伏的，凡不接受那被称为「无宗派机械主义」的最低限度的人，都生活在无家可归的危险中，而无家可归，如我们所知，便是死。

“The Machine,” they exclaimed, “feeds us and clothes us and houses us; through it we speak to one another, through it we see one another, in it we have our being. The Machine is the friend of ideas and the enemy of superstition: the Machine is omnipotent, eternal; blessed is the Machine.” And before long this allocution was printed on the first page of the Book, and in subsequent editions the ritual swelled into a complicated system of praise and prayer. The word “religion” was sedulously avoided, and in theory the Machine was still the creation and the implement of man. But in practice all, save a few retrogrades, worshipped it as divine. Nor was it worshipped in unity. One believer would be chiefly impressed by the blue optic plates, through which he saw other believers; another by the mending apparatus, which sinful Kuno had compared to worms; another by the lifts, another by the Book. And each would pray to this or to that, and ask it to intercede for him with the Machine as a whole. Persecution — that also was present. It did not break out, for reasons that will be set forward shortly. But it was latent, and all who did not accept the minimum known as “undenominational Mechanism” lived in danger of Homelessness, which means death, as we know.

把这两件重大发展归功于中央委员会，是对文明采取了非常狭隘的看法。中央委员会宣布了这些发展，不错，可他们并不比帝国主义时期的国王是战争的原因更是这些发展的原因。他们倒是屈服于某种无法抵御的压力，那压力不知从何处来，一经满足，又被某种同样无法抵御的新压力所接替。给这样一种事态一个方便的名字，便是进步。没有人承认机器已经失控。年复一年，它被以更高的效率和更低的智力侍奉着。一个人越清楚自己在它上面的职分，就越不了解邻人的职分，全世界没有一个人了解这怪物的整体。那些主宰的头脑已经灭亡。他们留下了完备的指示，不错，他们的后继者各自掌握了那些指示的一部分。可人类，出于对舒适的欲望，已经越过了自身。它把自然的富源开发得太远。安静而自得地，它正沉入颓废，进步已经变成了机器的进步。

To attribute these two great developments to the Central Committee, is to take a very narrow view of civilization. The Central Committee announced the developments, it is true, but they were no more the cause of them than were the kings of the imperialistic period the cause of war. Rather did they yield to some invincible pressure, which came no one knew whither, and which, when gratified, was succeeded by some new pressure equally invincible. To such a state of affairs it is convenient to give the name of progress. No one confessed the Machine was out of hand. Year by year it was served with increased efficiency and decreased intelligence. The better a man knew his own duties upon it, the less he understood the duties of his neighbour, and in all the world there was not one who understood the monster as a whole. Those master brains had perished. They had left full directions, it is true, and their successors had each of them mastered a portion of those directions. But Humanity, in its desire for comfort, had over-reached itself. It had exploited the riches of nature too far. Quietly and complacently, it was sinking into decadence, and progress had come to mean the progress of the Machine.

至于瓦希蒂，她的生活平静向前，直到最后的灾难。她把房间弄暗，睡了；醒来，把房间弄亮。她演讲，也听演讲。她与无数朋友交换观念，相信自己正变得更精神。不时有一个朋友获准安乐死，离开他或她的房间，走向那超出人类一切想象的无家可归。瓦希蒂并不很在意。一场不成功的演讲之后，她有时也会为自己请求安乐死。可死亡率不准超过出生率，机器迄今拒绝了她。

As for Vashti, her life went peacefully forward until the final disaster. She made her room dark and slept; she awoke and made the room light. She lectured and attended lectures. She exchanged ideas with her innumerable friends and believed she was growing more spiritual. At times a friend was granted Euthanasia, and left his or her room for the homelessness that is beyond all human conception. Vashti did not much mind. After an unsuccessful lecture, she would sometimes ask for Euthanasia herself. But the death-rate was not permitted to exceed the birth-rate, and the Machine had hitherto refused it to her.

