評論
打印
Helmholtz Watson was writing when the message came down.
電話打來時赫姆霍爾茲華生先生正在寫作。
"Tell him I'm coming at once," he said and hung up the receiver. Then, turning to his secretary, "I'll leave you to put my things away," he went on in the same official and impersonal tone;
“告訴他我立刻就來，”他說畢掛上了話筒，然后轉身對秘書說，“我的東西就交給你收拾了。”他對她那明媚的微笑不予理會，仍用公事公辦的口氣說著話，
and, ignoring her lustrous smile, got up and walked briskly to the door.
同時站起身子，迅速來到了門邊。
He was a powerfully built man, deep-chested, broad-shouldered, massive, and yet quick in his movements, springy and agile.
赫姆霍爾茲·華生先生身體壯實，深厚的胸膛，寬闊的肩頭，魁梧的個子，可是行動迅速，步履矯捷而富于彈性。
The round strong pillar of his neck supported a beautifully shaped head.
脖子像一根結實的圓柱，撐起一個輪廓美麗的頭。
His hair was dark and curly, his features strongly marked.
深色的鬈發，五官棱角分明。的確漂亮非凡，引人注目。
In a forcible emphatic way, he was handsome and looked, as his secretety was never tired of repeating, every centimetre an Alpha Plus.
正如他的秘書所不疲倦地重復的：每一公分都是個阿爾法加。
By profession he was a lecturer at the College of Emotional Engineering (Department of Writing) and the intervals of his educational activities, a working Emotional Engineer.
他的職業是情緒工程學院寫作系的講師，業余又從事教育活動，是個在職的情緒工程師。
He wrote regularly for The Hourly Radio, composed feely scenarios, and had the happiest knack for slogans and hypnop.dic rhymes.
他定期為《每時廣播》寫稿，寫感官片腳本，而且精通寫口號和睡眠教育順口溜的奧妙。
"Able," was the verdict of his superiors. " Perhaps, (and they would shake their heads, would significantly lower their voices) "a little too able."
能干，他的上司對他的評價是，“也許，（說到此他們便搖搖頭，含義深刻地放低了嗓門）過分能干了一點。”
Yes, a little too able; they were right.
是的，過分能干了一點，他們沒有錯。
A mental excess had produced in Helmholtz Watson effects very similar to those which, in Bernard Marx, were the result of a physical defect.
智力過高對于赫姆霍爾茲·華生所產生的后果跟生理缺陷對于伯納·馬克思所產生的后果很為相似。
Too little bone and brawn had isolated Bernard from his fellow men, and the sense of this apartness,
骨架太小肌肉太少讓伯納和他的伙伴們疏遠了。
being, by all the current standards, a mental excess, became in its turn a cause of wider separation.
從一切流行標準看來，那種疏遠都是心靈所難以承受的，于是他和他們之間疏遠得更厲害了。
That which had made Helmholtz so uncomfortably aware of being himself and and all alone was too much ability.
而使赫姆霍爾茲極不愉快地意識到自己和自己的孤獨的則是過分能干。
What the two men shared was the knowledge that they were individuals.
兩人共同的感覺都是孤獨。
But whereas the physically defective Bernard had suffered all his life from the consciousness of being separate, it was only quite recently that, grown aware of his mental excess, Helmholtz Watson had also become aware of his difference from the people who surrounded him.
可是有生理缺陷的伯納感到孤獨的痛苦已經有一輩子；而赫姆霍爾茲·華生因為意識到自己過分聰明、跟周圍的人的差異卻是新近的事。
This Escalator-Squash champion, this indefatigable lover (it was said that he had had six hundred and forty different girls in under four years), this admirable committee man and best mixer had realized quite suddenly that sport, women, communal activities were only, so far as he was concerned, second bests.
這位自動扶梯手球冠軍，這位不知疲倦的情人（據說他四年不到就有過六百四十個不同的姑娘），這位可敬的委員、交際能手最近才突然明白了一個道理：游戲、女人、社交對他只能算是第二等的好事。
Really, and at the bottom, he was interested in something else.
實際上（也是根本上）他感到興趣的是另外一個問題。
But in what? In what? That was the problem which Bernard had come to discuss with him–or rather,since it was always Helmholtz who did all the talking, to listen to his friend discussing, yet once more.
什么問題？那正是伯納要來跟他討論的問題——或者說，要來聽他再談談的問題，因為談話的永遠是赫姆霍爾茲。
Three charming girls from the Bureau of Propaganda by Synthetic Voice waylaid him as he stepped out of the lift.
赫姆霍爾茲一跨出電梯便受到三個迷人的姑娘攔路襲擊——她們剛踏出了合成聲宣傳局。