祸乱安静地开始，远在她意识到之前。

The troubles began quietly, long before she was conscious of them.

有一天她吃惊地收到儿子的讯息。他们从不通讯，彼此毫无共同之处；她只是间接听说他还活着，并且已从北半球——他在那里行为那么不端——被转到南半球——其实，转到离她自己不远的一间房间。

One day she was astonished at receiving a message from her son. They never communicated, having nothing in common, and she had only heard indirectly that he was still alive, and had been transferred from the northern hemisphere, where he had behaved so mischievously, to the southern — indeed, to a room not far from her own.

「他要我去看他吗？」她想。「再也不去，再也不。而且我没有时间。」

“Does he want me to visit him?” she thought. “Never again, never. And I have not the time.”

不，是另一种疯狂。

No, it was madness of another kind.

他拒绝把自己的脸显现在蓝盘上，从黑暗里庄严地说：

He refused to visualize his face upon the blue plate, and speaking out of the darkness with solemnity said:

「机器停转了。」

“The Machine stops.”

「你说什么？」

“What do you say?”

「机器正在停转，我知道，我认得那些征兆。」

“The Machine is stopping, I know it, I know the signs.”

她爆出一阵大笑。他听见了，生了气，他们便不再说话。

She burst into a peal of laughter. He heard her and was angry, and they spoke no more.

「你能想象更荒唐的事吗？」她对一个朋友喊道。「一个曾经是我儿子的人，相信机器正在停转。若不是疯了，那就是亵渎。」

“Can you imagine anything more absurd?” she cried to a friend. “A man who was my son believes that the Machine is stopping. It would be impious if it was not mad.”

「机器正在停转？」她的朋友答。「那是什么意思？这话对我毫无意义。」

“The Machine is stopping?” her friend replied. “What does that mean? The phrase conveys nothing to me.”

「对我也是。」

“Nor to me.”

「他该不是指近来音乐出的那些毛病吧？」

“He does not refer, I suppose, to the trouble there has been lately with the music?”

「哦不，当然不是。我们谈音乐吧。」

“Oh no, of course not. Let us talk about music.”

「你向当局抱怨过了吗？」

“Have you complained to the authorities?”

「抱怨了，他们说需要修补，把我转给了修补装置委员会。我抱怨的是那些古怪的、气喘似的叹息，它们毁了布里斯班学派的交响曲。听来像有人在痛。修补装置委员会说不久就会补好。」

“Yes, and they say it wants mending, and referred me to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus. I complained of those curious gasping sighs that disfigure the symphonies of the Brisbane school. They sound like some one in pain. The Committee of the Mending Apparatus say that it shall be remedied shortly.”

带着说不清的不安，她恢复了自己的生活。一方面，音乐的缺陷使她恼火。另一方面，她忘不了库诺的话。若他知道音乐出了毛病——他不可能知道，因为他厌恶音乐——若他知道出了错，「机器停转了」正是他会说出的那种恶毒话。当然他是随口说的，可这巧合使她恼怒，她有些急躁地对修补装置委员会说了。

Obscurely worried, she resumed her life. For one thing, the defect in the music irritated her. For another thing, she could not forget Kuno’s speech. If he had known that the music was out of repair — he could not know it, for he detested music — if he had known that it was wrong, “the Machine stops” was exactly the venomous sort of remark he would have made. Of course he had made it at a venture, but the coincidence annoyed her, and she spoke with some petulance to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus.

他们仍像从前那样回答，缺陷不久就会纠正。

They replied, as before, that the defect would be set right shortly.

「不久！立刻！」她回道。「我为什么要被不完美的音乐烦扰？事情向来是立刻就修好的。你们若不立刻修补，我就要向中央委员会抱怨。」

“Shortly! At once!” she retorted. “Why should I be worried by imperfect music? Things are always put right at once. If you do not mend it at once, I shall complain to the Central Committee.”

「中央委员会不受理个人投诉，」修补装置委员会答。

“No personal complaints are received by the Central Committee,” the Committee of the Mending Apparatus replied.

「那我通过谁投诉？」

“Through whom am I to make my complaint, then?”

「通过我们。」

“Through us.”

「那我就投诉。」

“I complain then.”

「你的投诉将按次序转达。」

“Your complaint shall be forwarded in its turn.”

「还有别人投诉过吗？」

“Have others complained?”

这问题是非机械的，修补装置委员会拒绝回答。

This question was unmechanical, and the Committee of the Mending Apparatus refused to answer it.

「太糟了！」她对另一个朋友喊道。「从来没有像我这样不幸的女人。我现在再也无法确定我的音乐。每次召唤，它都越来越糟。」

“It is too bad!” she exclaimed to another of her friends. “There never was such an unfortunate woman as myself. I can never be sure of my music now. It gets worse and worse each time I summon it.”

「我也有我的麻烦，」朋友答。「有时我的观念会被一阵轻微的轧轧声打断。」

“I too have my troubles,” the friend replied. “Sometimes my ideas are interrupted by a slight jarring noise.”

「那是什么？」

“What is it?”

「我不知道是在我脑子里，还是在墙里面。」

“I do not know whether it is inside my head, or inside the wall.”

「无论在哪，都该投诉。」

“Complain, in either case.”

「我已经投诉了，我的投诉将按次序转达给中央委员会。」

“I have complained, and my complaint will be forwarded in its turn to the Central Committee.”

时间过去，他们不再怨恨那些缺陷。缺陷并未被补救，可那个末世的人体组织已经如此驯服，它们轻易便适应了机器的每一种任性。布里斯班交响曲高潮处的叹息不再使瓦希蒂恼火；她把它当作旋律的一部分来接受。那轧轧声，无论在脑子里还是在墙里面，她的朋友也不再怨恨。发霉的人造水果如此，开始发臭的浴水如此，诗歌机器开始吐出的缺陷韵脚也如此。起初都曾被痛加抱怨，随后便默许了，遗忘了。事情坏了又坏，无人质疑。

Time passed, and they resented the defects no longer. The defects had not been remedied, but the human tissues in that latter day had become so subservient, that they readily adapted themselves to every caprice of the Machine. The sigh at the crises of the Brisbane symphony no longer irritated Vashti; she accepted it as part of the melody. The jarring noise, whether in the head or in the wall, was no longer resented by her friend. And so with the mouldy artificial fruit, so with the bath water that began to stink, so with the defective rhymes that the poetry machine had taken to emit. All were bitterly complained of at first, and then acquiesced in and forgotten. Things went from bad to worse unchallenged.

睡眠装置的失灵却不然。那是一次更严重的停顿。有一天，全世界——在苏门答腊，在韦塞克斯，在库尔兰和巴西无数的城市——床在疲倦的主人召唤时，不再出现。这事看起来或许可笑，可我们正可以从它给人类的崩溃定年。负责这次失灵的委员会被投诉者围攻，它照例把他们转给修补装置委员会，修补装置委员会又向他们保证，他们的投诉将转达给中央委员会。可不满在增长，因为人类还没有驯服到可以不睡觉。

It was otherwise with the failure of the sleeping apparatus. That was a more serious stoppage. There came a day when over the whole world — in Sumatra, in Wessex, in the innumerable cities of Courland and Brazil — the beds, when summoned by their tired owners, failed to appear. It may seem a ludicrous matter, but from it we may date the collapse of humanity. The Committee responsible for the failure was assailed by complainants, whom it referred, as usual, to the Committee of the Mending Apparatus, who in its turn assured them that their complaints would be forwarded to the Central Committee. But the discontent grew, for mankind was not yet sufficiently adaptable to do without sleeping.

「有人在干涉机器——」他们开始说。

“Some one is meddling with the Machine—” they began.

「有人想使自己成为国王，重新引入个人因素。」

“Some one is trying to make himself king, to reintroduce the personal element.”

「以无家可归惩罚那个人。」

“Punish that man with Homelessness.”

「去救援！为机器复仇！为机器复仇！」

“To the rescue! Avenge the Machine! Avenge the Machine!”

「战争！杀死那个人！」

“War! Kill the man!”

可这时修补装置委员会站了出来，用措辞得当的话平息了恐慌。它承认，修补装置本身需要修理。

But the Committee of the Mending Apparatus now came forward, and allayed the panic with well-chosen words. It confessed that the Mending Apparatus was itself in need of repair.

这次坦率承认的效果极好。

The effect of this frank confession was admirable.

「当然，」一位著名讲者说——就是那位讲法国大革命的，他给每一种新的衰朽镀上光辉——「当然我们现在不会再催促我们的投诉。修补装置过去待我们那么好，我们都同情它，会耐心等待它康复。到了它自己认为合适的时候，它会恢复职分。同时让我们没有床，没有饮食锭，没有其他小小的需求。我确信，这会是机器的意愿。」

“Of course,” said a famous lecturer — he of the French Revolution, who gilded each new decay with splendour — “of course we shall not press our complaints now. The Mending Apparatus has treated us so well in the past that we all sympathize with it, and will wait patiently for its recovery. In its own good time it will resume its duties. Meanwhile let us do without our beds, our tabloids, our other little wants. Such, I feel sure, would be the wish of the Machine.”

千里之外他的听众鼓掌。机器仍联结着他们。海底之下，山根之下，奔流着他们借以看见和听见的导线，那巨大的眼和耳是他们的遗产，许多机件的嗡鸣把他们的思想裹在同一件驯服的衣里。只有老人和病人仍不知感恩，因为有谣言说安乐死也出了故障，痛苦已重新出现在人中间。

Thousands of miles away his audience applauded. The Machine still linked them. Under the seas, beneath the roots of the mountains, ran the wires through which they saw and heard, the enormous eyes and ears that were their heritage, and the hum of many workings clothed their thoughts in one garment of subserviency. Only the old and the sick remained ungrateful, for it was rumoured that Euthanasia, too, was out of order, and that pain had reappeared among men.

阅读变得困难。一种病害进入大气，使它的光度迟钝。有时瓦希蒂几乎看不见房间对面。空气也污浊了。抱怨很响，补救无力，讲者的语气却英勇，他喊：「勇气！勇气！只要机器还在运转，又有什么要紧？对它来说，黑暗与光明是一回事。」过了一段时间事情又有所好转，可往日的光辉再也没有找回，人类也从未从进入黄昏中恢复过来。有歇斯底里的谈论，谈「措施」，谈「临时独裁」，苏门答腊的居民被要求熟悉中央发电站的运转，而所说的发电站位于法国。可大部分时候恐慌统治着，人把气力花在向他们的《机器之书》祈祷上，那是机器全能的有形证据。恐怖有等级——不时传来希望的谣言——修补装置几乎补好了——机器的敌人已被制服——新的「神经中枢」正在演化，将比从前更壮丽地完成工作。可有一天，没有丝毫预警，没有任何先前衰弱的暗示，整个通讯系统在全世界崩溃了，而世界，就他们所理解的世界而言，终结了。

It became difficult to read. A blight entered the atmosphere and dulled its luminosity. At times Vashti could scarcely see across her room. The air, too, was foul. Loud were the complaints, impotent the remedies, heroic the tone of the lecturer as he cried: “Courage! courage! What matter so long as the Machine goes on? To it the darkness and the light are one.” And though things improved again after a time, the old brilliancy was never recaptured, and humanity never recovered from its entrance into twilight. There was an hysterical talk of “measures,” of “provisional dictatorship,” and the inhabitants of Sumatra were asked to familiarize themselves with the workings of the central power station, the said power station being situated in France. But for the most part panic reigned, and men spent their strength praying to their Books, tangible proofs of the Machine’s omnipotence. There were gradations of terror — at times came rumours of hope — the Mending Apparatus was almost mended — the enemies of the Machine had been got under — new “nerve-centres” were evolving which would do the work even more magnificently than before. But there came a day when, without the slightest warning, without any previous hint of feebleness, the entire communication-system broke down, all over the world, and the world, as they understood it, ended.

瓦希蒂当时正在演讲，先前的话还被掌声点断。她往下讲，听众渐渐沉默，结束时没有声音。她有些不悦，去唤一个专长于同情的朋友。没有声音：无疑那朋友在睡觉。她试着召唤的下一个朋友也是如此，再下一个也是，直到她记起库诺那句隐晦的话：「机器停转了」。

Vashti was lecturing at the time and her earlier remarks had been punctuated with applause. As she proceeded the audience became silent, and at the conclusion there was no sound. Somewhat displeased, she called to a friend who was a specialist in sympathy. No sound: doubtless the friend was sleeping. And so with the next friend whom she tried to summon, and so with the next, until she remembered Kuno’s cryptic remark, “The Machine stops”.

这话仍然毫无意义。若永恒正在停转，当然不久就会被重新开动。

The phrase still conveyed nothing. If Eternity was stopping it would of course be set going shortly.

譬如说，仍有一点光和空气——几小时前大气还改善过。仍有《机器之书》，只要有《机器之书》，就有安全。

For example, there was still a little light and air — the atmosphere had improved a few hours previously. There was still the Book, and while there was the Book there was security.

然后她崩溃了，因为活动停止之后，一种未曾预料的恐怖来了——寂静。

Then she broke down, for with the cessation of activity came an unexpected terror — silence.

她从未知道过寂静，它的到来几乎杀死了她——它确确实实当场杀死了成千上万的人。自出生以来，她一直被稳定的嗡鸣包围。它对耳朵，正如人造空气对肺，剧痛射过她的头。她几乎不知道自己在做什么，踉跄向前，按下那个不熟悉的钮，那个打开她蜂房之门的钮。

She had never known silence, and the coming of it nearly killed her — it did kill many thousands of people outright. Ever since her birth she had been surrounded by the steady hum. It was to the ear what artificial air was to the lungs, and agonizing pains shot across her head. And scarcely knowing what she did, she stumbled forward and pressed the unfamiliar button, the one that opened the door of her cell.

蜂房的门有它自己简单的铰链。它并不连接那座远在法国、正在死去的中央发电站。它开了，在瓦希蒂心里唤起过分的希望，因为她以为机器已经补好。它开了，她看见那条昏暗的隧道，远远弯向自由。看了一眼，她便缩了回来。因为隧道里满是人——她几乎是那座城里最后一个警觉的人。

Now the door of the cell worked on a simple hinge of its own. It was not connected with the central power station, dying far away in France. It opened, rousing immoderate hopes in Vashti, for she thought that the Machine had been mended. It opened, and she saw the dim tunnel that curved far away towards freedom. One look, and then she shrank back. For the tunnel was full of people — she was almost the last in that city to have taken alarm.

人在任何时候都使她厌恶，而这些人是她最坏的梦里的梦魇。人在爬，人在尖叫，呜咽，喘气，彼此触碰，在黑暗里消失，不时被从月台上推到带电的铁轨上。有人围着电铃搏斗，想召唤召唤不来的火车。有人喊着要安乐死或呼吸器，或亵渎机器。有人站在自己蜂房的门口，像她一样，既怕留在里面，也怕离开。在一切喧嚣背后是寂静——那是大地的声音，是已经逝去的世代的声音。

People at any time repelled her, and these were nightmares from her worst dreams. People were crawling about, people were screaming, whimpering, gasping for breath, touching each other, vanishing in the dark, and ever and anon being pushed off the platform on to the live rail. Some were fighting round the electric bells, trying to summon trains which could not be summoned. Others were yelling for Euthanasia or for respirators, or blaspheming the Machine. Others stood at the doors of their cells fearing, like herself, either to stop in them or to leave them. And behind all the uproar was silence — the silence which is the voice of the earth and of the generations who have gone.

不——这比孤独更糟。她重新关上门，坐下来等待终结。解体继续着，伴随着可怕的破裂和隆隆声。约束医疗装置的阀门一定是弱了，因为它破裂了，可憎地从天花板挂下来。地板起伏，把她从椅子上甩下去。一根管子蛇一般向她渗过来。终于，最后的恐怖来临了——光开始消退，她知道文明漫长的白昼正在闭合。

No — it was worse than solitude. She closed the door again and sat down to wait for the end. The disintegration went on, accompanied by horrible cracks and rumbling. The valves that restrained the Medical Apparatus must have weakened, for it ruptured and hung hideously from the ceiling. The floor heaved and fell and flung her from the chair. A tube oozed towards her serpent fashion. And at last the final horror approached — light began to ebb, and she knew that civilization’s long day was closing.

她旋转着，祈祷至少能从这事里得救，吻着《机器之书》，一个接一个地按按钮。外面的喧嚣在增大，甚至穿透了墙壁。她蜂房的光辉渐渐暗了，金属开关上的反光褪了。此刻她看不见读案了，此刻看不见《机器之书》了，尽管她把它握在手里。光追随声音的逃遁，空气追随光，那原初的虚空回到了它被排斥了那么久的洞穴。瓦希蒂继续旋转，像一种更早宗教的信徒，尖叫，祈祷，用流血的手击打按钮。

She whirled around, praying to be saved from this, at any rate, kissing the Book, pressing button after button. The uproar outside was increasing, and even penetrated the wall. Slowly the brilliancy of her cell was dimmed, the reflections faded from the metal switches. Now she could not see the reading-stand, now not the Book, though she held it in her hand. Light followed the flight of sound, air was following light, and the original void returned to the cavern from which it has so long been excluded. Vashti continued to whirl, like the devotees of an earlier religion, screaming, praying, striking at the buttons with bleeding hands.

她就是这样打开了她的监牢，逃了出去——至少在精神上逃了出去：在我的沉思闭合之前，我至少这样觉得。至于她是否在身体上逃了出去——我看不出来。她碰巧击中了释放门的开关，污浊的空气冲上她的皮肤，耳中响着悸动的低语，告诉她她又面对着那条隧道，面对着她曾看见人们搏斗的那巨大月台。他们现在不搏斗了。只剩下低语，和小小的呜咽的呻吟。他们成百地死在黑暗里。

It was thus that she opened her prison and escaped — escaped in the spirit: at least so it seems to me, ere my meditation closes. That she escapes in the body — I cannot perceive that. She struck, by chance, the switch that released the door, and the rush of foul air on her skin, the loud throbbing whispers in her ears, told her that she was facing the tunnel again, and that tremendous platform on which she had seen men fighting. They were not fighting now. Only the whispers remained, and the little whimpering groans. They were dying by hundreds out in the dark.

她突然哭了。

She burst into tears.

泪回答了她。

Tears answered her.

那两个人为人类而哭，不是为自己。他们不能忍受这就是终结。在寂静完成之前，他们的心打开了，他们知道了大地上曾经要紧的是什么。人，一切肉身之花，一切可见造物中最高贵的，那曾经按自己的形象造神、把自己的力量映在星座上的人，美丽而赤裸的人正在死去，被他自己织成的衣裳勒死。一个世纪又一个世纪他劳作，这便是他的报偿。那衣裳起初确实像是天上的，织进了文化的色彩，缝上了克己的线。只要它仍只是一件衣裳，人可以随意脱下，凭着作为灵魂的那份精髓、以及同样神圣的、作为身体的那份精髓而活，它便一直是天上的。对身体的罪——他们主要是为此而哭；那些世纪里对肌肉、对神经、对那五座我们唯凭以感知的门户的亏负——用进化的话把它粉饰过去，直到身体成了白色的纸浆，成了同样无色的观念的家园，成了一个曾经抓住星辰的精神最后泥泞的搅动。

They wept for humanity, those two, not for themselves. They could not bear that this should be the end. Ere silence was completed their hearts were opened, and they knew what had been important on the earth. Man, the flower of all flesh, the noblest of all creatures visible, man who had once made god in his image, and had mirrored his strength on the constellations, beautiful naked man was dying, strangled in the garments that he had woven. Century after century had he toiled, and here was his reward. Truly the garment had seemed heavenly at first, shot with colours of culture, sewn with the threads of self-denial. And heavenly it had been so long as it was a garment and no more, man could shed it at will and live by the essence that is his soul, and the essence, equally divine, that is his body. The sin against the body — it was for that they wept in chief; the centuries of wrong against the muscles and the nerves, and those five portals by which we can alone apprehend — glozing it over with talk of evolution, until the body was white pap, the home of ideas as colourless, last sloshy stirrings of a spirit that had grasped the stars.

「你在哪里？」她啜泣。

“Where are you?” she sobbed.

黑暗里他的声音说：「在这里。」

His voice in the darkness said, “Here.”

「还有希望吗，库诺？」

“Is there any hope, Kuno?”

「对我们没有。」

“None for us.”

「你在哪里？」

“Where are you?”

她从死者的身体上爬过去。他的血溅上她的手。

She crawled over the bodies of the dead. His blood spurted over her hands.

「快一点，」他喘着，「我快死了——可我们触碰，我们说话，不是通过机器。」

“Quicker,” he gasped, “I am dying — but we touch, we talk, not through the Machine.”

他吻了她。

He kissed her.

「我们回到了自己的所有。我们死，可我们重新捉住了生命，如同在韦塞克斯，阿尔弗雷德击败丹麦人的时候。我们知道外面那些人所知道的，那些住在珍珠色云里的人。」

“We have come back to our own. We die, but we have recaptured life, as it was in Wessex, when Ælfrid overthrew the Danes. We know what they know outside, they who dwelt in the cloud that is the colour of a pearl.”

「可库诺，这是真的吗？地球表面上还有人吗？这——这隧道，这有毒的黑暗——真的不是终结？」

“But Kuno, is it true? Are there still men on the surface of the earth? Is this — this tunnel, this poisoned darkness — really not the end?”

他答：

He replied:

「我看见过他们，和他们说过话，爱过他们。他们藏在雾和蕨里，直到我们的文明停转。今天他们是无家可归者——明天——」

“I have seen them, spoken to them, loved them. They are hiding in the mist and the ferns until our civilization stops. To-day they are the Homeless — to-morrow—”

「哦，明天——某个傻瓜明天又会把机器开动。」

“Oh, to-morrow — some fool will start the Machine again, to-morrow.”

「永远不会，」库诺说，「永远不会。人类已经吸取了教训。」

“Never,” said Kuno, “never. Humanity has learnt its lesson.”

他正说着，整座城像蜂巢一样碎了。一艘飞艇从吐口驶入一座毁坏的码头。它向下坠毁，一边坠落一边爆炸，用钢铁的翼撕裂一层又一层廊道。有一瞬间他们看见了死者的诸国，在加入他们之前，看见了未被玷污的天空的碎片。

As he spoke, the whole city was broken like a honeycomb. An air-ship had sailed in through the vomitory into a ruined wharf. It crashed downwards, exploding as it went, rending gallery after gallery with its wings of steel. For a moment they saw the nations of the dead, and, before they joined them, scraps of the untainted sky.